...will re-examine the built environment of the arid and semi-arid west as a vast field of opportunities for design innovation at a range of scales, from building systems to infrastructure and landscape spaces. The conference will present and debate a portfolio of design strategies generated in response to the challenges set forth in ALI's Drylands Design Initiative... — Arid Lands Institute
Registration is currently open for the forthcoming Drylands Design Conference being held March 22-24 at the Woodbury School of Architecture. This event is the conference part of the Drylands Design Competition you can see the work by the winners at the competition website here. View full entry
....breakthrough ideas still come from individuals, not committees. “There is nothing democratic about innovation." — New York Times
-- asked what bugged him most. “Ninety-nine percent of all cars,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of all sneakers. Ninety-nine percent of all cellphones. Ninety-nine percent of all door handles.” — New York Times
In August 2009 the editorial of MONU #11 on the topic of "Clean Urbanism" started with the lines "Do we simply have to stop having sex to produce Clean Urbanism..." — MONU
These lines are now featured on a bag designed and produced by MONU Magazine. The bags were produced in a limited edition of 50 pieces. To get a bag please e-mail your order to bag@monu-magazine.com . Text on MONU Bag: "Do we simply have to stop having sex to produce Clean Urbanism - i.e. an... View full entry
Self-initiated screenprint project featuring runway patterns from airports around the world. — nomodesign.com
Jerome Daksiewicz is a Chicago based architect / designer who moved onto independent graphic/interactive design work in 2009, after the architecture firm he was working with went under. Check out his very cool airport runway diagram posters, and buy them here. View full entry
Guy wrote “why, when the evidence is out there, were a number of architects so defensive about the “Don’t Major in Architecture” article? Why are they whining? My conclusion, so far, is that this touched a nerve precisely because this isn’t new information to architects.” In response emergency exit wound asked, “And the assumption that 'an informed public makes the space for architecture more possible' is based on what exactly?
In the latest edition of the CONTOURS feature The Divisions that Bind Us, Guy Horton, analyzed the online commentariat’s response to Catherine Rampell, an economics reporter for The New York Times, article “Want a Job? Go to College, and Don’t Major in... View full entry
Nearly 40 years after its destruction, the people interviewed for the film continue to wrestle with Pruitt-Igoe's legacy and its place in their lives. They love it and hate it, but don't resent it. Despite the piles of trash, mountains of drugs, and preponderance of crime, this was their home. For some, it was their first proper dwelling. — Dante A. Ciampaglia
Academic institutions have a mandate to contribute to public knowledge, but the structures that support the transfer and dissemination of research, and the application of research within urban design practice, are often weak. There is a widening gap between what happens within the academy and what happens on the ground in cities — often a retrograde, generic and ad hoc agglomeration of politically or financially motivated initiatives. — Places Journal
Places interviews Ila Berman, director of architecture at the California College of the Arts, and Mona El Khafif, project coordinator of URBANlab, about research + design initiatives at the lab. The feature includes a slideshow of faculty and student work, including design proposals for... View full entry
The portuguese architect Diogo Burnay to head Faculty of Architecture and Planning of Dalhousie University, at Halifax, Canada, after being selected among three finalists in an international competition. — Público - P3
The Portuguese architect Diogo Burnay was appointed to be the director of the School of Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning of Dalhousie University, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, after being shortlisted among three finalists in an international call for applications. Diogo... View full entry
Unfortunately, recent military Design doctrine, terminology, and current practices attempt to „salami slice‟ Design logic into the preferred traditional military methodology. Our Design doctrine does precisely this, and it makes complete sense that our military is frustrated with how to apply „doctrinal Design‟ in practice, education, and discourse. Perhaps the military might consider reversing this process — Small Wars Journal
Major Ben Zweibelson provides a critique of recent military efforts to apply design thinking. He notes the difference between military planning logic and design methodologies. Mjr. Zweibelson then offers some recommendations on how the military could revise their current... View full entry
Craft practices are at once defined and restrained by their connections to tradition. Viewing woodworking in the context of objects made with wood; housing, particularly stick frame construction, emerges as possibly the most widespread use of the material throughout the modern world. Utilizing these techniques in a studio based practice, it is my hope to further the conversation on how notions of craft fit into the modern world.
Ted Lott, an artist/sculptor/woodworker from Madison WI, has shared with us some of his recent architecture-inspired pieces. Take a look at more of his work here. View full entry
We reported over the summer about the unveiling of the East River Waterfront Esplanade and mentioned plans to further extend it in coming years. Only six months later, Pier 15 just south of South Street Seaport, is now open. Designed by SHoP Architects, with help from Ken Smith Landscape Architect, the new two-story section features sharp angles, a colorful red roof, native flora, and a design that expands upon the existing esplanade. — InhabitatNYC
In the last decade, much has been written about architecture for the greater good, and it would seem that the field, as a whole, is invested in bringing design to underserved communities. Yet all of this talk — at conferences, in the press, at universities — has focused hardly at all on how to put together a career in social design. — Places Journal
On Places, Virginia Tech graduate Will Holman gives an honest report of his experiences volunteering, studying and working at Arcosanti, Rural Studio, and Youth Build. Does the architecture profession need to do more to support young architects who take this path? View full entry
BOARD's Europan 11 entry for the Dutch city of Deventer suggests abandoning the idea of agriculture in cities. — http://www.b-o-a-r-d.nl/projects.htm
The Europan 11 entry of the Rotterdam based Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD) entitled "Cell Division", suggests giving the spatially magnificent cells in Deventer's famous silo over to apartments containing all the service and facility rooms, such as toilets, bathrooms... View full entry
Works like the infinity room...are not designed with the end purpose of creating illusion or destabilizing perception. The works...use those things as tools to enable an experience of light and space in a much more direct way than is normally possible, “without...the diminishing effect of a learned associative response to explain away” the essence of what is being seen. — New York Times
