Hasta La Ideas

The LA Times‘ resident architecture critic has received a fair share of criticism of his own at the start of this week, chiefly from avid Apple enthusiasts after his writing a somewhat negative piece about the company’s proposed Foster + Partners-designed new headquarters in northern California. Though not a terribly negative review, and certainly not overt, Hawthorne really doesn’t even involve Apple, but instead uses them as a launching point to discussed the many companies who have decided to build a “campus,” a self-inclosed, almost suburban-like entity that eschews any form of connection to its community. However, with both Google (working with Ingenhoven) and Facebook (moving into Sun Microsystems‘ old facilities) also making them move to new mega-campuses of their own, Hawthorne seems to find Apple’s planned new home even more egregious in its desired separation than any of its neighbors, writing that it “keeps itself aloof from the world around it to a degree that is unusual even in a part of California dominated by office parks.” While the critic doesn’t directly address that many of these companies deal in tremendous secrecy and have employees who have sacrificed personal lives to work 18 hour days and thus need something that provides a sort of replacement for that insular safety, we think Hawthorne doesn’t necessarily believe that those needs have to be mutually exclusive. Whatever the case, it’s an interesting argument and one that’s sure to have the critic blacklisted for the iPhone 5 unveiling event, whenever that should happen to be.

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Now something to do with China that has nothing to do with Ai Weiwei for a change (unless he happens to be moonlighting as a cat burglar). Back in May, you might recall, thieves stole a number of items from Beijing’s Forbidden City, which turned out to be just the start of a summer of embarrassing incidents for the country as additional heists were pulled off. Reuters is reporting that now the government has issued a mandate requiring all museums to beef up their security or they will be forced to close temporarily until the issues are fixed. If they don’t do enough, then those closures will be permanent. We think it’s safe to assume that there’s some hiring going on right now across China. Here’s a bit:

“People who have been lured by the high profits attained through the theft and smuggling of ancient relics tend to set their targets on various museums,” state news agency Xinhua cited a notice from Ministry of Public Security and State Administration of Cultural Heritage as saying.

“Police and cultural authorities should examine museum security systems and improve training for museum guards. Museums should make emergency response plans and conduct emergency drills every six months to improve their ability to handle thefts.”

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When Jeffrey Deitch pulled up stakes in New York and set off to start stirring things up out west in Los Angeles as the LA MOCA‘s new director, there was more than a little concern over what would happen with his former, and extremely popular, Deitch Projects gallery. After more than a year, the space on 18 Wooster Street finally has a new tenant. This week the non-profit arts organization Swiss Institute has officially finished their transition into the space, moving from the loft it had called home since 1994. Art Info reports that the Institute’s director and curator, Gianni Jetzer, recently said about the move, “The new street-level location will make the Swiss Institute more accessible to visitors and enable us to reach the downtown community in a more effective way.” The space will be christened this September 14th with its first exhibition, This Is Not My Color / The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a showing of the work of Pamela Rosenkranz and Nikolas Gambaroff.

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Winners of the 2011 INDEX:Award take the stage at a ceremony held yesterday at the Copenhagen Opera House. (Photo courtesy INDEX: Design to Improve Life)

Having whittled down 966 entries from 78 countries to 60 finalists, an esteemed jury (chaired by Arup’s Nille Juul-Sorensen, it includes designer Hella Jongerius and Paola Antonelli of the Museum of Modern Art) has selected the five life-improving design projects that are the recipients of this year’s INDEX: Award. The top picks in five categories—body, home, work, play, and community—were announced yesterday at a gala ceremony held at the Copenhagen Opera House (not only was it designed by Henning Larsen, it’s on an island), where the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark were on hand to congratulate the winners, who each received €100,000 (approximately $144,000).

You may recall that Yves Béhar emerged victorious in the Body category for See Better to Learn Better, a program he and his fuseproject team created in partnership with Augen Optics and the Mexican Government to design and distribute free eyeglasses to schoolchildren in Mexico. Coming out on top in the home category was another Mexico-based project: Elemental Monterrey, a new model for social housing. Along similar lines, Design Seoul bested the rest in the community category with its pioneering design-based approach to improve life in a very large city. Design for Change, a competition that gives children an opportunity to express and implement their ideas for a better world, won in the work category. And novel biking gear triumphed in the play-ing field, with Malmö, Sweden-based Hövding taking the prize for its airbags for cyclists’ heads. The sensor-embedded, invisible helmets are worn as collars and wouldn’t look out of place on the runways of Alexander Wang (when deflated) or Alexander McQueen (when inflated).

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While the handing out of major architecture awards may have taken a bit of a break for the summer (starting up again on October 1st when the Stirling winner is announced), you can always look forward to one of our annual favorites, which doubles as architect’s least: the Carbuncle Cup for worst new buildings in the UK. Hosted by Building Design and judged this year by architecture critics Rowan Moore of the Observer, Hugh Pearman of the Sunday Times and the Guardian’s Jonathan Glancey, it’s a smarmy, often very funny pick of the worst of the worst. This year’s unfortunate finalists included such architectural luminaries as Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, Molyneux Architects, and a pairing between 3XN and AEW. The winner, however, was ITV‘s and the BBC‘s new £600 million home, MediaCityUK, by architects Wilkinson Eyre, Chapman Taylor and Fairhursts. The Carbuncle crew concedes that it was a great idea, creating a hugh new development that included housing, a university and school, a hotel, and everything in between, in a relatively undeveloped area along a shipping canal. Unfortunately, the judges believe that the whole thing lost its way early on and became the “worst of the worst” winner once it was finished. Here’s a bit:

What we are presented with instead is a crazed accumulation of development, in which every aimlessly gesticulating building sports at least three different cladding treatments. The overriding sense is one of extreme anxiety on the part of the architects — an unholy alliance of Wilkinson Eyre, Chapman Taylor and Fairhursts — about the development’s isolation, 20 minutes’ tram ride from the centre of Manchester. The incessant visual excitement reads as a desperate attempt to compensate for an underlying lack of urban vitality.

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