Dix made sure the hospital that became St. Elizabeths in 1916 had heat, tall arched windows and screened sleeping porches where patients could catch summer breezes. Photos, models and floor plans included in the museum exhibit show handsome brick buildings — with towers, high ceilings, open space and river views. — NPR
Washington's National Building Museum features an exhibit that tells the story of architecture of St. Elizabeths or, as originally named upon its opening in 1855, the Government Hospital for the Insane. Started by Dorothea Dix, the 19th century reformer who fought for the facility to represent... View full entry
Erdogan is ordering the construction of mosques much as Suleiman the Magnificent once gave orders to Mimar Sinan. But as Bozdogan points out, there were many styles of mosques throughout the Ottoman Empire; in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries...Erdogan, however, sees such 18th- and 19th-century mosques as a contamination, not purely Turkish like the mosques of the 16th century. — NYT Magazine
Suzy H. Hansen visits Turkey, where Erdogan’s AK Party and TOKI (the national housing commission) have overseen a boom in construction and urban re/development. Including of houses of worship designed to reference a "golden age" of Turkish identity, while also furthering the... View full entry
Due to the surrender of German forces in WWII, the Tirpitz Bunker's construction was never completed leaving the dugout as a dark presence on the sandy coast of Denmark. The 3.5 meter thick concrete fortification is the country's largest bunker and was intended to be part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
It will be built from the top down on a suspension bridge, modelled after and painted the colour of the Golden Gate bridge. At its base will be a new 1,075-seat theatre, and below that an excavation site that’s 4.5 times as large as the museum’s excavation. It is expected to cost over $300m. — The Guardian
In a noteworthy meeting of infrastructure and luxury real estate development, Tasmanian organizer of Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) David Walsh believes the people who enjoy the museum will definitely dig an onsite luxury hotel that uses a suspension bridge to support its seven upper... View full entry
Every summer, the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. puts on an imaginative Summer Block Party series of temporary structures. Past installations that have graced its historic Great Hall have included James Corner's "ICEBERGS," Snarkitecture's "BEACH," and BIG's "Maze." This year, the... View full entry
ICYMI, the always "into it" Julia Ingalls, sat down with Harvard GSD's K. Michael Hays + Lisa Haber-Thomson to discuss the role of jargon in pedagogy, a new GSD online course offering and the "vexed notion of architecture’s autonomy." Will Galloway was "very impressed that Michael Hays and... View full entry
After nearly three decades of involvement with the L.A. Skid Row Housing Trust (and working relationships with architects including Michael Maltzan and Brooks + Scarpa), C.E.O. Mike Alvidrez has announced his plans to step down next year. Brooks + Scarpa's homeless housing "The Six" developed in... View full entry
The company says they’re fully equipped as soon as they’re opened and can be stacked on top of each other. No foundations are necessary, and Ten Fold says the structures can be deployed on sloped or uneven ground. According to the company, “The components are modular so almost any arrangement of panels, doors, windows, and service pods is possible.” — Inhabitat
Need a building in a pinch? Well Ten Fold Engineering has got just the thing! In what is sure to take glamping to the next level, the company is now offering self-deploying structures that pop-up in under ten minutes and come fully equipped. The structures are designed to offer 689 square feet of... View full entry
Modern, steel-embedded concrete seawalls tend to need repair after a few decades of erosion from the endless procession of waves, but the Roman pier at Portus Cosanus in Orbetello, Italy has remained solid for almost two thousand years. Scientists have finally figured out the missing ingredient... View full entry
[...] Art Fund Museum of the Year is awarded annually to one outstanding museum, which, in the opinion of the judges, has shown exceptional imagination, innovation and achievement across the preceding 12 months.
The Hepworth Wakefield was selected as winner of the £100,000 prize from a group of five finalists, also including Lapworth Museum of Geology (Birmingham), National Heritage Centre for Horseracing & Sporting Art (Newmarket), Sir John Soane’s Museum (London) and Tate Modern (London).
— artfund.org
Photo: Iwan Baan."The Hepworth Wakefield has been a powerful force of energy from the moment it opened in 2011, but it has just kept growing in reach and impact ever since," said Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar. "David Chipperfield’s building has proved a perfect stage – both for the display... View full entry
In a study conducted by UCL and Bangor University researchers in which people were shown a Google Street View, a painting of St. Peter's Basilica and a surreal computer generated image, architects, sculptors and painters consistently conceptualized of the space differently than those with no... View full entry
Known as “S Houses,” these prefab structures going up here in Ba Vi, about 30 miles from Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, are iterations of a prototype that Mr. Nghia has been honing since about 2013. [...]
But Mr. Nghia says that his plan is to mass-manufacture this portable, easy-to-assemble design for people in slums, remote areas or refugee camps around the world, beginning later this year, all for the starting price — $1,500 — of about two iPhones.
— New York Times
The NYT takes a closer look at the extremely affordable S House prefab system currently going up by the dozens in Vietnam, with a keen eye on the global super-low-cost market. Designed by Vo Trong Nghia Architects, a design studio with offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, S House was exhibited... View full entry
Architects love the freedom presented by a blank sheet of paper (or CAD window), but the reality of practice inevitably puts limits on the imagination. This is doubly true when it comes to remodels, which require working around somebody else’s design. But constraints can also encourage... View full entry
The Society of American Registered Architects New York Council recently awarded its top 2017 Project of the Year accolade to the 520 West 28th Street residential complex designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in collaboration with Ismael Leyva Architects. Adjacent to The High Line in the heart of West... View full entry