Police can’t recognize every face from the vast database of criminals, but facial recognition sunglasses can—much like the ones Chinese police in Zhengzhou have been employing recently. The glasses connect to an offline 10,000-person database on a……
Continue Reading…
Baking and mathematics collide with Lauren Ko’s incredible pies and tarts. Seattle-based Ko has no professional pastry training nor experience, but her creations are mesmerizing. She assembles intricate geometric patterns from and with pastry and fruits……
Continue Reading…
While not uncommon or infrequent, an art fair at a convention center can be a strange juxtaposition. There is a mimicking of the white cube gallery as though it will make guests feel a bit more at home while they turn a blind eye to the incongruous……
Continue Reading…
The all-white panel of architects gathered by Woods Bagot to discuss Los Angeles‘ future urban development last week was embarrassingly misrepresentative of the city’s diversity and needs, argues Janelle Zara.
Vast, sunny, atomised Los Angeles. Defying the practical notions of urban planning, it bypassed the formation of a city centre, opting instead to string together its sprawling villages – South Central, Tehrangeles, Koreatown, East LA among them – via freeway onramps and wayward hillside roads, forming an elaborate tapestry of colour, culture, and food trucks of every cuisine.
Given the sheer diversity of LA’s population, then, how absurd would it be to discuss its urban future with only a sliver of it? Well, it happened. In 2018.
On Friday, Australia’s largest architecture firm Woods Bagot presented LA 3.0: Development & Design for the New Los Angeles – a half-day conference on the massive and consequential transformations taking hold of LA’s urban fabric, discussed by a glaringly all-white set of panelists. Did they really think that no one would notice?
“While we were able to achieve a good balance of women and men in our participants, several of the panelists we invited who would have added to the diversity had scheduling conflicts and weren’t able to join us,” the global communications leader of Woods Bagot wrote to me, inserting a sly self-congratulations on not hosting an all-male panel.
Did they really think that no one would notice?
It’s a statement that speaks not only to how poorly acquainted the profession is with the non-white and the non-male, but how low a bar it’s set for itself in its attempts at diversity.
As you roll your eyes at the nagging whine of political correctness, consider the historical consequences of excluding people of colour from the conversation.
Beneath the rosy narratives of Surfurbia and single-family homes with backyard swimming pools put forth by David Hockney and Reyner Banham, two Englishmen on LA safari that the conference’s opening presentation exalted for “capturing” the essence of the city, the truth is that LA was built on segregation by design through redlining and displacement.
Consider also that, despite taking place within walking distance of Skid Row – a stretch of Downtown LA in which upwards of 2,000 chronically homeless Angelenos set up encampments each night – an hour-long panel discussion (featuring local architects Wade Killefer and Lorcan O’Herlihy; developer Ava Bromberg; and moderator Frances Anderton, host of the radio show DnA: Design and Architecture) can fail to mention soaring rates of homelessness (a 26 per cent rise from 2016 to 2017), nor what part development might have played in that.
LA was built on segregation by design through redlining and displacement
And despite the virulent war between local activists, the encroaching New York-funded art galleries in Boyle Heights, and the Chicano-majority community grappling with gentrification just next door, the racial tensions of development received just a few passing mentions.
“Twenty-five years ago when the Rodney King riots happened, you know, these neighborhoods were begging for development, complaining because no big developer would come in,” said Anderton. “Now it’s the reverse, and there’s a lot of fear around development.”
Could that be because development, quite simply, isn’t being carried out in the best interest of people of colour? It’s a pressing topic that needs exploration, but to speak of entire communities in the abstract without giving them a seat at the table reeks of a particularly myopic arrogance.
It’s no secret that the architectural profession is overwhelmingly white, but why, on a topic as consequential and far-reaching as urban planning, would architects only want to talk to each other?
Los Angeles today faces a multifaceted crisis of urban planning
In an earlier discussion that day on transportation and the need for a more robust public infrastructure, the very excellent Seleta Reynolds, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, shed light on the the advantages of relinquishing the discourse of urban planning to non-architects. She pushed the salient questions of new transportation initiatives: Who are they for? Who do they serve?
The architecture panelists, despite having built affordable housing and demonstrating an awareness of the inordinate power white affluence has over city planning, are no experts in public policy. (A few relevant experts in adjacent professions whom I would recommend include Helen Leung of LA-Más, the rare architecture firm that prioritises public policy on the same footing as design; Rudy Espinoza of Leadership for Urban Renewal Network; or Dana Trujillo, chief real estate office for Skid Row Housing Trust.) And so they stuck mainly to what they know best: strategic typologies towards density and floor area ratios.
As your eyes crossed from the architect-speak, you might have echoed Reynolds’ questions: Who is this talk for? Particularly at Sci-Arc, an institution of higher learning nestled among the raw pressed juice bars and forthcoming Bjarke Ingels development of the Downtown LA Arts District, who does it serve?
Los Angeles today faces a multifaceted crisis of urban planning: rising rents and population; shortages of affordable housing and buildable land; and the end of the Hockney-esque single-family home as a sustainable option. Topics too large to be squeezed into architecture’s echo chamber of white noise.
Photograph is by Daniel Ramirez.
The post “To speak of entire communities without giving them a seat at the table reeks of myopic arrogance” appeared first on Dezeen.
The first of a series of waterfront buildings that New York firm SHoP Architects is creating at the former Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg has opened.
Named 325 Kent, the 16-storey residential block is situated between the Williamsburg Bridge and the factory’s former refinery building – the only structure on the 11-acre site that escaped demolition.
Its 522 residences are organised around a courtyard, creating a form that steps down from one end to the other. The tallest portion, facing the East River, has a large hole in the centre that is capped by a three-storey bridge containing the building’s amenities.
“Featuring a striking silhouette that steps up incrementally in height, it gradually forms a visual connection between the existing low-rise neighbourhood, the landmarked Refinery building, and the taller waterfront buildings slated for future construction,” said a statement on behalf of property company Two Trees Management.
The building’s lower portion is clad with rusty-coloured copper panels, while upper floors are wrapped in zinc. Perforations in the curtain walls create subtle patterns across the facades.
A roof deck provides panoramic views of Brooklyn and over the river towards the Manhattan skyline. A health club, bike storage and lounge are among other facilities available to residents.
The accommodation includes studio, one-bedroom, one-bedroom with home office, and two-bedroom apartments. Of the 522, 104 are designated as affordable.
On the ground floor, retail spaces including restaurants and a yoga studio are set to welcome customers in the coming months. The surrounding park, by High Line designers James Corner Field Operations, is due to open in summer 2018.
“The park will honour the industrial history of the site, incorporating industrial artefacts like syrup tanks and gantry cranes across the public space,” said the developer’s statement.
Three taller residential towers are also proposed or under construction across the site, as part of a masterplan created by architect Vishaan Chakrabarti while a principal at SHoP. He is now moving the project over to his new firm Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU).
The Domino Sugar Factory complex was abandoned in 2004 after operating for almost 150 years, then demolished a decade later to make way for the series of skyscrapers.
Photographer Paul Raphaelson recently released a series of images taken both inside and out of the factory, to show what the old buildings looked like in disrepair.
Photography is by Adrian Gaut unless stated otherwise.
The post SHoP completes first building at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Factory site appeared first on Dezeen.
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think the guys at Matador have a shrink-ray. After the pocket blanket, they’ve managed to shrink a 20-liter backpack into something that’s literally the size of a stress ball. The Droplet XL bag puts a serious ultralight waterproof bag (for your wet beachwear) into a drop shaped silicone case that can fit into your pocket, or even be hung on your regular backpack with the carabiner clip provided. Designed exclusively for the beach, the Droplet is ideal for when you want to have complete control over how wet or dry your objects are. The two-way waterproof bag can keep water out, letting your clothes stay dry, or keep water in, allowing you to stash your wet clothes inside without them dripping anywhere. The drop-shaped silicone case (reinforcing the waterproof aspect rather beautifully) comes with a slit that you can easily pull your bag out of and shove it back into. And with its ultra-lightweight material, you’ll barely even feel like you’re carrying a second 20-liter backpack with you!
Designer: Chris Clearman (Matador)
I’m typically not a fan of when people take someone else’s videos and make a supercut from the clips, but at least they credited the guy here and are showing off his excellent work.
Samuel Mamias is a math teacher in France. And I don’t know how he’s done this on a teacher’s salary–I think I need to move to France–but he seemingly owns every hand tool, power tool, Festool product and large stationary shop tool you can think of.
He’s also got design and fabrication skills. So when he wanted to create a reading space for his family’s home and utilize some wasted overhead space, he designed and built it himself. Regardez-vous:
If you want to see more detail, Mamias documented the entire thing on his YouTube channel over the course of ten videos. You can start on the first one here, but be aware that the explanations are in French only.
Remember those police barricades I wrote about earlier? The Parks & Recreation employees who maintain this park on the Lower East Side’s Chrystie Street have snagged a few. Someone has removed the gates that seal off this fenced-in soccer field, which are usually locked at night. With the gates gone, people have been bringing their dogs to run around on the field. So the P&R folks have been blocking off all four entrances with the barricades, which fit perfectly.
Well, maybe not perfectly. As I was snapping these photos…
…a woman and her dog wriggled through the gap around the barricade on the other side to get onto the field.
An FDA-cleared wearable device, Reliefband 2.0 helps to control vomiting and nausea through proprietary pulses issued to contact points on a J-Band bracelet. As the body receives the pulses, it begins to rebalance and normalize. It’s a motion and morning……
Continue Reading…
In a move that nutrition experts are calling “the world’s most ambitious attempt to remake a country’s food culture,” the Chilean government is banning cute marketing ploys to sell junk food. They’ve killed Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger, Cheetos……
Continue Reading…
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
