A year ago three students ... sought to test the design viability of a shiny black cube. They asked product, graphic and architectural designers to critically assess the cube to ascertain how serious or not the "critics" would be when faced with whether to explain or explain-away the object. The sessions with Stefan Sagmeister, Dieter Rams, Marco Piva, Massimo losa Ghini, Michael Erlhoff, Ruedi Baur and me were video taped and presented at a Parsons School of Design exhibition. — imprint.printmag.com
Hoping to lure top talent to remake Navy Pier, pier officials on Thursday began an international search for a team of architects and other designers who will re-imagine the pier's outdoor public spaces as part of a broader revamp of the facility. — featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com
CTRL+5 - Remove Client’s color Palette
CTRL+6 - Remove Client’s wife’s color Palette (must press hard)
CTRL+E - Cycles through design ideologies
CTRL+F - Flatten all roofs
CTRL+H - Insert Awesomeness
CTRL+K - Justify design concept
CTRL+L - Left justify design concept
CTRL+P - Prints unemployment check
CTRL+V - Value Engineer (reduces scale by 78%)
F4 - Toggles MODERNISM
F8 -Toggles ORTHO MODE (should always be on)
F9 -Toggles POSTMODERNISM (should always be off)
F11 - Toggles ARROGANCE
— Coffee with an Architect
Jody Brown at Coffee with an Architect has come up with a revised list of Autocad Command shortcuts. I would imagine that these will quickly become the new industry standard for drafting stations everywhere. Please print and post next to your work station for future reference. And remember, to... View full entry
Leagues and Legions (aka LGNLGN, a think tank at the intersection of architecture and publishing) and the Institute for Urban Design (IfUD) are asking critics, practitioners, academics, community organizers, and the general public to weigh in on one of four questions dealing with issues of... View full entry
The facade of Harpa is the work of an artist, the Icelandic-Danish Olafur Eliasson, who gets more attention and a higher billing than the hall's architects, the 52-year-old practice Henning Larsen Architects. They wear sober suits; Eliasson's leather waistcoat and silver-framed shades suggest creative leadership. His job is to provide that service that would once have been performed by Corinthian columns and statues of buxom nudes: to endow the house of culture with meaning and importance. — guardian.co.uk
“It’s never good to have a hurricane two weeks before opening,” Matthew Donham told The Observer. Mr. Donham is the project manager at PWP Landscape Architecture, the firm that helped design the memorial plaza with architect Michael Arad. [...] “We’ll actually fair better than a nearby street tree,” Mr. Donham said. — Observer
Sure, the 9/11 memorial will not be destroyed if Hurricane Irene hits New York City, but what kind of shape it will be in is a whole other story. View full entry
Leonardo da Vinci was an architect, painter, musician, and more. Corb was an architect and watchmaker. Recently, we've seen celebrity designers David Rockwell, Santiago Calatrava, and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron take an interest in set design for theater. And most recently, Rafael Viñoly, one of the world's most renowned architects today, takes center stage, yet again, at Bard SummerScape for the Festival's first fully-staged production of Richard Strauss's opera, Die Liebe der Danae. — huffingtonpost.com
On September 11, 2010 fieldoffice launched an effort that will acknowledge lives lost during the tragedy of September 11, 2001 as well as reconstruct as many views of the city’s lost skyline. Thousands of glass plates, inscribed with a written dedication to a victim and an outline of the missing skyline, will populate New York City from anywhere in the city that the towers would have been visible. — dispersed-memorial.net
Steven M. Johnson (b. 1938) is a former urban planner and future trends analyst from California, who defines himself in terms of Chinese astrology as a tiger "with a tendency to rush forward, defend the weak, and be foolishly brave." Since the early 1970s, he has been creating scores of alternative products and systems—on paper—that he hopes will benefit "or at least amuse" his fellow consumer-citizens. — theatlantic.com
The inspiring recent release Architects' Sketchbooks celebrates the earliest traces of a building's coming into being, the ideas that pave the way for the precision of engineers' calculations or CAD renderings. Through the book's beautiful reproductions of original blots, jots, and scribbles, we can see that even the most awe-inspiring edifices begin as a line—as reassuring an insight into the creative process as any. — theatlantic.com
Apple Inc.'s ailing chief executive Steve Jobs is officially stepping down from the helm of the company, an historic shift that hands the reins to chief operating officer Tim Cook. The company said Mr. Jobs submitted his resignation to the board of directors on Wednesday and "strongly recommended" that the board name Mr. Cook as his successor. — online.wsj.com
We hate to see you leave, Steve. View full entry
If you would like to support Ball-Nogues' latest architectural installation, Yucca Crater, a public artwork and engineered oasis for the High Desert Test Sites series (previously on Archinect), you still have the opportunity for another 2 days, and currently all pledges are being matched by the... View full entry
Following a drop of almost a full point in June, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) fell again by more than a point in July. allSTAR believes "its time to get creative with business strategies and contracts. also not a bad time to hire risk managers"
News Following a drop of almost a full point in June, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) fell again by more than a point in July. allSTAR believes "its time to get creative with business strategies and contracts. also not a bad time to hire risk managers" The Cupertino City Council... View full entry
It's fun to design – even when you have to work for free ! In fact, a freebie “conceptual design” is what two Harvard-educated women produced for Barbie’s new home in a competition to build a dream home for the Mattel doll, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects. — Globe & Mail
Related: Winner of the AIA Architect Barbie Dream House Design Competition View full entry
The founder of Passivhaus and director of Passivhaus Institute PHI, Dr. Wolfgang Fiest, has just sent word that the Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS) will no longer be able to provide building certifications, and will no longer be considered a partner of the program. — Inhabitat
