Hasta La Ideas

Shanghai Expo 2010: architectural photographer Roland Halbe has sent us some interior shots of the Danish Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group. (more…)

A full two years after then-president Marvin Malecha told his AIA colleagues he expected the industry to bounce back in six or so months, everyone is still fairly gun shy to even utter the word “recovery” anywhere near a conversation about the architecture industry. But who knows, maybe we’ve finally reached that point where it’s safe again. The AIA’s latest Architecture Billings Index has been released and once again things were moving upward, even more so than last month’s nothing of an uptick. It’s currently at a 48.1 rating, meaning it’s just-this-close to sliding over the 50 point mark, meaning there would be an even level of billings and we’d be that much closer to an actual increase. Bloomberg wasn’t holding much back, leading with the headline “Slump in Demand for U.S. Architects May Be Near End,” and even the usually overly-realistic Kermit Baker was sounding as optimistic as Kermit Baker will allow himself to be:

“It appears that the design and construction industry may be nearing an actual recovery phase,” says AIA chief economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “The economic landscape is improving, although not across the board, but doing so at a gradual pace. It is quite possible that we will finally see positive business conditions in the foreseeable future.”

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Flexible inflatable tent, specially designed and made for quick presentations, as movies, theatre or lectures. The construction of the tent consists o..

French architect Stephan Ricci AKA Architerroriste has designed a conceptual house shaped like a pair of binoculars and surrounded by a nest. (more…)

We, and everyone else, have seemingly been pounding the final nail on the coffin of Santiago Calatrava‘s Chicago Spire since the end of 2008, when trouble started bubbling to the surface. Then it seemed like the project was forever to be just a dream and a hole in the ground by mid-2009, when the lawsuits and news of unpaid bills started. But every time you think you’ve left your last bouquet of flowers at its grave, it pops back up again; though never with good news. The Chicago Tribune reports that the Spire’s developers have closed the lavish sales office they’ve occupied for the past two years, having finally settled yet another suit with the building they were leasing the space in. What’s more, the paper reports that they’ve lost staff and are still bogged down with those same legal troubles that started up last year when the bank came collecting on their loans. But if all that sounds like it absolutely, positively has to be the final breaking point, you’d be wrong. They’re moving to a new, just smaller office to continue onward. Certainly have to give them a nod for their persistence. It’s almost enough to make us to start believing that Calatrava will have his skyscraper after all, purely out of sheer will.

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