China has detailed its urban planning vision, which has been designed to make its sprawling cities more inclusive, safer and better places to live.
[...] policymakers pledged to transform urban development patterns and improve city management.
The last time China held such a high-level meeting was in 1978, when only 18 percent of the population lived in cities. By the end of 2011, in excess of 50 percent of the population called the city their home.
— chinadaily.com.cn
Related news on Archinect:China considering drastic ban on coalDisastrous landslide burying dozens in Shenzhen likely caused by piled up soil from construction workBeijing's latest "airpocalypse" is bad enough for city to issue first ever red alertChina’s "most influential architect" is not... View full entry
The freeway system, which Southern Californians once saw as a ticket to freedom, an emblem of L.A.'s love of individuality and movement, increasingly serves as a landscape of hard luck and a desperate sort of community — a place to hunker down. [...]
As the homeless population grows in a city whose public realm is the haggard product of several decades of neglect, the freeway has taken on a crucial, if often dispiriting, neighborhood role despite itself.
— latimes.com
"The ranks of the chronically homeless in Los Angeles County have grown by more than 50% in the last two years, to more than 12,000 people, according to one study. If you count all the people who are homeless at least part of the time, the figure rises to an estimated 44,000."Related news on... View full entry
"'Are you going to do beautiful architecture or do-gooder architecture?' I want to do neither and both." [...]
"It's not like you're going to design some single product that revolutionizes the way people shape the world around them," Surface said. "You have to change fundamentally how your organization is structured, how your resources are allocated, stop thinking of yourself as a gatekeeper. It's about redistributing how power and decision making and resources are divided between people."
— thestranger.com
Prompted by her work with Design in Public in Seattle, this profile of Susan Surface dips into her professional and personal background to designing like she gives a damn, covering the diversity of ways she seeks to question the power structures that perpetuate socially irresponsible or... View full entry
July 2015↑ New satellite images show progress in China's island-building projectNew satellite images were revealed in July that showed the extensive project China is making with its island-building project in the “South China Sea.” An important shipping route, the disputed waterway has... View full entry
May 2015↑ The new $2.5 billion plan to rebuild the historic Penn StationA proposal by Richard W. Cameron – principle designer at Atelier & Co. – to rebuild the historic Penn Station spurred a lively conversation on Archinect. The famed-Beaux Arts building was demolished over 50 years... View full entry
There is no way back, we are all Postmodern now. Can you stay behind? Do you really care that Postmodernism destroyed the ideals of Modernism? Come on, — Failed Architecture
"If you are reading this, you probably already have a certain interest in architecture, but chances are that you never warmed up to those kinds of buildings from the late 70s, 80s and early 90s, generally classified as ‘Postmodern’. The architecture of these buildings is often based on a loose... View full entry
March 2015↑ Vienna plans world's tallest wooden skyscraperA 76% wood skyscraper, the world’s largest in that material, was designed for Vienna by Rüdiger Lainer and Partner. With a net environmental impact far lower than concrete construction and advanced fire-prevention technologies, the... View full entry
Starting on Monday, individuals who own recreational drones will have to register their devices with the Federal Aviation Administration. The mandatory registration program applies to drones that weigh between 0.55 and 55 pounds. — CNBC
According to the report, drones that were purchased before yesterday have to be registered by February 19th, 2016. If you buy a drone in the future, then you'll have to register it before flying it for the first time.If you don't, prepare to pay a steep fine: up to $27,500. That being said... View full entry
Imagine visiting a museum while playing a video game. DiMoDA is essentially that: the museum in the machine, the shell in the ghost. Whoever has played Super Mario 64 will be right at home. With “wings” that you visit through portals housed within the museum’s “walls,” DiMoDA is a gateway station to art. With that in mind, Salazar-Caro took an iconic approach to the design of DiMoDA, making it recognizable and striking amid what will be a mutable, shifting cosmos of wings... — Hyperallergic.com
"You can visit DiMoDA on your Mac or PC, or with the superior Oculus Rift experience that is available to visitors at TRANSFER. The gallery also has a 3D printed model of DiMoDA by Salazar-Caro on display, along with a non–Oculus Rift DiMoDA station. Somewhat ironically, it turns out that the... View full entry
No two people, let alone architects, perceive even the most frequented cities in the same way. How do designers experience their cities as locals?Head westbound on the traffic-laden streets of Los Angeles and chances are that you'll find yourself in the aptly named Westside. This loosely... View full entry
They decided that pink and blue were calming and cause for calmness. Then they decided that to convince you that you needed calm, they montaged a butt-load of anxiety ridden images with scratchy graphics and capitalized words that evoke social pressure and inadequacy. [...]
Don’t encourage everyone to chill, when you really want them to be docile. Don’t urge everyone to slow down when you really want them to buy.
— Pete Brook via medium.com
This delicious rant against Pantone's "Color of the Year" awards, which this year went to "Rose Quartz" (pink) and "Serenity" (blue), brought to you by "writer and curator focused on photo, prisons and power," Pete Brook. His critique of the competition, and the presentation of its winners... View full entry
In addition to the dense mixed-use development above the rail yards, the new draft calls for doubling the size of Drexel Park, a river overlook, a series of boardwalks and green spaces along the west bank trail of the Schuylkill, and a transit terminal for buses. — Philly.curbed.com
The last deep-pit coal mine in the U.K. plans to shut its doors here next week, heralding the end of a centuries-old industry that helped fuel the industrial revolution and build the British Empire.
The shutdown [...] represents a victory for advocates of reducing carbon emissions after world leaders gathered in Paris to discuss how to combat global warming, with coal in the cross hairs. It also reflects a glut of energy on world markets, from crude oil to natural gas and coal itself.
— wsj.com
I hate this historical turn, which for me is contained most neatly in the High Line...The trend I mean is this: toward ersatz, privatized public spaces built by developers; sterile, user-friendly, cleansed adult playgrounds with generic environments that produce the innocuous stupor of elevator music; inane urban utopias with promenades, perches, pleasant embellishments, rest stops, refreshments, and compliance codes. — New York Magazine
Jerry Saltz analyzes how the rise of bad, privatized public spaces has actually been great for public art. However, these "nightmares of synthetic space" bring with them significant downsides such as a loss of "quietness, slowness, whimsy, stillness, different rhythms, anything uneasy... View full entry
Six months after the AIA voted in favor of the Equity in Architecture resolution, it looks like the organization is turning their words into actions. Most recently, they announced the establishment of the Equity in Architecture Commission, a 20-member panel of leading architects, educators, and... View full entry