It's insane. Each city in the North is too small to fight against that. We can only drag some of that investment northwards if we work together — BBC News - Magazine
In England efforts have begun to corral the North's population of 15 million into a collective force that could begin to rival that of London and the South East. A minister for the Northern Powerhouse has been appointed and the initial/low hanging fruit would include, devolution of some fiscal... View full entry
We were invited to Qatar by the prime minister's office to see new flagship accommodation for low-paid migrant workers in early May - but while gathering additional material for our report, we ended up being thrown into prison for doing our jobs.
Our arrest was dramatic.
— bbc.com
Previously:A Memorial for the Workers Dying While Constructing the Qatar World Cup StadiumWorld Cup ‘slaves’ scandal: Qatar holds 2 UK rights researchers over ‘emigration violations’ View full entry
Nouvel’s aspirations for 53W53, scheduled for completion in fall 2018, sound almost modest: “It’s going to try to hold its place, [...]
It’s going to try to be good enough for New York … it’s going to try to make its own small contribution, and it’s done in a way that ensures this contribution is readable, understandable, and it’s maybe a bit more precious than others. And it’s a little linked to this notion – a fairly disputed notion these days – that architecture is still an art, sometimes.”
— theguardian.com
After a flurry of speculation, the Chinese tech giant [Baidu] has confirmed it's gunning for driverless electronic bikes. Baidu is China's largest web services company—in the region, it commands upwards of 73 percent of the search market—and it has apparently pursued a "secret plan" to debut a prototype of a self-driving electric bicycle by the end of the year.
Baidu calls it, simply. the 'smartbike.'
— Vice Motherboard
Thousands of Bauhaus buildings are concentrated in a central district of Tel Aviv, called the "White City." It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003.
These houses were built by Jewish architects who fled Nazi Germany and emigrated to what was the British Mandate of Palestine at the time. They designed their houses according to the principles developed by Walter Gropius [...]
Germany plans to invest 2.8 million euros ($3.2 million) to help preserve the cultural heritage.
— dw.de
The Armenian pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale has won the Golden Lion for best national pavilion. The pavilion, Armenity, features a group exhibition by 18 diaspora Armenian artists and grandchildren of survivors of the Armenian genocide, who the jury praised for “forming a pavilion based on a people in diaspora, each artist engaging their specific locality as well as their heritage”. [...]
American artist Adrian Piper was awarded Golden Lion for best artist.
— calvertjournal.com
The ruins of an ancient city that have withstood centuries of conflict in the Syrian desert are now facing their greatest threat yet: the militants of the Islamic State.
Activists, officials and citizens of the city say ISIS has launched a prolonged assault on Palmyra, an "oasis in the desert" north of Damascus that the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO says contains the "monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world."
— mashable.com
UPDATE: ISIS militants seize control of ancient Syrian city of PalmyraPreviously View full entry
[...] shadows even turn light into another medium of inequality. Light becomes a resource that can be bought by the wealthy, eclipsed for the poor.
[...] multimillion-dollar apartments in the sky will darken parts of the park a mile away. Enjoyment of the park in the park – a notably free activity in a high-cost city – will be dimmed a little to give billionaires views of it from above.
— theguardian.com
Related: Welcome to the permanent dusk: Sunlight in cities is an endangered species View full entry
Of all the variants of punk rock, hardcore always gave the impression of having the most blue collar flavor to its anti-authoritarian vibes. Pulled from the 1982-1989 issues of the infamous punk fanzine Maximum Rocknroll, Hardcore Architecture examines how true that impression is. Cross-referencing the addresses of mostly long-extinct hardcore and punk bands with modern Google Street View [...] snapshot of the homes, neighborhoods, and early apartments of these struggling bands. — avclub.com
The High Line is...a perfect example of “environmental gentrification” – the growing phenomenon of rising property values in the wake of a large-scale urban greening project... While intended to serve existing residents, in reality it tends to increase land values to the point that those who live there are forced to leave. This exodus in turn transforms the sociological contours of the area and, by extension, the spatial segregation of the entire city. — the Guardian
Recently, the Indian cabinet green-lit a £10 billion scheme that will be divided equally between building 100 smart cities, and rejuvenating another 500 cities and towns over the next five years. Yet many experts and planners fear that such “insta-cities”, if they are made, will prove dystopic and inequitable. Some even hint that smart cities may turn into social apartheid cities, governed by powerful corporate entities that could override local laws and governments to “keep out” the poor. — The Guardian
The fundamentally architectural character of "Urban Light" -- the artist called it "a building with a roof of light" -- was no anomaly for Burden, who grew up in France and Italy and studied at Pomona College and UC Irvine. Themes connected to architecture and urbanism run through his work, typically with the same wry attitude about the relationship between structure and art-making that the lampposts suggest. “Originally I was going to study architecture,” Burden said at a lecture...in 2003. — LA Times
The conceptual artist Chris Burden died two days ago at the age of 69. View full entry
If ongoing discussions with the United States and others prove successful, sanctions affecting the Iranian economy will likely be lifted, exposing the country to a forceful wave of globalization. But the shift from isolation to inclusion has already begun to transform Tehran. [...]
It’s a city that, at this moment, is intensely influenced by international relations, shaping itself into a burgeoning urban hub.
— citylab.com
When you have every neighborhood looking the same, you know the city is at a danger point. And why should anybody want to live here, why should anybody want to visit here? A metropolis like New York or London or Shanghai is built on a strong sense of individual neighborhoods, and we are destroying that. — GUERNICA
The sociologist Sharon Zukin on the role of the artist in gentrification, challenges to affordable housing, and the commodification of New York City’s loft lifestyle."I blame it all on New York magazine. In the late ’70s, early ’80s, New York, like other US cities, was just coming out of... View full entry
Paul Schimmel, a close friend of the artist and the former chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art who had organized Burden’s first retrospective exhibition in 1988, said the cause was malignant melanoma. Burden was diagnosed 18 months ago, Schimmel said, but kept the information private except for a few family members and friends. — latimes.com
Small Skyscraper, a collaboration between tallmankoch and Chris Burden View full entry