“Memorial Museum” — is something of a contradiction in terms...
“Museums are about understanding, about making meaning of the past... A memorial fulfills a different need; it’s about remembering and evoking feelings in the viewer, and that function is antithetical to what museums do.”
Reconciling the clashing obligations to recount the history with pinpoint accuracy, to memorialize heroism and to promote healing inevitably required compromise.
No one anticipated how much.
— New York Times
A bunch of bees is inspiring what seems to escape so many people in Buffalo: waterfront development.
With the help of a group of University at Buffalo architecture students, a local entrepreneur hopes to build on a giant bee hive he discovered in an abandoned office and turn a portion of Buffalo's historic waterfront into a design campus where manufacturers, architects and others will collaborate and mastermind new ways to use locally made materials
— Buffalo News
Ai Weiwei will not attend the opening tomorrow of his architectural debut in London. One of the most important artists in the world today, and certainly the most famous Chinese artist, Ai has been under “city arrest” in Beijing since last year, unable to leave the Chinese capital and under constant surveillance from the Communist Party regime. He is accused of tax avoidance but many suspect his treatment is in retaliation for his outspoken and frequent criticism of the Chinese government. — London Evening Standard
Previously in the Archinect News: Serpentine Gallery Opens Pavilion (Without Ai Weiwei). View full entry
“It was not typically a type of project we normally do,” says Dukho Yeon, the firm’s associate partner-in-charge on Teachers Village. “This was part of basically everybody including the investors giving back to the city of Newark.” — Fast Company
If you're in New York City these days, make sure to check out the exhibition Desired Sync: Global Crisis & Design ver.1.5. Organized by the Korean Cultural Service New York and presented by the Institute of Multidisciplinarity for Art, Architecture and Design (I:M), Desired Sync is the second of a series of exhibitions honorable selected from the official ‘2012 Call for Artists’ program organized by the Korean Cultural Service NY. — bustler.net
In Still Ugly After All These Years: A Close Reading of Peter Eisenman’s Wexner Center, Alexander Maymind argued the center's "grid-based diagrams instantiate disestablishment effects[2]...hinge on a particular aesthetic reading of architectural ugliness." 18x32 responded "I like where you've gone with the 'Ugly' here, but I don't think this building offers the best example. Nothing about Wexner is viscerally repellant, abhorrent or disgusting."
Alexander Maymind shared his essay Still Ugly After All These Years: A Close Reading of Peter Eisenman’s Wexner Center, recently published in One: Twelve Issue 4, April 2012. Therein he begins by suggesting how the center's "grid-based diagrams instantiate... View full entry
An OMA-designed temporary pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival was inaugurated today with a screening of Kanye West's debut short film Cruel Summer. The pavilion, with a design led by Shohei Shigematsu, is a raised pyramid containing a seven-screen cinema invented by West's creative team, Donda. — oma.eu
Neft Dashlari, an artificial settlement off the coast of Azerbaijan, was constructed by the Soviets after World War II, when the state was facing a major oil shortage. (Image by Jon Björgvinsson) — Der Spiegel
Kate Katharina Ferguson writes about a current exhibition at the Museum of Architecture at the TU Berlin, which features photographs of ghost towns from around the world. From a deserted Cypriot holiday resort to a brand new Chinese city devoid of inhabitants, the exhibit asks why people... View full entry
we want to experiment in making better public spaces. Cities are built in a very formal and classist fashion, which is at odds with the good that rapid production and public participation can do for urban development. — Huffington Post
Tidda Tippapart recently talked to Aurash Khawarzad ( founder of Change Administration + co-founder of the Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary collective DoTank) about the challenge of creating the post-Hipster city, gentrification, and what it means to (re)build New York City... View full entry
The artist intended it to be a display of his love for the city: white plastic bags stamped with the “I ♥ NY” logo lighted from within and glowing moonlike from lampposts and trees in Brooklyn and beyond. Almost immediately, the installation attracted attention, though probably not the kind the artist, Takeshi Miyakawa, expected. — nytimes.com
"Mr. Miyakawa also worked for years as a model-maker for the architect Rafael Viñoly, Mr. Lim added." View full entry
Gotham City is undergoing one of the most expansive construction booms in its history. The most prestigious architects from across the globe have buildings in various phases of completion all over town. As chairman of the Gotham Landmarks Commission, Bruce Wayne has been a key part of this boom, which signals a golden age of architectural ingenuity for the city. And then, the explosions begin. — io9.com
The architect who created the £269 million aquatics centre has criticised “rude” Games bosses for not inviting her to a single event.
Zaha Hadid claimed she was not asked to the opening or closing ceremonies of the Games, or to any of the diving and swimming heats at her acclaimed building in the Olympic Park.
— thisislondon.co.uk
Behold the Subway Terminal Building, hidden in plain sight in the middle of downtown LA, where at one point during the 1940′s over 65,000 riders were shuffling down into the depths of Los Angeles to board a train which traveled beneath the busy streets. And, fittingly, it’s just a block from where you might board the Red Line subway today. — gelatobaby.com
The Music Box is a New Orleans art installation that makes regular artist’s colonies look like Camazotz. In this tiny shantytown, every building is also a musical instrument, and the entire town can be played in a beautiful, spooky symphony that looks and sounds like something out of Coraline. — grist.org
Musicians look at the bridge differently. Mickey Hart, the former Grateful Dead drummer, sees the Golden Gate Bridge as a "giant wind harp." He plans to be at Crissy Field on Sunday evening, the bridge's 75th birthday, to perform an original composition.
The bridge will be the star. "The most famous bridge in America," Hart said, "is actually a musical instrument."
— sfgate.com
