Beijing's new art zone, David Adjaye's Liverpool pavilion and Zaha Hadid's restricted view
Phaidon's daily look at the best art, architecture, design and photography stories on the web
Art
Beijing's Freeport = instant art hub? Halfway between a fine-art storage site and a free-trade zone, the 83,000 square-metre freeport is scheduled for completion late next year, next to the Beijing Capital International Airport. It's a joint venture between the Swiss company Euroasia and a state-owned development company. Both parties hope the freeport will "create and organise a market that is loosely regulated," said a spokesman for the firm.
Can you find Banksy's London 2012 murals? The millionaire West-Country graffiti artist has posted images of his Olympics themed murals online. One depicts an athlete throwing a missile, while the other features a pole-vaulter jumping over a chain-link fence onto a mattress. Though Banksy has dubbed one of the murals 'Hackney Welcomes the Olympics', their locations remain a mystery.
Korean artist's homemade satellite 34-year-old South Korean engineering student turned artist Song Hojun has built his own satellite. Song's OpenSat weighs about one kilo and cost $500 to produce. It will be launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome in December, and, if all goes well, will flash a Morse code message, via LEDs.
Photography
Split winnings For the first time since its foundation in 1988, Australia's $100,000 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize has divided its cash up between four co-winners. Jacqui Stockdale (winning entry pictured above), Tobias Titz, Kelsey Austin Walsh and Ashleigh Bradley each won $25,000, for works that vary from candid surfer headshots to whimsical fantasy portraits.
Camera pack Other than a good eye and a sharp mind, what other job requirements were there for an eighties newswire photographer? According to Chris Wilkins, deputy director of photographer at Dallas News, 'the ability to lift and travel with case after case of equipment, often weighing around 80 pounds each, was a necessity.' In his wry look back at the mobile development and transmission techniques once used by snappers in the field, Wilkins shows just how far we've come. " If you were lucky enough to get a perfect telephone line for sending the picture, one color photo took a minimum of 26 minutes to transmit," he writes.
Dawoud Bey's 70s Harlem Though the NYC photographer Dawoud Bey is better known for colour portraits, his earliest exhibition, shot in Harlem during the late seventies, is on display at The Art Institute of Chicago from today. Entitled Harlem, U.S.A., these 25 black-and-white photographs have never been shown since their first their '79 debut, and serve as a wonderful evocation of the neighbourhood as it once was.
Architecture
Adjaye pavilion plans revealed British architect has unveiled plans for his pop-up pavilion at this year's Liverpool Biennial. The pavilion, was designed in collaboration with Californian artist Doug Aitken, and will be open at The Albert Dock in September.
The right profile Do landmark buildings by high-profile architects draw in the crowds? It remains to be seen, according to a new report from the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago. Entitled 'Set In Stone', the study suggests that headline-grabbing buildings might please local grandees and donors, while placing huge strains on institutions. Gauge public support before you plan big, they advise.
Hadid denies Olympics gaffe Her Aquatics Centre might be one of the most highly praised buildings of London 2012, yet Games organizers have emailed some ticket holders visiting Zaha Hadid's building to warn them that their views could be restricted, and that they may ask for their money back. The architect's practice has denied the design is to blame for obscured views of the top diving board.
Design
Words and pictures Ji Lee, a 40-year-old communication designer at Facebook, has attracted over one million views to his Word as Image Youtube project. Lee set himself the challenge to create an image out of a word, using only the letters contained therein. We're particularly taken with his treatment of 'fast food'.
Winning designs London's Design Museum gets all Olympic-y with its Designed to Win exhibition, opening today. Over 100 pieces of equipment are on display, representing over 30 different sporting pursuits. Look out for a rugby player's wheelchair, plenty of whizzy carbon-fibre bikes and Rubens Barrichello's Williams FW33 F1 car.
Pray-per-view Manchester University have installed a multi-faith prayer booth. The Pray-O-Mat, which takes its design cues from photo booths, was produced by German artist Oliver Sturm, and forms part of the university's three-year project on multi-faith spaces. It offers more than 300 pre-recorded prayers in 65 different languages via a touch screen.