Category: Architecture

Architecture, Health, Living, PoliticsLeave a comment

Sick city

Fernando Kaskais

The Cross-Bronx Expressway, April 1971. Photo by Dan McCoy/Environmental Protection Agency/National Archives My dad grew up in Robert Moses’s New York City. His story is a testament to how urban planning shapes countless lives Katie Mulkowsky is an urban planner. She works in London on a range of public-realm and transport projects that seek to improve air quality, reduce highway congestion and foster more equitable, people-centred places. My father rollerskated on the Cross-Bronx Expressway before it opened to car traffic. Born in 1953, he would have been seven or eight when New York City’s massive thoroughfare reached the peak of its … Continue reading Sick city

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The Sphere Is Here. Are We Ready for More High-Tech Architecture?

Fernando Kaskais

Sphere lights up during its grand opening on September 29, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Ethan Miller/Getty Images The new Las Vegas performance venue challenges musicians and visual artists to produce content for its demanding format By Rebecca Heilweil Sphere, which finally opened its doors in Las Vegas late last month, is like nothing we’ve seen before. The exterior of the orb-shaped performance venue is a giant LED screen that has, thus far, broadcast a giant eyeball, a satellite view of Earth, an emoji face and a tennis ball, among other images. The inside is home to a humongous internal 16K-resolution screen, with haptic, audio and … Continue reading The Sphere Is Here. Are We Ready for More High-Tech Architecture?

Architecture, Climate Change, Eco, Planet, PoliticsLeave a comment

“The design professions are not stepping up to address the wildfires problem”

Fernando Kaskais

The photography, showing a burned home in Lahaina, is by Zane Vergara via Shutterstock. By Greg Kochanowski As wildfires exacerbated by climate change wreak increasing havoc around the world, Greg Kochanowski argues it’s time for a different approach. We now have scientific proof of the ways we have irrevocably changed the territories and climate of this world, putting us on a path where we cannot yet see the ultimate consequences. Wildfires and their negative effects on infrastructure and health are a clear example that more are experiencing worldwide all the time. The design professions are not stepping up to address the wildfires problem, other than to call … Continue reading “The design professions are not stepping up to address the wildfires problem”

Architecture, Globalization, Media&Culture, Politics, Psychology, TechnologyLeave a comment

“Cities are branding themselves into predictably unique products”

Fernando Kaskais

Market forces are pushing cities towards a shallow and Instagram-friendly impression of authenticity that makes everywhere feel the same, writes David A Banks. By David A Banks  If you’ve started traveling again since the pandemic, you may have noticed something unsettling. Cities and neighborhoods are branding themselves into predictably unique products. Nothing too daring, just a hint of local flare – a microbrew IPA named after a local landmark, a “general store” that sells tchotchkes with a stylized drawing of the downtown skyline. The city is increasingly thought of as prop and backdrop for a life lived on Instagram These are just … Continue reading “Cities are branding themselves into predictably unique products”

Architecture, Freak U.S.A, Money, Politics, PsychologyLeave a comment

“The Vessel shows us how bad the vampiric ultra-wealthy are at making public space”

Fernando Kaskais

By Matt Shaw  It’s now two years since Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel was closed following a spate of suicides. As the ill-fated project gathers dust, Matt Shaw reflects on what went wrong. I arrived in New York City last week on a bus from New Jersey with a skyline view of the West Side of Manhattan. I was annoyed by a mysterious glare, and as I adjusted my eyes, I recognized the Vessel – Thomas Heatherwick‘s $200 million staircase at Hudson Yards. I realized how that view is the front door to Manhattan and that the Vessel is the image of New York City in the 21st century. If anyone … Continue reading “The Vessel shows us how bad the vampiric ultra-wealthy are at making public space”

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The Line architects explain Saudi mega city in Discovery Channel documentary

Fernando Kaskais

The Line megacity is currently under development in Saudi Arabia By Tom Ravenscroft  Architects including Thom Mayne, Peter Cook and Reinier de Graaf have explained the thinking behind planned megacity The Line in a recently released 45-minute documentary. Numerous architects feature in the recent Discovery Channel documentary, which is named The Line: Saudi Arabia’s City of the Future in Neom, alongside members of the Neom team and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. “I can’t think of anybody that wouldn’t want to be part of this project,” said Morphosis founder Mayne, while Cook Haffner Architecture Platform co-founder Cook said that “if it succeeds, it will be a new Babylon”. The 45-minute-long documentary marks … Continue reading The Line architects explain Saudi mega city in Discovery Channel documentary

Architecture, Climate Change, Eco, Future, Politics1 Comment

How Nature Can Help Cities Survive

Fernando Kaskais

Top: The central downtown district of Singapore. Visual: Calvin Chan Wai Meng/Moment via Getty Images Book Review – Ben Wilson’s “Urban Jungle” is a nuanced history of urban ecology, and its vital role in the climate-change era. BY RICHARD SCHIFFMAN CITIES ARE AT WAR with the natural world. To build them, forests are razed, streams get buried underground, wetlands are filled in, and wildlife gets exiled to the suburbs and beyond. Worst of all, Ben Wilson reports in “Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City,” the residents of cities are outsized consumers of the Earth’s resources, responsible for three quarters … Continue reading How Nature Can Help Cities Survive

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15-minute cities: The hot new conspiracy theory of 2023

Fernando Kaskais

How to separate the reality from the conspiracy theory. Alex Nurse and Alessia Calafiore and Richard J. Dunning Conspiracy theories aren’t a new thing, and for as long as they’ve been around they’ve ranged from the benign to the absurd. From the six moon landings being faked to the Earth being flat, or our ruling class being lizards, we’ve all probably come across them in one form or another.  Yet, in a surprise twist, the hottest conspiracy theory of 2023 comes from an unlikely corner: town planning. This relates to the idea of “the 15-minute city” and has even gone so far as to … Continue reading 15-minute cities: The hot new conspiracy theory of 2023

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Concrete Built The Modern World. Now It’s Destroying It.

Fernando Kaskais

Artem Grigorov for Noema Magazine A growing chorus of architects argue we have to build differently with concrete — which contributes to global warming and environmental destruction on a scale that’s hard to fathom — or perhaps abandon it altogether. BY JOE ZADEH, Joe Zadeh is a writer based in Newcastle. ZÜRICH — In the aftermath of World War II, the leaders of Switzerland decided that the country needed to urgently modernize, and concluded that a remote and picturesque valley high in the Alps could be developed for hydropower. Nearly 350 square miles of snow and ice covered the mountains there, and … Continue reading Concrete Built The Modern World. Now It’s Destroying It.

Architecture, Middle East, Technology, UnbelievableLeave a comment

Forget Skyscrapers: Dubai Architecture Firm Proposes a Sky Circle

Fernando Kaskais

ZN | Era’s Downtown Circle would surround the Burj Khalifa By Rain Noe  From Dubai-based architecture firm ZN | Era comes this interesting proposal: The Downtown Circle, a massive elevated circular structure that would surround the Burj Khalifa. (Think supersized version of Apple’s headquarters, in a configuration ill-suited for acrophobes.) “As a response to the dilemma of how to build densely while retaining liveability, the Downtown Circle project establishes a sustainable and a self-sufficient vertical urbanism. As a singular mega building complex, it aims to create a hyper efficient urban center that gives back to the environment. The proposed 550 meter … Continue reading Forget Skyscrapers: Dubai Architecture Firm Proposes a Sky Circle