I don't like to post pure architecture links to this blog for obvious reasons but this house was simply too good to not share. As I've always believed, location is everything and the outside is just as important as the inside. To top that, it is the perfect blend of minimalist modern design with rustic features and landscape to match.
[Link to Location is Everything]
"Jugaad" is a Hindi term referring to the ingenuity of citizens living in resource-constrained environments, a concept from which New Yorkers might derive some enlightenment. Enter Jugaad Urbanism: Resourceful Strategies for Indian Cities, an exhibition created with the help of curator Kanu Agrawal that opens at New York's Center for Architecture next week.
The exhibition is "design by the people, for the people, of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Pune," says Agrawal, and showcases everyday innovations of slum-dwelling residents and the designers and architects who work around them.
A simple yet vastly improved design for traffic lights. [via Yanko Design]
Brian Brush, a graduate student in urban planning at Columbia University is researching the viability of parametric design tools in urban planning practice and is seeking basic feedback from design professionals. Please consider filling out this quick survey if you are interested.
All That Glitters Is Good asks you to submit your most accomplished architectural representation that uses glitter. This includes new drawings made with glitter, old drawings pepped up with a little sparkle, as well as anything else that you can imagine so long as it satisfies two criteria:
- It’s a drawing of architecture.
- It uses glitter.
[Source: All that glitters is good]
Dare you to sit. The World’s 13 Most Uncomfortable Chair Designs.
Point: The idea that descendants of African slaves are the only people in the history of our species to be done in by the configuration of architectural blueprints is mistaken.
It was much, much more complicated than that: the culprit was aspects of social history in America starting in the late sixties, not merely how housing projects were constructed and how far their doors happened to be from the street.
John McWhorter at the New Republic argues against the commonly held perception that crimes and social conditions are worse off in taller public housing than low-rises. I don’t understand the Sonia Sotomayor connection though and it seems forced in order to attract eyeballs.
I’ll be reviewing one of Kovacs-designed lamps soon. So some background on him before I do:
One of the most recognizable names in the lighting industry, George Kovacs wore many hats throughout his forty-plus year career. Part lighting designer, part lighting manufacturer, part lighting importer – Kovacs’ design aesthetic stood out above the rest and helped to define modern lighting as we know it today.
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 tells us how scale models of cities are increasingly used for urban planning and design applications.
Starting with a barren asphalt parking lot, I love this visualization of the walkable design for a shopping district in Glenview, IL [via]. It is all about transforming the character of a place. If only more designs were presented this way, convincing people wouldn’t be so difficult.
Another example of how small (and inexpensive) changes in a Memphis neighborhood can go a long way in rejuvenating community life.