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With the holiday season right around the corner, it’s time to look at a unique gift idea that is sure to inspire fans of Brutalism from the trendy Swedish audio company Transparent. Their new Brutalist Speaker is designed especially to utilize the geometry of indoor spaces to boost the... View full entry
Montreal-based studio Daily tous les jours has completed a public space design in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Titled 'River Lines,' the project saw the creation of an interactive stage in an urban plaza for big impromptu musical ensembles. Video credit: doublespace photography Part of the... View full entry
Architectural journal “Attention” has recently released an innovative all-audio issue of the publication, titled "Community is a Practice" (Issue 6), written and narrated by Portland State University School of Architecture faculty members Anna Goodman and Molly Esteve. Anna Goodman... View full entry
I think it was a wonderful moment in American history. I thought what Michelle Obama was attempting to do was to draw that link to show that it isn't just what's going on in the White House now and isn't it great that there's a black family there, but there's a much longer history that needs to be appreciated...
[It was] just grueling, grueling kind of work. And nobody was really willing ... to do it. So slave labor played a massive role in getting this city built.
— Clarence Lusane
During her speech at the DNC on Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama alluded to the White House's history of slave labor during the 1790s. NPR interviews Clarence Lusane, chairperson of Howard University's political science department and author of “The Black History of the White House”, who... View full entry
Usually, you go to these fast casual things and you're in and out in a minute...In all of the commercial projects that we do, the reason that we do them and the reason that we probably get hired to do them is that we are interested in this idea of making a joyous space for everyday activities...
It's not so much about the brand name being reinforced everywhere as much as it is to provide this urban amenity living room.
— Barbara Bestor, on KPCC
Most people don't rave about the interior design in the average Jamba Juice. But Barbara Bestor and her practice might have changed that in the expanded Old Town Pasadena location they recently revamped. Bestor chats with KPCC's Alex Cohen in this 8-minute conversation about the new “Innovation... View full entry
'The dumpling maker has a structural problem,' says Jason Kim, a project manager at ARO. 'The skin has to be thin enough where you have the right ratio of meat to skin, but strong enough to hold together.' — Sporkful
"How do the principles of architecture and design apply to dumplings?" Sporkful has a quick chat with dumpling fanatics Architecture Research Office about how particular design concepts can structurally improve the Lunar New Year food staple. Maybe you'll learn a trick or two on how to eat the... View full entry
On September 2, 1666, a fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in London. By the next day, the flames had fanned out north and west, engulfing much of the city’s medieval center. The fire, later knowns as the Great Fire of London, destroyed much of the old cathedral of St. Paul as well as the... View full entry
Quoted Studios — the creators of the acclaimed animated interview series Blank on Blank — introduced The Experimenters, a brand new mini interview series that offers a peek into the minds of iconic figures in science, technology, and innovation. The first episode, which aired today, shines... View full entry
Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura collaborated with Onionlab from Barcelona to create a video-audio installation titled "Towards Biology" as part of the "Time Space Existence" exhibition at the soon-to-conclude Venice Biennale 2014 in Italy.The exhibition explores going beyond the physical... View full entry
Oren Safdie, architecture-turned-playwright (and son of Moshe Safdie), has taken his play False Solution to Santa Monica, after a run in NYC last year. False Solution, Safdie's 3rd architecture-themed play, following Private Jokes, Public Places and The Bilbao Effect, follows German-Jewish... View full entry
Audiotopie was awarded $10,000 from the 2013 Phyllis Lambert Design Montreal Grant in Montreal, Canada earlier this week.
Established in 2007, the annual grant distinguishes young, emerging Montreal designers who have shown excellence in their work and research study that can contribute to the city of Montreal.
— bustler.net
"The $10,000 grant will enable the Audiotopie team, which designs immersive sound works closely connected to physical spaces through creation of sensory experiences, to go on a study trip during which its members will compare sound environments in the underground spaces of three Asian cities." View full entry
Taking Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey as an inspiration for the mood of the Sound Portal, Arup created an intimidating black rubber shape that sits in the centre of Trafalgar Square but opens up to reveal light and sky within. The facility provides the perfect environment for some of the most thoughtful and innovative recording artists in the world, including one of my favourite Tom Jenkinson a.k.a. Squarepusher I spoke to him about using ambisonic arrays and exploring sound in three dimensions. — cosmopolitanscum.com
The Sound of Buildings is an audio exploration of Melbourne’s most architecturally significant buildings. Available free as an interactive iPhone and iPad app, The Sound of Buildings provides listeners with a deeper level of understanding and context for the selected buildings, as well highlighting Melbourne’s diverse architecture and urban spaces through an exploration of cultural, monuments, government, residential, commercial, transport, education, health and sporting projects. — soundofbuildings.com
So Paluska and Meyer Sound, a world-renowned audio engineering company in Berkeley, teamed up to test a relatively new technology that controls reverberation levels with the press of a button. By using a combination of sound absorption materials, microphones, speakers and a digital processor, Paluska can make his restaurant as loud or as soft as he wants. — sfgate.com
