Tag: architecture

Elbphilharmonie

The up-tempo video takes us through the many impressive features which recently helped the building win the Cultural Architecture Prize in ArchDaily’s Building of the Year Awards. From the gently curving escalator at the building’s entrance which becomes less steep as it ascends, to the curved glass which gives the building’s exterior its signature look, to the CNC-milled acoustic walls in the performance spaces, #donotsettle takes an uncompromising look at the project’s finer details. Given the building’s fraught construction process which generated so much controversy that it was deemed worthy of a spot at discussion in the 2012 Venice Biennale, it is heartening to see that (almost) all of those around the vlogging duo seem enthused about the building’s much-awaited opening.

Constellation Park

earning your keep after you die

Imagine the Manhattan Bridge twinkling from underneath with 100s of small pods filled with decaying biomass – the final resting place of many former New Yorkers, shining like stars in an otherwise dark sky. There, you might lay flowers near a pod containing the remains of a loved one, until decomposition finishes its course and all that remains is a container to keep as a remembrance. This is the vision that is Constellation Park, a shiny new cemetery proposed by DeathLab, a trans-disciplinary research and design space at Columbia University.

Swiss money bunkers

Deep in the Swiss Alps, next to an old airstrip suitable for landing Gulfstream and Falcon jets, is a vast bunker that holds what may be one of the world’s largest stashes of gold. The entrance, protected by a guard in a bulletproof vest, is a small metal door set into a granite mountain face at the end of a narrow country lane. Behind 2 farther doors sits a 3.5-ton metal portal that opens only after a code is entered and an iris scan and a facial-recognition screen are performed. A maze of tunnels once used by Swiss armed forces lies within.

switzerland continues to do what it does best: hide illegitimate money.

Kebab

NYC is getting its own kebab:

Heatherwick Studio revealed the first renderings of “Vessel,” a 15-story tall occupiable sculpture comprised of 154 intricately interconnecting flights of stairs that will serve as the centerpiece of the new Hudson Yards development in west Manhattan.

Improved Burning Man

Walker’s urban plan for Burning Man simply improves upon the original by applying setbacks along certain streets and intersections for different cultural and urban uses. he built out a “kit of parts” for simple streetscape interventions that he says can have a dramatic impact on urban flow and cultural space. “There are interventions that cities have been using for 100s, 1000s of years”