L: Empire State Building, via Archdaily; R: Ulm Stadthaus, via Richard Meier and Partners.
#LoveWins: With last Friday’s historic ruling on marriage equality, ArchDaily points us to a vibrant spectrum of rainbow-illuminated architectural landmarks across the globe. Highlights include the Empire State Building, the Brandenberg Gate (at top), and a stunning multi-chromatic rendition of Menahem Cohen’s Tel Aviv City Hall. Brutalism never looked so good! (And, in case you missed it, we tapped our database for a handful of colorful projects, as well … )
Modern History: A wide-ranging retrospective on Richard Meier and Partners is set to open in Germany next month — in one of the firm’s most iconic buildings, no less. “Picture, Tower, Building” is being held in the striking Ulm Stadthaus in the shadow of the city’s old Cathedral and runs until November 22nd this year; Wallpaper* has more images; Meier also recently offered a tour of his model museum at Jersey City’s Mana Contemporary.
L: Design Museum under construction, via It’s Nice That; R: Marc Pivac’s automated bricklayer, via Inhabitat.
Pause on Pawson: The Design Museum released work-in-progress shots of their new home in Kensington this week, offering a glimpse of John Pawson’s distinctive ribbed roof structure and expansive glazed façades. The museum will move permanently to their new location in west London next year, having sold their Shad Thames site to Zaha Hadid Architects back in 2013.
Another Brick in the Wall: With the development of 3D-printing technologies continuing apace, can technologies that use traditional construction materials keep up? Aussie engineer Marc Pivac thinks so: his automated robotic bricklayer can reportedly constructed a two-story house in just two days. It can work through the night, as well — perhaps human bricklayers should be worried!
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Instant Grammification: Snøhetta’s glacier-like expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco is nearing completion, and the Norwegian firm recently released a neat time-lapse video of their progress on Instagram, condensing two years of construction into a seven-second clip.
London Laments: The Guardian’s Rowan Moore dissected the disenchantment of local Londoners in an in-depth article on rising property prices and rapid development in the English capital this week. Will there be any let-up in the gentrification and unrelenting monetization of “the city that ate itself?” A long but incredibly insightful read.
Furniture Unfurled: Sebastian Errazuriz’s “Wave Cabinet” is a storage chest that you open by peeling back a rhythmic series of fan-like timber elements. The New York-based artist/designer’s design works as a functional sculpture with unlimited configurations — see this unbelievably satisfying piece of kinetic furniture in action in the video below.
Top Image: The Brandenberg Gate. Via ArchDaily.