A crucial step towards building the next tallest building on Earth is underway: Engineers on the Kingdom Tower, a proposed 3,280 foot tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are beginning tests to figure out how to pump wet concrete more than half a mile into the sky.
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Three years ago, on February 22, 2011, a devastating earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, causing massive damage to the city center. The iconic Anglican church was designed to look like the Christ Church in Oxford, England and had survived 130 years and several other earthquakes. There was no way to have services in the remains. A new place had to be found while the old cathedral was rebuilt. The answer was a "temporary" structure made of cardboard.
If I have to look at one more half-melted slushy snowdrift, I’m going to junkpunch the nearest passerby. Luckily, there are things like amazing honeycomb sculptures and insane light installations to bring everyone off the ledge that winter has put them on. Enjoy a little reprieve in the form of the most beautiful items we posted this week.
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A competition to re-imagine suburban surface parking lots tapped architects to transform the often-wasted space into flexible urban plazas. This entry, dubbed "Civic Arches" by Utile, Inc. Architecture + Urban Planning, proposes using the the arches beneath a Long Island Railroad viaduct to park cars of commuters during the week, then reclaim the space as a farmers market on the weekends. [Architect’s Newspaper]
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Enter its 64th year, the Good Design International Award continues to
celebrate the latest and greatest innovative products and industrial
goods from all over the world. With dozens of categories available to
showcase your ingenuity, there’s surely a special place for your bright
ideas to this classic Chicago-based contest!
The design and fabrication of artificial ice-climbing structures is an incredibly creative yet widely overlooked form of experimental architecture. The resulting constructions are often astonishing: ice-covered loops, ledges, branches, and towers reminiscent of the playful 1960s experiments of Archigram, yet serving as some of the most spatially interesting athletic venues in all of today’s professional sports.
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Libraries used to be places for doing bookish. It’s not that simple anymore. Washington DC just announced the winning proposal for renovating its historic central library. The winner? An ambitious plan to turn the building into a place where ideas are born—and things actually made.
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For a mountain biker, the place where you start your run shouldn’t really matter. But this transparent, fabric-enmeshed cycling pavilion is the kind of place you might find yourself wanting to hang around in.
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Redesigning New Orleans for flooding, new buildings in Williamsburg that don’t suck, and a skyscraper in L.A. that will soon be the tallest west of Chicago. Plus: Google’s urban expansion and dying department stores, all in this week’s Urban Reads.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
