So this is pretty amazing.  Finally a TV network, albeit the Sundance Channel, has created a series to follow architecture students as they work and design projects.  The chosen school is Tulane University which has a program set up to design and actually build houses for unfortunate citizens in New Orleans, specifically in the 9th Ward.  It premiered on August 20th, and will be on Wednesday nights at 8:30.  You can always watch it for free on HULU.  Please visit the website as well.  They will be following these students at Tulane throughout the season and one of their designs will be picked to be built by the entire class.  Its a great idea and the first episode is fantastic.  Of course I'm biased being in architecture already but its worth a watch. 

OMA and Rem Koolhaas' CCTV Tower Facade is complete just in time for the Olympics.  Fancy Dancy.   arcspace

 

A really nice look at how Architecture plays a very important role in the Olympic Games.  This series of games will be held in the Herzog and de Meuron designed "Bird Nest," its gorgeous and breaking way from conventional thought of structure and form.

View the SlideShow of "Beijing's Bird Nest" via New York Times

'About 1,900,000 timber pallets are in use in the U.S. at a given time'- U.S. Forest Service.

With the prevalence of pallets, especially in areas struck by natural disasters (relief items are often shipped on the pallets), and the need for temporary housing in these situtations, I-Beam has come up with a resourceful way to utilize pallets to create stable shelters. Originally comceptualized for housing refugees in Kososvo, one house can last for about five years(estimated time it takes to build a permanent stone home in Kosovo) and can even be sheathed and insulated to make it a permanent dwelling.

Green Upgrader

I-Beam

Check this out: pictures in various cities such as Sao Paolo, Brazil (above), Caracas, Venezuela, and Dharavi, Mumbai showing the incredible divide between the rich and poor. This picture above amazes me mostly becuase of terraced balconies with swimming pools and the size of the tennis courts versus the size of one favela.

deputyDog

 

This documentary was directed by our buddies Steve Morton and Gabe Hohreiter. Take a look at the University of Florida School of Architecture, where all CR writers just graduated from.

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"Rem Koolhaas created 10 years ago one of the most amazing houses on the planet: the Maison à Bordeaux. This house is a wonder of engineering with moving walls, lifting bedrooms, platforms and automated windows designed to allow complete free movements to its owner, a man who has to move on a wheelchair after an almost-fatal car accident. Now, Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are showing their film Koolhass Houselife across America, a fascinating movie about this living home that seems taken out of a science fiction movie."  Found via GizmondoÂ

About this Talk Thom Mayne doesn't see architecture as the means to build a readily imaginable structure. Rather, it's a starting point for new kinds of building -- and thus new kinds of landscapes and environments. This mind-bending talk takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the buildings Mayne and his studio Morphosis have created in recent years. From the Federal Building in San Francisco to graduate housing for the University of Toronto to the Wayne L. Morse Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon, these are big ideas cast in material form. About Thom Mayne Founder of the influential studio Morphosis, and co-founder of the Southern California Institute of... Read full bio »