Archinect - News

An open letter to Milan's Mayor about his dismissal of Stefano Boeri

2013-03-27T12:06:00-04:00

Open letter to Giuliano Pisapia, Mayor of Milan, from the international community of arts & culture...

Dear Mayor Pisapia,

It is with regret and disappointment that we learn that Stefano Boeri was dismissed from his position as Councillor for Design, Fashion and Culture for the city of Milan.

Thanks to the energy and commitment of Boeri, and despite the deepening of the gravest crisis to have faced Italy since the postwar years, since 2011 Milan has succeded in projecting an image of renewed cultural vibrancy and dynamism onto the international stage. Thanks to Boeri's many initiatives—citywide events such as Book City and Piano City, or international exhibitions of internationally renowned artists such as the Marina Abramovic, Picasso, Bramantino, Alberto Garutti and Jeff Wall—Milan had finally succeeded in reaffirming itself forcefully on the international stage as an epicentre of art, design, fashion and culture.

Mayor Giuliano Pisapia

This unmotivated dismissal de...

R.I.P. - Rajib Haider

2013-02-22T01:01:00-05:00

Tens of thousands of people resumed mass demonstrations in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, on Saturday, intensifying their demands for more severe punishment for war criminals from the country’s 1971 liberation war, while also demanding justice for the slaying of Rajib Haider, an architect and blogger, who had been a leading organizer of the protests.

Students Seize Cooper Union Room to Protest Possible Tuition

2012-12-03T20:08:00-05:00

Twelve students barricaded themselves inside an eighth-floor room at the top of the Cooper Union Foundation Building at noon on Monday to urge the school not to begin charging tuition to undergraduates. The school has not made a decision on charging tuition for undergraduates. But in April, it decided to begin charging tuition to graduate students for the first time in its 110-year history.

Lone Chinese home destroyed; farmer accepts deal

2012-12-03T11:32:00-05:00

Authorities have demolished a five-story home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main road and had become the latest symbol of resistance by Chinese homeowners against officials accused of offering unfair compensation. Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai told The Associated Press the house was bulldozed Saturday after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation of 260,000 yuan ($41,000).

Previously: Chinese Highway builds around "Nail House" protesting development

Chinese Highway builds around "Nail House" protesting development

2012-11-25T13:00:00-05:00

Luo Baogen and his wife are the lone holdouts from a neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the main thoroughfare heading to a newly built railway station on the outskirts of the city of Wenling in Zhejiang province. "Nail house" families occasionally have resorted to violence. Some homeowners have set themselves on fire in protests. Often, they keep 24-hour vigils because developers will shy away from bulldozing homes when people are inside.

Local architects power Winnipeg’s reinvigorated design

2012-10-19T20:32:00-04:00

Like the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, there’s a compelling confluence of urban activists standing next to each other on the sidewalk of Portage Avenue in downtown Winnipeg. To my right is a group of First Nations flood evacuees protesting (politely) against cuts to their daily living allowance. To my left, below the gleaming, mirror-polished aluminum balconies of the Avenue on Portage mixed-use development...

50 Years Ago, Sharply Dressed Protesters Stood Up for a Train Station They Revered

2012-08-01T13:57:00-04:00

The architects Peter Samton and Diana Goldstein can tell you exactly where they were a half century ago, at 5 p.m. on Aug. 2, 1962: out on Seventh Avenue, tilting at windmills. Pennsylvania Station, the McKim, Mead & White masterpiece, was doomed. They knew it. But they weren’t going to let it go down undefended.

In protest, the power of place

2011-10-15T22:09:29-04:00

We tend to underestimate The political power of physical places. Then Tahir Square comes along. Now it is Zucotti Park.

Going Bald For Ai Weiwei: A Righteous Head-Shaving Performance Sharpens Debate Over Milwaukee Museum's Collaboration With China

2011-06-08T20:29:58-04:00

Forget petitions: art professionals are showing their support for detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in increasingly creative ways. Last week, Milwaukee-based Mike Brenner shaved his head into a style reminiscent of Ai's outside the Milwaukee Art Museum as a show of support for the artist, who has been missing for over two months.

Ai Weiwei’s Face Projected onto Chinese Consulate

2011-05-24T11:37:22-04:00

One of Ai Weiwei’s better known works is “Study of Perspective,” a series of first-person photographs in which the artist gives the finger to various landmarks around the world, including the Forbidden City. A Cuban artist recently made a similar gesture, projecting a massive portrait of Mr. Ai along the side of the Chinese consulate building in New York City.