1960’s Chicago: cars zooming down Lake Shore Drive, crowds heading into the Opera House, people observing artworks in the Art Institute, and Chicagoans laying around Grant Park on a sunny day. These are just a few of the scenes captured by amateur filmmaker Margaret Conneely in her filmThe City to See in ’63. The people, neighborhoods, and architecture of Chicago are all captured in this well-crafted 12-minute, 16mm color film taped in 1962.
Conneely captures some key architectural sites in Chicago, including the construction of Marina City. In addition, there are clips of a few buildings that no longer exist such as the Chicago Sun-Times building, demolished in 2004; White Sox Park, demolished in 1991; and the first McCormick place, wrecked in 1967.
The film also covers different neighborhoods of Chicago including Lincoln Park, Logan Square, Garfield Park, and old Maxwell Street.
As shown in the film, Chicago has always been known for its spectacular array of architecture. To see more current architectural sites in Chicago, view our Architecture City Guide: Chicago.
BBC’s Sarah Montague interviews Renzo Piano, the mastermind behind London’s most controversial and newest skyscraper: The Shard. Prior to the interview, Montague spotted Piano blending into the crowd during the opening of the 310-meter skyscraper “spying” on the onlookers. When asked about this moment, Piano revealed the great advice he received from the prominent Italian film director Roberto Rossellini upon the completion of the Pompidou Center in Paris: “You do not look at the building, you look at the people looking at the building.” It was during this moment that Piano observed “surprise” and “wonder, but not fear” amongst the onlookers - a reaction he seemed to be content with.
Despite Piano’s attempt to refrain from controversy, it is hard to avoid when your design intends to celebrate a “shift in society.” Change tends to stir mixed emotions and spark debate. However, being part of the “human adventure” as an architect is what Piano finds most rewarding. He states: “You don’t change the world as an architect, but you celebrate the change of the world.”
How can a small 420 square foot apartment transform into eight comfortable rooms? It takes smart design solutions that incorporates modulation and interior planning that conforms to everyday needs in an increasingly competitive environment of living space. Founder of Treehugger.com, Graham Hill takes the viewer on a tour of his "Life Edited" apartment that provides a sustainable living solution to compact apartments in urban environments like New York City. This apartment provides all the amenities necessary with some additional effort of converting rooms to fit everyday needs. Interested in seeing this apartment transform into a living room, bedroom, kitchen, dining room and guest room? Join us after the break to find out.
32BNYis collaborating with Spirit of Space is relaunching a website in a corner of the internet structured as a videopolemic to explore architectural discourse in a revolutionary way. The first video in the series is a tribute to Lebbeus Woods who passed away late last year. Woods was an aggressive philosophical thinker of architecture and space. He launched worldy ideas into his architecture through imaginative leaps - exploring politics, society, ethics and the human condition as it pertained to architectural space in the form of vivid and dynamic drawings. His work has inspired his contemporaries to think outside of the physical space of architecture. Steven Holl and Sanford Kwinter discuss some of his ideas and philosophies through his quotes and inspirations. The video serves as a reminder, and to some a guide, as to how to build upon the philosophy of architecture beyond the physical.
On August 15th, 2007 a powerful earthquake hit the region of Ica, Perú, destroying the small Maria Auxiliadora School. The first responders left after a matter of months, but the damage remained. Resources were shuffled to the big cities, and the small school waited, for years, for the authorities to take on the reconstruction. They never did.
And so, with help from Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow, Diego Collazo, and with funding from the Happy Hearts Fund and the SURA Group, the community decided to take the school’s - and their children’s - future into their own hands. This SEEDoc, the latest installment of inspirational mini-documentaries from the Design Corps and SEED (Social Economic Environmental Design), tells their story.
After working with Rick Joy for more three years, collaborating in projects all around the US, Matías Zegers went back to Chile and founded Matías Zegers Architects. Last year, this Guest Pavilion, located in the Casas del Bosque winery in the Casablanca Valley, was finished and Cristobal Palma realized this beautiful video, showing how simple but very powerful house settles overlooking the vineyards.
You can check some more videos by Cristobal Palma at ArchDaily:
Mayeul Akpovi shared with us a timelapse video he made, which goes through a sequence of experiences and places in the big city, which highlights the day and night life of Paris. 'Paris in Motion' includes about 3500 photos as he successfully creates a video, accompanied by music, which draws you in and fast forwards through time.
We've just stumbled upon this awesome video from Frederico Gonzales of Ombú Architecture which shows, quite simply, the works of 26 architects, from A to Z. A is for Aalto, B is for Barragan, C is for Calatrava... you get the drift! See them all in the video above.
If you're at all immersed in the design world, you already know the name of Danish-American furniture designer Jens Risom. And, if you know Jens Risom, you most certainly know the mid-century, pre-fab house he designed and built on an isolated island 13 miles off the coast of New England.
If you don't know it - now's the time to get acquainted. The gorgeous summer home - which famously graced the pages of LIFE Magazine in 1976, has recently been featured by Dwell in a video.
The house, which has stood on Block Island for 45 years with relatively little renovation, despite the island's notoriously powerful gales of wind, defies the stereotype that pre-fabricated buildings can't be built to last (or beautifully designed). Indeed, Risom only attempted the venture because of the "personal freedom" that pre-fabrication afforded him. As he explains: “Architecture, to me, is the most beautiful of the arts. But I watched my father [an architect] struggle with the challenges, what was to me an enormous drawback: The architect did not fully drive the end product. I always knew that I wanted to design, but only [if I could] create products over which I had total control.”
More on this extraordinary home and its designer, after the break...
After opening in August, the 13th Venice Biennale will end this Sunday (November 25th). This video is a recording made by Cristobal Palma of the Chilean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2012 entitled CANCHA - Chilean Soilscapes (see our coverage of the exhibit here).
Winner of an international competition in 2009 after the rejection of a proposal from brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, the Valparaíso Cultural Center designed by HLPS arquitectos was finished last year with an impressive result. Today we have this great video Cristobal Palma just shared with us, shot a couple of months ago.
In an effort to promote resilience for the Sandy-affected region, U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan has launched a multi-stage regional design competition that is intended to attract world-class talent, promote innovation and develop projects that will actually be built. Dubbed Rebuild by Design, the competition will accumulate a variety of design solutions, ranging in scope and scale, for review. Once the best ideas are identified, HUD will incentivize their implementation using funds made available through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program as well as other public and private funds to actually build the project.
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