Congolese performance and theater group Studios Kabako from Kisangani was announced as the 2014 Curry Stone Design Prize winner this past weekend at an awards ceremony in Brussels...Studios Kabako was established in 2001 to address the various emotions linked to the aftermath of civil war. Located in a city that is isolated geographically and culturally, the studio has provided its community a safe creative haven of dance, theater, and music through its urban interventions and cultural programs. — bustler.net
Studios Kabako will start a U.S. tour including in New York from October 21 to November 1, 2014, with two performances at the BRIC theater in Brooklyn.The studio will receive a $100,000 grant prize, and were also featured in a short documentary by the Curry Stone Foundation, which you can watch... View full entry
The power of architecture at work in the modern city was a theme that emerged from the start at last Thursday night’s Big Ideas, Bold Thinkers, Brilliant Dialogue series at Pratt Institute. This particular conversation featured New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman and Architect... View full entry
Art should serve the people, Xi Jinping says, and China's weird and wonderful buildings - including a mobile phone building, an excessivley blinged-up hotel, and a penis tower - are evidently not good examples of "morally inspiring art". Duh. — shanghaiist
Is it possible Xi Jinping is using a diplomatic language to break loose from imported architecture? The so called elite star architecture now going to have third tier copies? Don't forget the elite post modernism was finally trickled down to strip mall architecture finally in early 90's. This... View full entry
Graves came out swinging. "I saw some people outside selling tomatoes," he said. "I have no idea what that meant."
He complained about his treatment in the local news media: "350 buildings, and I don't have this treatment anywhere else. . . Usually when I revisit buildings, it's to get the keys to the city. Here, there are tomatoes for sale."
— oregonlive.com
Immersed in a neon bubblegum pink shell, walking through the Situation Room gives viewers a fascinating perspective of the digital and physical environments. Designed by MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY in collaboration with sound artist Jana Winderen, the installation was created by 20 spheres of various sizes fused by boolean operations. Storefront for Art and Architecture NYC commissioned the project for the WorldWide Storefront initiative launch. — bustler.net
Here's a sneak peek of the installation:Read more about it on Bustler. View full entry
On Sept. 16, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell signed three bills that make it a misdemeanor (punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a maximum $1,000 fine) to sit or lie on sidewalks in the bustling tourist district of Waikiki and outlaw relieving oneself in public islandwide.
Homeless advocates say the new laws unfairly target Hawaii’s most vulnerable residents, especially since Waikiki has only one 24-hour public restroom in the crowded district.
— Al Jazeera
In a 2014 report, Hawaii was ranked as the state with highest population of homeless residents, who provoke the ire of local businesses. Some opponents of the new law claim it breaks the traditional "law of the splintered paddle," introduced by King Kamehameha circa 1797. The law states: “Let... View full entry
Recently, a team of pathogen hunters at Columbia University...conducted a survey of the viruses and bacteria in Manhattan’s rats, the first attempt to use DNA to catalog pathogens in any animal species in New York City [...] Although the scientists examined just 133 rats, they found plenty of pathogens. Some caused food-borne illnesses. Others, like Seoul hantavirus, had never before been found in New York. Others were altogether new to science. — NY Times
New York's notorious rat problem is just one of the many complex human-animal interactions that can lead to disease outbreaks. Ebola, which has decimated West Africa and is now appearing in the US, likely spread to humans from contact with infected primates. Avian flu (H5N1) spreads from contact... View full entry
Throughout the past decade, Portuguese artist VHILS – born Alexandre Farto [Lisbon, 1987] – has been making a name for himself by taking apart and reassembling found objects. He uses a multitude of materials and formats to voice his stance on the city, which he bases on his experience of... View full entry
In the Dutch town of Spijkenisse, the Theatre de Stoep designed by UNStudio recently celebrated its grand public opening, not long after the theater was completely realized. Inspired by the type of liveliness only experienced through live theater performances, the new cultural theater features undulating edges and a striking color palette of white and vivid purple, and circular LED lights on its façade. — bustler.net
Check out a timelapse video of the theater's construction below. More details about the project on Bustler. View full entry
Sunday, October 12:A classic American look, feng shui notwithstanding: Investigating the impact of wealthy Chinese immigrants on suburban Seattle's real estate boom.Saturday, October 11:Indiana Ponders Abolishing Licensing for Architects: Part of a state-wide reconsideration of more than "... View full entry
It is a fractal of contemporary Los Angeles architecture, the fragment that both contains and helps explain the whole. [...]
What gives the $165-million project its unusual symbolic power is that it takes the generic stuff of a typical L.A. apartment building — a wood frame slathered in white stucco and lifted above a concrete parking deck — and expands it dramatically to urban scale. [...]
The design takes banality and stretches it like taffy in the direction of monumentality.
— latimes.com
“Seattle was a better opportunity for me than China right now,” Mr. Wang said. “A lot of Chinese families are planning to move here.” — NYT
Robert Frank reports in from Seattle, where wealthy Chinese seeking to relocate and/or invest are driving up the real estate market in eastern suburbs. View full entry
The city’s board of supervisors voted to legalize and regulate short-term stays through a controversial piece of legislation that has been two years in the making [...]
The key changes include a limit on non-hosted rentals for up to 90 days per year. [...]
[The hosts will] also have to pay the city’s hotel taxes. They — not Airbnb — are responsible for certifying that they’re only hosting 90 days a year and for keeping records that prove this.
— techcrunch.com
For two days on the cusp of fall, a gaggle of mayors, journalists, technologists, and civic-minded entrepreneurs convened for The Atlantic’s CityLab 2014 conference in still-balmy downtown Los Angeles. The full title, "Urban Solutions to Global Challenges", jumps off of the presumption that... View full entry
Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway, asked eight different designers to submit their proposals for the redesigned currency, to be put into circulation in 2017, and the winning design features images by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta on one side and Oslo-based graphic design firm The Metric System on the other. — theatlantic.com
More details and designs also on Bustler. View full entry
