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.
Helsinki-based Verstas Architects have recently been announced as the winners of a competition to design a new central campus for the Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. The new core of the university will sit alongside the campus's original Main Building and Library designed by Alvar Aalto.
Foster + Partners have just revealed a new design for a 19-story luxury condominium building at 551 West 21st Street, on the western side of Manhattan. The design features a cast concrete frame surrounding windows with a warmly colored metal trim that cover the full 11-foot floor to ceiling height.
The 2013 RIBA Manser Medal has been awarded to Carl Turner Architects for Slip House in Brixton, London. The Manser Medal is awarded for the best newly designed private house, and this year was announced in a ceremony at Central Saint Martins in London, along with the winners of the 2013 RIBA Stirling Prize. The jury's citation for Slip House noted that "inside and out this house is immaculate in its detail, coordination and execution."
With Astley Castle winning this year's Stirling Prize last week, Olly Wainwright investigates the fortunes of other Stirling Prize winners - finding that in many cases critical acclaim and awards do not necessarily translate to long term success. His study brings into question what qualities should be awarded, and seems to imply that there should be a greater focus on post-occupancy awards, such as the 10-year award started by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s (CTBUH) this year, and another being considered by the RIBA. You can read Wainwright's full investigation here.
In his three-part documentary series, composed of the films Helvetica, Objectified and Urbanized, Gary Hustwit explored the effect that design has on our everyday life. However, in the process of making these documentaries, he only used about 3% of the interview footage he collected. Now he has launched a kickstarter campaign to fund a book that will make his 100 hours of interview footage available in its entirety. Click here to back his project and make this book a reality.
An interesting article in The Atlantic Cities reveals the ideas behind "gender mainstreaming" in Vienna, a policy that began in the early 1990s and has had a huge effect on the past two decades of city planning there. Initially intended specifically to make the city more livable for women, the principles have proven so successful that they now form a part of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme's best practices. You can read the full article here.
ArchiSnapper is a new, powerful tool for architects which takes away the time and effort required for producing construction site reports. Consisting of both an online portion and an app for iOS or Android devices, ArchiSnapper allows you to collect information while on site and quickly and easily assemble it once you're back at the office.
In collaboration with ArchiSnapper, ArchDaily will be offering 5 Business licenses (worth $119 a month) to our readers. To participate, all you need to do is become a registered ArchDaily user and answer a simple question in the comments section of this article.
To find out how ArchiSnapper works, and for your chance to win one of 5 free licenses, read on after the break...
With the opening of her latest London project, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in Hyde Park, Xan Brooks of the Guardian conducted this interview with the enigmatic Zaha Hadid. They discuss some of her greatest successes (The MAXXI museum) and some of the contentious issues around some of her buildings (Galaxy Soho, for example) - before moving on to her approach to designing for oppressive regimes (yes, "if it helps people") and finally her apprehension over a return trip to Iraq, the homeland which she has not returned to in over 30 years. You can read the full article here.
In his column in Providence Journal, David Brussat questions why parking garages can't be designed to better compliment their surroundings. He believes that these utilitarian spaces should look like they "belong in a city," rather than resembling "a giant set of concrete shelves." He also examines cities which achieve this aim - incorporating styles from Art Deco to Neo-classical - and comes to the interesting conclusion that Richmond, Virginia is the "mecca of parking decks." You can read the full article here.
The RIBA and Arb have teamed together to examine UK architectural education, with the aim of bringing the UK into line with other EU countries.
The move is part of a new EU directive, due to be ratified next month, which seeks to establish more uniformity across Europe by aligning the time it takes to qualify and by making mutual recognition of title easier between countries - a move which would make architects more free to move between countries.
Read more about the aims of the RIBA and Arb after the break...
In yet another twist to the ongoing story of the Southbank Centre redevelopment, the Architects' Journal reports that the Southbank Centre has agreed to back a fundraising campaign to keep the famous skate park (if you missed the potential re-designs, click here), with the stipulation that a plan B be put in place in case the fundraising fails. And with at least £17 million needed to replace the revenue that the Centre would have gained by filling the undercroft with retail units, it could be time for the thousands who objected to the proposals to put their money where their mouth is. Find the full article here.
Even if you're a 3D printing whiz (if so, consider entering our exciting 3D Printing Challenge), to many people it remains something of a mystery: how does it work, what can it do and how much does it cost? Thankfully, this recent article and infographic by Line//Shape//Space, aimed at "early adopters" of the technology, covers all this information (and even some common pitfalls to be avoided). You can read the full article here.
In the latest video from Nowness, director Thomas Rhazi documents the complicated architectural scene in China - focusing on how the country holds onto its identity despite the "frenetic" pace of its expansion and globalization. Shaway Yeh sums up the situation nicely: "what does China really look like, what does China represent? No one knows, because it's a place that's still in flux, it's constantly reshaping." Lyndon Neri, however, points to Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu as a possible answer, saying that he "created something quite amazing in Ningbo, it had a new way of looking at a building in a Chinese way... what he actually did was a modern interpretation of Chinese architecture." No matter where you stand on China's modernization, the video is a beautiful depiction of the historical meeting the modern.
For two months out of every twelve years, Allahabad in India becomes one of the most populous cities in the world - thanks to the Maha Kumbh Mela, a Hindu Festival that is the largest single-purpose gathering of people on the globe. In an article for Smithsonian Magazine, Tom Downey relates his experience of the Festival and sheds light on how a temporary city can swell to such astronomical sizes and still function as well as, if not better than, permanent cities. It is hoped that the research by Harvard Graduate School of Design at the Kumbh Mela can inform the construction of refugee camps, emergency cities and even permanent cities in the future. You can read the full article here.
In preparation for its December issue, entitled The Law and its Consequences, Volume Magazine is holding an open call for examples of local laws that have had unintended - or just unusual - consequences for our cities. The issue asks: "If we consider the law to be a piece of design, can we apply design intelligence to the law?"
The law has a long history of affecting a city's character. Perhaps the earliest design stipulation is contained in the book of Deuteronomy (22:8): "In case you build a new house, you must also make a parapet for your roof, that you may not place bloodguilt upon your house because someone falling might fall from it." Since then, laws such as fire regulations, zoning restrictions and preservation guidelines have become an everyday conundrum for architects, ultimately affecting the outcome of design. But these laws often create unexpected loopholes, which can lead to peculiar design quirks that come to define a city's sense of place.
Read on after the break for just some examples of the consequences of the law
In the wake of two heinous designs for student housing dominating the conversation in the Carbuncle Cup, The Guardian's Olly Wainwright explores the causes of such poor standards in the field of student accommodation. He explains how the economics and planning regulations surrounding student housing in the UK make it a hugely profitable area of the construction industry, while also making it susceptible to low standards which would be seen as unacceptable in any other housing sector. By contrast, in another article he lists the world's best designed student accommodation. You can read the full article investigating poor standards here, and his top 10 list here.
In an article for Fast Company, Chris Congdon explains the key to designing workplaces that cater to the needs of introverts, extroverts and everyone in between. According to Congdon, most office workers need a mixture: places to be around others, encouraging collaboration, and places to work alone and focus on individual tasks. The solution? A "pallette of places" which give workers an ample choice of where to work. Read the full article here and learn more about how do design successful workplaces here.
As revealed in an article on Gigaom, NASA has recently added an extra $500,000 into a collaboration with Tethers Unlimited, a company researching ways to 3D print and assemble structures whilst in orbit. Using this technology, their SpiderFab robots reduce the size of the rockets needed to launch materials into space, and also allow for much larger structures to be created than in any previous technique - opening up new possibilities for construction in space. You can read the full article here.
