To the Ramparts
Viñoly's massive Battersea development got the approval of the British architecture office this week. (Courtesy World Architecture News)
With all the notice being paid to the new U.S. embassy this week, an even bigger (physically if not psychically) project just next door was overshadowed as it won a key approval yesterday. Rafael Viñoly’s massive Battersea development, which will turn the iconic Battersea Power Station and 40 surrounding acres (once on the cover of a Pink Floyd album) into a huge mixed-use community, won approval from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. According to our colleagues at BD, the CABE found the 5.5 billion pound project to be “intelligent and well-resolved.” Read More
Take a Whiff of This!
Nose-drunks gather outside of Alcoholic Architecture for a little inhalation intoxication. (Courtesy aroundbritainwithapaunch.blogspot.com)
But please, only in moderation. Inhaling too deeply at a new London bar may leave you, well….drunk. 2 Ganton Street, once an unused storefront, has reopened as a self-contained, walk-in gin and tonic. Imbibers at Alcoholic Architecture simply slip into provided plastic jumpsuits, breathe, and enjoy the buzz. The creators of the bar, Bompas and Parr, have effectively revolutionized the bar experience by removing the traditional, and oh so painstakingly boring, order and sip protocol.
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He Sure Knew How To Say Goodbye
The final work by Future Systems founder Jan Kaplicky is a concert hall in his home country of the Czech Republic. (Courtesy AJ)
When Jan Kaplicky passed away last week, we couldn’t help but think that there was some odd symmetry to what it seemed would be his final work, an Oscar Mayer-inspired London Routemaster. After all, it was to England that Kaplicky fled when he left Communist Czechoslavakia, and he practice there all his life. But AJ reports today that Kaplicky’s real, final, realized work, will be in his nation of origin. Read More
Bus Stopped
Future Systems' proposal for the new London Routemaster Double Decker Bus was quite the departure. (Courtesy BD)
Architects don’t have a great track record designing vehicles that make it to the marketplace. LeCorbusier, Gropius, Zaha, and, of course, Buckminster Fuller have all tried “streamlining” their buildings and putting wheels on them but their efforts never made it past the prototype stage. Now you can add Future Systems to the list of those who have tried and failed. Read More
London Sees Red
Lord Foster's Bus.
Two blue chippers Aston Martin and Foster + Partners raked in a not-much-needed $38,000 (£25,000) and a first-prize award along with Capoco Design for re-jiggering London’s famous double decker bus, the Routemaster. Read More
California to New York to London and Back
courtesy Monacelli Press
In a rare east/west AN meet-up, our California editor, Sam Lubell, was in New York last night for a launch for his new book London 2000+. The book, from the Monacelli Press, surveys recent architecture in the British capital, from well-known works like Foster + Partner’s “Gherkin” to the Gazzano House by Amin Taha Architects. Read More
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