Archiculture

We donated $250 to this brilliant cause… but it also guarantees we can grab Cameron Sinclair for a few minutes if funded. We’ve been trying to nail him down for an interview for months now but he may be even be harder to catch up with than Obama. Here’s hoping he will do an interview for Archiculture while he is in New York in a couple weeks.

via: New York Magazine

It’ll be interesting to see where this discussion goes in an economically starved city looking for any form of new development.

“You can see in the renderings above how each side envisions the future of the skyline. In Vornado’s, each tower is clearly visible in all its illuminated splendor. Co-existence, hooray! But in the Empire State Building’s, it’s like 15 Penn Plaza has obliviously and obnoxiously lumbered in front of the Empire State Building while you were taking a photo. “Um, excuse me, sir — sir? — you are right in our way.” - NYmag

Thanks for the tip Sam.

We interviewed Earthship Biotecture founder, Mike Reynolds aka The Garbage Warrior for the film back in March and have watched as he along with his dedicated team continue their amazing post-disaster work around the globe. Here is a recent email I received from the fine folks over at Earthship Biotecture about their work in Haiti:

“Earthship Team produces earthquake-resistant structure made from tires and bottles in Port Au Prince, Haiti in 4 and a half days.

Earthship Biotecture of Taos, NM completed a Tsunami Relief project in the Andaman Islands in 2005.
Now we are working in Port au Prince, Haiti to teach the local people displaced by the earthquake how to build self-sufficient, earthquake-resistant structures made from recycled materials and from rubble created by the earthquake. (See photos above.) These homes collect their own water, treat their own sewage, maintain a comfortable temperature without air conditioning and produce their own electric power.”

via: eVolo (more photos available)

Future Archiculture interviewee, Bjarke Ingels and his firm BIG have a rather interesting design underway in Taiwan.

“TED is a public building[…] that uses a form and highly mixed program to encourage a large cross section of users… [T]he 57 meter cubed building has an open section, or ‘street’ to allow full public access through the building. The access rises and dilates near the top of the building and opens onto a rooftop garden. The roof is to be a public park and informal performance area.” - Andrew Michler, eVolo

Thanks for the tip Mike.

photo via: azulfi

Time and time again, we’ve heard our subjects and interviewees say that LEGOs were what started them on their journey into architecture. With this recent article by Fast Company, LEGOs can now claim that they are the most popular toy ever made. Maybe there is hope for a bright future of young architects after all.

via: good.is

This is for that 50% of architects who don’t completely believe Global Warming is a critical component to the future of the planet and the future of the profession. See stats below from an article in October 2009, Architect Magazine:

Over the summer, 960 readers of Architect participated in a survey about their green beliefs. In it, we asked participants to select from four statements the one that best characterizes their attitude toward sustainability. Fewer than half (46.4 percent) chose the statement, “It’s vital that we design and build sustainably, in order to conserve scarce resources and prevent further global warming.”

One group (12.8 percent) dismissed the issue outright: “Global warming is a myth perpetuated by the media, and green building is a fad—it’ll be forgotten in 20 years’ time.” Yikes. Others (6.7 percent) doubted that green-building efforts in America could offset the damage caused by industrialization in China and India.

The largest (and to me, most interesting) group of naysayers (34.1 percent) fell somewhere in the middle, subscribing to the following statement: “I’m not sure that global warming is caused by man, but energy conservation makes economic sense if we’ll be less dependent on other countries’ oil.”
- Ned Cramer, Architect Magazine

Our buddies over at SOFTlab are gearing up to install and open their latest piece at the bridgegallery in the LES on August 26th. They cleverly used a Kickstarter pledge drive to raise the final $5,000 necessary for completion. We’ll be sure to be there opening night and hope you are to. By the way you can still get your name on one of the panels with a $5 donation!

Check this video for some of SOFTlab’s other work.

via: beta news (image from here)

When this baby dropped we were extremely excited about the amazing potential for a new way to work with our team members. But like their sites and countless other attempts by Google, the Wave has fallen flat on its face. I applaud Google’s ability to continue to push and evolve our means of communication and access to information. If only architecture and our built environment had a sliver of their vision then maybe we wouldn’t have such a monotonous day to day spatial experience.

Hurry!  Dennis Hopper’s House just went on the market for a cool $6.245 Million.  The 15,500 sq. ft. complex includes a main house, 3 two-story condominiums a pool house and a guest cottage.  The main home was designed by Brian Murphy and the condominiums by Frank Gehry.  If you can’t afford the entire package, you can buy into the condos separately.  The house is said to have served as a source for artistic creativity and output from both actors and artist.

source: HuffingtonPost

this installation by artist Mike Bouchet was once on the water, then sunk in the 53rd Biennial in Venice.  he then dug out the softened remains to create his installation in the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt.

via: stylepark