Elizabeth II is the first major British monarch who will not have an architectural style named after her [...]
The present Elizabethan era includes as many as a dozen architectural highlights and at least two broad architectural styles. “I cannot imagine a term or an argument that would tie all of this together,” says Stanford Anderson, a professor emeritus of history and architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “'New Elizabethan architecture’ just ducks the question.”
— economist.com
On September 27th, the MASS Design Group will officially present their idea for a Bauhaus-type school for Sub-Saharan Africa at the United Nations Solutions Summit. The proposed program would be based in Kigali, Rwanda and would purposefully "incubate local innovation towards tackling the biggest... View full entry
While the LACMA's retrospective of Frank Gehry is based off a previous show organized last year at the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, its Los Angeles locale (plus an additional gallery not present at the Paris show) provides a different context. Some critics took a fawning... View full entry
From a super-sized cheese grater, to a contraceptive sponge, to an inadvertent fun house ride, the critics have thoroughly analogized the new Broad museum in mostly positive (if occasionally biting) reviews. To follow up with Amelia's review, published earlier today, we offer some other critical... View full entry
While you’re hypertensive in traffic listening to NPR, I have seen dolphins frolicking (and homeless men fighting over a shopping cart); I’ve smelled the taco trucks and heard all the languages of kids playing at morning recess. I sweat and shiver; I feel elation and real fear. In short, I feel alive. And so I ride. — Los Angeles Magazine
Despite its annoyances, difficulties, and outright dangers, Peter Flax's take on bicycle riding in L.A.—prompted in part by the city's recent decision "to create hundreds of miles of new protected bike lanes, shrinking some streets in the process"—combines a reporter's clear-eyed sensibility... View full entry
Mia Lehrer, a Los Angeles landscape architect who helped prepare a master plan for the river in 2007, said Mr. Gehry’s involvement had distressed people wary of top-down directives, and raised fears that he would derail the plan by the Army Corps of Engineers just as it was gaining momentum.
Still, she said Mr. Gehry was welcome to join the fray. “He’s a creative dude,” Ms. Lehrer said. “So the answer is, ‘Why not?’”
— The New York Times
Perhaps to escape the local ire which his involvement with the L.A. River redevelopment has drawn, Frank Gehry talked to The New York Times about his hopes for the project and for his relationship with the community. "I’m doing something that’s going to be good and trying to be inclusive, and... View full entry
In past experiments, [neuroscientist Colin Ellard] monitored sweat glands with special wristbands to measure stress levels. In Toronto, he has added special headbands that measure brain waves. [...]
“I think this kind of research, by showing how people respond to the places that are here, can highlight some of the key principles that can be useful in designing better public places.”
— thestar.com
More on the intersection of brain sciences and cities:AfterShock #4: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neuroscientific Architecture ResearchAfterShock #3: Brains and the CityFurther strides made in Nobel-winning research on the neuroscience of navigationThe Brain on ArchitectureDeveloping an... View full entry
Los Angeles elected leaders announced Tuesday that they will declare a “state of emergency” on the growing homelessness problem in the city and commit $100 million toward housing and other services for homeless people. [...]
"If we want to be a great city that hosts the Olympics and shows itself off to the world,” Cedillo said, “we shouldn't have 25,000 to 50,000 people sleeping on the streets.”
— scpr.org
Related on Archinect:Los Angeles funds $213M policy to end chronic homelessnessLow-income housing in Los Angeles: A look at the past, present and futureIn Los Angeles, homelessness is becoming more visible View full entry
As the fast pace of technology calls for innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, corporations are looking for more unusual approaches to meet the challenges they face, often with “hands-on” or “unplugged” approaches. If LEGO is about anything, it’s the use of one’s hands while the mind is in an unplugged state. LEGO Serious Play capitalizes on this by asking the hands to find a solution that the mind hasn’t been able to on its own. — qz.com
More on the many uses of LEGO: LEGO Architecture launches new student acoustic-design challenge to restore a destroyed music theaterOlafur Eliasson Wants You to Design Utopia (Out of Legos)Could Lego Architecture Studio actually be useful for architects?Learning From Legos View full entry
“An out-of-the-ordinary restroom is very telling about the business itself,” said John Engel, spokesman for restroom cleaning and supply company Cintas, which runs the competition. “If they pay that kind of attention to their restroom experience you can bet the overall experience will be phenomenal too.” — mashable.com
This week, he signed over £285,000 of his £9m High Street Fund, created in March, to projects which will "re-energise the capital's high streets"...the mayor's office is donating to these projects through Spacehive, a civic crowdfunding website through which campaigners can raise money from the public to fund their community schemes. — CityMetric
From a proposed revitalization project known as the "Peckham Coal Line" that, much like New York City's High Line, would transform abandoned coal sidings into a foliage-rich walkway for pedestrians and cyclists, to a public library in an alley known as a "Literalley," designers and dreamers alike... View full entry
In 2005, the now defunct Rebar placed coins in a San Francisco parking meter not to park a car but to erect a small public park. Every third Friday in September since then, activists worldwide who wish to foster a conversation about the lack of public space have been transforming parking spaces... View full entry
Like humans, cities and neighborhoods have their own unique fingerprints. The maps were created by researchers at the center’s Urban Age program, who have been studying how the layout of rapidly urbanizing cities can affect their livability. — CityLab
New York is a grid, London is an airy whirl, Hong Kong is dense: at least, that's according to the black and white "fingerprint" maps put together by the Urban Age program at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The project helps researches see at a glance the macroscopic... View full entry
Europe will soon have more physical barriers on its national borders than it did during the Cold War. This year’s refugee crisis, combined with Ukraine's ongoing conflict with Russia, has seen governments plan and construct border walls and security fences across Mediterranean and eastern Europe... Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, 40 countries around the world have built fences against 64 of their neighbours. — the Economist
The Economist takes a look at the world's borders, (mostly) new and old. Of the 40 countries that have built physical border walls since the fall of the Berlin Wall, 30 of those happened after 9/11, and 15 this year alone. Check it out the interactive graphic here.Related coverage:Passage: an... View full entry
Scientists in Korea have discovered that using antibacterial soap when hand-washing is no more effective than using plain soap, according to a paper published today in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy... The study examined the effect of triclosan...on bacteria in two ways. The first was to examine the bactericidal effects of triclosan in soaps against all 20 strains, and the second compared the ability of antibacterial and non-antibacterial soap to remove bacteria from human hands... — Science Daily
For related Archinect articles:Between Sampling and Dowsing: Field Notes from GRNASFCKArchitecture of the Anthropocene, Pt. 2: Haunted Houses, Living Buildings, and Other Horror StoriesEven bacteria are architects View full entry