The breakthrough not only allows an object made up of many different materials to be printed, but also lets the user change the look and feel of a single material used to print an object. It's possible to print an object with hard and compressible sections out of a single material, even if the raw material isn't flexible in itself. — Gizmag
Now you can 3D print a single object with multiple materials and varying densities, thanks to MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). Through an adapted software called Spec2Fab, the designer can specify precisely which materials are to be used in each part of the printed... View full entry
The exhibition re-envisions a series of urban environments that are typical for Chicago in order to examine alternatives to the way architecture engages the city. It is a collaborative effort by five teams – David Brown, Alexander Eisenschmidt, Studio Gang, Stanley Tigerman, and UrbanLab – determined to find potentials for spatial, material, programmatic, and organizational invention within the city. — City of Chicago
Same as it never was? What inspires a city to look back on abandoned plans? Along with the success of A+D Museum's "Never Built: Los Angeles", and anticipating the Bay Area's "Unbuilt San Francisco", The Atlantic Cities took a look at "City Works: Provocations for Chicago's Urban Future" at Expo... View full entry
Any definitive insight into the formative stages of Roman architectural hubris lies irretrievable beneath layers of the city’s repeated renovations through the time of caesars, popes and the Renaissance [...] Now, at excavations 11 miles east of Rome’s city center, archaeologists think they are catching a glimpse of Roman tastes in monumental architecture much earlier than previously thought, about 300 years before the Colosseum. — nytimes.com
The New York Times recently reported on the ongoing excavations of Roman monumental remnants from the city's pre-Colosseum era at the Gabii digging site not far from the capital. Since last summer, a team of archaeologists and University of Michigan students led by classical studies... View full entry
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg penned the review A Panel Discussion for A+D Museum's "Never Built: Los Angeles". Attempting to answer the question "What's Next?" for LA, she suggested "The immediate goal is then to push urban design and architecture into daily conversations -- through political... View full entry
School buses are so much fun. The springy seats, the awkward-to-open windows [..]—it all hearkens back to a time in your life when you were younger, happier and worry-free. But did you ever imagine living in one? Hank Butitta did.
By his last semester at architecture school, Butitta had grown weary of doing projects that only existed on paper, ones that were destined to be filed away and forgotten. He got sick of making things that nobody cared about. So what did he do? He bought a school bus.
— gizmodo.com
Anyone in the architecture world knows how a competition works like the back of their hand.
But Architectural Competitions – Histories and Practice looks at them in a different angle, and a scholarly one at that. In fact, architectural competitions have been a research topic since the 1990s in Europe [...]. The book is a compilation of various accounts that illustrates this interest and examines the role and value of the competition in the field of architecture throughout history.
— bustler.net
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding student projects on various Archinect People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
The second Genius Loci Weimar festival took place in Weimar, Germany last weekend from Aug. 9-11. The annual festival is a growing event that celebrates and gathers talent in the emerging art form of videomapping. After last year's success, Genius Loci Weimar has expanded to include in its program a competition, symposium, videomapping workshops, and an exhibition in cooperation with the Bauhaus University Weimar. — bustler.net
Randell Makinson, a forceful advocate for preservation of the rambling Greene & Greene bungalows that came to be seen as graceful emblems of early 20th century California, has died. He was 81. — LA times
Randell Makinson is an important force of the architectural preservation community not only for Los Angeles but for California in general before there was LA Conservancy and preservation boards. An authority of Greene & Greene Architecture who has written 5 books on their work and also... View full entry
On Aug. 11, the Illawarra Flame House of Team UOW Australia (University of Wollongong and TAFE Illawarra Institute) won the 2013 Solar Decathlon China. Co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Energy Administration China, the competition challenged university teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are affordable, energy-efficient, and stylish. Participants included 22 teams from 35 universities, with students of over 35 nationalities in 13 countries. — bustler.net
Young Frank sees creative possibilities everywhere, and likes to use anything he can get his hands on—macaroni, old boxes, spoons, and sometimes even his dog, Eddie—to create things like chairs out of toilet paper rolls and twisting skyscrapers made up of his grandfather’s books. But Old Frank is skeptical; he doesn’t think that’s how REAL architects make things. — Inside/Out
MoMA's new children's book, Young Frank, Architect tells the story of a budding architect living with his architect grandfather in modern-day New York City. Hoping to give a lesson in design professionalism, Old Frank takes Young Frank on a trip to MoMA, where they find inspiration in... View full entry
In the latest edition of the Working out of the Box series Archinect interviewed Brooklyn-based designer & artist Doug Johnston. His current profession is creating "objects by stitching rope together" and he explains "I guess sometime early on, I realized that my design work wouldn't be... View full entry
The Timber in the City competition organized by ACSA, the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, and Parsons The New School for Design, attracted over 1,000 architecture students and young professionals to create proposals for a mid-rise, mixed-use complex addressing NYC housing needs. The winners were chosen by a panel of leading architects and professors based on the use of wood as the primary structural material while meeting the needs of the Brooklyn waterfront community. — acsa-arch.org
See the winning projects: www.acsa-arch.org/timber The competition focused on a site in the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood of Red Hook, with a population of public housing residents and working artists and designers, and a number of new residential and commercial developments. With a focus on... View full entry
As a society slowly urbanizes over time, its psychology and culture change, too... If American culture and psychology grew more individualistic as the country urbanized, wouldn't that transformation be clear in the words from American books (and the concepts that lie behind them)? — The Atlantic Cities
Urban and rural environments impact personal psychology differently, according to research published by UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield in Psychological Science. While observational evidence may draw a clear line between current city- and country-mindsets, Greenfield's source material... View full entry
The School of Architecture seeks for the position of Dean an individual who can provide the leadership necessary to carry forward its distinguished standard of excellence. It is the Dean's role to affirm the mission of the School of Architecture, while overseeing the continued development of its programs and the evolution of its curriculum. The Cooper Union currently faces significant challenges, which provide exceptional opportunities to reaffirm and advance the School's strengths and values. — cooper.edu