Return of the Adjaye: The London-based architect’s star continues to rise as New York City”s Studio Museum in Harlem has just announced [PDF] that David Adjaye will be designing a new ground-up building (pictured at top) to replace its current home on West 125th Street. The plans will be filed on July 14th, and construction set to begin in 2017 with a 2019 completion date; the New York Times has the full story.
L: Premiere Tower by Elenberg Fraser; image via Dezeen; R: 56 Leonard by Herzog and de Meuron; image via Tronic Studio.
Independent Woman: Melbourne-based Elenberg Fraser has just won approval for a Beyoncé-inspired skyscraper in their hometown. Set to rise in Melbourne’s CBD, the 740-foot Premiere Tower is reportedly based on the form of a woman dancing in a dress, as in the singer’s “Ghost” music video.
Jenga Unchained: Coining the term “Jengaform Architecture,” Citylab’s Kriston Capps duly notes a new typology that is cropping up in New York City (as in Herzog and de Meuron’s 56 Leonard, pictured above), Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and beyond.
L: X-Tainer by Excalibur Structures via Gizmag; R: “The Beach” by Snarkitecture, via Instagram.
In Brief
X-Treme Shipping Containers: A company called Excalibur Shelters has conceived of a kind of freight container — ever popular as a kind of building block — that holds folding panels that can be deployed to make substantially larger enclosed spaces.
Have a Ball Pit: “The Beach,” Snarkitecture’s special installation for the National Building Museum, is now open for business.
House Hunting? There’s a Tinder for That: It’s called HomeSwipe.
Kenya, for the Wind: The East African country is investing heavily in renewable energy as construction starts on what will be Africa’s biggest wind farm; upon completion, the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project will generate upward of 20% of the nation’s power.
Expository Statements: Tonight (right now, in fact), the Centre for London is hosting a public discussion about “the pros and cons of a London bid” for the 2025 World Expo. We hope someone is live-tweeting it …
Reality Is So Holo: “Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds: Tangible Holographic Plasma” is just one of the many fascinating presentations at the annual SIGGRAPH conference. In layman’s terms, it’s a step toward laser-generated 3D images that you can manipulate.
L: “Unexpected Hill” by SO? Architecture; photo by Hufton and Crow via Dezeen; R: Bottle Cap Pavilion by Arunkumar HG; photo via Designboom.
Eye Candy
From the Vault: Istanbul’s SO? Architecture has created a temporary installation at the Royal Academy of Arts. Composed of ceramic triangular prisms that are “extruded” to different heights, “Unexpected Hill” alludes to traditional Islamic muqarnas vaulting as well as acknowledging a forthcoming renovation by David Chipperfield.
Cap Screen: Indian artist Arunkumar HG has crafted a kind of open-air alcove for the annual Sculpture by the Sea festival in Denmark. Made from plastic bottle caps fastened together with steel wire, the result is something like El Anatsui meets Adam Reed Tucker.
The Best View of the 4th of July Fireworks: ICYMI this weekend, here’s a helicopter hyperlapse of Macy’s annual fireworks show. (Hat-tip to Animal New York)
Image at top: Studio Museum in Harlem by Adjaye Associates, via the New York Times.
