Moby: Dancing About Architecture

It’s the perfect time to talk to the DJ about structures: in a week in which Moby has released new album Innocents, he is currently in the middle of a residency at LA’s 1920s Fonda Theater, a venue featured on his Los Angeles architecture blog. London-based artist Simpson has imbued today's pictures with a sense of each corresponding track, adding a mysterious figure to add scale and a narrative.

Tour the stunning "The Fish Church" in Stamford as part of the Docomomo US Tour Day

Docomomo US will begin its 7th annual national Tour Day program at the First Presbyterian Church on Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Stamford, Connecticut. The Docomomo Tour brings together architects, designers, historians, enthusiasts, and organizations for exclusive tours and related events devoted to the appreciation of US modern architecture and mid-20th century design. Tomorrow's event at the First Presbyterian Church is the first of more than 50 Tour Days in 23 states throughout October. Built by architect Wallace K. Harrison, the First Presbyterian Church of Stamford is also known as The Fish Church because of its fish-like shape. The Fish Church is -- excuse the pun -- quite a gem with its interior that is bathed in a sapphire light and made of 20,000 pieces of dalle de verre glass in 86 hues. At the altar stands a Visser-Rowland (Opus 87) organ. The instrument is a 4-manual, 51-stop, 74-rank organ with 4,026 pipes, 244 keys on 4 keyboards and 32 pedals. The chur...

Photos of Bucharest's past

Andrei Pandele is emphatic: "The Palace? Ha! It is a wall in the way of the people. A dam, even...I was an architect...I could find plans [and] approximate what they would destroy. Not exactly, no-one knew that. They were wild, totally out of control." Tessa Dunlop traveled to Bucharest, Romania and talked with Andrei Pandele, who as a young architect in the 1970s, began photographing his home country.

Ten Firms Shortlisted for the Final Stage of Moscow’s New NCCA

The Jury announced the list of participants of the second stage. During the press conference on October 1, 2013 competition Jury announced the names of 10 participants of the second phase of the International competition for the architectural concept of museum and exhibition complex of the New National centre for contemporary arts. The international competition to design the New National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Moscow was held in two stages and its now entering its final phase with ten offices selected to make a final concept proposal for the design of the biggest institution of contemporary art in Russia. Five offices were selected through a “preliminary concept” proposal while five firms were shortlisted through their “dossiers”. The ten architectural firms are: UNK Project (Russia) WAI Architecture Think Tank (China) Anton Barklyanski (Russia) Melorama (Russia) Ghirardelli Giancarlo Architect (Italy) Steven Holl Architects (USA) Nieto Sobejano (Spain) Heneghan Peng (Ireland) 51N4E (Belgium) Alejandro Aravena (Chile) The international jury of curators, museum and art institution directors, and architects included Maria Baibakova (Director and Chief Curator, BAIBAKOV art projects, Russia); Bart de Baere (Director, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (MuH...

Get Lectured: Yale Fall '13

Here on Archinect we recently launched "Get Lectured", where we'll feature a school's lecture series--along with their snazzy posters--for the current season. Check back regularly to stay up-to-date and mark your calendars for any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss. Our first poster of the week comes from the Yale School of Architecture, specially designed by Pentagram, Michael Bierut, and Jessica Svendsen. (It's hard to not get hypnotized by that typography, no?) Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

World Architecture Festival 2013 Award Winners

The winners have been revealed for the World Architecture Festival 2013 in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. [...] Winners were selected in the categories Completed Buildings, Landscape Projects, and Future Projects — with sub-categories in each one. As for World Building of the Year, the Auckland Art Gallery by Australian architect FJMT took the overall winning title.

MIT develops self-assembling modular robots

Known as M-Blocks, the robots are cubes with no external moving parts. Nonetheless, they’re able to climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and even move while suspended upside down from metallic surfaces [...] As with any modular-robot system, the hope is that the modules can be miniaturized: the ultimate aim of most such research is hordes of swarming microbots that can self-assemble, like the “liquid steel” androids in the movie “Terminator II.” MIT, you've done it again. And again. A team at CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, has developed M-Blocks -- robotic cubes that can self-assemble into practically any configuration, through a system of carefully aligned magnets and flywheels. Even at their current scale (about the size of an apricot), the M-Blocks could be used to "fill-in" damaged bridges or buildings in an emergency, or serve as adaptive support systems in construction. But the smaller the blocks can be built, the more versatile their application -- and the more subtle their shapes. Think of a semi-liquid material that can be poured onto the floor and then spring into the shape of a chair, in whatever design you prefer. The modules could also be outfitted with individual components, like cameras or thermometers, to perform a specific function in the horde.