Today’s News - Wednesday, December 12, 2018
● 2018 AIA President Elefante challenges architects to confront climate change: "We can contribute a large portion of the solution. Add your firm to our Call to Action to find more ways to reduce building emissions. We are equal to the task. But we must not wait."
● Pritzker Laureate Doshi pens an NYT op-ed that challenges architects and planners to think small(er): "Small but comprehensive clusters of settlements" could "perhaps create a new world. These smaller settlements would be sustainable and replicable," and "would not waste time or energy or natural resources."
● Florida minces no words about why "mayors should take a stand against" future Amazon HQ2-like competitions that are sure to come: "These bidding wars place cities and states in an unenviable prisoners' dilemma - mayors need to step up and agree to end these corporate subsidies - it is plain to see that Amazon gamed them. Let's hope the experience of serving as such easy marks in the HQ2 game will be a much-needed wake-up call."
● Somin cheers the Minneapolis 2040 plan that "strikes a blow for affordable housing by slashing zoning restrictions - the most extensive reduction in zoning achieved by any major American city in a long time," and could offer "insights on how to achieve similar progress elsewhere" (with links to Capps & Grabar's coverage).
● Dovey delves into Giurgola's 1988 Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, that was "designed to nurture democracy but instead promotes dysfunction. It is a fine work of architecture in some ways but a dreadful piece of spatial programming - designed to stop random encounters."
● Cabilao considers: "What is Filipino architecture? Or is there such thing? The quest to arriving at something distinctly 'Filipino' may not necessarily lead us to creating unique architecture" (it's National Architecture Week in the Philippines!).
● Kafka cheers Oodi, Helsinki's "poetic" new central library by ALA Architects that "provides democratic and state-of-the-art facilities for learning, making, playing, and reading - the social offer is breathtaking," and "everyone is invited to take part" (sewing machines, 3D printers, and CNC machines included).
● Querengesser cheers Calgary's new public library by Snøhetta that is both "a public space and a bridge - between the city's affluent and the less prosperous - this space unambiguously welcomes anyone from either side of the tracks," and "a pleasing space to use for free."
● McCown parses Harvard's new HouseZero, Snøhetta's "prototype for super-sustainable retrofits - a green building on steroids," and the new HQ for the "ambitious initiative," the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities.
● The Robb Report reports on three female architects from Paris, Chicago, and NYC who are reshaping the New York City skyline.
● Zaha Hadid's "legacy project is set to make its mark on the Dubai skyline. The Opus has ramped up the city's architectural prowess even further - guaranteed to be one of Hadid's must-see projects."
● Diaz takes us on a tour of a co-working space in Brussels that is "the most perfect and elegant modernist working space you have ever seen - inside a masterpiece of modernist architecture" (architect Constantin Brodzki, 94, "wasn't very enthusiastic" about news of the renovation. "But it's hard to imagine he'd be disappointed").
● Menking gives us a sneak-peek of the "next great public space - a spectacular new viewing site" on New York's High Line, opening next year (plinth for art included).
● Q&A with Boeri re: his plans, as president of the Triennale di Milano, to transform it into a "major cultural hub": "Phase one, Milan's first design museum and a blockbuster exhibition" (and working with Grima, Antonelli; and Obrist).
● Bubil highlights the "lasting impact of Sarasota architect Tim Seibert, remembering him through vintage photographs and the words of those who knew him. Joyce Owens, FAIA: "If there hadn't been people like him, the Sarasota School would have died out with Victor Lundy and Paul Rudolph."
● Quito on "Living Coral," the 2019 Pantone Color of the Year that "beams optimism. Amid the doom-and-gloom tenor of world politics and corruption in the technology sector, people are turning to color to lift their moods."
● One we couldn't resist: Milton Glaser isn't thrilled with his "I love NY" logo being hijacked by NYC, replacing the heart the Amazon smile, "throwing a bit of shade in a way that only an icon of iconography can."
● ICYMI: Weinstein at his eloquent best with his pick of the 10 Best Architecture and Design Books of 2018, which he describes as "invaluable and impeccably designed"; "quirkily inclusive"; "charmingly loopy"; "enthralling"; "produced with panache" (and then some!).
● ICYMI: ANN feature: rise Up: Sponsors are cheering on their student/architect teams working to find low-cost, sustainable housing solutions in the rise in the city 2018 design competition - but there are still teams that need sponsorship. Join those who are already reaping the rewards of the partnerships!
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Carl Elefante: Call to action: confronting climate change: A letter from 2018 AIA President: If we’re going to make a difference...we need the efforts of every firm and every architect...The science is irrefutable. The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) comes in between...the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and 2018 Emissions Gap Report...the Earth is warming faster than anticipated...current international response is not enough...we can contribute a large portion of the solution...Add your firm to our Call to Action...to find more ways to reduce building emissions. We are equal to the task. But we must not wait.- American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
Balkrishna Doshi: How to Build a Biological City: Designing sustainable cities may require smaller plans: ...why do we not see our cities, our towns, our hamlets as biotechnological entities? Why do we do not plan and build them in natural ways that reignite the spirit of community...Unfortunately, we have since forgotten this soulful approach to architecture and design, following instead the prevailing planning model of big budgets, large-scale structures and isolated behaviors...should we not follow a more natural, biological approach to architecture that would foster small but comprehensive clusters of settlements and perhaps create a new world? These smaller settlements would be sustainable and replicable...would not waste time or energy or natural resources.- New York Times |
Richard Florida: Mayors Should Take a Stand Against a Future Amazon HQ2: It’s time for America’s big cities and mayors to stand up to companies like Amazon: These bidding wars place cities and states in an unenviable prisoners’ dilemma...I am all for ending incentive insanity...mayors need to step up and agree to end these corporate subsidies on their own...the “competition” is over, and it is plain to see that Amazon gamed them...It’s time to hold mayors accountable...and make them forge an agreement to end or limit extreme incentives...handing out huge sums of corporate welfare to large companies and billionaires can be, and should be, a career ender. Let’s hope the experience of serving as such easy marks in the HQ2 game will be a much-needed wake-up call...- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Ilya Somin: Minneapolis Strikes a Blow for Affordable Housing by Slashing Zoning Restrictions: Zoning rules that severely restrict home construction cut off millions of poor people from jobs and affordable housing. The Minneapolis reform is the most extensive reduction in zoning achieved by any major American city in a long time: ...most reform efforts have been stymied by a combination of public ignorance, interest group pressure, and NIMBYism...Minneapolis 2040 is a welcome break from this sad state of affairs...Policy experts and other reform advocates would do well to study the effort to see if it contains any insights on how to achieve similar progress elsewhere.- Reason Magazine |
Kim Dovey: Parliament House is designed to nurture democracy but instead promotes dysfunction: There is the sense that the building produces lonely and secretive politicians plotting away in private luxury suites...It is a fine work of architecture in some ways but a dreadful piece of spatial programming...In the architect's drawings Members' Hall was filled with members chatting and lobbying, yet it is generally empty because they have no reason to be there and the public are excluded...This was a building designed to stop random encounters...The first thing to do is to grant public access to...parts that are currently inaccessible. -- Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp (1988); InfUr- Informal Urbanism Research Hub [images]- ABC News (Australia) |
Karl Aries Emerson F. Cabilao: The ‘Filipino’ in Architecture: What is Filipino architecture? Or is there such thing? ...the search for a true “Filipino architecture” could be problematic...The quest to arriving at something distinctly “Filipino”...may not necessarily lead us to creating unique architecture...With globalization, the manner of injecting the vernacular vibe in building design may lie on how Filipinos adapt to the changes positively while maintaining a firm grip on their history and treasuring the practical values that come with their storied past.- Sun Star (Philippines) |
George Kafka: Helsinki’s Poetic New Central Library Is a Public Space for the Digital Age: ...dubbed Oodi and designed by ALA Architects, provides democratic and state-of-the-art facilities for learning, making, playing, and reading: ...city’s government is recognizing the social role of the public library beyond words on a page and redefining the library for the 21st century...Oodi appears like an inverted boat, a great mass that is submerged beneath a wave of undulating glazing...there are sewing machines, 3D printers...studios for music or photography, CNC machines...can be used for free by anyone with a library card...the social offer is breathtaking...everyone is invited to take part...libraries across Helsinki are thriving as well-designed social hubs with facilities for social inclusion... [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
Tim Querengesser: Calgary’s New Public Library Opens with Ambition and Style: Snøhetta’s library design is best contemplated as a public space and a bridge - between the city’s affluent downtown and the less prosperous space to the east: ...debuted to effervescent praise...its details are impressive...Unlike the private buildings that define Calgary’s urban revitalization, this space unambiguously welcomes anyone from either side of the tracks...a pleasing space to use for free. -- Craig Dykers; Sarah Meilleur; DIALOG [images]- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
James McCown: Harvard Opens Snøhetta-Designed Prototype for Super-Sustainable Retrofits: Dubbed HouseZero, the building uses data-collecting sensors, passive ventilation, low embodied energy materials, and geothermal wells, among other strategies: ...a green building on steroids...a worldwide research source for sustainably retrofitting existing buildings...part of an ambitious...initiative called the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (CGBC)...under the auspices of the university’s Graduate School of Design. The program’s headquarters will be HouseZero. [images]- Metropolis Magazine |
Three Female Architects Changing New York City: Ambitious new projects are reshaping the skyline: French architect Françoise Raynaud, who cut her teeth working with Jean Nouvel before founding her own Paris-based firm, Loci Anima, is the creative genius behind Greenwich West...At 30 stories high, it will be one of the tallest buildings designed by a female architect...Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang...Her brainchild is 11 Hoyt, a 57-story condominium that will be one of the tallest towers in Downtown Brooklyn...And Deborah Berke...oversaw 40 East End Avenue in Manhattan. -- Sébastien Ségers Architecte; Michaelis Boyd Associates; Hollander Design Landscape Architects- Robb Report |
ME Dubai, Zaha Hadid's Legacy Project, Is Set To Make Its Mark On The Dubai Skyline: ...the 95m-high The Opus building has ramped up the city's architectural prowess even further...the architect personally designed all of the [hotel's] interiors and exteriors...guaranteed to be one of Hadid's must-see legacy projects. [images]- Forbes |
Jesus Diaz: This coworking space is the most elegant office I’ve ever seen. Gorgeous! ...new office by coworking space company Fosbury & Sons in Brussels, Belgium...is perfect for two reasons. First: It’s inside a masterpiece of modernist architecture...Designed by Belgian-Polish architect Constantin Brodzki - who is 94 now...Every element...seems to have been there forever. As if Brodzki himself had originally put them there...Interestingly, Brodzki told Wallpaper that he wasn’t very enthusiastic when he got news that the building was going to be renovated. But it’s hard to imagine he’d be disappointed... -- Going East [images]- Fast Company / Co.Design |
William Menking: New York’s High Line prepares to open its next great public space: ...the park’s viewing spots are increasingly being blocked by new buildings...preparing a spectacular new viewing site along the elevated public/private park. The space is a spur off the main trunk line of the old rail bed...The overlook...is currently being prepared to house a plinth [for] a rotating series of sculptures... -- James Corner Field Operations; Diller Scofidio + Renfro [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Stefano Boeri on his plans to transform Milan’s Triennale into a ‘major cultural hub’: As he celebrates his first year as president of the Triennale di Milano...he talks about his plans...Phase one, Milan’s first design museum and a blockbuster exhibition...."We are working with Joseph Grima, creative director of Design Academy Eindhoven...One day, I would like to be able to compare us to The Barbican in London or the Centre Pompidou in Paris...we must look beyond nostalgia and the memory of the past and focus on young talents too. 2020 will see the first retrospective of...Bjarke Ingels..." -- Paola Antonelli; Hans Ulrich Obrist- Wallpaper* |
Harold Bubil: The lasting impact of Sarasota architect Tim Seibert: Remembering him through vintage photographs and the words of those who knew him: Edward John “Tim” Seibert was one of Sarasota’s most influential architects...in his later years...the overhaul of Sarasota’s built environment left him somewhat dismayed...He was among the original architects of the midcentury modern movement that came to be known as the “Sarasota School"...Joyce Owens, FAIA: “If there hadn’t been people like him, the Sarasota School would have died out with Victor Lundy and Paul Rudolph." -- Frank Folsom Smith; Sam Holladay/Seibert Architects; Jerry Sparkman/Sweet Sparkman architects; Jonathan Parks; Christopher Wilson; Carl Abbott; Sarasota Architectural Foundation- Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida) |
Anne Quito: The 2019 Pantone Color of the Year beams optimism: “Living Coral,” a peachy shade of orange with a golden undertone...embodies playfulness, energy, and a yearning to reconnect with nature...the pervasiveness of cheerful shades hearkens a clamor for optimism and positive human connections. Amid the doom-and-gloom tenor of world politics and corruption in the technology sector, people are turning to color to lift their moods- Quartz |
What the designer of ‘I love NY’ thinks of the ‘I Amazon NY’ logo: New York bent over backwards to score...Amazon HQ...Yet nothing encapsulates just how much the state gave away than what it did to its own logo...the city replaced the famous “I love NY” logo with “I Amazon NY.” The Amazon arrow-smile took place of the heart. Or, perhaps, it skewered it...Milton Glaser...throwing a bit of shade in a way that only an icon of iconography can. “In this particular case, the Amazon logo is not very harmonious with the rest of the logo.”- Fast Company / Co.Design |
ANN feature: Norman Weinstein: Best Architecture and Design Books of 2018: 10 Books to deepen historical awareness and stretch imagination.- ArchNewsNow.com |
ANN feature: rise Up - be part of the solution for Africa's housing crisis: Sponsors are cheering on their student/architect teams working to find low-cost, sustainable housing solutions - but there are still teams that need sponsorship. Join those who are already reaping the rewards of the partnerships!- ArchNewsNow.com |
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