San Diego Architectural Foundation

This swimming pool in the Spree River was originally a temporary art installation, but the locals loved it so much it became a permanent feature.

The sunken hull of a cargo ship is transformed into a pristine pool. Resting almost level with the surface of the river, it provides the sensation of swimming in the river itself with the city skyline as a dramatic backdrop. Read more »

Located in Copenhagen’s city center, this wooden bathing structure extends the surrounding park into the incredibly clean waters of the harbor.

The terraced landscape blurs the transition from land to water while also addressing the practical needs for accessibility and safety.

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An industrial, virtually inaccessible sea front in a suburb of Copenhagen where the residents aspired to something better has been transformed. The former rocks of the beach have been replaced with sand and extending out into the sea is a pier which culminates in a circular, multi-level, wooden structure, for swimming, bathing and diving, that rises up gradually out of the sea. Read more »

Are we prepared to take a dip in our city? San Diego is known the world over for its bay and beaches and for being blessed with the climate to enjoy both. But for the ever increasing number of downtown residents our day to day physical interaction with the water surrounding us is very limited. Yes, we have the embarcadero promenade along which to bike and jog and look out over the bay, but where can we dip a toe in the water?
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Thanks very much to all who participated, presented, performed and attended our Global PechaKucha for Haiti event on Saturday, February 20. We raised over $1500 for Architecture For Humanity's Haiti Earthquake Rebuild effort - more than most cities taking part in the global event!! 
  
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While some argue that the heyday of international style modernism in the 1930s failed to change European political futures, and others wonder aloud why US post-war modernity failed to usher in real social change in America, most of us agree that post-modernism answered few grand, macro-level, questions about our culture. But what is happening in Kuwait, Cairo and Dubai, all incubators for leading-edge contemporary architecture, may cause future sociologists and cultural anthropologists to take stock of design amidst real cultural upheaval. Read more »

One of our favorite listening experiences is the Los Angeles based NPR radio show DnA: Design and Architecture, during which host Frances Anderton talks to world leaders in design about the latest in products, fashion, graphics, architecture and more.
     
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PKN for Haiti Flyer

In a November 2009 New York Times update on the reconstruction of New Orleans' Katrina-devastated Lower Ninth Ward, Cultured Traveler writer Fred A. Bernstein describes the complications of good intentions. While Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation has done what appears to be a unanimously commendable job of rebuilding, the writer (and some of his interviewees) take issue with what is going up.

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Join SDAF for the debut of year #2 of San Diego's Pecha Kucha Night! V5 will be held at El Camino II , 2400 India Street (between Kalmia and Laurel Streets - formerly the Airport Lounge). Thinking and drinking begin when you arrive, presentations at 8:20.