29.May.2010 Weekly Fuel – Architectural Prank Edition

by Jay Cox-Chapman, Design-Build Assistant

BLDG Blog points out this architectural prank/sculpture from artists Julien Berthier and Simon Boudvin: a fake door installed against a wall in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. It’s almost touching that the door is faithfully cleaned of graffiti by the city.

Stack continues to follow the Deepwater Horizon disaster closely. It’s events like this that redouble our commitment to green and high-performance buildings.  The Infrastructurist lays out the technical causes of the disaster, while CBS news has a harrowing (and damning) survivor account.

Speaking of the Gulf, this stunning 1944 map, prepared by the US Army Corps of Engineers, shows the wildly variable course of the river over millennia. John McPhee meditated on the futility of controlling these changes in his 1990 book The Control of Nature.

Fast Company provides a slideshow of the “Year’s Sexiest Houses,” as judged by the AIA.