The Little Mermaid

I was wandering through the Vola website (great plumbing fixtures, if you're not familiar) and came across their inspirations section... They've got images of projects in which their products were used, including the Danish Pavilion by BIG Architecture for the Shanghai Expo.

The images are a lot of fun... they almost make me forgive the fact that the whole building is centered on the little mermaid.

3X Vector Architects

Apartment 3e

Momentary City

7 Boxes Offices

Three great projects by Beijing office Vector Architects. Just lovely.

How Embarrassing

So, the World Expo 2010 is taking place in Shanghai, and many of the world's best architects have contributed designs. Many countries have hired the best architects found in their own country, while others have ventured out beyond their borders... but most designs have something in common... trying to articulate the priorities and passions of their home country, exuding confidence and creativity. Of course, I say most because the US is one glaring exception. What does our pavilion say about us? We could be locate along any highway in any suburb. We value conformity and corporate culture (which we can directly link to many of the problems plaguing our nation). We don't really have any place for innovation or creativity and we certainly don't value our architects, which is why we hired a Canadian to design a metal panelled representation of an eagle (there is that lack of creativity and ingenuity again).

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Very Frustrating. An expo is not an office park.

US
UK

Spain

South Korea

Portugal

Denmark

Switzerland

Russia

Japan

Poland

Finland

Canada

Whoa

A fire at Rem Koolhaas' CCTV Building

see here

edit: according to these photos that I just found... the fire doesn't appear to be at THE cctv building, but rather the adjacent tower (also by OMA)

Athletes, bring your inhalers

There has been a lot of discussion about the air conditions at the Beijing Olympics this summer... While the area is still undergoing a lot of construction, and therefore the air is filled with dust, this photograph has got to make both athletes and environmentalists anxious.

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Via 765

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Branch Shelf / Coat Hook

This isn't totally my style, but I like the combination of shelf and coat rack by Wok.
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Via the style files
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Surprised

The images for OMA's CCTV tower in Beijing have been out for so long (and are fairly realistic), that I sometime forget that the building is still under construction. Needless to say, when I stumbled on this image of the current state of construction at BBC's Day in Pictures, I was pretty surprised! Somehow I thought the project was much further along!

Expo 2010

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 is getting closer all the time... The UK has been working towards selecting a design and has narrowed the field to 6 architectural teams, including Marks Barfield Architects' shown above. I find this design (out of the bunch) particularly intriguing, even though I must admit that this image looks more like a collection of make-up jars than a collection of buildings.

I can't wait to see the winner when announced on September 21...

Via ExpoMuseum

Olympic Construction

As I mentioned before, like a lot of people I am very excited to watch the construction of the water cube by PTW in Beijing. I only wish that I could attend the Olympics and see the completed structure in person, and I'm completely jealous of anyone who will be there! Its especially interesting to see the intricate structure supporting the ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) pillows that create the water effect.

[Be sure to check out the view of H&dM's birdnest stadium in the background.]

The above photos of the construction are from a variety of sources including 1.618, Flickr, Chris Bosse, David Teoh, and The Wall Street Journal.

Haven't Seen This Before

The Beijing Planetarium by Amphibian Arc is a slightly older project... but when my boss sent me these pictures, it was the first time I had seen it. The glazing system is really interesting, as the architects/contractors were forced to work out a system in which the glass and mullions could be produced concurrently, rather than building the frames first with the glass following (as is typical). This was especially tricky as the project involved working out the details of these deformed, weathertight, and double glazed glass panels well in advance of the actual start of construction and due to the deformities, there were many details to work out. Clearly, the effort was well worth it... as this project has become yet another spectacular addition to Beijing (and has been recognized as such by Architectural Record, Architektura & Biznes, USA China Press, and Art Magazine).