Former ArchDaily's Managing Editor. BA in Architecture from Newcastle University, and interested in how overlooked elements of architectural culture —from the media to competitions to procurement processes can alter the designs we end up with.
After winning the design competition for Germany's tallest apartment tower in January, Frank Gehry's project for the building on Alexanderplatz has already run into problems over fears that the 150-metre building could be too heavy for its site. The German edition of the Local is reporting that Berlin's Senate has placed the plans on hold because of the building's proximity to the U5 branch of the U-Bahn tunnel, which it fears could be crushed under the weight.
More on the story after the break
Roger Hawkins (Hawkins\Brown), Sunand Prasad (Penoyre & Prasad) and Peter Murray (New London Architecture) have all been appointed by the Mayor of London to oversee the implementation of £100 million worth of cycling infrastructure in the city.
The scheme will focus on three London Boroughs: Kingston, Enfield and Waltham Forest, each of which were awarded "mini-Holland" status - a reference to the cycling haven of the Netherlands which these areas of London will be modeled on. Each borough will nominate their own principal designers, but the three appointed architects, who all sit on the Mayor's design advisory panel, will be acting as consultant and client for a different borough.
Read on after the break for a rundown of the proposed changes
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected ten recipients for their 2014 Small Projects Awards, which recognizes design excellence in projects with a budget of up to $1.5 million and with a floor area less than 5,000 square feet. The award "strives to raise public awareness of the value and design excellence that architects bring to all project types, including renovations and additions, no matter the limits of size and budget."
This year's awards include 5 houses, 2 pavilions, 2 installations and a cafe. See all 10 awarded projects after the break.
A team lead by Arup has developed a method of designing and 3D Printing steel joints which will significantly reduce the time and cost needed to make complex nodes in tensile structures. Their research is being touted as "a whole new direction for the use of additive manufacturing" which provides a way of taking 3D printing "firmly into the realm of real-world, hard hat construction."
Aside from creating more elegant components which express the forces within each individual joint - as you can see in the above photo - the innovation could potentially reduce costs, cut waste and slash the carbon footprint of the construction sector.
Read on for more on this breakthrough.
The shortlist for the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize has been announced, rewarding five teams who rose to the challenge to design new garden cities which address the UK's growing housing shortage. The topic of garden cities is becoming a major focus for the UK's planners and architects, with proposals by the government for a new garden town of 15,000 homes at Ebbsfleet providing the starting point for debate.
However despite the debate within the built environment professions, with some arguing that garden cities are best left in the past, a survey commissioned by the Wolfson Economics Prize in conjunction with the award found that 72% of the British public believed there was a serious shortage of housing in the UK, and 70% believed that garden cities were a better way of delivering this housing compared to how - and where - housing is currently delivered. The five shortlisted teams will receive £10,000 to further develop their proposals and aim for the grand prize of £250,000.
Read on after the break for the list of proposals
Following the news that Lloyd's of London is planning to leave it's Grade-I listed headquarters designed by Richard Rogers, Edwin Heathcote has written an interesting article asking whether the Lloyd's Building - along with some other more spectacular failures of 'iconic' commercial architecture - can teach us anything about how we ought to design buildings. He argues that while high-profile design serves developers well, tenants seem to prefer bland yet functional corporate buildings, leading Heathcote to ask: shouldn't we be seeking something in between? You can read the article in full here.
Given a cavernous gallery space at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade in São Paulo, artist Henrique Oliveira has created Transarquitetônica, a breathtaking installation from plywood, which fills the room with twisted tree roots large enough for gallery visitors to walk inside.
Read on after the break for more images of the installation, including photos of its construction
The Guardian has released its annual UK University rankings, including their list of the top schools of architecture in the country. This year Cambridge University has taken first place, knocking off UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture after three consecutive years in the top spot.
This year there are two new entries into the top 10, with Queen's University Belfast and Northumbria University bagging 5th and 6th respectively, replacing Oxford Brookes and Kent, who drop to 12th and 14th. Elsewhere, the Glasgow School of Art had a disappointing result dropping to 43rd, and the University of Greenwich has reacted positively to their last-place position from last year by rising to 21st.
Read on for more analysis and the top 10 in full
A debate organized by New London Architecture (NLA) has revealed a strong need for civic societies in London which protect the interests of the public in planning decisions, offering New York as a potential model. The debate, which was one of the headline events at the London Festival of Architecture, was organized in response to a study which showed over 200 tall buildings were currently in the pipeline for the UK's capital, which sparked fears that the current planning system was not fit for the purpose of controlling development in the city.
More on the debate after the break
Yesterday, US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced OMA, BIG and four other teams as the winner of "Rebuild by Design", a competition aimed at rebuilding areas affected by Hurricane Sandy focusing on resilience, sustainability and and livability.
In total, HUD have allocated $920 million to the six projects in New York, New Jersey and Long Island to enable the completion of this vision.
Read more about the winning schemes after the break
The 2014 London Festival of Architecture opened this week, with over 200 events running throughout the city in the month of June. This year's theme is "Capital", an intentionally ambiguous theme which allows an exploration of the culture, people, economy and built environment of London. Some of the key topics to be interrogated will be the housing crisis afflicting London and the recent boom in the construction of tall buildings.
Read on after the break for more on the festival and some of its headline events
Insurance firm Lloyd's of London has indicated that it plans to leave its famous Richard Rogers-designed headquarters, which it has occupied since construction ended in 1986. Lloyd's has recently been involved in talks with Henderson, the developer of Make Architects' Gotham City project which earlier this year gained planning permission for a site adjacent to their current headquarters.
More on the building's uncertain future after the break
With the London Festival of Architecture opening yesterday, this article in the London Evening Standard highlights just one of the many threads which make up this year's theme: the importance of foreign talent in making up London's cosmopolitan architectural culture. From Adam Caruso to Zaha Hadid, many of the city's biggest names have come from abroad to study and work in the UK, helping to make it one of the greatest centres for design in the world - but all this could be at risk from untenable housing prices and draconian new visa restrictions. You can read the full article here.
This interesting article by Oliver Wainwright at the Guardian reveals the trend in recent London architecture for "Shardettes" - smaller and usually cheaper imitations of Renzo Piano's famous design which Wainwright says "has become a beacon for designers bereft of inspiration." Highlighting four angular, glazed buildings that are either recently or partially constructed, he questions the quality of these miniature imitations and asks "is this Shardenfreude frenzy something to be welcomed?" You can read the full article here.
Plans to build a new soccer stadium in Miami have generated an argument this week between David Beckham, current city officials, and past city officials. The stadium, which will be home to a new Miami MLS team owned by ex-superstar Beckham, was originally proposed to occupy a site at PortMiami, with a design drawn up by Arquitectonica and 360 Architects. However, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez had concerns over the location, and earlier this month convinced Beckham and his group to consider an alternative location, a disused boat slip between the American Airlines Arena and Museum Park.
Now a group including former mayor Manny Diaz and Alexander Cooper, the masterplan designer for Museum Park have issued a statement condemning the new plans and saying they are "not in harmony with the vision of Miami as a world class city with parks and open areas available for all."
More on the row after the break
With no casualties, last week's fire at the Glasgow School of Art, which caused significant damage to parts of the building and gutted Charles Rennie Mackintosh's canonical library room, will be remembered as a tragic event that robbed us of one of the best examples of Art Nouveau of its time. The intention of the Glasgow School of Art is to restore the building in the hope that in generations to come, the fire will be all but forgotten, a strategy which has been largely well received by the profession.
However, in the case of other fires things have not gone so smoothly: for millennia, fire has played a big role in determining the course of architectural history - by destroying precious artifacts, but often also by allowing something new to rise from the ashes. Read on after the break as we count down the top 10 fires that changed the course of architectural history.
After the tragic fire that tore through Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art last week, thoughts have now turned to the future of the building and the process of restoration. It seems that many people in the profession are in favour of a faithful restoration: John McAslan, who has previously worked on restoring one of Mackintosh's buildings in Northampton, saying that "it is not the time and place to interpret Mackintosh", and former GSA student and ex-director of FAT Sam Jacob commenting that the building "hadn't been turned into a museum piece" and therefore "a faithful restoration is exactly the right thing to do."
Though there has been one dissenting voice from George Cairns, a professor at Melbourne's RMIT who completed his PhD thesis on the building in 1992 and believes that a faithful restoration is impossible. In any case, this is what the Glasgow School of Art has resolved to do, and they have received a number of offers of help. Read on after the break to find out what's being done, and what you can do to help, after the break.
Four firms have been shortlisted to design Qatar's Lusail Stadium, the centerpiece for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Foster + Partners, David Chipperfield Architects, Mossessian & Partners and Mangera Yvars Architects are now competing to design the 80,000 seat stadium which will host the international event alongside Zaha Hadid's Al Wakrah stadium and others.
Read on after the break for more on the shortlist
.jpg?1401996770 "Courtesy of MAC USP via www.mac.usp.br")
