"Some of the most important architects of the 19th and 20th centuries were commissioned to construct fair pavilions, dazzling, unusual structures incorporating the most cutting-edge materials and engineering prowess possible at the time," Doskow writes in an artist statement. "Among them are McKim, Mead and White, Louis Sullivan, Gustave Eiffel, Le Corbusier, Ando, Mies van der Rohe and the landscaping of Frederick Law Olmsted." — wbaa.org
The Downtown Market, in effect, is the newest piece of civic equipment built here since the mid-1990s to leverage the same urban economic trends of the 21st century — higher education, hospitals and health care, housing, entertainment, transit, and cleaner air and water — that are reviving most large American cities. — New York Times
Remarkable projects come from remarkable people and Inhotim is the creation of Bernardo Paz, a mining magnate who has lavishly installed his contemporary art collection across several hillsides in Minas Gerais, an estate of some 5000 acres. Paz has commissioned many architects, to make pavilions specially designed for individual artists, and others that house several artists’ works, all cushioned within the lush vegetation of a botanic garden. — tate.org.uk
Zaha Hadid on growing up in Iraq, getting the architecture bug, and the legacy of her Olympics Aquatics Centre — guardian.co.uk
The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to pursue the project recording the accomplishments of 50 women architects practicing before 1980. — bwaf.org
The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) has selected a national advisory council of esteemed architectural scholars to oversee the selection of women architects for the foundation’s new special collection, “Making a Place for Women in 20th-Century American... View full entry
In the 1950s, Soviet engineers built a massive city in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Azerbaijan. It was a network of oil platforms linked by hundreds of kilometers of roads and housing 5,000 workers, with a cinema, a park and apartment blocks. Gradually disintegrating but still closely guarded, this astonishing place inspired a fiery scene in a James Bond movie. — Spiegel
It might be few weeks late but I thought this would make a great site for those who are still struggling to come up with a spiffy idea for a thesis project in architecture schools. For those who wanna, tell them Orhan sent you. View full entry
“While the prospective buyer strongly supports efforts to preserve the David and Gladys Wright house, he has concluded that for personal and business reasons, this is not an opportunity he will pursue at this time. He has every confidence that a preservation minded buyer will be found, and that the house will be preserved," representatives of the prospective buyer told Joffe. — bizjournals.com
what’s being called the world’s first 3D printing photo booth is set to open for a limited time at the exhibition space EYE OF GYRE in Harajuku. From November 24 to January 14, 2013, people with reservations can go and have their portraits taken. Except, instead of a photograph, you’ll receive miniature replicas of yourselves. — spoon-tamago.com
The reason for all this quarrying is not the discovery of a coal-rich seam beneath the Wrenaissance streets, but the local enthusiasm for subterranean development. Over the past four years, this local authority alone has granted planning applications for more than 800 basement extensions, refused 90, and has a further 20 outstanding. It is the most densely populated borough in the country, with no room to build outwards, and no permission to build upwards – so the only way is down. — guardian.co.uk
The Pop-up HAWSE (Homes through Apprenticeships With Skills for Employment) is a proposal to convert disused lock-up garages in London's Hackney into temporary accommodation for homeless people.
Conceived by Levitt Bernstein Architects for the Building Trust's Home competition, the scheme would allow an 11.5sq m bedsit to be created within a disused garage for around £13,000.
— guardian.co.uk
The argument for preserving old buildings is a very strong one that I wholeheartedly support myself. However. On the rare occasions that I get to visit a forgotten building as magnificent as this one, I can’t help day dreaming about some of the incredible monumental relics I know back home and quietly wishing that a few more of them had been left to grow old and perish naturally rather than being unceremoniously hooked up to the proverbial life support machine of modern tourism... — humanplanet.com
Photographer, Timothy Allen, explores the ruins at the Buzludzha monument in Bulgaria. View full entry
We live in a culture of not virtual reality, but real virtuality because our virtuality - meaning the internet networks - are a fundamental part of our reality.
All the studies on the internet show that people who are more social on the internet are also more social face-to-face.
— bbc.co.uk
Ruins don’t encourage you to dwell on what they were like in their heyday,before they were ruins. The Colosseum in Rome or the amphitheater at Leptis Magna have never been anything but ruins. They’re eternal ruins. It’s the same here. This building could never have looked more magnificent than it does now, surrounded by its own silence. Ruins don’t make you think of the past, they direct you toward the future. The effect is almost prophetic. This is what the future will end up like... — nytimes.com
On working in the field: "I find myself running in heels, and walking in the woods in heels. And when you're a landscape architect and you're investigating a site, you're having to look professional on the one hand often to meet with a client, and then you do a site walk. So I've found myself walking around landscape sites in heels more often than not." — blogs.wsj.com
Two weeks left until the David Chipperfield-curated 13th International Architecture Exhibition Common Ground closes its gates in Venice. On Saturday afternoon, November 24, visitors can participate in the "Great closing meeting" featuring panel discussions to review the goals of the exhibition and the reactions to Common Ground. The last day to visit the exhibition is Sunday, November 25. — bustler.net