The particular danger of TEDification to the design disciplines, I think, is its core message that the chief obstacle to our discovering grand solutions to global problems — to achieving the grand design, to "making a comprehensive entity," as that reviewer of Big History applauded — is our lack of sufficient connection. What we need, we're told, is a seamless web of ideas, capital, products and data. — Places Journal
"We are living through the era of the TED Talk, much like an earlier generation lived through the era of the World's Fair, wondrous about our new world in the making," writes Simon Sadler on Places. "TEDification endows capitalism and globalization with a credible spiritual and ethical mission... View full entry
Late in 2011, [Zappos CEO] Hsieh became even more legendary by announcing almost larkishly that he’d be leading a $350 million effort to rejuvenate a blighted stretch of Las Vegas’ downtown […]
His plan was to spend much of his own personal fortune to transform this lifeless area about a mile north of the neon blitz of the Strip into an entrepreneurial tech nirvana. [...]
Doubters have no place in the ecosystem. Pragmatists stand little chance. A love of hyperbole prevails.
— Wired
[...] developer Ben Miller says, until now, it’s been impossible for local people to invest in development right across the street.
“Who owns your environment? You don’t know,” he says. “Who’s building your environment, who’s building your city? Not you.”
Miller is co-founder of the group Fundrise, which has started selling shares of private real estate projects to the public online. [...]
First they bought 1351 H Street with private capital, then crowdfunded about a third of it.
— marketplace.org
Related: Crowdfunding Startups Let You Be Your City's Urban Planner View full entry
What we do know: the Hyperloop is a fantastic, gee-whiz! prospect that, in an idealized and seamless application, would get between A and B faster than we ever imagined. But whether the Hyperloop actually can (or should) be built is still very much unclear. Ever since Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla... View full entry
London-designer Asif Khan's pavilion for the Sochi 2014 Olympics is essentially a building-sized pin screen, capable of transforming its facade into 3D projections of visitors' faces. Khan designed the pavilion for MegaFon, the general partner of the Sochi Winter Olympics and one of Russia's... View full entry
Yesterday, DS+R announced in their proposal for MoMA's redesign that the American Folk Art Museum would have to be demolished. Backlash from the #folkMoMA community quickly arose: architects and critics called the choice callous and unsustainable, outraged not only by the Folk Art Museum's... View full entry
NCARB continues its ongoing streak of system advances with their new MyIDP mobile app. The app can perhaps be handy for any of you iPhone-using interns working through your experience hours for the Intern Development Program. MyIDP was designed for interns who have already established an NCARB... View full entry
Stand your ground, the U.S. debut of the "Considering the Quake: Seismic Design on the Edge" exhibition will be on Feb. 13, 2014 at the AIA's Center for Architecture in New York.
Based on resilient-design research gathered by the exhibition's curators Professor Ghyslaine McClure and Dr. Effie Bouras, it highlights not only the artistic aspect of seismic design, but also its more hidden — and crucial — scientific side.
— bustler.net
Here are some notable works that will be included in the upcoming exhibition: Find out more on Bustler. View full entry
In doing press for the film, Jonze has repeatedly credited New York architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, AIA, founding principals of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with helping him devise the feel of his settings. Diller took time to chat with ARCHITECT about the film, as well as the uncanny qualities of the near-future and why she generally prefers murder stories to sci-fi. — architectmagazine.com
Texas has seen the future of the public library, and it looks a lot like an Apple Store [...].
Even the librarians imitate Apple’s dress code, wearing matching shirts and that standard-bearer of geek-chic, the hoodie. But this $2.3 million library might be most notable for what it does not have — any actual books.
That makes Bexar County’s BiblioTech the nation’s only bookless public library.
— washingtonpost.com
For a few years I’ve thought about how one might design a game where the architecture was the central character. I’m particularly fond of temples, palaces, mosques, monasteries and other buildings which combine exquisite artistry with a potential for exploration and mystery. The main problem was how to make an interactive experience out of this. — thefoxisblack.com
For the latest edition in The Deans List interview series, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg spoke with Sarah Whiting, Dean of the Rice School of Architecture in Houston, Texas. Therein, Dean Whiting discussed her belief that one of "the biggest challenge faced by any architect today is how not to... View full entry
For the next year, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design professor Craig Hodgetts and his graduate students will join forces with private and university physicists and engineers at UCLA's cross-disciplinary IDEAS facility in Playa Vista...
Hodgetts, who oversaw the acoustical redesign of the Hollywood Bowl, insists Musk's plan is doable.
— laweekly.com
Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright produced an Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States in 1932 that remains, 80 years later, one of the most definitive collections of maps (many of them innovative in their time) from early U.S. history. [...]
Just before the holidays, the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab unveiled an ambitious project bringing the entire collection online [...].
— theatlanticcities.com
Three expert candidates who hope to participate in the Audi Urban Future Award 2014 have presented three different ideas that explore this year's theme: how far data can be used as a planning tool for urban mobility in the future. As part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative, the biennial award searches for visionary ideas in urban mobility. — bustler.net
The public will pick their favorite idea by Speed Pitch Voting online before the winner is announced on Jan. 6 by Audi CEO Professor Rupert Stadler -- right before the opening of the International CES in Las Vegas from Jan. 7-10. You can check out this year's Award trailer and each candidate's... View full entry