For over 25 years, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has documented how our landscape is being transformed by industry. Both beautiful and horrifying, his large-format images bring up unsettling questions about production, consumption, progress and sustainable living. The following photographs, selected from his series “Quarries,” “China,” and “Ships,” provide a global perspective on the cycle of [...]
More often than not, small apartments are glamorized in western media, from custom-built, wood-covered residences to those crazy “transformer” spaces where everything is hidden away till you need it. But in other parts of the world, living in cramped quarters is not a lifestyle choice but a reluctant compromise imposed by factors like politics, poor [...]
Between 1922 and 1932, Soviet architects enjoyed one of the most fruitful decades of the century. Commissions were plentiful (some called it the “golden season”), and architects had amazing freedom to experiment with new ideas about how Socialism expressed itself at home and in the workplace. That all came to a severe halt in 1932, [...]
Torre David is an abandoned 45-story skyscraper located in Caracas, Venezuela. After the death of the developer in 1993 and the collapse of the Venezuelan economy a year later, the office tower was almost complete, but the construction was suddenly and inexorably interrupted. Today Torre David is a real vertical slum occupied by a community [...]
The TodaysArt Festival is looking for unwanted household items for a special project on the Spuiplein. The German architect and artist collective Raumlaborberlin will build a huge pavilion out of all the collected stuff. The pavilion, called ‘The Vortex’ will be created from old household items discarded by the people of The Hague. The ‘Vortex’ [...]
While New York is making strides in promoting the installation of green roofs throughout NYC, the city of Zhuzhou in Hunan, China is taking the idea of green roofs to new heights with a shopping mall topped with a lush living roof and a four-villa development! The houses atop Jiutian International Square Mall are intended to function as offices [...]
With the Venice Architecture Biennale opening this week, its director David Chipperfield, speaks about Common Ground, his theme for the biennale, and gives his views on the contemporary architecture scene, comparing architects to “perfume brands at Duty Free, on a pedestal, singular and isolated” and says: “Architects don’t have common ground between ourselves and the public”. He stresses [...]
“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” – Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities Inspired by Italian writer Italo Calvino’s novel “Invisible Cities”, on the 40th anniversary of its publication, this BBC 3 Between the Ears explores [...]
map of moscow 1818 “A metropolitan area can take care of a great many more people by only a very slight expansion of its radius. … if there is to be any hope of having open space in the future, there is going to have to be a more efficient pattern of building. The mathematics [...]
Architect: Based on a design by Matti Suuronen Location: Taipei, Taiwan Year: 1978-unfinished Status: Demolished Program: Resort with approximately 138 residential units plus other amenities. Client: Yu-chou Co. Located in the Sanjhih Township in Taipei, construction of the UFO houses began in 1978. Developed by plastics manufacturer Yu-chou Co., the idea for the design came [...]
