IT has become fashionable in many architectural circles to declare the death of drawing. What has happened to our profession, and our art, to cause the supposed end of our most powerful means of conceptualizing and representing architecture?
The computer, of course.
— nytimes.com
Michael Graves pens an opinion piece for the Times. View full entry
[FLW's] entire archive is moving permanently to New York in an unusual joint partnership between the Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, where it will become more accessible to the public for viewing and scholarship.
The collection includes more than 23,000 architectural drawings, about 40 large-scale, architectural models, some 44,000 photographs, 600 manuscripts and more than 300,000 pieces of office and personal correspondence.
— nytimes.com
Those residents, unable to move back into houses they still have to pay for, have spent nearly a year in legal limbo...
More than 2,000 developments begun during that period have turned into “ghost estates,” ...Others, built under a system that allowed developers to “self-certify” — meaning that they could unilaterally declare, with only minimal government oversight, that their properties complied with building codes — are now falling apart, even while residents live there.
— NYTimes
A look at how self-certification helped developers cut corners during Ireland's construction boom, leaving home-owners homeless and trapped in a legal bind. View full entry
"Zawia#00:Change discusses the significantly changing realities imposed on all social, political and economic systems and their influence on design disciplines. Zawia#00:Change will attempt to demonstrate whether architects are ready to embrace changing ideals and new modes of operation, and whether they are willing to help better people’s lives rather than focusing on glorifying design or architecture." — www.zawia.co
Zawia is a periodical, English and Arabic publication and collaborative events on architecture, design & urbanism. The first volume Zawia#00:Change is out now! It features contributions from Saskia Sassen, Stefano Boeri, Joseph Grima, WAI architecture think tank, Carlo Ratti, Markus... View full entry
Architecture Biennale Venice 2012: Questions without answers by Jaakko van ‘t Spijker As opposed to what certain critics and commentators have suggested in about the opening week, they actually were there, the exhibitors with sociopolitical engagement asking relevant... View full entry
Opening on September 15, “The Source” is a six-screen installation housed in a circular pavilion built by architect David Adjaye on Liverpool’s Albert Dock, for which Aitken has filmed conversations with 15 creatives including musician Jack White, architect Jacques Herzog, contemporary artist Thomas Demand, actor Tilda Swinton, photographer William Eggleston and the artist Mike Kelley, who died soon after the interview. — ft.com
Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) argues that, seen in their totality since 1967, these home demolitions amount to an intentional "policy of displacement". — AlJazeera
As all the hoopla winds down on Venice Biennale about social movement/architecture/urban design and dance parties, another year passes without doing anything about the eradication of Palestinian homes in occupied territories. Spontaneous Interventions..? Nah. It is all... View full entry
Swishing below, all but invisible from the park and motorway above, is the Los Angeles river. A river with water, fish, tadpoles, birds, reeds, banks, a river that flows for 52 miles skirting Burbank, north Hollywood, Silver Lake, downtown and Compton and empties into the Pacific Ocean.. A regular river, except that to most it's a secret. I ask three other people and receive the same blank looks until finally a park ranger confirms that, yes, there is a river at the bottom of a ravine 150' away. — guardian.co.uk
Sejima’s protégé will not be named until next month, although the young architect’s workload has already been prescribed: he or she will contribute over the course of a year to “Home for All,” a project helmed by Sejima and other Japanese architectural luminaries in response to 2011's tsunami and the ensuing housing crisis. — artinfo.com
What constitutes a modern professional workplace is changing rapidly, and Gensler, the San Francisco design and architecture firm, is betting those changes will factor more heavily not only into clients’ interior design decisions, but every single real estate decision they make.
That bet led Gensler to hire a well-known name locally in both design and real estate circles: Robert A. Peck.
— washingtonpost.com
“Snøhetta’s extensive experience with ambitious waterfront projects and its world-class architects’ familiarity with San Francisco through their work on the SFMOMA expansion was a huge factor in our decision,” said Joe Lacob, Co-Executive Chairman and CEO of the Warriors. “All you have to do is look at what they’ve done for the new National Opera House in Oslo and the Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt to see what is possible at Piers 30-32.” — nba.com
A curving, fluid-seeming container made of ombré charcoal glass, Hadid’s design makes for a shape that is distinctly sexy. “The bottle’s dark, translucent qualities offer a sense of mystery that awakens our curiosity,” the Pritzker Prize winner explains. The vessel, whose sensuous lines echo the bottle that Karan’s late husband, sculptor Stephan Weiss, designed for her 1994 scent Cashmere Mist, is sure to awaken many. — architecturaldigest.com
Architecture related to hip-hop is about built ideas inspired of music and dance, drawing in part from artistic ideas like sampling and rapping. Even more to the point, it’s mainly an urban form, one meant to be highly inventive while also addressing issues like poverty and blight — but also the material desires we associate with aspiring DJs and emcees. — smartplanet.com
I went to Vienna earlier this year, and it’s extremely charming and deeply concerned with coffee and cake, both of which I appreciate. But I confess that as I wandered the streets, looking up at graceful churches and palaces, I often thought “what a shame it is that none of these buildings look like a nightmare structure of bare twigs and spider egg sacs.” — Grist.org
A remarkable Frank Lloyd Wright house in Phoenix is under threat of demolition. Wright designed the house for his son David and it is unique among all his residential designs. Your support is needed to urge the City of Phoenix to approve historic preservation designation for the house thereby extending its temporary protection from demolition. — change.org
Via Kevin W. in the Forum View full entry