Today’s News - Tuesday, September 2, 2014
• ArcSpace brings us Meyer's take on OMA's G-Star Raw HQ in Amsterdam, where the Koolhaas/Dutch jeans company "combination seemed like a natural fit."
• Goldhagen's take-away from the Venice Biennale: "It is ironic justice that Koolhaas's very failure to control the message in the national pavilions is precisely what makes this year's show the most illuminating and important exploration of architectural culture in recent history."
• A great Q&A with Herzog re: the Biennale's Swiss Pavilion and the prospect of one day curating his own Biennale: "If I did so, it would be about the impossibility of displaying architecture."
• Bentley has high hopes for Chicago's Biennial: it's "a perfect time and place to put big questions to our designers, artists, and architects, pressing them to start a conversation that will go beyond the expo pamphlets and cocktail parties."
• Hume on the Manhattanization of Toronto and why it's a good thing: "What makes Manhattan unique" is its "passionate embrace of density. That's where Toronto has trouble."
• Sydney's Urban Taskforce tasks two architects to figure out how the city "can welcome up to 100 new towers in next 50 years."
• D'Eramo minces no words about what he thinks of UNESCO's World Heritage Site program: it's "a serial killer of cities wandering about the planet" that "drains the lifeblood from glorious villages and ancient metropolises, embalming them in a brand-name time warp."
• Brussat considers D'Eramo's "infantile essay" about UNESCO's "urbanicide": "we wouldn't need to anoint great places as World Heritage Sites if modernism did not make them so rare."
• Ijeh considers: "What did Scotland do for architecture? ...whatever the result of the referendum, its architects will continue to transform the built environment well beyond the bonnie braes of their homeland."
• London's planning chiefs "are privately seething after being dragged into legal proceedings" about Holl's Maggie's Centre for St. Bart's hospital.
• Berg takes on what Ban's Pritzker win means beyond making him a celebrity architect: "it has also reframed humanitarian architecture as world-class alongside all those fancy houses and museums."
• Rosenbaum's take on the "Zaha brouhaha": why is she "now being uniquely and unfairly saddled with the burden of becoming standard-bearer for the social conscience of architects? Because of her big mouth. Her 'mistake,' as a woman who abrasively speaks her mind without a filter, was being forthright about what most other architects prudently avoid discussing."
• Altabe has thrown her "share of bricks" at Hadid, "but the hits she's taking for the problems of the construction workers in Qatar aren't fair. I'm on her side in her pushback."
• Kozlowska queries: "acclaimed architects design buildings in some of the most oppressive countries. Are they neutral artists, or should they take more ethical responsibility for their projects?"
• Stott rounds up "6 reasons why Hadid shouldn't have sued the New York Review of Books."
• Q+A with Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation President and CEO re: news of the FLW School of Architecture pending accreditation loss, and the school's past, present, and future.
• Efforts are underway to save the only FLW-designed house in Florida (a very cool hemicycle home), and transform it into "an all-around public legacy."
• The shortlist for BD's Carbuncle Cup 2014 is announced (we'll know which won tomorrow).
• Call for entries (registration deadline looms!): vision42design proposal for a river-to-river, auto-free light rail boulevard for 42nd Street in New York City.
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OMA: G-Star Raw HQ, Amsterdam: Just like the denim that made the company famous, the notion of raw surfaces is also at the core of their new headquarters...it is often debated whether the architecture actually ends up enhancing or conflicting with the company's 'brand values'. In the case of Rem Koolhaas and the Dutch jeans company...the combination seemed like a natural fit... By Ulf Meyer -- Office for Metropolitan Architecture |
The Great Architect Rebellion of 2014: This year's Venice Bienale demolishes the popular notion of modernism in architecture...Rem Koolhaas delivers a text-heavy message impaled on the tip of a poisoned arrow: contemporary architects are impotent...most curators ignored or deliberately undermined his polemical and ideological agenda...It is ironic justice that his very failure to control the message in the national pavilions is precisely what makes this year’s show the most illuminating and important exploration of architectural culture in recent history. By Sarah Williams Goldhagen- The New Republic |
Jacques Herzog: The Reluctant Exhibitionist: ...says architectural exhibitions are "an impossibility", but doesn't see that as a reason not to try. He talks about this year's Swiss Pavilion ["A Stroll Through a Fun Palace"] – which displays the work of...Lucius Burckhardt alongside...Cedric Price – and the prospect of one day curating his own Biennale. -- Herzog & de Meuron [images]- Icon (UK) |
Editorial> Make Chicago's Biennial Count: Ironically there’s a certain parochialism that comes with the desire to host an international design expo...It’s the Second City complex...But if this exhibition is more than a tourist brochure...Let’s see exhibitions on poverty, crime, and segregation...a perfect time and place to put big questions to our designers, artists, and architects, pressing them to start a conversation that will go beyond the expo pamphlets and cocktail parties. By Chris Bentley- The Architect's Newspaper |
Manhattanization could be the best thing ever for Toronto: Despite worries about excessive high-rise development in the downtown core, more residents will allow Toronto to realize its big-city future...What makes Manhattan unique...it’s that city’s passionate embrace of density. That’s where Toronto has trouble...Manhattan has no such doubts about its urbanity...It reinvents itself regularly and has led the rest of the world...in its efforts to urbanize and open the public realm - especially city streets - to pedestrians and cyclists. By Christopher Hume- Toronto Star |
Architects say Sydney can welcome up to 100 new towers in next 50 years: The proposition has been modelled on a map of Sydney and shows 5,000 extra apartments around railway stations and transport nodes. -- Allen Jack + Cottier; dwp|suters; Urban Taskforce [images]- Architecture & Design (Australia) |
Op-Ed: Urbanicide in all good faith: A serial killer of cities is wandering about the planet. Its name is UNESCO, and its lethal weapon is the label “World Heritage Site”, with which it drains the lifeblood from glorious villages and ancient metropolises, embalming them in a brand-name time warp. By Marco D’Eramo- Domus |
UNESCO urbanicide? ...an infantile essay, “Urbanicide in all good faith,” excoriating UNESCO’s World Heritage program as an assassin of cities...Marco D’Eramo...one of those critics who believes that modernists should be allowed to destroy historic cities because otherwise they are not cities but museums...we wouldn’t need to anoint great places as World Heritage Sites if modernism did not make them so rare. By David Brussat- Architecture Here and There |
What did Scotland do for architecture? ...whatever the result of the referendum, its architects will continue to transform the built environment well beyond the bonnie braes of their homeland...a guide to five great architectural personages or achievements that have emanated from the confines of this sceptred isle. By Ike Ijeh -- BMJ Architects; Ryder Architecture; Robert Adam; William Fairburn (tubular steel); Inigo Jones (1573 - 1652); Charles Rennie Mackintosh- BD/Building Design (UK) |
City's fury as Steven Holl Maggie's Centre [at St Bartholomew’s hospital] heads for court: Planning chiefs at the City of London Corporation are privately seething after being dragged into legal proceedings...- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Shigeru Ban: Triumph From Disaster: ...winner of...the Pritzker Prize, sets an important example: ...creating buildings for people, rather than glamor and prestige...That’s why it’s so interesting that Ban is the latest inductee into this group of “world-class” architects...Despite the flash of his new Aspen museum...Pritzker win may have turned him into a celebrity architect, but it has also reframed humanitarian architecture as world-class alongside all those fancy houses and museums. By Nate Berg- The Daily Beast |
Zaha Brouhaha: Hadid and the Conscience of Architects: Why is Zaha Hadid now being uniquely and unfairly saddled with the burden of becoming standard-bearer for the social conscience of architects? Because of her big mouth...Her “mistake,” as a woman who abrasively speaks her mind without a filter, was being forthright about what most other architects prudently avoid discussing... By Lee Rosenbaum -- Paul Goldberger; Martin Filler- ArtsJournal |
Throwing bricks at a master-builder without grounds: I’ve thrown my share of bricks at Zaha Hadid...But the hits she’s taking for the problems of the construction workers in Qatar aren’t fair. I’m on her side in her pushback...she should have asked why the construction company and contractors who have control over labor conditions aren't blamed? By Joan Altabe- Examiner |
Op-Ed: When Buildings Are Political, Should Architects Be Politicians? Many of the world’s most acclaimed architects design buildings in some of the most oppressive countries. Are they neutral artists, or should they take more ethical responsibility for their projects? By Hanna Kozlowska -- Frank Gehry; Zaha Hadid; Norman Foster; Rem Koolhaas; Martin Filler/New York Review of Books; Paul Goldberger; James S. Russell; Aaron Betsky; Owen Hatherley- New York Times |
The Critics Speak: 6 Reasons why Hadid Shouldn’t Have Sued the New York Review of Books. By Rory Stott -- Martin Filler; Paul Goldberger; Anna Kats; James S. Russell; Martin C. Pedersen; Amy Schellenbaum- ArchDaily |
Q+A: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation President and CEO Sean Malone: Following news of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture pending accreditation loss, Malone discusses the school's past, present, and future.- Architect Magazine |
Advocates Fight to Save Frank Lloyd Wright's 1954 Spring House: ...a hemicycle family home on the edge of Tallahassee...Spring House Institute...wants to acquire "the only private residence designed by Wright in Florida," and transform it into "a public venue for classes, community meetings, weddings, graduation parties, limited overnight stays," and, of course, an all-around public legacy. [images]- Curbed |
Carbuncle Cup 2014 shortlist announced: Building Design (BD) has announced the shortlist for its annual award for the worst building completed in the UK in the past 12 months. -- Broadway Malyan; 3D Reid; Sheppard Robson; Stride Treglown; BDP; CZWG [images]- Dezeen |
Call for entries deadline reminder: vision42design proposal for a river-to-river, auto-free light rail boulevard for 42nd Street in New York City; cash prizes; digital registration deadline is September 8 (submissions due October 1)- Rational Urban Mobility / The Architect’s Newspaper |
ANN Feature: Avoiding the Greenwash: Don't be swayed by eco-friendly claims. Questions to ask, and resources for answers, to help select products that will best meet green projects' - and the planet's - sustainability needs. By Cameron Forte- ArchNewsNow |
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