As Airbnb has expanded, it’s come under fire from ornery landlords and wary neighbors—being blamed, in at least one case, for driving up citywide rent prices. But at the same time, Airbnb gives us access to an unprecedented number of otherwise inaccessible buildings. For example: Right now on Airbnb, you can stay overnight in a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and a home designed by his son, Lloyd Wright.
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British firm Zaha Hadid Architects won their bid to create the new Tokyo-based national stadium back in November of 2012 – today they’ve announced it’ll be aimed for use in the 2020 Olympics. This beast of a piece of architecture will be able to seat 80,000 and will first be playing host to the 2019 […]
All human existence is a meaningless blip in the grand scheme of time. Nice thought for a Monday, right? But you knew that already, so here’s another way to think about it: All the grand monuments we build are made of rock thousands of times older than the historical blips they commemorate.
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Tokyo was chosen as the host of the 2020 Olympics this weekend, based on a $5 billion bid that’s surprisingly slim compared to the money spent by other recent host cities. The crux of their proposal (besides that whole ice wall around Fukushima thing)? A plan to retrofit three major venues originally built for the 1964 Summer Games.
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London made headlines this week for a uniquely modern phenomenon; the city’s newest skyscraper is reflecting the sun into an insanely powerful “death ray” that can start fires and fry eggs. Now, the building’s architect has spoken out: "We made a lot of mistakes with this building, and we will take care of it."
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In theory, we’re in the midst of a "golden age" of skyscraper construction. But why, of the ten tallest buildings on Earth, is nearly 30 percent of each structure totally unusable spire? This week, the Council on Tall Buildings blew this scandal wide open with a report on the phenomenon, which they’ve christened "vanity spire."
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The real estate listing for 3970 Spencer St. shows a foreclosed two-bedroom on a suburban street east of the Las Vegas Strip. That’s nothing remarkable in Vegas, which has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, but this house is special: It’s 25 feet underground. A high-end fallout shelter built in secret, it’s a small monument to the Cold War—as well as the dream of post-War suburbia in the American west.
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When you live in a city for a while, it begins to feel—for better or for worse—like every block is completely familiar. But there’s a heck of a lot of invisible history inherent in even the most recognizable sites. This month, San Francisco is celebrating its own unrealized gems; Unbuilt is the theme of the AIA’s monthlong Architecture and the City festival, with a series of special exhibitions showing bizarro SF.
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Since 2006, there have been 60,000 people killed in drug-related violence in Mexico. That’s actually a conservative estimate. Some think it’s closer to 70,000. And that may not include the missing, up to 10,000 more Mexicans who have simply vanished. In fact, if the new Memorial of the Victims of the Violence in Mexico listed the names of those killed in its drug war, there would be at least as many names there as are found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.
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Technically speaking, the smart facade—or building envelope that adapts to environmental conditions—dates back to the first window. But the contemporary idea of the smart facade has only been around for a few short decades, helped along by recent advances in chemical and material science. And over the past three years, we’ve seen the category boom.
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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.
