I was driven instead by a curiosity about how the structures are used today and how they have settled into the everyday landscape. This is not a bunker archaeology or philosophy, as Virilio would have it, but a bunker sociology — a bunker acoustic ecology. — places.designobserver.com
Nick Sowers, author of the classic UC Berkeley Archinect School Blog, has an essay published at Places discussing "Bunker Archaeology and Acoustic Ecology", with recordings of World War II bunker landscapes. For more backstory on Nick's work and research, make sure to visit his archived blog. View full entry
Copenhagen's Bella Sky hotel, the largest hotel in Scandinavia, is scheduled to officially open next Monday, May 16. The hotel, designed by Danish studio 3XN, tries to become a new landmark on the Copenhagen skyline, symbolizing the identity of the modern Ørestad area, and also marking the capital’s increasing importance on the international convention and congress scene. — bustler.net
I know I have been on a Dutch rag as of late, but where else can you buy postage stamps that honor not just architects, but architecture, and not just timeworn monuments, but experimental work that has not even been built? As a kicker, the stamps are designed so that, if you hold them up to a Web cam, they turn into 3D models floating in front of your screen. — Aaron Betsky, Architect Magazine
The folk art museum’s building was designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and opened in 2001. It was not clear whether it would be torn down. The folk art museum took on $32 million of debt to construct the 53rd Street building. But attendance never met expectations, and after sustaining investment losses in the financial crisis, the museum defaulted on its debt. — NYTimes.com
"People paid a lot of attention to these buildings because they cost too much money - money that should have been used where it was needed most," said resident Xu Linli as she walked home from work past the controversial office complex. — BBC News
In 2004, French architect Paul Andreu - who designed Beijing's stunning egg-shaped national theatre, won the right to design a new office complex for Chengdu government officials. Two months after the move began, the Sichuan earthquake, whose epicentre was just north of Chengdu, left... View full entry
"To quote the unfortunate architect who claims to have been hired to design the mansion, who identifies himself as Bill - "On paper it was beautiful; a large entry court around a two story water feature, Italianate with Etruscan entablatures and friezes from the 13th Century Portuguese... View full entry
Nearly half a century after Habitat 67, I worked five days a week in a cubicle in Safdie's latest high-profile creation, the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. And as I stared at a computer screen in my small slice of Safdie-dom, I wondered: What good has visionary architecture ever done for working plebes? — theawl.com
Leah Caldwell discusses the perspective of an office worker in a building designed by a "starchitect". View full entry
The CN Tower will add a new attraction this year that could make bungee jumping look like a walk in the park.
The tower’s new EdgeWalk will allow thrill-seekers to stroll outside on the world-famous tower on a 1.5 metre ledge that rings the main pod 356 metres (1,168 feet) above the ground.
— cbc.ca
Via the Forum View full entry
Most of these units have never sold, and though they were finished just three years ago, they are already falling into disrepair, the concrete chipping off the sides of the buildings. Vandals have stolen piping, radiators, doors — anything they could get their hands on. — nytimes.com
Junaid Younis, Modern Associates principal told Mr. Buncombe that his father, Mohammad, made the drawing,
“Lots of people come to us,” Younis said. “We are more interested in making money rather than the individual.”
— International Business Times
Architecture rarely goes viral on the Internet, but a video of Toyo Ito's Mediatheque in Sendai taken at the height of the Japanese earthquake has had an extraordinary run as an eyewitness and vertigo-inducing account of what it was like to be inside a building during the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11. — Ada Louise Huxtable, WSJ.com
Click here to view the video, previously reported and discussed on Archinect. View full entry
In a move that could be viewed by some as a regression to the late 1800s when convicts were shipped from England to Van Diemens Land (Australia), a local prison will next week begin a trial housing inmates within shipping containers converted into maximum security cells. Political proponents calim they are safe, secure and cheap; civil libetarians say they are inhumane and not secure. — Inhabitat
Inexpensive yes, but effective? View full entry
News In our latest In Focus we talk to English photographer Tim Pike. To our question What is your goal when capturing buildings in photographs? Tom responded "That would vary. If it is entirely at my discretion, I tend to want to almost 'deconstruct' the building to an essence that is summed up... View full entry
When architect Cesar Pelli built his aka 'Blue Whale' Pacific Design Center in 1975, the West Coast officially declared it was going to be the center of the decorating universe. Almost forty years later, and with the addition of green and red compartments, that primary-shaped colorful dream is... View full entry
Aaron Jones, a M.Arch student at Cranbrook Academy of Art, sent us news of his YouTube Theater installation. Very cool. This project is based on the assumption that the internet (WiFi) can potentially deliver entertainment and information into any place, even a neighborhood that may be... View full entry