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Tag: WorldFamous

  • UP for Auction: Bids Fail to Save World-Famous Holdout House

    [ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

    fdamous up house

    In the esoteric realm of ‘nail houses’ – properties whose owners refuse to sell them to developers at any cost – Edith Macefield‘s may be the most well-known, but her century-old home now appears doomed to face a wrecking ball.

    macefield up house

    An auction for the property was just completed but no buyers were found – anyone purchasing the house would also have had to adopt its existing $ 500,000 mortgage, which, despite its fame, was not enough to attract either curious collectors or real estate developers.

    Macefield herself turned down an offer for $ 1,000,000 from developers trying to buy up the land for a commercial complex, hence the construction of a giant concrete wall on three sides as their project went ahead without this last little lot.

    edith macefield home construction

    In a strange but heartwarming twist: before she passed away in 2008, Macefield befriended the superintendent of the surrounding commercial development. Apparently she ultimately enjoyed the attention and company brought by the development.

    up house in context

    As Macefield aged, this superintendent began taking her to appointments and purchasing her groceries and their friendship grew. In the end, she willed him the property – in an attempt to respect the gift, he then tried to make it work as an office or restaurant.

    At this point, the house has been boarded up for some time now and the failed sale leaves few possibilities outside of its destruction. It has no historic preservation status, for instance, that might further delay its demolition.

    up house movie story

    Some fans hoped Pixar Animation Studios, producers of ‘UP’, would buy the house for publicity purposes and spare it the wrecking ball, but there has been no news on that front.

    nail house boarded up

    Though there are many holdout homes around the world, hers has become a symbol of resistance – her defiance a story that will certainly outlive the structure itself, whatever its fate.

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    Holdout Houses: 10 Stubborn Structures That Won’t Make Way

    Despite the emergence of highways, shopping malls, frighteningly deep pits and even moats around them, the tenacious owners of these older structures refused …
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    Nail House: Holdout Building Had Highway Built Around It

    China is full of strange stories of so-called ‘nail houses’ – homes of people who refuse to move to make way for a large development project.
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    Hydraulic Lift to Save House on Stilts from Future Flooding

    A Modernist classic, the famous Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe was originally built with a raised platform but that has not managed to save it from …
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    [ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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  • Unconstructed: 25 Visionary Works by World-Famous Architects

    [ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

    unbuilt architecture

    Some were conceived of as storytelling devices or futuristic concepts, while others were intended for actual construction before the plans were scrapped, but each of these buildings tells a unique story about a time, a place and an architect.

    frank lloyd wright unbuilt plan

    Compiled by Rubberbond, a UK construction company that has seen more than a few ambitious projects get cancelled, this inforgraphic contains works by abstract visionaries like Buckminster Fuller and contemporary practitioners including Jean Nouvel.

    famous mies skyscraper prototype

    One skyscraper concept in particular, by Modernist minimalist like Mies van der Rohe, portended a huge shift in direction – futuristic at the time, it became the basis for an entire system of building construction in the century that followed. Gaudi, Wright and Foster are also on the list of similar influencers – often, the virtues of their built works generated interest in their unfinished projects, too.

    hyperbulilding by oma

    Still other works, like the hyperbuilding concept by OMA, were never intended to be built but were instead created to test a hypothesis or explore an idea – in this case: the self-contained city.

    famous unbuilt architect buildings

    “Unbuilt buildings represent the forgotten dreams of architects; projects that could have defined a community’s identity. At best the drawings and blueprints will now be displayed in museums, though that’s small consolation to the architects who stayed up late at night scribbling, while envisaging a skyline that would proudly display their signature style.”

    …

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  • Blacking Out BLU: World-Famous Berlin Mural Erased in Protest

    [ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

    blu middle finger black

    A huge multi-building work of art has been painted over in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, reportedly at the behest of the artist BLU himself as a reaction to the clearing of an adjacent tent city and plans to build condos next to (and with views of) the mural.
    blu-black-alternating

    In the course of painting the walls black, a hand was temporarily left in place with its middle finger up (as shown in the first image above) – this aggressive gesture can be interpreted as a broader commentary about gentrification in the neighborhood or a specific reaction to the residential project next door.

    As with any controversial act, this whitewashing (or black-washing as it were) has drawn both praise and criticism. On the one hand, it can be viewed as an attempt to fight development and change, but it also represents the destruction of an iconic work and arguably an act of egotistical self-sabotage.

    The mural itself was originally created in 2008, with part of its progress captured in the timelapse video above. It was, from the start, a commentary on economic and social justice as well as gentrification – now it is again, perhaps, but in a different way.

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    Art of Absence: Brick Street Mural Made of Unpainted Void

    White wall frames cracked red bricks shaped like rust-colored autumn leaves, all trailing down to a black silhouette of a painter and his bucket – but …
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    Ghosts of the Berlin Wall: 8,000 Glowing Orbs Span 10 Miles

    For the 25th anniversary of its fall, this Berlin Wall installation project will illuminate the historical divide between East and West, temporarily recreating …
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    Making Faces: Huge Military Warehouse Mural Spans 48 Windows

    Covering two sides of a three-story building in Rome, this ground-to-roof artwork is massive, even by the standards of a big-thinking street artist like BLU …
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  • Sneak Peak: Inside the Homes of 8 World-Famous Architects

    [ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

    inside famous architects homes

    Where Architects Live, a special exhibit scheduled for Milan Design Week 2014, features a rare glimpse into the residences of leading designers including Shigeru Ban, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind,  Mario Bellini, David chipperfield, Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, Marcio Kogan, and Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai.

    famous frank gehry home

    Seeing what architects do to their own domiciles can provide a unique window into their work as well – for some designers, their own spaces become places of experimentation and discovery. These homes are where they have full artistic liberty – the only time they are their own clients. In some cases, like Frank Gehry’s wild residential remodel in Santa Monica (shown above), these projects can even be professionally pivotal – turning points for entire careers.

    shigeru ban home japan

    shigeru ban house interior

    Famous for his light-touch, site-specific architecture of paper and cardboard, there is a contextual delicacy to Ban’s forest home in Japan. It is bright and open, and was designed specifically to avoid the need to cut down trees already on the property.

    hadid house drawings models

    hadid house abstract art

    The abstract art and physical curves found in the home of Hadid should come as no surprise to those familiar with her work, which is also prominently on display in drawings and models around the house.

    libeskind art materials closeup

    liebeskind living room space

    The home of Libeskind features an eclectic mix of furniture and objects, from conventional modern chairs art materials – nothing so aggressively angular as his typical architectural projects, but perhaps suggestive hints to be found in the relationship of chaos and order.

    bellini bookcase scaffolding scene

    bellini house interior piano

    Bellini loves books, and it shows in the incredible multi-story scaffolding he has built in order to be able to climb up and interact with his huge personal library.

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    Sneak Peak Inside The Homes Of 8 World Famous Architects

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    One-of-a-Kind Dollhouses Designed by 20 Famous Architects

    Some of the world’s best and brightest architects and designers, including Zaha Hadid, have come together to create a series of unique custom dollhouses …
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    Fallen Starchitects: 7 Failures of Famous Architects

    Even the world’s most famous and celebrated architects have their failures, whether due to unforeseen consequences of an extraordinarily complex design …
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    The ABC of Architects: 26 Famous Buildings in 100 Seconds

    26 architectural greats from the last 100 years have their works come to life in less than two minutes as animated iconic buildings in this well-worth-watching …
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