How did we come to live in an insular tribal sphere where unwritten rules and rigid moralities — about whom to like and dislike, what is permissible to say and what must remain unsaid — are strictly enforced via social media and online disapproval, much of it anonymous? When did this band of gypsies and relentless radicals get so conservative? — vulture
Could this be translated to architecture? Sure thing... I think architecture has a built in conservatism to begin with. Just look what the architects are pooling for.., fighting territories for things those really don't matter, blaming each other for handrail details and teaching values of the... View full entry
Monica Ponce de Leon, a leading American architect proud of being a Hispanic woman in a field long dominated by white men, wants to change the face of her profession.
[...] agreed to conduct a class earlier that day for juniors from John Hay High School - the vast majority of whom were black.
Ponce de Leon, dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Planning [...], wanted to inspire the students to enter a field in which the vast majority of practitioners don't look like them.
— cleveland.com
The McMillan Sand Filtration Site is one of Washington, DC's most conspicuous mysteries. Unbeknownst to the thousands of commuters and residents that pass by its rusted gates daily, below this sprawling parcel of land lies a series of vast underground caverns built in the early 20th century by the Army Corps of Engineers as a natural purification facility for DC's turbid water supply. — Vimeo
The latest episode of PBS Digital Studios’ Unusual Spaces series visits mysterious abandoned silos and underground reservoirs at the McMillan Sand Filtration Site, just 2 miles north of Capitol Hill in DC. View full entry
Rotterdam has been crowned as the best city in Europe at today’s Urbanism Awards. The post-industrial city in the Netherlands beat off strong competition from Aarhus in Denmark and Turin in Italy.
The award is one of five given out annually by the Academy to recognise the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments. Voted on by Academicians, each award covers a number of social, economic and environmental factors, including good governance and commercial success.
— Academy of Urbanism
Additionally, Aberystwyth in Wales won the "Great Town" award. The lead assessor for the award, Tim Challans, stated, "The town’s resilience in recovering from the winter storms demonstrates how its people are passionate about their home.”Holbeck Urban Village in the UK won the "Great... View full entry
Hacker Urbanism! Friday night in front of the Glendale City Hall, Courthouse and the Police Department, GPD. View full entry
Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura collaborated with Onionlab from Barcelona to create a video-audio installation titled "Towards Biology" as part of the "Time Space Existence" exhibition at the soon-to-conclude Venice Biennale 2014 in Italy.The exhibition explores going beyond the physical... View full entry
Erecting such a building “without authority of the General Assembly will diminish or impair the beneficial interest of plaintiffs and other Illinois citizens” [...]
such a designation conflicts with the trust, which calls for preserving property as “a natural resource and as a free and open space not occupied by a giant building.” [...]
by acting without the approval of state lawmakers, the city and park district would have excessive power over the property “for which they have no authority.”
— chicagobusiness.com
The region of Ordos made headlines in 2010 for the pre-built metropolis that had everything but people. Now, however, Kangbashi city is rapidly filling up with country people who are being encouraged to live in cities and diversify China’s economy. For ageing farmers who’ve spent their whole life on the land, however, becoming “urbanites” is a tall order. — theguardian.com
Related:Ordos: The biggest ghost town in ChinaOrdos in 2014 - "Brave City of The Future" View full entry
In 2010, the Fondazione di Venezia—a well-endowed and entrepreneurial foundation with its historic roots in Italy’s regional banking system—launched an architectural competition for a cluster of buildings in the centre of Mestre, one of the mainland urban areas of Venice. [...]
The three accompanying essays, by Marco De Michelis, Aaron Betsky and M9 architect Matthias Sauerbruch, are less granular. They provide an overview of and perspectives on the museum-building boom [...].
— theartnewspaper.com
Two window washers' lives are literally hanging in the balance - they're stuck on scaffolding at 1 World Trade Center, officials said Wednesday afternoon.
The shaky scaffolding, which is suspended around the 69th floor, was seen dangling at an unstable angle, according to images that surfaced of the scene.
The workers are dangling at a 65-degree angle, according to NYPD counterterrorism czar John Miller.
— nydailynews.com
Q. You’re an established industrial designer. Why the focus now on building design?
A. I’ve always taken a great interest in real estate; in fact, if I had more capital, I’d probably be developing a lot more projects myself. There’s also money to be made in real estate — much more than one can as a designer. [...]
Q. But you’re not a licensed architect.
A. I am doing 11 buildings in the world, but I don’t have a stamp as an architect and I wasn’t educated as an architect.
— nytimes.com
Through six decades of assault [...] the apartment building on Upper Pansodan endured, its graceful arches and colorful patios sacrificing little of their elegance and charm to the torments of time, nature, and repression.
Then in 2013, three years into Myanmar's unprecedented political and economic opening up, the building succumbed to a force that proved too great to resist: development.
— news.nationalgeographic.com
Controversial room-sharing startup Airbnb, one of the most visible players in what is being called the “sharing economy,” has recently awakened the innovation vs. regulation argument in all the usual ways–and a few new ones, including the accusation that these short-term rentals are depleting the already-scarce affordable housing stock in pricey metro areas like San Francisco and New York City. — 6sqft
Is airbnb a threat to the affordable housing market? The hotel industry collects and pays a city a transient occupancy tax for the service they provide, while airbnb historically has not. Housing advocates note that in cities like NYC and San Francisco properties are being leased by single owners... View full entry
I strongly disagree with the title. There is no such thing as Islamic Architecture or Islamic Culture. Islam is a multicultural faith with strong presence in Arab world, the Persian world, the Indian Subcontinent, in Eurasia and even in Europe. You cannot label an architectural style as Islamic just because it is used in a mosque. There are elements of the host culture present in this buildings. Mosques in Egypt or Turkey are significantly different from Mosques in Europe or India. - — boredpanda
At first glimpse, the House of Mirrors looks like a misplaced stack of wiry boxes randomly cast away along the Australian coast. Up close, the cubical structure further engages passersby as its steel frame draws them right to its mirrory middle, which appears to float inside as it reflects its coastal surroundings. — bustler.net
The House of Mirrors by London and Melbourne-based design studio NEON was recently displayed at the Sculpture by the Sea Bondi 2014, a large public outdoor exhibition that takes place along the Bondi to Tamarama shoreline in Australia.For more details, head over to Bustler. View full entry