So, to re-pose the question: what is the radical aesthetic consequence of the cultural desire for sustainable performance? Is it something that expresses itself in a set of formal rules, like the Modern response to the development of the steel frame? Or is it something — because it is essentially about performance — requiring entirely different means to fruition? Well, as with uncharted territory: here there be dragons. — Places Journal
In his latest essay for Places, David Heymann asks, "What is the 'radical aesthetic potential of sustainable design?" Drawing on examples from Leonardo to Duchamp to Peter Zumthor, Heymann explores the still unmet challenge — the "uncharted territory" — of developing a new aesthetic... View full entry
A bunch of bees is inspiring what seems to escape so many people in Buffalo: waterfront development.
With the help of a group of University at Buffalo architecture students, a local entrepreneur hopes to build on a giant bee hive he discovered in an abandoned office and turn a portion of Buffalo's historic waterfront into a design campus where manufacturers, architects and others will collaborate and mastermind new ways to use locally made materials
— Buffalo News
In December 2009, at the "SportAccord" marketing trade show held in Denver, a pair of young Qataris walked up to the Albert Speer & Partners booth, flipped through the brochures and soon realized that the Frankfurt-based firm specialized in very large-scale projects with a focus on sustainability. — Der Spiegel
Alexander Smoltczyk interviewed Albert Speer Jr. in connection with Qatar's bid for the 2022 World Cup, designed by Speer's Frankfurt based firm. More interested in "intelligent cities" than simple architectural objects, the firm does and offers everything, from the big-picture concepts down to... View full entry
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. ↑ Residence on the... View full entry
Built 1992-onward in Los Angeles by RoTo Architects, Carlson-Reges House is an inimitable masterpiece.Its architect Michael Rotondi describes the building as if various parts piled on top each other like children construct their building piece by piece, one component supporting the other one... View full entry
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, was presented to the press today before it will officially open to the public tomorrow, June 1. — bustler.net
Since Chinese officials had put Ai Weiwei on 'city arrest' in his hometown Beijing, he was not able to attend the ceremony together with his design collaborators Jaques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Weiwei was however allowed to send a recorded statement: “As an artist, I’m always very... View full entry
Veteran photographer Madan Mahatta took shots of some of the prominent buildings that defined the landscape of Delhi from the 1950s to the 1980s, as the city was embracing Modernist architecture. An exhibition of his work is on at the Photoink gallery in New Delhi till June 21, 2012. — india.blogs.nytimes.com
There is a saying that "God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland." And for centuries, the Dutch have built different types of barriers to hold back rising water and allow for development.
But as sea levels continue to rise, instead of trying to fight the water, Dutch architects and urban planners are taking a new approach: finding ways to live with it.
— pbs.org
A Seattle firm, HyBrid Architecture, has used shipping containers to build cargotecture one-room cabins and multistory office parks.
HyBrid co-founder Robert Humble says the containers pose some specific challenges: They have industrial paints and coatings to deal with, and they're just steel boxes with no real frame. But essentially, he says, it's a building material.
— npr.org
“It was not typically a type of project we normally do,” says Dukho Yeon, the firm’s associate partner-in-charge on Teachers Village. “This was part of basically everybody including the investors giving back to the city of Newark.” — Fast Company
Low resolution rough cut of footage I shot at the CCTV building in Beijing in Feb 2012. This footage is part of a documentary I am making about my father Rem Koolhaas. — Tomas Koolhaas, via vimeo.com
Along with the declaration is an overview of some of Wright's projects, including the Ennis House, Fallingwater, Millard House, Robie House, Hollyhock House, Taliesin East, Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright Home, and the Martin House. via the forum View full entry
It is one thing to own a dozen original “Zodiac Head” sculptures by the Chinese artist, dissident, and human-rights cause célèbre Ai Weiwei. It is quite another to live in a house partially designed by him. But such is the good fortune of two Columbia County art collectors, who six years ago commissioned the Swiss firm HHF Architects and its scruffily bearded collaborator to build them a home with a detached guesthouse and garage on a pastoral 40-acre plot upstate. — nymag.com
In Still Ugly After All These Years: A Close Reading of Peter Eisenman’s Wexner Center, Alexander Maymind argued the center's "grid-based diagrams instantiate disestablishment effects[2]...hinge on a particular aesthetic reading of architectural ugliness." 18x32 responded "I like where you've gone with the 'Ugly' here, but I don't think this building offers the best example. Nothing about Wexner is viscerally repellant, abhorrent or disgusting."
Alexander Maymind shared his essay Still Ugly After All These Years: A Close Reading of Peter Eisenman’s Wexner Center, recently published in One: Twelve Issue 4, April 2012. Therein he begins by suggesting how the center's "grid-based diagrams instantiate... View full entry
An OMA-designed temporary pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival was inaugurated today with a screening of Kanye West's debut short film Cruel Summer. The pavilion, with a design led by Shohei Shigematsu, is a raised pyramid containing a seven-screen cinema invented by West's creative team, Donda. — oma.eu