Designers & Books editors Stephanie Salomon and Steve Kroeter sat down with Denise Scott Brown for a conversation centered around Learning from Las Vegas, the seminal work penned by Scott Brown, Robert Venturi, and Steven Izenour in 1972. The must-read interview reveals some fantastic insight into Scott Brown's personal and professional life - her unending love of neon (one which led her to Las Vegas), her distaste for the "tyranny of white paper" (which gravely afflicted the design of the first edition of Learning from Las Vegas),as well as her - rather surprising - position on awarding group creativity. Read the full interview here and check out some select quotes from the interview, after the break.
Think Space has now launched the second competition in its MONEY cycle: Culture & Society, to be jurored by Pedro Gadanho, the Curator of Contemporary Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Details about the competition - and how to participate - after the break.
New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman puts forward his opinion on what should be done about the new breed of supertall residential buildings threatening to place Central Park "inside the world’s biggest chessboard". While he accepts that they may be an important factor in bringing wealth (and tax revenue) to New York, he offers some simple changes in legislation that could protect the city's famous skyline from abuse by high-power development firms. Read the full article here.
About 40% of the area of Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany, is made up of green areas, cemeteries, sports facilities, gardens, parks and squares. For the first time ever, the city has decided to unite them together via pedestrian and cycle routes. It's all part of the "Green Network Plan," which aims to eliminate the need for vehicles in Hamburg over the next 20 years.
According to city spokeswoman Angelika Fritsch, the project will help to turn the city into a one-of-a-kind, integrated system: "Other cities, including London, have green rings, but the green network will be unique in covering an area from the outskirts to the city centre. In 15 to 20 years you'll be able to explore the city exclusively on bike and foot."
2013 was a year of stories that were intriguing, exciting, disappointing and - sometimes - downright hilarious.As is traditional at this time of year, many critics are rounding up their highlights of the past 12 months.Perhaps the most entertaining of the roundups is Olly Wainwright's of the Guardian; Wainwright took 10 big stories from this year and twisted them into new year's resolutions - offering up helpful advice such as "don't be afraid of copying", "be nice to skateboarders", and the Walkie-Scorchie inspired "don't melt things". Other critics, though, had more sensible suggestions for what went right and wrong in 2013 - read on after the break to find out more.
In an interview with Spanish newspaper El País, Lu Wenyu defends her husband Wang Shu for solely receiving the Pritzker Prize in 2012. Despite the fact that the couple co-founded Amateur Architecture Studio and have worked side by side ever since, Wengyu maintains that her husband would have shared the Prize with her - she just didn't want it.
https://www.archdaily.com/463985/wang-shu-s-partner-lu-wenyu-i-never-wanted-a-pritzkerPola Mora
"Architectural education is very abstract." Virginia Tech professors and Rural Studio alumni Keith and Marie Zawistowski sit down to talk about the importance of a hands-on experience, suggesting a fundamental restructuring of curriculums. With projects such as the Masonic Ampitheater, they — together with their students — set out to prove that somethings are simply solved by building. Read the full article here, "What Architecture Schools Get Wrong"
https://www.archdaily.com/463666/we-need-more-building-in-architecture-schoolJose Luis Gabriel Cruz
David Adjaye has been selected to design what will be the centerpiece of the largest redevelopment project in Africa’s history. The British architect, who spent his childhood growing up in Uganda, recently presented the vision alongside designer and Made in Africa Foundation co-founder Ozwald Boateng Obe and CEO Chris Cleverly.
The 65-hectare vision, which is aimed to redevelop the Naguru and Nakawa areas of Uganda's capital city, will include everything needed for a functioning, vibrant micro-city: affordable homes, educational facilities, office space, shopping and entertainment centers, and more. Adjaye’s contribution will be a massive office complex made up of 10, conoidal towers that form a circular, public plaza at its center.
As part of their coverage of the Global Agenda Council on Design and Innovation, Grasp Magazine interviewed Joi Ito, director of MIT's Media Lab. He voices his opinion that current strategies for masterplanning do not work, as designers struggle to reliably "predict and cause a future to occur" (a better approach is to enable and empower innovation on a grass-roots level); that designers need to find the right balance between intuition and data; and that new technologies should not just improve existing systems, but preferably overhaul them entirely. You can read the full article here.
A scheme to paint a whole favela in Rio de Janeiro, successfully funded via Kickstarter in October. Image Courtesy of Favela Painting’s Kickstarter Page
In this interview with Grasp Magazine Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, explains his belief that in order to develop solutions to the complex problems found in cities, the only successful approach is from the bottom-up. In order to make this possible, he says, we need to democratize the design process by encouraging and empowering more people to engage in design, by operating with 'codes' rather than 'blueprints' which invite further contribution. Platforms like Kickstarter are one way that this process is already in motion. You can read the full article here.
Foster + Partners has unveiled a scheme that aims to transform London’s railways into cycling freeways. The seemingly plausible proposal, which was designed with the help of landscape firm Exterior Architectureand transportation consultant Space Syntax, would connect more than six million residents to an elevated network of car-free bicycle paths built above London’s existing railway lines if approved.
"SkyCycle is a lateral approach to finding space in a congested city," said Norman Foster, who is both a regular cyclist and the president of Britain's National Byway Trust. "By using the corridors above the suburban railways, we could create a world-class network of safe, car free cycle routes that are ideally located for commuters."
Architectural photographer Victor Enrich has shared with ArchDaily a series of 88 images — one for every key in the classical piano — exploring the various formal possibilities of the NH Deutscher Kaiser Hotel in Munich, Germany. "I found it beautiful," says Enrich, "to connect two distinct artistic disciplines such as photography and computer graphics with the piano." See further illustrations and read a full description of his thought process following the break.
https://www.archdaily.com/463163/photographer-victor-enrich-reshapes-an-existing-hotel-88-timesJose Luis Gabriel Cruz
Our mission is to provide inspiration, knowledge and tools to the architects who will have the challenge to face the urban growth of the next 40 years.
We understand that each of the thousand of projects that we feature every year can transfer knowledge from the firms to other architects around the world, through the photos, details, diagrams and their own descriptions.
But we feel that there is a very important structural layer in these projects that can only be understood by actually knowing the architects behind them. And that’s why we started our interview program when we launched ArchDaily in 2008.
Laboratorio de Arquitectura Dominicana (LAD) has been selected to curate the Dominican Republic’s first pavilion for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Developed by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and inspired by Mussolini's 1942, the “exhibition will explore modern attitudes and local narratives around the 1955 Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World.”
Three teams have been shortlisted from a longlist of ten for the renovation of Washington DC’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - the only library and D.C. building ever designed by Mies van der Rohe. The three competing teams are:
Videos
Speed Pitch: Philip Parsons & Federico Parolotto (screen shot)
How will data shape mobility in future mega-cites? This is precisely what three innovation teams are striving to answer for the 2014 Audi Urban Future Award. Review each team’s revolutionary idea after the break and cast your vote on the most innovative solution here. The winner of the voting will be announced by Audi's CEO, Rupert Stadler, at the International CES in Las Vegas on January 6, 2014, and will be one participant in next year's Audi Urban Future Award.
Alan Faena — prominent argentine developer — is partnering with an all-star cast of celebrated artists, architects and Hollywood darlings to revive the decadence of the roaring twenties, envisioning a booming cultural "epicenter" for the city of Miami. The development, Faena Miami Beach, would include the restoration of the historic Saxony Hotel (the original symbol of opulent resorts along Florida beaches), the construction of new luxury apartments by Foster + Partners and the Rem Koolhaas/OMA-designed Faena Arts Center and Artist Residency. Review them all after the break.
https://www.archdaily.com/462667/star-architects-and-artists-recruited-to-design-faena-district-of-miami-beachJose Luis Gabriel Cruz
Ma Yansong of MAD recently presented a 600,000 square meter urban design proposal for the city of Nanjing titled, "Shanshui Experiment Complex," at the 2013 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architecture in Shenzhen, China. The concept takes into account the culture, nature and history of Nanjing while reconsidering the methodology in which Chinese cities are built.
https://www.archdaily.com/462503/mad-envisions-more-natural-chinese-cities-in-the-futureJose Luis Gabriel Cruz
The relationship between Architecture and Power has been the main character in the urban transformation with no space-time boundaries. Architecture has historically demonstrated its Power in creating different urban landscapes capable of influencing spaces that are lived.
Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) have been commissioned to design of a new urban development project on a 45 hectare site in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The competition-winning proposal comprises a transportation hub including five underground railway stations, a border control point and numerous commercial areas. Above ground there will be a range of tower blocks of different heights with apartments, shops and offices to form multi-functional city quarters.
Hekker began studying interior architecture and spatial design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam in 2008, but temporarily left her studies to pursue traveling. In 2010, she worked as a junior designer at Horecawerf Amsterdam and continued her travels thereafter through Asia, New Zealand and Australia in 2011. Upon her return, she reenrolled at the Willem de Kooning Academy and received her bachelor of design degree in interior architecture and spatial design in 2013. Her final graduation project was also nominated for the Drempel and BNI prizes.
Where does Hekker find inspiration for her designs? “I get inspired by the world around me: shapes, buildings ... But I always use myself as a starting point: what do I want to see or feel here, what do I expect?” she says. “This helps to find out what others would require of a place.”
Trailing Situ Studio’s recycled lumber heart, Young Projects has been chosen to design the annual Times Square Valentine’s Day installation for lovers in the Big Apple. Made in collaboration with fabricator Kammental, “Match-Maker” will debut early February.
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