 |
JEAN NOUVEL PRITZKER PRIZE
In a world where so much contemporary construction is so repetitively mundane, in the majority, and so dissociatively egotistical, in the contrasting minority, it is a deepening pleasure to celebrate poetically bold, eloquently sensitive, contextually beautiful work.
And that's just the celebration we find in the 2008 Pritzker Prize award to Jean Nouvel of France. — Published 2008.0402
 |
 |
INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE
International practice sounds glamorous and fun, but is it something that your firm should consider?
Overseas work can be expensive, disruptive, and a serious distraction. Some firms have even destroyed their domestic practice by diverting too much energy and too many resources to foreign work. — Published 2008.0326
|
 |
AIA HOUSING AWARDS 2008
Urban Infill 02 is a prototype for affordable single-family housing designed by Johnsen Schmaling Architects for a small urban lot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Two interlocking modular forms compose the house: a two-story wood-clad cube and a bar-shaped, single-story concrete block. — Published 2008.0326
|
 |
DETAILING THE SOBEK HOUSE
The glass-and-steel R128 House is located on a steeply sloped site with panoramic views of Stuttgart, Germany. Although this house seems sterile and completely transparent, it is a home where comfort and privacy issues for the inhabitants have been met. It is a completely recyclable, emission-free, energy self-sufficient building. — Published 2008.0319
|
 |
LES ARCHIVES DÉPARTEMENTALES
There is something inherently abstract about the government archive. Storage of old records can too easily be seen as a utility function free of aesthetic aspiration. Compared to a classic library program, an archive might be seen as exaggerating the stacks while minimizing the interacting human element. In some archives this tendency leads to the place where the technical function of storage obliterates the impulse for architecture. — Published 2008.0319
|
 |
LIVABLE BUILDINGS AWARDS
The inaugural Livable Buildings Awards spotlight buildings that excel not only in design and resource efficiency, but also in user satisfaction.
Initiated in 2007 by the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California, Berkeley, the awards program recognizes buildings that have been evaluated using CBE's Occupant Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Survey and received one of the topmost scores. — Published 2008.0312
|
 |
FIRST HONG KONG BIENNALE
Construction frenzy may have taken hold of Shanghai and Beijing, not to mention China's hundreds of other towns and cities. But for the past ten years, Hong Kong has floated behind serenely, like a successful, rather conservative older cousin.
Still, there are signs that the city is developing something that other Chinese cities lack: public discourse. Its first architecture biennale, running through March 15, 2008, headlines a growing public interest in the built environment. — Published 2008.0227
|
 |
ENGINEERING SIDRA TREES
The Education City Convention Center on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar, designed by Arata Isozaki, includes a giant structure resembling two intertwined trees to support the building's exterior canopy. Used in lieu of vertical columns, the 250-meter- (820-foot-) long, doubly curved steel tree structure forms the signature entrance to the convention center, currently under construction. — Published 2008.0227
|
 |
PHOTOVOLTAIC HOME SYSTEM
Installing a full-scale intertie photovoltaic (PV) system on a home is the king of solar investments. To allow good time for decision-making, expect the entire process to take 90 days or more. With a really serious focus on conserving and altering energy consumption patterns, expect the process to take six months.
Here's a list of the things that need to be done: — Published 2008.0220
|
 |
HEAVY THINGS SEEM TO FLOAT IN AIR
Somewhere between the nostalgic musings of I. M. Pei and the flickering of an independent-minded slideshow, noted Marcel Breuer expert Barry Bergdoll expressed perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Breuer's architecture: "by the end of his career, even heavy things seem to float in air." Bergdoll illustrated his point with a series of striking images in which massive concrete structures balance as if on tiptoe. — Published 2008.0206
|
Modern Architecture around the World page: [
