Conditions of scarcity demand new ways of thinking, an expansion of the role of the architect and designer outwards in order to function more broadly and imaginatively as spatial agents. In contrast to the regimes of austerity ... the territory of processes and networks opened up by scarcity is far more conducive to creative intervention. It is here that scarcity — which can seem at first a bleak prospect — can become the inspiration and context for constructive and transformative action. — Places Journal
What is the difference between scarcity and austerity? On Places, Jeremy Till contrasts the political ideology of austerity — imposed reductions of public services and social benefits — with the physical condition of scarcity — the measureable dwindling of finite resources... View full entry
In the competition for the new École Centrale engineering school in the French city of Saclay, southwest of Paris, OMA has been awarded the First Prize. The brief also includes the urban development of the area surrounding the school in Saclay's research and innovation zone. The winning proposal was developed in collaboration with Bollinger and Grohman, Alto, DHV, DAL, and D'Ici Là. — bustler.net
Mr. Gehry will not change the signature Bacardi buildings themselves, whose exteriors were landmarked in 2009 and have long been admired for their tropical, Latin-infused take on Modernism, except to make interior alterations. But he will create a park and replace an existing office building — which is not landmarked — with a new performing arts center of his design. — nytimes.com
Terminal workers speak a florid corporate language of “space optimization” and “key performance indicators.” Longshoremen click computer mice and complain about Microsoft Windows as everyone else in the white-collar world does. — NYT
Over the weekend Alan Feuer, took readers along on a tour of the six container terminals belonging to the The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The visit gave him an opportunity to report on how the; infrastructural-logistical pressures of a post-Panamax infrastructure, along with... View full entry
The problem is, that I think the rise of tactical urbanism actually reflects the paralysis of city-wide and systems-focused efforts...Tactical urbanism is cool; but the enthusiasm with which we’ve all embraced it is a tell for what we don’t talk about, which is fundamentally broken city governance. — Alex Steffen
With the recent focus on all things tactical, urban and interventionist, Alex Steffen has been thinking about what it all means. Prompted (at least in part by Adam Greenfield’s extremely interesting notes on Ed Glaser’s Triumph of the City) he has begun to wonder how one could go... View full entry
It’s hard to say which is more startling. That a developer in Phoenix could threaten...to knock down a 1952 house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Or that the house has until now slipped under the radar, escaping the attention of most architectural historians...a spiral home for his son David. — New York Times
Masdar City is a project in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Its core is a planned city, which is being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of seed capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster and Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology.
David Mirvish and world-renowned architect Frank Gehry formally introduced their plans for a major overhaul of King Street West this morning at the Art Gallery of Ontario — an appropriate setting considering the 2008 AGO redesign exists as Gehry's other major Canadian project. — blogto.com
New York firm Dror today unveiled designs for a collosal artificial island to be created right off the coast of Turkey, not far from Istanbul. The project, dubbed HavvAda, is envisioned to rise from the sea by piling up one billion cubic meter of soil carved out of the main land from the... View full entry
The Future of Architecture, an overnight exhibition led by the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), looks into the city’s future and explores different architectural visions as to how Toronto may evolve and transform in the coming years. — designbuildsource.ca
Mayor Bloomberg today will unveil plans to transform Staten Island’s waterfront by building the world’s largest Ferris wheel along with a new retail complex and hotel on sites adjacent to Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George. The New York Wheel will be built just to the north of the ballpark and be 625 feet tall – 84 feet higher than the Singapore Flyer, currently the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. — mikebloomberg.com
Citing serious concerns, a group of high-profile architects advising Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the downtown football stadium is recommending a redesign of the Los Angeles Convention Center hall that is part of the project.
Several members of the "Vision Team," a group of eight architects assembled by Villaraigosa to consult, believe the plan has major flaws, including having visitors enter the new hall through a dark, unsafe space created by stretching the building over Pico Boulevard.
— dailynews.com
An architecture buff himself with an interest in skyscraper designs, Villaraigosa formed the eight-member Vision Team, which includes Hitoshi Abe, chairman of the Department of Architecture & Urban Design School at UCLA, architect Scott Johnson of Los Angeles firm Johnson Fain, and Paul... View full entry
As for the notion that expanding the interstate tangle and adding the sister bridge next to the Kennedy might bring more people and jobs into the city, I can only say that 40 years after the interstates supposedly started pumping life into Louisville’s downtown, the streets here looked pretty empty, especially at night. — NYT
Michael Kimmelman criticizes plans to add to Louisville's "Spaghetti Junction" by increasing the capacity of downtown highways and building a second bridge next to the Kennedy Interchange. He considers it especially foolhardy, in light of recent efforts in cities across the globe, to repair the... View full entry
The 10,000 or so jobs promised have not materialized. Of the 2,250 affordable housing units pledged out of 6,300, only 181 are planned for a first tower, and ground for the building has yet to be broken. — NYT
Liz Robbins explores the impending political, logistical reality of the Barclays Center arena, in Brooklyn. She also examines the as yet fulfilled, hopes for community wide benefit, with regards to affordable housing and job creation. Yet, the large entertainment and sports complex has... View full entry
The Dutch city of Almere has won the bid for the Floriade 2022 and will host the prestigious world horticultural expo in the year 2022. The exposition takes place once every ten years in the Netherlands and is currently ending in Venlo. The MVRDV-designed plan for Almere seeks to be not a temporary expo site but a lasting green Cité Idéale as an extension to the existing city center. — bustler.net
The Almere/MVRDV concept beat out fierce competition from Boskoop with OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Groningen with West 8, and Amsterdam Bijlmer with MTD Landscape Architect. View full entry
