L: 8600 Wilshire by MAD; R: EM Quartier by Leeser Architects.
L.A. Unconfidential: Ma Yansong has revealed “a new model for West Coast Vernacular,” his first residential project in the States, in California, proposing an apartment building akin to a hilltop village in Los Angeles. 8600 Wilshire incorporates a mixture of townhouses, villas, studios, and condominium-style units around an elevated “secret garden.”
Building up Bangkok: Across the Pacific in Thailand, Leeser Architecture have taken a very different approach to integrating nature with urban design with the completion of the EM Quartier in Bangkok. The high-end retail outlet is a combination of new build and renovation and is defined by its distinctive offset floor plates, which incorporate — you guessed it — outdoor terraces and roof gardens.
L: Robin Hood Gardens, via Dezeen; R: Flint House by Skene Catling de la Peña, via the Guardian.
Smithsonian Institution: Richard Rogers has joined the ranks of the big-name architects calling for East London’s iconic and infamous Robin Hood Gardens housing estate to be saved from demolition. Alison and Peter Smithson’s complex has been in peril since it was denied listed status six years ago; longstanding preservation campaigners include Dame Zaha Hadid.
Residential Recognition: While the fate of Robin Hood Gardens remains hotly debated, this week also sees the celebration of 37 residential projects in the U.K., which have received a national prize from RIBA, including Brentford Lock West by Duggan Morris Architects and the stunning Flint House by Skene Catling de la Peña.
L: Frank Gehry’s Serpentine Pavilion in the French countryside, via the Guardian; R: Nicolas Amiard’s Parisian Star Destroyer, via Designboom.
Point and Counterpoint
Serpentine or Palpatine?: With SelgasCano’s colorful structure nearing completion in Kensington Gardens, the Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright investigates the fate of previous Serpentine Pavilions. Their afterlives vary, some ending up in the proverbial architectural scrapheap while others have been reincarnated as nomadic icons. Meanwhile, Artsy explores the trend, via Design Miami/ Basel, of collecting houses, as with Jean Prouvé’s prefab houses. But considering that these pieces remain out of most of our reaches, we’ll content ourselves with graphic designer Nicolas Amiard’s wonderful visualizations, in anticipation of Episode VII: The Force Awakens, of Star Wars spacecraft crash-landed in terrestrial cities.
Eye Candy
L: Federico Babina’s house for Tim Burton, via Archdaily; R: One of Cinta Vidal Agulló’s “Ungravity Constructions,” via the Architect’s Newspaper.
Lights, Camera, Architecture!: Federico Babina is back with another series of much-beloved architectural “portraits.” This time around, he has produced a fresh set of eerie elevations depicting famous filmmakers as houses after their own auteuristic style.
Escher 2.0: Another illustrator with a brilliantly distinctive graphic style has produced some truly mind-bending architectural enigmas. Cinta Vidal Agulló paints “Un-gravity Constructions” with acrylics on wooden boards, creating fictional 3D worlds with a surreal, Escher-esque sensibility.
Kickstart This
Arbitrary Arbor: Following the success of the pop-up Hayam Sun Temple at last year’s Burning Man festival, designer Josh Haywood is looking to crowd-fund another pop-up pavilion in Black Rock Desert come August.
Top image: Nicolas Amiard’s Parisian Star Destroyer, via Designboom.
