1. The 8th June “issue” of the NYT Mag was quite splendid, and free of course. It gathered Nicolai Ouroussoff (architecture critic of NYT) and others to pitch in for its Architecture Issue: an interview with Bernard Tschumi, discussion about film sets’ cities and LOT-EK, there’s something for everyone. But it is through this issue where we learn about Ouroussoff’s story behind One-North, and Front Inc.‘s “exuberantly baroque” winning scheme for a new LV store in Singapore featuring a curtain wall of completely curved glass.
“[..] Several years ago, the London-based, Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid received a phone call from a Chinese developer asking if she might be interested in designing a 500-acre urban development on the outskirts of Singapore. [..] With more than 20 blocks now complete, parts of the city look surprisingly conventional.”
2. The Lifestyle-Elephant & Coral Creative Writing Contest yielded its final winner, Perry Ho, whose endearing entry captured a side of architecture that was startlingly rare and refreshing. “The Apartment” is an anthropomorphic representation of the Apartment, with soul and many canny references to our built reality. Allegorical and definitely worth reading! Here I reproduce it in its entirety.
“Other buildings envied her Shiseido #119 ceiling. The Jesus she hung at the door (of her heart) gave her strength. Jade bangles around her ankles trapped the essence of her youth. You could hear them holding on for dear life whenever she got up and ran, ran with the other Apartments and Factories into the night. No one knew where she went, returning only when her ankles ached to keep up the night’s display of high spirits. Come morning, some proud Apartment would be seen wearing a night’s old #119.
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