Designed by Breakspear Architects for a pair of avid gardeners and their daughter, the Courted House is a place to pause and escapewhere everyday to-dos are swapped for gardening and spending quality time as a family.

Located in a suburban plot west of Sydney, this 2,100-square-foot dwelling reimagines the idea of living in the Australian bush, where the garden is considered to be part of the home. A fresh take on the courtyard house, the home is encircled by walls with a garden at its heart.

According to the architects, "Courted House is intended to support a lifetime of coexistence between a family, their garden, and the surrounding city."

The rectangular floor plan is composed of a grid of nine double-height courts that are defined by cedar-clad beams. The courts are similarly sized and can accommodate a variety of uses and furniture arrangements. The central courtyard brings together all of the homes functionscooking, eating, and lounging.

The courtyard is the heart of the home. Its carved out of the building, providing a secluded retreat.

The courtyard includes a sun-filled deck, plantings, and a small run of stepping stones that lead towards the homes entry.

The central courtyard is secluded from the busy surrounds. Lined with a landscaped garden, the tall walls frame the sky and form a central point around which daily life revolves. As stated by the architects, "the whole interior becomes a veranda; an outdoor interior of garden and home inextricably one."

Delicate ferns grow beneath a Myrtle canopy in the courtyard, forming a cool microclimate at the homes center.

The kitchen fully embraces one edge of the courtyard with a large opening that blurs the boundaries between inside and out.

Quadrants are outlined by cedar-clad bands which slice through the ceiling and extend out to meet the courtyards cedar cladding.

Living takes place within, across, and around the central courtyard. Four private courts occupy the plans corners, and each has a loft space and opens to the garden. "The clients request for a retreat suggested an escape where architecture, interiors, and landscape could be liberated from hierarchies to become a rich, singular tapestry," say the architects.

The efficient floor plan eliminates the need for corridors, maintaining seamless connections between and across spaces.

The outer courts are used for bedrooms and studies. Each has its own view of the garden.

Sparse built-in furnishings allow the spaces to be easily reconfigured for different functions. Within the first two years of living here, the owners have used the private courts as bedrooms, home offices, storage, and even as workshops for producing candles and soap for sale.

The interior finish materials are subdued, allowing the garden and sky to shine as focal points. Tall, white planes play with light and shadow, concrete floors ground the home, and cedar cladding wraps the home inside and out.

The rear garden, visible from this living court, includes a vegetable patch, fruit trees, and lawn for plenty of play area.

The exterior treatment is essential to the homes feeling of privacy. Perforated steel screens and cement panels shield the interior from the surrounding streets. The homes outer walls are rarely punctured, but when they are its in purposeful ways.

Perforated steel screens provide shading and privacy to the interior living spaces. The garden extends from the inner courtyard to the rear yard with open, connected spaces.

Glass blocks allow soft light to enter the kitchen without distracting from the courtyard view.

View post:
A Lush Garden Is the Hidden Heart of This Courtyard House - Dwell

Three towers on Nikkelveien Street in Sandnes, Norway, overlook a fjord from the top of a hill in this project by Helen & Hard Architects, constructed out of timber and concrete clad in aluminium. It all started with the finding of a precious Viking tomb not far from the location of the three towers, but this did not stop the architects from completing the construction, located on a hill with a view over an enchanting fjord and the archaeological site. The client wanted to limit land use in order to obtain a ground-level visual space, allowing the inhabitants of the 113 residential units to enjoy their natural setting to the hilt. In this way excessive land use was avoided in the construction of the three tower blocks that have come to symbolise the district. They were constructed in a tree form, transforming the stairwell into a central weight-bearing concrete structure. Overhanging timber secondary structures branch off from here, supporting the floor slabs and outer walls, which are in turn clad in aluminium. The client decided on this structure despite the architects original idea of using timber alone, even in the tallest tower, 15 floors high.Each of the three towers has geothermal heating, with solar panels for generating energy for individual living units, which vary in size from 60 to 140 square metres. Another sustainable feature is an original winter garden that can be enjoyed year-round. Lastly, the aluminium-clad faades are composed of rectangular and triangular elements, arranged to make the most of the light that falls on them, emphasising the vibrant sharp forms of the three volumes generated out of their almond-shaped layout.

Fabrizio Orsini

Location: Nikkelveien 18, 20, 22 4313 Sandnes, NorwayClient: Kruse Eiendom AS/Otium ASProgramme: housingStatus: completed 2013Area: 14.250 m2Team: Helen & Hard; Siv Helene Stangeland, Reinhard Kropf, Njal Undheim, Ane Dahl,Randi Augenstein, Nadine Engberding

Read the original here:
Concrete timber and aluminium towers by Helen & Hard Architects - Floornature.com

located in drama, southern greece, an area renowned for its varying topography and captivating landscape, kois associated architects has designed the shimmer communal respite facility and restaurant. the project is apart of a larger industrial complex, situated within the grounds of international electrical equipment company raycap. the site is an interstitial residual space left unbuilt during the companys development phases and is surrounded by administrative and production facilities.

all images courtesy of kois associated architects

since the completion of the company facilities on the site, it has been planted with trees and over the course of the years has been transformed into a park. the building by kois associated architects is conceived at the intersection of three pathways through this park. these routes were not initially planned; they rather emerged through the daily circulation of the users who favor the park as a place of gathering. employees go there to have their lunch and socialize especially during the most temperate seasons. the architects saw these paths as daily and seasonal rhythms that outline a territory and lead to the emergence of dimensional markings on it. this idea brought to mind the works from the land art movement of the 60s and 70s and more specifically, richard longs ephemeral sculpture, a line made by walking.

the main aspiration for the project was not to simply place a building on the landscape, but to make it an active part of it. the scenery, the way the horizon meets the undulating topography become integral parts of the daily human activity within the location. so, the architects wanted to create the feeling of a protected personal space while keeping an uninterrupted view to the surroundings. the design was stirred towards the creation of a viewing device, framing the natural environment. the abstraction of the floating plane and its relationship with the landscape has a strong resonance with the territory. the plane was envisaged as a shimmering line leveling with the horizon, a thread that stretches out and changes in intensity and sharpness depending on the prevailing environmental conditions.

the buildings large scale is established by mirroring the relative proportion of the site to the overall complex, while the enveloped space has a smaller scale, creating an atmosphere of intimacy. within the envelope, a sheltered park with an almost immaterial boundary, a crystalline skin, becomes the vessel of the facilitys daily rhythm. here, the functions are separated into the public covered plaza, the food preparation area and the utility service area. the interior plaza acts as a continuation of the exterior with the boundary between the two almost diminished. the subtle reflections manifested with oscillating intensity on the underside of the roof reverberate and accentuate the exterior lighting conditions. the food preparation area is covered with turf and live plants making the volume seem like it is completely reclaimed by the earth, while the service areas are placed directly underneath it.

project info:

name: shimmerarchitecture office: kois associated architectsprincipal architect: stelios koisproject leader: federica scalisedesign team: antonios sarlanis, marielina stavrou, leonardos katsaros, vasiliki papargirilocation: drama, greece size: 770 m

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: myrto katsikopoulou | designboom

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kois associated architects tops restaurant in greece with reflective floating roof - Designboom

Most are familiar with the luggage of livingthe countless bits and pieces that we inevitably collect over a lifetime. And, these days, its something that many are trying to minimize.

New Zealandbased couple Will and Jen realized that they didnt need a lot of possessions to be happy after living out of pannier bags on months-long cycling tours. While looking for a site to build a new home, they moved several times before making the decision to downsize their lives into a 30-square-meter footprint.

The home is defined by a simple, gabled form clad in asphalt shingles and larch weatherboards. Thanks to a combination of passive house measures and structural insulated panels, virtually no additional energy is required to maintain a consistent level of thermal comfort against the backdrop of the unforgiving New Zealand alpine climate.

"I think there is a growing appetite to live at a smaller scale without it having to be a frugal statement," says Will. "Every time we opened our storage boxes [after moving], wed ask, why bother keeping all this stuff?" So, they engaged the services of their good friend and neighbor, Barry Condon of Condon Scott Architects to design their compact, one-bedroom home.

"I love the simple gabled form and its contrasting claddings, with the dark asphalt shingles contrasting with the warmth of the wood," says architect Barry Condon.

"The clients cycling trips made them realize that they could live a comfortable life with very little extraneous stuff, and they were motivated by the freedom of living with less," says Condon. "The brief was for a 30-square-meter footprint and a volume that didnt feel tight or frugaland the client was resolute that the design had to meet this criteria. At first, I thought it was a bit ambitious, and I actually tried a few times to make it a little bit biggerbut the client would always push back. It was interesting for me, because normally with clients Im the one trying to reduce size!"

The home opens out to the private garden to the north and remains closed to the road and neighbors on the south side. A deck connects the home with a single-car garage.

Located on a quiet, suburban street in Wanaka, a small alpine resort town on New Zealands South Island, the resulting home is defined by a simple, gabled form with a striking silhouette. The restrained and functional external claddinga combination of asphalt shingles and larch weatherboardsemphasizes the archetypal form. "Given the relatively small size of the house, a simple gabled form was considered to be the most striking and effective form to contain the design," says Condon.

Asphalt shingles wrap around the east facade and onto the roof, allowing the home to be read as a simple, visually unified form.

The suburban site is bounded by streets on two sides, so privacy was a key consideration that informed the dramatically contrasting facades. The south, east, and west facades are almost entirely blank, while the north facade is entirely glazed. The glazed facade brings a feeling of lightness and airiness to the small home. Minimizing the number of openings on three sides also has the added benefit of making the home as thermally efficient as possible.

Bench seating is built into the exterior of the home, beneath the living room window. Deep eaves, clad in larch timber, protect the interior from the strong sun in the summer months.

"In the southern hemisphere, the North is where the sun comes fromso it made sense to glaze this facade and invite in as much passive solar gain as possible," says Condon. "Overheating is tempered by the deep eaves, which cut out the worst of the hot summer sun."

The large deck space acts as an outdoor living area in the warmer months. Exterior heaters allow the space to be used for outdoor entertaining on cooler evenings. It is constructed from FutureWood, a sustainable composite product made from sawdust and recycled plastic.

The home is accessed via a large wooden deck, which doubles as an outdoor living space during warmer months. The glazed entry door leads directly to the main double-height living space, from which the entire home is visiblethe kitchen/dining space is to the right, the bathroom and storage are at the rear of the space, and a bedroom on a mezzanine level overlooks the ground-floor living space.

The only door to the exterior is the main entry door, which leads from the deck directly to the living space. Large windows in the glazed facade open to the garden.

The living room features a timber-clad wall that echoes the timber used in the south facade.

In such a small space, it was essential to build in enough storage to avoid clutter. "The design concept was envisioned as a crafted joinery box with not a morsel of space wasted," says Condon. "Spring-back drawers pull out of each step tread, and more storage is concealed under the kitchen joinery in the toe space."

Hailed by Time magazine as the Best Design of the 20th Century, the iconic LCW or Lounge Chair Wood (1946) began as an experiment in the Eameses apartment, where they were molding plywood in what they called the Kazam! Machine. The machine pressed thin sheets of wood veneer against a heated...

Inspired by iconic design of the mid-century, the Spencer Sofa is a piece unto itself. Blind-tufted seat and back cushions paired with a stainless steel base make the Spencer Sofa a stylish choice for any living space.

Equipped with two drawers and an open shelf, the Mid-Century Coffee Table is a storage solution that's built to lastits sturdy frame is crafted from wood that's certified to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.

Ample storage is built into every corner of the home from the stair treads to the kitchen counter. Since the client moved in, a ceiling fan and portable heater have been sufficient on both the warmest and coldest days. The Smappee smart energy monitoring system shows a consistent ambient temperature within the house of 20C (68F).

The stairs lead to the bedroom, which is located on a mezzanine in the gabled roof space. The bedroom overlooks the living room on one side, while a small window on the other side of the room allows additional natural light to enter the space while maintaining privacy.

The budget for the couples home, excluding the carport and the landscaping, was approximately $250,000 NZ (about $155,000 USD). "The most expensive part of the build was the structural insulated panels, from which the home is constructed," reveals Condon. "They were worth it though, as the increased insulation value means that ongoing running costs for heating and cooling are very low."

The south elevation features a single glazed section, which maintains privacy for the homeowners. It also increases the thermal efficiency of the home in a location that experiences extremes of temperature, with hot dry summers that top 35C (95F)and cold winters where the temperature often drops below freezing.

A BIM model with a precise cutting pattern was produced for the panel fabricator, which allowed for accurate pricing of the homes superstructurewhich was a major factor in ensuring the house came in on budget.

The fully glazed north face overlooks a private garden to the rear. This large area of glazing allows natural light to fill the home.

"Trying to pack all the essentials of a larger home into a tight space so there is no compromise on comfort was challenging," says Condon. "But there is room for artwork, a full-sized fridge, two large couches, and a coffee tableand the client loves the home!"

Unsurprisingly, so do othersthe project has received a number of awards, including the New Zealand Institute of Architects 2019 Southern Architecture Award and a bronze award at the 2019 Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Awards.

Floor plans of Kirimoko Tiny House by Condon Scott Architects.

Elevations of Kirimoko Tiny House by Condon Scott Architects.

Read more:
This $155K Tiny House in New Zealand Was Inspired by a Couples Cycling Tour - Dwell

Swedens chief epidemiologist and the architect of its light-touch approach to the coronavirus has acknowledged that the country has had too many deaths from Covid-19 and should have done more to curb the spread of the virus.

Anders Tegnell, who has previously criticised other countries strict lockdowns as not sustainable in the long run, told Swedish Radio on Wednesday that there was quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done in Sweden.

Asked whether too many people in Sweden had died, he replied: Yes, absolutely, adding that the country would have to consider in the future whether there was a way of preventing such a high toll.

Swedens death rate per capita was the highest inthe worldover the seven days to 2 June, figures suggest. This week the government bowed to mounting opposition pressure and promised to set up a commission to look into its Covid-19 strategy.

If we were to encounter the same disease again knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would settle on doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done, Tegnell said. It would be good to know exactly what to shut down to curb the spread of infection better, he added.

In an interview with the Dagens Nyheter daily, Tegnell subsequently said he still believed the basic strategy has worked well. I do not see what we would have done completely differently Based on the knowledge we had then, we feel we made the appropriate decisions.

According to the scientific online publicationOurworldindata.com, the number of Covid-19 deaths per capita in Sweden was the highest in the world in a rolling seven-day average to 2 June. The countrys rate of 5.29 deaths per million inhabitants a day was well above the UKs 4.48.

The Swedish prime minister, Stefan Lfven, told the Aftonbladet daily that the countrys overall approach has been right, but it had failed to protect care homes where half of all Swedens Covid-19 deaths have occurred. Social affairs minister Lena Hallengren told Reuters the government had been at all times prepared to introduce wider, further measures recommended by the expert authority.

Relying on its citizens sense of civic duty, Swedenclosed schools for all over-16s and banned gatherings of more than 50, but only asked rather than ordered people to avoid non-essential travel and not to go out if they were elderly or ill. Shops, restaurants and gyms have remained open.

Although there are signs that public opinion is starting to shift, polls have shown a considerable majority of Swedes support and have generally complied with the governments less coercive strategy, which is in stark contrast to the mandatory lockdowns imposed by many countries, including Swedens Nordic neighbours.

But the policy, which Tegnell has said was aimed not at achieving herd immunity but at slowing the spread of the virus enough for health services to cope, has been increasingly and heavily criticised by many Swedish experts as the countrys death toll has increased.

Swedens 4,468 fatalitiesfrom Covid-19 represent a death toll of 449 per million inhabitants, compared with 45 in Norway, 100 in Denmark and 58 in Finland. Its per-million tally remains lower than the corresponding figures of 555, 581 and 593 in Italy, Spain and the UK respectively.

Norway and Denmark announced last week that they were dropping mutual border controls but would provisionally exclude Sweden from a Nordic travel bubble because of its much higher coronavirus infection rate.

Tegnell told Swedish Radio it was not clear yet exactly what the country should have done differently, or whether the restrictions it did impose should have been introduced simultaneously rather than step by step.

Other countries started with a lot of measures all at once. The problem with that is that you dont really know which of the measures you have taken is most effective, he said, adding that conclusions would have to be drawn about what else, besides what we did, you could do without imposing a total shutdown.

Annike Linde, Tegnells predecessor as chief epidemiologist from 2005 to 2013, said last week that she had initially backed the countrys strategy but had begun to reassess her view as the virus swept through the elderly population.

There was no strategy at all for the elderly, I now understand, Linde told the Swedish state broadcaster. I do not understand how they can stand and say the level of preparedness was good, when in fact it was lousy.

She said another key mistake was to assume that the coronavirus would behave like seasonal flu. It does not behave like the flu at all, she said.It spreads more slowly and has a longer incubation time.This makes it more difficult to detect, and to build immunity in the population.

A study last month found that only 7.3% of Stockholms inhabitants had developed Covid-19 antibodies by the end of April.

See original here:
We should have done more, admits architect of Sweden's Covid-19 strategy - The Guardian

President Trumps reelection campaign is seizing on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Bidens record as a chief sponsor and champion of punitive anti-drug laws that have contributed to mass incarceration.

In a blog post on Tuesday, the campaign attacked Biden as a typical Washington career politician who spent decades building up Americas mass incarceration system and poisoning the public discourse with race-baiting, divisive and inflammatory remarks.

Bidens role in authoring bills ramping up the war on drugs during his time in the Senate is also being featured in a Trump 2020 video adsignaling that the president is angling to present himself as the drug policy reform candidate as the November election approaches.

Biden hasnt just stoked Americas racial divisions over the course of his decades in Washington, the blog post on donaldjtrump.com, which was later shared on Twitter by the technically unaffiliated super PAC America First, states. Biden was the chief architect of mass incarceration and the War on Drugs, which targeted Black Americans.

Biden voted to extend minimum penalties for people under 21 charged with selling marijuana, and introduced the civil forfeiture legislation which allows the government to seize assets of citizens accused of drug crimes, the campaign blog post continues. Biden helped write the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which created the 100:1 crack cocaine sentencing disparity and disproportionately targeted minority communities.

Bidens self-imagined reinvention as a racial healer is laughable and requires memory-holing decades of racially inflammatory rhetoric.

In the video ad released last month, the Trump campaign said that mass incarceration has put hundreds of thousands behind bars for minor offenses. Joe Biden wrote those laws.

Joe Bidens policies destroyed millions of black lives due to his role in advancing anti-drug laws and other criminal justice policies, it states. Joe Biden may not remember. But we do.

The campaign first indicated it would be highlighting criminal justice reform when it aired an ad during the Super Bowl in February touting the presidents commutation of a person convicted of a nonviolent drug offense.

Drug reform advocates have made similar criticisms of the former vice president, arguing that his record does not bode well for the prospects of comprehensive policy changes in the U.S. criminal justice system. His ongoing opposition to adult-use marijuana legalization has also been a source of frustration, despite his recent support for more modest proposals such as decriminalizing possession, allowing medical cannabis, federal rescheduling, expunging past convictions and letting states set their own laws.

That said, while the Trump administration has taken certain modest bipartisan stepssuch as signing sentencing reform legislation, granting clemency to certain individuals with prior federal drug convictions and voicing support for states rights when it comes to cannabis legalizationthe image of a uniformly pro-reform president that the campaign is attempting to present isnt the full picture.

Joe Bidens record on drug policy is quite abysmal given his role in the 1994 Crime Bill and as one of the lead advocates for increased mandatory minimum sentences and other policies that inflamed our crisis of mass incarceration in this country, Erik Altieri, executive director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment. Unfortunately, despite not having a long legislative record like Biden for direct comparison, Donald Trumps history as it relates to racial justice and drug policy is also quite horrendous.

Trumps first attorney general, Jeff Sessions,rescinded Obama-era guidance known as the Cole memo. Under that directive, federal prosecutors were advised not to pursue action against individuals for state-legal cannabis-related activity, except under a select set of circumstances.

Also, while Trump has voiced support for medical cannabis legalization, hes on several occasions released signing statements on spending legislation stipulating that he reserves the right to ignore a long-standing riderthat prohibits the Justice Department fromusing its funds to interfere with state-legal medical marijuana programs.

Trump also asked Congress to end the medical cannabis protections as part of his fiscal year 2021 budget plansomething the Obama administration also previously did to no avail.

Despite his pledged support for medical cannabis and states rights, Trump evidentlyholds some negative views toward marijuana consumption, as evidenced in a recording from 2018 that was leaked two years later. In that recording, the president said that using cannabis makes people lose IQ points.

Another controversial administrative actionconcerns immigrants and marijuana. In April 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memo stating that using marijuana or engaging in cannabis-related activities such as working for a dispensaryeven in states where its legalis an immoral offense that makes immigrants ineligible for citizenship.

In December 2019, the Justice Department issued a notice that it was seeking to make certain marijuana offenses, including misdemeanor possession,grounds to deny asylum to migrants.

In February 2020, the president applauded countries thatimpose the death penalty for drug traffickersa pointhes repeatedly been known to make, according to a report from Axios.

Meanwhile, though the presidents reelection campaign is presenting him as a criminal justice reformer, Trump himself in recent days has embraced the slogan of law and order as he has seemed to endorse violent law enforcement responses to people protesting police killings of black Americans.

Altieri of NORML said that despite these conflicting statements and administrative actions, the Trump campaign does seem to understand by putting forth this outreach is that marijuana law reform and ending our failed War on Drugs are popular positions with the majority of all Americans, regardless of political affiliation.

All candidates should be putting forth comprehensive plans on how they will address cannabis and criminal justice reform if they are in the White House in 2021, but as of yet weve seen mostly lip service and finger pointing in lieu of real solutions, he said.

The White House Is Reviewing CBD And Marijuana Research Guidance From FDA

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

Originally posted here:
Trump Reelection Campaign Attacks Biden As 'Architect' Of The War On Drugs - Marijuana Moment

By: Vanessa Londono 7:00 am on June 3, 2020

Full demolition permits have been filed for a 25,000-square-foot, four-story structure at 752-760 Madison Avenueon ManhattansUpper East Side. Locate at the corner of East 65th Street, the site is planned to yield a 12-story building that will house the new Giorgio Armani flagship boutique with residential units on the upper floors. SL Green Realty Corp. is listed as the owner behind the applications and partnered with Giorgio Armani Corp. for the future development.

752 Madison Avenue via Google Maps

New building permits were filed in February 2019 with COOKFOX Architects listed as the architect of record. The proposed 189-foot tall development will yield 91,179 square feet of space, with 66,811 square feet designated for residential use and 19,387 square feet for commercial space. It will have 19 condominium units averaging 3,516 square feet apiece. The concrete-based structure will also have a cellar and a mezzanine. As YIMBY reported last summer, COOKFOX appeared before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission with alteration proposals to the projects exterior massing and faade materials.

The nearest subways are four blocks away at the 68th Street station, serviced by the 4 and 6 trains as well as the Lexington Avenue-63 Street station, serviced by the F, Q, and R trains.

A construction completion date has not been announced.

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Original post:
Demolition Permits Filed for 752 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side - New York YIMBY

Work appears to be stalled on H Hotel W39, a 447-foot-tall project from Peter F. Poon Architectsat58 West 39th Streetin Midtown. Developed byWei Hong Hu of H Hotel LLC, the 29-story building is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenue just south of Bryant Park.

Recent photos from Tectonic show the reinforced concrete superstructure has risen just one story since YIMBYs lastupdatein late January. The formwork and rebar for the columns and floor slabs currently hover around the third floor and are still within the confines of the two abutting structures.

58 West 39th Street. Photo by Tectonic

58 West 39th Street. Photo by Tectonic

58 West 39th Street will yield 56,000 square feet with 41,500 square feet of commercial space, 65 hotel rooms, meeting rooms, a fitness center, and a hotel lobby along West 39th Street. The rendering depicts a very unconventional massing with a dramatic cantilever on its eastern profile. The glass-clad structure features rounded corners throughout and culminates in a dome-like parapet. The northern elevation, not seen in the rendering, will likely be a flat wall of glass that faces Bryant Park, and the eastern profile appears to feature an outdoor terrace.

The closest subways are the B, D, F, M, and 7 trains at the 42nd Street-Bryant Park station. Times Square is a short walk from the hotel, while the Port Authority Bus Terminal is only two avenues away on Eighth Avenue.

Its unclear when progress will pick up or when 58 West 39th Street will be completed. YIMBY spotted a target of winter 2020, as noted on the construction fence, though sometime in 2021 is more likely.

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Construction Pauses on Peter Poon Architects' 58 West 39th Street, in Midtown - New York YIMBY

Hello, God, its me, Margaret. Er, I mean its Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times with your weekly dose of essential culture news and heavy metal conspiracy theories.

L.A. Energy, 1983, a rendering for a downtown Los Angeles mural, by Betye Saar.

(Betye Saar / Roberts Projects)

Im starting with a throwback: a rendering by Betye Saar for a mural that occupied a wall on Fifth Street in downtown L.A. from 1983 to 1987. Located near the old headquarters of SoCal Edison at the base of Bunker Hill, the work, titled L.A. Energy, is now a point of inspiration for an online exhibition of Saars works on galleryplatform.la. Organized by Roberts Projects, the show explores notions of spiritual power.

Saar was recently the subject of a solo show at LACMA (which closed prematurely due to the pandemic). In his review, Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote about the ways in which the exhibition called out the the relationship between assemblage as a specific art form and the larger context of racism that has permeated American life from its beginnings.

Saars art, it turns out, is never not timely.

To live through the COVID-19 pandemic is to see the surfaces of our cities rewritten by invisible narratives of contagion. This week I have a mega-report about how the pandemic could and should change the architecture of our homes, our offices and our cities. I talk with a dozen L.A. architects including Michael Maltzan, Mark Lee, Sharon Johnston, Barbara Bestor, Lorcan OHerlihy, Kulapat Yantrasast and Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne as well as leaders of three L.A. architecture schools.

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Like the rest of the world, the immediate future that architects are facing is grim. Two recent reports by the American Institute of Architects show billings dropping off a cliff. But even as the pandemic kneecaps the economy, architects are determined not to waste the moment thinking about how COVID-19 may shape 21st century architecture, in the same way that tuberculosis shaped the architecture of the early 20th century. Every crisis, says SCI-Arc director Hernn Daz Alonso, is an opportunity.

Offices are one of the first things that may emerge in a different guise as a result of the pandemic.

(Jiaqi Wang / For The Times)

Larry Kramer, the playwright and novelist known for his activism against U.S. government inaction in the face of the AIDS crisis, has died at 84. Kramer, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who also penned the autobiographical play The Normal Heart, was the founder of Gay Mens Health Crisis and ACT UP. He was known for his indefatigable often rage-fueled fight for LGBTQ rights. His taunting approach predictably alienated some, writes David Colker in his Times obituary, to others it was a major turning point.

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In the New York Times, Daniel Lewis, notes that Kramer was among the first activists to foresee that what had first caused alarm as a rare form of cancer among gay men would spread worldwide ... Under the circumstances, he said, If you write a calm letter and fax it to nobody, it sinks like a brick in the Hudson.

In a moving appreciation, theater critic Charles McNulty examines Kramers career as a writer, which was often overshadowed by his activism. He was constitutionally incapable of self-serving apathy, writes McNulty. But thats not to say that he didnt recognize the cost of his conscience to that quieter corner of his identity as an artist.

Larry Kramer speaking at a Boston Gay Town Meeting in June 1987.

(Ellen Shub / HBO)

Theater critic Jesse Green of the New York Times, also writes a tribute: Anger ... was Larry Kramers closet what he showed the world first.

Los Angeles Times digital editor Tracy Brown gathers reactions to the news of his death. Your writing was bold, courageous, and urgent, wrote actor Matt Bomer, who starred in the 2014 TV adaptation of The Normal Heart.

How did I meet Larry? He called me a murderer and an incompetent idiot on the front page of the San Francisco Examiner magazine. Dr. Anthony Fauci recalls the unlikely start to his 33-year friendship with Kramer. A great read.

I waited 12 years for this? Want a taste of some Kramer flame-throwing? In 1994, he had a thing or two to say about Jonathan Demmes AIDS film Philadelphia in the pages of The Times.

The world of culture lost another notable figure this week: California Light and Space artist Peter Alexander, who died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 81. His experiments with materials such as resin, as I note in his obituary, led to the creation of ethereal works that evoked the quietly shifting nature of light, color and environment.

Christopher Knight pays tribute to his perception of light: Whatever his medium, the work Alexander made over 50 years articulates the distinctive, late 20th century intersection of natural and artificial light an illumination at once physical and, as always, inflected with lights cognitive and transcendent metaphors.

Peter Alexander in his studio in Santa Monica in 2013.

(Dave Lauridsen)

How to plan a theatrical season amid a pandemic? Jessica Gelt reports on how the Broad Stage will kick off its season with an outdoor opera that features only one actor, one singer and a string quartet. It will follow that up in 2021 with indoor productions, including a collaboration between cellist Yo-Yo Ma and photographer Austin Mann and Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpours experimental theater work, Nassim.

Earlier this month, Gelt reported that the Hollywood Bowl had canceled its season for the first time in 98 years. As a follow-up, The Times gathered Bowl memories from 24 performers who have gigged on its stage, including Fleetwood Macs Lindsey Buckingham, dancer Misty Copeland and singer Lionel Richie, who remembers an unusual performance as part of the Commodores: I remember that the tops to our uniforms made it, but the bottoms didnt. So we played the show in the tops the kind that snap underneath so they stay tucked in your pants. And bare feet. So, an afro, bare feet and a top.

A view of the Hollywood Bowl at dusk.

(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A growing contingent of museums, including L.A.'s Autry Museum of the American West, having been working on archiving the pandemic. Museums have a responsibility to meet history head on, says Autry curator Tyree Boyd-Pates.

In the past we considered digital engagement mainly as a marketing tool to get visitors to the museum. We now recognize that weve gained supporters from our recent pivot. George Davis, director of the California African American Museum, talks about how his institution has faced the pandemic.

The Baltimore Museum of Art announced a series of program to support local artists and art institutions.

Londons Tate museums have announced that they will not bestow the 100,000 Turner Prize this year. Instead, they will provide grants of 10,000 grants to 10 British artists.

Museums face a universe in which people-packed galas play a much smaller role in institutional fundraising. (Click through to watch the Met Operas Zoom performance of Va Pensiero embedded in the story.)

Plus, museums may still be closed, but the Museum of Quarantine is open. Jessica Gelt reports on a streetside installation that functions as improvised museum and community shrine.

The Markaz, an L.A. arts center devoted to Middle Eastern culture, is shutting down. With live events out of the picture for the foreseeable future, the organization will retool as an online journal called The Markaz Review.

Joan Bayley, a dancer and instructor who worked in Hollywood musicals alongside figures such as Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and Marilyn Monroe recently celebrated her 100th birthday. She marked the day with a festive drive-by parade, reports Makeda Easter. She also used the occasion to draw attention to the Westside School of Ballet, where she taught for more than three decades and which is now struggling amid the pandemic.

Joan Bayley gets feted with a drive-by parade of relatives and friends celebrating her 100th birthday.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

The BBC has commissioned a social-distancing appropriate version of Swan Lake. Choreographed by Corey Baker, it will take place in dancers bathtubs.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty says a recent bout of sitting around at home, in hot anticipation of a shipment of white wine, made him realize he was inhabiting Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot. The pandemic has revealed Beckett to be the true realist of 20th century theater, he writes. Stuck indoors with little to distract us from the bewilderment of our metaphysical predicament, we are like one of his immobilized characters.

Playwright Samuel Beckett.

(Reg Lancaster / Getty Images)

In a rare interview with the Spanish culture publication ABC, composer Arvo Prt talks about what the pandemic has revealed about the collective nature of survival. This tiny coronavirus has showed us in a painful way that humanity is a single organism, he says, and human existence is possible only in relation to other living beings. In case your Spanish is rusty, the website Estonian World has a rough English translation of the interview.

David Wojnarowiczs 1989 zine In the Shadow of Forward Motion is being republished. And, writes Conor Williams, it functions as a survival guide, a textbook on the power of the body, of grief, and of anger.

I lived in Chile in 1990, the first year of democratic rule following a 17-year dictatorship. During that period, a Spanish-language version of the Scorpions power ballad Wind of Change seemed to be on the airwaves every two seconds. The song was written in the months before the end of the Cold War. But in Chile, which had also recently experienced a political transformation, the song was equally meaningful.

I have therefore been riveted by Patrick Radden Keefes new podcast Wind of Change, which chases a rumor that the song was written by the C.I.A. Tune in. Its a poignant, engrossing listen.

Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine performing in 2014. A new podcast explore his musics Cold War connections.

(EPA)

Matt Cooper has been rounding up the best happenings online, including Carlos Sauras flamenco-inspired film Carmen and a 48-hour stream of George Takeis historical musical Allegiance, inspired by his childhood experiences in a World War II-era internment camp.

Have a kid who is graduating? Well, the LA Phil has just the thing for your at-home ceremony: members of the orchestra, along with the Youth Los Angeles Orchestra, playing Pomp and Circumstance.

The Asian Art Museum has downloadable Chinese opera coloring sheets. New Yorks Public Art Fund also has coloring sheets, these designed by artists Tauba Auerbach, Elmgreen & Dragset and Rob Pruitt, as well as downloadable Zoom backgrounds created by Petra Cortright, Aakash Nihalani and Olimpia Zagnoli.

If you like your Zoom backgrounds to have a more oomph, I recommend the selection offered by Londons Vagina Museum, though you might want to think twice before springing them on work colleagues.

The 2022 Bucharest Biennale will be curated by artificial intelligence. I enjoyed this oral history of the Wooster Group in Ursula. After more than a year of negotiations, Netflix has closed its deal to buy Hollywoods Egyptian Theatre from American Cinametheque. The cinematheques chairman said the organization will still screen films on-site.Mark Morriss Zoom dances are landing.

As protests rage over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Times columnist LZ Granderson comes through with a must-read personal history about being detained by police. For those of you who are tired of reading about racism, he writes, trust me when I say this Im tired of writing about it.

Originally posted here:
Reopening cities: LA architects imagine the pandemic reset - Los Angeles Times

1+1>2 architects has completed a second house as part of a community of new residences in a western suburb of hanoi, vietnam. the project, titled mr. hungs house, neighbors mothers house, which was completed by the same firm. forming part of jackfruit village, the lakeside property features a distinctive thatched roof that protects the home from the regions hot sun and monsoon rains. as with its neighbor, the property was designed to exist in harmony with the landscape, allowing residents to immerse themselves in nature.

all images by hiroyuki oki, courtesy of 1+1>2 architects

with the design of mr. hungs house, named after the projects client, 1+1>2 architects sought to develop the structure horizontally to maximize lake views. taking into account the sloping terrain, the building is elevated to counter humidity and ensure natural surface drainage. raising the structure also helps avoid termites, which could damage the buildings structural integrity. the house adheres to the sites vegetation, with the position of the existing trees dictating the configuration of the dwelling.

as the home is oriented around the lake, all internal spaces are permeated with plants, wind, and sunlight. a footpath leads to the homes entrance, which opens directly into the main living space. the ground floor also contains a study as well as two bedrooms, each with access to a lakeside terrace. a staircase housed within a thatched tower designed to appear as a rice straw stack ascends to the main bedroom and sauna on the upper storey. the adobe bricks used for the walls were sourced from the land itself.

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1+1>2 architects adds to jackfruit village with thatched lakeside residence - Designboom