If the sinuous curves of the bone china teacups don’t betray their creator then the gently undulating Aqua Platter surely will.
Dame Zaha Hadid has launched her first “luxury homeware line” and the exclusive Harrods range, which includes a £9,999 serving platter, boasts the signature aesthetic of the acclaimed architect.
— independent.co.uk
Related:Zaha Hadid Granite & Marble Furniture Collection for CITCOIn at the deep end: Zaha Hadid takes the plunge into swimwearZaha Hadid Designs Superyachts For Blohm+Voss View full entry
After Qatar Rail appointed UNStudio as principal architect, the Dutch firm revealed their designs for the new Doha Metro Network, a major component of the Qatar Integrated Railway Project (QIRP). In an effort to motivate more Doha locals to use public transit, UNStudio's design of the Metro Network consists of traditional Qatari-inspired elements and four transportation lines — with an estimate of 35 stations for Phase 1, followed by around 60 stations for Phase 2. — bustler.net
Quite interesting that UNStudio released these designs at a time when Qatar has been making headlines as of late...Read more about the project on Bustler. View full entry
Discover the Villa Savoye as you've never seen it before, through the discipline of Parkour and the movements of traceurs !
Le Corbusier, the real grandfather of hip-hop, could also be the inspiration behind the parkour? View full entry
"In the late 1920s, Le Corbusier created a plan for Paris," Ford says. "Its most celebrated portion was called 'Towers in the Park.' [...]
Think unremarkable, high-rise apartment buildings. Think low-income housing projects. [...]
"Many of hip-hop's most prominent artists were born, raised, and perfected their crafts in those very same housing projects. Hip-hop was a result of the economical, political, and sociological deprivations instituted by the housing projects across America."
— metrotimes.com
The Eisenhower Memorial Commission on Wednesday will review two approaches, including one that removes most of these elements. If that plan is selected, Gehry informed the commission, he will ask for his name to removed. — washingtonpost.com
IKEA has a little known secret: the company is a non-profit. Ingvar Kamprad the founder of IKEA created the philanthropic Stichting Ingka Foundation whose mission is to “further the advancement of interior design.” IKEA’s bizarre business model looks like this: the nonprofit Stichting Ingka owns a private Dutch Company, Ingka Holdings that owns the majority of individual stores at the franchise level. — onlinemba.com
“We are thrilled that UNC CSI’s Research Building has received this international design award. It brings attention to how good design can integrate beauty innovation and functionality to create a facility that serves as an important resource for Eastern North Carolina.” — Nancy White, UNC Coastal Studies Institute executive director
The UNC Coastal Studies Institute Research Building has been awarded the International Architecture Award for Best New Global Design (2014) by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Architects Clark Nexsen and... View full entry
Students and professionals had another opportunity to take part in the third cycle of the AA Athens Visiting School program, "Cipher City: Revolutions". Taking place at the National Technical University of Athens this past spring, participants focused on addressing the roles of change, adaptation and interaction through scripting and digital fabricating techniques at large scale models. — bustler.net
The program set out to challenge the motionless built environment in the collaborative creation of a kinetic pathway prototype called Kinetic Haze. Participants applied the basic design elements from their own proposals in creating the project in less than five days.Here's a glimpse of the... View full entry
it seemed perverse to us that architecture has become all about the aesthetics of a few iconic buildings whose main function is the glorification of those with the money to build them. As one prize after another celebrates the work of a selected band of world famous "starchitects", it seemed like humanity's most pressing problems are how to fold metal into the most obscure shapes, and how implausibly high a building can go. — Al Jazeera
As curated by Daniel Davies on how architecture and design can be used to build a better world, Al Jazeera sheds a light on what really matters as architecture moves into domains of architects and geographies where the works is making difference in people's lives."They are architects not paid by... View full entry
This post is brought to you by 100%DESIGN:In case you forgot to register earlier this summer, the 100%DESIGN trade event is coming up next week -- so now is the time to do it! As one of the key events at the London Design Festival, 100%DESIGN 2014 will take place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre... View full entry
Crafty space manipulator Luftwerk will showcase FLOW/Im Fluss, a nightly light and water installation at Chicago's Couch Place alley on September 17-20 from 5 p.m. to midnight. Luftwerk, the Chicago-based collaborative established by Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, is best known for their... View full entry
Mildred Friedman, a curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in the 1970s and ’80s who helped both the museum and the contemporary design and architecture it celebrated become objects of international acclaim, died on Sept. 3 in Manhattan. She was 85. [...]
Ms. Friedman executed a curatorial hat trick: She elevated design even as she made it more accessible — and she did it in Minnesota, far from the traditional sanctums of aesthetics.
— nytimes.com
To many designers, the manual became an exemplar of the form—and a design classic in its own right. [...] When Hamish Smyth and Jesse Reed, who work at the New York design firm Pentagram, stumbled across a copy a few years ago, it was buried under old gym clothes in a locker.
They digitized the manual, and now they’re reprinting it with the blessing of the MTA. A complete reissue, which includes a new essay on the manual’s history, is being sold on Kickstarter starting today [...].
— qz.com
Using tracer viruses, researchers found that contamination of just a single doorknob or table top results in the spread of viruses throughout office buildings, hotels, and health care facilities. Within 2 to 4 hours, the virus could be detected on 40 to 60 percent of workers and visitors in the facilities and commonly touched objects. — ScienceDaily
John Szot will be presenting the short film "Architecture and the Unspeakable" at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles on September 18th at 7:00pm and at the Woodbury University School of Architecture on September 19th at 6:30pm. Both evenings will include a brief presentation of the architectural... View full entry