Death is not a happy subject, so most of us would undoubtedly prefer not to think about funeral homes. But sooner or later, we're likely to end up in one, if only to attend someone else's service. That's why it's fascinating to step into the newest chapel of Chicago Jewish Funerals, which has two other suburban locations.
This adventurous modernist building, at 8851 Skokie Blvd. in north suburban Skokie, isn't a great work of architecture, but it's a telling one.
— chicagotribune.com
Richard.Rozewski, discusses a microtecture solution being developed by a friend Patrick of APOC. Stephanie however contends “ the idea that this will promote sustainable living is patently false...the construction, however small, of individual buildings for individual people, will always inherently mean the opposite of 'sustainable' ” To which holz.box responded “false false false. microtecture can be very sustainable”.
In Archinect’s latest In Focus feature we talk to British photo artist Simon Gardiner. Simon is a “street photographer who fuses the street with a cinematic feel”. Guy Horton, in part two of the What Should Architecture Occupy series, argues that what... View full entry
All over Los Angeles, the places where artists, architects and engineers were busy in the postwar years inventing the future are being recast as monuments and historical shrines.
This new attitude toward the city's recent heritage can be seen in increasingly visible battles over the fate of postwar landmarks like Richard Neutra's Kronish House in Beverly Hills and in nascent efforts to preserve and display artifacts from the early years of the computer and aerospace industries in Los Angeles.
— latimes.com
... the enthusiasm in Cape Town for architecture that excites and enlightens people about health is especially rewarding. “We've never seen anything like this anywhere,” Farrow says, about the notion of wellness being trumpeted so loudly through architecture. — theglobeandmail.com
Winners have recently been revealed in Aarhus, Denmark, for the new Brabrand Housing Association residential complex competition. The winning team consists of Danish architects ADEPT and LUPLAU & POULSEN, turn-key contractor Dansk Boligbyg and NIRAS Consulting Engineers. The team has designed a project [...] that consists of 238 public dwellings distributed between 83 apartments for families and +55 aged seniors, and 155 student-housing units. — bustler.net
Construction of the new Maritime Museum and Science Center started this week in Porsgrunn, Norway. The building, designed by Danish architecture offices COBE and TRANSFORM, conveys Norway’s transformation from a seafaring nation to a modern society based on knowledge industry. The project is expected to be completed already in fall of 2012. — bustler.net
“It’s a clear, simple and concise concept,” says Thomas Corrato, project architect with Hickok Cole, the Washington firm that created the design. “The idea was about how to make the space a connection between architecture and the person on the street.”
The design also aims at changing how people perceive the profession. “We’re viewed as possibly compared to lawyers, and that’s a low hurdle,” says Michael Hickok, partner in Hickok Cole.
— washingtonpost.com
As the collection grew over the years, gallery space was lost to storage. Moreover, the building, designed by Eliel Saarinen, hadn’t been updated since it opened, in 1942, leaving it “no longer adequate to create a proper conservation or display environment,” said Reed Kroloff, the academy’s director. — nytimes.com
While the drawbacks of the Brutalist building, dedicated in 1975, have been known for years, two options mentioned in the GAO report, beyond modernizing the existing structure, could spell big changes for the building and downtown. The first: "[D]emolish the Hoover Building and construct a new headquarters on the existing site." And the second: "[A]cquire a new headquarters on a new site." — huffingtonpost.com
*Definitely gooier and weirder than your everyday parametrics. Maybe Spongebob Squarepants could live in one of these; otherwise, you’d be hard-put.
*But hey, great window-treatments!
— Beyond the Beyond
Bruce Sterling on some images featuring the work of some SCI-Arc Fall 2011 Midterm students. The images, can be found on a site promoting iGeo a free and open source 3D modeling software library in Java for computational design in architecture, product design, interaction design and more. View full entry
Both the two- and three-story buildings, quakeproof and made from freight containers, were designed by architect Shigeru Ban. The second and third floors have balconies. Units are built in a staggered fashion to curb noise disturbance. — japantimes.co.jp
The iconic Media-TIC building in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architects Cloud 9, has beaten off competition from hundreds of buildings around the globe to win the ‘World Building of the Year 2011’ award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards in Barcelona. — bustler.net
The Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) – an NGO based in Nigeria – is almost finished with an incredible two-bedroom bungalow entirely out of plastic bottles. Although many in Kaduna were dubious when the project began construction in June this year, the nearly-complete home is bullet and fireproof, earthquake resistant, and maintains a comfortable interior temperature of 64 degrees fahrenheit year round. — Inhabitat
As his life wound down, and cancer claimed his body, his great passion was designing Apple’s new, three-million-square-foot headquarters, in Cupertino. Jobs threw himself into the details. “Over and over he would come up with new concepts, sometimes entirely new shapes, and make them restart and provide more alternatives,” Isaacson writes. He was obsessed with glass, expanding on what he learned from the big panes in the Apple retail stores. — newyorker.com
“There would not be a straight piece of glass in the building,” Isaacson writes. “All would be curved and seamlessly joined. . . . The planned center courtyard was eight hundred feet across (more than three typical city blocks, or almost the length of three football fields), and... View full entry
Despite strident appeals from some neighbors, it looks like Zaha Hadid is coming to San Diego.
The city’s planning commission on October 20 approved a request to have Hadid and San Diego firm Public demolish an existing house on 8490 Whale Watch Way in La Jolla and replace it with a 12,700 square foot residence with four bedrooms, six bathrooms, and an indoor pool.
— archpaper.com
