February 7, 2013
Photo courtesy Starwood Hotels
Beijing-based firm MAD Architects has been on a roll—in fact, if you remember correctly, they made our list of the top five firms that kicked ass in 2012. We were particularly impressed with their recently completed Absolute Towers, whose curving silhouettes add a little sex appeal to the Mississauga skyline. (Never heard of Mississauga? It’s a city located just outside of Toronto.)
Well, just as we predicted, MAD’s wining streak continues—and so does their penchant for wild, attention-grabbing architecture. As Curbed.com reports, the firm has just completed the new, $1.5-billion Sheraton Huzhou Hot Springs Resort in Zhejiang Province, China. Described as a glowing horseshoe—or maybe a half-finished Stargate—the building is one of 30 (!!) hotels that the hospitality giant plans to open this year in the Asia-Pacific region. Click through to see more images!
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December 27, 2012
2012 is almost over! We’ve survived economic crises, architectural controversies, and even the so-called Mayan apocalypse. With 2013 mere days away, it’s no time to dwell on the misfortune of the past year! Let us instead celebrate the successes we’ve encountered over the past 365 days, including winners, fighters, and of course designers. From Peter Gluck & Partners fighting the city of Philadelphia for the right to build to SHoP Architect’s total Brooklyn domination, it’s definitely been a year for the record books. End the year on a high note— click through to see 5 firms that kicked ass in 2012!
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December 12, 2012
The burgeoning city of Mississauga, Canada, just unveiled a pair of curvaceous towers. Chinese firm MAD saw a unique opportunity in Mississauga’s up-and-coming status to create a new kind of skyscraper, setting the creative tone for further urban development in the area. The Absolute Towers, nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe Towers” by locals because of their shapely silhouettes, are slinky, circular structures rather than the typical boxy, imposing skyscraper. They may look like two stacks of wobbly saucers, but these beautiful towers house hundreds of apartments and condos and give the city of Mississauga a chic new identity. Read more.
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November 21, 2012
All photos by Ric Kallaher, unless otherwise noted
How do you present a museum exhibition on scent? Not cool perfume bottles, or glamorous ads for Chanel No. 5 with Keira Knightley or Nicole Kidman — we’re talking about pure unadulterated scent. Well, if anyone could tackle such a tall order, it would be Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Which is why for its latest exhibition, “The Art of Scent: 1889-2012,” which runs through February 24, 2013, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City has asked the firm to do just that. “It was a challenge,” says cofounder Elizabeth Diller, “but our studio has always been interested in the crossover between art and architecture, performance and architecture. And we’ve worked a lot on atmosphere and effect.” Indeed, all architecture could be said to produce effects, she adds, “look at the Pantheon!” Read more.
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September 21, 2012
Earlier this week, we asked you to whip up a clever caption for the photograph above, which features Absolute World, a project in the Toronto area designed MAD Studio and Burka Architects. You responded with gusto! We received scores of entries, and after two grueling rounds of judging, we’ve selected our winners, all of whom will receive a custom edition Moleskine sketchbook. Read on!
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April 26, 2011
New York City, for all its surface-level richness, is really at its most lovely and complex when it’s in axonometric. The city is a layer cake of competing systems and actors, perceivable whether passing under the East River on the L train or traveling over the Williamsburg Bridge by foot. If you’ve ever visited or lived here, you’ve probably wished you could see this staggeringly complicated set of infrastructural elements as a complete whole.
Alan Wolfson, a Brooklyn-born artist, attempts to do just that – via miniature dioramas like “Canal St. Cross Section,” featured today on Design Boom. More images, after the jump.
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January 8, 2010
Links that go great with coffee.
That is SIR David Chipperfield to you, reports Building Design.
Inhabitat explores whether the starchitect-studded City Center in Las Vegas is really green.
Beijing’s MAD sent some images of their Fake Hills project to DesignBoom and they are neat.
In defense of concrete, via the Boston Globe, and ‘heroic’ brutalism. Boston City hall we are looking at you.
Happy Birthday to the Panton Chair, looking sleek and stylish at 50. (via CoolBoom)
The firm BSB Design is profiled in the Dwell Blog, while Abitare explores Tokyo’s Miyahara Architect Office.
Plus some not-so-amazing news for architects: the Architect’s Newspaper writes about the prospects of recovery for architects in the new year.
Happy Friday!
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