Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki has gathered a throng of designers including Toyo Ito, Sou Fujimoto, Kengo Kuma and Riken Yamamoto to oppose the design of Zaha Hadid's 2020 Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.
Maki, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1993, has organised a symposium where Japanese architects will protest against the scale of the proposed 80,000-seat stadium, which is set to become the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games.
— Dezeen
A Dolls' House, a project by Cathedral Group, adds a contemporary twist to a childhood pastime. The UK developer rounded up 20 big-name UK architecture firms -- like Adjaye Associates, Zaha Hadid Architects, Coffey Architects, dRMM, Duggan Morris, FAT, MAKE, and Studio Egret West -- in... View full entry
"Erratic" is an installation piece by Swedish architects Norell/Rodhe that shows a lot of personality. Daniel Norell and Einar Rodhe recently completed the project, which was featured in Helsinki Design Week this past September.
Made from a thick custom-made sack restricted at hundreds of points, the massive 3 x 3 x 3 meter piece illustrates the tension between meticulous design and temperamental materials.
— bustler.net
David Kohn Architects won the World Interior of the Year 2013 title at the INSIDE: World Festival of Interiors awards ceremony in the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore on Oct. 4. The INSIDE festival occured within the same week of its parent event, the World Architecture Festival 2013.
David Kohn Architects won the top interior design award for their refurbishing of the Carrer Avinyó apartment in Barcelona.
— bustler.net
Previously: INSIDE World Festival of Interiors 2013 - Award Category Winners View full entry
Designed by Rem Koolhaas’ architecture firm OMA, the soaring 225-meter tower will be officially inaugurated on Tuesday. It has an open plaza at its base, shaded by a floating three-story podium that juts out 36 meters above ground level. — blogs.wsj.com
My bewilderment quickly yields to a growing sense of dread. How is it that even in the heart of Silicon Valley it’s completely acceptable for smart technology to be buggy, erratic, or totally dysfunctional? ... We are weaving these technologies into our homes, our communities, even our very bodies — but even experts have become disturbingly complacent about their shortcomings. The rest of us rarely question them at all. — Places Journal
Electric car sharing in Paris, dynamic road pricing in Singapore, nationwide smart meters in the UK. “The technology industry is asking us to rebuild the world around its vision of efficient, safe, convenient living,” writes Anthony M. Townsend in an excerpt on Places from his... View full entry
Building Trust International recently announced the winners for their international PLAYscapes Design Competition. As the name states, PLAYscapes challenged participants to propose their ideas to transform neglected city spaces into interactive places of fun for local communities. More than 500 entrants participated, with many of their projects highlighting the use of sustainable materials and the importance of redevelopment and adaptive reuse in their local cityscapes. — bustler.net
The competition-winning project, "Cape Town Gardens Skate Park" was designed by a multidisciplinary team from the City of Cape Town in South Africa. In the Student category, a team from Lusiada University of Lisbon - Faculty of Architecture and Arts won with their entry, "Bring a Pal and have... View full entry
BOARD designed a chair called MARI and a stool named LYN to be used for free. — http://b-o-a-r-d.nl/?p=1809
In financially difficult times we have to be innovative when it comes to spending money on objects for daily use, such as seats and office furniture. Thus we designed two very simple and very affordable pieces of furniture that can be self-built within just a few hours: a chair called MARI and a... View full entry
Known as M-Blocks, the robots are cubes with no external moving parts. Nonetheless, they’re able to climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and even move while suspended upside down from metallic surfaces [...]
As with any modular-robot system, the hope is that the modules can be miniaturized: the ultimate aim of most such research is hordes of swarming microbots that can self-assemble, like the “liquid steel” androids in the movie “Terminator II.”
— MIT News
MIT, you've done it again. And again. A team at CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, has developed M-Blocks -- robotic cubes that can self-assemble into practically any configuration, through a system of carefully aligned magnets and flywheels. Even at their... View full entry
Docomomo US will begin its 7th annual national Tour Day program at the First Presbyterian Church on Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Stamford, Connecticut. The Docomomo Tour brings together architects, designers, historians, enthusiasts, and organizations for exclusive tours and related events... View full entry
It’s the perfect time to talk to the DJ about structures: in a week in which Moby has released new album Innocents, he is currently in the middle of a residency at LA’s 1920s Fonda Theater, a venue featured on his Los Angeles architecture blog. London-based artist Simpson has imbued today's pictures with a sense of each corresponding track, adding a mysterious figure to add scale and a narrative. — nowness.com
The BRIC House and UrbanGlass complex by LEESER Architecture opened its doors to the public on the morning of Oct. 2 in Downtown Brooklyn. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz were present to perform the ribboncutting at Brooklyn's newest creative space... View full entry
The chaos surrounding the Grand Avenue redevelopment may turn out to be a good thing — at least for Frank Gehry and quite possibly for the project as a whole.
LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina and the Grand Avenue Authority surprised developer Related Cos. last week by severely criticizing and temporarily rejecting its plan for a retail complex crowned by hotel, apartment and condo towers.
— latimes.com
Designed by international architecture and urban design firm, The Jerde Partnership, on behalf of Expo LLC, Mandarin is the first and only outdoor lifestyle entertainment center in Russia. Set within the country’s largest resort city, between the Mzymta River and Black Sea, Mandarin... View full entry
The $120 million, 630,000-square-foot complex, called Anton Menlo, is a partnership between Facebook and Northern California residential real estate developer St. Anton Partners. Details of the financial arrangement, including Facebook's investment, were not disclosed.
Designed by Southern California KTGY Group, it will have a mix of studios and one, two and three-bedroom apartments. As part of Facebook's agreement with the city, 15 below-market-rate units are set aside for low-income tenants.
— sfgate.com
