On Cape Town's waterfront at the southern tip of Africa, the world's biggest museum of contemporary art from across the continent is being carved from a conglomeration of concrete tubes nine storeys high. The $50 million (36.7 million euro) project to transform the grim functionality of 42 disused colonial grain silos into an ultramodern tribute to African creativity is driven by an international team of art experts and architects. — Ahram Online
The project – the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa – will be designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick. "How do you turn 42 vertical concrete tubes into a place to experience contemporary culture?" the architect said. "We could either fight a building made of concrete tubes... View full entry
Andreína Contreras, a 26-year-old mother of two, lived until this week in the “Tower of David,” in Caracas, Venezuela, which has been described as the world’s tallest slum, because it is situated in an abandoned skyscraper.
She is among an estimated 1,150 families living in the tower who are to be removed and relocated permanently this week, seven years after the officially named Torre Confinanzas was first occupied as a result of Venezuela’s financial crisis...
— Vice
Vandals broke into the historic New York State Pavilion last weekend, setting a stolen van on fire and damaging a piece of its deteriorating terrazzo map, park watchdogs said.
The shocking mayhem in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was heartbreaking for volunteers who have been working for years to spruce up the aging 1964 World’s Fair relic.
— nydailynews.com
The mosque was built on an archaeological site dating back to 8th century BC and is said to be the burial place of the prophet, who in stories from both the Bible and Qur’an is swallowed by a whale.
It was renovated in the 1990s under Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein and until the recent militant blitz that engulfed Mosul, remained a popular destination for religious pilgrims from around the world.
— arabnews.com
Gehry Partners has signed on to design a campus for the Children's Institute, Inc. (CII), a social services not-for-profit that provides youth development and education programs, as well as other family support and clinical services. For the project, the firm is collaborating with (fer) studio of Inglewood.
The new campus will occupy a 2-acre lot on East 102nd Street near its intersection with Compton Avenue. It is just a half-dozen block walk to the northwest of the Watts Towers.
— latimes.com
Working simultaneously from the inside out - engaging the functional needs and psychological desires of the program - and the outside in - making connections to the city campus and relating to the Mackintosh building opposite - the design embodies the school's aspirations in the city's fabric. — Steven Holl Architects
Just one month before a disastrous fire broke out at the Glasgow School of Art's historic Mackintosh Library, a brand new addition to the campus opened up across the street. Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the new Reid Building is a modernist complement to the Mackintosh, riffing on similar... View full entry
Modernist houses from Asheville to Wilmington received top honors last week in the third annual George Matsumoto Prize for Modernist residential design across the state, sponsored by the award-winning non-profit organization North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH).The houses submitted had to be... View full entry
"The people of Glasgow and many people far beyond were horrified when a few weeks ago fire ripped through the Art School, gutting its priceless library.
The UK government has already made a £5m contribution to the Mackintosh Appeal to help ensure that the building is restored to its former glory.
And we are today making an additional £5m contribution to support the School's new Graduate and Research Centre." — UK Chancellor George Osborne
— bbc.com
This past May, a fire destroyed much of the historic Mackintosh library at the Glasgow School of Art, a modern masterpiece by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Now, as part of an increase in the UK's funding of Glasgow's life sciences, business and arts sectors, the School has the... View full entry
New to Archinect, Julia Ingalls penned an essay, titled Material Witness: Insanity in the walls of '"True Detective" and "Twin Peaks". Olaf Design Ninja_ offered a complement "A good visceral read like a true detective watch...This would almost suggest the inert quality of this line between... View full entry
New York City is moving forward with a proposal that calls for a new high-rise apartment complex to feature separate doors for wealthy tenants and those living in the building’s affordable housing unit.
While wealthy residents will be able to enter the building from its designated front entrance, affordable housing tenants will be required to go in through a back alley.
A mandatory affordable housing plan is not license to segregate lower-income tenants from those who are well-off.
— RT
Maybe the higher-ups will employ the low-income folk as maids and janitors? Built-in servants quarters, subsidized by the city. View full entry
Venezuelan soldiers and officials began moving hundreds of families on Tuesday out of a half-built 45-story skyscraper that dominates the Caracas skyline and is thought to be the world's tallest slum. Residents from the "Tower of David” were going to new homes in the town of Cua, south of Caracas [...]. President Nicolas Maduro's government has not yet said what it will do with the tower, but one local newspaper reported Chinese banks were buying it to restore to its original purpose. — nbcnews.com
Previously:Iwan Baan presents TORRE DAVID / GRAN HORIZONTE in Los AngelesAnywhere but Here: Deserted Banking Empire turned Skyscraper SlumThe world's tallest slum: Rare look at an illegal ghetto in the sky View full entry
More than 3,000 homes are to be built at the eastern edge of Canary Wharf after Tower Hamlets council gave the green light for the project, the first extension to the financial district since the banking crisis struck in 2008. [...]
Its centrepiece, at 211m the tallest building, is a 57-storey cylindrical residential skyscraper facing the waters of South Dock, designed by Herzog & de Meuron [...]
— theguardian.com
Since construction began in 2011, Populous just announced the opening of the Philippine Arena in Manila, Philippines. Commissioned by Iglesia Ni Cristo (the Church of Christ), the structure is described to be the world's largest indoor arena and will be able to accommodate up to 50,000 people. The arena was also designed to host a variety of church gatherings and major entertainment events. — bustler.net
Read more about it on Bustler. View full entry
Goldsmiths, which is part of the University of London and home to one of the UK’s leading art schools, plans to build a public art gallery behind the art department’s home, in an early 20th-century former public baths. To help raise the £2m needed to convert the old water tanks of the Laurie Grove Baths into an art space, the institution is asking its star alumni and emeritus professors [...] to donate works that will be auctioned by Christie’s, possibly next year. — The Art Newspaper
He said the property that he had inherited from his parents who had built it in 1986 had also been fully furnished with a brand-new fitted kitchen and bathroom.
He added: 'I had been worried about thieves maybe breaking in and stealing the television or something, and so I put a barbed wire fence up around the house for added security. But they stole that as well.'
— dailymail.co.uk
