Previously covered by Archinect, MADWORKSHOP Homeless Studio is a USC course exploring the architect’s role in helping to solve Los Angeles' rapidly accelerating homelessness crisis. "Getting someone off the street and into permanent housing doesn't happen right away. We are looking at lead... View full entry
A pair of USB ports on a console on the front of the bench provides juice from the solar panel mounted at lap level between the seats. Who wouldn’t want to hang out at a bench like this? It certainly catches the eye of passersby. What these kids might not realize, however, is that this bench is watching them back. — Landscape Architecture Magazine
"Smart" benches are spreading—recently a series of them, manufactured by Soofa, was installed in a tiny neighborhood park next to I-77 on the north end of Charlotte, North Carolina with the intent of the neighborhood's analysis and redevelopment. Soofa, founded in 2014 by three graduates of... View full entry
Capable of holding more than 20,000 residents, Prora was meant to comfort the weary German worker who toiled away in a factory without respite. According to historian and tour guide Roger Moorhouse, it was also meant to serve as the carrot to the stick of the Gestapo — a pacifying gesture to get the German people on Hitler's side. But then World War II began, and Prora's construction stalled — until now. — Business Insider
Named Prora and located on a beachfront of Rügen island, the structure was commissioned by Adolf Hitler as the world's largest tourist resort three years before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. In those three years over 9,000 workers were involved in the construction of the 2.7-mile-long... View full entry
Associate Professor Heather Roberge has been appointed to the position of chair of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design effective July 1, 2017. She will take over for interim chair, Professor Neil Denari, alongside whom she has served as interim vice chair during this past academic... View full entry
Today, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform—a multi-disciplinary group of experts convened by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito—released Justice In Design, a report that envisions an alternative to a single, centralized jail. It details how community-based jails, dubbed “Justice Hubs,” might function in an urban context to replace Rikers. — co.design
The Rikers Island Correctional Facility, a complex of 10 jails and about 10,000 detainees located northeast of LaGuardia Airport, has been one of NYC's most debated problems for decades—widely criticized for corruption, brutal mistreatment of detainees, and inhumane conditions. Independent... View full entry
Joseph Grima (40) is a graduate of the AA and the founder of Space Caviar (Genova, Italy), a design research studio operating at the intersection of architecture, technology, politics and the public realm. He has extensive international experience as curator, editor and writer in the fields of... View full entry
Created by architecture firm FreelandBuck, the piece consists of nine different illusions that click into place only if you stand at the exact right point underneath each of them and gaze upward. “We want people to wander through this room and really figure out this puzzle for themselves, while also enjoying this wonderful, confusing, complex shifting of patterns and geometries,” Renwick curator-in-charge Abraham Thomas says. “Touch wood, there won’t be collisions.” — The Washington Post
Back in May, the Los Angeles-based studio FreelandBuck was selected to design and install a temporary ceiling in the Renwick Gallery’s Grand Salon in the Smithsonian. This is a first for the gallery that plans on turning this into a recurring installation series called "Above the Renwick."... View full entry
The BIG-designed Tirpitz Museum in the Danish coastal town of Blåvand recently had its grand opening and already appears to be attracting plenty of visitors to the historic site. Unlike its heftier neighbor, the German WWII Tirpitz bunker, the museum finely cuts into the dune landscape and... View full entry
Anchoring in large cities and small towns, in busy shipping lanes and at public parks, the barge opens like a clamshell to reveal a glittering concert stage. Audiences on shore delight in the music, much of it specially composed for Maestro Boudreau and his American Wind Symphony Orchestra — The NY Review of Books
Louis Kahn was commissioned to design Point Counterpoint II, a unique floating concert hall, by conductor Robert Austin Boudreau in the mid 1960s. Launched in 1976, the 195-foot structure carried an orchestra up and down America's waterways for five decades. Robert Boudreau and his wife... View full entry
American e-commerce giant Amazon has filed a patent with the US patents office for a system for storing and retrieving goods in an underwater facility.
When an item is ordered for delivery, a sonic signal is transmitted from a buoy to the warehouse, which activates an air canister that inflates a balloon, allowing the chosen product to float to the surface where it would be dispatched to the customer.
— globalconstructionreview.com
Just last month, Amazon made headlines when it filed a patent for a drone tower design, essentially a multi-level fulfillment center for unmanned aerial vehicles in densely populated areas. Now a recent Amazon patent for "Aquatic Storage Facilities" has surfaced, allowing us a glimpse into the... View full entry
Full-time creative positions, like architects and sound engineers, come with considerable salaries and benefits. “We have 20-year-olds making $50,000 a year with us,” remarks Everett. — Artsy.net
Meow Wolf may have put the starving artist trope to rest in the form of a magnificent new business/installation model. Photo by Kate Russell. Courtesy of Meow Wolf.As this article explains: Since the Santa Fe-based art collective Meow Wolf opened its permanent installation, the House of Eternal... View full entry
The new operations headquarters of Reale Group, designed by Iotti + Pavarani Architetti, was recently opened in Turin, Italy. Located on the southwestern border of the city’s Roman castrum it replaced a building from the seventies, redefining and modernizing the entire block. Covering a... View full entry
The World Design Organization today announced that Lille, France and Sydney, Australia have made the shortlist to become World Design Capital 2020, for their effective use of design to drive economic, social, cultural, and environmental development in their cities. City visits will be conducted... View full entry
Based in Madrid and operating globally, The Norman Foster Foundation is a non-profit promoting holistic education and interdisciplinary thinking and research. Followed from the Future is Now forum held in Madrid's Royal Theater on the 1st of June, Mayor of Madrid and Lord Foster brought... View full entry
The viability of building a major new concert hall in London has been widely debated, and the future of the Center was thrown into doubt last November, when the British government withdrew its commitment to contribute 5 million pounds (about $6.4 million) to pay for a business plan. The City of London Corporation stepped in with 2.5 million pounds (about $3.2 million) to allow project to go ahead. — NY Times
The shortlist for the future home for the London Symphony Orchestra and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama was announced on Monday and consists of AL_A, Foster + Partners, Renzo Piano, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Gehry Partners, Snohetta, all of which have extensive experience working on... View full entry
