Today’s News - Monday, August 17, 2015
• ArcSpace suggests the best new guides to seven architecturally famous cities.
• Hadid wins Taipei's Tamsui River bridge competition with what will be "the world's largest asymmetric cable-stayed bridge with a single tower" (with pix & video to prove it!).
• The competition to design a youth center at the now-landmarked Preston Bus Station is won by a new New York practice headed by Puttick (who used to run Make's Beijing and Hong Kong offices).
• A longgg list of 26 vies to win Doha's Art Mill competition - an interesting mix of very well-known and emerging talents.
• Heathcote's take on how to solve the housing crisis: take cues from "the ingenuity, the ad hoc economies and recycled architecture of the informal" that are "often far more successful than gated suburban communities - and the site of some of the most inventive architectural experimentation."
• Moore cheers the "quiet revolution" happening in British housing that is "imaginative and sustainable - if you look carefully and avert your gaze from large quantities of obvious junk, it is possible to see that some new housing is, finally, not terrible."
• Evitts Dickinson digs deep into what makes BIG's new BIG Ideas division tick: it's an "incubator where architects become inventors."
• Anderton has a great Q&A with Ovink, the "brilliant Dutch water infrastructure expert" tapped by Gehry to work on his LA River master plan: "I'm in, I will move to LA," sayeth the "rock star in the world of climate change, resilient design and rivers."
• Davidson finds some "serious flaws" in the plan to rebuild LaGuardia Airport, but "we should go for it anyway"; it may be "a Band-Aid on our wheezing regional infrastructure, but it's one hell of a Band-Aid."
• Cheers for Snøhetta and W Architecture and Landscape Architecture for doing the impossible: "turning the truly miserable blocks" around NYC's (equally miserable) Penn Station "into a pleasant and calming retreat" that "people seem to be really enjoying."
• Theaster Gates has "ambitious" plans to turn a ready-to-be-demolished 1923 bank building Chicago sold to him for $1 into an arts center that will be ready for its close-up just in time for the Chicago Biennial.
• H&deM's Nouveau Stade Bordeaux "brings classical gentility to the world of football": "It is hard not to detect a slightly corporate feel to all this understatedness. But 42,000 football fans can do much to stamp out the whiff of corporate sterility" (and a lotta white!).
• Showley has high hopes for the San Diego Chargers' new stadium with "Super Bowl-ready features - and a 'kinetic skin' that mimics the sound of the ocean" (can't wait to hear it!).
• Mars explains "why Brutalist architecture is so hard to love," and calls for thoughtful adaptive re-use: "the best way to break the cycle of active neglect may be to love these concrete brutes in all their hulking glory. As with any art form, the more you know about it the more you appreciate it."
• Portland's Memorial Coliseum could use a little love, and preservationists hope a new video will make the case that will save "the elegant, low-key piece of modernism" from the wrecking ball.
• On a brighter note, Mies's Lafayette Park complex in Detroit is now a national landmark, based in part on being "a rare example of urban renewal done right."
• Altabe takes on starchitects who whine about rejection: "Where is it written that architects like Gehry and Hadid should always win?"
• Kapoor was already ticked off at the Chinese knock-off of his "Cloud Gate"; now, he's "even madder" that Chicago's mayor takes the rip-off as "flattery."
• WeWork buys CASE: office design may never be the same.
• One we couldn't resist (on a blistering hot day): Block brings us eyefuls of swimming and rehab pools from around the world.
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The Best New Guides to Architecturally Famous Cities: Copenhagen; Tokyo; London; Milan; Berlin; Singapore; Barcelona |
Zaha Hadid wins Taipei Tamsui River bridge contest: ...a 920-metre-long bridge..."the world's largest asymmetric cable-stayed bridge with a single tower"...will create a new route for cars, trains and pedestrians, easing congestion on existing transport networks. [images, video]- Dezeen |
Emerging New York practice wins Preston Bus Station contest: John Puttick Associates has triumphed in the competition to create a youth centre at Preston’s grade II-listed bus station...practice was set up just last year by Puttick, who had previously run Make’s Beijing and Hong Kong offices. -- Flanagan Lawrence; Letts Wheeler Architects; ;Cassidy + Ashton; Sane Architecture [images]- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Long-list announced for Art Mill International Design Competition: ...26 firms from five continents...Celebrated and emerging architects featured in the selection...involves the redevelopment of a spectacular and historic waterfront site in the centre of Doha, Qatar- Malcolm Reading Consultants / Qatar Museums |
Solve the housing crisis with self-build cities not slums: It is easy to be impressed by the ingenuity, the ad hoc economies and recycled architecture of the informal...sustainable and self-regulating, communities...often far more successful than the gated suburban communities to which the wealthy escape...also the site of some of the most inventive architectural experimentation...if a government fails to house its people or cultivate a functioning market, perhaps those who want to - and who are able to - should be allowed to try for themselves. By Edwin Heathcote- Financial Times (UK) |
The quiet revolution in British housing: Architects are fighting back. After their cause was hampered by the ill-conceived high-rises of the 60s and 70s, followed by the dire ‘traditional’ building of the Thatcher era, imaginative and sustainable housing is in the ascendant...Now, if you look carefully and avert your gaze from large quantities of obvious junk, it is possible to see that some new housing is, finally, not terrible. By Rowan Moore -- Ash Sakula; Proctor and Matthews; Assemble; Sergison Bates; Níall McLaughlin Architects; Pitman Tozer [images]- Observer (UK) |
Inside BIG Ideas, the Incubator Where Architects Become Inventors: How do you turn dreams into reality? Make it your business, say Bjarke Ingels and Jakob Lange: The department focuses on three main things...Perhaps most valuable, is how BIG has figured out how to propose and fund research and experimentation into every step of the design development process. By Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson -- Bjarke Ingels Group [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design |
DnA/Frances Anderton: Henk Ovink: Gehry’s Man at the LA River: The news about Frank Gehry’s involvement in masterplanning the LA River has brought to the surface a man not yet well-known in Los Angeles, but who is something of a rock star in the world of climate change, resilient design and rivers...a brilliant Dutch water infrastructure expert who was tapped by President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy task force to create Rebuild By Design..."I’m in, I will move to LA."- KCRW (Los Angeles) |
The Cuomo Plan to Rebuild LaGuardia Airport Is Seriously Flawed. We Should Go for It Anyway: ...a Band-Aid on our wheezing regional infrastructure, but it’s one hell of a Band-Aid...he has punted on the toughest task: easing the pain of getting there. By Justin Davidson- New York Magazine |
Snøhetta does the impossible: It makes the Penn Station area bearable: Turning the truly miserable blocks...into a pleasant and calming retreat would appear to be an impossible undertaking...Plaza33 is now open, and to the designers’ credit, people seem to be really enjoying it. -- W Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Production Glue- The Architect's Newspaper |
Theaster Gates’s Ambitious New Chicago Arts Center Will Open in October: Constructed in 1923, the building was previously Stony Island Trust & Savings Bank...The city was ready to demolish it; Gates couldn’t let it go. The cost for this fixer-upper, with its grand, fluted columns and brick exterior: $1...one of Rebuild and Gates’s most ambitious projects to date...- ARTnews |
Herzog & de Meuron’s Nouveau Stade Bordeaux: ...brings classical gentility to the world of football, but is still robust enough to withstand 42,000 fans...It is hard not to detect a slightly corporate feel to all this understatedness...But football fans can do much to stamp out the whiff of corporate sterility...“it is the spectators who provide the colour.” [images]- Icon (UK) |
New Chargers stadium design: 'Essence of San Diego': New fan experience, Super Bowl-ready features: ...with varied landscapes, vistas to the surroundings...and a "kinetic skin" that mimics the sound of the ocean. By Roger Showley -- Scott Radecic/Populous [images]- San Diego Union-Tribune |
Why Brutalist Architecture Is So Hard to Love: Tearing down massive concrete structures is costly and wasteful, but we can adapt these buildings...the best way to break the cycle of active neglect may be to love these concrete brutes in all their hulking glory. As with any art form...the more you know about it the more you appreciate it. This is especially true of concrete buildings. By Roman Mars/99% Invisible -- Erno Goldfinger; Le Corbusier; Paul Rudolph [images]- Slate |
The Fight to Save Portland's Memorial Coliseum: A new video makes a case for preserving the elegant, low-key piece of modernism: The 55-year-old modernist arena has been facing an uncertain future since...1995...Friends of Memorial Coliseum have a new video that they hope will pressure the city into fully restoring it. By Mark Byrnes -- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) (1960)- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park complex in Detroit was just named a national landmark: Quinn Evans Architects of Ann Arbor led those efforts as part of the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office’s Michigan Modern Project...a rare example of urban renewal done right...- The Architect's Newspaper |
When acclaimed architects get rejected: Where is it written that architects like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid should always win? In the pages of Hemingway novel about the sea. We’re not made for defeat - maybe especially when we win a lot. By Joan Altabe- Examiner |
Chicago Mayor Flattered, Kapoor Even Madder, as “Cloud Gate”-Gate Continues: Officials in Karamay, China, have not announced plans to remove a blatant copy...he is now also frustrated with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who does not seem too concerned about the Chinese knockoff.- Hyperallergic |
As WeWork Acquires CASE, the Future of Office Design May Start Today: ...CASE proposes to bring their trademark attitude to Building Information Modeling (BIM) and other cutting edge technology to every space developed by WeWork.- ArchDaily |
Deep Dive: Swimming and Rehab Pools Around the World: For much of the northern hemisphere, pools signify summertime. But for many firms...they represent design opportunities in the healthcare and wellness sectors. By Annie Block -- CannonDesign; Robert A.M. Stern Architects; RTKL; Perkins+Will; LPA; HOK; ELS Architecture and Urban Design; Lehrer Architects;Mark Cavagnero Associates; Paulett Taggart Architects; Cannon Design; Cooper Carry; Perkins Eastman; HDR [images]- Interior Design magazine |
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