Build better towers, ditch the Lego, outlaw the ‘facadectomy’ – and how about more transparency in Boris’s London? — theguardian.com

Battling a national housing shortage, Sweden’s housing ministry is gambling that throwing away the red tape will encourage homeowners to build that extra room and alleviate the pressure. In July 2014, the Scandinavian kingdom amended its Planning and Building Act to allow homeowners to build small structures that complement their homes without obtaining a building permit, provided they are no bigger than 25 square meters (269.1 sq. feet), and no higher than four meters (13.1 ft).   — qz.com

The clinics here are simple, even handsome. Instead of constructing hermetic shields in the form of airtight, inflexible hospital buildings, the architects took advantage of Haiti’s Caribbean environment, exploiting island cross breezes to heal patients and aid caregivers.

It’s not clear yet how well the clinics will work. [...] If they turn out right, they could serve as relatively light-footed models for other struggling countries that lack resources for high-end Western-style hospitals. — nytimes.com

Damien Hirst’s new art complex in south London, which will house Modern and contemporary works drawn from the artist’s collection as well as natural history objects, will be free of charge when it opens to the public in 2015. After more than a decade in development, the gallery, which runs the length of Newport Street in Vauxhall, is due to open in the summer.

[...] design by Caruso St John Architects, which converts and extends three Grade II-listed theatre carpentry workshops, in 2005. — theartnewspaper.com

With a golden patina to their aged brick, these former flour and seed mills provide a striking contrast to the shiny new condo towers of the adjacent Pearl District, and their proximity to this burgeoning area could also make for an ideal riverside destination. [...]

He has approached Frank Gehry to design a glass-ensconced event center and Lin to design a pedestrian bridge over busy Naito Parkway. — citylab.com

This fall, the French cultural season opened with the private Vuitton Foundation museum in Paris, a rarefied environment for a select collection of contemporary art, by Frank Gehry. At the other end of the cultural spectrum, France’s second largest metropolitan area, Lyon — arguably Paris’s historic rival, the Chicago to New York — just inaugurated the equally large and prepossessing Confluence Museum (the Musée des Confluences). — nytimes.com

Alexandre Gady, conservationist, historian of French architecture and professor of modern architecture at the Sorbonne, argues that changing or “renewing” Paris diverts from its real need to look outwards. Paris, he says, is a “finished” city that does not need improving or anything more doing to it. “It’s not that we should be doing this or that – we should not be doing anything in central Paris ... any plan is a diversion from the need of the city to grow outwards,” [...] — theguardian.com

“It’s going to be saved,” Graves said. “They told me… They said they are saving the building and not only that but we want you to sit on a committee for the redesign.” Graves added that a time frame for the work has not been set but “I would imagine in the next year we’ll do something.” Dana Haynes, communications director for Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, confirmed that the Portland Building is not under threat of demolition and will continue to house city employees. — blog.archpaper.com

"The latest proposal for the aging Astrodome calls for converting the structure into an indoor park and civic space, including an indoor grassy lawn and an outdoor promenade lined with oak trees. An Urban Land Institute panel, comprised of urban planners, economists and designers from around the country, released its preliminary recommendations Friday at the NRG Center." — Houston Chronicle

The mortar resists microcracking through in situ crystallization of platy strätlingite, a durable calcium-alumino-silicate mineral that reinforces interfacial zones and the cementitious matrix. The dense intergrowths of the platy crystals obstruct crack propagation and preserve cohesion at the micron scale, which in turn enables the concrete to maintain its chemical resilience and structural integrity in a seismically active environment at the millennial scale. — Berkeley Lab