BLDGBLOG: Some News and Abuses...

A few quick news items:
<1> BLDG|BLOG contributor Geoff Manaugh has joined the Archinect editorial team, a position he will be sure to abuse inappropriately.
<2> BLDG|BLOG contributors Nicola Twilley and Geoff Manaugh have co-written a piece for the upcoming "special issue" of Space & Culture. The issue itself is called "New Orleans and Other Urban Calamities," and their piece is "On Flexible Urbanism." Be sure to pick up a copy. In other words, be sure to read a copy.
<3> A new Russian utopia is being built and planned outside Moscow – to be inhabited only by millionaires: "Keeping up with the Jones's could take on a whole new meaning in a town being planned for rich Russians near Moscow," the BBC says.


[Image: "The $3bn (£1.7bn) town of Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye"].

This new, semi-instant city "will house some 30,000 residents and is expected to be almost twice the size of Monaco. It will be completely self-sufficient, boasting luxurious villas, a clinic, bars, sports facilities, a school and a marina on the Moscow River." And if that sounds fun, you should read Super-Cannes.
<4> A "lost" map has resulted in approximately 1.5 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge being opened up for oil exploration. You read that right; the foam core ate it. Ate the map, that is.
<5> Is the Chinese building boom a bubble? It depends how you define the word bubble... "China's real estate market is so hot that miniature cities are being created with artificial lakes, and the country's nouveau riche suddenly seem eager to put down as much as $5.3 million for a luxury apartment in skyscrapers with names like the Skyline Mansion..."



[Images (and quotation): New York Times – and don't miss The Observer on Beijing, even while you're checking out BLDG|BLOG's own archives for more on space in China].

<6> Regular BLDG|BLOG posts will return shortly.
<7> Whether you are reading "BLDGBLOG" or "BLDG|BLOG" right now – or perhaps both – will be decided typographically very soon. Feel free to vote by commenting on this post. Vote early. Vote often.