Today’s News - Friday, November 19, 2010
EDITOR'S NOTE: We'll be taking a Thanksgiving break next week - and will return to your mailbox on Monday, November 29 (with lots of catching up to do, no doubt).
• Two final design proposals to replace Robin Hood Gardens leave "shortlisted architects condemned" (that's a bit harsh).
• China's love affair with the wrecking ball sparked by "a prevalent mind-set among decision-makers that new things are always better than the old."
• Another gigantic Chinese plan, this time for Kenyan port (to include an oil refinery, three resort cities, three airports, and a new railroad!) threatens local culture, ("not to mention untold environmental destruction" (ya think?).
• Kuma's V&A Dundee is a ray of hope for a shrinking city; "so too can the rest of us celebrate a ray of light piercing through rabid cuts on culture."
• Saffron gets a sneak peek at Gehry's plans for Philadelphia Museum of Art expansion; she can't show us pictures so look at the floor plan and "listen carefully"; it sounds pretty good (except for "a tumbling stack of glass cubes" that "already seems like a nonstarter").
• Terry Riley to curate the 2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.
• NYU scraps (sort of) towering plan next to Pei's Silver Towers after the architect made his opposition known.
• DesignSingapore invests big-time in a new design academy, and hands out President's Design Awards.
• An "Exploration Studio" wins Slate competition to redesign the American classroom (we wanna go back to school!).
• An eyeful of the first-ever UK Landscape Awards.
• Winning designs in SHIFTboston's Moon Capital 2010 competition are "wild, crazy, baffling and just plain cool" (that's putting it mildly!).
• The Favela Painting project transforms a Rio slum into canvas bursting with color (great pix!).
• Weekend diversions:
• "Cook's Camden: London's great experiment in social housing" at the NLA offers an intriguing look at "the last great social housing program of the past half-century."
• Glancey gives two thumbs-up's to de Maré's "sublime photographs of British industrial buildings," on view at RIBA, "that forced postwar architects to look again at the landscape."
• LaBarre gives us eyefuls of the Snøhetta-curated "ultimate" Nordic art and design show in NYC, and the Alessi retrospective of the company's "love affair with star designers" in Philly.
• Kapoor takes his art home with shows in Mumbai and Delhi: "A return is always going to be difficult - quite frightening, actually."
• Q&A with Libeskind re: "A Hanukkah Project: Daniel Libeskind's Line of Fire" at the Jewish Museum (he designed the installation, too).
• Q&A with Kamin re: "Terror and Wonder" and what Chicagoans should want from their next mayor.
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Designs to replace Robin Hood Gardens revealed: Shortlisted architects condemned as council prepares to announce winning scheme..."If it’s pulled down I think history will view it as a real act of vandalism"...Just two bidders are now left in the race for the £500 million redevelopment... -- Alison and Peter Smithson; Aedas/Jestico & Whiles/Glenn Howells; HTA/quire & Partners [images]- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Not Built to Last: China's Overused Wrecking Ball: The ever changing urban landscape has become a common scene...constructing more than 21.5 billion sq. ft. (2 billion sq m) of new property every year..."owing to a prevalent mind-set among decisionmakers that new things are always better than the old"...main obstacle is overcoming the predominant new-trumps-old mind-set... -- Zheng Shiling; Zhuang Weimin- Time Magazine |
Imam Worries Chinese Port Will Ruin UNESCO-Protected Swahili Culture: [plans] include a six-lane shipping port, an oil refinery, three resort cities, three airports...a new railroad. And though the government claims that this development will bring additional jobs to Lamu, local officials note that only 5% of the population have sufficient skills to seek employment there. Instead, the development will draw skilled foreigners, not to mention untold environmental destruction.- Green Prophet (Middle East) |
Hope for a Shrinking City: Dundee is a shrinking city and a habitual sufferer of low confidence...Now, as Kengo Kuma basks in the glory of a competition win to design V&A’s outpost...so too can the rest of us celebrate a ray of light piercing through rabid cuts on culture...destined to be its jewel...the challenge of how the new cultural institution may engage with the entire city awaits architect and client in the not-so-distant future. [images, links]- Blueprint Magazine |
Philadelphia Museum of Art expansion moving at a snail's pace: ...glamorous project that seems...to be moving according to geologic time...Because the design is evolving...declined to provide renderings...Pull out the museum's floor plan and listen carefully...Gehry wants to break open those solid, classical end walls and attach a tumbling stack of glass cubes...daring gesture already seems like a nonstarter...For five years, every move the museum has made has been thoughtful and practical. Now...Philadelphia is ready to see something that comes from the heart. By Inga Saffron -- Frank Gehry- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Ex-Director of Miami Art Museum to Curate 2011 edition of the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture...Terence Riley will be the first non-Chinese curator of the exhibition, which started in 2005. -- K/R- New York Times |
N.Y.U. Scraps Plan for Tallest Tower in Greenwich Village: New York University is proposing to build a shorter building on a different site after the architect I.M. Pei made his opposition known.- New York Times |
DesignSingapore Council to invest S$7.5m in Design Thinking and Innovation Academy (DTIA)....will introduce a range of programmes aimed at boosting the standards of the local design industry + President's Design Awards -- Kerry Hill Architects; John Clang/Clang Photography; Asylum; Outofstock; d.lab; Lighting Planners Associates; Khoo Peng Beng/Belinda Huang/RSP Architects; GSMProject Creation; BMW Group DesignWorks; WOHA; FARM- Channel NewsAsia (Singapore) |
The Fifth-Grade Exploration Studio: The winner in Slate's contest to reinvent the American classroom...emphasizes the link between daily education and the outdoors, an idea that may sound fantastical but is becoming a reality at a growing number of American schools. -- Greg Stack/Natalia Nesmeainova/NAC Architecture [images, links]- Slate |
UK Landscape Awards 2010: Discovering Great Places -- J&L Gibbons; Capita Lovejoy; Nicholas Pearson Associates; Plincke; Scott Wilson; Land Use Consultants; Remapp; Groundwork London; EDCO Design London; AECOM; Randall Thorpe; Chris Blanford Associates; Studio Engleback; Atkins; etc. [link to images, info]- Landscape Institute (UK) |
Imagine a moon base in 2069: Competitors and judges describe entries for their contest as wild, crazy, baffling and just plain cool...SHIFTboston's Moon Capital 2010 competition...produced wildly creative illustrations and concepts that touch on subjects as diverse as moon-based athletic games and a lunar cemetery. -- Bryna Andersen; Keith Bradley/Brian Harms [slide show, links]- CNN |
Rio slum transformed into canvas bursting with color: Bare brick houses stacked one on top of another cling to the hills of Rio de Janeiro...The Favela Painting project is the brainchild of two Dutch artists Dre Urhahn and Jeroen Koolhaas...the project put Vila Cruzeiro on the map for something other than drug trafficking. [images, video]- CNN |
"Cook’s Camden: London’s great experiment in social housing": ...a dozen social housing schemes...completed etween 1973 to 1981...architects were working under the helm of Sydney Cook ...makes little qualitative assessment, and this, rather than giving the freedom for the audience to interpret, rather restricts viewers from forming a considered response...Martin Charles’ immaculate photography, though, is a delight...at New London Architecture through Nov. 27 -- Peter Tàbori; Neave Brown; Gordon Benson and Alan Forsyth; Alison and Peter Smithson [images, links]- Blueprint Magazine (UK) |
Eric de Maré's secret country: ...sublime photographs of British industrial buildings forced postwar architects to look again at the landscape. His influence is still felt today..."The Exploring Eye: the Photography of Eric de Maré" at RIBA, London until 24 November. By Jonathan Glancey [slide show]- Guardian (UK) |
Snøhetta Curates the Ultimate Nordic Art and Design Show: "Nordic Models + Common Ground: Art and Design Unfolded" on view now at the American-Scandinavian Foundation in New York...draws out these shared obsessions......an illustration of how a communal sensibility can produce wildly diverse (and wonderfully creative) art and design. By Suzanne LaBarre -- Studiobility/Guðrún Lilja Gunnlaugsdótti; JKMM; Helen and Hard; Daniel Rybakken; Jorunn Sannes; Bjarke IngelsGroup/BIG; BC Arkitektur Barlindhaug Consult/Peter Wilhelm Söderman [slide show]- Fast Company |
Alessi's Long-time Love Affair With Star Designers: At a time when you can buy Michael Graves tea kettles at Target and Philippe Starck colanders on Amazon, it’s easy to forget that high design only recently entered the everyday kitchen..."Alessi: Ethical and Radical" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. By Suzanne LaBarre -- Ron Arad; Campana Brothers;Achille Castiglioni; Michael Graves; Greg Lynn; Alessandro Mendini; Ettore Sottsass; Philippe Starck; Robert Venturi; David Chipperfield; Zaha Hadid; Jean Nouvel; Kazuyo Sejima/yue Nishizawa/SANAA [slide show]- Fast Company |
Anish Kapoor takes his art to India: ...admits nerves ahead of first exhibition in his native India..."A return is always going to be difficult – quite frightening, actually"...While in Mumbai the exhibition will take over an entire Bollywood film studio, in Delhi they have merely had to expand an entrance to the new wing of the National Gallery of Modern Art to get the pieces in.- Guardian (UK) |
Q&A: Daniel Libeskind on a New Show of Menorahs: The architect, who designed the installation of "A Hanukkah Project: Daniel Libeskind’s Line of Fire" at the Jewish Museum, answers questions about the meaning and traditions of Hanukkah. -- Richard Meier; Karim Rashid [images]- New York Times |
Looking Up: Architecture critic Blair Kamin takes on the art we live with: “Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age"...gives his columns...greater meaning through their ability to pinpoint what went well, and what didn’t, under Daley...challenge us to consider what we want from our next mayor...because architecture is in conversation with society, and if one or the other doesn’t hold up its end of the dialogue, the other will turn ugly too.- Newcity Lit (Chicago) |
ANCHISES by Harrison Atelier: ...has created the visual design and dramaturgy for a collaborative performance-design production with choreographer Jonah Bokaer...makes its New York debut on November 17... [images]- otto |
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-- Santiago Calatrava: Museum of Tomorrow, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
-- Kimmel Eshkolot Architects: The Davidson Center, Jerusalem, Israel |
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