The silhouette of the Eiffel Tower is the icon of Paris. It is familiar and definitive. This, however, may change as the top of the tower is to be reshaped in to the form pictured above. Yikes!

Serero Architects of Paris has won the competition to redesign the structure’s public viewing platform and reception areas. The winning design (above), which will be 276 metres (905ft) above the ground, will not require any permanent modification of the existing structure. It will double the capacity of the public viewing area on the tower’s top floor.

The new platform will be bolted onto the tower using a web of Kevlar, an extremely strong and lightweight carbon fibre used in the construction of racing cars and body armour. The new platform will use a cantilevered design similar to the way that an aircraft’s wings are attached to the fuselage.

What do you think of this change?

via The Guardian

The principles of universal design tell us that products should be functional for the broadest possible spectrum of users. But designers and manufacturers have long targeted two distinct niche markets: men and women. (Just think of razors: women’s versions look like plastic flowers, men’s like props from The Terminator.) Lately, however, we’ve noticed a handful of products and projects that toy with traditional gender roles.

While the thesis is intriguing and raises an interesting question, this mini-mini essay comes up short in its execution and rationale.

While not the first place on earth to have underwater hotel, Istanbul will soon be home to a 7 story underwater hotel. Opening in 2010, the hotel will have restaurants, exhibition halls, and ocean-view guestrooms and should meet 7 star standards.

Winners – International Judges’ Awards:
Best New Hotel: Riva Lofts, Florence
Best New Public Building: New Museum, New York, by SANAA
Best Fashion Collection: Jil Sander, autumn/winter 2007
Best New Grooming Product: TweezLight tweezers
Best New Private House: Ring House, Karuizawa, by TNA
Best Domestic Appliance: Katamari 01 speaker by Gyanze
Furniture Designer of the Year: Tokujin Yoshioka
Best New Restaurant; Mathias Dahlgren, Stockholm
Best City: Los Angeles
Most Life-Enhancing Item: $100 laptop, by Yves Béhar

There are 63 categories in this year’s ‘Best’. If you head over here you can see the full list. Why not review the shortlists and decided for yourself if the judge’s got things right (look for the short list links towards the right side of the screen).

My next question: What would you have done with an additional hundred million dollars, is similarly end-run. “Nothing. Not a thing.” In other words, there was no possible way to improve with a larger budget? How can this be? “Money is not a determinant of architecture. If you give a poet more money, the poem he writes wouldn’t be any better.”

I am torn between the need to write this down and the desire to explain that poets don’t build their poems from concrete and glass – which cost money – but I am aware of the grains of sand slipping though the hourglass, so I plunge ahead.

Is he disappointed that the final design for the Crystal couldn’t include more glass? “We have more glass here than any museum in the world,” he says, roundly denying that more glass was ever intended in the original design. “The model was an abstraction,” he says. Citing the conservation issues around daylight flooding the galleries, he went on: “Nobody wants a glass museum, believe me.” Except in the dinosaur galleries, I say? “Well,” he says, “dinosaurs roamed the Earth, not vitrines.”

via arts journal

Wallpaper* Magazine has launched a new directory called the Graduates Directory 2008, which is comprised of is this year’s 110 best young designers who have just graduated from some form of schooling (hence the title) in fields from jewelery design to photography to architecture. Personally, I think it is admirable that Wallpaper* takes the time and print to recognize graduates.

The Stata Center quite the architectural wonder. Pop here to see some images.

Sinclair, 33, is one of a new breed of visionary humanitarian, and the effects of his project are proving to be more far reaching than the structures themselves, shifting the trajectory of architecture toward a more collaborative and socially conscious process. “We’re changing the dynamic of what it means to be an architect,” says Sinclair in a distinguished-sounding British accent. “If you strip away all the ego in architecture … all we do is provide shelter. And if you can’t do that, you can’t call yourself an architect.”

In an era that celebrates big-name architects and multimillion-dollar building projects, Gaston Nogues and Benjamin Ball offer a change of pace. One wears siren-red Converse sneakers, the other a beatnik fedora and goatee; their studio is a three-car garage in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles that is taken up mostly by building tools. Neither has yet turned 40.

The building is a large glittering of organic walls. What is interesting about this center as a national art gallery is that it will not have a permanent collection, or even stockpile art. Instead, the NAC will have a rotating program of temporary and visiting exhibitions.

For more information on the design of the NAC checkout Arcspace’s overview, which has loads of great pictures, and Kisho Kurokawa and Associates’ website.