Hour long american interview with Renzo, focussing on the New York Times building in New York.

more detail in the full listing

20.08.08 in profiles

20.08.08 in architects

tags: green roofs

American resource portal for green roofs.

20.08.08 in sustainability

tags: green roofs

American resource site.

20.08.08 in sustainability

tags: green roofs

20.08.08 in architects

“ArchCasts is part of a public outreach campaign to help demystify and explain the design process to the general public… ArchCasts feature Bay Area architects in conversation about issues of relevance to architecture and design.” Some of the more recent archcasts are video.

18.08.08 in audio-clips

Really good articles about the craziest things. By Geoff Manaugh.

16.08.08 in other-blogs

Renzo Piano’s gone all green with his new building in San Francisco, a hop away from Herzog and de Meuron’s new de Young Museum. The Academy is carpeted in 2.5 acres of grass and flowers, it is insulated with recycled blue jeans (very appropriate for San Francisco – home of Levi’s).

Pic from: SWA Group

Green roofs are becoming popular in the U.S., particularly since Chicago mayor Richard Daley returned from a visit to Europe in 1997 with a case of green roof envy. All well and good, although architects tend to want their roofs green rather than brown, even in California’s Mediterranean climate. Consultant plant guy at the CAS, Paul Kephart scowled in 2004 , “if you get right down to it, nobody wants it to be brown… You have flowering, then you have decadence and senescence. That’s the life procession.”

20.08.08 in buildings sustainability

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Melbourne’s Nest Architecture , perhaps tiring of the lets-empty-the-place approach to architectural photography, worked with artist Tai Snaith to ‘people’ one of their houses with a collection of animals (stuffed, wooden, and real) and related bits and pieces. The result was then photographed by documentary photographer Jesse Marlow . They tell me a fun day was had by all. Maybe they can fit a horse in next time. More on their site .

18.08.08 in architects photographers

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I got something of a shock last week when someone told me that Shin Takamatsu’s Syntax building in Kyoto was demolished a few years ago. But it is true, as this Flickr photo of a recently vacated lot attests. Not enough lettable area I guess.

I thought it would be good to see what could have replaced such a fine building. Surely they would have gone the extra mile with it. Spending Saturday morning driving around Kyoto using Google’s street view, I finally stumbled across it when I remembered it was close to the Botanical Gardens. So here it is. Hmmm.

16.08.08 in buildings 

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In an address to the nation today (India’s 61st birthday), Indian PM Manmohan Singh announced that education would be given something of a boost to improve access to education and health. Two new architecture schools are planned, and… lordy… “6,000 new high-quality model schools, 373 new colleges, 30 new universities, eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, 20 new IIITs, five new Indian Institutes of Science, 10 new NITs and 1,000 new polytechnic institutes.” In 2007 there were about 100 institutions in India offering architecture courses, up from 40 in 1988 and just one in 1948.

To learn more about architectural education in India, you should probably have a look at architexturez.net , a mammoth site with many opinionated essays and abstracts.

Also today… the Financial Express reports that the, “Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach ) has prepared a list of nearly 70,000 monuments in the country of which about 60,000 are not looked after by any government or private agency.” Intach chairman S K Mishra said, “many of these 60,000 monuments need immediate attention. Otherwise, they will be ruined.”

15.08.08 in education heritage

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Think Brick, an industry site, recently put the entries for this years About Face competition on line. Work by Choi Ropiha, M3 Architecture, Bellemo and Cat, Adrian Lahoud, Pendal and Neille, and Rowan Opat is included. You can vote on the web site.

15.08.08 in architects brick

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Down in Queenstown, NZ, it gets so cold that people like to heat their driveways (don’t worry they’re on hydro). Not far away, Fearon Hay have recently erected a stone box, dug back into a spur, with a ridiculous view across Lake Wakatipu. Wallpaper magazine spotted the house and have just featured it. From a dark cavernous interior, the living room opens out to the light, the view, and a clever little fireplace (I don’t think that runs on hydro…).

fearon hay

14.08.08 in architects 

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Richard Neutra’s house for Edgar Kaufmann in Palm Springs was auctioned at Christie’s in May (here’s the PDF flyer ), sandwiched between other modern painters and sculptors. Bidding started at $9.5M. and it sold for US $16.8M. Phew – though they were expecting up to $25M. The Art Newspaper revealed last week that a week after the auction, it all came unstuck. They quote Christie’s as saying, “the Kaufmann House contract has been terminated by the seller by reason of a breach of its terms by the buyer.” They must be worrying about their $1.8M commission…

So why was it auctioned by Christie’s rather than the local Hocking Stuart? Preservation Nation says the owners were looking for “art-world connoisseurs” rather than hoi polloi, and a price that would guarantee its preservation. That site has a blow-by-blow account of the auction, has a nice description of the havoc Barry Manilow wreaked on the house during his tenancy, and talks about the modernist god of photography Julius Schulman’s recent visit to the house aged 97.

great buildings – kaufmann desert house
neutra.org

12.08.08 in buildings 

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Australian architect Louise Cox was appointed president of the International Union of Architects last month in Turin. We’d better find some more out about her. Judging from her bio she is pretty well ready for the job. Sadly her competitor for the job, Giancarlo Ius, died on the day of the elections – she has said that she will honour his policies as well as her own. So what will she do?

Louise Cox has placed sustainable professional practices at the heart of her presidential programme and is committed to energetically supporting the international continuing education system. In her own words, Louise Cox “wants to make UIA an inclusive, respectful, tolerant, and visionary organisation, working to ameliorate poverty and homelessness.”

via Canadian Architect

12.08.08 in architects 

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The Brits apparently think the SOH is it in terms of modern wonders. A survey of 2000 Britons by a travel insurance company rates SOH at #1 ahead of worthy wonders the Eiffel Tower (#2) and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio (#3). The only other building down this end to make the list is the Petronas Towers at 6th equal with the Kremlin. The Ground Zero hole makes #8.

12.08.08 in buildings 

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Some architects in the States have quite a sideline going in selling “readymade” plans through their websites. There lots of cons planting a house designed for snow loads in a desert earthquake belt, but for some customers the savings outweigh the lack of customisation. Design and documentation fees run at about a quarter of normal fees. And it does keep drawings from gathering dust in the archive.

09.08.08 in practice 

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