The Los Angeles Public Library wants to make it easier for you to make stuff. The new Octavia Lab maker space/audiovisual studio at the L.A. Central Library is 3,000 square feet designed to help you make your thing. It lets you do everything from 3D printing and using a laser cutter to filming on a green screen and using fancy sewing machines. — LAist
The Los Angeles Public Library launches a new creators studio that brings creative tools to the people of LA. The Octavia lab is named after the pioneering science fiction author Octavia Butler. City Librarian John Szabo told LAist, "she was a dedicated bibliophile and a great user of the Los... View full entry
In the face of increasingly destructive climate collapse, the University of Pennsylvania's McHarg Center for Urban Ecology is launching Design with Nature Now, a sprawling survey of some of the most inventive ecologically-driven landscape infrastructure projects from around the... View full entry
Though the majority of the over 37,000 McDonald's outlets around the world hardly rise to the definition of "architecture," the company is no stranger to spectacular design: some of its first locations, built throughout the Midwest as early as 1955, were remarkable demonstrations of... View full entry
The Architecture Lobby (TAL) has put forth a set of guiding principles for architects to follow as debate over a potential Green New Deal takes shape across the industry. According to a recently-published memo, TAL is pursuing a four-pronged approach for envisioning how architects can... View full entry
London's Heathrow Airport has unveiled a transformative, Grimshaw Architects-designed masterplan proposal that could reshape the airport as well as its immediate surroundings. As part of the plan, airport authorities aim to open a third runway to the north of the London airport by... View full entry
In conjunction with the upcoming Chicago Architecture Biennial, Iker Gil and Luftwerk will present their collaborative light and sound installation at Mies van Der Rohe's Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. Titled 'Geometry of Light,' the installation will cast red lasers onto the elements of the... View full entry
The BART Board of Directors approved a $50 million contract for up to 10 years to consultants HNTB Corporation, of Oakland, to advise and guide planning for the future Transbay Rail Crossing. — San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Bay Area is one tiny step closer to undertaking the construction of a new Transbay crossing between San Francisco and Oakland. The San Francisco Examiner reports that the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors recently approved a 10-year, $50 million contract with... View full entry
As part of a recently-opened exhibition envisioning the future of Paris's urban highway system, a team led by Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) has unveiled a dramatic, two-pronged vision for what the city's Boulevard Périphérique might look like in 2050. Ratti, working with research... View full entry
"It is difficult enough for Firefighters operating inside of high-rise buildings. Access to the fire area and to whatever is on fire is paramount to save lives and to protect Firefighters operating at these fires... While we acknowledge and accept the risks of our profession, we strongly oppose construction methods that are inherently dangerous that for no valid reason increase the threat to the lives of the public and our members." — Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York
The Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York has come out in strong support of state-level legislation aimed at limiting the ability of real estate developers to use "mechanical void spaces" to game zoning codes into allowing them to construct taller buildings. In a strongly-worded... View full entry
Materials scientists in China have developed an insulator that reproduces the structure of individual polar bear hairs, while scaling toward a material made up of many hairs for real-world applications in architecture and aerospace. Polar bear hairs are hollow, and the shapes and spacing of their hollow centers is responsible for their distinctive white coats, as well as being a source of incredible heat-holding capacity, water resistance, and stretchiness. — earth.com
Shu-Hong Yu, professor of chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of China and co-author of the paper titled Biomimetic Carbon Tube Aerogel Enables Super-Elasticity and Thermal Insulation published in the journal Chem, writes, “Polar bear hair has been evolutionarily optimized... View full entry
Architecture is often subject to photo manipulation, especially as it has been made easier through increasingly sophisticated imaging software. The most recent set of examples that we have come across are the creations of Russian production studio Lestnica. Headed by Artem Prudentov, the... View full entry
The “Renewable Rikers Act,” crafted by Queens Councilmember Costa Constantinides, aims to create a green vision for the 400-acre correctional facility that would keep the island out of the hands of luxury developers, while lessening the burden on communities loaded with city infrastructure. — Curbed NY
A trio of legislative efforts are underway in New York to transform the Rikers Island jail into a green energy powerhouse for the city. Queens Council member Costa Constantinides told Curbed, “Closing Rikers Island, if we do this right, can not only end overpolicing and the atrocities... View full entry
A proposed bridge over the 101 would allow mountain lions and other wildlife to cross safely over the freeway and improve their access to food and mates. — kcrw.com
Caltrans authorities working in Los Angeles County are pushing toward creating a $60 million wildlife crossing that will allow urban animals to roam throughout the region's mountainous geographies. The 165-foot by 200-foot crossing would span over US Highway-101 and Liberty Canyon in the city of... View full entry
Over the past several years, home automation and smart home technology have become exceedingly popular and are now more commonplace than ever before. In the not so distant past, these concepts were hard to grasp, and felt out of reach for the average homeowner.
The House of the Future in Ahwatukee, Arizona, designed by former Taliesin Associated Architect Charles Schiffner, embraced these innovative concepts as early as 1978.
— The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Frank Lloyd Wright was a visionary, but he likely couldn't have predicted the next big to have spun out of Taliesin West, the architect's winter home and school in the Arizona desert. When he passed in 1959, many of his apprentices formed an architecture firm named Taliesin Associated... View full entry
A new audit conducted by the city of Portland, Oregon presents an alarming view into the contentious renovations currently being undertaken for the Michael Graves-designed Portland Building. Among a flurry of critiques aimed at the project organizers, the report states that changes performed to... View full entry
