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Zaha Hadid says it's not her job to pay attention to how many migrant workers die in the construction of her World Cup stadium. We asked four top architects--Bjarke Ingels, Liz Diller, Clive Wilkinson, and Curtis Fentress--how morality fits into the process of accepting or rejecting a commission. — fastcodesign.com
Philip Johnson was a terrible, hateful human being. And he wasn't just some casual Nazi sympathizer whispering, "maybe Hitler has some good ideas" in shadowy bars, either. He actively campaigned for Nazi causes in the U.S. and around the world.
Johnson visited Germany in the 1930s at the invitation of the government's Propaganda Ministry. He wrote numerous articles for far right publications. He started a fascist organization called the Gray Shirts in the United States...
— paleofuture.gizmodo.com
The video reveals Hong Kongers’ anxieties over political and social issues, such as their increasingly crowded and materialist city and the growing numbers of mainlanders since the city's transfer from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. It sends the opposite message of a very common view among mainlanders, that without China's economic support, Hong Kong would have been dead long ago. — globalvoicesonline.org
"Hong Kong Will Be Destroyed After 33 Years" is a nearly seven-and-a-half minute video by local film studio G.V.A Creative. Set in present-day Hong Kong, the city has become the target of an approaching meteor expected to hit in 2047 -- the year when the Special Administrative Region of China... View full entry
Grigory Revzin, a respected architecture critic, has been fired as the commissioner of the Russian pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale (7 June-23 November). Writing on Facebook on Monday, Revzin speculated that the cause was his vocal criticism of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. In a statement posted on its website, the culture ministry said on Tuesday that he was fired due to his “extremely active” public positions. — theartnewspaper.com
GSAPP continued its spring lecture series last Thursday night with the Belgian political philosopher Chantal Mouffe. The talk provided a brief interlude away from pure architecture and explored Mouffe’s theories on counter-hegemonic radicalization of democracy by the multitude through... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) today committed to timely passage of the National Design Services Act (NDSA), which will give architecture students the same relief from crushing student loan debt, which is already granted young lawyers, doctors and others – in return for community service. — aias.org
"Indeed, enthusiasm for such legislation knows no bounds on the campuses of architecture schools and elsewhere among the emerging professionals community. One young architect, Evan Litvin of Philadelphia, has launched an online petition that enlists the support of architects nationwide for speedy... View full entry
43 signatures down, only 99,957 more to go — Archinect senior contributor John Jourden brought to our attention a new online petition at whitehouse.gov, which urges the administration to award the design of new Federal building projects utilizing open architectural competitions.The... View full entry
As more journalists are being arrested in Egypt, artists are under threat as well. [...]
Political slogans and portraits of people who have died since the January 25 revolution are painted over by the government and replaced immediately by artists. The walls of Mohamed Mahmoud Street leading to Tahrir Square are layers of colorful murals over asymmetrical blotches of white paint. And despite its attempt to silence, the dictatorial white ironically makes a great primer for many of the artworks.
— blog.vandalog.com
Last night on the bucolic hilltop campus of Occidental College, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke with the Los Angeles Times architecture critic, Christopher Hawthorne, about the state of L.A. urbanism. This broad topical platform positioned Hawthorne's interview not as a political... View full entry
According to Brash, the administration had a singular “grand urban vision”—one of New York as a competitive hub for international business deeply rooted in neoliberal ideals.With a radically different vision of the city than those of the working class, Professor Brash argued, many New Yorkers failed to fully benefit from the mayor’s projects and in many instances were left behind. — untappedcities.com
San Francisco is practically the reductio ad absurdum of gentrification: It’s already land limited on three sides by water, and the massive rise of the tech industry over the last few decades has dramatically increased both the population of the area and its wealth. [...]
But the blame shouldn’t go to the tech companies or their employees moving to San Francisco, however despicable some might be. Blame San Francisco for being pleasant, and its policymakers for being foolish
— Quartz
I foresee that major urban spaces of Pyongyang, such as Kim Il Sung Square, will be used as “public” space with a greater variety of urban activities, such as commercial activities and show events. [...]
The last thing that may happen in North Korea, or the thing that should not happen in some sense, is the Chinese model. Considering the scale of the economy and the potential of the North Korean market compared to China, it is hard to picture radical and massive urban development in Pyongyang.
— NK News
Part two of NK News' interview with Dongwoo Yim pushes the discussion of North Korean urbanism into the future, comparing potential development methods to those seen in China and South Korea. Focusing on capital Pyongyang, Yim proposes a "Bilbao effect" development strategy that is heavy on... View full entry
Mayor de Blasio, your idea of a mandate for inclusionary zoning begins to address this crisis yet continues to depend on the tender mercies of private developers to actually produce the units. If you are going to tax them, why not collect the money, municipalize the program, and make gorgeous, genuinely affordable housing your greatest legacy, building it where it's most needed? We can do it! -Michael Sorkin — archrecord.construction.com
Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio: Along with many other architects and urbanists, I'm looking forward to your taking office this month as mayor of New York City, and working to implement the theme of your campaign, the elimination of the increasingly radical disparities that underlie that “tale of... View full entry
So what happens if an architect in good professional standing is revealed to have a minor crime on his record due to being fingerprinted? Could he lose his license, despite the quality of his work? The TBAE absolutely reserves that right. — theatlanticcities.com
The requirement applies not just to new applicants, but also to licensed architects seeking to have their registrations renewed. Violators face a fine of up to $5,000 per day in which they are not in compliance with the new law. Currently only one other state (Massachusetts) even runs criminal... View full entry
Because of Beijing’s sky-high apartment rental costs, as many as two million people—about a tenth of the city’s population—are said to be living below street level in underground storage basements and air-raid shelters partitioned into cramped, windowless rooms. Many of those who have to crowd into these homes are migrant workers like Wang, from the nearby province of Hebei. — qz.com
