• Why, "in the name of universal design and equality, do architects continue to design uniform one-size-fits-all environments?" Blame Plato's philosophy of essentialism.
• Iovine reports on the competition heating up to build NYC's own (massive) version of Silicon Valley.
• Politics puts the kibosh on plans for the Royal Alberta Museum.
• Arieff cheers Baker's ability to prove "designing for density doesn't have to be ugly, or scary."
• Litt cheers the renewal of a Bucky/Kelly project that "has struck generations of Clevelanders as something of a lovable folly" so it now "has a second shot at the wider attention it truly deserves."
• British architects fume over the Foreign Office tapping U.S. firms in a procurement process that scores 80% on cost and 20% on quality: "It says to the rest of the world that we are a mean, penny-pinching, unimaginative bunch of people."
• Ingels anointed WSJ's inaugural Innovator of the Year in architecture: "Ingenious solutions to messy design challenges have become a BIG trademark."
• We couldn't resist: the next generation of urban agriculture could include shipping containers.
• Weekend diversions:
• Kimmelman finds "Design With the Other 90%: Cities" at the U.N. an "inspired show about remaking the world...And that's thrilling."
• Heathcote and Merrick find "Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-35" a "superb show" that showcases "radical work of great prescience and experimental power...its influence is still felt today."
• Lots of Rem + "Metabolism": Worrall says "the material excavated is quite simply stupendous" that shows how much "the insipid language and perfunctory themes emanating from the UIA Congress underscores the dispiriting realization of how much the aura and promise evoked by the word "reconstruction" has evaporated in the Japan of today."
• Q&A: Rem talks about his latest book "Project Japan."
• He had lots to say in a dialogue Mori Art Museum director: "Without Tange, there would have been no metabolism."
• Liddell reports that "Tadao Ando: Sights on the Mainland" in Tokyo "seems to place him alongside other media-savvy globalist architects, whose shimmering creations could be dropped down from the sky almost anywhere in the world to astound the baffled locals."
• "Imperfect Health: the Medicalization of Architecture" at the CCA "reveals contradictions in how architecture and urban environments engage and influence health."
• McGuirk says Hustwit's "Urbanized" is a "brave and timely movie that manages to strike almost exactly the right tone."
• Levy and Hustwit talk about urbanist strategies: "We need more city-to-city sharing of ideas and projects. I'm surprised by how little of that happens now."
• Halprin's posthumously published memoir displays "an innate modesty" that doesn't "specify if the places were changed for the better - as indeed they were."
• Dvir delves into architectural historian Kroyanker, who "wouldn't trade the present for another period, but his many articles and books about Jerusalem are filled with affection for the good taste and craftsmanship of days of yore."
To subscribe to the free daily newsletter
click here
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.
