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What went wrong in Winnipeg was not just about architecture, and 5468796 were stuck trying to make the best of a bad situation. The pulling out of government support to make Centre Village an actual co-operative changed the [project's direction]...'It’s time to get the peanut butter off our fingers,' said Ross McGowan, former chief executive and president of CentreVenture...He admits that a failure to understand the needs of the community took a considerable toll on the project. — The Guardian
Despite good intentions to help families in need, perhaps the worst nightmare an architect can face when designing affordable housing is realizing that the project — which would of course already be fully built — doesn't meet the actual demands of the community, and then some. That's basically... View full entry
The 18 members of London-based Assemble were named winners of the 31st Turner prize on Monday night, receiving their £25,000 prize from the Sonic Youth co-founder and artist Kim Gordon at an awards dinner broadcast live on Channel 4 from Tramway, Glasgow.
Assemble are the first non-artists, in the strictest sense of the word, to win the prize. They were nominated for their work tackling urban dereliction in Toxteth, Liverpool...
— The Guardian
Assemble, the architecture-ish collective known for their direct action urban interventions, has just won the prestigious Turner Prize. Working "across the fields of art, architecture and design," they are the first non-artists, in the strictest sense, to win the prize, and the first whose work... View full entry
As architects, we are living at a time of shifting paradigms. [...] It’s why I’m so interested in how architects and urban planners engage with other fields – economics, security, the environment and so on. Our challenge must be to go beyond architecture and speak the languages of these other disciplines, before translating our discussions into formal design proposals. [...] Our ultimate focus is still on form, but what informs this has expanded dramatically. — theguardian.com
Just a few key takeaways from Alejandro Aravena's piece for The Guardian:"As curator of Reporting From The Front, I want to reverse the idea that the Biennale only deals with issues that are of interest to other architects. We have begun by identifying problems that every citizen can not only... View full entry
Most architects don’t build economic engines into their projects, and [Assemble's Anna] Lisogorskaya is quick to note that this type of intervention doesn’t make sense everywhere.
[...]
But she does argue that things such as economic sustainability and local jobs are inherently interconnected with any effort to rehabilitate a neighbourhood. The architecture is only part of the project, and can only do so much on its own.
— The Guardian
Students and professionals nearly filled up the Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Tuesday night to listen to guest lecturer Caroline Bos, co-founder and principal urban planner of UNStudio. Bos spoke about UNStudio’s design process that continues to shift even after her... View full entry
The President of la Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, accompanied by the curator of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Alejandro Aravena, met today at Ca’ Giustinian with the representatives of 48 Countries.
The 15th Exhibition will take place from May 28th to November 27th 2016...in the Giardini and the Arsenale and in various other venues in Venice.
The title chosen by Alejandro Aravena for the 15th International Architecture Exhibition is: REPORTING FROM THE FRONT
— La Biennale di Venezia
"There are several battles that need to be won and several frontiers that need to be expanded in order to improve the quality of the built environment and consequently people’s quality of life," Alejandro Aravena states in the announcement. "More and more people in the planet are in search for... View full entry
What is the architectural legacy of May 1968? The question framed Süha Özkan’s talk last Tuesday at SCI-Arc, which he began by invoking his own memories of being a young man in Paris during that year's turbulent month of student-worker protests. “Let us be reasonable and ask for the... View full entry
With the help of young UK architects, London housing association Peabody is already looking to the future of social housing with their "Small Projects Panel" competition launched this past November.
Peabody recently announced 20 shortlisted proposals that have advanced to the last stage. Each team will be interviewed before the jury picks 6-8 firms by the end of January. The winning firms will help Peabody develop new housing schemes that have a maximum of 20 homes.
— bustler.net
Check out some of the shortlisted projects. Project author: Coffey Architects Project author: Studio Octopi Project author: Stephen Taylor Architects Project author: Allsop Gollings Architects Project author: Studio Sam Causer and Geraldine Dening Project author: Paul Archer Design See more of... View full entry
Carlos Zarco Sanz from the University of Madrid recently sent us his proposal, "Korean Diaspora" from Re-thinking the Future's International Architectural Thesis Award we previously featured. His design won 3rd place in the Public/Institutional category.
Sanz's "Korean Diaspora" reimagines Manhattan's Koreatown as a shifting social and commercial space built for the neighborhood's present and future.
— bustler.net
For full details, head over to Bustler. Images courtesy of Carlos Zarco Sanz. View full entry
Constructed on Sydney’s Harbour’s Cockatoo Island, the interactive 42 meter-long landscape installation, entitled Dune, is composed of hundreds of fibres that brighten according to human sounds in what Roosegaarde describes as “techno-poetry”. — Vogue
Dune X is an interactive landscape of light for the 18th Biennale of Sydney that visibly reacts to the behavior of people that come into close proximity. Hundreds of sensors detect motion, and optical fibers dim and brighten in response to the movements of people passing by. Dune X is being... View full entry
Medellín has turned itself into a model Latin American city, with good transport, dynamic public spaces, new schools and a culture of civic architecture. The real design project, however, was one of social organisation, with a section of society grouping together and deciding to rewrite their city's story. — Guardian
Justin McGuirk analyzes the "social urbanism" of Medellín's "self-consciously iconic" architecture. Efforts by politicians such as Sergio Fajardo and architects like Giancarlo Mazzanti to focus on public space and civic architecture, were he finds part of a larger program of... View full entry
