An alley between an old tenement block and a tower block in Warsaw, Poland, will be the location for the skinniest house in the world.
The four-storey home will have a bedroom, lounge, bathroom and kitchen, stretching back nearly 40ft, but instead of the traditional staircase, each floor will be accessed by a ladder.
It will take over from the world's current official narrowest house, The Wedge, on the island of Great Cumbrae.
— dailymail.co.uk
New York Times art critic and "Abroad" columnist Michael Kimmelman will become the paper's new architecture critic, the Times is announcing today. — featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com
Three hundred years ago one Nehemiah Tinkham, with wife Submit Tinkham and six children, landed on the shores of New England to establish a home in the wilderness. — places.designobserver.com
DesignObserver has just republished J.B. Jackson's classic essay "The Westward-Moving House," originally published in Landscape in 1953, which traces the evolution of the American house over three centuries and across the continent. Geographer Paul F. Starrs and photographer Peter Goin at the... View full entry
Olly Grant talks to some of the people behind a new BBC Two series on turning crumbling buildings, laden with history, into sleek modern homes. — telegraph.co.uk
With a cultivated sense of aesthetic, both Bruno Taut and Gordon Bunshaft, although incredibly different architects, possess the Taurus loves of color and jewel-like form and structure — DOMUS
Ever so analytical artist Dan Graham explains well known architects via their astrological signs. Paired with writer Jessica Russell, Graham attributes architects' work to their horoscopic characteristics in an uncanny precision and earthly observations. Their telescope gazes, Robert Venturi for... View full entry
Each fall High Desert Test Sites invites artists to create experimental projects adjacent to California's Joshua Tree National Park. This year HDTS invited Ball Nogues Studio to create a structure in a remote region of the Mojave Desert. This presents a unique opportunity to make an intervention upon an unfettered landscape at a grand scale. — unitedstatesartists.org
When I first came to Japan a quarter decade ago, toilets were in unheated spaces, and it was sometimes a shock to sit. About 20 years ago, leaders in the industry came up with a nifty solution: a small heater in the seat. Over time, more and more features were added: massaging and bidet features are common, newer ones have a little air fan for deodorizing,... play music, and light the inside of the bowl. Somewhere along the line, the original reason for the heater itself became less important — The Berkeley Blog
For at least a century, governments have tried to urbanise their nations. Communist states sought to drag people out of what Marx and Engels called their "rural idiocy". Capitalist governments – Mahatir Mohammed's administration in Malaysia is a good example – tried to persuade and bully indigenous people into leaving the land (which then became available for exploitation) and move to the cities to join the consumer economy. Urbanisation was equated with progress and modernity. — George Monbiot, guardian.co.uk
Chinese artist and government critic Ai Weiwei is to challenge a bill of more than 12m yuan ($1.9m, £1.2m) in unpaid taxes and fines, his wife told the BBC. — bbc.co.uk
Opened just this past weekend was Steven Holl's highly anticipated Cité de l’Océan et du Surf, a museum dedicated to surf, the ocean and their roles upon our leisure, science, and ecology. Located in Biarritz, France, a hot spot for surfers and ocean lovers, the museum is like a temple to worship the surf gods with its open air plaza surrounded by rock waves. — Inhabitat
DESIGN ASSOCIATION NPO, organizer of TOKYO DESIGNERS WEEK, has founded “ARIGATO” PROJECT We’ve been receiving warm support from all over the world since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. People in many countries showed their warmth and support .This project is to show our... View full entry
Garages, of course, hold a storied place in Silicon Valley lore. Think Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), which all started in garages.
The start-up garage is a powerful symbol of the do-it-yourself underdog, and the creative, collaborative and scrappy culture they hope to reinforce through the renovation of the 57-acre former Sun Microsystems campus and new construction on an adjacent 22-acre parcel over the next few years.
— MercuryNews
I couldn't see architects' name in approx. 1000 words article. Only words come from John Tenanes, the director of global real estate facilities who is overseeing the project... View full entry
Leading architects on both sides of the Atlantic hit out at the institute this week after American architect Richard Gage, part of the group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, delivered a lecture at RIBA HQ on Monday night.
The venue was booked by fellow American and RIBA member Craig Phillip Kiner, an associate at Zaha Hadid Architects.
— bdonline.co.uk
Institute reviews policy after controversial event booked by Zaha Hadid Architects associate The RIBA is reviewing its policy on hiring out 66 Portland Place following a storm of criticism over its hosting of a group claiming that New York’s Twin Towers were brought down through a... View full entry
Two years after holding an international architectural competition that saw world-renowned designers face off in a public presentation, the National Music Centre revealed the extraordinary final design by Allied Works Architecture, the winner of the competition. — canadianarchitect.com
DESIGN 21 just announced the results of its ‘Help Japan’ competitions, a multi-faceted effort to support Japan and help provide relief to the disaster areas at different stages of the recovery process. Two product competitions, based on the design of a greeting card and symbolic charity accessory, were created to provide mid-level support. [...] The third competition asked for ideas that contribute to long-term relief, recovery and rebuilding. — bustler.net
