Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 1/31/2005 8:42:00 AM
New Ash Green: 60's housing in the U.K.
 Not all 60's housing experiments/designs were created equal, especially when it comes to large scale developments. But when it's good, it's good. We've previously featured some good stuff in California, and here is a tasty morsel in Great Britain.
This website (with small but enticing images) is a wealth of information about this "unique housing project in Kent, its original developer SPAN and their consultant architect Eric Lyons."
Link: Span Kent, New Ash Green
Via: Things
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Category: Books
Posted by James on 1/30/2005 9:52:00 AM
Rethinking the Post-Industrial Landscape
 Continuing in the vain of landscape architecture and reclaimed sites...
Around the world abandoned industrial sites, landfills, waterfronts and other tainted lands provide opportunities and challenges. Vancouver is seeking to turn an industrial waterfront into a residential district, Sydney transformed polluted wastelands into their Olympic Park, and outside of London Stockley Park reclaimed an ancient manufacturing site.
Manufactured Sites explores the "reclamation of land and the integration of innovative technologies and design strategies in their redevelopment and regeneration" from the perspective of landscape design professionals, including a chapter/project by Peter Latz. Editor Niall Kirkwood is an Associate professor of landscape architecture, Director of the Masters in Landscape Architecture degree programs, and founder and Director of the Center for Technology and Environment at Harvard GSD.
Editor: Niall Kirkwood
Link: Amazon
Related: Westergasfabriek (Land+Living)
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Category: Landscape
Posted by James on 1/29/2005 9:06:00 AM
Interventions on industrial sites and ill defined open spaces
 Landscape architect Peter Latz, based in Kranzberg, Germany, practices what he preaches; defining and reclaiming the landscape with an eye on ecology and social needs.
The practice of Latz + Partner focuses on "the renewal of destroyed and often contaminated sites, - a new balance in the traffic infrastructures and - the spatial and material framework of ecological programmes." Their work tackles gritty urban and industrial sites with attention to expressing the history and character of the land.
The website may be a bit cumbersome to navigate and dense, but it is packed with information and images just waiting to reward the focused browser. Plus, you can take your pick of German, English or French text... In Ordnung; all right; bien.
Link: Latz + Partner
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Category: Commentary
Posted by James on 1/28/2005 8:16:00 PM
Public art is... apparently... private?
 Related to our continuing concern with the privatization of public space, here is an interesting situation featuring Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park.
According to a post at New (sub)Urbanism, photographer Warren Wimmer was prevented from photographing this piece of public art.
Fascinating.
Link: New (sub)Urbanism - Copyrighting of Public Space
Reference: Chicago's Millennium Park (Land+Living)
Reference: It's a Crocker etc. (Land+Living)
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Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 1/28/2005 9:47:00 AM
A Los Angeles architect who beat me down
 Once upon a time at SCI-Arc, I encountered Barbara Bestor sitting on my jury for a crit while pursuing my Masters degree in Architecture. Crits are like defending yourself against a crime that you know you have committed, and I recall that Barbara found me to be particularly guilty. Well, she may not have been enamored of my design that day, but I am quite impressed with the work shown on her website.
In her 30's, Barbara Bestor has established herself in a profession that is hard to break into at a young age, especailly as a woman in a profession (even in 2005) skewed towards men. Based upon my experience with her and what I have seen of her work, I can see how she has done it... she is tough talking and opinionated but refined, talented, knowledgeable, and skilled at producing wonderful results with small budgets.
Link: Bestor Architecture
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Category: Commentary
Posted by Anthony on 1/28/2005 8:54:00 AM
A rant about one of our favorite rags
 Over in the Archinect forums, a member with the moniker Suture has written an interesting little rant about how Dwell is slowly changing from a magazine that once featured hand made coffee tables and stenciled walls to one that now features individuals tooling around in "mid 50's Mercedes" toting "$1000+ worth of luggage" and can afford "$20,000 plus worth of iconic Mies furnishings". I guess it's been a long transition because I never really noticed it, but now that he mentions it, it suddenly stands out so well.
"Where they once documented honest, affordable projects that did not strain to be trendy, they are now profiling unfinished projects (or was that a proposition for a new temporal plywood design) (p96) just so they can stuff crass advertising down peoples throat (back cover and 123), sell branded shoes (see p127), sell not very accessible or ecologically friendly cars (p 27 and they have had H2 ads before)...sadly the list goes on. I wont even touch the out of control and exponentially growing ad section in the back that is busting at the seams."
So, we pose the question: Should Dwell go back to leaning more to the Ready Made side of the fence or should they continue on their current path catering to the Elle Decor crowd? Comment below!
Link: Archinect Forums
Link: Dwell
Link: Fruit Bowl Manifesto (Dwell)
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Category: Events
Posted by James on 1/28/2005 8:19:00 AM
Grab your pruning shears and get ready to party in April 2005
 The American Society of Landscape Architects has declared April 2005 as National Landscape Architecture Month. The theme will be Design for Active Living, highlighting ways landscape architecture and community design affect daily activity levels, and, in turn, overall health.
Link: ASLA - Landscape Architecture Month
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Category: Outdoor
Posted by Anthony on 1/27/2005 8:57:00 PM
Cast concrete amenities
 Kornegay Design is an Arizona based company that specializes in cast concrete planters, benches, and receptacles. Their products are cast from a proprietary concrete mix which is extremely durable in cold weather environments.
I've been looking for landscape elements for my garden and must say, the Nutshell design and the Mex Bold (featured at right) are two of my favorites.
Link: Kornegay Design [Thanks, Paula!]
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Category: Accessories
Posted by James on 1/27/2005 4:38:00 PM
Home decor and accessories from Rios Clementi Hale Studios
 notNeutral is... well... not neutral. And not ashamed of it. A division of Los Angeles multi-disciplinary design firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios, notNeutral offers "confident, hip and streetwise products that express individuality and choice." It's kind of like the anti-Pottery Barn.
Their products offer a broad range of dinnerware, pillows, vases, children’s furniture, and home accessories of all kinds. It's funky groovy stuff, as if four decades of design and style have collided... and it works.
They have their own retail store on Melrose in Los Angeles, a web store, and are carried by specialty retailers.
Link: notNeutral
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Category: Landscape
Posted by James on 1/27/2005 12:03:00 AM
An courtyard garden space for a Boston condominium complex
 This garden occupies the inner court space of an old printing house in Boston that has been converted into residential condominium units. The design solution, by Salem, Massachusetts based Landworks Studio, creates usable communal space while at the same time providing privacy and varied views for the inner condo units.
In contrast to the regularity of the existing structure, the landscape architects employed a concept of fragmentation; in the plantings, pathways, materials, topographic undulation, etc. Groovy lighting elements transform the space at night with a yellow green glow emanating from the benches and a fiber optic web amongst the bamboo. The design provides an stylish contemporary foil to the historic building.
Link: Landworks Studio
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