44 Blues

Hello. Lots of fun stuff in this week’s issue, so I’ll get right to it. Thank you, Jen, Mateo, Jody, and Hadi, for your significant contributions this week. If anyone else has any, simply reply to this email and send them over.

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The World Around Summit is right around the corner, and this year will be discussing climate change, education, and preservation, as well as their usual highlights of the year's most extraordinary new structures and projects

A new proposal offering Manhattan protection against flooding while also creating new housing suggests expanding the lower part of the island into the harbor

New York definitely doesn’t need a longer Manhattan

In another idea, one entire city block of Manhattan is extracted from the island and shipped elsewhere in the U.S. in exchange for a parcel of land of equivalent dimensions - (I like it.)

The historic Battery Maritime Building, built in Lower Manhattan in 1909, is now a hotel, restaurant, and spa

Central Park Climate Lab launches with a mission to save urban parks

A new documentary follows the massive and ancient trees that sail along the coast of the Black Sea to the private garden of a billionaire

Why are San Jose’s trees disappearing?

The LA Art Show returns this year with a focus on the environment

Architect transforms family house into semi-public, cultural hub in Laos

The Amant Foundation in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is the latest addition to New York’s cultural circuit

Late billionaire’s secretive art museum will finally open to the public in NYC

A new public art installation in New York’s Madison Square Park takes on the thorny issues roiling American classrooms

A drone video showcases the exterior of Heatherwick Studio’s 1,000 Trees in China

A secluded house in Poland is dictated by the dense pine forest that it lives in

An off-grid cabin on a Tasmanian island blends discreetly into the scenery

How the A-frame became the new American Dream

An old barn converted into an art studio opens to views of the landscape

An architect's home in Osaka is both modern and traditional

A concrete house in Tokyo is a light-filled fortress with secret gardens

A brutalist home with midcentury elements unfolds on three different levels in Brazil

An early 20th-century minimal residence combines existing elements with contemporary design techniques

A 1970s family home in Oregon gets a well-deserved renovation

A photographer's home in south-east London is an homage to modernist South American architecture

This architect bought a dilapidated property in Greenwich Village nine years ago and gave it a $2.5M renovation

An outdated property becomes a vintage-inspired family home

An old flat in Barcelona has been refurbished

Airbnb is giving away a year-long stay in Sicily’s village of €1 homes

Lucky artists live rent-free in $6M Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn mansion

North Korea’s 105-floor ‘Hotel of Doom’ has never had a single guest in thirty years (seen below)

An early photo of the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea

The architecture of salvage

In 1930, a team of architects and engineers moved an 11,000-ton telephone exchange building without ever suspending its operations or essential utility services for the 600 employees who worked inside

An ode to duck architecture

New construction is not always the answer

A group of brutalist townhomes brings a bit of relief to a Canadian city’s overheated housing market

Explore Ricardo Bofill’s colorful legacy through some of his seminal projects

How Senegal created a spectacular new African architecture

Inside architecture’s wildest conspiracy theory

Architect re-creates the Syria of his memories through miniatures

Singapore-based startup is selling small futuristic-looking homes that can sleep up to a family of four

What is a geodesic dome, and why should I care?

A brief compendium of modernist homes for movie villains with flawless taste

Two Albert Frey–designed homes open during Modernism Week illustrate the architect’s penchant for simplicity, efficiency, and communing with nature

The first design house designed for the metaverse

How video game architecture is speaking to you

Is the metaverse good for the world?

NY-based artist KAWS has a virtual art show in the metaverse, and a real-life one in London with a touch of augmented reality

Banksy mural 'gifted' to East Anglia town has been sold to private buyer after being removed by the owners

Cryptoland runs aground as $12M bid to buy Fiji island for resort falls through

Crypto group shamed for spending $3M on Dune book, mistakenly believing it had acquired copyright to produce NFTs

Dune concept art book kerfuffle is a case of NFT brain

Some people can't see their expensive NFTs because one of the most popular NFT marketplaces is suffering a database outage

Booming NFT art market plagued by mind-blowing fraud

Artists share their frustration over stolen artwork becoming NFTs

Artists say plagiarized NFTs are plaguing their community

Hermès files lawsuit against MetaBirkins NFT-creator for trademark infringement

Indonesian college student becomes millionaire after putting his selfies up for sale as NFTs as a joke

A major NFT operation has taken root in Marfa, and the local artists are all very confused

A bread bun sofa may soon be coming to IKEA

A Belgian artist’s ceramic gods

Archaeologists unearth colossal pair of sphinxes in Egypt during restoration of landmark temple

A small lead sculpture that sat on a family’s crowded mantelpiece for decades turns out to be a rare Henry Moore and may fetch up to $68K

Dutch government agrees to buy Rembrandt painting for $198M—despite connections to tax havens

Early works by Monet are expected to sell for $50M

New book looks at the forgeries, thefts, and manipulations that plague the art world

How does the FBI Art Crime Team operate?

What to see in NYC galleries right now, according to the NYT

Marina Abramovic's instruction cards to reboot your life

Ten ways to have a better conversation

What is design thinking, and why is it so popular?

Creativity can't be forced. Take breaks and zone out to find new inspiration.

How a writer freed up time to daydream

The infinite scroll and social media feeds are proving to be highly debilitating to the average user

Tsundoku: The art of buying books you can't possibly read

That’ll bring this week to a close. Thank you for being a reader of the newsletter and for passing it along to friends. I’m eternally grateful. Now, I’m going to get started on the stack of books I have to read.

Thomas

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