A few days ago, we reported about SOM's and Foster + Partners' proposals for The Next 100, a design challenge for the future of the public realm around NYC's Grand Central Terminal. Here is now also the entry by the third of the three firms that were selected to submit their visions, New... View full entry
After seeing “Best School in the World,” a Center for Architecture exhibition on the progressive learning environments where Finnish students to the top of world rankings, New York’s Justin Davidson aligned the layout of these schools more with tech company offices. We’ve rounded up a few of the design perks that your middle-school self never dreamed of. — blogs.artinfo.com
The Best School in the World exhibition explores this question from an architectural perspective: in what types of environments does learning take place today, and what kinds of physical settings are the most conducive to successful learning? View full entry
A gangster lives a fast, dangerous life — especially Mexico's brutal narco-chieftains. Just look at their houses. With the prospect of death never far away and plenty of money to burn, it makes sense to spend lavishly on a mansion — especially a fortified one. The locals have a term for the style: narquitectura. — wired.com
Follow the progress of our new building in real time by watching our web camera, which documents the construction of the Whitney’s new home with an updated image every fifteen minutes. — whitney.org
We tend to think of architecture as solid, stable, enduring, something that at its best will outlast us and possibly say something about us to future generations. Demolition makes powerfully evident the vulnerability, the mortality, of all things standing. — Places Journal
"When does architecture, once started, stop?" asks Keith Eggener. "Does it end when human occupation or attention terminates, when function or fabric are removed?" What is the connection between civic buildings and collective memory? Just in time for the World Series, Eggener recounts the saga of... View full entry
British firm studio SH just sent us their competition entry for the new Gosan Public Library in South Korea which had snatched the second place in this hugely popular international competition. The proposal, "White Diamond," was designed by studio SH partners Seung Hyun Yuh and Se Hyeon Kim. — bustler.net
It’s true that micro-units are not family-friendly, but it’s less true that a small apartment is inherently inhabitable. While the debate rages on about how much space is too little, there is little talk of how much is too much.
Different constituencies may have their reasons for opposing these tiny units, but however varied they may be, all seem to reflect a distinctly American perception of what qualifies as “enough” space.
— opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
The narrowest building in Poland, and possibly the narrowest in Europe, is the brainchild of Israeli writer Edgar Keret. It was conceived as a memorial to his parents' family, who died in Warsaw during the World War II Holocaust.
The house was actually squeezed in-between two existing central Warsaw residential buildings on the edge of the former Warsaw Ghetto.
Polish architect Jakub Szczesny designed the weird construction, which is still a real house with all the necessary facilities.
— rt.com
Previously: Polish architect building world's narrowest house between Warsaw tower blocks View full entry
The latest Archinect ShowCase featured Cassia Co-op Training Centre by TYIN tegnestue Architects. The project is located in Sungai Penuh, Sumatra, Indonesia. NewsThe New York Observer reported on Cornell’s plans (unveiled this week) for a brand new 12.5-acre tech campus on Roosevelt Island... View full entry
Like the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, there’s a compelling confluence of urban activists standing next to each other on the sidewalk of Portage Avenue in downtown Winnipeg. To my right is a group of First Nations flood evacuees protesting (politely) against cuts to their daily living allowance. To my left, below the gleaming, mirror-polished aluminum balconies of the Avenue on Portage mixed-use development... — theglobeandmail.com
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. Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Concrete. ↑ Casa La Punta in Mexico... View full entry
[...] Two more outstanding projects received national RIBA honors that night: the 2012 Manser Medal for the best newly designed private house went to Maison L by Christian Pottgiesser - architecturespossibles, and the Stephen Lawrence Prize 2012 in recognition of fresh talent and smaller construction budgets went to a private house in Kings Grove, London by Duggan Morris Architects. — bustler.net
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture will be unveiling its new, temporary pavilion designed by Shigeru Ban in Moscow’s Gorky Park tomorrow. The structure, located near the park's Pionersky Pond, uses locally produced paper tubes to create an oval wall that will be 7.5 meters high. The... View full entry
A 1,070-foot tower that will become the largest skyscraper on the West Coast received its final approvals from the Planning Commission on Thursday. — sfexaminer.com
Clarke also showed the Planning Commission the actual metal and glass that will be used on the exterior of the building. He explained that the skin of the building has been augmented to add metalwork that will grow deeper and denser at the bottom of the tower. Clarke said adding the metal to the... View full entry
Decades ago, Erica Stoller accompanied her father, the architectural photographer Ezra Stoller, on a shoot of the Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza in New York. It was cavernous and dark, but Ezra insisted that a shaft of light would burst through in 15 minutes. “The plaza was full of sun,” she remembers. “It did just what he told it to do.” — nytimes.com
