Future Cities – 44-min discussion on BBC’s The Forum about new cities in the coming decades, especially in developing countries, and what features would make them more livable and vibrant for the largest number of people. If you’re involved in the design of cities, if you live in a growing city, …
The World of Tomorrow in 1939 – post on Design Observer about the 1939 New York World’s Fair, a dazzling display of optimism and innovation 75 years ago with the theme ‘Building the World of Tomorrow’. For a nation just coming out of the Great Depression and …
Green Building Standards – this page on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s website allows you to compare characteristics of six green building standards: International Code Council’s 2012 International Green Construction Code (IgCC) ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2011: Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings (ASHRAE 189.1) ICC 700-2012: 2012 National …
Up and down with John Kormeling – one-page article in Mark #46 (Oct/Nov 2013, page 32) about architect John Kormeling’s bridge in the Dutch city of Tilburg. It’s designed with a small building that serves as counterweight. Kormeling designed the building as both bridge master’s house and …
Hierarchical Design & Solar Panels: A World Economic Forum Discussion – in this 3-min video clip Caltech materials scientist Julia Greer explains how hierarchical design can help create very light-weight materials – “up to 99% air, but that yet retain the high stiffness and high strength of their …
Shigeru Ban: Tamedia office building in Zurich completed – new seven-story office for Swiss media company sited along the Sihl Canal consists of an interlocking wooden structure within a glass skin. The architect was inspired by both the vernacular Swiss use of wood and techniques of Japanese joinery. The …
Infographic: Nine most unusual data centers in the world – take a graphic tour of data centers that are out of the ordinary because of siting (an abandoned nuclear bunker, a WWII anti-aircraft platform, inside a mountain), portability (using shipping containers), cooling methods (one uses the entire lower floor …
Hunnarshala, Bhuj, India, 2013 Winner – Hunnarshala is a group of architects and engineers that was formed in response to a major disaster in northern India. It “is based on legitimizing and giving dignity to the building artisan community that has been the repository of so much knowledge….” They work …
A year to celebrate Le Notre – 2013 marks 400 years since the birth of Andre Le Notre, the French landscaper who created the gardens of Versailles and whose influence on urban planners and landscape architects continues to this day. In his honor, the Palace of Versailles has organized …
The Colours at Martini Hospital in Groningen – architect Arnold Burger of SEED architects and interior designer Bart Vos worked with color artist Peter Struycken to develop a palette of 47 colors for this new hospital in the Netherlands. The organization of the hospital was deliberately …
Two sides of a long-standing workplace design issue. On one side: Offices for all! Why open-office layouts are bad for employees, bosses, and productivity And on the other: How to create an open office that is more awesome for both introverts and extroverts Two senior editors at Fast Company present …
Cap Cloud over the Sierra Nevadas – today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is by Guido Montanes, one of the many professional photographers whose work is posted on APOD. You’ll find a brief explanation of this unusual cloud phenomenon in the photo’s caption. If you’re interested in astronomy, …
World Buildings Directory – nice collection of data on all World Architecture Festival (WAF) finalists and winners, from the first Festival in 2008 to the most recent in 2013. Search by project category (for instance Civic / Health / Landscape / Office / Structural / Transport), by country of project, by …
Daniel Libeskind Is No Architect – thoughtful post about the use of the title ‘architect’, what it means to be an architect, and whether only licensed and registered practitioners should be called architects of buildings. There’s a debate within architectural circles (building architecture) about who can legitimately be identified as …
Diogene: A cabin designed by Renzo Piano and RPBW for Vitra – Diogene is a single-room prototype cabin, a minimalist house of 2.5 x 3 meters that “functions completely autonomously as a self-contained system and is thus independent of its environment.” Since his student days architect Piano has been fascinated …
Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming – an impassioned and thought-provoking argument for the value to society of reading, libraries, librarians, and how the daydreaming that reading can stimulate leads to imagining a better future and the innovation that our social and economic well-being depends …
“Piranha Etching” Could Push Nanowire Solar Cells Way Past Theoretical Limits – research in Holland is showing how to dramatically increase the efficiency of nanowire solar cells using ‘piranha etching’, a method of chemically cleaning the surface of the wires. The large surface area of nanowire tends to have …
Frame #93 – July / Aug 2013 issue of this Dutch design magazine (text in English) features the Rijksmuseum, recently reopened after a ten-year closure for extensive renovations and restorations. One of the challenges faced by Cruz y Ortiz, the Spanish architecture firm responsible for the rebuilding …