January 4, 2013

Zaha Hadid isn’t new to celebrity or celebrities. News of her design for Naomi Campbell’s vacation home just outside Moscow quickly went viral only hours after it hit the web. Glamour Magazine came calling in November when the publication named the architect their “Woman of the Year“. And lest we forget, Zaha already reigns queen over architects, for now and, probably, forever. Now, there comes “confirmation” of a collaboration between Zaha and rapper, author, and designer(?) Pharrell Williams. Speaking to Hypebeast in an interview published yesterday, Pharrell, who was last spotted opining on the state of aesthetics at last month’s Design Miami, mentioned that he was in talks with Zaha about a joint project between them. “We’re touring around with the idea of a prefab for a house,” he said, alluding to an idea that was briefly touched upon his book, Pharrell: The Places and Spaces I’ve Been.
When pressed about the nature of the talks, and if they were any time schedule attached to the project, Pharrell simply answered that “we’re going to see something through.” The architectural collaboration wouldn’t be the first for Pharrell, who has previously worked with Chad Oppenheim on two separate occasions. Nor does his partnership with Hadid come as a surprise, given that the idea was discussed in Places and Spaces I’ve Been. Still, this new interview seems to suggest that the two are in the beginning stages of a collaboration that might, in Pharrell’s words, produce a “really fun” and “next-level” project that “could change the game.”
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July 7, 2011

OMA has won the bid to design the ‘parc des expositions,’ a new gateway planned for Toulouse, France. The expo center will be built in the city’s innovation center and is designed to be a city in miniature–or what OMA likens to a piece of monolithic infrastructure, a social condenser with unlimited spatial possibilities. Sounds like a space frame, huh? [via Designboom]
How long has it been since you read “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa?” How much longer since you propped open “The Four Books on Architecture?” If it’s been awhile, don’t fret. A new ceramic block set called The Play of Combinations by designers Cibicworkshop allows you to physically experience the modularity of Paladio’s best architecture. [via Dezeen]
First Mark Zuckerberg became the most popular on Google’s newest social media service, Google+, then Facebook revealed a new in-browser Skype video feature, now the head of the world’s social network talks candidly about Google+ and how it won’t seriously challenge his company–yet. [via TechCrunch]
New York’s newest hotel calls itself “the iPod of the hotels industry.” YotelNYC, located in Hell’s Kitchen, features a futuristic lobby, a robot bell-boy that takes your luggage, and a club hosting a new DJ every weekend. [via Business Insider]
Join Frank Stella as he tours the Glass House complex built by friend Phillip Johnson. It’s interesting to hear Stella’s take on lesser documented works, like the buried art gallery, which features several of the artist’s works, and Da Monsta, the much lampooned pavilion which was apparently nicked from Stella’s own architectural work. [via Hyperallergic]
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June 23, 2011

Some unpleasant news: the push to save Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School in New Orleans has failed.
As we reported last month, DOCOMOMO Louisiana, a chapter of the organization dedicated to the conservation of Modernist architecture and urbanism, launched a last-ditch effort earlier in the year to save the school from demolition. Over this past weekend, bulldozers took to the cantilevered structure, almost two months before the planned demolition date.
Read on for the latest.
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