Around the world people are rapidly moving to cities in an incredible manifestation of consolidated growth. The Museum of Modern Art’s Uneven Growth is the culmination of a 14-month initiative to address developing problems in six of those cities by involving the communities most impacted.
Urban Design
Posted inArt
Creating Community Space Inside a Dumpster
Of all the places to set up an “inflatable classroom” and community event space, a dumpster seems among the most improbable.
Posted inArt
A Tiny Red House for the Homeless
One of the hardest steps in surmounting homelessness is in the transition from a shelter to a permanent home, and while many ideas for pop-up temporary housing are manifested in designer dreams, few of those architectural solutions have found widespread implementation.
Posted inArt
An Underground Pool and More Proposed Uses for Paris Ghost Stations
A Parisian mayoral candidate is proposing turning the city’s abandoned subway stations into public space.
Posted inArt
11 Great NYC Urban Design and Architecture Moments of 2013
It’s sometimes hard to stay positive about development in New York when Frank Lloyd Wright buildings can disappear in the blink of an eye and everything seems to be turning into condos. However, it’s not all bad news, and 2013 had plenty of optimistic progress in architecture and urban design.
Posted inArt
The Architectural Is Always Political
New York’s East 53rd Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues, is full of nondescript Manhattan skyscrapers. In the courtyard of one of these clinically clean buildings, however, there are five crumbling, old slabs of concrete covered in graffiti. It’s hard to believe that these blocks, so out of place in their surroundings, were once part of one of the most politically charged structures in the world, one that divided the globe in two based on ideology and geopolitics — the Berlin Wall.
Posted inOpinion
The High Line Gets Drrrty
The High Line Section 2 is New York City’s latest stab at utopia, so it only makes sense that people love it. But maybe they love it a little too much? Gothamist publishes a photo essay of couples canoodling on the High Line lawn, and all of a sudden, the lawn gets closed for cleaning. Cleaning of what, exactly?
Posted inOpinion
World’s Largest Wooden Structure Built in Spain
The city of Seville might be best known in art circles as the birthplace of famed Spanish painter Diego Velazquez, but now the city has another claim to fame — it is now the home of the world’s largest wooden structure, a 5,000 square meter canopy over the central Plaza de la Encarnacion.
Posted inArt
A Tour of the High Line’s New Section 2
Section 2 of the High Line, an elevated railway running down Manhattan’s Tenth Avenue renovated by architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro that has quickly become an urban design icon, opens to the public today. But visitors to the park yesterday were greeted with a soft-opening preview, complete with popsicle vendors, public art projects and plenty of opportunities to lounge in the grass. The new section may not cause as much stir as the launch of the first, but the 10-block stretch from 20th to 30th street is full of subtle surprises, from flyover walkways to hidden forests.
Posted inOpinion
Checking up on World Trade Center Architecture
Osama Bin Laden is dead, but that doesn’t mean the vestiges of 9/11’s impact on New York City are completely healed. With an infographic, the New York Times checks up on the most visible reminder of the event, the remains of Ground Zero and the construction of new World Trade Center buildings.
Posted inOpinion
Philly Bench Brings Up Questions of Public Space
Is there such a thing as anti-public seating? We’re all used to the presence of urban furniture as an accessible public good, from benches to bike racks and bus shelters. But what happens when the design of these resources is actually anti-user? A public bench in a Philadelphia train station brings up exactly that question.
Posted inOpinion
(Dark) Lord Norman Foster Builds New Apple Empire
The great dynastic rulers of history have always called upon the best architects of their time to design their monuments and capital cities. iMagnate Steve Jobs is no different: Apple will work with British starchitect Norman Foster to design the company’s new campus in Cupertino, California, rumored to be named “Apple City.”
