Urban Planning Blog

[Source: John Maniscalco Architecture Architects - Sugarbowl]

Exhausted by another episode of soft-parenting, the glass wall broke free from the framing. If you haven’t already, don’t miss your daily dose of Unhappy Hipsters. They may be unhappy but they sure keep you smiling.

For a forthcoming exhibition called Contemplating the Void, New York’s Guggenheim Museum “invited more than two hundred artists, architects, and designers to imagine their dream interventions in the space. In this exhibition of ideal projects, certain themes emerge, including the return to nature in its primordial state, the desire to climb the building, the interplay [...]

Model cities aren’t just for show; they can have real utility. In 1957 the US Army Corps of Engineers created the Bay Model, a replica of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta meant to simulate the impact of public works projects and disasters—natural and man-made—on currents and tides. Terence Russell at Wired Magazine [...]

A review of global studies into the impact of modern office design found the switch to open-plan spaces had been overwhelmingly negative, with 90 percent reporting adverse health and psychological effects. Open-plan offices not so good? Contrary to the popular opinion in business circles, Australian researchers have found open-plan offices counter productive and in fact, [...]

Namba Parks in Osaka, Japan that is an office complex, shopping center, and garden and seems like an open sectional drawing but nevertheless quite cool.

The excellent Sunday New York Times Magazine has a special issue on architecture and urban planning this week. Plenty of interesting essays and slideshows that I plan to cover over the next week.

“If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top . . . that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver,” Fuller once wrote. “But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that [...]

“Serero Architects have won the open competition to redesign any of the Eiffel Tower’s public reception and access areas as a celebration of the 120th birthday of Gustave Eiffel’s original creation” [source]. Don’t worry, the installation is temporary in nature and won’t modify the original structure in any way. But Eiffel Tower, one of the [...]

Bridges are one of the most beautiful structures in the world – structurally perfect yet aesthetically pleasing. Bridges are one of the few structures are an epitome of form follows function yet results in form triumphing over the mundane function of transporting people and vehicles from one side to another. Here are the ten most [...]

Couple of colleagues in a Sustainable Urbanism class had proposed floating homes as a potential solution for homes in New Orleans. This floating villa designed by Swedish architect, Staffan Strindberg, currently situated in the town of Kalmar on the east coast of Sweden may be a tad fancy for residents of New Orleans especially for [...]

The office space of David Yocum and Brian Bell’s architecture firm. They have ‘decorated’ the space by using blight. Does it work?

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person is building a monstrous residence in the heart of densely-populated Mumbai. The structure is 490 feet tall and includes a corporate meeting facility along with his 35,000 square feet of private residence. Arzan however is impressed by the architectural aspects of the structure which might change the way high rises [...]

I know that the toilet bowl in one heck of a sculptural design piece but why would you design a house to look like it?

We all love beautiful architecture, don’t we? But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any ugliness in our world. Deputy Dog presents 9 repulsive buildings on Earth. I can definitely add at least a dozen more to that list but maybe sometime later.