February 6th, 2008

The Dome of the Rock
Aventinus in CONTINUITY IN ARCHITECTURE
Continuity in Architecture are pleased to announce the recent publication of the paper “The Dome of the Rock: Origin of its Octagonal Plan” by our former colleague Dr. Anwarul Islam (and Zaid F. Al- Hamad). Published in Palestine Exploration Quarterly the paper has been described by the...

Gaggenau BL253
architecture.MNP
So, the cats over at Gaggenau created this gem of a kitchen appliance that combats wasted counter space, introduces a simpler and easier cooking interface to users, and adds precautionary safety measures [in the phalanges-to-heat department] all in one refined design . An excerpt from K+BB magazine explains further: With a glass ceramic base that lowers for convenient access, the 18-cu. ft. oven can be integrated into a run of upper cabinets or mounted on a wall…In addition, the [BL253] comes with 11 heating modes for pro-style cooking, and pizzas and breads can be baked directly on the surface of the base.

GUERILLA GARDENING: Strategies for Greening the Hood
Abigail Doan in Inhabitat
Regardless of whether you are an urban, suburban, or rural dweller, there is inevitably a patch of neglected turf in your neighborhood that might need a bit of TLC and greening. If you see hidden gardening potential between sidewalk cracks when others see decay and abandon, well then, you might be a budding guerrilla gardener and not even know it! The guerrila gardening phenomenon is currently sweeping the globe as folks are finding innovative ways to come together for the optimization of neglected land and paved surface area. It’s a turf war for some, or a poetic gesture for others, but either way, citizens are rolling up there sleeves to create gardens in the most unlikely spaces and places.

Plans for Foster’s Masdar Carbon Neutral City Debut
Mahesh Basantani in Inhabitat
Norman Foster’s Masdar City is poised to become world’s most sustainable, zero-waste, car-free, carbon neutral city. The model for the city was formally unveiled on 21st January at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. We’ve talked about the grand scheme before, but the official debut deserves some new attention, given its viewing and support from everyone from General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi to the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company and even President George W. Bush. The construction would start the next month, and the city is likely to open in late 2009.

Grumbling about Griffintown
Misha Warbanski in Spacing Montreal
A couple big things happened at the Sud-Ouest borough council meeting tonight. The most important: borough Mayor Jacqueline Monpetit annouced a series of public consultations on redeveloping Griffintown (Mark your calendars: Feb 21, 7pm at the ETS, 1100 Notre-Dame Ouest.) Also important: council adopted it’s urban development framework for the area. Lots of people seem worried about the development as proposed by Devimco. But so far I haven’t met anyone who is completely against some kind of development plan. In fact, some property owners in the area would like to do their own thing.. but they can’t because Griffintown is mostly zoned industrial. They know they’re sitting on valuable property and they don’t want it going to a single company. They certainly don’t want their land expropriated.

Insane set of stairs
Michelle Linden in Atelier A+D
I'm not sure if these qualify as stairs, roof, deck, or skin.... but whatever the case, Plasma Studio created one insane piece of construction....

Why Gunner's Mates Deserves to Live, plus 600 North Fairbanks Bonus
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
Slogging through Blair Kamin's 1,200 words on a nullity with a glandular problem like the Columbian at Michigan and Roosevelt, you begin to think being architecture critic for a big paper like the Chicago Tribune has to be the dullest job in the world, but why should he pass the contagion on to the rest of us? (The real meat of the story, about whether city interference or architect's timidity was most to blame for the building's mediocrity, took a back seat to an oh-so-serious analysis of a design best suited for irreverent guffaws.)

February 5th, 2008

The Big Issue
Geoff Manaugh in BLDGBLOG
The March 2008 issue of Dwell is now out and, as some of you may or may not know, I recently became one of Dwell's Senior Editors – joining the woman who puts the cool in school, my new colleague Amber Bravo.
March is the first issue in which I've had a real impact on content, so I thought I'd urge everyone to go check it out! It's good for you

Don’t Forget to Water the Couch
architecture.MNP
Tired of all that flat-packed, assemble-at-you-own-risk IKEA furniture? Design Within Reach slightly outside your budget? Well, my ninjas, here’s a green solution for you: grow your own furniture! I’m thinking all you need is a pile of soil and some grass seeds - but for those of you with some loose change to invest in seating that will provide perpetual grass stains, check out Peddy by Japanese design firm Mindscapes. Think of it like a ch-ch-ch-chia pet that you can lounge on.

1968
Dominic Roberts in CONTINUITY IN ARCHITECTURE
Yesterday, 3:40 PM
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Something for transport/concrete enthusiasts: a set of discarded slides of Preston Bus Station during construction and soon after. The building is of course “about to be demolished” - perhaps the architects (BDP Preston) expected a forty year...

A Birthday Garden
Beth Bader in Green Options
We celebrated our child’s birthday with her friends last weekend. At every holiday, inevitably someone asks a child what gift she is wishing for. It’s times like that’s where it becomes abundantly clear that we don’t watch kids TV. My child has no idea what toy she would like; even the concept of directing a [...]

Bierut Captures Glass Houses for The National Trust for Historic Preservation
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
A cool project that stumbled onto our collective laps late yesterday: a booklet called, coincidentally enough, "Projects," put together by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a catalog of information about donating to the organization, which owns such...

Installation in Shanghai by MoHen
Frame Magazine
Called Danbo Fun, this installation reflects the mix of western and oriental food.  Read more…
Opening of the New Beatles Hotel in Liverpool
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Unfortunately we just found this story about two weeks too late. Not that it isn't a new news story, because it is, it's just too late to reschedule this writer's honeymoon plans, which have already been hunted down and...

Jetson Green: Chartwell School Gets A+
architecture.MNP
Jeff, green ninja over at Jetson Green writes: Although memories of elementary school for most of us may evoke images of stuffy classrooms, florescent lights, and playground bullies, students at Chartwell School located in Seaside, CA (near Monterey) are quite proud of their new school campus. That’s because the USGBC recently gave them an A+ in green building. In December, Chartwell students announced that they were first complete educational campus to be awarded LEED Platinum, which makes them just about the greenest school campus in the country. Congrats also to Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC for their LEED Platinum middle-school building.

Literary Dose #23
John in A Daily Dose of Architecture
"At the time [mid-1970s], I thought of residential design as the creation of a place where people can dwell as they themselves intend. If they feel cold, they can put on an additional layer of clothing. If they feel warm, they can discard extraneous clothing. What is important is the space be, not a device for environmental control, but something definite and responsive to human life. From the point of view of the inhabitant, it may have been an anachronism -- in some respects an act of arrogance on the part of the architect. However, I stuck to my beliefs despite some friction with the client. That is perhaps the shortcoming as well as the strength of a self-educated architect. After the existing rowhouse was demolished, the site was divided into three parts. The Rowhouse in Sumiyoshi [aka Azuma House] was then built, with the middle third of the site made into an open courtyard.