The International Architecture Awards was founded in 2005 in conjunction with The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The Awards celebrate the world's best international architecture practices and examples... View full entry
At the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Guadalajara, Sandra Pascoe has successfully used nopales to create biodegradable plastic. It was a series of trial and error for Pascoe, who first started by taking small pieces of dry nopal, which she would then pulverize and mix with other ingredients. But it was too slow a process and she found that the material oxidized too quickly. Eventually, she eventually starting using the liquid inside the prickly pear and found success. — Remezcla
Does the answer to the world’s plastic pollution problem lie in the thick, sticky sap of Mexican cactus fronds? Sandra Pascoe, a researcher at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Guadalajara, Mexico, thinks so. Her team is busy finding ways to transform the syrup into solid... View full entry
Who and what comes to mind when thinking of American architecture? In practice, academia, and culture, America's influence on the built environment has undergone moments of triumph as well as moments of reflection. In celebration of the nation's independence from British monarchy in... View full entry
After nearly four years on the market and a few sizable price cuts, a 123-room Holmby Hills mansion known as The Manor has sold for $120 million, making it the most expensive home sold in LA County.
The seller is Formula One racing heiress Petra Ecclestone, who bought The Manor from Candy Spelling in 2011, paying $85 million in cash. She gave the home a flashy makeover, adding a nightclub in the basement and tanks for exotic fish.
— Curbed LA
$120,000,000 is the new record to set in the California real estate market, and the home to beat is the infamous Spelling Manor in Holmby Hills. Outdoor fountain at Spelling Manor. The 56,000 square foot home was originally built in the 1980s for TV producer Aaron Spelling and his wife Candy... View full entry
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has agreed to join a global declaration acknowledging the existence of an environmental and climate emergency. In recent months, New York City, the Vatican, the city of Vancouver, and the government of Ireland, among some 700 additional... View full entry
The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has unveiled a new "archipedia" website focused on extensively cataloging a wide range of structures and other facets of the built environment. Dubbed SAH Archipedia, the online encyclopedia was developed by SAH and the University of... View full entry
Ikea has released a free font called Soffa Sans, inspired by all the memes born from its online “Design your own sofa” planner. The tool allows for customers to design the layouts and configurations of Ikea’s couches, from the Vimle sectionals to the Vallentuna modular sofa series. Once it was discovered that the planner allowed for basically any configuration with no limit to the cost, it inspired some Sims-like creativity from users. — The Verge
The SOFFA SANS font was developed in partnership with UK agency Proximity London and is available for download here. Some of the examples people used the sofa planner as a block-y drawing tool (which inspired the font) below. pic.twitter.com/o75DdhB3D5— forever (@perspectivator) June... View full entry
Platform, a new website dedicated to hosting conversations, writings, and perspectives on the built environment, has taken off. The venture, billed as an "open digital venue for exchanging ideas about working with, researching, teaching, and writing about buildings, spaces, and landscapes,"... View full entry
“These are expensive projects. There’s no question. But if we are to reap the benefits of mass transit, we have to provide mass transit that is attractive to individual travelers and their families,” said Rick Cotton, the executive director at the Port Authority, without explaining the rise in cost. “Experience shows that rail mass transit is the most attractive alternative, and we’re committed to provided that.” — AM New York
While the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey works to implement an $8 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport, costs for a planned AirTrain link connecting the airport to regional mass transit continue to grow. According to AM New York, when first proposed in 2014, the two-mile... View full entry
On top of climate change, cities grow hotter and hotter due to an increase in urban heat island effect. According to Philip Oldfield's Guardian piece, "What would a heat-proof city look like?," there are four solutions cities can implement to decrease rising temperatures. Oldfield explains green... View full entry
Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform, an exhibition currently on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, examines how landscape architects and photographers concretized contemporary social critiques through their work in American cities during the late 1800s and early... View full entry
The Yiwu Grand Theater's larger than life presence along the Dongyang River is not all for show. MAD Architects aims to create a structure that will be a "monument for the city." Envisioned as an immersive public space for inhabitants and visitors alike, the overall design for the... View full entry
At the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the braille was too oversized to read for the blind. When asked about this, the National Parks Service told CBS News that the braille on the memorial was "part of the artist's design of the memorial," and was "not necessarily intended as accessiblity [sic] elements" for the blind. — CBS News
A CBS News investigation revealed two year's worth of complaints to the U.S. Justice Department's Disability Rights section about missing or incorrect braille found at numerous public facilities throughout the U.S. The report is but another reminder about how the needs of blind Americans... View full entry
Pelli Clarke Pelli, Adamson Associates, OJB Landscape Architecture, and developers Oxford Properties Group have unveiled plans for Union Park, a 4.3 million-square-foot marquee development that could reshape the Toronto skyline. View of the proposed rail yard cap park. Image... View full entry
Oregon legislators took a historic leap toward greener, fairer, less expensive cities Sunday by passing the first law of its kind in the United States or Canada: A state-level legalization of so-called “missing middle” housing. — Sightline Institute
In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, both of Oregon's legislative houses have voted to eliminate single-family zoning across the sate, legalizing so-called "missing middle" housing, including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and row houses. If signed into law next month by Oregon... View full entry
