June 22, 2011
The lastest installment of our weekly collaboration with Life + Times is up and, appropriately enough for Jay-Z’s editorial property, it’s all about the soundwaves. Click here to check out the full post!
Concert hall design has a holistic effect on audience experience: acoustics reverberate wildly off one material or another, while seat placement is key in producing an authentic listening environment. (ust consider the difference between Carnegie Hall and a basement punk show.) From an intimate 300-person performance space rented out by the New York city local government to a sprawling performance arts complex in Sweden, to a Dallas theater designed by one of the world’s leading architecture protégés, these concert venues appeal to all five senses — not only sound.
Click through for a round-up.
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June 21, 2011
Design conglomerate Poltrona Frau Group (comprising Cassina, Cappellini, and flagship brand Poltrona Frau) is having a warehouse sale, and you’re invited. Well, fifty of you are. If you’re in the New York area, we’re offering up entree into a massively discounted sale happening this week, from Friday June 24 through June 26 (details here).
The first 50 readers to comment on this post will be invited to the pre-sale event on this Thursday, June 23. (We’ll email you the details when you comment!)
In addition, one lucky winner will receive a free chair from the sale. Find out how:
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June 21, 2011
ide@s Gallery in Shanghai is sponsoring a competition to recognize unbuilt works in contemporary China, drawing attention to the ‘unmade’ in a nation reeling from an unprecedented 30 years of growth. Submit commissioned but unrealized works here. [via Unmade in China/ Architizer mailbox]
Work on Chicago’s new Pedestrian Plan goes into action this week, with a goal of zero pedestrian fatalities. Approximately 40% of pedestrian deaths are from hit-and-runs versus a 20% national average. [via Chicago Tribune]
Update on the so-called Colossus of Prora, the monumental vacation block designed for Hitler’s “toiling masses” on the Baltic Sea: a 400-bed youth hostel and a plan for 3,000 vacation apartments. [via New York Times]
The Paris Airshow begins today, and bigtime manufacturer Airbus has unveiled its airplane of the future, circa 2050. Seats morph to individual body shapes and the carriage system is based on (what else!) a bird. [via A/N Blog]
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June 20, 2011
Over at Oobject, David Galbraith has collected a sampling of 18 spiral ramps set in architecture — not staircases, mind you, as the ramps define a building and are not just decorative features on the interior. Unsurprisingly, this circulation method is big in garages and museums: we’ve got a test racetrack in Italy, an overlooked parking structure in Berlin, and the most famous of all: the Guggenheim museum in New York City.
Galbraith also includes the “insane but amazing proposal for a half mile high drive up skyscraper for the 1937 Paris exhibition,” one (unbuilt) example of a spiral ramp car park.
Click through for our personal favorites, plus two more spiral ramps from the Architizer database.
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June 16, 2011
Go ahead and file this under “things that may work in Europe and are unlikely to succeed in big, bad US metropolises,” but, this story on correcting illegal bicycle parking in Copenhagen is making us dizzy with swoon.
The so-called “charm offensive” started last year with the goal of making citizens use the bike racks around Copenhagen’s Metro stations instead of locking them up any old piece of vertical infrastructure. So here’s what happens if you park your bike illegally: City workers will move it over to the bike racks. “Instead of finger-wagging, they will then oil your chain, pump your tires and leave a little note on your bicycle asking to kindly use the bike racks in the future.”
Yes!!!
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June 15, 2011
The treehouse genre is a neverending font of envy for the children in our adult selves. And the roundups keep on coming — we’ve counted two great ones this week alone (here and here). While turrets and rope ladders may not be terribly practical for everyday living, architects are translating the typology into actual houses, from a translucent tree cabin in Japan to the ten examples we’ve gathered below.
Common features in these building schemes include preserving the existing tree canopy (well, duh), capitalizing on natural views, propping and/or suspending structures in air, and the use of organic materials like timber (duh, again).
Click through to check them out:
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June 14, 2011
The construction boom in China has generated some interesting figures — at this rate, one skyscraper will be finished ever five days for the next three years, and the nation holds five of the ten tallest buildings on earth. [via BDOnline]
Livin’ the dream: 89-year-old Mildred Furiya bought her Brooklyn townhouse in 1966 for $16,000; it’s now on the market for $1.879 million. [via New York Times]
The concept of watching 3D movies on a dinky home television seems a little silly to us. Hence, this mention of an immersive 3D virtual cocoon. [via Gizmag]
Architectural photographer Scott Frances has an upcoming exhibition MonoVisioN at the D&D Building and a monograph intro’ed by none other than Richard Meier. Opening June 21. [via Outside the Frame/ Architizer mailbox]
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June 13, 2011
There’s architecture porn, and then there’s… ex-porn stars in architecture. Artist Richard Phillips directed two short films for the Venice Biennale last week, and though we’ll spare you the vacant-eyed stare of fellow subject Lindsey Lohan, this one featuring Sasha Grey gets a pass. You see, it co-stars none other than famed LA architect John Lautner — in the form of his Chemosphere House (circa 1960).
Watch the clip above, and click through for images and details on the home.
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June 13, 2011
It’s a new week and we’ve got the fourth installment of Architizer’s collaboration with Life + Times, filed here and here.
After a sluggish spring here in New York, we’re enjoying a whiff of summer: the fruit vendors are out, office workers are actually taking lunch breaks, and tights and parkas have been replaced by espadrilles and linen suits. Of course, it’s always summer somewhere, and these five beach houses prove that good architecture (and warm weather) isn’t relegated to area codes 212, 718, and 347.
Check out these five projects and fantasize about your next beach vacation.
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June 9, 2011
Semi-transparent conference room and office pets: check. Photo: Jasper Sanidad, courtesy of Studio O+A.
Coming down the pipeline following yesterday’s one-two punch of the AOL art installation at the High Line II and the Apple headquarters rumormongering, we’ve gotten word that AOL has opened a new West Coast HQ of its own. According to the architects, Studio O+A, the Palo Alto offices are “a spatial equivalent to the transparency that AOL was bringing to every aspect of its business.”
While we’re not totally buying the “transparency” thing, we have to commend the online giant for eradicating the “distinctly 1980s corporate aesthetic” of the 73,000-square-foot space.
Click through for details on the renovation, plus many more pictures.
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