Category: Urban
Posted by James on 2/4/2010 1:02:00 PM
NYC adopts a new standard for urban construction sheds
 We
posted an announcement last August for the "urbanSHED International Design Competition," and Young-Hwan Choi, a 28-year-old graduate student from the University of Pennsylvania, heeded the call* and won the $10,000 cash prize. So how about showing L+L a little love, wontcha, Young? A little sumpthin' sumpthin'... anything? No?
Mr. Choi's concept, the Urban Umbrella has been adopted by the New York City Department of Buildings as a new standard. While use of the design by contractors will not be mandatory, the Department reports that the installation costs are "in line" with the current standard and that long term maintenance and installations costs for the new structures will be lower. Also of note is that the new design will obstruct less of a building's facade which would appeal to building owners and affected businesses.
Link: urbanSHED
*WE HAVE NO IDEA IF YOUNG-HWAN CHOI HAS EVER READ L+L.
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 8/4/2009 8:40:00 AM
An Intensive Design Workshop in New York City, August 2009
This is intensive design workshop from August 17-21 in New York City. The workshop will take place in a studio setting and will be devoted to exploring relational design strategies and digital design methodologies for speculative infrastructures--specifically with the Gowanus Canal.
The aim of the workshop will be to empower designers to negotiate the complex and data-rich environments that are available through professional mapping and information systems and to develop speculative design proposals through the use of computational techniques and methodologies. Participants will develop design interventions that address emerging ecological crises and opportunities found in New York ecologies of the present and near-future.
Workshop participants include students, academics, and professionals, and the program includes a number of interesting outside speakers and events. The instructors are Michael Chen + Jason Lee [Crisis Fronts] & Ronnie Parsons + Gil Akos [Studio Mode | modeLab].
There is still time to register for the full workshop. A public event and presentation on Friday the 21st will conclude the workshop.
Link: Crisis Modes | Workshop
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 4/29/2009 7:49:00 AM
Winner of the 2009 Mies van der Rohe Award
This landmark building in Oslo by Snøhetta (Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Tarald Lundevall, Craig Dykers) is the
largest cultural centre built in Norway in 700 years. The competion brief stated that the operahouse should be monumental in it’s expression. Snøhetta's interpretation of monumentality is a concept of togetherness, joint ownership, easy and open access for all which is manifested in the warping roof plane making the an extended piece of civic public space. Monumentality is achieved through wide horizontal extension and not verticality. Integral to the 1,000-room interior, which is largely lined with crafted woodwork (using the traditions of Norwegian boat builders), are a number of art commissions interwoven into the structural fabric, including a cloakroom, a collaboration with their 2007 Serpentine Pavilion collaborator Olafur Eliasson.
The European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe announced today that the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, Oslo, Norway by Snøhetta is the winner of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2009.
Link: Snøhetta
Location: L+L Maps - Norwegian National Opera & Ballet
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 2/17/2009 7:53:00 AM
Screw the rules of the road
More than two years ago, I read an article by LA based journalist Sam Kaplan talking about what he called "woonerfern," a Dutch concept of street design which blurs the boundaries of traffic separation and use. However a quick web search for "Woonerfern" will turn up nothing other than references to this article by Mr. Kaplan, and using a Dutch-to-English dictionary was no help either. A bit more research, and AH-HA! I discovered the term "Woonerf" (or the plural "Woonerven"), a concept developed in the late 1960's and early 70's which is credited to the late Dutch civil engineer Hans Monderman, who's philosophy of road design throws out the conventional wisdom that driving and walking are incompatible and that traffic must be directed and controlled by signals and signage.
The concept has evolved into numerous variations of philosophy: Home Zones, Shared Space, Living Streets, New Mobility, etc. But never mind what it is called, the concept of a street serving multiple functions is an interesting one. It expands the possibilities of walkable, sustainable cities which accommodates the automobile, but emphasizes and encourages alternate modes of movement and inhabitation of the street-scape--linear public space. Plus, it is just a good era to revisit 'infrastructure' rather than, say, sexy modern mountain vacation homes. So, let's take a look at shared spaces, shall we?
Link: Salon - Why don't we do it in the road?
Link: NY Times - A Path to Road Safety With No Signposts
Link: Wired - Roads Gone Wild
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 9/11/2007 11:48:00 AM
An Tur Solais - The Spire of Dublin
 A day on which one can't help but think of monuments and symbols seems like an appropriate time to take a look at a successful modern monument... at least Witold Rybczynski thought so, and it got me to thinking about it as well.
The Spire of Dublin, also known as An Tur Solais (the Monument of Light) and The Spike... it also has some unsavory nicknames in the Dubliner tradition: The Stiletto in the Ghetto, The Nail in the Pale, The Binge Syringe, and (perhaps my favorite) The Erection in the Intersection.
The monument was conceived in the early 1990's to provide a replacement for Nelson's Pillar which was blown up by former IRA members in 1966. An architectural competition was held with the intention of building the monument in time for the millennium. Alas construction was delayed by a pair of lawsuits filed by failed competitors - one designed a resurrection of Nelsons Pillar but topped by a bronze sun, the other a column topped by a revolving restaurant...
Of course monuments are contentious by their very nature - e.g. Ground Zero, Alex Eiffel, World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., etc. And the sore losers of the competition weren't the only detractors of the winning entry - public opinion and politicians decried the monument citing its inappropriateness to the context, the exorbitant cost and everything in between. Not to mention the planning process and environmental regulations (EIS). It is a wonder it was ever built at all... and so it is perhaps a fitting symbol of the new Ireland where such things are possible. And yet that uncovers an ironic twist: this monument of the new Ireland, built to replace a symbol of British imperialism, was an entry by a British architect, Ian Ritchie.
Link: The Spire of Dublin
Slideshow: Slate - The Spire of Dublin
Designer: Ian Ritchie Architects
Related: Seeing Éire [I] - Ailtireacht na Baile Átha Cliath (L+L)
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 4/5/2007 10:05:00 AM
1972 documentary film
How else would Reyner Banham tour Los Angeles but by car? Take a circa 1972 ride through Los Angeles with the architectural critic and author of Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies as he visits the Plains, the Foothills, Surfurbia, and (of course) Autopia. It is amazing to see how much Los Angeles changed in the last 35 years, and yet how relevant Banham's observations still are. Awesome.
We'll get back to modern day Los Angeles with more coverage from CA Boom 4 shortly... stay tuned.
Link: Google Video (51 min 58 sec)
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 9/25/2006 12:08:00 PM
International Style urban community in Detroit
 Modern urban redevelopment projects generally have a bad rap, with conclusions batted about of the failure of modernism to produce livable communities. Not all modernist developments met the same fate as Pruitt-Igoe, however. Shining examples of modernist planning are scattered around the world which deliver on the promise that modern visionaries hoped to fulfill.
One such example is the highly successful Lafayette Park (Gratiot Park Development) in Detroit Michigan designed by architect Mies van der Rohe, planner Ludwig Hilberseimer, and landscape architect Alfred Caldwell.
Link: National Park Service - Mies van der Rohe Residential District
Article: Detroit Free Press - 50th Anniversary of Lafayette Park
Photos: Flickr Lafayette Park photo set
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 7/20/2006 8:42:00 PM
Something out of Blade Runner
Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei provides a tour of construction in Beiging including the CCTV building by OMA, the National Theater by Paul Andreu, the National Swimming Center (Water Cube) by PTW and the Olympic Stadium by Herzog & de Meuron.
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 6/21/2006 2:33:00 PM
A social oasis in the urban environment... she's electric
 Nothing to do with the UK national treasure... the London Oasis is a temporary structure on Clerkenwell Green installed as part of national Architecture Week. It is a kinetic sculpture by architect Laurie Chetwood designed to demonstrate sustainability and renewable energy while providing entertainment, a place for meeting and tranquil space for Londoners. Self-sufficiently powered by solar cells, a hydrogen fuel cell and wind, the Oasis interacts with the environment around it. Shade providing "branches" open and close in response to the weather. Enclosed pods at the base provide a place of seclusion for people to rest with "cleaner cooled air and relaxing sounds." At night the Oasis acts as a beacon in the cityscape with lights which repsond to the movements of people around it. It even uses rainwater it has collected for irrigation and cooling.
Link: London Oasis
Firm: Chetwood Associates
More: MSNBC - Urban 'Oasis' of clean energy lands in London
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 5/21/2006 5:32:00 PM
Exhibition of experimental architecture
 An exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London running June 15, 2006 - September 17, 2006.
From extraordinary houses and incredible towers, to fantasy cityscapes and inhabitable sculptures, Future City showcases the most radical and experimental architecture to have emerged in the past 50 years.
From the visionary artist-turned-architect Constant Nieuwenhuys, to 1960’s giants Archigram and SuperStudio, to deconstructivists Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid and contemporary digitally inspired work by Nox and Decoi, this is the most comprehensive survey of experimental architecture to be held in the UK.
Link: Barbican - Future City
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