"The protests in Istanbul indicated one simple thing for architects. We need new definitions for architecture in situations when architecture is removed from architects." -Yelta Köm, the organization founder — #occupygeziarchitecture
Group of architects are documenting the temporary structures that were destroyed by the police in Gezi Park, Istanbul. Take it from the Turks, the original nomads from Central Asia. View full entry
Wright’s bijou, as he described it, was the architect’s first permanent work in the city, his first constructed automotive design, and one of his few interior-only projects. Realized during New York’s post-World War II commercial construction boom, it was the architect’s single gesture along the corporate corridor of International Style buildings designed by his rivals, the “glass box boys.” The showroom’s signature ramp was also one of Wright’s several design experiments with the spiral... — metropolismag.com
The vote came after Gehry presented the latest changes in the design, which included the restoration of bas-relief sculptures that had been eliminated in an earlier design and alterations in the statues of a young Dwight D. Eisenhower and of Eisenhower as president and World War II general. Excerpts from Eisenhower’s Guildhall Address, delivered after the allied victory in Europe and considered his most important speech, were also approved for the memorial. — articles.washingtonpost.com
At the latest American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Convention, held in Denver this year, the AIA Board of Directors voted to revise eligibility for the AIA Gold Medal to include two individuals working together. In its press release Thursday, the AIA revealed it could bestow the award... View full entry
Can we start by exploring your process of developing an initial idea for a project? You all have very different backgrounds, specialising in metalwork, industrial design and architecture. How do these backgrounds integrate? Can this culmination of different abilities become challenging?
It is extremely challenging integrating our different perspectives – based on our specialties, you can encounter all phases and scales of project development simultaneously
— Modern Matter
I should have know it was too good to be true. One of my first job applications and my first job interview with a firm not even hiring...landed me a job 3 weeks after graduating. This was my dream firm because of their world renown work, highly published design philosophies, in an awesome city in the Northeast without having to sweat too much competing with my peers who were graduating later at the end of the spring term. — archinect.com
Anonymously authored (obviously) by ohhh_architecture, Nightmare job is a new blog set up as a place to vent about a job opportunity turned bad. This should be good. View full entry
This was the first time where a musician, Eno -- who said I'm not a musician, by the way, I really construct ideas in a studio -- I felt connected to the idea of music, let's say, as sort of an intellectual project but at the same time it was still music that you wanted to dance to. So this is the architectural song and Eno as a kind of designer. Totally opened my eyes to new things. — kcrw.com
Track List: Theme From Shaft – Isaac Hayes Kurt’s Rejoinder – Brian Eno 2nd Movement, Symphony No. 5 – Glenn Branca The Bridge – Lee Ranaldo Keep Your Dreams – Suicide (from the First Album) View full entry
For the 145th consecutive year, the American Institute of Architects is holding its annual convention this week, June 20-23. It is the biggest gathering of Architects and designers each year, and it is always held different host cities. This year, Denver is the location. Traveling to the... View full entry
In this comic, Grant Snider of Incidental Comics illustrates a variety of architectural forms and their corresponding dances. Which one is more your style — Bauhaus Bounce or Cubist Shuffle? — mashable.com
Award-winning graphic and interior designer Eric Engstrom, retired founder of EDG Interior Architecture + Design in San Rafael, died Saturday at his home in Fairfax after a long battle with cancer. He was 70. — marinij.com
"Tip the world on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles," Frank Lloyd Wright reportedly said. That looseness -- a spirit of experimentation, a refusal to be bound by convention -- will be on display June 23 when the MAK Center for Art and Achitecture hosts a tour of groundbreaking modern homes by Frank Gehry, Neil M. Denari Architects, Eric Owen Moss and artist Peter Alexander. — latimes.com
Dubai ceremony marks inauguration of world's highest twisted tower.
Saudi developer Cayan inaugurated late Monday the opening of the 73-story, one-thousand-and-seventeen-foot (310-meter) tall Cayan Tower in Dubai's prestigious Marina district.
Inspired by the structure of human DNA, each floor of the 272-million-U.S.-dollar (1 billion-Dirham) tower is rotated by one-point-two degrees to achieve the full 90-degree spiral, creating the shape of a helix. Dignitaries from diplomatic corps and Corporate Dubai joined the celebrations which... View full entry
“Cities today have become far too large,” Wang said in an interview while visiting New York in April. “I’m really worried, because it’s happening too fast and we have already lost so much.”
Wang, a sturdy 49-year-old, has built his small architectural practice as a riposte to this heedless destruction. With his wife, architect Lu Wenyu, he runs a 10-person firm called Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou, a picturesque lakeside city southwest of Shanghai.
— bloomberg.com
I call these projects urbicide because of the social and ecological damages they cause, such as land speculation, expulsion of the lower-middle classes from the urban center, and the zoning of green areas for development. Among the projects is a third bridge over the Bosphorus, a canal bisecting Istanbul in the north-south axis near its western border, and the redevelopment of Taksim Square. — researchturkey.org
After 2,000 years, a long-lost secret behind the creation of one of the world’s most durable man-made creations ever—Roman concrete—has finally been discovered by an international team of scientists, and it may have a significant impact on how we build cities of the future. — businessweek.com