- Via Curbed

Rendering: LTL Architects

” ….Envisioning Hudson Square Design Charrette, currently on display at the St. Johns Center at 550-570 Washington Street, have sent us some more mind-altering dreamscapes for the future of Hudson Square. Last time around, we had a look at some aerial views of the ‘hood. Now, the five architecture firms involved in the project tackle the problem of Washington Street, which is dominated by the massive UPS complex near Pier 40. What to (hypothetically) do? Why, elevate the block above UPS and green it up, of course! What we would give to just have one of these pretty pictures come true….”

Read the full story

Popularity: 1% [?]

- Via NewYork Times

Bernard Tschumi
The Parthenon (5th century B.C.) and, right, its neighbor: the New Acropolis Museum (A.D. 21st century).

” By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

NO sane architect, one can assume, would want to invite comparisons between his building and the Parthenon. So it comes as little surprise that the New Acropolis Museum, which stands at the foot of one of the great achievements of human history, is a quiet work, especially by the standards of its flamboyant Swiss-born architect, Bernard Tschumi

Read the full story

Popularity: 5% [?]

- Via Wired

Above: Shipping containers, found in abundance all over the world, form the basis for the Future Shack, a self-contained, modular refugee-housing unit. It can be mass-produced with a minimum of materials and is easily stockpiled, making it a versatile emergency-housing unit.

” When disaster strikes, the need for short-term housing is immediate and urgent. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that more than 800,000 people were displaced after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and UNICEF reported 130,000 residents were made homeless by the 2006 earthquake in central Java, Indonesia.
Read the full story

Popularity: 1% [?]

- Via Subtopia

” There we were in this plain white vehicle truckin’ northbound on the I-69 with oversized Starbucks cups in our hands (unfortunately, without those there would be absolutely no coffee in Indiana, a very sad fact it seems), whizzing past corn fields and Rest Areas and strange taxonomies of roadkill that accumulated every few hundred yards or so on the highway’s shoulders (I’m convinced Indiana has more roadkill than any other state in the U.S. – after forcing Wes to open his eyes while driving we spotted three mangled little corpses blur past us in a single second followed immediately by a broken down Oldsmobile, the perfect exclamation point to all that ended up there and would never make it across the road), squirrels, raccoons, mice, gophers, rabbits, cats, drivers (who knows what else) … the road to Flint was already a stroll through a long cemetery….” Read the rest of this article on Subtopia

Popularity: 6% [?]

- Via Jetson Green

” In China, there’s a massive exodus from the rural to urban areas, but it’s controlled because the country doesn’t have enough housing for everyone that wants to live in a city. At the same time, urbanization accentuates the air and soil pollution problems. So, Knafo Klimor Architects proposed an agro-housing project that blends agriculture and high-rise housing in one structure. This agro-housing project brings the food-supply directly to the building, and to the extent that residents can realize the benefits of urban farming, there is a decreased reliance on transportation for agricultural products (shopping and delivery to stores). Plus, with the building’s integrated water capture systems, the project has the potential to reduce water consumption and runoff. Residents could make money off the crops, too. ….
Read the full story

Popularity: 4% [?]

CUBE design & research have launched a new website and blog “Rethinking Preservation’  dedicated to building architecture preservation.. i already added the two links on the right in the sidebar under Architecture and Architecture Blogs.

 read below the description regarding this site as described by CUBE:
” With many significant modernist landmarks increasingly under threat, CUBE design + research has created a proposal that rethinks traditional notions of preservation.  The following links to an animation that uses Paul Rudolph’s Blue Cross Blue Shield office building in Boston as a catalyst for exploration.  The animation is part of a new website that aims to incite a dialogue about the place of preservation in an ever-changing urban landscape.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

- Via Dezeen

” A team of four architectural practices (Modostudio, Adhoc, Barbarela and Bestbefore) have won an international competition to design the Ciudad del Medio Ambiente - or Environment City - in Santomera in the Spanish province of Murcia.

Read the full story

Popularity: 1% [?]

- Via World Architecture News

FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS unveil design for socially, economically and environmentally sustainable housing projects…

Read the full story

Popularity: 1% [?]

Foster + Partners have won an international competition to design a highly sustainable mixed use scheme for Beach Road in Singapore..
Read the full story

Popularity: 3% [?]

- Via DOMUS WEB

The viaduct over the Basento River. Photo from the Domus archives

” The viaduct over the Basento River, a bridge invented for the Strait of Messina, and polymerised concrete space frames: three of Sergio Musmeci’s ideas that explore minimal structures. Text by Luigi Spinelli. Photos by archivi Domus, Angela Rosati.

All Sergio Musmeci’s research efforts are prompted by the need to produce forms created by forces and stress. In a reversal of traditional procedure, the latter is considered a known, and geometric variables are the unknowns that have to be found, i.e. the best form for a structure, the one that expresses its maximum efficiency and that drives the forces through the chosen material – constantly changing direction if need be….” Read The rest of the Entry

Popularity: 2% [?]