The Jane Jacobs Documentary - a feature length film focusing on the life and work of celebrated author and urban activist, Jane Jacobs - is set to be released Fall 2016. Coinciding with the author’s 100th birthday, Robert Hammond, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Friends of the High Line, and Matt Tyrnauer, producer/director of Valentino: The Last Emperor, plan to have the film tour festivals near the end of this year.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has acquired all 16 films produced by directors Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine. Their films, collectively titled “Living Architectures,” focus on the unseen inhabitants of famous buildings –housekeepers, window washers, concierges and more – fighting the long standing stereotype that architectural criticism is the sole domain of the intellectual elite. The collection, which is less than 10 years old, has remained in the spotlight for its contemporary commentary on architecture.
Buildings and cityscapes – or the lack thereof – change the way we hear significantly. Acousticians and acoustic engineers are often hired to solve problems with sound leakage, but few people consider the difference between a shout across a city block and the same shout down a closed hallway. In this video, the differences in sound quality in various environments are compared, as the “Wikisinger” performs the same song in 15 places.
Cycling between places like a cathedral, a field in front of oil naves, a concrete tunnel, an abandoned attic and a silence chamber, the acoustic differences between each space are made clear as the song reverberates or lands flatly against the walls surrounding it. Splicing and augmenting the different sounds of each place, the singer creates a kind of orchestra of architecture, inviting listeners to take a second to hear the buildings around them.
A new article by Chris Holbrook for The New York Times, "Airports, Designed for Everyone but the Passenger," points out a black sheep among architectural typology: the airport. Though built for one of the most delicate and stressful human situations, airports are notoriously hostile to the travelers that occupy them.
A group of researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has developed Optically Transparent Wood (TW), a new material that could greatly impact the way we develop our architectural projects. Published in the American Chemical Society's journal Biomacromolecules, the transparent timber is created through a process that removes the chemical lignin from a wood veneer, causing it to become very white. This white porous veneer is then impregnated with a transparent polymer, matching the optical properties of the individual cells and making the whole material translucent.
While certain cities in the world have instantly recognizable skylines, other burgeoning cities like Miami are still finding their architectural identity. A new online, 3D-map by the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA) outlines the over 100 new towers being erected in the city by architects including Renzo Piano and OMA, set against Miami’s existing cityscape. The projects are color-coded according to their status as either proposed, under construction or built. You can access the interactive map here.
Colorful, woven spinning tops decorated the lawn at Houston’s Discovery Green park from November 14, 2015-March 22, 2016 as part of an interactive art installation by Mexico City designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. Dubbed Los Trompos, the installation featured twenty, 3D structures that also doubled as seating. Only two or more people working together could make the tops spin, “fostering an engaging connection.”
A few months ago, Korean artist Jazoo Yang completed her most recent piece, titled “Dots: Motgol 66.” The work covered a home set for demolition in the small Korean village of Motgol, Busan with Yang’s thumbprint. Working from October 9th to 29th, for 4-5 hours a day, 3 days a week, “Motgol 66” was the first time Yang was able to realize her project goal, with two previous incidents of homes being demolished early.
Photographer André Vicente Gonçalves has revealed his latest project, “Doors of the World,” documenting hundreds of doors from cities around the world. Gonçalves has previously produced a photo series of hundreds of windows internationally titled “Windows of the World,” citing his interest in the way that such a small element of architecture expresses so much about its inhabitants and the human sense of security.
Petterson Dantas was born in Caicó, Brazil and has lived in Natal for 17 years. An architect and urban planner, he graduated from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. His series "Ode to Oscar" illustrates important works of Oscar Niemeyer, depicting the contrasts and the beauty of the buildings designed by Brazil's most famous architect.
Read the description of the project and see the illustrations below.
At the UTFSM in Valparaíso, Chile, architect Verónica Arcos developed a first-year studio centered around the theme of "materiality."
Based on an application of math and geometry in the study of Mexican architect Félix Candela's work, the workshop sought to "put form in crisis and take it to its maximum expression."
Zaha Hadid, Di Zhang, Carme Pinos, Jeanne Gang, Carla Juaçaba, Bia Lessa, Elisabete de Oliveira Saldanha, Sandra Barclay, Kazuyo Sejima, Sharon Davis, Elisa Burnazzi,Tatiana Bilbao, Jô Vasconcellos, Odile Decq, María Victoria Besonías, Lina Bo Bardi.
While there is still a lot of progress that needs to be made to achieve gender equality within the profession, women are behind some of the most recognizable and inspiring projects. To honor their work, and in light of International Women's Day, we present 15 outstanding projects designed by female architects.
The selection features work by the only two women to have been awarded the Pritzker Prize – Zaha Hadid and Kazuyo Sejima – as well as projects designed by Sharon Davis and Elisabete de Oliveira Saldanha, who both won Building of the Year 2016 awards. All fifteen projects represent the potential of each architect and can serve as inspiration for everyone.
View all of the projects after the break.
Complementing the many websites that already provide people for renders, PimpMyDrawing is a growing online database of vector drawings of people. The site was started by three recent graduates of architecture school. After realizing the amount of vector drawings that they had produced during their academic career, they decided to share them for free.
