Notable High Buildings of the World, 1896

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

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Excavations Add 6000 Years To Istanbul

Historians had believed modern-day Istanbul was first settled around 700 BC.
However, a grave that has been recently discovered at the site of a rail project instantaneously added 6000 years to Istanbul’s history.
“We found the grave, pots and other artifacts. There were signs of houses made of tree-branches and next to the settlement was a swamp [...]

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Aditya Prakash: The Indian Modernist

On August 12, 2008 city of Chandigarh (India) lost an eminent architect, designer, painter, a theater enthusiast, academician, Le Corbusier’s associate. He was Ar. Aditya Prakash.
News Release- Aditya Prakash, Indian Modernist
He was on his way to Mumbai for staging the play Life Never Retires, created by G.S. Channi, in which he played the central [...]

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Pashkov House: Moscow’s Jewel Now Restored

Paskov House one of architectural jewels of Russia was under restoration for 19 years, was closed down due to its dilapidated state. Pashkov House is named after its first owner Petr Yegorovich Pashkov, the lieutenant commander of the Life Guards of Semenovsky Regiment and the son of Peter the Great’s batman.
Designed by Vasily Bazhenov (1737-1799), [...]

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Antilla Stands High As World’s First Billion Dollar Home

To everyone’s surprise, price tagged at $ 2 Billion, Antilla (named after the mythical island) is in India and is world’s first billion dollar home. Indeed, like its name, it houses stuff that surrounds myth!
Owner is India’s richest, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance fame whose net worth was 43 Billion in March of this year and [...]

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Neutra’s VDL Threatened With Closure

Seventy-five years ago, in Los Angeles, with a no-interest loan from Dutch philanthropist Dr CH Van Der Leeuw, Viennese-American architect Richard Neutra, rightly called ’second only to Frank Lloyd Wright’, built a radical “glass house” with rooftop and balcony gardens on Silverlake Boulevard.

This is the place where Neutra had designed hundreds of projects over [...]

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Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture

The idea of designers and architects working together is nothing new, from the Tokyo store collaboration between Prada and Rem Koolhaas to Hussein Chalayan’s techno virtuosity in morphing dresses into chairs.

We all live in buildings and wear clothes. Traditionally, fashion and architecture have remained quite distinct. However, since 1980s the two disciplines have become closer [...]

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Death Defying Architecture: A Reality?

Architects Arakawa and Madeline Gins believe that you have a right not to die. Reversible destiny comes as part of their services to you as an architect and designers.
“We believe we can help extend your lives,” architects’ claim.
They recently completed a house (not for mortals) in East Hamoton, New York. The house is called Bioscleave [...]

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Who Loves Architecture?

I have never heard of a profession being related to a particular community or country. Never heard, “Oh, this country produces maximum architects,” or “Architects of this country are the best,” or “This is a country of Architects”, or even “This country loves her Architects.”
Though I have heard about particular communities or countries becoming famous [...]

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At $3 Billion GM Building is Most Valuable in the World

$3 billion-one, $3 billion-two, and $3 billion- its is. A building to sell for $3 billion does sound insane but this insanity is nearing to become a reality. Larry Silverstein, developer of ground zero, has bid $3 billion for General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue, in the Manhattan District in New York.
Indeed, with [...]

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Johnson is In- Gehry is Out; Jon Jerde is In- Gehry is Out

This week in news we find two of Frank Gehry’s projects declared obsolete- Winton Guest House in Minnesota, and Santa Monica Place mall in Santa Monica.
In early 2007, the University of California, Irvine, razed one of his buildings—a computer science center—to make way for a new engineering complex, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported at the [...]

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Gloom to Doom

Recession is the word nobody wishes to hear. But here it is. Economy has to go full cycle- it now has to heal itself after leaps of growth. Panic will spread. Will architects’ world feel the tremors of the recession that is going to brace the country in 2008?
Ned Cramer, editor-in-chief of ARCHITECT and ARCHITECTURAL [...]

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