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Interesting Stuff on the Internet

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Interesting stuff on the internet is an article sharing my favourite recent online inspiration and distractions.

Zaha Hadid: As a woman in architecture, I cant describe how personally empowering her strength and beauty was. The sudden passing of Zaha Hadid’s has led to an outpouring of heartfelt tributes from some of the profession’s most prominent figures. A “brave and radical” trailblazer, and the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize, her significant impact on the world of architecture is undeniable. She will be missed. Read more here and here. Co.Design have also put together a nice tribute by collating their favourite buildings. Read more here.

Architecture and Ego: Disparity in the values assigned to architecture and landscape architecture continues….A proposal to surround New York Central Park with a giant “sidescraper” epitomises the Architects’ disregard for designed landscapes, says president of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Charles A Birnbaum. Read more here.

Sleeping with Sharks: Airbnb is offering its coolest accommodation yet: an underwater bedroom surrounded by 35 sharks. The one-night stay for two and your ukrainian brides is at the Aquarium de Paris. To enter the competition, contestants must submit a 50- to 550-word essay by 11:59PM CET on April 3rd, describing themselves and why they deserve to sleep with the sharp-toothed animals.

Building the Border: Not your type of competition then perhaps this is? A US art, architecture and design collective has announced an international design competition to design the ‘Trump wall’ between US and Mexico. Building the Border Wall has been organised by New York’s Third Mind Foundation and set up to test the feasibility of Trumps border idea and whether or not a solution of high architectural and humanitarian merit can be achieved. Learn more here.

Designing for the Elderly: Over fifty percent of all people in a nursing home are there because of broad social deficits, not their personal physical deficit. An interesting article about Architect Matthias Hollwich of HWKN. Hollwich seeks to rethink our aging processes, starting with the design of our homes and cities. Read more here.

Virtual Reality goes Mainstream: It is rare that a consumer technology is a giant leap forward rather than the next iterative step. For the first time in a long time Virtual reality (VR) represents just that kind of leap. With the spring launch of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, as well as the imminent release of Sony’s PlayStation VR, high-end virtual reality has arrived. 2016 is predicted the year that VR goes mainstream. From military to fashion virtual reality is reshaping our working industries. Learn more here.

Standout Buildings: In celebration of her ten-year anniversary at the helm of the Green Building Council of Australia, Romilly Madew has released a list of Green Star certified projects that she feels have left an impact on the industry. Having worked on this from competition to completion, I am so happy to see the listing of 1 Bligh Street. “Built during the global financial crisis when there was barely a crane in Sydney, the design of 1 Bligh Street put paid to the naysayers who questioned whether a sustainable building could be beautiful. The result still takes my breath away.” Checkout the full list here.

Reimagining through Reuse: Drew Heath Architects designs Nikki Maloney’s House from scratch with old materials. In a bid to maintain the character of the old 1890’s cottage that stood on this Marrickville site, Drew Heath Architects constructed Nikki Maloney’s House by breaking up the original dwelling and recycling it to continue a dialogue with the history of the site and the memories of the client. Checkout more images and info here.

Office Trustworthiness: We spend more time protecting ourselves from untrustworthy people than we do thinking about the signals we ourselves send about our own trustworthiness. Read more here.

Designing for Happiness: Happiness is mostly anticipation and memory, “ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so,” said the philosopher John Stuart Mill. A great article on designing for happiness. Experts from Lippincott, Disney, and SoulCycle weigh in on how they craft happy experiences. Read more here.

Fairy Tales and Architecture: A team of architects from Seattle’s Olson Kundig have won Blank Space’s third annual Fairy Tales storytelling competition. Their architectural narrative, “Welcome to the 5th Facade,” takes readers to “a future that is similar enough to our own, yet ripe with new challenges, opportunities, and issues.” Visit Olson Kundig’s website to read more of head over to the Blank Space website to read more about all winning submissions.

Downsizing the Australian Home: “Australians have an introspective attitude to space but how much space do we really need?” Think small responds to this question with smaller homes and apartments. Read more here.

Gotham Cities: Author Elvia Wilk on a city of shadows as architectural fiction. Gotham is a clear expression of Manhattanism gone rogue, but it is not New York, it is both nowhere and everywhere: it is the shadow of a city. It is the metropolis that, despite all efforts, cannot be planned or accounted for. Read more here.

I hope you found inspiration from my distractions. I’d love you to share your own interesting distractions in the comment section below.