IKEA has proposed to build a complete neighborhood in East London. The Swedish furniture giant tries to implement its ideas and concepts in new fields of knowledge and urbanism. After its injection of each single family’s interior with cheap design furniture and the introduction of the IKEA standard house by daughter company BoKlok, it seems to be time for a complete IKEA neighborhood... — popupcity.net
Renowned architect Rem Koolhaas is viewed as one of the most important theoreticians of his trade. In an interview with SPIEGEL, he discusses soulless cities, the failings of Europe's largest urban redevelopment project in Hamburg and the problems with SPIEGEL's brand-new headquarters. — spiegel.de
The 2011 Open Architecture Challenge: [UN] RESTRICTED ACCESS challenges architects and designers to partner with community groups across the world and develop innovative solutions to re-envision closed, abandoned, and decommissioned military sites. The six-month competition requires designers to work with the communities surrounding these former places of conflict to transform oftentimes hostile locations into civic spaces built for the public good. — theepochtimes.com
The inNATUR Competition, organized by OPENGAP, recently announced three winning entries and five honorable mentions. The international contest sought for innovative and cutting-edge ideas for a Nature Interpretation Center committed to a strategy of implementing architecture in a protected natural environment. The jury comprised architects Edgar Gonzalez, Liong Lie, Gerardo Mingo, and Paula Montoya. — bustler.net
Danish practice DEVE Architecture has shared with us their prequalified entry for the expansion competition of Copenhagen's Rigshospital. This hospital is the main hospital in Copenhagen and is the foremost treatment and teaching hospital in Denmark. The design is a collaborative proposal with fellow Scandinavian firms COWI A/S, WHITE Arkitekter A/S, LAND+ Landskabsarkitekter, Aps, and Lyngkilde A/S and was prequalified alongside 6 other international teams for this project. — bustler.net
Esther McCoy is having a moment. The architecture critic and historian, who died in 1989 at age 85, is the subject of a smart Pacific Standard Time exhibition at the Schindler House in West Hollywood, building on McCoy's deep connections with Rudolph Schindler himself. The show is accompanied by a Getty-funded catalog, and early next year East of Borneo Press will publish "Piecing Together Los Angeles," an anthology of McCoy's essays on architecture. — Christopher Hawthorne, latimes.com
It was a year in which American architects despaired that the economy might never really recover. It was also a year in which they produced a few small gems. And the profession as a whole continued to move past the flashy formalism of the last decade to seek new, genuine kinds of engagement with cities and people. — Christopher Hawthorne, latimesblogs.latimes.com
This crazy building is a real live structure and it's also Australia's very first carbon neutral building. Recently completed, the Pixel Building is an office building located on the former CUB Brewery site in Melbourne. — Inhabitat.com
Just as last December, the fine folks at Five Star Electric, 1 World Trade Center’s electrical contractor, volunteered their time to affix different colored sconces to the work lights in the tower, creating the seasonal effect. — New York Observer
Maybe the biggest Christmas tree in the world? View full entry
“These churches must become not only a decoration of our city, but truly a phenomenon of civic and church art of our 21st century,” said Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, the executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, at a news conference. “They must become a kind of pearl of ancient tradition, uniting historic Moscow with its new districts and buildings.” He said the terms of the competition would be announced by the end of the year. — theartnewspaper.com
A fusion of traditional Islamic architecture and modern sustainable design, Gaza’s new green schools will cost the same to build as their less-sustainable counterparts. — Green Prophet
The UNRWA is partnering with architect Mario Cucinella to build up to 20 “zero impact” schools in the Gaza Strip. The schools will include room for 800 students and will rely completely on renewable energy sources. Specifically, solar panels will be strategically placed and geothermal... View full entry
Having been given a prized collection of contemporary American art earlier this year, Stanford University on Wednesday announced plans for a new $30.5-million museum to house it.
New York-based Ennead Architects will design a 30,000-square-foot building devoted to the Anderson Collection –- 121 works by 86 artists collected by a Bay Area family...
— latimesblogs.latimes.com
Portuguese collective DOSE has sent us images and a fascinating time-lapse video of their project BLUETUBE BAR, a temporary bar to operate at the annual academic festival in Oporto, Portugal, Queima das Fitas. The project won the student competition sponsored by the School of Architecture at Oporto University. — bustler.net
Artists and designer Michael Jantzen has shared with us his latest utopian pavilion concept, The Transmutation Pavilion. Read more about Jantzen in his insightful 2009 interview with Archinect writer Katya Tylevich. Project Description: The Transmutation Pavilion is a design proposal for a large... View full entry
Clips from documentary of modern architectural masterpiece built in 1930 in Czechoslovakia by German architect Mies van der Rohe for a Jewish family that had to flee in 1938. Interviews with the Tugendhat daughter and Mies' grandson about this unique house now owned by the government in Brno, Czech Republic. — youtube.com