Yas Hotel, Image Credit Bjorn Moerman Photography via Arup

Architizer is hosting the world’s definitive architectural awards program, with 50+ categories and 200+ jurors. As part of an ongoing series, we’re spotlighting projects that fit into “Plus” categories, including “Lighting,” that tap into topical and culturally relevant themes. To see a full list of categories and learn more about the awards, visit architizerawards.com.

There is nothing quite like watching the twinkle of light as they glisten in the night sky, or even better, as they reflect off that freshly fallen snow. We’ve made no secret of our love of these winter months here at Architizer, even going so far as to present a roundup of our favorite glowing buildings in celebration of the holiday season. However, that got us thinking— why should we only celebrate excellence in lighting design on a seasonal basis?

After all, lighting design factors heavily into the success of a space— from the most shallow of reasons (everyone knows fluorescent lights do nothing for your complexion!) to overall functionality and even wayfinding. Not only does a proper lighting plan determine the way you see a space, but it even goes as far as to effect the health of its residents. Thankfully, great advances over the years have allowed architects, designers, and engineers to experiment with light in ways never before seen. Whether creating new ways to harness the power of the sun, interactive displays that captivate entire cities, or simply energy-saving alternatives, it’s become clear that these professionals will continue to push the limits of design until the lights burn out.

Click through to see the best architecture + lighting!

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First it was the High Line. Then the Lowline. Now the Vine Line? New York architect and Upper West Side resident Laurence Tamaccio has drafted a petition to extend New York’s captivation with linear green space to the West Side Highway, where he wants to install a trellis of ivy to conceal the structure’s unsightly industrial blemishes. “The Vine Line is a concept to create a visual screen between the pedestrian viewer and the highway structure itself,” Tamaccio explains in a YouTube video about his proposal. “Almost like a scenic backdrop, but as a green wall that’s freestanding from the highway structure.” If he wins, the island of Manhattan will be one step closer to an improbable (but logical) fate of waking up one day under a carpet of ever-expanding parklike surfaces! Read more.

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We’ve posted our fair share of holiday gift guides this season, including everything from fashion to books, but few have captured the charitable aspect of this giving season—luckily, the folks at the Lowline are helping us out with that! The guys— James Ramsey and Dan Barasch —recently launched a holiday fundraising campaign, the proceeds of which will go towards funding the design and research behind world’s first underground park. The campaign features great (partially tax-deductible!) gifts from local designers, including a vintage subway token necklace and limited edition printed apparel and tote bags.

Click through to see all the items featured in the Lowline holiday campaign!

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Iwan Baan via highline.org

Architizer is hosting the world’s definitive architectural awards program, with 50+ categories and 200+ jurors. Alanna Okun, Assistant Editor at BuzzFeed Shift, will be covering relevant stories and news relating to the jury, the categories, and latest updates related to A+. See her previous post on Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp here. To learn more about the awards, visit architizerawards.com.

Robert Hammond, the co-founder and director of Friends of the High Line, has signed on to be a part of Architizer’s A+ Awards Jury!

You know the High Line. If you’ve visited New York in the last three years, chances are you’ve strolled the nineteen or so blocks, from Gansevoort Street all the way up to 30th, that the elevated park covers. It’s a manageable but substantial distance, and while you are on it you somehow feel both part of the city and privy to this secret overarching sense of it.

The park, which runs along part of the west side of Manhattan, looks like a garden from the future. It’s all tall, spiky grasses and benches that appear to rise organically from the boardwalk where tourists and locals stroll. It’s good for first dates and for showing your parents around the city, to keep them from worrying that you’re not eating well all the way out there in Brooklyn. As Hammond explained in his June 2011 TED talk, ”What really makes the High Line special is the people…I realized right after we opened that there were all these people holding hands on the High Line.” He added: “I think that’s the power that public spaces can have.”Aww.

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Beyond the Street, Mengyi Fan and Marc Moukarzel

The GIF wave has hit the architecture community hard. Case in point, Storefront for Art and Architecture‘s GIF-themed halloween party, where architects are being invited to submit their pocket-size animations to be screened at this year’s costume crawl.But the trend has also infiltrated academic channels. As part of Experiments in Motion, architecture students at Columbia University GSAPP worked with Audi of America on a year long collaboration looking at the future of mobility in New York City. What else would an architecture and automotive collaboration produce but GIF visions of a city in motion?

Click through to see them all.

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Alfred Zollinger, a principal at Matter Architecture Practice and director of Parson’s Design Workshop, is currently using Kickstarter to raise money for a “Peace and Quiet” booth in Times Square.

By David Hill

How do you raise money for a civic design project these days? You can go the traditional route—apply for a grant, make a pitch to city officials, befriend a wealthy patron—or, you can try your hand at crowdfunding. A growing number of architects are doing just that, turning to Kickstarter (see our curated profile here), the popular crowdfunding website for creative types, to generate both cash and buzz. It’s an approach that makes a lot of sense in today’s limping economy. Read more.

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Photos: The Future-Predicter

It’s undeniable that contemporary architecture and the business of making it is changing. That has a lot to do with the creative, speculative, and unsolicited work being done by young architects and designers like the peeps behind +Pool and Lowline. The guys were on hand last night at ST[Making Things]RY to discuss their fantastic projects, both of which promise to make striking contributions to New York’s heritage of great public spaces. Continue.

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EVERYBODY+POOL

Architizer is hosting the world’s definitive architectural awards program, with 50+ categories and 200+ jurors. As part of an ongoing series, we’re spotlighting projects that fit the “Plus” categories, which tap into topical and culturally relevant themes. Today, in an effort to show you examples of good candidates for the Plus awards, we present 10 “Architecture + Self-Initiated Projects.” To see a full list of categories and learn more about the awards, visit architizerawards.com.

Given the dour economic climate in recent years, work in the already precarious field of architecture has dropped precipitously, as clients grow more conservative (and fewer in number) and project budgets shrink. Architects have had to adapt to the situation, assuming the driver’s seat typically filled by clients to advance innovative and self-initiated projects. To get the word out, these designers have integrated crowdsourcing and crowdfunding strategies into their work processes. Sites like Kickstarter have proved incredibly effective in realizing designers’ abstract ideas and proposals, either through exhibitions and full-scale installations to working prototypes and components.

The +Pool and the Lowline are among the most successful of these campaigns, and they’re indicative of the way these projects have contributed to and help shaped the development of contemporary architectural production. Now, fanciful urban proposals or wacky architectural schemes don’t necessarily have to waste away on computer screens, but can, in some form or another, be brought to life and action. The Architecture + Self-Initiated Award will honor the best of these projects. Click through for more examples.

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It’s been a long journey for James Ramsey and Dan Barasch, the creators of the Lowline. Since they first announced their admittedly zany idea over a year ago, they’ve spent that time dutifully shopping the project all over town, so to speak, meeting with investors, sponsors, tech companies, fabricators, and community board members. Read more.

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Rendering depicting the “Imaging the Lowline” exhibition; credit: Lowline

One year since the “Lowline” project was first announced, the scheme is moving one step closer to reality. Or rather, a reality. Dan Barasch and James Ramsey, the founders behind what could be the world’s first underground park, have developed their initial idea sufficiently to produce a working prototype of the solar collectors that would illuminate the subterranean park. They will premiere the system–which uses fiber-optic power to filter and distribute light from above down to the underground space–at the “Imagining the Lowline” exhibition that opens September 15. Continue.

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