Although Architecture for Humanity officially closed in 2015, a new international, volunteer organization that was affiliated with AFH called The Chapter Network is following in AFH's sustainable-development footsteps, and has chosen Garrett Jacobs as its executive director. Jacobs attended Tulane... View full entry
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, volunteers put the finishing touches on small houses with the kind of basic amenities you don't see in Seattle homeless camps.
"The difference is you have electricity and a lock on the door," said Steve Tucker, a member of the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, which is hosting what organizers are calling Seattle's first tiny house village.
— Kiro TV
Seattle joins several other pioneering cities and states across the U.S. that have chosen to provide housing for the chronically homeless. These programs have shown that the housing actually saves governments money and eventually reduces the overall rate of transient recidivism. Here's a sampling... View full entry
Iraq’s earliest Christian monastery has been destroyed by Isil extremists. [...] This seems to have occurred in September 2014, three months after the site on the southern outskirts of Mosul was seized by Isil forces. [...]
If the near-total destruction of Mar Elia is confirmed, 16 months after the event, it is worrying that it went unreported, since it suggests that other Christian sites may have also been destroyed without publicity.
— theartnewspaper.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Fear grows over ISIS threat against Unesco World Heritage site in LibyaISIS militants have reportedly blown up Palmyra's Arch of TriumphISIS blows up 2,000-year-old Baalshamin temple in PalmyraISIS beheads leading archaeologist in Palmyra View full entry
Give employees all the tools they need to innovate, make space for a little fun, then watch the sparks fly. The truth about creativity, however, is considerably less convenient. Discomfort, and even a degree of hardship, are what drive creativity, not bean bag chairs and ping pong tables. [...]
if companies want to nurture creative employees, not only content ones, they must include challenges and even a dash of hardship in their bag of perks.
— latimes.com
Related posts from the serendipity machine news desk:Archinect's Lexicon: "Serendipity Machine"Will Zappos turn downtown Las Vegas into the next Silicon Valley?Do contemporary office designs upend work/life balance? View full entry
The appetite of western consumers for home furnishings has reached its peak – according to Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer.
The Swedish company’s head of sustainability told a Guardian conference that consumption of many familiar goods was at its limit.
“If we look on a global basis, in the west we have probably hit peak stuff. We talk about peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff … peak home furnishings,” Steve Howard said [...]
— the Guardian
Related:Ikea and Airbnb: a match made in globalized heaven?Get a glimpse of these hacked IKEA kitchens by BIG, Henning Larsen, and NORM ArchitectsUN Refugee Agency Commissions 10k Ikea-designed Better SheltersWhy is Ikea a Non-profit? View full entry
Tiny homes aren’t a solution. Small living is another superficial fix, brandishing clever design and appeals to nostalgia while ignoring the underlying social relations which cause homelessness, housing insecurity, and environmental degradation. — JACOBIN
Arielle Milkman pens an article for JACOBIN. The article takes a historical account of tiny homes and gives a current critique to everyone's darling (everyone = young, white, nonprofit or government worker.) At the end, "Tiny Houses" are superficial housing solutions for the poor. "As spaces... View full entry
“In the design, I would like to say there are no similarities at all,” Kuma told reporters when asked about Hadid’s claims. [...]
“The conditions set for the competition mean that automatically some similarities emerge ... the concept is completely different, so it is absolutely a different building, despite the similarities”. [...]
Hadid’s office is reportedly consulting lawyers, and said it would “take legal action if our concerns are not promptly addressed to our satisfaction”.
— theguardian.com
For more on the contentious issue of architectural copyright and intellectual property, make sure to check out:"Never the Same River Twice" – Experimental preservation and architectural authorship with Jorge Otero-Pailos, on Archinect Sessions #47Should architecture strive for originality? Can... View full entry
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for the New York Times, joins me for our first One-to-One interview of 2016. I wanted to talk with Kimmelman specifically about a piece he had published just at the end of last year, called “Dear Architects: Sound Matters”. The piece considers how an... View full entry
Congratulations are due to Olafur Eliasson who's just been given a Crystal Award for his "exemplary commitment to improving the state of the world".
Ahead of the World Economic Forum, which takes place later this week in Davos, Eliasson was singled out for particular praise major works including The New York City Waterfalls, Ice Watch, The Weather Project, and Riverbed.
— phaidon.com
"Eliasson who joins fellow winners Leonardo DiCaprio (for his work publicising climate change) actress Yao Chen (for her work raising awareness of the refugee crisis) and will.i.am (for his leadership in creating educational opportunities for the underserved)."More of Eliasson in the Archinect... View full entry
Minneapolis, despite its frigid winters, has surged to the top of national rankings for urban biking and was the only U.S. city included last year on a global index of bike-friendly communities. Since 2000, the percentage of bike commuters here has jumped 170 percent [...]
Minneapolis' bike-friendly reputation advanced on the saddle of key elected officials, grassroots advocates and critical investments that over the past decade helped transform it into a mecca for biking.
— The Des Moines Register
Related news from the cycling beat:Germany opens first stretch of new cycling superhighwayPoor street design makes California city liable for damages in cyclist's deathCar-free events significantly improve air qualityJakarta's "car-free days" are only the start of the city's long journey to... View full entry
"Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties."
"The initiative is part of a broader federal effort to increase the focus on money laundering in real estate."
— The New York Times
The team advising the Barack Obama Foundation on the selection of an architect for the Obama Center includes the husbands of Caroline Kennedy and Meryl Streep – a designer and a sculptor — with Chicagoans Fred Eychaner and Bob Clark also centrally involved, the Sun-Times has learned.
Known as the Design Advisory Team, the group is helping evaluate proposals from architects for the sought-after commission, with seven firms selected as finalists last December.
— Chicago Sun Times
Related:David Adjaye is the best bet for the Obama Presidential Library – but not because of the color of his skinFirst big-name architects confirmed for Obama Presidential CenterBrad Pitt's "Make It Right" opens LEED-platinum housing complex in Kansas City View full entry
One of the country’s leading architectural historians, [Professor Stanford] Anderson joined the faculty in 1963 for an extraordinary career at MIT that spanned more than 50 years. But Anderson’s profound contributions as an author and intellectual, his colleagues say, are matched by his influence on MIT and how he formed the department’s shape and stature today. — MIT News
Related:• Revisiting CASE Conference Hosted by MIT HTC - 5/2/15• Zoom In, Zoom Out: Hashim Sarkis, Dean of MIT's School of Architecture + Planning, on Archinect Sessions One-to-One #5• MIT launches three-year collaboration with London’s Soane Museum View full entry
One can now find the place where many South Londoners took refuge during World War II. The tunnels at Clapham, now open to the public for the first time, once catered for over 8,000 people.
After lying dormant for 70 years, the tunnels and beds left untouched have been reopened.
— Architect's Newspaper
Related:• NBBJ proposes 3 moving walkways to replace London's Circle Line• Cut away confusion from your NYC commute with these beautiful subway maps• How Engineers Are Building a New Railroad Under New York City View full entry
After 21 years away, the NFL is coming back to Los Angeles. The winner after months of waiting and a busy day of voting and discussion among the NFL team owners in Houston was St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke [...]. The exciting twist is that the San Diego Chargers have the option to join the Rams in their huge, shiny stadium—which is poised to be the NFL's biggest and most expensive venue, with a price tag well over $2 billion. (It'd be the priciest sports venue in the nation's history, too.) — la.curbed.com
Previously in the Archinect news: Organic kale for posh LA football fans: Newly unveiled stadium design sports a farmers' market and VVIP parkingQuest for LA football stadium enters the next round: Carson City Council approves its NFL stadium proposalAEG scraps plans to bring an NFL football... View full entry