In 1962, the architect Buckminster Fuller envisioned a floating city that would free humanity from its dependence on the Earth. The speculative project consisted of enormous geodesic spheres that would naturally levitate in air warmed by the sun and be anchored to mountaintops.
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) took Cove Club Condominium to court last week, arguing that if a judge doesn't grant it access to the condo, it won't be able to install critical flood walls and underground drainage structures around Battery Park City that could help prevent Hurricane Sandy-esque damage in the future.
Good urbanism should transcend politics. Socialists and capitalists can walk the same neighborhood and agree it's a pleasant place to live. They can each appreciate the tree canopy, the corner café with people spilling onto the sidewalk, the mix of ages on bikes and on foot, the architectural details of older buildings, and so on.
Campaigner Aysha Hawcutt stated that residents were 'not anti-homes', but believed the Adlington plan was 'the wrong proposal in the wrong place'. She expressed pride in the community's resilience against the development threats.
From Alpine chalets shedding snow to Mediterranean roof tiles mitigating summer heat, the slope responded to climate and construction challenges long before it became an aesthetic code. Although modern architecture has favored horizontal planes and orthogonal plans, the pitched roof requires a project to be conceived in section.
How buildings are designed impacts people's lives every day. If every day you're living in a space where you can't use your home, that gnaws away at you.
My family had Slide Show Night when I was growing up. Not every Saturday, but a whole bunch of Saturdays. Either my sister or I would be in charge of setting up the projector, the screen, and loading the carousel. During the show, there'd be a few landscapes or skylines taken during vacations, but almost all the shots were up close. Like most dads, mine wasn't a professional photographer, but he did a good job of capturing memory triggers: faces, gestures, and decorations.
According to the UN, the "buildings and construction sector is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases." Sustainable architecture, in essence, tries to change that-and is more needed than ever. As climate change intensifies, it challenges architects and designers to consider the impact of their work in every step of the building process, from raw materials to site impact to future maintenance, decades down the line.
From the large industrial roofs and galleries of the 19th century to the contemporary atriums of museums and public buildings, glass has been a recurring material in shaping large and monumental interior spaces. More than a technological or engineering solution, these horizontal glazed planes introduce a distinct luminous quality: light that comes from above. Unlike lateral daylight entering through façades, zenithal light is more evenly distributed, reduces harsh shadows, and lends spaces a sense of continuity and openness that is difficult to achieve otherwise.
There are around five million leasehold properties in England and Wales, of which 70% are flats. At the moment, the freeholder of a property generally owns the building and the land beneath it, outright and forever. Leaseholders effectively buy the right to live in the property for a fixed period of time. Leasehold flats are found in all sorts of properties - from converted Victorian houses to purpose built skyscrapers - and tend to be concentrated in big cities.
Cedar Street just came out victorious in a multi-year saga with the city of La Canada Flintridge, winning the first successful builder's remedy case in California Superior Court for its 80-unit mixed-use project at 600 Foothill Boulevard and setting a path for other developers to build. But the fight may have left its scars, in time, stress and now soured relationships with some officials.