The architect David Adjaye had designed a $100 million building with a facade of red ceramic tiles, combining a high-end mall and a separate exhibition space...Some art critics said displaying the collection in a wing of a mall eroded the line between art and commerce. — NYT
Rachel Donadio reports from the grand opening of the Aishti Foundation, a private museum in Beirut, designed by the architect David Adjaye. Earlier Christopher Perrodin had questioned why the project wasn't "on anyone's radar?? We see a fusion of commercial and culture within one... View full entry
October 2015↑ SANAA's meandering "River" community center opens to the public SANAA's gleaming "River" community center, which Archinect first mentioned in 2012, finally opened its doors to the public. While the building is generally favored, Archinector Will Galloway shared an op-ed by... View full entry
A mosque, a church and a synagogue go up on the site of an old Jewish country club ...
It sounds like the setup to a joke — but it's not. It's actually happening in Omaha, Neb. The Tri-Faith Initiative may be the first place in history where these three monotheistic faiths have built together, on purpose, with the intention of working together. [...]
Similar initiatives are underway elsewhere. One in Berlin would house all three religions in a single building.
— npr.org
Similar tri-faith building initiatives are also germinating in other parts of the world: A church-mosque-synagogue, in Berlin View full entry
Some of Detroit's most famous vacant sites finally may see new construction getting under way in 2016, turning some of the city's longest-running symbols of distress into emblems of renewal.
The Hudson's site on Woodward, the old Tiger Stadium site at Michigan and Trumbull, and the State Fairgrounds near Woodward Avenue and 8 Mile all seem likely to see redevelopment progress in 2016 after in some cases decades of disuse.
— freep.com
Related news on Archinect:The return of redlining: how the mortgage industry is threatening Detroit's rejuvenationDetroit joins Shenzhen, Berlin, Turin and others as an UNESCO "City of Design"How Detroit can learn to revive its derelict industrial sites from other cities View full entry
Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) has announced that Frank Lloyd Wright’s George Sturges House will be among 75 lots from the estate of the actor and playwright Jack Larson to be auctioned on February 21. [...]
When a house like this became available in 1967, Larson and Bridges were looking for something that exemplified their interests in all things artistic, it was very exciting for them to acquire. It was a trophy. It will be a trophy, probably, for the next owner.
— blouinartinfo.com
The 1,200 square foot home, located in Brentwood Heights in Brentwood, Los Angeles, was designed and built in 1939, with a budget of $9,000 (adjusted for inflation, that would be roughly $153,671 today). It was the first Usonian house to be built. The bidding is estimated to begin at $2.5 to... View full entry
July 2015↑ New satellite images show progress in China's island-building projectNew satellite images were revealed in July that showed the extensive project China is making with its island-building project in the “South China Sea.” An important shipping route, the disputed waterway has... View full entry
[Tarek] looks down at the glossy graphics, and then up again, before gesturing around at his neighbours. “Where are we in this picture?” he asks...
Norman Foster’s practice has chosen to partner with a government widely condemned by international human rights groups for its brutal crackdowns on dissent and widespread use of torture; in return, the company seems to believe it can carve out a place for itself in the vanguard of a progressive new era of urban design...
Is it right?
— the Guardian
Jack Shenker and Ruth Michaelson take a more in-depth, on-the-ground look at the political context of the Maspero District masterplan, which I discussed a few weeks ago. The Foster and Partners-designed project would remake a part of Cairo that was the site of numerous protests since 2011. The... View full entry
There is no way back, we are all Postmodern now. Can you stay behind? Do you really care that Postmodernism destroyed the ideals of Modernism? Come on, — Failed Architecture
"If you are reading this, you probably already have a certain interest in architecture, but chances are that you never warmed up to those kinds of buildings from the late 70s, 80s and early 90s, generally classified as ‘Postmodern’. The architecture of these buildings is often based on a loose... View full entry
March 2015↑ Vienna plans world's tallest wooden skyscraperA 76% wood skyscraper, the world’s largest in that material, was designed for Vienna by Rüdiger Lainer and Partner. With a net environmental impact far lower than concrete construction and advanced fire-prevention technologies, the... View full entry
After years of noisy protests, the New York City Department of Sanitation’s new garage-and-salt-shed complex has opened in Hudson Square, on the northern edge of TriBeCa. [...] The garage and shed have ended up being not just two of the best examples of new public architecture in the city but a boon to the neighborhood, whether the wealthy neighbors have come around to it or not. I can’t think of a better public sculpture to land in New York than the shed. — nytimes.com
Now that the cat is out of the bag and the Japanese government has officially announced Kengo Kuma's stadium proposal as the new winning design for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, all eyes are on Zaha Hadid Architects, design firm of the voluptuous initial winning stadium spaceship which was ultimately... View full entry
The government on Tuesday picked a design by architect Kengo Kuma for the new National Stadium, a building that is expected to become the centerpiece of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
One of two short-listed entries and identified until now only as design A, Kuma’s plan was a joint submission in partnership with construction giant Taisei Corp.
The competing design, identified as design B, was by architect Toyo Ito [...].
— japantimes.co.jp
Last week's rumors turned out to be true - the winning Design A was indeed developed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, beating out Toyo Ito's less successful Design B.UPDATE: Zaha Hadid issues disappointed statement on Tokyo Olympic Stadium decisionPreviously in the Archinect news:Kengo Kuma &... View full entry
Buildings in Delhi’s residential areas were restricted to two storeys, with construction permitted on only a fraction of the space on the third floor, so on top of homes, families built small dwellings for their own use, as accommodation for domestic staff or to rent out cheaply. Exposed to the elements, the single room on the top floor became known evocatively as the barsati – derived from the Hindi word for rain, barsaat. — the Guardian
"These apartments – generally, a small shack with a large terrace – afforded a new generation of urbanites cheap living space near the centre of town... But it’s a typology that, as land values rise and the population grows, is fast disappearing. While there are no official figures... View full entry
Made possible by a special change in law, a building that is set to claim the title of world’s tallest timber tower is now under construction in Vancouver, Canada.
When complete in 2017, the 18-storey (53m) tower, called Brock Commons, will house hundreds of students at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
[...] the CAN$51.5m residence is set to be the world’s tallest, beating the 13-storey ‘Origine’ apartment block now being built in Quebec City.
— globalconstructionreview.com
"Earlier this year the provincial government of British Columbia passed a new regulation that allowed UBC to go over timber-structure height limits if the building met rigorous health and safety standards. The architects, Acton Ostry, and UBC building officials helped draft the regulation." In... View full entry
Today, The Barack Obama Foundation issued a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to seven architectural firms, one of which will ultimately be selected to design the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) on the South Side of Chicago. [...]
Although the RFP process is not a design competition, the RFP will require defined, visual responses from each candidate to present creative ideas in response to the Foundation’s project goals.
— barackobamafoundation.org
After sending out RFQs to a broad range of (undisclosed but widely speculated) architectural firms on August 26, the President and First Lady, together with advisers from the Obama Foundation, have found time to sit down and select seven finalists to receive a formal Request for Proposal. The... View full entry
