Today’s News - Tuesday, September 4, 2012
• ArcSpace offers a stunning church in China and an Eliasson encyclopedia.
• We lose much too soon a master of luxurious minimalism.
• It's a most-of-our-faves-are-back-from-Venice kind of day: Hawthorne, Heathcote, Merrick, Moore, Pearman, Baillieu, Murray - and a first-timer from Australia - are all at their most eloquent (and all well worth reading! more will surely follow...).
• Lubell has a few issues with architects who concentrate on installation design, warning it "shouldn't take architecture's place"; otherwise, "somebody's going to continue to form the built environment. It just won't be our most innovative architects."
• Graves bemoans the "lost art of drawing": the computer "is encroaching on the most powerful tool in architecture."
• Hanscom offers up the lessons other cities can learn from "factors dampening Seattle's green-building aspirations"; lesson #1: "Green buildings freak out the code cops."
• Doig delves into Chicago's experiment in mixed-income housing: "the social engineering that the city was counting on isn't happening...and its outcome could influence other new public housing projects across the country."
• Florida looks into the reasons high-tech companies are opting for urban digs rather than office parks: "escaping sprawl is only part of the explanation."
• Arieff explains how Facebook is playing it safe in choosing Gehry for its new HQ: "The choice might have been 'game-changing' two decades ago. Today, it's a safe bet."
• Grossman reports on the heated debate re: Chicago's Prentice hospital only getting hotter before the landmarks panel meeting (that may - or may not - happen Thursday).
• A corrected link to news re: Goldberger being named the NBM's 14th Laureate of the Vincent Scully Prize (apologies for glitch in last Thursday's news).
• London Met hits back against student deportation threat + architecture dean says most of the students were being found places in other London universities.
| |
|
|
|
To subscribe to the free daily newsletter
click here
|
|
-- O Studio Architects: Church of Seed, Huizhou, China
-- Book: "Studio Olafur Eliasson: An Encyclopedia" |
Obituary: Peter Shelton, Architect Who Made Luxury Minimal, 67: [he] and his longtime design partner, Lee Mindel, were known for interior designs that blended clean lines with references to classical periods to create opulent settings. -- Shelton, Mindel & Associates- New York Times |
Venice Architecture Biennale is on limited 'Common Ground': David Chipperfield's seemingly wide-ranging approach...ends up feeling exclusive and focused on past glories...includes an awful lot of stars...installations by individual countries...display some of the nimblest curatorial thinking. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times |
Construction and society: ...Venice Architecture Biennale is for the thoughtful and the engaged: Common Ground...invokes a spirit of the common good...it also appeals to architects to come together and look beyond the beauty parade of the exhibition and to explore common concerns that could unite them rather than setting them in competition. By Edwin Heathcote- Financial Times (UK) |
Venice architecture biennale: This year's exhibition, led by Britain's David Chipperfield and entitled Common Ground, has a coherence sadly lacking in some previous shows: ...there is cohesion to this year's biennale. The event makes sense. It is serious, but also engaging...the architects involved seem to be quite happy not to be engaged in frenetic rivalry for totems of status. By Rowan Moore -- Urban-Think Tank/Justin McGuirk; Elemental; Herzog & de Meuron; Caruso St John; Valerio Olgiati; FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste); Norman Foster; Renzo Piano; Rem Koolhaas/OMA- Observer (UK) |
Banging techno architecture? It’s all happening in Venice...this time it’s not a beauty parade...The show rebels against the idea of architects as "me-me-me!" design maestros...the message is simple: good architecture is rarely about lightning-strikes of genius...an almost icon-free, antiheroic show...the least corporate and the most interesting for at least a decade. By Jay Merrick- Independent (UK) |
Venice Architecture Biennale: “Common Ground”...It’s meant to be an antidote to the years of sensational icon-building...Actually it’s the third Biennale in a row to try to break free from the icon and, in truth, it does not look or feel so very different from its predecessors. It’s a bit more thoughtful, perhaps... By Hugh Pearman -- Justin McGuirk/Urban Think Tank; O’Donnell + Tuomey; Alvaro Siza; Eduardo Souto da Moura; OMA; Petra Blaisse; Toyo Ito [images]- RIBA Journal (UK) |
Architecture biennale is a very British affair: Despite their dominance at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, the British didn’t have enough original things to say...Where is the common ground? Next time we need to budge up and let the new talent in. By Amanda Baillieu -- Eric Parry; Patrick Lynch; Haworth Tompkins; Gort Scott; FAT; Norman Foster; Farshid Moussavi; Justin McGuirk/Urban Think Tank; Muf; Caruso St John; Sergison Bates; Steve Parnell; Zaha Hadid- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Venice 2012: chaotic, intense and pluralistic: The existential questions facing the profession are all in here somewhere...Where David Chipperfield has succeeded is in his quest to raise the level of debate in architecture beyond the style wars...There is no obvious common ground that emerges...There are, however, shared preoccupations. If you want to know what is keeping architects up at night... By Christine Murray- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Notes from Venice: I was determined to discover what the Biennale was all about, and how architecture could be exhibited like art...panic began to set in...So I stopped. Instead, I began to feel...and suddenly I began to see more than I thought possible...a collection of people with a shared passion...It became clear, we had found Common Ground. By Juliet Moore/Edwards Moore- Australian Design Review |
Editorial> That's Not Architecture: Sam Lubell asserts that architects must engage the world, not just the gallery...Yes, installations should be actively promoted as a way to improve real world architecture...They just shouldn’t take architecture’s place. If they do, then somebody’s going to continue to form the built environment. It just won’t be our most innovative architects. -- Mies van der Rohe; Frank Gehry; Ball-Nogues; Oyler Wu; Greg Lynn; Freeland Buck- The Architect's Newspaper |
Op-Ed: Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing: The computer is encroaching on the most powerful tool in architecture...What has happened...to cause the supposed end of our most powerful means of conceptualizing and representing architecture? Drawings...are part of the thought process of architectural design. Drawings express the interaction of our minds, eyes and hands. By Michael Graves- New York Times |
What other cities can learn from Seattle’s troubled ‘deep green’ building program: ...and from which we all might benefit, if Seattle succeeds in its pioneering efforts...factors dampening Seattle’s green-building aspirations: 1) Green buildings freak out the code cops...4) NIMBYism reigns... By Greg Hanscom- Grist Magazine |
Chicago’s housing experiment: In a mixed-income development [Parkside at Old Town] will the poor and the well-off interact -- or not so much? ...the social engineering that the city was counting on isn’t happening...the idea that design can generate interactions between people who don’t normally interact. It’s a gambit...and its outcome could influence other new public housing projects across the country. By Will Doig- Salon |
The Joys of Urban Tech: Goodbye, office parks. Drawn by amenities and talent, tech firms are opting for cities...Silicon Valley has a great weakness. The high-tech "paradise" created in the 1950s and 1960s "is now one giant parking lot"...escaping sprawl is only part of the explanation. By Richard Florida- Wall Street Journal |
Facebook Plays It Safe: Frank Gehry is an unsurprising choice to design Facebook’s new headquarters — and that’s the problem...tapping Gehry can be seen as avant-garde...The choice might have been “game-changing”...two decades ago. Today, it’s a safe bet... By Allison Arieff- New York Times |
Debate over Chicago's Prentice hospital heats up: Both sides buttress their positions before landmarks panel meets Thursday. Five winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize are among a group of 10 architects who have joined the campaign to save old Prentice Women's Hospital...raises an issue at the intersection of historic preservation and aesthetics. By Ron Grossman -- Bertrand Goldberg (1975); Paul Goldberger- Chicago Tribune |
[corrected link] National Building Museum Names Paul Goldberger as the 14th Laureate of the Vincent Scully Prize: ...Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic...for his lifetime work of encouraging thoughtful discourse and debate about the importance of design.- National Building Museum (Washington, DC) |
London Met hits back against student deportation threat: London Metropolitan University has started a legal challenge against the UK Border Agency (UKBA) for revoking its right to sponsor international students...claimed as a result around 2,600 students will have until 1 December to find an alternative place to study or be deported...revocation could cost London Met £30 million.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
London Met students find new homes: Non-EU students caught up in Border Agency visa row: Dean of architecture Robert Mull said around 26 continuing students had been affected with a further 10 newcomers also hit by the decision...most of the students were being found places in other London universities.- BD/Building Design (UK) |
The Banal: Prix takes issue with the state of the Venice Architecture Biennale, saying "architects are playing on a sinking gondola while, outside in the real world, our leaky trade is sinking into powerlessness and irrelevance." By Wolf D. Prix/COOP HIMMELB(L)AU- ArchNewsNow |
|
|
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.
© 2012 ArchNewsNow.com