Waking up with the roosters, reaping and sowing with the family may or may not be the way of the farm and our food supply in the future.

The design of the modern farm will be smaller and interstitial – packed between cities and suburban areas or grown sky high.

Movements on both sides of the aisle are set to make changes to the current way of farming, and make changes for the better for the environment. (more…)

Latest “Blue Sky Studios” feature, “Horton Hears a Who,” transfers Dr. Seuss’ classic onto the up-to-date medium of digital animation — and what was lost and what was gained in the process seems to be the major concern of many film critics. While most agree that the computerized reproduction of Dr. Seuss’ iconic visuals — the big eared Elephant Horton, the jungle vegetation, the town of Whoville and its residents — is faithful to the source, if at times too glossy, (more…)

Renzo Piano descends from a proud line of Italian builders but he diverged from his family’s professional lineage, becoming an architect in the age of machinery. When Piano and his collaborator, English architect Richard Rogers, won an international competition to design the Georges Pomidou Centre in Paris in 1971, they became known for their flamboyantly industrial sensibility. They also forged a connection with the international art establishment. After designing the Pompidou, Piano went on to work on a range of art museums and concert halls in Europe and the United States. (more…)

When one thinks of the future of architecture and design, one is inclined to think about environmentally sustainable woods such as bamboo or recycled building materials. Concrete—a substance as old as the Roman Empire—is hardly the first thing that comes to mind in envisioning the future of the developed world. And yet it is concrete, that ancient, lowly material, that is in fact making waves in future-forward circles.

Why concrete? The answer is nothing short of astounding: multiple firms, (more…)

Walk through the Westin Bonaventure or the Macy’s Plaza in downtown Los Angeles and the reaction to the 1970s urban environment becomes immediately apparent. The buildings are inward-turning, reflexive microcosms which ask for, and provide, no interaction with the larger downtown environment. To walk past architect Charles Luckman’s Macy’s Plaza at 7th Street and Figueroa Street is to confront a fortress of brick and metal, self-contained and outwardly imposing; it is all the worse for being at the intersection of a major mass transit hub, the 7th and Metro Station, where the Red and Blue light rail lines connect. The Westin Bonaventure hotel, designed by John Portman, is somewhat less offensive, but only as a result of its iconic design. At street level, it rises in a single monolithic concrete square, and it is only at a distancethat one can appreciate the soaring concentric circles that have come to be a symbol of downtown Los Angeles. (more…)

Las Vegas—a marketplace for high fashion and cutting-edge architectural design, or one kitschy, tasteless replica of what was once-good fashion after another? True, by the time you’ve stepped inside any of the big name casinos in Las Vegas, Macau, or any other gambling destination, you’ve entered one of the most meticulously designed and fashioned structures in the world, be it walkways that guide you to gambling areas or all of the sights and sounds that have been engineered to make you feel like staying to gamble for a while. It’s got the exuberance, the high paid consultants and a cash flow larger than some small countries, not to mention the live shows, the nightclubs and an insatiable modeling industry. But most of the behemoth structures that typify today’s casinos resist the avant-garde, with designers and entertainers relying heavily upon classic notions of luxury, décor and architectural design. (more…)

Artist James Turrell has spent decades experimenting with light, not just exploring light as an intellectual idea but actually using it as his physical material. Fascinated by celestial spaces and perceptual illusions, Turrell developed “skyspaces,” impressively minimal structures with succinct skylights designed to change the way viewers perceive light. Because of the meditative way in which they channel light, the spaces act as haven-like environments in which people become acutely aware of the sky’s variations.
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The design world is haunted by a ghost shared in many other facets of our society: it whispers in our minds about past wickedness, inspires guilt, and warns us of the present dangers of blind hatred. Discrimination forces many minorities to forgo the innate genius so many have to offer to the art and business worlds, among other venues for their talents. All forms of discrimination and segregation were designed to create and justify tyrannical holds of power by one group of people - just as there is a design in how we sometimes interact with other people [or in other words, manipulate them] for our personal gain. There were very few professional artists and designers in any industry who were not white up until the past two or three decades as a result of racial discrimination. But there were people, such as the infamous Los Angeles architect Paul Revere Williams (who was Black), who overcame these prejudices and discriminations to make huge strides in the arts and design worlds for all other minorities that dared chase a dream.
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On 21st Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Brooklyn-NYC, New York USA, there is a grey building that doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the scene at first glance. Its stucco facade hits your eye differently than the brick apartment buildings and the old church that neighbor it. This building aforementioned is by no means abrasive like the latest, ultramodern additions to the South Slope (the neighborhood formerly known as Greenwood Heights), but it’s calm rectangles and asymmetrically patterned windows tell you that it’s something newer than its neighbors—it is, in fact, one of Brooklyn’s first green buildings. It is an Energy Star-honored building; its bamboo floors, energy-efficient heating system that adjusts with the outside temperature, recycled carpet, and recycled tire roof decking are just a few of this apartment’s green amenities. (more…)

Long before anyone knew what sound waves were and the ways in which they travel through a medium, people knew that buildings shaped a certain way could help enhance or stifle sound. With this knowledge, the ancients built amphitheaters and auditoriums in which their concerts and plays could best be heard by the assembled audiences below. Yet, it is obvious that scientific knowledge of how sound works and the ways in which it moves is now taken into consideration whenever one designs a room or building where it’s important to be listened to. Knowledge that was once developed through trial and error over countless centuries has now been codified and refined as a technical study that is applied, more or less, consistently with the builder’s desired effects. (more…)