The practice of using corporate largess to finance restoration projects for public antiquities was once fairly rare here. But with the nation struggling with a stagnant economy and crushing public debt — Rome is flirting off and on with bankruptcy — politicians are now looking to private companies and international sources to help preserve Italy’s cultural heritage. — nytimes.com
As money has piled up in recent decades, Chinese are turning to culture and the country is in a museum-building boom. Last year one museum was built every day on average, though the rush has since “slowed” to about one every three days, says Cathy Giangrande, co-author with Miriam Clifford and Antony White of the “Chinese Museums Association Guide,” an updated version of their 2009 book “China: Museums.” — NY Times
Randall Stout, an environmentally sensitive architect who earned a national reputation for designing dynamically shaped regional museums, mostly in his native South, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 56.
His brother, Steven, said the cause was renal cell cancer.
— nytimes.com
It’s a simple yet elegant solution to the bane of concert, theater and sports event attendees everywhere. A light above each restroom stall glows green when the stall door is open and turns red when the door is locked, instantly showing which stalls are available. Allen Klevens, co-founder and CEO of Tooshlights, an L.A.-based startup, says that the technology could potentially cut wait times by up to 50 percent. — forbes.com
The trademark effort was reportedly spurred by copycat competitors seeking to emulate the Steve Jobs-inspired minimalism (and massive business success) of Apple’s retail store. Alleged store copycat Microsoft, by the way, has its own trademark on its not-at-all-inspired-by-Apple retail stores... — qz.com
Microsoft's trademark layoutOf course, it isn’t just dueling technology giants trademarking their retail layouts. The term of art for this kind of intellectual property protection is “trade dress,” and it has long been a staple of the retail world. View full entry
Not long enough to be comfortably horizontal, the building was also too tall for its shallow depth and too wide to be reasonably vertical. Both horizontal (modern) and vertical (historic) orientations were on display in the surrounding Seton Hill neighborhood. This bastard was of neither parent. — Baltimore Business Journal
Architect and critic Klaus Philipsen takes the incursion of a faux historicist 7-11 into the westside of Baltimore's downtown to task. View full entry
LEGO Architecture is making its European debut on August 1 in the "Villa Pennisi in Musica" event at the 19th-century Pennisi Villa in Italy. The event is part of a program that brings an Italian architecture summer school and a classical music masterclass under the same roof. — bustler.net
Architecture students will use LEGO Architecture to form their ideas as they explore ways to design and build a wooden acoustic shell for the event's outdoor chamber music performances — in less than 10 days.Read more about the event on Bustler.See previous coverage on LEGO Architecture here. View full entry
Obama has proposed a $302 billion, four-year transportation spending plan that is paid in part by closing corporate tax loopholes [...] The White House maintains that 65% of U.S. roads are rated in less than good condition, 25% of bridges require significant repair or can't handle today's traffic, and 45% of Americans lack access to transit. — Al Jazeera
Martino Stierli, a Swiss art history professor, has been appointed chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn D. Lowry, the museum’s director announced Tuesday.
Mr. Stierli, who will start next March, succeeds Barry Bergdoll, who stepped down last year to teach art history at Columbia University and remains a part-time curator at MoMA.
— artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com
Sixteen-year-old Mason Dimock can focus intently on one subject, thinks visually and spatially, and is interested in technology — skills that have helped him land a summer job designing for a construction company.
He and nine other Salt Lake City teens were selected for a pilot project by NeuroVersity, a company that aims to give students with autism or similar disorders the training they’ll need for careers. The students work with 3-D imaging software called SketchUp Make, developed by Google.
— sltrib.com
Israeli military lawyers argue that if residents are warned, and do not evacuate, then they can be considered legitimate collateral damage. Under this interpretation of the law, the civilian victims become human shields. This is a gross misuse of international law. — AlJazeera
Israeli architect Eyal Weizman who teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he runs the Forensic Architecture project pens an account of misinformation IDF uses on so called "warnings" and fabricating the "human shield" factor further criminalizing Hamas. The article illustrates how the... View full entry
Several thousand Palestinians, defying the urging of Hamas to remain in their homes, fled areas in northern Gaza early Sunday after Israel warned them through fliers and phone calls of major attacks to come. — New York Times
Thousands of Palestinians, heeding the warning pamphlets dropped by Israeli jets, are fleeing from Northern Gaza. Many are crowding inside United Nations-run schools. As the death toll rises – entirely on the Palestinian side – a potential cease-fire agreement developed by Egypt will be... View full entry
I’m a quiet fan of these urban explorers, people who devote time to poking around abandoned buildings or “haikyo”.... And because I’ve spent so much time inhabiting digital rooms myself, I often think about how time decays digital structures. I imagine all of the strings of text that have come before or after mine that similarly disappeared into the void. But what happens when those spaces stick around, as in a virtual world—when they can’t physically decay? — theatlantic.com
Artist Julien F. Thomas and architecture office Hughes Condon Marler have designed a coffee bar in Vancouver that disconnects you from all wireless networks once you’re inside.
The Faraday Café in Vancouver got its name from the Faraday Cage, a material shield around the bar’s interior that was built by the designers to block all electromagnetic signals. By creating a place without any digital connections the owners [...] hope to restore non-digital, social interaction between people.
— popupcity.net
Some have already joked about the city's future three million square foot "wellness district,” saying it is being designed for those who shop not only for new outfits, but also for new bodies.
According to the project's press release, the domed wellness area "will offer a holistic experience to medical tourists and their families, ensuring access to quality healthcare, specialized surgical procedures and cosmetic treatments."
— RT
And thus we have the blueprint of the 0.1%'s vision of the future. An 'ideal' world existing inside a bubble, safe from the starving, diseased masses. View full entry