We live in a culture of not virtual reality, but real virtuality because our virtuality - meaning the internet networks - are a fundamental part of our reality.
All the studies on the internet show that people who are more social on the internet are also more social face-to-face.
— bbc.co.uk
Ruins don’t encourage you to dwell on what they were like in their heyday,before they were ruins. The Colosseum in Rome or the amphitheater at Leptis Magna have never been anything but ruins. They’re eternal ruins. It’s the same here. This building could never have looked more magnificent than it does now, surrounded by its own silence. Ruins don’t make you think of the past, they direct you toward the future. The effect is almost prophetic. This is what the future will end up like... — nytimes.com
On working in the field: "I find myself running in heels, and walking in the woods in heels. And when you're a landscape architect and you're investigating a site, you're having to look professional on the one hand often to meet with a client, and then you do a site walk. So I've found myself walking around landscape sites in heels more often than not." — blogs.wsj.com
Two weeks left until the David Chipperfield-curated 13th International Architecture Exhibition Common Ground closes its gates in Venice. On Saturday afternoon, November 24, visitors can participate in the "Great closing meeting" featuring panel discussions to review the goals of the exhibition and the reactions to Common Ground. The last day to visit the exhibition is Sunday, November 25. — bustler.net
"The cities are often designed based on an architects' ideal understanding of what a modern or a sustainable city should be like, but it is the people living in it that eventually make it modern or sustainable," he says.
"How these former farmers adapt to living in a modern city environment is what we still need to wait and find out."
— europe.chinadaily.com.cn
According to the experts — architects, environmentalists and civil engineers — large-scale projects like underwater gates are expensive, cumbersome and difficult to build. More important, they say, such undertakings are binary projects that work just fine until the moment they do not. — NYT
In light of the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, Alan Feuer examined three examples of how to protect New York City from future storms. The designs focus on three especially vulnerable New York neighborhoods and plans included: Marshy Edges, Absorptive Streets proposed by... View full entry
Illustrious modernist Richard Meier and multi-disciplinary creator Massimo Vignelli reflect on their respective crafts, city life, and enduring friendship in this mesmeric film by Johnnie Shand Kydd. — NOWNESS.com
The X-code is a marking left by the Urban Search and Rescue teams, coordinated by FEMA. It was first developed after the 1985 Mexico earthquake, when many people died in later building collapses, trying to rescue people who were already trapped. As each building is searched for survivors, it is marked first with a slash, and then when the search is finished, an X. Then, the quadrants of the X are marked with a code to define who made the search, when, and what they might have found. — thestate.ae
You may recall Marcos Zotes from his Rafmögnuð Náttúra light installation in Iceland that we previously featured here on Archinect. He has just shared with us his latest project, "YOUR TEXT HERE"... The city is constantly telling us what to do, what to think, and how to... View full entry
On November 20, Kazuyo Sejima, Shigeru Ban, Sou Fujimoto, Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, and six other renowned architects will launch the results of a project kept under wraps for months: a line of breed-specific dog houses commissioned by Muji design director Kenya Hara, who has also designed an abode (for the Toy Poodle). — archrecord.construction.com
These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place, or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković…), conveying powerful visual impact to show the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. — feeldesain.com
As the tri-state area continues to recover from Hurricane Sandy's devastation, the cast of the "Jersey Shore" is teaming up with the nonprofit organization Architecture for Humanity for "Restore the Shore," a special benefit set to air live on Thursday, November 15. — mtv.com
For more information about Restore the Shore, go here. View full entry
The unveiling, which will take place November 13 through 15 in New York, has been years in the making. “I’ve been doodling ideas for buildings and furniture since the early 1990s, when I first discovered [Charles Rennie] Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright,” says Pitt. “Actually, I found Wright in college, when looking for a lazy two-point credit to get out of French. It forever changed my life.” — architecturaldigest.com
The creation of a public monument is a fraught business these days. That the pristine work of an architect nearly 40 years dead should rise intact, in today’s contentious political, legal and aesthetic climate, is a wonder. And how timely it is that the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt should be honored in such eloquent fashion at a moment when powerful political forces in this country seek to dismantle it. — Places Journal
Why is the design of memorials so fraught? Belmont Freeman reviews the design and politics of diverse memorials to American presidents, with a focus on Four Freedoms Park in New York City, the memorial to Franklin Roosevelt designed by Louis Kahn that opened last month. View full entry
“What really struck me, if you look at the image on the left, you see the Goldman Sachs building and new World Trade Center,” said Baan. “These two buildings are brightly lit. And then the rest of New York looks literally kind of powerless. In a way, it shows also what’s wrong with the country in this moment.” — poynter.org
