No longer confined to collecting dust in storage rooms, over a thousand slides documenting modern architecture's emergence in Southern California have been digitized by the USC Library, and are now available to view for free online.The approximately 1300 slides were culled from the collections of... View full entry
In Tijuana, another architect is devising a plan to turn the Tijuana River channel into a solar farm that could provide power to as many as 30,000 homes.
Rene Peralta, co-founder of the Tijuana firm Generica and director of an architecture master's program at San Diego's Woodbury University, thinks that his city can transform this unwieldy piece of infrastructure into a renewable energy plant and water-cleaning station.
— The Los Angeles Times
February 2016 was the hottest month in several thousand years, so it seems like a good idea to start transforming erstwhile urban heat islands into power-generating rivers. Below, Generica's rendering of the proposed redesigned Tijuana river channel:For more on projects that turn seemingly... View full entry
Everyone loves the free samples, kitschy items, and affordable price points of SoCal grocer Trader Joe’s. The one thing that does spark ire about the chain is the small parking lots, which produce equal amounts of anxiety and horn abuse. But the website Strong Towns points out that TJ’s small footprints trickle down to cheaper prices for consumers. — Los Angeles Magazine
If you're not within walking distance of a TJ's (or, if you're just lazy) parking in one of the lots requires the steady nerves of a Zen master and the spatial dexterity of an architect. Whatever method you use to get there, just don't forget your bag, or all of your kitschy sustainability cred... View full entry
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey...has been so chastened by the cost overruns and construction delays that it declined to hold even a modest ribbon-cutting. When a bureaucracy turns down a major opportunity to pat itself on the back, you know things have turned sour. Turned acid, really.
Still, everyone seems to agree that the main hall, which stretches beneath a glass and white-steel roof and which Calatrava calls the Oculus, is beautiful. But I didn't find it beautiful...
— the Los Angeles Times
"...at least not in the way that Calatrava's finest work, fluid and precise, often is. I found it structurally overwrought and emotionally underwhelming, straining for higher meaning, eager to wring some last drops of mournful power from a site that is already crammed with official, semi-official... View full entry
The cartoon drawings and graffiti scrawled all over the 1970s hangout of the Sex Pistols - a former silversmith’s workshop attached to a townhouse in London’s Denmark Street – have helped the building be awarded Grade 2* Listed Status.
The decision by the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, on advice from Historic England, is a major victory in the campaign to maintain Denmark Street, known as “Tin Pan Alley”, which is widely seen as a spiritual home for British popular music.
— independent.co.uk
Rapidly rising property prices and rents, combined with the loss of social housing through right to buy, have put councils under growing pressure to find new ways to help people off their housing lists.
In Lewisham one solution is a £4.3m scheme to provide 24 homes and 880 sq m of business space that can be picked up and moved at a later date, allowing the council to make use of vacant brownfield land while longer-term projects are finalised.
— theguardian.com
The contemporary design champion is moving from its current location in Shad Thames to the former Commonwealth Institute building, a Grade II*-listed 1960s landmark conceived by architects RJMM.
Its new home, which is being remodelled by designer John Pawson, will provide three times more space and have a learning centre, auditorium, library and a ‘Designers in Residence’ studio.
— thespaces.com
Last month, as part of Archinect's special February theme, Furniture, Nicholas Korody profiled the work of Brazilian designer Guto Requena, who is interested in "digital interactive technologies" and the concept of "affective sustainability". Later he chatted with Zoe Fisher, founder and... View full entry
The Shukhov Tower, a 1920s broadcast transmission tower in Moscow that is a landmark of modernist structural engineering, has been placed on the 2016 World Monuments Fund Watch list of endangered global cultural heritage sites.
Activists in Moscow organized two days of events over the weekend to observe the tower’s 94th birthday [...]
At a Kremlin meeting last December, Mr. Putin praised activists for rallying to save cultural heritage sites and dressed down officials for not doing enough.
— nytimes.com
The Shukhov Tower, also known as Shabolovka Tower, previously in the Archinect news:Russia's Shukhov Tower is saved following a 91% smartphone vote in favor of keeping itMoscow Puts Iconic Shukhov Tower on Protected Landmark ListArchitects Try to Save a Tower in Moscow View full entry
France is to make its first attempt at timber tower construction with two tall wooden buildings in Bordeaux.
The towers, reaching 50m and 57m in height, will be developed in the centre of the city by Bordeaux Euratlantique, a public body involved in modernising Bordeaux.
The project team for “Hypérion”, the 18-storey (57m) residential tower, will include Eiffage, specialist wood contractor Woodeum, social landlord Clairsienne and architect Jean-Paul Viguier & Associés.
— globalconstructionreview.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:World’s tallest wooden skyscraper (at least for now) under construction in VancouverRise of the wooden skyscrapers: "Where all you need is a giant allen key to put it together."Wood That Reaches New Heights View full entry
The Venice Lagoon is the most endangered heritage site in Europe, declared the pan-European heritage organisation Europa Nostra at an event today [...].
Rising sea levels, swelling number of tourists, large cruise ships in the lagoon, the erosion of the sea bed, dredging deeper channels and the lack of an agreed management plan for Venice has created a perfect storm of threats to the city’s preservation.
— theartnewspaper.com
Previously in the Archinect news: Unesco threatens to put Venice on its Heritage at Risk listLeading museum directors, artists and architects call on Italian government to ban giant ships from VeniceHow We Picture a City: Venice and Google Maps View full entry
Restoring the fire-damaged Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art isn't just about sourcing the appropriate physical materials, but introducing a spirit of rejuvenation to the younger set, too. “We want to make sure that the restoration of The Mackintosh Building can deliver... View full entry
Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, which is set to the world’s tallest building, is over 20% complete, according to the developers.
The planned 1km-tower has already reached the 37th floor and is on track for completion by 2018 [...].
Although the number of habitable floors has not yet been revealed [...] expects it to be around 167 floors tall on completion.
Jeddah Tower, formerly known as Kingdom Tower, is set to overtake the 830-metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world’s tallest tower.
— meconstructionnews.com
Kingdom—pardon—Jeddah Tower previously in the Archinect news:Kingdom Tower megaproject secures new funding to complete long-delayed constructionInstallation of UltraRope elevators begins at Kingdom TowerWork to start next month on 1km Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaAS+GG Designs Kingdom... View full entry
“The one thing that everybody's sort of excited about is this idea that the stadium is designed as much for the tailgating, the pre-game, as for the game itself,” Ingels says in the 60 Minutes promo. — CityLab.com
When sports fans think football, they think...moats? Although the proposed stadium for the still-offensively-named Washington Redskins hasn't officially found a site, team owner Dan Snyder is pushing for it to be located next to the Anacostia River, which would provide context for Ingels' moat... View full entry
Dubai's desire to become a (tasteful) global cultural center is gaining further traction with an OMA-designed events and project space for local art-scene hub Alserkal Avenue. The 1,000 square meter gallery features four movable walls which can either rotate or slide within a flexible floor plan... View full entry
