Frank Gehry’s vision for a series of his signature folded towers placed in the heart of the historic Parc des Ateliers in Arles, France will have to wait – as the project has just been put on hold. The French National Commission for Historical Sites and Monument has rejected two of the five necessary permits required for the Luna Park campus development to commence. — http://inhabitat.com/gehrys-plan-to-transform-historic-french-site-is-put-on-ice/
UPDATE: Frank Gehry's Luma Arles Campus is happening (after all) View full entry
The [Kronish House]... has been "terribly neglected, but the bones are still there," said Dion Neutra, an architect who teamed up with his late father, Richard, on the project. "The new owner thinks it would be more valuable to tear it down and have empty land." — LA Times
More breaking award news from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA): the shortlist for the 2011 RIBA Lubetkin Prize, given to the best international building outside the European Union, has been announced. — bustler.net
Our friends at OpenBuildings have just announced that their mobile app, already available for the iPhone, is now available for Android users. Go check it out explore the architecture around you! View full entry
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has unveiled the shortlist for the prestigious £20,000 ($32.5K) RIBA Stirling Prize. This year is the first time the shortlist includes practices who have all previously been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize; and also includes two RIBA Stirling Prize winners: David Chipperfield Architects and Zaha Hadid Architects. — bustler.net
Agricultural researchers believe that building indoor farms in the middle of cities could help solve the world's hunger problem. Experts say that vertical farming could feed up to 10 billion people and make agriculture independent of the weather and the need for land. There's only one snag: The urban farms need huge amounts of energy. — spiegel.de
To which chung writes "that the graduate's exchange of gratis labour for recognition in realising something like the ginger bread house is part of the spectrum of shrewd procurement that gets you a starchitect's remaindered maya shape at the other end of the scale."
In a feature entitled A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down, Chris Hildrey, visited the Brunswick Centre site of the Incredible Edible Gingerbread House - a life-size gingerbread house created by alma-nac, on behalf of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity... View full entry
A partial or complete tear-down of Schlumberger’s 10-building corporate campus off Sunset Lane and Old Quarry Road could save the company millions in maintenance costs but would take a chunk out of the town’s tax roll and could include the demolition of a building designed by famed architect Philip Johnson. — acorn-online.com
The project is located in a strategic industrial area, well connected with the main highway which bring traffic from the north to the south part of Italy. The site area is highly visible from the highway, and the client requests were to create a very strong and recognazible facade. The project... View full entry
Star architects such as Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, and Daniel Leibiskind have created sensations with singular, unconventional designs that look (and sometimes are) unbuildable. John Silber thinks that’s a problem. He’d like to see our buildings showing less individualism, more standards. Silber is the former president of Boston University and the author of Architecture of the Absurd: How “Genius” Disfigured a Practical Art. — studio360.org
A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the style of a Mayan temple has sold for US$4.5 million (Dh16.5m) after two years on the market.
The buyer was Ron Burkle, a supermarket magnate and investor who is known for preserving historic properties.
— thenational.ae
Shigeru Ban, known for his paper tube structures and disaster relief projects, as well as several ground-breaking homes in Japan, has produced a small minimum security prison. Just eight blocks north of the Americano, the Shutter House opens and closes it’s tightly perforated metal shutters as the warden sees fit. — barkitecturemag.com
After several starts and stops San Francisco’s greenest office building is finally well on its way to completion. The San Francisco Public Utility District commissioned the project more than ten years ago, but after the dotcom bust and the squeeze of the recession they asked KMD Architects to go back to the drawing board. What they came up with is a reduced cost LEED Platinum building with a living machine, a large roof-mounted solar array and integrated wind power. — Inhabitat
Coop Himmelblau’s wildly ambitious L.A. high school opened to great acclaim and local controversy. Two years later, we ask: how is it actually working? — metropolismag.com
Archinect's Building of the Week series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings. Acoustic clarity and precision were governing principles for the design of this recital space and outdoor stage for the Masters Program in music at... View full entry