Where to go and what to see in Beijing: Personal suggestions for architects from people shaping the city and members of our staff. Robert Bernell Owner, Timezone 8 Photo courtesy Timezone 8 Robert, Owner of Timezone 8 Robert Bernell owns the café and bookstore Timezone8, located in Beijing’s art hub, Factory 798. Bernell describes his enterprise as the “best café in Beijing,” noting its thousands of art and design books and a large array of magazines, as well as fair-trade, organic coffees. The bookstore is located across from the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, which Bernell recommends for its collection
Where to go and what to see in Beijing: Personal suggestions for architects from people shaping the city and members of our staff. Clifford Pearson Deputy Editor, Architectural Record Photo courtesy Architectural Record Clifford Pearson, Deputy Editor, Architectural Record and Editor-In-Charge of Architectural Record’s China Edition While in Beijing, Clifford Pearson, deputy editor at Architectural Record and editor-in-charge of our tri-annual China publication, suggests strolling through Beihai Park. On clear days, the park offers wonderful views of the Forbidden City and an opportunity to watch Beijing’s older generations practicing their calligraphy—using brushes dipped in water—directly on the pavement. It illustrates
Last year marked both the 10th anniversary of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the 30th of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers’s Georges Pompidou Center—the two most influential cultural buildings of our time.
Checking out the goodies Okay. Enough of this self-righteous rant. What about the architecture? There is some marvelous work. Herzog & de Meuron’s Prada is striking at the scale of the cityscape, jutting appealingly just above its roofline context. The diamond-gridded structural wall, with its mix of bubbled and flush glass panels, is a lovely thing, and the interior is luminous and dramatic. Circulation is suave, carpet is white, clerks are impeccable in gray. At Tod’s down the row, Ito claims inspiration from the angularity of the branches of the trees out front and creates a facade of big, irregular
This Firm Award winner's long-range plan led to a successful research-based culture James Timberlake, FAIA, has often described his firm, KieranTimberlake Associates (KTA), as a tortoise. “We’ve not done things fast,” he says. And although it is almost 25 years old, until the past six or seven years, the firm did its work “in relative obscurity.” Timberlake’s partner, Stephen Kieran, FAIA, agrees. “One of the things about being located in Philadelphia is that you can work there for a long time and never get noticed.” But, he says, it was during those early years they developed the culture that made
So much depends on the perception of a post-petroleum future, a single tree, melting ice caps, Al Gore’s waistline, innovations in alternative energies, and C.E.O.s who convince their boards to go green or, at least, adopt the rhetoric of green.