Facebook could be your next landlord. In an effort to drum up support for the controversial expansion of its headquarters, the social media giant is trying to give back to the community by building at least 1,500 housing units that can be rented by the general public—not just Facebook employees [...]
Facebook has pledged that 15 percent of the new units it creates will go to low- or middle-income families.
— Gizmodo
...Which is great until you realize that 85 percent of the building will probably be ridiculously expensive and probably populated by local tech bros.For more on Silicon Valley urbanism, check out these links:Silicon Valley campuses at risk as sea levels riseMark Zuckerberg's resolution for... View full entry
Moscow City Hall has announced the launch of its own version of online game “Pokemon Go.” Russians will be asked to find and "catch" historical figures in the streets of the capital via an app called “Know Moscow.Photo.”
[...] people will be able to catch and take a selfie with [...] Yury Gagarin, Alexander Pushkin, Pyotr Chaikovsky, [founder of the first Russian university] Mikhail Lomonosov, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and the tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich,” [...]
— The Moscow Times
Related stories in the Archinect news:No, Pokémon Go is not an urban fantasy for the new flaneurMoscow's metro expansion moves ahead of scheduleMoscow's iconic Shukhov Tower added to World Monuments Fund Watch List View full entry
Howe Dell Primary in Hatfield could well be the UK’s most eco-friendly school. It has toilets that flush using rainwater, sedum roofs made of plants and vegetation, and classroom sink-tops made from recycled yoghurt pots. But the school’s design doesn’t just help protect the environment, it also uses nature to improve children’s academic performance and behaviour. — The Guardian
Howe Dell Primary’s £10 million, eco-friendly design is used by teachers to promote sustainability to a new generation of pupils. Capita Architects were given free reign to push the limits of sustainable design in the project, which was funded by the council, and that was exactly what they did... View full entry
If you're a designer who works with clients, here's something you're probably familiar with: the project that never ends. The actual designing may take a matter of hours, but presenting the idea to a client, making little tweaks and edits, finding a middle ground between your vision and theirs? That process can take months [...]
For his graduate project, Ingemann Breitenstein spent time in product design studios across London researching the inefficiencies in that designer-client process.
— Fast Co.Design
"The result is an algorithm that takes a basic idea for a product and generates countless variations on its design—as directed by a physical controller. Ingemann Breitenstein calls the machine the Unpaid Intern—a tongue-and-cheek nod to the mindless photoshopping and last... View full entry
**I'm truly impressed that Mr Open Source Ecology & Ms Open Building Institute got married and built a house...Of course it's an open-source house that's all makered-up from straw, wood and brick from their neighborhood - Bruce Sterling — Shareable
Kelly McCartney highlights the work of Marcin Jakubowski and Catarina Mota, who decided to reinvent the home-building wheel a few years back.For more check out the Open Building Institute and/or contribute to their Kickstarterh/t @Bruce Sterling View full entry
Heathrow Airport has chosen Grimshaw to draw up concepts for a ’hub airport of the future’ as part of its ambitious £16 billion growth plans
The practice, which saw off Zaha Hadid Architects, Benoy and HOK, was praised for ’pushing the boundary of what an airport could and should be’ and for showing ’how Heathrow could be expanded in a sustainable but affordable way’.
— Architect's Journal
Grimshaw has been chosen to design a new terminal for London's Heathrow Airport. However, it remains up in the air wether the plans for a third runway will be given permission by the UK government. Many critics of Heathrow's expansion have been given top posts in Teresa May's new Cabinet... View full entry
Researchers from the University of British Columbia have suggested that modular construction techniques are key to assuaging cities' housing shortages.Associate engineering professor Kasun Hewage at UBC, along with PhD candidate Mohammad Kamali, conducted "the first comprehensive review of... View full entry
Have you heard? There’s this game called Pokémon Go, and it’s responsible for a radical new relationship to the city!Think pieces are clogging Twitter and Facebook expounding the virtues of the augmented reality game that has lead distracted pedestrians off cliffs, into muggings, and... View full entry
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D), the senior Senator from Massachusetts, has co-signed a letter requesting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigate the degree to which short-term lodging services are composed of "persons or firms acting in a commercial manner by renting out entire... View full entry
Taking and recording measurements on the fly can be tricky—getting all the right tools to measure different surfaces and distances, and having a place to scribble them down for later, can easily lead to imprecise or inefficient measurements. The mouthwateringly-named Bagel digital tape measure... View full entry
Congratulations to triumphant Tigh na Croit by HLM Architects & Lansdowne Drive by Tectonics Architects who were crowned the 2016 UK Passivhaus Awards winners. The Winners were announced at a ceremony held in London on the 7th July, attended by approximately 80 delegates.The winners were decided by PHT members and Award Ceremony delegates. — Passivhaus Trust
HLM have won the Rural category of this year's UK Passivhaus Awards. The house, which aimed to create a low-energy, modern solution for the 'outdoorsy' clients, has been designed to reflect its Scottish Highland context.Tectonics Architects gained the award for the Urban category, with their... View full entry
Marks Barfield Architects have, quite literally, reinvented the wheel and have created the i360, a vertical cable car with a sculpted viewing pod, perching lightly upon Brighton’s seafront... It takes the form of a slender mast that will be 568ft high (when the spire is added), which supports a sculpted, doughnut-shaped pod, with glass windows and a reflective mirrored underside.
The pod takes up to 200 people at a time skyward over a flight time of 20 (daytime) or 30 minutes (evening).
— Dominic Bradbury - The Telegraph
Due to open this summer, the British Airways i360 is a new futuristic landmark for Brighton’s seafront designed by architects David Marks and Julia Barfield. It is hoped that the BA i360 will herald a new touristic golden age for Brighton, replicating the success of the London eye... View full entry
The future of London’s proposed garden bridge has been called into further question after the city’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, halted preparatory work on the structure over fears this could involve more public money being spent.
The Garden Bridge Trust says the bridge from South Bank to Temple, featuring 270 trees and thousands of plants, will be a “tiara” for London, being both an iconic landmark and a vital pedestrian bridge.
— The Guardian
Read more about London's Garden Bridge on architnect: London's garden bridge, the saga continues Why are Heatherwick's proposals succeeding in New York but tanking in London? Sadiq Khan investigates troublesome details in Thames garden bridge project Infrastructure or advertisement? Sky to sponsor... View full entry
Unwilling to accept a life utterly dependent on caretakers, [Steve] Saling designed a series of systems that let patients with ALS control their environment in the assisted living center with ...blinks and facial twitches.
“The notable impact that ALS had on my ability to design is speed,” he said. “I am a lot slower. [But] Because much of my profession had been computerized and I excelled in computer-assisted drafting, I was still able to convey my ideas with a lot of precision.”
— STAT
Read more about amazing architects who never let their disabilities get in their way:Working out of the Box: Francis TsaiFrancis Tsai, previously featured on Archinect's Working Out of the Box, passes awayBuilding Voice: Visually impaired architect, Christopher Downey, lectures in Downtown... View full entry
The duo asked themselves the question if London will still be the capital of creativity, arts and crafts in 10 years time. Rising rents for residential and work spaces, combined with an increasingly unaffordable education system, are making the city less and less accessible. According to Boano and Prišmontas, London has always been a center for creativity, but the recent financial pressures have turned ‘creativity’ into an industry that can only be joined by people who are able to afford it. — popupcity.net
At this unstable time, the capital's creative industry must be entrepreneurial and work together to remain the best, are we up to the challenge? Read more stories of ingenuity in the UK here:The Hive pavilion moves to Kew GardensDigital Elytrons. Latest Architecture Technology at the V & A... View full entry
