In doing press for the film, Jonze has repeatedly credited New York architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, AIA, founding principals of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with helping him devise the feel of his settings. Diller took time to chat with ARCHITECT about the film, as well as the uncanny qualities of the near-future and why she generally prefers murder stories to sci-fi. — architectmagazine.com
The open office was originally conceived by a team from Hamburg, Germany, in the nineteen-fifties, to facilitate communication and idea flow. But a growing body of evidence suggests that the open office undermines the very things that it was designed to achieve. — newyorker.com
Texas has seen the future of the public library, and it looks a lot like an Apple Store [...].
Even the librarians imitate Apple’s dress code, wearing matching shirts and that standard-bearer of geek-chic, the hoodie. But this $2.3 million library might be most notable for what it does not have — any actual books.
That makes Bexar County’s BiblioTech the nation’s only bookless public library.
— washingtonpost.com
For a few years I’ve thought about how one might design a game where the architecture was the central character. I’m particularly fond of temples, palaces, mosques, monasteries and other buildings which combine exquisite artistry with a potential for exploration and mystery. The main problem was how to make an interactive experience out of this. — thefoxisblack.com
Mayor de Blasio, your idea of a mandate for inclusionary zoning begins to address this crisis yet continues to depend on the tender mercies of private developers to actually produce the units. If you are going to tax them, why not collect the money, municipalize the program, and make gorgeous, genuinely affordable housing your greatest legacy, building it where it's most needed? We can do it! -Michael Sorkin — archrecord.construction.com
Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio: Along with many other architects and urbanists, I'm looking forward to your taking office this month as mayor of New York City, and working to implement the theme of your campaign, the elimination of the increasingly radical disparities that underlie that “tale of... View full entry
The New York Federal Reserve’s latest research report discusses a number of difficulties facing recent college graduates, including unemployment. [...]
After dividing the pool into 13 different undergraduate majors, and using data from 2009 to 2011, some academic pursuits proved likelier to land graduates a job. [...]
For instance, the unemployment rate for architecture and construction majors was 8%, likely related to the fate of housing-related sectors following the housing bust.
— Quartz
Conceived as low-cost, mass-produced shelters that could comfortably accommodate a family of four, the units, known as D.D.U.s, were manufactured in the early 1940s and distributed to military bases around the world. [...]
Several institutions and individuals have expressed interest in acquiring Camp Evans D.D.U.s. “They’re important artifacts,” said Marc Greuther, chief curator of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., who hopes to exhibit one of the units with Fuller’s Wichita House.
— New York Times
For the next year, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design professor Craig Hodgetts and his graduate students will join forces with private and university physicists and engineers at UCLA's cross-disciplinary IDEAS facility in Playa Vista...
Hodgetts, who oversaw the acoustical redesign of the Hollywood Bowl, insists Musk's plan is doable.
— laweekly.com
Yutaka Sho has been working on housing redevelopment strategies in Rwanda since 2008, and from the beginning the challenges were clear. Building materials were severely limited and ripple effects from the 1994 genocide were still strong, leaving Rwandan society displaced and disproportionately... View full entry
Turn Me On Design recently won a competition launched in 2012 by Avenue Mont-Royal with IDEA-O-RAMA—their comic book inspired street lamps that help give the street a bite of personality [...]
The lights are meant to induce "a new kind of dialogue that will 'talk to' the perspective of the Avenue." [...]
It would be great to see more cities cultivating regional identity through projects like this.
— Core 77
The elemental is always open to re-interpretation. View full entry
Associated with both wedding cakes and McMansions, the Spanish Colonial Revival movement that took hold of California's early 20th century architecture left behind many civic structures that have since become classically Californian. Mixing elements from the colonial Spanish missions, the... View full entry
Ready, Set, Hike! A Trial Trek to MetLife Stadium
The officials planning Super Bowl XLVIII want it to be the Super Bowl of public transportation. They are not just discouraging fans from walking to MetLife Stadium on game day in February — they are forbidding it.
— The New York Times
A reporter attempts to walk to MetLife Stadium. Most likely the reason one won't be allowed to walk into the Super Bowl is "terror"-related, but the article raises again the question of why our pedestrian environment is so degraded. Why have we allowed our cities to be built in such a way... View full entry
The 2013 edition of The AF’s annual headline event and trans-disciplinary dialogue presented New York-based architect Peter Marino in conversation with fashion designer Marc Jacobs. The event, which took place at Tate Modern’s Starr Auditorium, was chaired by Penny Martin, editor in chief, The Gentlewoman explored the territories of fashion and architecture and the space in which these two art forms interlink.
In our culture, talking about the future is sometimes a polite way of saying things about the present that would otherwise be rude or risky.
But have you ever wondered why so little of the future promised in TED talks actually happens? So much potential and enthusiasm, and so little actual change. Are the ideas wrong? Or is the idea about what ideas can do all by themselves wrong?
— Benjamin Bratton, theguardian.com
While the projects had wildly different end products, they both had a similar starting point: focusing on how to ease people’s lives. And that is a central lesson at the school, which is pushing students to rethink the boundaries for many industries.
At the heart of the school’s courses is developing what David Kelley, one of the school’s founders, calls an empathy muscle.
— New York Times
