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Today Writer In Residence

[Images: Casa Kike by Gianni Botsford Architects, photographed by Christian Richters].Reestablishing myself here on a desktop computer that had been sitting inside a storage unit for the past 15 months, I've been having a good time going through old bookmarks: rediscovering what I saved way back in 2008 and 2009, and seeing whether or not I'm still interested in the stories. Articles about mining the ocean floor, about the state of California selling landmarks to raise cash, and about design com…(more)

Today Predisposed

[Image: Sellafield; photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Visit Cumbria].For some reason I woke up this morning thinking of a story from nearly two years ago: that LLWR, new owners of the English nuclear facility at Sellafield, had arrived at their new property to find so little paperwork about where nuclear waste had been stored—and by whom, and how—that they had to put an ad in the local newspaper asking if anyone else remembered where the nuclear waste was dumped."We need your help," the ad began.D…(more)

3 days Theater of Immersion

[Image: Photo by Jim Stephenson].Architectural photographer Jim Stephenson got in touch the other week with some photos he recently took of an elaborate stage set, constructed by the group dreamthinkspeak, for a new play based on Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." The play was performed in Brighton, England, inside an old department store, the entirety of which had been transformed into a labyrinthine performance space, complete with a Russian supermarket, a simulated department store (within…(more)

Windy City

[Image: "Storm Clouds Over Central Park" by Joseph Bergantine].Do urban landscapes act as attractors for storms and hurricanes? "New research shows that rough areas of land, including city buildings and naturally jagged land cover like trees and forests, can actually attract passing hurricanes," a study claimed last week. It works because the whole landscape acts as a kind of vortex or chimney: "Rough cityscapes and forests trap air. This compresses the air and forces it up into the atmosphere, …(more)

Relocative Media

Just a quick note to say that I haven't fallen off a bridge, I've simply moved back to Los Angeles after a cross-country drive (the second this summer), we've hauled everything out of a storage unit where it'd been gathering dust for 15 months, and, on top of the ins and outs of any major relocation, we've only just got home internet worked out—so I'm unbelievably behind in posting. But hello once again from Los Angeles—and expect to see more here shortly!…(more)

Augmented Metropolis

Keiichi Matsuda, a recent graduate—with distinction—from the Bartlett School of Architecture, whose film Domestic Robocop was featured on BLDGBLOG several months ago, has a new project out: Augmented City. And it's in 3D.The film "focuses on the deprogramming of architecture and the spontaneous creation of customised, aggregated spaces," Matsuda writes. We see its central protagonist surrounded by pop-up menus and projected touchscreens, able to switch urban backgrounds—graffiti to gardens…(more)

Pallet House

[Image: The Palettenpavillon by Matthias Loebermann, photographed/copyright by Mila Hacke, Berlin].The Palettenpavillon by Matthias Loebermann is a structure made entirely from shipping pallets, ground anchors, and tie rods. Designed to be easily assembled and dismantled, and then entirely recycled at a later date, the resulting building is intended as a temporary meeting place.[Image: The Palettenpavillon by Matthias Loebermann, photographed/copyright by Mila Hacke, Berlin].As the architect wri…(more)

Hives and valves, filters and membranes

[Image: Detailed view of Hylozoic Ground's "Protocell" assembly; courtesy of Philip Beesley Architect].Philip Beesley's Hylozoic Ground installation opens this coming Friday at the Venice Biennale, where it is installed inside the Canadian pavilion. It is a "suspended geotextile that gradually accumulates hybrid soil from ingredients drawn from its surroundings."As Beesley explains, "Hylozoic Ground is an immersive, interactive environment that moves and breathes around its viewers... Next-gener…(more)

Subtopia

Decoding Military Landscapes: #demilit

Tomorrow morning, Javier Arbona, Nick Sowers and myself will be convening at UC Berkeley to conduct a workshop for the Towards a Just Metropolis conference that is being held there over the weekend. The conference itself looks pretty good, lots of excellent presentors and topics coming together to further break down the tangled relationships between justice, spatial practice, and the city. If I had more time (and more money for an all inclusive conference registration ticket…oh the irony!) I…(more)

Subtopia Lecture: Ruin Machine

Dear all. It’s been way too long for the eerie subtopian silence to not finally come to an end, I know (and appreciate your patience!) but I’m afraid you will need to appreciate the drippy echoes of our sealed bunker here a bit longer. But, I have several updates coming in the near future as soon as I have time! There was a trip to Detroit that was more than fascinating, and I just returned from a truly excellent and inspired weeklong workshop in Graz, Austria. There have also been some pub…(more)

Peripheral Milit_Urb 30

[Image: Baghdad From the Air [Baghdad Bureau Blog]]Members of U.S. Army Plead Guilty to Role in Scheme to Steal Equipment from the U.S. Military in Iraq // KBR Got Bonuses for Work that Killed Soldiers // Halliburton profits down by a half [BBC] // Pratap Chatterjee, "Cleansing Halliburton" [Tomgram] // Iraqi Seizes the Chance to Make War Profitable [NYT] // As Iraq Marks ‘Sovereignty Day,’ the Violence Continues [Danger Room] // Maps of U.S. Troop Deployments in Iraq [NYT] // Michael Schwa…(more)

Subtopes B-lining to San Diego

[Image: Woodbury University, San Diego School of Architecture. Photograph by Hewitt Garrison]So, part of the reason it’s been so quiet on Subtopes as of recent is due to some big news I’m excited to share here. As it turns out, I’m heading down to San Diego to teach for the Fall semester at Woodbury University’s School of Architecture at their new campus in Barrio Logan down by the shipyards where the Navy constructs its sea arsenal. As you can imagine I’m pretty fired up about this,…(more)

Hutong Cemeteries

[Image: Area around Gulou Dajie subway station | July 14, 2009, Photo by Bert de Muynck.]A nice three-part series of posts over at Moving Cities draws our attention once again to the rapid disappearance of the Hutongs in Beijing, which seems to have somewhat vanished from the conversation now that the attention brought to them during the Olympic Games has elapsed. What is a follow up to a previous publication written by Bert de Muynck for MUDOT, (Making mince meat of memory) he asks, “where h…(more)

Over the Siege 2: Recycling the Wall

[Image: Rafah, southern Gaza. Wastewater treatment plant. ©ICRC/M. Greub/il-e-01749.]Real quick, continuing on the topic of Palestinians finding ways of transcending the Israeli siege by utilizing the rubble of their own destroyed infrastructure – or what I guess I have referred to as acting “over the siege” rather than “under” it; “over” in this sense signifies that the Palestinian people are acting in plain view using the ruins wrought by the siege as resource for reconstructio…(more)

Over the Siege

[Image: Gaza's new mud homes, BBC]This is hardly breaking news by now but needs to be mentioned here as we try to return to our own temporarily abandoned excavations at Subtopes. Forgive the two month silence; breaks were needed to tend to other business, and for some exciting reasons that I will be relaying shortly. For now, we’re rolling up our sleeves and activating the bellows to our air hoses again – it’s time to surface with our tunnel gear and get Subtopia sinking down below agai…(more)

The Green Yonder

[Image: Photo by Lubos Pavlicek/CTK/AP.]You may have read a few months ago the US began removing some of the street barriers that have propped up Baghdad’s security on a stilted network of blast walls and checkpoints for years, since—citing improved security—the Iraqi government is aiming to open all of the capital’s streets by the end of the year. As mentioned in this article, removal of the barriers is linked to “a security pact signed with Washington in November that requires US f…(more)

A daily dose of Architecture

Yesterday Today's archidose #437
Heathdale House - Teeple Architects, originally uploaded by Scott Norsworthy.Heathdale House in Toronto, Ontario by Teeple Architects, 2005.To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just::: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or:: Tag your photos archidose…(more)
3 days Manhattan (Opening)

FYI: The diner at 31 seconds recently closed.(via Lapham's Quarterly)…(more)

31 in 31

Here's a wrap-up of my 31 buildings/places in 31 days: #1 - Phyto Universe#2 - One Bryant Park#3 - Pier 62 Carousel#4 - Bronx River Art Center#5 - The Pencil Factory#6 - Westbeth Artists' Housing#7 - 23 Beekman Place#8 - Metal Shutter Houses#9 - Bronx Box#10 - American Academy of Arts and Letters#11 - FDR Four Freedoms Park#12 - One Madison Park#13 - Pio Pio Restaurant#14 - Queens West (Stage II)#15 - 785 Eighth Avenue#16 - Big Bambú#17 - Event Horizon#18 - Murano#1…(more)

31 in 31: #31

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.The Sperone Westwater Gallery, designed Foster + Partners, is nearing completion about a block north of the New Museum. This piece continues the transformation of the Bowery, from Cooper Union down to Chinatown. In the ten or eleven y…(more)

31 in 31: #30

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.Spotted at The Architect's Newspaper, Tartinery Nolita is a new restaurant located on Mulberry next to Spring Lounge. Designed by SOMA Architects, the facade is marked by deep-set, black-steel fins projecting from the storefront glazi…(more)

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:This week's dose features 40R_Laneway House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by superkül inc | architect:The featured past dose is Courtyard House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by Studio Junction:This week's book review is Encyclopedia of Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture by Virginia McLeod:**NOTE: The next "weekly dose" will be 2010.09.13.**Some unrelated links for your enjoyment: The Bankruptcy of ArchitectureSee the results of "an intensive 10-day studio 1…(more)

31 in 31: #29

This is a series for August 2010 which documents my on-the-ground -- and on-the-webs -- research for my guidebook to contemporary NYC architecture (to be released next year by W. W. Norton). Archives can be found at the bottom of the post and via the 31 in 31 label.Although completed a couple years before 2000, the former Art et Industrie sculpture garden is something I was intrigued about, so I searched it out over the weekend and took a close look at it. Designed by Architecture Research Offic…(more)

Today's archidose #436

Würzburg Weingut Stein a, originally uploaded by david pasek.Weingut Am Stein (presentation and seminar rooms for winery) in Wuerzburg, Germany by Hofmann Keicher Ring Architekten, 2005To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just::: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or::Tag your photos archidose…(more)

Pruned

Links for 2010-08-15 [del.icio.us]

Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture Brummana (east of Beirut), Lebanon BLARK Bjørbekk & Lindheim Landskapsarkitekter Oslo, Norway Landslag Reykjavik, Iceland Isthmus Auckland, New Zealand Terrain New York City …(more)

Kickstart Foodprint LA

Sarah Rich and Nicola Twilley are taking The Foodprint Project to Los Angeles. And they need your help.Rich and Twilley:As with the last two events, we'll host an afternoon of panels on numerous topics, including school lunch, city food policy, restaurant entrepreneurship, community meals as public art, and the future of urban farming and food distribution.For Foodprint LA we're also adding some exciting social and interactive events, including an urban food map walking tour and a VIP party for …(more)

Prunings LIX

(A cortege of vultures heralds the coming climax of a green burial in Tibet. Might there be a design ideas competition organized around this low energy, ultra rapid atomization? WARNING: The photos are not for the squeamish! Also, the website may have NSFW ads. Photographer unknown. Via Pharyngula.)1) Go check out BIG's beautiful proposal for a forest crematorium at the famed Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm. (Via eVolo.)2) Also go check out what InfraNet Lab has been up to this summer. You'll fin…(more)

Levee Farm

(One of the winners in the ONE Prize competition combined two of our most prolific memes: agro-scapes and the littoral edge. Submitted by AGENCY, the project envisions a global system of levees [pdf] not just as a defensive infrastructure but also as a productive landscape and an open public space. Go see. And also our quarter-baked idea. Via The Dirt.) …(more)

Flutter Field

(Image by Paisajes Emergentes and Lateral Office.)Lateral Office and Paisajes Emergentes have teamed up together to design a “shape-shifting energy generation park” in Abu Dhabi for the Land Art Generator Initiative competition.(Image by Paisajes Emergentes and Lateral Office.)The team's project statement is worth quoting at length:Unlike current renewable energy fields where technologies are publicly inaccessible, static, and always on, WeatherField offers a range of public engagement depen…(more)

(Im)possible Chicago #5

(Tevatron 2.)Beneath the city is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, interlocking or in tangents with the next dozen on the list of the highest-energy accelerators.Everyday they collide particles to produce a steady supply of Higgs bosons, which are stabilized, concentrated and routed as a beam to one of the many gantries located throughout the city. Able to rotate 360º, each three-story gantry can shoot the subatomic particle beam in the correct angle at the cancer pati…(more)

Dune Field

(Image by Rietveld Landscape.)Rietveld Landscape's Interaction between elements is a set of flexible strategies for dealing with sea level rise on Terschelling, one of the West Frisian Islands off the coast of the Netherlands.The Wadden See and the south side of the Boschplaat [a nature reserve] will grow with the rising of the sea level because of sand replenishments in front of the coast. The northern part of the Boschplaat is unable to grow in this way. There, the existing drift dike will be …(more)

Embassy of the Drowned Nations

(Submission panel by OCULUS.)A co-winner in the Sea Change 2030+ ideas competition, the Embassy of the Drowned Nations is a proposal by the Sydney-based landscape architecture office OCULUS for an inverted Ellis Island sunk in the middle of Sydney Harbour.Here, in this “blend of Atlantis and Eden,” refugees from former island nations are welcomed and “given the opportunity to grieve, to rest, to recuperate, to learn and to eventually rise up and join Australian society.”Apart from tempor…(more)

Archis

Architecture of Peace

Two-day conference, 3 and 4 May 2010, NAi Rotterdam With Jolyon Leslie, Kai Vöckler, Sultan Barakat, a.o. Time: 9.30 am – 5 pm (Mon) – 10.00 am – 5 pm (Tue). Language: English. Location: auditorium of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), Rotterdam. Click here for the full program of the conference. Click here to register. Architecture of Peace is an international long-term research and action project in which a large number of stakeholders are involved. The project wi…(more)

Archis SEE Network

a network of independent urban initiatives in South Eastern Europe In cooperation with local initiatives launched by architects, planners, artists, urbanists, sociologists and other professionals engaged in the process of improving various political and social dimensions of the urban environment, Archis Interventions intends to establish a network in South Eastern Europe (SEE) and thereby to foster the exchange of knowledge and best practices, to integrate the issues discussed in international …(more)

The Program – RSVP#13: After the Crisis

ARCHIS in cooperation with Abitare, Netherlands Architecture Institute and the College of Architecture and Design at Lawrence Tech are holding an RSVP event in Warren, MI, February 20-22, 2009 focused on finding pragmatic answers to how we can move from crisis to project within the current real estate crisis. The upcoming RSVP event will focus on the communities in the City of Warren with the highest rates of foreclosure. Participants will explore approaches to residential housing in an attempt …(more)

INVITATION TO: BEYROUTES GUIDE PROJECT

2nd Workshop Beirut, Lebanon, 1 – 8 February 2009 BEIRUT: Walk its streets, visit its hip quarters, check the destroyed but completely resurrected city centre, talk to the armed soldiers at the street corners, listen to the old and not-so-old war stories from the cab driver, explore its old, new and upcoming neighborhoods. Only a few cities in the world offer so many layers of hidden meaning as Beirut does. In the public realm of this town there seems to be merely suggestion, projection and di…(more)

RSVP#13: After the Crisis

Macomb County, U.S.A – February 2009 – with Abitare and NAI Macomb County, one of the suburban counties surrounding Detroit, is currently undergoing a process similar to the economic devastation that the Motor City has been experiencing over the last 40 years. Tax foreclosures, social fragmentation, budget crisis at every level of government, the fragility of the auto industry and a dearth of leadership have intersected to create a growing state of emergency. The current real estate cri…(more)

Archis in Zagreb

A bit last notice, but better late than never. Archis Intervention’s Kai Voeckler (who recently published Prishtina is Everywhere and Arjen Oosterman will be in Zagreb present at the conference: The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies (from 4 till 7 dec). The conference is part of the Operation: City 2008 program. The Neoliberal Frontline is an international conference aimed to reflect on transformations of cities, urban landscapes and urban governance in C…(more)

RSVP#12A: Connecting Naples

Naples – February 2008 In a globalized world Europe is often seen as a homogonous block. Yet within the continent there are amazingly large contrasts and differences. Moreover, this is not just true regarding the newcomers to the ‘European family’. Worlds of difference exist even among the oldest occupants of the European house. Take Naples, Italy’s fourth largest city. Of course it’s an old culture with a Roman and even a Greek past (Neapolis), later ruled by Os…(more)

Download PDF’s on RSVP Kabul and Naples

RSVP #11 KABUL: Secure City, Public City [pdf] In October 2007 Archis Interventions went to Kabul to examine security and public space beyond the Western media, power and security bubble. RSVP #12A NAPLES: reconnecting Naples [pdf] In February 2008 Archis and Domus where invited in Naples to assist N.EST in thinking about Naples and developing its spatial and social program. …(more)

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