Space Saloon has announced a new week long experimental design-build festival in Southern California. Dubbed FIELDWORKS, the festival aims to rethink design-build and hands-on education. Following the success of the first workshop, LANDING, the group is returning to Southern California and the Morongo Valley. The community-in-residence program brings teams of students and designers together to develop site-specific projects that question notions of context and place.
The Architecture & Design Film Festival is returning this year from March 13-17 in Downtown Los Angeles. ADFF:LA offers a curated program of 24 films, director Q&As, and a series of discussions on architecture and design. The festival was created to celebrate the creative spirit that drives architecture and design. From events and films to panel discussions, ADFF has become the nation’s largest film festival devoted to architecture.
Architectural education has always been fundamentally influenced by whichever styles are popular at a given time, but that relationship flows in the opposite direction as well. All styles must originate somewhere, after all, and revolutionary schools throughout centuries past have functioned as the influencers and generators of their own architectural movements. These schools, progressive in their times, are often founded by discontented experimental minds, looking for something not previously nor currently offered in architectural output or education. Instead, they forge their own way and bring their students along with them. As those students graduate and continue on to practice or become teachers themselves, the school’s influence spreads and a new movement is born.
In the design of the “Stump House,” situated in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, Brooklyn-based PARA Project was faced with unique constraints and unique possibilities. With local regulations imposing a 1,200 square foot footprint limit, 40-foot height limit, and provision for an adjoining 1,000 square foot uninhabitable structure, the design team was challenged to fit an extensive live-work space with little margin for maneuver.
In response, the design team, led by Jon Lott, stacked one structure on top of the other, with an uninhabited art studio at the lower level embedded in the sloping landscape. Combined with the above habitable space, the proposal creates a combined live-work program under a single roof, in-keeping with height and use regulations. Such was the beauty of their response, the Stump House has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2019 Architect Magazine Progressive Architecture Awards.
After the dissolution of the Bauhaus due to Nazi political pressure in April 1933, the ideas, teachings, and philosophies of the school were flung across the world as former students and faculty dispersed in the face of impending war. Of the numerous creative talents associated with the Bauhaus, many went on to notable careers elsewhere. Some made a living as artists or practitioners, others either continued or began careers as teachers themselves - and many did both throughout the course of their lives.
Bjarke Ingels Group has designed an expansive cable-car system to connect to the new Oakland Athletics baseball stadium. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum as a waterfront “jewel box” at Howard Terminal. At the Oakland A’s FanFest, the A’s President Dave Kaval unveiled the new Gondola connecting the Oakland Convention Center to Water Street at Jack London Square. The zero-emission transit line will provide residents and visitors with a way to see the A’s play in their future ballpark.
After revealing the design for the new Oakland Athletics baseball stadium, Bjarke Ingels Group has proposed a new use for the existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The existing stadium will be overhauled into a new commercial and housing hub to create new economic, cultural, and recreational opportunities. The Coliseum will be converted into a sunken amphitheater at the heart of a new municipal park.
After having previously photographed the offices of architecture firms in the Netherlands, Dubai, London, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, the Nordic countries, and Barcelona, architectural photographer Marc Goodwin continues the series with an exploration of 15 large architecture and design studios in Los Angeles. Featuring a set of emerging and world-renowned offices alike, the series gives a glimpse into the life of designers across the City of Angels.
The California Building Standards Commission has approved a new rule starting in 2020 that requires all new homes built in the state to include solar panels. As the first of its kind in the United States, the new rule includes an incentive for homeowners to add a high-capacity battery to their electrical system. The move hopes to help meet the state's goal of sharply reducing greenhouse gas emissions while drawing all electricity from renewable energy sources.
New details of Google's North Bayshore campus have been revealed. The latest scheme includes a combination of office, retail, public and residential space. Located in North Bayshore, California, the revised plan focuses on the site's natural environment and affordable housing.
Perkins+Will’s Los Angeles studio has revealed a new dining hall and A-frame cabins for Camp Lakota, a campsite for the Girl Scouts of Greater LA. Located one and half hours north of the city in Frazier Park, the camp master plan proposal was made to create a camp of the future. Completed pro-bono by Perkins+Will, the aim is to support the Girl Scouts’ mission of empowering girls and young women. Perkins+Will reimagined the typical A-Frame layout and wanted them to be both practical and modern for the campers, but still a traditional tie-in to California cabin design.
Swiss Designer Yves Béhar has partnered with Plant Prefab to create LivingHome YB1, a series of Accessory Dwelling Units to be unveiled at the Summit festival in Los Angeles. Designed to address California’s legislation, the ADU aims to encourage increased urban density while limiting the environmental impact of new construction. LivingHomes YB1 is the first in a line of structures made to rethink prefab and increase accessibility, livability, and sustainability.
OMA will be breaking ground on their new design for Wilshire Boulevard Temple's expansion next month. The groundbreaking for the new Audrey Irmas Pavilion is scheduled for November 11. The $75-million project was designed by OMA partners Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas. The three-story expansion will include space for the temple congregation, surrounding neighborhood and supportive services.
Grimshaw Architects and Gruen Associates have released updated renderings of the Metro station connecting Los Angeles International Airport to light rail. Expected to open in 2023, the $500-million transit hub will span across a 9.5 acre site adjacent to the Crenshaw/LAX Line’s maintenance yard. The design was made to create a fully inter-modal facility that will become a new point of arrival into the city.
As the tech giant's first move into prefab construction, Amazon has invested in home-building start-up Plant PreFab. Known for smart home technology and sustainable construction, Plant PreFab is based in Rialto, California and is set to become the latest addition in Amazon's Alexa-integrated homes. As CNBC reports, Amazon's Alexa Fund invested in Plant PreFab for their prefabricated single and multifamily houses and their plan to use automation to build homes faster at lower costs.
The Oakland Athletics baseball team have hired Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), James Corner Field Operations, and Gensler to lead the design process for their new ballpark and surrounding development in California. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the A’s share with the Oakland Raiders football team.
It has been reported by the San Francisco Business Times that BIG will lead the masterplan for the privately-financed ballpark, either at Howard Terminal or near the existing stadium, while Gensler will collaborate on the ballpark design. Field Operations will adopt the role of landscape architect for the development.
Studio Gang has released images of their proposed high-rise MIRA residential scheme in the heart of San Francisco. Currently under construction, the 400-foot-tall tower will contain almost 400 residential units when completed, 40% of which will be below market rate.
The scheme's design is centered on the evolution of the bay window element, a feature common to San Francisco’s early houses. The bay window is reimagined in a high-rise context, twisting across the full height of the tower to offer views across the city.
