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Architectural Review, The, Oct, 2000

Sites based in two of the world's most exciting architectural cultures have very different approaches to content.

Design Meeting Point

www.designmp.com

Spanish-based, the website Design Meeting Point is accessible in both English and its native language. In the main, it is intended for architects, designers of all kinds, photographers and academics. It covers current news of exhibitions and events, has a diary, and catalogues of links and products.

The products are particularly well organized. Look up furniture for instance, and you will be offered ranges including 'home', 'office', 'street' and so on. Under 'office', further categories of chairs, desks and other furniture types are offered. When the type is chosen, a range emerges, with each item clearly illustrated and a link to the manufacturer given. Entries of all kinds are heavily biased to Spain, although there are diary dates, competitions and conferences from other places as well. Directories of links and professional firms are provided, although these are no more than lists of physical and electronic addresses.

ArchiNed

www.archined.nl/welcome.html

Contemporary architecture in the Netherlands is the subject of ArchiNed, which gives a remarkably systematic and comprehensive survey of all the usual fields to be found in national websites: news, museums and galleries, professional directories with links, schools, products, publications and so on. In Dutch (mostly translated into English), the site also acts as a job centre, and a diary of events (lectures, competitions, exhibitions). There are many links to useful websites, both in the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Summaries of recent articles in Dutch architecture magazines are given, and new books are reviewed, as are controversial new buildings and projects like MVRDV's Hanover Expo Pavilion (AR September 2000). A remarkable search engine allows sophisticated (and, if necessary) messy enquiries -- for example you can find all the most recent news references to van Berkel & Bos or Rem Koolhaas (seven pages of the latter). The only problem seems to be tardiness in updating. When I consulted the site in mid September, there were still references to events in July in the current news section.