Topicfire Architecture News

Hitler's Classical Architect

2013-05-25T04:48:33+00:00

The unbending axis of architectural apologetics made for Speer is a double one...This defense, of course, is exculpatory only if it fails to make any distinction within the field of this expression or to consider any integral relationship between form and function. The more outr� defense of Speer insists that...

Video: Existential Sensitivity / Jeffrey Kipnis and Steven Holl

2013-05-25T02:03:49+00:00

Click here to view the embedded video. In this fascinating conversation, critic and theorist Jeffrey Kipnis and architect Steven Holl discuss modern architecture, from competitions to cantilevers, courtesy of our friends at 32BNY. They begin with the role of high-brow architectural theory, ironically with Kipnis labeling it “a practice for a very...

Funeral Home and Garden in Pinoso / Cor & Asociados

2013-05-24T23:08:22+00:00

Architects: Cor & Asociados Location: Pinoso, Alicante, Spain Area: 495 sqm Photographs: David Frutos Client: Ayuntamiento de Pinoso Budget: 595,580 € (PEC) “The fear of death is nothing other than considering oneself wise without being so, because it is believing to know about that which we don’t know. Maybe death is the greatest...

Unused water tower in Chelsea converted into a one-time exclusive party venue

2013-05-24T21:18:06+00:00

The Heron’s architect was N. D. Austin, a 31-year-old artist known for what he calls “trespass theater.” “It’s about making the invisible visible,” he said of his philosophy. Mr. Austin located a suitable water tower by scouring Buildings Department records for violations with egregious scaffold fines. That can indicate a neglectful...

Skagit River Bridge Collapse

2013-05-24T20:21:34+00:00

Within minutes of the announcement that a bridge on Interstate 5 in Washington state had collapsed, people posted comments saying that this was further proof that our infrastructure was in terrible shape and that America was becoming a third-world country. The comments then descended into a debate over whether the...

Istanbul saves its silhouette

2013-05-24T19:47:13+00:00

Three skyscrapers are to be demolished in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu district for interfering with city's historical silhouette. Decision reached by the 4th. Administrative Court of Istanbul and use licences of the buildings were revoked. Radikal (Turkish)

Solar Decathlon 2013 and Media Day - 05/29

2013-05-24T19:23:39+00:00

The SCI-Arc/Caltech team is hosting a Media Day on Wednesday, May 29th at 11:00 AM. We will be giving media and sponsors a sneak preview of what our project DALE will look like, give interviews and answer questions pertaining to the Solar Decathlon and our project! There will also be the...

Director of Hirshhorn Museum resigns over Bubble's uncertainty

2013-05-24T19:15:25+00:00

Richard Koshalek, the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, said on Thursday that he was resigning after the board of trustees failed to reach a consensus on the future of a long-planned project to cover the museum’s interior courtyard with a temporary inflatable bubble.

Should Free-Market Advocates Support Limits on Food Stamps?

2013-05-24T15:07:19+00:00

Here’s a toughie. Assume you support free-markets. That means you probably oppose government limits on what foods people can buy, such as New York Mayor Bloomberg’s so-called Big Gulp ban. A major reason for opposing such bans is that the government isn’t really capable of deciding what is healthy or...

AA Bilbao Visiting School: “Computing topos II”

2013-05-24T12:19:36+00:00

The AA Visiting School is a worldwide network of design workshops and other programmes organised by the Architectural Association School of Architecture.The event will take place in Bilbao from July 22nd to July 31st, focusing on new lectures over territory. We have two scholarships for our readers interested on this activity, you...

Zaha Hadid-Designed Riverside Museum Wins European Museum of the Year Award 2013

2013-05-24T03:01:48+00:00

The Zaha Hadid-designed Riverside Museum: Scotland’s Museum of Transport and Travel keeps raking in recognitions [...]: the new Glasgow museum attraction just won the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award 2013, presented by the European Museum Forum. The announcement was made at a special awards ceremony at EMF's annual...

Chicago - Five Great Buildings

2013-05-23T23:03:05+00:00

Chicago has many truly great buildings. It sits firmly on the map of global architecture and is the birthplace of the skyscraper. Creating a short video about just five great buildings is doing this city a massive disservice, as there are many and this is simply my thoughts.

China Builds Museums, But Filling Them Is Another Story

2013-05-23T22:24:29+00:00

Jeffrey Johnson, an architect who runs the at Columbia University, is among a number of scholars who study China's rapid urbanization. He says local governments are building museums to create a cultural life and competitive identity for their cities. But China lost a lot of art because of its civil war...

Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski brings an architectural perspective to the end of the world

2013-05-23T21:37:41+00:00

Not every director studied the greats at film school. Joseph Kosinski spent more time with Wren than Welles. "I went to graduate school in New York to get a degree in architecture… but never got my licence." Instead Kosinski, 38, has applied his skills to virtual worlds such as "the...

School for El Coporito / Antonio Peña + Juan Garay + Alexis Ávila

2013-05-23T19:07:33+00:00

Architects: Antonio Peña, Juan Garay, Alexis Ávila Location: Estado de México, México Architect In Charge: Antonio Peña, Juan Garay, Alexis Ávila Design Team: Javier Haghenbeck, Lucía Alonso, Reneé Gutierrez, Cristina Alessi, Gerardo Guzmán, Antonio Peña, Juan Garay, Alexis Ávila Area: 360.0 sqm Year: 2007 Photographs: Rafael Gamo, Zaruhy Sangochian, Courtesy of Antonio Peña This...

Composting toilets are coming home

2013-05-23T18:20:25+00:00

It's about time that we stopped wasting drinking water to flush away our waste; Allison Bailes did it and isn't complaining.

Tudela-Culip Restoration Project / EMF

2013-05-23T15:06:59+00:00

Architects: EMF Location: Cap de Creus cape, Cadaqués, Catalunya, Spain Landscape Architects: Martí Franch Architects: J/T ARDÉVOLS S.L. Ton Ardèvol Year: 2010 Photographs: Courtesy of EMF Collaborators Emf: M. Batalla, M. Bianchi, A. Lopez, G. Batllori, L. Majer, C. Gomes M. Solé, L. Ochoa, J.L Campoy Collaborators Ardèvols: Raul Lopez, Cristina Carmona. Commission: : Ministerio...

Micro House is designed to be stacked and packed

2013-05-23T14:34:29+00:00

Studio Liu Lubin designs a housing unit that is transportable and stacks up like a 3D Tetris game.

Museum of Bavarian History Competition Entry / Mauro Turin Architectes

2013-05-23T14:05:13+00:00

Taking advantage of the competition site’s strengths, this proposal by Mauro Turin Architectes for the Museum of Bavarian History features, on urban terms, a system that serves as a liaison between the banks of the river and the old urban fabric of the city. While do so, the project also...

Help Rebuild Moore

2013-05-23T05:35:34+00:00

Recovery efforts are underway in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore after a deadly, 1.3-mile-wide tornado carved a 20-mile-long swath of destruction through neighborhoods and schools on Monday afternoon. With winds up to 210 miles per hour and a death count that currently stands at 24, President Obama has declared...

Napoleon Flat / FREAKS freearchitects

2013-05-22T23:10:39+00:00

Architects: FREAKS freearchitects Location: Paris, France Area: 170.0 sqm Photographs: David Foessel FREAKS has been commissioned to work on the transformation of a 170sqm flat downtown Paris, Rue de Rivoli. The Rue de Rivoli, which goes from Place de la Concorde until Place de la Bastille, has been built under Napoleon...

London's Clerkenwell Design Week has some hidden treasures in the parks

2013-05-22T17:08:22+00:00

Clerkenwell Design Week is a smaller and more corporate event this year but there are still some great finds.

NBBJ designs biospheres for Amazon's Seattle headquarters

2013-05-21T23:18:48+00:00

Reminiscent of a greenhouse or conservatory, the three intersecting biodomes replace an earlier plan for a six-story office building and would establish a visual focus and “heart” for the three-block project, according to plans filed with the city. The spheres will offer “a plant-rich environment” filled with species from mountainous ecologies...

Gowanus by Design: WATER_WORKS Competition Exhibit Opens Tomorrow

2013-05-21T22:39:50+00:00

Back in February, we had published the winners of Gowanus by Design's second design and planning competition, WATER_WORKS. The intent of the competition, according to David Briggs, co-founder of Gowanus by Design, was to design a new community resource in Douglass/Greene Park that shares the site with a Combined Sewer...

Competition: Create Your City’s Next Great PLAYscape

2013-05-21T21:35:23+00:00

Which city is the most fun? Building Trust International aims to answer that question by seeking professional and student proposals to “turn a neglected forgotten part of your city into a PLAYscape.” Building Trust will pursue funding and planning for the winning design in the professional category, while the winner...