London's iconic Crystal Palace just moved one step closer to its magnificent resurrection with the announcement of six shortlisted design teams, all vying to rebuild The Crystal Palace and the surrounding public park as a major landmark. — bustler.net

In many of our bigger cities, the drinking fountain disappeared along with police boxes, mile stones and horse troughs. However, a new initiative is attempting to revive this public utility, with the help of some of London’s best design talent.

Six of the city’s leading architectural firms have designed a series of new drinking fountains, as part of the Kiosk Challenge. — phaidon.com

Flaring its muscular grey wings like a stingray leaping out of the river Lea, the Aquatics Centre was planned as the showpiece of the London 2012 Olympic Games, a piece of liquid drama designed by the country's most celebrated queen of the curve, Zaha Hadid. [...]

"I didn't mind the seating stands so much," shrugs Hadid, sitting poolside beneath the bulging belly of her building, which finally opens to the public on Saturday. — theguardian.com

In a new exhibition, Michael Pawlyn lays out his vision for architecture inspired by the natural world – including biorock buildings grown entirely underwater and whole office blocks being lit by learning from the blind sea star. [...]

“All my work is driven by a frustration with the word ‘sustainable’,” he says. “It suggests something that is just about good enough, but we need to be looking at truly restorative solutions. — theguardian.com

Nominations were announced for Designs of the Year 2014 -- the event where work from the "cool kids" in the big world of design are sure to be found [...] A total of 76 nominees include international stars, crowd-funded start-ups, and student projects. A winner in each category and one overall winner will be announced later this year.

All nominations will be exhibited at London's Design Museum starting March 26 - Aug. 25, 2014 — bustler.net

Snap, snap! Here are the winning photos of the 2013 Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. First displayed at the most recent World Architecture Festival, the photos will be on exhibition in London this month.

Architectural photographers had to show the best of their shooting skills under four categories: Exterior, Interior, Sense of Place, and Buildings in Use. This year's judges featured Zaha Hadid, Catherine Slessor, Eva Jiricna, Ivan Harbour and Graham Stirk. — bustler.net

The face of London is about to change.

[...] The development surge, fueled by wealthy foreigners looking for a safe place to invest, has spawned concern that the city is sacrificing its heritage for the sake of luxury homes.

"London is in danger of becoming a sort of Abu Dhabi, a sort of Hong Kong," warned Nigel Barker of English Heritage, a body devoted to protecting the nation's inheritance. — npr.org

By intervening in the local planning process, the mayor of London is creating a more exclusive, divided city of private enclaves, designed only for the needs of the rich. [...]

While the Mount Pleasant case might be dismissed as the usual cast of nimbys set against the inevitable steamroller of market forces, it in fact reveals some disturbing truths about how the mayor's planning machine is actively working to make the city a more divided, exclusive place. — theguardian.com

A third of the mansions on the most expensive stretch of London's "Billionaires Row" are standing empty, including several huge houses that have fallen into ruin after standing almost completely vacant for a quarter of a century. — Guardian

One obvious answer to these conundrums is increased focus on "sustainability", along with the questionable notion that because something has a lot of vegetation on it, it must be good for the environment. Accordingly, urban farms are part of this peculiar trend. As early as the mid-1980s, Prince Charles advocated turning the depopulated streets of central Liverpool into farmland, something which seemed connected to his war against modern architecture around the same time... — theguardian.com

To any of our readers in the London area, you can still get a chance to stop by The Bartlett's Innovation in Technology Prizewinners' Exhibition at The Lobby Gallery now until next Friday, Jan. 31. The event is free and open to the public!

The exhibition highlights five award-winning projects all by students in The Bartlett's BSc and MArch Architecture programs. — bustler.net

Architecture is usually the product of multiple, conflicting constraints, so how does it fare in the context of a gallery? Shielded from the realities of climate and context, client and user, planning and building regs, what of architecture is left? Liberated from the obligations and contingencies of a real building, can it jump free and take on a greater sensory power – or is it hollowed of all meaning and left to fall flat? — theguardian.com

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

The Scottish designer, a former colleague of Richard Rogers, is to open what is believed to be the first architect's studio on Tottenham High Road, opposite the police station where protests spilled over into riots in 2011 that spread across English cities.

McAslan's vision is simple: he wants to train local youngsters as architectural apprentices and give them control over their home areas. — theguardian.com