Italy to build the world's largest suspension bridge

Italy will forge ahead with a controversial plan to build the world's largest suspension bridge, a massive structure which will arch between the mainland and Sicily.(to find out more..)

image and passage from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4806447/Italy-to-build-the-worlds-largest-suspension-bridge-between-Calabria-and-Sicily.html

posted by midori mizu

small projects - Kevin Mark Low

small projects conceptualizes, designs and builds things. Primarily architecture, though there are many side orders to its concerns.

smallprojects concerns itself with relevant design, architectural economy and spatial technology as related to specific context. In principle, smallprojects is singular: the architecture of garden houses are its focus. In application, it is plural: planning, project identity, building and product design and the space which can neither be called landscape nor architecture but sits somewhere in between are its concerns and passions. With each work it undertakes, big or small, it is less insterested in what makes things different and more concerned with what all things share. small projects refer less to the size of things than to the intimate relationships which bind them. (to find out more..)

passage from: http://www.small-projects.com/

posted by afterrabbit

Starchitecture Under Siege: The Top Ten Recent Disasters

Fire - Cause for half of the 10 recent disasters in buildings...

Disaster: Fire ignited by illegal fireworks from CCTV employees working next door during Chinese New Year celebrations.


Disaster: Fire, cause unknown.

Disaster: Fire three years after construction

Disaster: Fire ignited by roofer's torch in 2006.

Disaster: Fire ignited by scrap workers' blow-torching of an old boiler in the basement, after apparently not hearing about the OTHER Adler and Sullivan building in Chicago that had been destroyed by blow torch fire earlier that year (2006).

All these buildings catching fire have gotten us thinking about the vulnerabilities of new construction. Without active sprinkler systems—and with spontaneously combustible hazards lying around—it doesn't take much to do a number on these buildings. But starchitecture is different! It takes more than just some rags and cleaning fluid to ruin the world's man-made wonders. It takes forces of nature! Wind! Rain! Uh...negligence! Fireworks!
(to find out more..)

images and passage from:
http://curbed.com/archives/2009/02/17/starchitecture_under_siege_the_top_ten_recent_disasters.php

posted by midori mizu

Mies van der Rohe Award 2009 Shortlist

Multimodal Centre – Nice Tramway, Nice (France) by Marc Barani / Atelier Marc Barani

Zenith Music Hall, Strasbourg (France) by Massimiliano Fuksas, Doriana Fuksas / Massimiliano Fuksas Architecture

University Luigi Bocconi, Milan (Italy) by Shelley McNamara, Yvonne Farrell / Grafton Architects

The Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Oslo (Norway) by Kjetil Træaedal Thorsen, tarald Lundevall, Craig Dykers / Snøhetta

Library, Senior Citizens’ Centre and City Block Core Zone, Sant Antoni’s District, Barcelona (Spain) by Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, Ramon Vilalta / RCR Aranda Pigem Vilalta Arquitectes
(to find out more..)

images & passage from:
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/02/11/mies-van-der-rohe-award-2009-shortlist/

posted by midori mizu

TVCC, Beijing - On FIRE

(pic by jo's friend, in Beijing)

TVCC, which forms an important part of the new CCTV Headquarters complex in Beijing CBD area, caught fire at night, 9th February. The building consists of a hotel, conference facilities, cultural center etc.

At the time this posted is written, the fire has just gone off..
It didn't fall, one good news...

And thanks to jo's friend in Beijing, who has informed us with his first-hand informations on the accident (from afar).

posted by afterrabbit