Few cities evoke ideas of the future like Tokyo. When the Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in 1972, it was supposed to mark the Dawn of the Capsule Age. At the time, Japan was preparing for explosive growth fueled by a new economy built on technology and manufacturing. A group of architects from the so-called Metabolism school of architecture, championed by the tower’s architect Kisho Kurokawa, believed new structures should be made to grow and adapt organically with the society they served. — wired.com
Related: I ♥ METABOLISM View full entry
While tiny housing of this kind has existed in Hong Kong for many years, it has expanded as soaring property prices have pushed more and more low-income earners out of the market for regular housing in recent years. Rent on these spaces has risen nearly 20 percent in the last four years, and now gobbles up about a third of the residents’ incomes. — New York Times
A yellow-roofed warehouse that featured in a James Bond film has been given listed status.
The Spectrum building, formally the Renault Distribution Centre, in Swindon, was designed by Sir Norman Foster and features yellow steel 'umbrella masts' and a yellow roof around the single-storey glass-walled warehouse.
Built in 1980, the building featured as the backdrop to scenes in the 1984 James Bond film, A View to a Kill. It has been given Grade II* listing.
— dailymail.co.uk
Archtober–New York City's Architecture and Design Month–is starting next week! The anticipated festival from Oct. 1-31, 2013 continues to grow with an amazing variety of exhibitions, conferences, films, tours, and other activities to celebrate the importance of architecture and design... View full entry
A five-storey apartment block collapsed on Friday in the Indian financial centre of Mumbai, killing at least four people and trapping scores in the latest accident to underscore shoddy building standards in Asia's third-largest economy. — reuters.com
"Industry and the Sleepwatchers" by artist Jay Senetchko from Vancouver, BC is a three-part art installation based on a poignant narrative of paintings that re-imagines the everyday lives of the artist's paternal grandmother Ann Senetchko and her husband Pete Senetchko, who was involved in the... View full entry
"We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us," — theguardian.com
"We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us," said one Nepalese migrant employed at Lusail City development, a $45bn (£28bn) city being built from scratch which will include the 90,000-seater stadium that will host the World Cup final. "I'm angry about how this company is treating us... View full entry
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. — U.S. Department of Energy
Students from around the world will bring their designs for solar-powered houses to Irvine, California this October, as part of the 2013 Solar Decathlon. First held in 2002, the Solar Decathlon is a biannual student competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Decathlon will take... View full entry
A giant purple structure believed to be the world's first inflatable concert hall is to open on Japan's disaster-hit north eastern coast.
British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki created the unusual Ark Nova, a balloon made of a coated polyester material that has been erected at a park in the town of Matsushima.
The structure, which organisers say is a world's first, measures about 18m and 35m wide when fully inflated with room for about 500 guests.
— dailymail.co.uk
The houses in Ben Marcin’s project ‘Last House Standing’ seem oddly misplaced, lost and forgotten. The series reads like a homage to the forgotten solo row house. The Baltimore based self-taught photographers interest ‘in these solitary buildings is not only in their ghostly beauty but in their odd placement in the urban landscape. Often three stories high, they were clearly not designed to stand alone like this’. — ignant.de
The short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera. Bot & Dolly produced this work to serve as both an artistic statement and technical demonstration. It is the culmination of multiple technologies, including large scale robotics, projection mapping, and software engineering. We believe this methodology has tremendous potential to radically transform theatrical presentations, and define new genres of expression. — botndolly.com
When aircraft Shelter 610 opens its ruthless doors, a monstrous black behemoth slowly comes driving out. The object revives the mysterious atmosphere of the Cold War and its accompanying terrifying weaponry. At an almost excruciatingly slow pace, the artwork uses its caterpillar tracks to cross the seemingly infinite runway. — Rietveld Landscape
Lending a new meaning to "think tank", the formidable Secret Operation 610 is now slinking its way across Airbase Soesterberg in the Netherlands. Both art piece and educational practice, the structure is designed by Studio Frank Havermans and Reitveld Landscape for SKOR |... View full entry
It is with great sadness that we report that Australian/British architect and public interest designer Ross Langdon, 32, was among those killed in the terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in recent days. He was killed alongside his partner, Elif Yavuz, who worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Kenya, and was just two weeks from her due date to give birth to their first child. — publicinterestdesign.org
In creating associated descriptive metadata, in tagging building entries to describe their materials, types, and, perhaps most especially, their styles, the author of metadata is practicing the historian’s craft and engaging in the historian’s stock in trade. "Name it, then we’ll know what it is," Reyner Banham suggested at the end of “The Great Gizmo.” We can name it metadata creation, but we already know what it is: architectural history. — Places Journal
For several years Gabrielle Esperdy has been part of a team working on the development of SAH Archipedia — an online encyclopedia of American architecture sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians. Here she explores the critical challenge of creating structural and descriptive... View full entry
For the sake of argument, let's say that Bashar al-Assad is on the phone. He wants her to build him a prison in Damascus. "Well, I wouldn't mind building in Syria," she shrugs. "I'm an Arab and if it helps people, if it's an opera house or a parliament building, something for the masses, I would do it. But if someone asks me to build a prison, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't build a prison, irrespective of where it is, even if it was very luxurious." — the guardian
She won't build a prison? How many buildings have been designed, and constructed where the intent is one thing, and the ultimate use has been for something quite nefarious? I don't care who she builds for, ultimately she has to live with those decisions, but she can't be this naive, and expect... View full entry