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Eileen House, a 47 floor tall residential tower designed by Allies and Morrison Architects, is in the making: in fact, a planning application for it has just been filed in.

The tower will consist of 369 apartments, plus some office space on the first two floors. At 137 metres above sea level, it will be one of the tallest building planned in the Elephant & Castle area, 13 metres shorter than the Strata tower which is currently under construction.

According to Oakmayne Properties, completion is due in 2011.

(*) yes, I know, pretty lame title…

The age of the architectural icon—that extravagant, exuberant, “wow”-inducing building on a pedestal—is dead, or more precisely, in its death throes. And what will replace it? President Barack Obama, who once dreamed of being an architect, had something to say about that Tuesday in his inaugural address: the age of infrastructure.

– Blair Kamin, The Skyline, Chicagotribune.com

I didn’t know Barack Obama wanted to become an architect — but that’s good news, as most probably, even if he didn’t become one, he’s still passionate about architecture, and we all need that.

We need sustainability and usability too, in architecture — and most starchitects tend to forget that. They maybe keep an eye on the sustainability front, but as for usability, they’re not that fussed. They prefer “the iconic sign” over anthropometry and utilitas. An icon that most of the time could’ve been built anywhere, a monument to their designing genius and nothing more.

I’m not saying they didn’t create architecture, they did, but their architecture is rarely thought of as such in the first place: it’s thought of as something that has to leave people gobsmacked looking at it.

They’re amazing buildings to look at, but, as for myself, I’d never want to live nor work in them, I wouldn’t feel comfortable.

Maybe it’s time we get back to a kind of design thought for people, not just to show how cool the designer is.

We were just talking about how this project looks like a shoe at work the other day – and about how we thought that ridiculousness by starchitects was supposed to cool-off [at least a little] now because of the current world economy. Guess Zaha didn’t get the memo.

ArchitectureMNP, Ninja Arithmetics:  this week sharing thoughts on Zaha Hadid’s Port House Antwerp.

Sliding House in East Anglia is a house with mobile walls and roof designed by London-based architects dRMM:

(pics via Dezeen)

The house features a 28 metres long “shed” element which slides on rails (it’s of course motorised — powered by electric motors hidden into the wall — as it weighs about 50 tons!) over three static elements — the main house, the “guest annexe” and a greenhouse.

When I saw that, it instantly reminded me of a project for a chapel in La Calera, Colombia, by Daniel Bonilla, called  Porciuncola de la milagrosa — which equally has sliding walls that allow the building to adapt to needs:

(pics via Daniel Bonilla’s website)

The chapel in La Calera has a basic geometry that tries to alter the territory as little as possible. It uses the natural features of the environment, the wind and the light, to create an essential harmony. The chapel is designed to open to the outside to allow worshipers to gather in mass…

Speaking of sliding, architect Gary Chang transformed his flat in Hong Kong into a luxury, way, way cooler version of the “multilocale” that Renato Pozzetto was renting in the movie “Il ragazzo di campagna” — what with movable walls, disappearing features et al:

(pics via NYTimes)

[photos: Moreno Maggi/Archivio Fuksas via AT Casa]

British-based Czech architect Jan Kaplický, founder of Future Systems, died yesterday in Prague, suffering a fatal heart attack just a few hours after the birth of his daughter, Johanka.

Future Systems: Selfridges Building, The Bull Ring, Birmingham, UK

Future Systems: Media Centre, Lord’s Cricket Ground, London, UK
[photo by askbal]

Almost there…:

[photo by Stefania Pilla -  used with permission]

This is how it was in August 2008.

More pics on its dedicate group on Flickr.

The Vatican has cut its carbon dioxide emissions: in fact, on the roof of “Sala Nervi” (aka “Aula Paolo VI”), right next to the Basilica, 2400 photovoltaic panels have been recently installed. This will help save about 80 tons of oil per year.

[images: REUTERS/Tony Gentile]

The wave-shaped hall, which is one of the Vatican’s newest buildings, was built in 1971 on a design by Pierluigi Nervi. The panels will cover the energy needs of the hall, which is the place where the pope holds public audiences.

The panels are not visible from ground level, so that the skyline of St. Peter’s basilica an its surroundings is basically left untouched.

I don’t really have a clue of how people living outside Italy see this country from theirs — I can read foreign newspapers to get a general gist, but I don’t get the complete view as I’m still living here.

Chist’ è ‘o paese d’ ‘o sole, this is the land of the sun (not the tabloid, though.) — when it doesn’t pour with rain or hail, that is — so it’s reasonable to expect we take advantage of that and turn it into electricity and heat for our houses.

That would be DUMB not to do so.

But converting a traditional home power and heating system into a PV system or biomass system or whatever it is you want to convert them into has a cost that families wouldn’t be able to afford without the help of government, so the government promised to give back to them about 55% of Irpef and Ires (they’re income taxes) on what they spent to convert their homes into miniature renewable energy plants.

Bargain!

LIE!

That was a bluff: they’re not refunding everybody, only 1 family every 9 (one every nine).

So now most families find themselves indebted for thousands of euros because they were promised one thing and they’re getting another — they’re getting NOTHING, in this specific case.

That’s oh so funny. Not.