First Welsh architecture awards for innovative buildings

Four buildings have won awards in the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) and the inaugural Riba Wales awards.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18521542

Old Bricks - history at your feet

"A celebration of old named British bricks"

http://www.penmorfa.com/bricks/

Manhattan loves the high life

"The stereotypical New Yorker: assertive, fast, sceptical, focused on making money and determined to turn every moment into an achievement. This month, a linear sanctuary elevated above Manhattan is being doubled in length, challenging our ideas of these ultimate urban dwellers with lessons for those of us who live in cities everywhere.

This June, the celebrated High Line, the park which runs along the West Side of Manhattan, will flow from the heart of the stylish Meatpacking district through fashionable Chelsea all the way up to 30th Street. Though the extension of this former raised railway has not yet been opened, you can glimpse its promise through still-locked gates.

Section Two will include as much of a forest as you can cram into a narrow railway, "The Chelsea Thicket" of winterberry, redbud and large American hollies – and something rare and precious in Manhattan: an expanse of lawn. The Lawn "peels up" at 23rd Street to offer a vantage point of both sides of Manhattan Island. "

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/manhattan-still-loves-the-high-life-2291368.html

God game: SimCity urban planning taken to terrifying extreme

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/16/god-game-simcity-urb.html

"TheImperar's over-meticulously constructed Sim City 3000 island paradise/hell is "inspired by the wheel of life and death" and supports an apparently unheard-of six million+ population"

Ghost Signs - Documenting painted advertising signs in the UK

"Painted signs were once common but have been replaced by printed billboards, and those that survive are fading fast, or being demolished during building work. "


http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/mar/17/advertising-history-archive-ghostsigns


http://www.ghostsigns.co.uk/archive

Desire Path

"A desire path (also known as a desire line or social trail) is a path developed by erosion caused by footfall. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. The width and amount of erosion of the line represents the amount of demand."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path

Burges' stained glass panels return home to Castell Coch

"The future of two extremely rare William Burges-designed stained glass panels has been secured following their purchase for £125,000 by Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment service."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2011/04/castell_coch_william_burges_stained_glass_panels.html

The Monochromatic City of Chefchaoen, Morocco

"Take a stroll through Chefchaoen’s streets and you’ll be hard-pressed to find something that isn’t painted a particular shade of blue."

http://weburbanist.com/2011/06/03/all-azure-the-monochromatic-city-of-chefchaoen-morocco/

Anish Kapoor chosen for landmark 2012 sculpture

Anish Kapoor: 'I wanted the sensation of unstability'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8597069.stm

Inmos Architecture

Entrance to the Newport Fab

http://inmos.com/images/buildings/index.html

INMOS Factory

"The building design evolved as a single-storey steel structure conceived as a kit of rapidly erectable parts, with maximum off-site prefabrication to allow the building to be erected bay by bay.The basic concept of Phase 1 of the building is a central linear circulation and service spine with internal wings for specialized activities. The spine...acts as an internal street or informal promenade, generous enough in size to contain vending machines, public telephones, seating, meeting places, planted areas and waiting areas for the offices. It provides total visual security control and is intended to link up with other future phases of building on the site, so that all the facilities in all the buildings are readily available to all staff."

— Barbie Campbell Cole and Ruth Elias Rogers, ed. Richard Rogers + Partners. p61.

http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=1,4,25,485


http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/INMOS_Factory.html

Not a bad place to work, either.

It would have been interesting to see extensions follow the same pattern, but this was not to be.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/3758157.stm

Vatican Spiral Staircase

via

http://iamblessed.tumblr.com/post/120752192/vatican-spiral-staircase

to


http://www.redbubble.com/people/gregshelley/art/3225133-2-vatican-spiral-staircase

Cardiff's millennium makeover

"The Millennium Centre, locally nicknamed "the Armadillo", is an arts centre in the Bay area. Designer Jonathan Adams wanted a building that expressed "Welshness", and it was built with local materials that reflect the different parts of Wales. The centre's main feature, the bronze-coloured dome, inscribed with verses in Welsh and English, is clad in riveted steel treated with copper oxide. It reflects South Wales's industrial past and was designed to look better with age. The multi-coloured layers of slate represent the stone layers in sea cliffs and reflect the slate quarries of the north."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jun/09/walk-guides-cardiff-wales-architecture

Brighten up a working place

"Some interesting examples of how effective an artist can be to create an illusion..."

http://www.signspro.com/eric-art/

Nature Unfolding

"Decades before most Westerners had heard of feng shui, it described how the built world shapes human interaction. It recommended windows on two sides of every room, for instance, because this “creates less glare around people and objects. . . . It allows us to read in detail the minute expressions that flash across people’s faces . . . to understand each other.”"

http://www.tricycle.com/interview/nature-unfolding

Shell Hermitage, Pontypool Park

"Shell Hermitage, Pontypool Park The shell hermitage in Pontypool Park is probably the best preserved grotto in Wales. It was built in the 18th century for John Hanbury, although the shell decoration was probably added later by Molly Hanbury Leigh (John's daughter-in-law). There are, however, other stories regarding the origins of the grotto. One suggests that the grotto was created as an early job creation scheme to alleviate unemployment in the area in the 1820s. The shell grotto was restored in the early 1990s."

http://www.gtj.org.uk/this-and-that/curiosities/pontypool-shell-grotto/

Ancient Lights

"Ancient lights" is a colloquialism for the "right to light," guaranteed under English law, whereby windows that have seen twenty years' worth of "uninterrupted" daylight cannot be blocked by the construction of new buildings.

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/ancient-lights.html

Unreal Sky

"These are the pictures of hospital where this artificial sky is installed."

http://www.jimjamzoo.com/unreal-sky/

Kenchikukagu: Apartment Folds Out of a Box

"How cool is this? A kitchen, an office and a bedroom that fold out of these lovely cabinets, designed by Toshihiko Suzuki Architect."

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/kenchikukagu-apartment-in-box.php

Sir Clough’s strong views on Kiwi architecture to be heard at last

"THEY are five strongly-worded missives recorded on the decks of a liner making its leisurely way back from New Zealand.

But after 60 years of silence, the speeches – a no-holds-barred critique of Kiwi design by one of Wales’ greatest-ever architects – can be heard for the first time.

The five talks, collectively named A Planning Credo and Commentary, were a parting gift to the architects Sir Clough Williams-Ellis – who built the built the Italianate village of Portmeirion, on the Lln Peninsula – met during a trip to the country in 1948 to visit his daughter Charlotte.

They remained in an attic for 36 years before being discovered by his grandson Robin Llywelyn in 1984.

Even then, the recordings were still consigned to silence because no means could be found to play the archaic discs."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/06/12/sir-clough-s-strong-views-on-kiwi-architecture-to-be-heard-at-last-91466-21060920/