The New York Times has a list of the 10 best buildings of 2008. The AR has an as ever excellent list of emerging architecture for 2008 which is more interesting the NYT good but slightly vanilla list.
Varnelis asks where the good new Architecture of the 21st Century is, but I think it’s too early to say, a quick look at the emerging Architecture lists from AR for example and you will see much interesting work which maybe hasn’t had the exposure the they deserve yet…
For 2008 in Scandinavia the biggest and most important project was probably the Oslo Opera House by Snøhetta (photo above). The next few years though big projects will be fewer and more thinly spread, but as ever I believe some of the best Architecture being produced now is not necessarily budget related.
Decoding the Heavens is a book about the Antikythera mechanism a 2000 year old device that could conceivably be called the worlds first computer. There is a nice short video of the man responsible for rebuilding it describing what it does.
A huge page of links to debates about the existence of god.
Last week I took the plunge and joined facebook although maybe I shouldn’t have ( & it’s strangely addictive!).
Archinect has a new set of t-shirt designs just out and I just ordered my steel on asphalt. I like the latest designs alot more than the ‘architecture sucks’ design which ’sucks’ and has been around since forever. Archinect T-shirts.
It’s the season for lists and this years 20 worst album covers is a set of terrible album covers, with some brilliant one line put downs.
According to HS the proposed waterfront hotel by Herzog and DeMeuron has been approved and it’s almost all over for the objectors. The mayor stated that it was nice to get a major building financed by private money, and I guess they thought that the project would inject some life into the whole harbour regeneration which is needed. I’m sure this will remain the most controversial building project in Finland for many years whatever happens next. (HS article) (previously)
A beautiful set of very early world maps and nice article about them. From a time when a map was just as much about your world view, religious convictions and contacts, as about your map making ability.
Greenland Population of 57,000 has voted for independence from Denmark, although full independence is probably about 10 years away.
OK so unfortunately the web is full of crazy people with their zombie arguments, where loudly worded statements seem to drown out careful investigation into a subject. Particularly if it doesn’t correspond with your worldview. A good example of this is Climate change. Evidence for climate change caused by man is overwhelming full stop. Watch these two videos. Then try playing global warming sceptic bingo. There are plenty of deniers (comments in this article are worthy of reading carefuly) out their but read their sources and the way they have made their calculations and it soon becomes apparent how biased they are. Better we try to get on with fixing our own problem don’t you think!
It’s our Daughter’s Name Day today (Nimipäivä), something only our neighbour remembered because coming from the U.K. the practice of name days has died out (if it was ever alive!). When I was growing up I associated it with saints days in predominately Catholic countries. It seems I was slightly wrong and at least Orthodox Christian countries also celebrate this which I guess might indicate pre christian origins.
Anyway the official Name Days of Finland is published by the Almanac Office at the University of and contains all Finnish official Name Days lists (Finnish, Swedish, Sami and Greek Catholic).
So I thought I’d try to establish the name day for our son whose name is not ‘Finnish’ and therefore not covered in the official Finnish list. Wikipedia name day also gives an American name day calendar which started in 1982. Interestingly the 1982 and 2008 days for my son’s birthday are different, but the latest one seems good enough for us. That’s January 21st.
Another thing worth mentioning, that the more I looked at these lists, their differences and indeed similarities, the Swedish and Finnish ones seem totally aligned for instance, I can’t help thinking this is all mostly based on nothing more than precedence.
Other Links:
Happynameday | americannamedaycalendar
Herzog and DeMeurons’ proposed Waterfront Hotel on Katajanokka will be opposed it seems tooth and nail by the Finnish Architectural Establishment. Last Thursday a Revised Scheme was handed in to the City Plannning Authority , while a couple of hours earlier a petition from 34 Architetcure and Planning Professors lead by Juha Leiviskä oppposing the scheme was handed in.
I’m not really surprised by this opposition, since I first posted about this project it seems to be that the tide of professional opinion in Finland has turned almost totally against it, and while I think the cladding design is innovative and potentially world class the planning of the building into the public waterfront space appears missing among other concerns, in what is the most controversial building plot in the whole of Finland.
Lost America is night photography of the abandoned west.
Following on from my review of Skateboarding, Space and the City, Wired has a nice article about some recently finished buildings in which the Architects have conciously included for skate design. The Oslo Opera House by Snøhetta where skateboarders were consulted;
“We spoke to them about surface textures and the areas they prefer,” architect Simon Ewings.
Also the Phaeno Science centre by Zaha Hadid and a park in Barcelona by FOA were designed with skaters in mind. Read the full article in Wired.
Lots of great recipies, and a nice user interface it must be open source food yum yum.