We may earn a commission from links on this page.Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over release schedules to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch on Netflix, Prime, Max, Hulu, and other streaming platforms this week.The best new movie that came out this week is Flow, a universally beloved movie that is guaranteed to make you cry. It's so good, you should pay to rent it; it's VOD-only for now. If sensitive French animation isn't your jam, you might enjoy Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, a documentary about The Jerry Springer Show. Different strokes, as they say. Flow (2024) If you're anything like me, you missed French film Flow at Cannes and during its limited theatrical run in 2024. We should both be ashamed of ourselves. This breathtakingly beautiful animated adventure story about animals who must work together is exactly the kind of movie we both like. We're not alone, either: Flow earned a 97% positive critical rating and 99% positive audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So let's treat ourselves better in the future, and start with watching Flow, all right?Where to stream: VODJerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action If you wanted to pinpoint the moment Western Culture fell off the cliff that led to (gesturing vaguely at everything) this, the popularity of The Jerry Springer Show is a solid contender. Through interviews with the people responsible and plenty of footage from the show, Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action takes viewers behind-the-scenes of the Chicago-based talk show that built an empire on fistfights and scandals, both in front of and behind the camera. Where to stream: NetflixStopmotion (2023) A tortured artist whose most disturbing creations become real isn't the most original plot in horror movie history, but if it ain't broke, why fix it? The art in this case is stop-motion animation, the creepiest kind of animation, and the creation that comes to life, The Ash Man, is a stop motion figure made of raw steak and roadkill, so it's going to get grisly. Stopmotion was written and directed by acclaimed stop motion animator Robert Morgan, so the details are spot-on. Where to stream: HuluLook Into My Eyes I'm inclined to think of "psychics" as cynical ghouls who exploit grief for profit, but Look into My Eyes' director Lana Wilson has a more nuanced view of the craft. Her documentary examines the relationship between small-time, New York psychics and their clients without weighing in on whether the mediums' claims are true. Instead of exploitation, Wilson finds healing, faith, and human connection. No matter how skeptical you are, it's a fascinating take on the subject. Where to stream: MaxLast week's picks Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl The beloved stop-motion characters created by Aardman Animations are back in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, in which Gromit (he's the dog) becomes concerned with his master's overreliance on technology. Wallace has invented a high-tech garden gnome, but it turns evil, forcing an absurd showdown. The roller coaster pace and precise comic timing raise the chaos high enough to earn Vengeance Most Fowl a rare 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Where to stream: NetflixCunk on Life Cunk on Life (an offshoot of the "documentary" series Cunk on Earth) illustrates what would happen if the BBC hired the dumbest person on Earth to host a sweeping documentary that examines the meaning of life. Philomena Cunk, played by comedian Diane Morgan, travels the world to interview real academics, philosophers, and other very smart people, ostensibly to ask big, important questions, but really to test their patience with her deadpan, stupid persona. If you like comedy that's actually funny, don't miss Cunk on Life. Where to stream: NetflixThe Rig The Rig has a perfect set up for a horror-thriller: A mysterious fog rolls over an offshore oil rig, cutting off all communication. Paranoia, claustrophobia, and terror rise as the tension becomes unbearable. Then the crew learns that the fog besetting the oil rig leads to something unnatural and unspeakable, forcing desperate men to work together to survive. Where to stream: PrimeInterstellar (2014) Christopher Nolan directed this science fiction story about a group of astronauts who fly through a wormhole in search of a new home planet for humans to crap up. With a cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, thoughtful ideas about down-to-earth values, and a heavy dose of Nolan's unique cinematic style, Interstellar is required viewing. After an IMAX rerelease earlier this year, people who missed it the first time around are finally appreciating it as a new sci-fi classic.Where to stream: NetflixA Quiet Place: Day One (2024) This prequel to A Quiet Place brings us back to the start of the series, the day the blind, noise-averse aliens invaded earth and killed almost everyone in the world. Lupita Nyong'o stars as Sammy, a terminally ill woman whose journey to New York City for a slice of pizza is interrupted by the end of the world. A film thats equal parts horror and character study, A Quiet Place: Day One is a great choice for fans of horror movies with a sci-fi bent.Where to stream: PrimePaddington (2014) Universally admired family flick Paddington proves that CGI characters can be lovable and memorable and that children's movies can be emotionally affecting without being mawkish and sentimental. Nailing the tone in a movie about a bear in a red hat in the modern world is a hell of a balancing act, but Paddington pulls it off without seeming to break a sweat. A true classic you should revisit before the three-quel arrives in theaters in February.Where to stream: HuluDon't Die: the Man Who Wants to Live Forever Sorry for spoiling this Netflix original documentary, but its subject, entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, is not going to live forever. He's not going to achieve his more modest goal of living to 200 either. That foreknowledge adds to the poignancy and ridiculousness of Johnson's pursuitdude is spending millions per year to forestall Death, and Death just does not care. While you and I are probably not going to that level, we're all doing something (even if it's just fretting) and Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever asks some interesting questions about our relationship to the end of life. Where to stream: NetflixSorry to Bother You (2018) Rapper Boots Riley's cinema debut is a fearless provocation that's hilarious, surreal, and crammed with pointed social commentary. Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield plays Cassius Cash Green, a telemarketer who's stuck in the boiler room until he learns to "talk white." Cash's new vocals (provided by a voiceover from comedian David Cross) open up a new world of money and power that only costs your soul to enter. Where to stream: HuluThe Front Room The directorial debut of Max and Sam Eggers, half-brothers of Nosferatu director Robert Eggers, The Front Room is a surrealist domestic horror story in which the worst mother-in-law imaginable moves in to "help" her pregnant daughter-in-law and her son. Despite the seriousness of the trailer, The Front Room is leavened by dark humor throughout. Solange, played by Kathryn Hunter, is a true nightmare, and will do anything to drive a wedge between her son Norman, played by Andrew Burnap, and his wife Belinda, played by Brandy Norwood. Where to stream: Max2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction CeremonyThis year's winners of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Musical Excellence Award were Jimmy Buffett and The MC5, and inductees included A Tribe Called Quest and Ozzy Osbourne, proving that the words "rock and roll" don't actually describe anything. But whatever; it's still cool to see performances from the likes of Cher and Dua Lipa, who perform a duet of Cher's "Believe"; The Roots backing up Robert Kool Bell for a medley of Kool and the Gang classics; and Demi Lovato and Slash playing classic rock from Foreigner. Where to stream: HuluThe Leopard Man (1943) Just as Leopard Man producer Val Lewton's most famous film, Cat People, didn't have any cat people in it, Leopard Man is not about a leopard man. Lewton spent most of his career as the head of B-movie production company RKO's horror department, where studio heads dictated their movie's titles, but let Lewton actually film whatever he wanted. Lewton chose to make Leopard Man an atmospheric, creepy, surprisingly progressive examination of misogyny and violence, rather than a cheesy monster flick. Leopard Man is arguably the first movie about a serial killer, and remains among of the best examples of the genre ever made. Where to stream: Max

The Adata XPG SE940 is the smallest USB 4 portable SSD, delivering up to 4,000 MB/s read and write speeds.

TikToks office is closed due to power outages, but its still expecting employees to WFH amid raging wildfires.

This week's streaming suggestions list is full of new TV shows and the odd movie recommendation.

For a reporter covering CES, the booth for Samsung Display can seem like a pure distillation of what the tech trade show is all about.CES has always been a celebration of screens, and every year Samsungs Display division, which manufactures screens for the entire industry, uses the show to flex its muscles. Visitors are practically guaranteed to see some astounding new display tech, with screens that bend, roll, or foldpossibly at the same timelong before they wind up in real products.So it was a bit jarring when Samsung Display declared that its focus for this years booth would be on AI instead, with Every DAI, OLED-AI as its official slogan. Chirag Shah, Samsung Displays senior director of marketing business development, told reporters that the combination of OLED displays and AI was akin to Penn and Teller or peanut butter and jelly.In real estate, the three most important words are, location, location, location, Shah said. I think its fair to say that today, in consumer electronics, the three most important words are AI, AI, and AI.Its an eye-roller, but heres the strangest part: The actual booth tour had nothing to do with AI. While Samsung showed off advancements in display brightness, durability, and flexibility, plus a wild new stretchable display that poked outward from the wall, AI wasnt involved with any of it. Samsung was merely making the tenuous argument that machine-generated content looks better on OLED screens, just as human-generated content would.This turned out to be a distillation of CES 2025 after all. Throughout the week, companies contorted themselves into promoting AI angles that were exaggerated, tangential to their core products, orin Samsung Displays casenonexistent. The effect was like gaslighting, with an endless repetition of AI aimed at making it seem inevitable even when the actual offerings felt empty.Reinventing the wheelTV makers, always searching for the next new gimmick, have naturally glommed onto AI as well, using it as a catch-all for anything that involves content recognition or predictive algorithms. The result is that AI now describes things that have existed in various forms for years now.Samsung, for instance, showed off how its TVs can understand what youre watching and suggest similar content, as if Automatic Content Recognition isnt already fueling the multibillion-dollar TV ad tech business. It also demonstrated an AI feature that tells you the names of actors on screen, 13 years after Amazon came out with X-Ray for its streaming video catalog.Meanwhile, LG is rebranding the remote on its 2025 TVs as an AI Remote, with an AI Concierge button that leads to personalized recommendations based on your watch and search historynot a new concept for anyone whos visited the home screen on a Google TV, Fire TV, or Apple TV streaming device. Holding the button down activates an AI Voice ID that tailors the recommendations to whoevers speaking, which again is something Apple TV devices started doing in 2022 (albeit without any AI branding).Some of these features could potentially be useful, but they arent entirely new inventions and they have little to do with the large language models that are responsible for all the AI hype today.AI PCs spin their wheelsAt last years CES, Intel made a big to-do about AI PCs, and began equipping its best laptop and desktop chips with neural processing units to handle offline AI tasks. It had a large showcase that demoed current and potential AI applications, and the company said it was working with more than 100 companies to develop new software.One year later, Intel is still shouting in press releases about the next era of AI computingreflecting similar messaging from AMD and Qualcommbut when I visited its 2025 CES showcase looking for examples on-device AI, I was told that it remains early days for the entire concept, and the demos on display were focused on basic text and image generation.Thats not stopping laptop makers from tossing the word AI into their product names, with models like the Acer Aspire 14 AI and MSI Stealth 18 HX AI (or, stranger still, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ handheld gaming device). What kinds of breakthrough features justify such naming? You can ask MSIs chatbot to optimize your games graphics settingssomething that graphics card software does alreadyor use Acers chat interface to navigate the instruction manual. For the most part these are just regular laptops with fancier names.Put a llama on itEven when companies had tangle examples of generative AI in their products, they often had a tacked-on quality, as if AI hardware requires nothing more than stuffing a generic large language model inside a menu somewhere.That was especially evident in smart glasses, which were inescapable on the show floor and in various press events. I wore several sets of these shades that promised to put an AI assistant in front of your eyes, but when I asked things like Where are the best tacos in Las Vegas, they only responded with bland disclaimers about how everyones tastes are subjective. (The answer, by the way, is Tacos El Gordo.)Delivering actual intelligence is harder, and is something even Google is struggling with as it fuses its action-oriented Google Assistant with the more conversational Gemini AI. A lot of the companies promising AI gadgets were doing just the bare minimum.Its a distractionAll this AI puffery may stem from a fundamental conflict within CES: Its a hardware show in a software world.Hardware makers want to demonstrate that theyre part of the AI revolution, but they dont make the AI themselves and are bound by the limits of what large language models can do (which is still far apart from what weve been promised they can do). Outside of a few stray announcements, like Nvidias $3,000 desktop AI computer for programmers, much of what happened at CES will have little direct bearing on where AI goes from here.All of which means that if you really want to understand whats happening at CES, you have to look past the AI stuff. Samsung is doing amazing things in its Display division, and the Electronics groups Frame Pro TVs are a big step forward in a growing product category. The three-way PC chip battle between Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm is delivering much slicker laptops with better battery life. I tried on several sets of glasses that do nothing but place a giant entertainment screen in front of your face, and found myself finally wanting one after years of sampling lesser versions.Device makers, in other words, are trying to take credit for the wrong thing. I left CES feeling upbeat about the state of consumer electronics, but with a strange feeling that I had to ignore a vast amount of its messaging to get there.

As multiple wildfires rage across Los Angeles, causing unprecedented levels of destruction, the citys budget has come under scrutiny. Its an example of misinformation that has spread during the crisisand a sign of the increasingly complicated calculations cities will have to make to address the realities of climate change.A number of articles criticized Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for cutting the fire departments budget by some $23 million (while funneling more money to police), but that assessment isnt completely accurate. Though the 2024-25 budget that was approved did show a deficit, it doesnt reflect a Memoranda of Understanding that was finalized in November, giving the Los Angeles Fire Department an additional $76 million, council member Bob Blumenfields office confirmed, resulting in a $53 million budget increase compared to the previous year.Still, the LAFD is underfunded in relation to what the city needs. And long before these January fires, officials were saying that the city had outgrown its fire department. Its understandable that the public would be concerned about resources as greater Los Angeles deals with incredibly damaging, and difficult to contain, fires. But experts say that narrow scope doesnt capture the full, complicated picture of city budgets, or the resources needed to combat climate changeand the extreme weather it worsensin a meaningful way.Multiple jurisdictions at playLocal governments are seeing greater impacts of climate change, and though most have emergency management departments, its hard to prepare for something that has never happened beforewhether its a hurricane that hits the mountains of North Carolina or a wildfire that breaks out during record drought and winds.For an area like Los Angeles thats close to so many other cities, its not only L.A.s budget in play. Some of the jurisdictions affected by the fires, like Malibu and Santa Monica, have their own emergency management departments, as well as mutual aid agreements in which neighboring municipalities pledge to help each other out, says Carlos Martn, an architect and engineer who works on housing and disaster preparedness.All that to say, its a wide range of jurisdictions and government levels playing a role here, he says (though he notes that most of them are underfunded, which is a broad issue). Cities also rely on counties for funding, and counties then ask state or federal governments for disaster support. More and more, cities are relying on the federal government, Martn says, because the resources just arent there locally, and the damages are way more than anybody ever anticipated.(And how much federal funding will be available under incoming President Donald Trump remains to be seen; during Californias deadly 2018 wildfires, he initially withheld disaster aid until he saw that many affected residents voted for him. Hes since reiterated threats to withhold aid in the future.)Looking beyond budget numbersJust comparing budget totals doesnt show the whole picture of what a city is investing in. Simply cutting a budget or adding to a budget doesnt mean thats going to have the [right] impact, says Jason Grant, director of the International City/County Management Agency (ICMA), a national association of more than 13,000 local government employees. What are we trying to address? he asks. That needs to be the focus.If a fire departments budget was cut and that meant it couldnt increase capacity or purchase necessary equipment, thats one thing. If a budget increased because everyone got a raise but no staff was added, would it have made a difference in response? The focus needs to be, What is it we are funding and not funding, Grant says, and how will that help us address the concerns were facing here in our community.The LAFD does need more funding; cuts to things like overtime have already created operational challenges, the department chief has said. But some of the recent cuts eliminated vacant positions, freeing up money for new classes and gear. And its hard to know how much changing the 2024-25 budget would have helped a situation as devastating as thisin which hydrants were tapped in an effort to put out hundreds of house fires, compared to the typical one or two theyre designed for; amid record-high winds that grounded water-dropping aircraft while fanning flames and carrying embers far and wide; and in which a series of climate events coalesced to set up the perfect conditions for disaster. Our infrastructure is not set up well for this, Martn says.There are ways that increasing the budget could have helped, surely, for specific equipment or additional resources. But again, its hard to prepare for an unprecedented event.Preparing for future disastersEven if the fire department had a larger budget, it wouldnt necessarily mean that L.A.or any other citywould be prepared for the next disaster. And allocating funds to emergency response deals with just one aspect of the challenge. Cities also need to invest more money in climate adaptation and mitigation. Studies have found that every $1 invested in disaster mitigation saves up to $13 in disaster losses. Its like taking a pill to prevent the disease versus getting the disease treated afterwards, Martn says. Thats the way we have to start thinking about these events: What we used to think of as individual crises [are now] chronic things.Its difficult to turn the conversation about these fires toward that bigger picture when people are suffering now, homes and lives have been lost, and entire neighborhoods have been destroyed. In fact, the fires are still burning, so its understandable to focus on the efforts to put them out, and to help people recover. Making sure residents are safe obviously takes precedence at this moment, Martn says. But if we cant also begin to consider mitigation and prevention strategies, then when are we going to have that conversation? he asks.Within a month of Hurricane Harveys landfall in Texas in 2017considered the wettest tropical cyclone on record for the U.S.officials proposed a major flood control bond measure. Though it wasnt passed until a year later, the fact that legislators thought about it while Texas was still recovering is notable. Its also a sign, though, of how we tend to prepare for disasters only in the aftermath of one. Martn hopes others can learn from the L.A. fires to better prepare now, instead of waiting for their own tragedies.Its a difficult balance, especially for cities with limited budgets. And its a learning process. Climate investments can be a matter of trial and error; they also require long-term thinking that goes well beyond a budgets framing of one fiscal year. Cities may increase renewable energy and switch school bus fleets to electric as part of their mitigation efforts, but that likely wont stop a natural disaster from happening the next year. The climate impact of those changes (and the funding they receive) arent immediate.Cities have to balance all these questions: how to prepare, how to mitigate, how to ensure theyre able to respond when something happens, and how to prioritize competing needs. Those conversations are more important, says the ICMAs Grant says, than Monday-morning quarterbacking budget line items while entire neighborhoods burn. The reality is, we are here. How do we prevent these fires from spreading? How do we make sure this doesnt happen again?As L.A. begins recovering and rebuilding, ideally, the fires will become a milestone event that other cities across the country learn from. Those lessons could inform not only future fire department budgets but also mitigation efforts, building codes and housing laws, insurance policies, and so on. Martn reflects on the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and how its historic devastation led to modern building codes and insurance requirements.Its this complex picture of adaptation, mitigation, response, and recovery that city officials must learn to juggle. The last thing I want to see is people investing so much in their emergency management and first responders, Martn says, and not thinking about the long-term planning and equity issues.

Dry conditions across Southern California set the stage for a series of deadly wind-driven wildfires that burned thousands of homes and other structures in the Los Angeles area in early January 2025.Ming Pan, a hydrologist at the University of California-San Diegos Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, tracks the states water supplies. He put Southern Californias dryness into perspective using charts and maps.How dry is Southern California right now?In early January, the soil moisture in much of Southern California was in the bottom 2% of historical records for that day in the region. Thats extremely low.Hydrologists in California watch the sky very closely starting in October, when Californias water year begins.On January 8, 2025, the soil moisture content, as measured down to about 40 inches, was in the bottom 2% historically for that day in the area around Los Angeles. [Image: NASA]The state gets very little rain from May through September, so late fall and winter are crucial to fill reservoirs and to build up the snowpack to provide water. California relies on the Sierra snowpack for about one-third of its freshwater supply.However, Southern California started out the 2024-25 water year pretty dry. The region got some rain from an atmospheric river in November, but not much. After that, most of the atmospheric rivers that hit the West Coast from October into January veered northward into Washington, Oregon, and Northern California instead.When the air is warm and dry, transpiration and evaporation also suck water out of the plants and soil. That leaves dry vegetation that can provide fuel for flying embers to spread wildfires, as the Los Angeles area saw in early January.Water year data from October 1, 2024, to January 7, 2025, shows precipitation levels and the anomaly from the 1991-2020 average. [Image: Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes]So, while Northern Californias water and snowpack conditions are in good shape, Southern California is much drier and its water storage is not doing so well.The Southern Sierra snowpack was starting to dip below normal in early January.How snowpack and reservoir levels as of January 7, 2025, compare with the 2000-2015 average in Northern and Southern California: The shaded areas show normal reservoir levels (blue) and reservoir levels plus snowpack (gray). The lines track each for the 2025 water year. [Image: Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes]What can California expect for the rest of 2025?The U.S. Climate Prediction Centers seasonal outlook through March suggests that drought is likely to develop in the region in the coming months.The outlook takes into account forecasts for La Nia, an ocean temperature pattern that was on its way to developing in the Pacific Ocean in early 2025. La Nia tends to mean drier conditions in Southern California. However, not every La Nia affects California in the same way.One or two big rain events could completely turn the table for Southern Californias water situation. In 2023, California saw atmospheric rivers in April.So, its hard to say this early in the season how dry Southern California will be in the coming months, but its clear that people in dry areas need to pay attention to the risks.Ming Pan is a senior research hydrologist at the University of California, San Diego.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Next up in our 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series, we take a look at the most significant building of 2005, Moriyama House in Japan by architect Ryue Nishizawa.For those unfamiliar, Moriyama House can be quite quickly summarised by artist Henk Visch's experience of it in 2007, when he visited to create sculptures for its owner, Yasuo Moriyama."When visiting Mr Moriyama's house to find a spot for my sculptures, I could hardly describe where I was," Visch recalled."This was no normal house. Where was the front door?" he asked.Ryue Nishizawa's Moriyama House was the most significant building of 2005Nestled on a compact plot in the dense neighbourhood of Kamata in Tokyo, Moriyama House is a network of minimalist, non-hierarchical blocks stitched together with tiny gardens.Its design by Japanese architect Ryue Nishizawa the co-founder of Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner SANAA rewrote all the typical rules of privacy, thresholds and density when it comes to housing.Though describing the project as a house, or even a building, feels like a disservice to its design. Labelling it as a miniature city or a microcosm of Tokyo is somewhat more accurate.Moriyama House is made up of ten white blocksMoriyama House is made up of 10 white blocks, ranging in height from one to three storeys and occupying just half of its 290-square-metre plot.The blocks each serve a unique function, requiring residents to step outside as they move between the spaces, just as though they are navigating a mini village.Between them are paths and gardens that link directly to the surrounding streets, free of fencing and leaving the boundary between private and public space ambiguous.Nishizawa's tactic is reminiscent of the layering of ancient Japanese buildings Rob Gregory in The Architectural ReviewThis feeling of openness to the public helps to establish an unusual sense of community at the site, which is enhanced by the placement of large square windows allowing views into the white boxes from all around an unusual feature in a Japanese house, where privacy is usually prioritised."Japanese people often like a fence to enclose the property," Nishizawa once said when discussingthe design."But this project, there's no fence to define the property. Anybody in this area can get in and out."Minimalist white finishes unify the individual buildingsThe fragmented layout mimics the surrounding urban fabric, in which individual homes fill their plot but do not touch the neighbouring structures, leaving small walkways between them.It also reflects Nishizawa's view that "life can't be contained within a single lot"."People's sense of living expands beyond it, effectively erasing all borders," he once said.Read: Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern was the most significant building of 2000After visiting the house in 2007, former senior editor at The Architectural Review Rob Gregory said Nishizawa's design is "reminiscent of the layering of ancient Japanese buildings"."This striking group of six dwellings is a demonstration of how traditional notions of privacy and community can be adjusted," Gregory wrote."The Moriyama House has echoes of primitive forms of dwelling, where functions were distributed as isolated units that collectively create a defensible settlement. It also addresses Nishizawa's key concern regarding how to open up the house as a component of the city," he continued."Critical of the fact that many Japanese houses have become too hermetic and opaque, with homes that increasingly turn away from the street to focus on internal courts, Nishizawa's tactic is reminiscent of the layering of ancient Japanese buildings."The blocks each serve a unique functionCurrently, the owner occupies one of the volumes, which contains two bedrooms, a study and a living area. The rest of them are used as rental apartments.Despite their different functions, the blocks are unified by their bright and geometric designs, formed of thin steel sheet panels that lend a bold minimalist look to the site.In tandem with access to greenery and wide open windows that maximise natural light, this deliberate simplicity helps create a sense of expansiveness offering a lesson in how high-quality living space can be provided in high-density areas such as Tokyo.Dutch architect Martin van der Linden of YouTube channel One Minute Architecture hailed it as "a possibility for an alternative density of habitats"."It shows a possibility for an alternative density of habitats in the city as a collection of cell-like architectures or an architecture as the city," he said.Nor does it appear, in the Japanese architectural imagination, that there are any limits to what a dwelling can be Oliver WainwrightJapan is a breeding ground for experimental housing like Moriyama House, largely a symptom of the short lifespan of dwellings there, which averages out at 30 years in Tokyo.This can be pinned to the evolution of housing in Japan in the wake of world war two, and the country's rapid population growth in the 1960s and 1970s that led architects to develop innovative, sometimes wacky, solutions for living in hyperdense metropolises.Today, Moriyama House is arguably the most famous Japanese home in the world and one of the most notable examples of 21st-century Japanese architecture, epitomising the country's experimental and innovative approach to construction.The design rewrites the typical rules of privacy when it comes to housingThough much-loved by architects around the world, it was catapulted further into the spotlight in 2017 when it became a focal point of a landmark exhibition at London's Barbican Centre.The Japanese House Architecture and Life after 1945 centred around a 1:1 mock-up of the home in the gallery's central space. It was co-produced by the Japan Foundation to showcase the changes in Japanese domestic architecture since the end of the second world war.Read: Zaha Hadid's Bergisel Ski Jump was the most significant building of 2002Its curator Florence Ostend selected the house for the main exhibit with the belief that it is "one of the most important houses of the 21st century".In his review of the exhibition, critic Oliver Wainwright shared a similar sentiment, referring to it as "the most startling domestic vision of all"."Visitors will not need to fly to Tokyo to experience the most startling domestic vision of all, thanks to a 1:1 recreation of Ryue Nishizawa's seminal 2005 Moriyama House," he wrote."As Nishizawa puts it: 'life can't be contained within a single lot. People's sense of living expands beyond it, effectively erasing all borders.' Nor does it appear, in the Japanese architectural imagination, that there are any limits to what a dwelling can be."Did we get it right? Was Moriyama House by Ryue Nishizawa the most significant building completed in 2005? Let us know in the comments. We will be running a poll once all 25 buildings are revealed to determine the most significant building of the 21st century so far.This article is part of Dezeen's 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series, which looks at the most significant architecture of the 21st century so far. For the series, we have selected the most influential building from each of the first 25 years of the century.The illustration is by Jack Bedford and the photography is by Edmund Sumner.21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings2000: Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron2001: Gando Primary School by Dibdo Francis Kr2002: Bergisel Ski Jump by Zaha Hadid2003: Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry2004: Quinta Monroy by Elemental2005: Moriyama House by Ryue NishizawaThis list will be updated as the series progresses.The post Ryue Nishizawa's Moriyama House was the most significant building of 2005 appeared first on Dezeen.

From a communist-era apartment block in Bucharest to a hot pink Australian bar created to emulate the inside of a jumbo speaker, our latest lookbook collects atmospheric listening bar interiors from around the world.Listening bars are having a moment. Native to Japan, these spaces first emerged during the late 1920s as intimate settings to meet, drink, and most importantly, listen to music together.Since then, the bars also known as hi-fi or audiophile bars have increasingly spread across the globe. Typically equipped with large sound systems and a wide selection of vinyl records, listening bars are popular for their unique musical offerings.This lookbook explores how international architects and designers have created the interiors of listening bars to respond to this well-loved model.This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring light-filled cottages, exposed concrete bedrooms and sculptural stone sinks.Top: photo by Ollie Tomlinson. Above: photo by Polly TootalKioku Bar, UK, by Pirajean LeesKioku Bar is a single-room sake bar on the ground floor of London's OWO hotel, attached to the Kioku restaurant upstairs. Local studio Pirajean Lees designed bothvenuesto capture head chef Endo Kazutoshi's recollections of living and working inJapanandSpain.Deep red dado and natural clay walls were paired with knobbly timber accents in the low-lit space. In one corner, a bespoke solid wood turntable was positioned for guests to play a selection of Japanese records from Endo's personal collection.Find out more about Kioku Bar Photo by Vlad PtruBar Ton, Romania, by Anda Zota and Muromuro StudioLocal designers Anda Zota and Muromuro Studio transformed a former music shop on the ground floor of a communist-era apartment block in Bucharest into a hi-fi bar.Bar Ton was created to blend its historical context with modern functionality. The designers maintained the open-plan space's marble mosaic floors and four concrete pillars, adding a timber unit between one pair to hold the main DJ booth. Birch plywood record shelves were inserted between the other two pillars."The overarching concept was about putting the music at the centre, both physically and conceptually," explained Zota.Find out more about Bar Ton Photo by Tim SalisburyJAM Record Bar, Australia, by Akin AtelierOwner Justin Hemmes and designer Kelvin Ho of Akin Atelier drew inspiration from Tokyo's many listening bars when creating the hot pink JAM Record Bar in Sydney.Distinct zones were organised around a central bar while Ho and his team chose specific materials to enhance the acoustic properties of the space from pink fibreglass insulation panels to sound-absorbing cork. Despite its small floor plan, Bar Ton houses a library of 15,000 records stacked in built-in plywood shelving."JAM is designed to feel like you are drinking a cocktail inside a giant speaker box but pink," said Ho.Find out more about JAM Record Bar Photo by Ill GanderUpstairs, USA, by Shane Davis and Francis HarrisThe founders of Brooklyn's "music-driven social space" Public Records added a listening bar and lounge to the upper floor of the creative venue.Undulated walls bounce music around the room from large subwoofer speakers, while cream leather banquettes and black ceramic and foam stools provide space for listeners to sit and choose from a curated selection of records and CDs.Find out more about Upstairs Photo by Rory GardinerGoodbye Horses, UK, by Leopold Banchini Architects"All the elements" of Swiss studio Leopold Banchini Architects' Goodbye Horses wine and listening bar were crafted from a single oak tree, including custom-made shelves that hold records.Located in northeast London's De Beauvoir neighbourhood, Goodbye Horses was designed to reference classic English pubs. The space features a hand-textured lime plaster ceiling and beaten earth flooring, chosen for the material's acoustical properties.Find out more about Goodbye Horses Photo by Nicholas WorleyAnima, Germany, by Grzywinski+PonsAmina is a restaurant and audiophile bar on the ground floor of the Locke at East Side Gallery hotel in Berlin, designed by New York architecture studioGrzywinski+Pons.Created as a dedicated space for music lovers, Amina features a rich material palette with subtle hues. Locally sourced bricks made from recycled sand and lime were used to fabricate built-in seating and planters, while large sandy-hued speakers were nestled on either side of homely white shelving stacked with records.Find out more about Anima Photo by Ollie TomlinsonSpace Talk, UK, by EBBA Architects and Charlotte TaylorLondon studio EBBA Architects collaborated with British designer Charlotte Taylor to create Space Talk, a hi-fi bar in the city's Clerkenwell neighbourhood.Divided into four distinct zones, each area of the bar features a different curation of sound and light to encourage visitors to move through the atmospheric space across an evening. Vintage furniture and objects were paired with acoustic panelling and woodblock columns, forming a distinctly eclectic interior.Find out more about Space Talk This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring light-filled cottages, exposed concrete bedrooms and sculptural stone sinks.The post Seven listening bars that are easy on the eyes and ears appeared first on Dezeen.

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