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 Color. ↑ Auditoriums A, B, C at... View full entry
London/Paris-based practice Matteo Cainer Architects Ltd has sent us its competition entry for the new Swiss embassy building in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, West Africa. The design is a play on the precision of Swiss clockwork mechanism and traditional Cameroon Musgum housing. — bustler.net
The term ‘building science’ is used quite often now in sustainable building circles, but much of what we understand of it can be traced back to the work of Dr. Joe Lstiburek, founder of Building Science Corporation. Many of the building standards today have his finger prints all over them, and his tough love criticism of building design is undercut with his wry humor and encyclopedic knowledge of building construction. — Inhabitat
Leave your preconceived ideas at the door. View full entry
NL Architects has sent us images of their recent project: a pretty rad mash-up pavilion for a bicycle club in the Hainan Province in southern China. The proposal is part of a big resort for developer VANKEN, and NL Architects told us that they've just received green light from the client! Looks like this will actually get build soon. — bustler.net
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, entering its second century, is hardly a novice at branding, but at the new Visitor Center it is exercised with comprehensive aplomb. … the green roof is no small engineering feat. With a pitch of up to 27 degrees, it requires complicated networks of special soils held in place with cleats and geo-nets involving drip irrigation systems woven into capillary fabrics, and other impressive techniques with specialized vocabularies known only to au courant gardeners… — Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal embraces eco-technical gardening while finding a way to point out traditional marriage. View full entry
It is a very big day for Rem Koolhaas and the entire OMA team, as their iconic CCTV building in Beijing—OMA's largest project so far—is being officially completed today.↑ CCTV/OMA, photographed by Iwan BaanHere is the official release we just received from OMA:Today OMA participated in the... View full entry
This week the Whitney Museum inaugurated a brand new exhibition and studio space designed by shipping container architects-extraordinaire LOT-EK. An ultra-modern and eco-friendly addition to complement the museum's 1960s concrete brutalist construction, the new structure was commissioned by the Whitney as a space where the museum could hold special exhibits and house activities for the Whitney education program. —
More about the project here. View full entry
Yesterday's gray sky and drizzle couldn't keep anxious press away from the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art where Argentine artist and architect Tomas Saraceno was officially debuting his new project "Cloud City". A sculptural constellation of 16 geodesic pods, Cloud City "floats" above the museum's roof anchored by steel cables... The futuristic construction features over 100 planes... — Inhabitat
YONGSAN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DISTRICT “PROJECT R6” Seoul, Korea CLIENT Dreamhub Project Financing Vehicle Co., Ltd.PROGRAM 47,800 m2 (514,500 sf) of luxury housing for short-term residents, 27,000 m2 (290,600 sf) of retail, and 929 parking stallsAREA 115,500 m2 (... View full entry
This 34,000-square-foot regional health facility located in an under-served neighborhood in southwest Atlanta combines under one roof a primary care clinic, a behavioral health clinic, childcare facilities, a dental clinic and a workforce community center. In doing so, it projects a holistic idea... View full entry
To some, it seemed an unlikely fit, Gehry designing a memorial honoring Ike, but that impression was always based on two misunderstandings. There is a vulgar idea that Gehry is all about flamboyant buildings, radical structures acclaimed by critics but derided by common sense. The popular perception of Ike is no more accurate. — washingtonpost.com
For retailers, daylight offered one additional advantage the advertisements did not mention: the implication of moral virtue. Large department stores were described as cesspools of fraud, filth, poor working conditions, child labor, anti-competitiveness, potential press censorship (because of their advertising clout), disease, drunkenness, savagery, prostitution, suicide and darkness. A well-lit interior, it was said, could do much to counter such negative associations. — Places Journal
Earlier this year on Places, Keith Eggener assessed the career of the now forgotten early 20th-century Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss, and argued that Curtiss's obscurity has less to do with intrinsic merit than with the politics of professional reputation. In a new article... View full entry
while there are many moments of breathtaking refinement, and the galleries themselves are a revelation, the result is sadly - no, tragically - a long way from being a successful addition to the city. — Philadelphia Inquirer
Inga Saffron reviews the new building, and the relocated Albert Barnes Foundation, by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. View full entry
When architects and designers are called in to redesign a space that already exists for a specific reason and their goal is to reinvent that space for an entirely different use, professionals are faced with a duality of responsibility and potential. In order to respect what once was and bring truth and beauty to the space that is without time or purpose, the task at hand becomes visceral. Questions arise as to how we want people to feel in this space. — yatzer.com
“As a housing commissioner we feel like we’re trying to plug a lot of leaks in the dike,” said Nick Fish, a Portland city commissioner in charge of the housing bureau and parks and recreation. And the city’s budget has still not recovered from the downturn. Habitat, especially in east Portland, he said, is filling the gap. — NYT
Kirk Johnson examines how a depressed real estate market on Portland along with a recent gift by local businessman John Gray, has enabled Habitat, the nonprofit housing group, to think big. The organization has been buying up property on the city’s struggling east side in the process... View full entry