February 9, 2016
China’s Ghost Cities: For the past three decades, the Chinese government has been building new, pristine cities in an effort to urbanize the country. But, most of these cities sit empty, as many citizens are hesitant to leave their rural environments, or simply can’t afford the new areas. Many of these cities also lack the jobs and commerce needed to draw residents, and only one city, Kangbashi, has had minor success after the government rearranged its bureaucratic buildings and schools. “Unborn Cities” by Chicago photographer Kai Caemmerer documents these eerily quiet metropolises. [Wired]
Bjarke Ingels Group
BIG at the Hudson Yards In the future you can get off the top of the High Line at BIG’s Spiral, a 2.85 million-square-foot, 1,005-foot-tall tower that will feature a cascading series of landscaped terraces and hanging gardens. [ARCHITECT]
Bob O’Connor
Don’t Mess With ARO Building on the success of Knoll’s New York City and San Francisco showrooms, Architecture Research Office designed a new showroom and offices for the headquarters of Knoll’s southern U.S. sales division in Houston, Texas. [ARCHITECT]
Hufton+Crowe
Entry plaza with view of bus parking
New Dutch Master The linchpin of a 79,500-square-meter master plan for public infrastructure in Arnhem, Netherlands, the new central station for the city began in 1998, two years after UNStudio secured the commission for the larger scheme. [ARCHITECT]
2016 M Pavilion The Naomi Milgrom Foundation, a Melbourne, Australia–based nonprofit that supports public architecture and design projects, has selected architect Bijoy Jain, founder of India’s Studio Mumbai to design the third-annual MPavilion at the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne. The announcement follows the closing on Feb. 7 of AL_A’s 2015 MPavilion’s four-month run. [ARCHITECT]
Awards and Competitions
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is now accepting submissions to its fourth Wheelwright Prize, an open, international competition for early-career architects that supports travel-based research. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 15, 2016. Read more about the Wheelwright Prize.
The Architectural League has announced a call for entries for its Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers, focused this year around the theme of (im)permanence and time as a defining characteristic of architecture. Entries are due Feb. 17, 2016.
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge recognizes initiatives that take a comprehensive and anticipatory design approach to advance human well-being and the health of the planet’s ecosystem. The Buckminster Fuller Institute awards one $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a design solution that addresses complex global problems. The application window will open on Jan. 15 and entries are due by March 1.
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