Australian actor-producer and entrepreneur Dustin Clare is launching Shelter, a new streaming platform for architecture enthusiasts. The platform is targeting a global audience and will carry a mixture of films, TV shows as well as its own originals. — Variety
Shelter's "Inspired Architecture" series will include six fifteen-minute episodes that explore six Australian structures including JR's Hut in Gundagai, Permanent Camping in Mudgee, and Hart House at Great Mackerel Beach. The series explores the narrative of the buildings and their creators... View full entry
The Harvard University Graduate School of Design's Design Nexus group has launched a new podcast, The Nexus, meant to highlight the work and roles of Black architects and designers. Created in collaboration between the school's African American Student Union and the Frances Loeb Library, the... View full entry
Thirty years on, the A.D.A. has reshaped American architecture and the way designers and the public have come to think about civil rights and the built world. We take for granted the ubiquity of entry ramps, Braille signage, push buttons at front doors, lever handles in lieu of doorknobs, widened public toilets, and warning tiles on street corners and subway platforms. [...] The A.D.A. has baked a more egalitarian aesthetic of forms and spaces into the civic DNA. — The New York Times
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times highlights how public discourse surrounding designing for people with disabilities has changed in the three decades that have passed since the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Highlighting the tensions that exist... View full entry
Students of the Princeton University School of Architecture have published a letter advocating for widespread changes to how the school operates in order to pursue an anti-racist agenda. The open letter, published as an Op-Ed in The Daily Princetonian, offers a nine point plan for beginning... View full entry
The new sculpture, called Obolin, uses cross laminated timber (CLT) to create three cutouts subtracted from a spherical geometry to mark the location of the sun's vector based on its Hudson Valley location at noon on the Summer and Winter Solstices, and at 2:00pm on the Equinox. Obolin was... View full entry
The National Building Museum has announced that Brent D. Glass, Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, will serve as the institution's Interim Executive Director. Glass takes up the interim position after former Executive Director Chase W. Rynd, Hon. ASLA... View full entry
A stunning 3D virtual tour from the Egyptian Tourism Authority takes viewers deep into the heavily detailed tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses VI. Named Tomb KV9, the underground structure has a long corridor leading down to the now-broken sarcophagus, and both walls and the ceiling are inscribed with writings from ancient Egyptian texts and astronomical renderings. — Colossal
If you're ready for some archaeological adventure but find yourself pandemic-trapped at home and unable to make it to Egypt's ancient Valley of the Kings right now, try the virtual tomb tour of Pharaoh Ramses VI who reigned in the 12th century BC. Take a look at some screenshots of the ruler's... View full entry
A bill introduced on July 13th by Nevada Representative Dina Titus aims to write the General Services Administration's "Guiding Principles" for federal architecture into federal law. The bill, titled the "Democracy in Design Act," represents an effort to stop the implementation the... View full entry
WindowSwap, a new website created by husband and wife duo Sonali Ranjit and Vaishnav Balasubramaniam, two Singapore-based creatives, allows users to look through the windows of people across the globe. According to The Stable, Ranjit said of the project: Screenshot via window-swap.com. View... View full entry
Canada is offering homegrown softwood lumber and steel to help with the reconstruction of Paris’s famed Notre Dame Cathedral, which was partially destroyed by fire in mid-April.
In a letter sent to French President Emmanuel Macron this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was proud to support France in the reconstruction of the iconic monument.
— Global News
According to Global News, the Canadian Steel Producers Association and the Forest Products Association of Canada have already indicated their support for the Canadian government's initiative. View full entry
In a joint statement from the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter (AIALA) and the Southern California Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (SoCal NOMA), a new tool to expand inclusion has been announced: the SoCal NOMA Diversity Equity and Inclusivity... View full entry
With the launch of the Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge competition earlier this year, the Van Alen Institute and New York City Council aimed to create an international open call for architects and designers to "rethink" how New York's iconic Brooklyn Bridge walkway could look in the future. The... View full entry
The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have agreed to rescind a policy that would bar international students taking online-only courses from residing in the United States, federal judge Allison D. Burroughs announced at a hearing on Tuesday.
ICE will revert back to the guidance it issued in March that allows students taking online courses to reside in the United States on F-1 visas.
— The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson reports that Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, and hundreds of other higher education institutions have successfully beaten back a draconian initiative proposed by the United States Department of Homeland Security that... View full entry
The University of Michigan Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning has announced the 11 winning grantees of the school's Spatializing Digital Pedagogies grant initiative. The awards represent an effort on the part of the school to "help develop a teaching framework for the fall... View full entry
President Emmanuel Macron of France on Thursday dropped the unpopular idea of building a modern spire atop a restored Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, a possibility he had floated after a devastating fire sent the previous spire crashing through the roof. [...]
But the idea of a modern spire never caught on with critics or with public opinion, and Mr. Macron never committed to it.
— The New York Times
French President Macron's decision to let go of his long-championed vision of a contemporary spire for the fire-damaged Gothic cathedral comes one year after the French senate passed a bill approving the government's restoration plan under the condition that Notre Dame be restored to its "last... View full entry
