Developers have promised urgent action to “cover up” the Walkie Talkie skyscraper in the City after an ultra-bright light reflected from the building melted a Jaguar car on the streets below.

The 525ft, £200 million building has been renamed the “Walkie Scorchie” after its distinctive concave surfaces reflected a dazzling beam of light which blinded passers-by and has now caused extensive damage to vehicles parked beneath it. — independent.co.uk

New York-based artist Thomas Doyle has made a career of crafting minuscule models of houses [...] and uprooting (sometimes literally) a handful of them via apocalyptic chaos. Sometimes, wrap around porches of butter yellow farmhouses fall into sinkholes and blue country homes get caught by tornados. — curbed.com

The name of the upcoming exhibit "Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined" at London's Royal Academy of Arts is pretty straightforward. But the task behind it? Not quite.

The RA is bringing together some of architecture's most visionary minds around the globe for one challenging objective: Give a new perspective on architecture. — bustler.net

Five London-based architecture firms—including Foster + Partners—have been shortlisted in the RIBA-organized design competition to create the new central London Metropolitan Police HQ. The facility will replace the existing New Scotland Yard building. — bustler.net

Chinese cities have recently become notorious for their sheer degree of copying and reproduction, with hundreds of replicas of famous historic buildings and even of recent ones – such as the copy of Zaha Hadid's Guangzhou Opera House, under construction almost immediately after the original was completed. But in London, the Crystal Palace replica is only the most vast – and probably the least likely – of a smaller but still significant series of proposed reconstructions. — guardian.co.uk

Tate Britain has unveiled further details of one of the most significant redevelopments in its history, which includes the reopening of its entrance on Millbank and creation of a new spiral staircase. The £45-million revamp, overseen by architect Caruso St John, follows the gallery’s chronological rehang, announced earlier this year. — blouinartinfo.com

Rogers's 1958 student report from the AA exhibited a remarkable level of consistency: Elementary Construction; Concrete Design; Specifications & Materials … he failed them all. As his tutor concluded, Rogers "has a genuine interest in and a feeling for architecture, but sorely lacks the intellectual equipment to translate these feelings into sound building. His designs will continue to suffer while his drawing is so bad, his method of work so chaotic and his critical judgment so inarticulate." — guardian.co.uk

Winners of the Architect’s Eye 2013 Photography Competition were announced at the Zaha Hadid-designed Roca London Gallery in London not long ago. The biennial competition was launched in 2007 by International Art Consultants to celebrate and encourage photography by architects. — bustler.net

The Design Museum will remain in the building until the move in 2015.
Deyan Sudjic, the museum's director, said: "Whilst we are sad to be leaving Shad Thames we are leaving the building in the best possible hands..."
In a statement, Hadid said the building would be an opportunity "to consolidate our archive in a single location". It would also be used for architecture exhibitions where "the research and innovation of global collaborations in art, architecture and design" could be put on display. — guardian.co.uk

This summer, the Design Museum in London will be offering a glimpse into the future of fabrication and manufacturing with The Future Is Here: A New Industrial Revolution, a major new exhibition about the sweeping changes in manufacturing that are transforming our world. — bustler.net

Occupying some 350 square-metres of lawn in front of the Serpentine Gallery, Sou Fujimoto's delicate, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles will have a lightweight and semi-transparent appearance that will allow it to blend, cloud-like, into the landscape and against the classical backdrop of the Gallery's colonnaded East wing. Designed as a flexible, multi-purpose social space - with a café sited inside - visitors will be encouraged to enter and interact with the Pavilion... — serpentinegallery.org

... we have turned the Gherkin into the worlds tallest penis. A penis that is being gratified by our parliament with a sexual act. A 180m high erection for deregulation and global capitalism. We have created this art work for all those that are suffering cuts to their budgets, benefits, working hours, rights, freedoms and quality of life as Parliament perpetuates the age old practice of taxing the poor for the mistakes of the rich. — vimeo.com

Every city has them. Buildings you walk past a thousand times without noticing. Most are ignored, some are derided, others you might not know exist or are buried underneath your feet. Others are recognised for their beauty but are closed. Lesser Known Architecture, an exhibition at the Design Museum, aims to celebrate these structures. — independent.co.uk