At last, somebody understands Mark Zuckerberg, and it's an artificial intelligence app that speaks with the wisdom and patience of Morgan Freeman. Partially an internet of things melded with a changeable, celebrity-cameo Siri (Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a brief aural appearance), Zuckerberg's... View full entry
In this historically researched and nuanced piece for The New York Times, Daniel Duane examines the conflicted attitude of San Franciscans--and Californians in general--toward homelessness, immigration, and the problems of housing density. He notes that despite the state's fame for its... View full entry
Back in 2013, the AIA earmarked $1M for Diversity Advancement Scholarships, aimed at “improving equity, diversity and inclusion among people entering the profession”. Now, the Board of Directors has announced another million dollar donation being set towards the fund. The profession of... View full entry
Ever since 19th century city commissioners laid a grid on the hilly island of Manhattan, New York City has been squeezing skyward. That’s meant natural light has always been in short supply—for some New Yorkers more than others. Access to sunshine was one of the main drivers of the first zoning laws, as a new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, Mastering the Metropolis, explores. — citylab.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Crowded skies: Sunlight as the new amenity for the super richWelcome to the permanent dusk: Sunlight in cities is an endangered speciesTwilight Zoning: What 100 years of zoning hath wrought, ft. special guest Mitch McEwen on Archinect Sessions #77Obama calls... View full entry
BOMB Magazine, the influential art journal founded in 1981, will honor architect Steven Holl at its 2017 gala on May 5, 2017. Holl will be the first architect honored at the annual event."The logically unbridgeable gap between concepts and ideas and the world of sense perception is bridged by... View full entry
As we come up to Christmas Day, the city of London gets quieter, with many focusing on last-minute present-buying, and rushing to tie up loose ends before the weekend, and making their way out of the city. For those who are still in the capital over the holidays, it is a surprisingly quiet time... View full entry
On this episode, we discuss the biggest news items of the past week, covering: the political bent to the AIA's Gold Medal being awarded posthumously to Paul Revere Williams; Jean Nouvel's legal battle over his "defiled" Paris Philharmonie; and BIG's new proposal for a giant, riverside mixed-user... View full entry
The hottest Airbnb deals are—surprise!—a little bit out of the way.
The home-and-room rental platform has revealed the top 17 neighborhoods whose bookings grew the most this year, based on 140 million arrivals at 3 million homes. Peppered throughout are terms like “off the usual tourist path” or “a tranquil outpost” and “though detached from city proper.” [...]
While smaller than many of Airbnb’s major markets, these neighborhoods could be in for even more growth in 2017.
— qz.com
In a data analysis report unveiled yesterday, Airbnb summarizes what travelers are allegedly looking for this year: "In cities like Miami and Seoul, travelers to this year’s trending neighborhoods can connect with Experience hosts for local access you won’t find in typical tourist guides: In... View full entry
So I’d argue that the birth of the middle class, or the managerial middle class, is in some ways tied to the invention of the skyscraper. — JStor
Before the skyscraper, looking down at people from great heights was more of a figurative state of mind than an actual experience. But afterwards, the notion of people as dots on a landscape went beyond just a slangy Georges Seurat reference and became a Thing. But what were the ramifications of... View full entry
Each generation likes to think it is unique, or at least living on the cutting-edge; but archaeologists have long known that history has a way of repeating itself. Although North America is often considered to be part of the "New World," inhabitations on this continent date back millennia. In this... View full entry
Daniel Libeskind loves the multi-faceted nature of New York City's inhabitants; the rich, the poor, the successful, and perhaps most amusingly, the failures who think they're successful. Although the architect doesn't really break any new conceptual ground in this short video from the Louisiana... View full entry
French website Mac Generation has obtained photos of newly completed portions of the Apple Campus 2 as designed by Foster + Partners. The exterior, which in renderings possessed a certain monolithic frisbee quality, is far more vivid in real life. Here are photos of both the interior and exterior... View full entry
The Home Office is considering cutting international student numbers at UK universities by nearly half, Education Guardian can reveal. The threat is being greeted with dismay by university heads, who say some good overseas applicants are already being refused visas on spurious grounds.
The home secretary, Amber Rudd, pledged a crackdown on international student numbers at the Conservative party conference in October, to include tougher visa rules for “lower quality” universities and courses.
— the Guardian
But senior university sources are warning that the cutbacks could be far more severe than expected. They say they have seen Home Office plans that model slashing overseas student numbers, with one option to cut the current 300,000 to 170,000 a year.For more on the culture of post-Brexit UK, follow... View full entry
Sometime in the not too distant future we will look back at traditional malls as an anachronism – something that started with the post World War II move to the suburbs, peaked in 1990, and faded away, according to the billionaire Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso, whose properties include the Grove and the Americana at Brand.
Millions of dollars are being spent on refurbishing and renovating malls in Los Angeles in an attempt to offer online shoppers an incentive to go outdoors. According to this report by KPCC, the big-league mall masterminds, including Grove guru Rick Caruso, are purposefully trying to redesign malls... View full entry
The very thing that makes modern cities vibrant and culturally dominant – increasing population density, and the atmosphere and networks that result from it – has left them politically under-represented. Meanwhile, the scattered and thinned-out populations of many struggling rural and small town areas distribute their voters through the British and American electoral systems much more efficiently. — Andy Beckett – The Guardian
Related on Archinect:The V&A's Martin Roth on Brexit: 'Me-first mentality' spreading through Europe is 'brutal'Brexit means Brexit: architects Rob Hyde, Katy Marks and Mark Middleton on how Brexit could change UK-architecture (and how architects could change Brexit), on Archinect Sessions... View full entry