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In this Dezeen podcast for the Design Museum architect David Adjaye talks to curator Gemma Curtin about Urban Africa, an exhibition of his photographs on show at the museum in London. For the interview…
Monthly Archive for April, 2010
Professor Jeffery S. Poss FAIA is the first in an internationally-known line-up of plenary speakers for the Constructed Environment Conference, held alongside the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
Jeffery S. Poss FAIA is a Professor in the University of Illinois School of Architecture. He creates places of commemoration, introspection, and meaning that evoke the human spirit–public places that bring people together, or conversely, private spaces that allow people to find refuge in quiet contemplation. Through his design work Professor Poss strives to articulate values and symbols that express the highest aspirations of our society: projects that act as inspirational models of design and practice both to the students under his tutelage and the people who use them. More…
By John Noble Wilford from The New York Times…
Archaeologists have embarked on excavations in northern Syria expected to widen and deepen understanding of a prehistoric culture in Mesopotamia that set the stage for the rise of the world’s first cities and states and the invention of writing.
In two seasons of preliminary surveying and digging at the site known as Tell Zeidan, American and Syrian investigators have already uncovered a tantalizing sampling of artifacts from what had been a robust pre-urban settlement on the upper Euphrates River. People occupied the site for two millenniums, until 4000 B.C. — a little-known but fateful period of human cultural evolution. More…
http://constructedenvironment.com/conference-2010/
Constructed Environment Conference
17-19 November 2010
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy
Plenary Speakers
- Kathryn H. Anthony, University of Illinois School of Architecture, Urbana-Champaign, USA
- René Davids, University of California Berkeley School of Architecture, Berkeley, USA
- Cristiano Lippa, Kengo Kuma Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- David Mayernik, School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame, Rome, Italy
- Jeffery S. Poss, FAIA, University of Illinois School of Architecture, Urbana-Champaign, USA
Call for Papers
If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins by submitting a paper proposal. More information on proposals, presentation types, and other options available here. If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the conference.
Registration
Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register at any time. 2010 Constructed Environment Conference registration options.
Themes
Eastern Germany has seen its cities shrink since the fall of the Berlin Wall as people leave to find work elsewhere. But now a state-sponsored project suggests that “city islands,” urban green zones and huge outdoor art could be part of the solution.
From Spiegel Online…
The higher one climbs up the steps, the more intense the spicy smell becomes. But it is not until you get to the observation platform that you realize how this building in the eastern German town of Dessau got its name, “The Smoking Tower.” At one stage the sausages made by a local butchery co-operative were smoked here and the smell seems to have become engrained in the masonry.
However the socialist production line in what was once East Germany is no longer running and the butchery jobs have disappeared. Only the tower remains. It is being renovated and made more accessible — even though it still emits a strong smell. But while the aroma lingers, the people themselves have disappeared.
“In 10 years’ time, Dessau will have lost a third of its residents compared to 1990,” says city planner Heike Brückner. Since Germany was reunified in 1990, Dessau, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, has shrunk more than almost any other municipality in the land. More…
From GOOD…
Back in 2008, Los Angeles passed a ballot measure, Measure R, that increased the sales tax in the county to raise $40 billion for public transportation projects. It was a big victory for sensible planning in a city that’s unfortunately dominated by cars.
Now one of the groups that helped get that measure passed, Move L.A., is trying to get the city to step on the gas, so to speak. They want the Federal government to advance some Measure R cash so Los Angeles can finish an ambitious list of transit projects in 10 years rather than 30. They’re calling it the “30/10 plan.” Check out a big version of the graphic above from The Transport Politic to see how it would work.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is behind the plan and it looks like it’s getting some traction in the Senate from Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. More…
From GOOD…
The pat social critique of architecture is doubtless as old as architecture itself: High design is nice to have, but it’s a luxury. MASS, a new Boston- and Kigali, Rwanda-based firm, aims to change the mindset that shelves ambitious building design in times of crisis. MASS co-founder Marika Clark says the revelation came three years ago, when she and fellow designers learned that NGOs often weren’t using architects for major projects in troubled areas: “[They] were building critical infrastructure work without the use of design professionals.” And at first architecture was a tough sell, even to current client Partners in Health: “PIH was very unsure of how architects could be useful at that point,” she says. Eventually, the organization came around, commissioning the project MASS now sees as its flagship, the under-construction Butaro Hospital in the Burera District. More…
Kazuyo Sejima, Director of the 12th Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition, wins the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2010.
About the prize…
The international prize, which is awarded each year to a living architect for significant achievement, was established by the Pritzker family of Chicago through their Hyatt Foundation in 1979. Often referred to as “architecture’s Nobel” and “the profession’s highest honor,” it is granted annually.
The award consists of $100,000 (US) and a bronze medallion. The award is conferred on the laureate at a ceremony held at an architecturally significant site throughout the world.