There is new housing help in Sacramento with the city now offering free architectural designs, permit-approved, to build on your property. You can download the plans straight from the city website. The aim is to increase housing across the city. — CBS Sacramento
The available architectural plans are for accessory dwelling units (ADUs). In this instance, they will come in three forms: studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units. This move by Sacramento is meant to address the city’s housing crisis by providing property owners an incentive to build and... View full entry
The art and design lineup for this year’s Coachella festival has been announced ahead of the two-week event, which takes place in the modernism-rich Southern California hotspot from April 13th to the 23rd. This year’s festival will include installations from Maggie West, Kumkum Fernando... View full entry
The architect wanted to create social housing in Los Angeles. Dogged by the FBI, his hope for more egalitarian architecture never came to be. — The Nation
Does it surprise you that an architect dedicating his life's work for better housing for the working classes would be declared, with the pressure of the real estate industry and communism scare, a public enemy and had the FBI trying really hard to discriminate against him for years?That architect... View full entry
Pantone has announced Viva Magenta as its Color of the Year for 2023, ending a (mostly) blue-gray-hued streak that’s predominated for the past three years. Offering a “new signal of strength” that’s useful for “writing a new narrative,” the eye-catching shade of red can set the... View full entry
A modular, wooden cabin from Dutch designer Caspar Schols has won the World Hotel Building of the Year 2022 Award at the recent World Architecture Festival (WAF). Named ANNA Stay, the project is recognized for its sustainable design that allows its guests to reconnect with themselves and... View full entry
Earlier this year, Beijing-based practice Crossboundaries redesigned a fully solar powered motorboat by adding tiny-home components making it a slow-moving home on the water. Completed in March 2022 for a Berlin-based client, the project questions the relationships between the notions of... View full entry
Celebrated fashion designer Vivienne Westwood passed away peacefully at her home in South London, The Guardian reported late Thursday. The 81-year-old Dame was behind some of Britain’s more salient countercultural movements, becoming synonymous with the late-70s punk rock scene in London and... View full entry
A beloved monument returned to the Brooklyn skyline without pomp or circumstance last night when the Domino Sugar sign was quietly relit atop the Thomas Havemeyer building’s new barrel vaulted glass roof, illuminating the Williamsburg waterfront for the first time in eight years. It also marked one last milestone in 2022 for redevelopment at the former refinery, which was last open to the public in 2014 — Artnet News
Meanwhile, PAU’s portion of the $250 million Domino Sugar Factory project is nearing completion with the placement of the structural steelwork required to support the 27,000-square-foot glass addition slotted into its 140-year-old interior. Image © Wes Tarca New York YIMBY also... View full entry
Shanghai-based firm Neri&Hu has completed a café within a historic, 19th-century public garden noted for its Shikumen typology residences. Named Zhang Yuan, the site has recently reopened after a complete rehabilitation of its historic buildings. As part of the revamp, coffee roaster... View full entry
Each year, the industry loses a host of leading figures whose careers as practitioners, educators, theorists, and writers have brought architecture and design to the place it occupies today. Annual remembrances are a valuable means of examining the luminaries and thought leaders who gifted us with... View full entry
As the architecture industry reviews another year filled with a range of ups and downs, it's an important time to reflect on what progress has been made when it comes to important topics such as social justice, activism, equity, and diversity initiatives within architecture. While we've already... View full entry
Ingka Centres, a subsidiary of the Ingka Group (IKEA parent company), has announced its reinvention of the food court concept with Saluhall, a sustainable dining center inspired by Nordic food principles. Saluhall is named after the Scandinavian-style “Market Hall.” It will serve... View full entry
2022 proved to be a year filled with reevaluating what it means to offer an architecture education as well as to receive one. Schools, students, and faculty across the globe continued to adjust to remote learning while students were also welcomed back to campus. This, however, didn't stop the... View full entry
“The challenge was adjusting to the scale,” Andraos said. “When I first started sketching, the pieces were much bigger. I remember the reaction — the team was very excited about the ideas but I wasn’t computing the budget,” adding that the process of design is “always the same across scales, but this experience was very different because the scale of jewelry and the way it relates to the body is so precise.” — WWD
Andraos, who stepped down as Dean of Columbia's GSAPP last May, told WWD that her inspiration to make jewelry for the first time came from her hometown of Beirut’s Art Deco tradition. Other architects like Elena Manferdini and Rossana Hu have contributed designs for the Judith Ripka... View full entry
There is another cause of overcrowding and homelessness. It is mansionization, the demolition of older, smaller, less expensive houses by real estate speculators who quickly replace them with spec McMansions: boxy, shoddily built houses that max out the permitted building envelope. — City Watch LA
The disincentive to build multifamily and affordable housing is made worse by the popularity of these easily repeatable home designs, which also cost more to construct while taking up more space and using more water and electricity. Certain communities around L.A. County have developed effective... View full entry
