Archinect - News

Singapore's 13th annual Archifest celebrates craft in architecture

2019-09-30T19:51:00-04:00

Archifest is the Singapore Architectural Festival that began back in 2007. It is "an annual festival for the city to celebrate architecture and the built environment."

The festival is organized by the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) which is a platform "for people from all walks of life to discuss, debate and dream about possibilities surrounding architecture, our city and the built environment at large."

For Archifest 2019, the theme is Craft. An event website poses the following question: "If the broadest definition of craft is about precision that demands laborious attention and skilled handwork, where would we locate it within the realm of architectural production or construction in an age where expediency and efficiency are privileged?"

It's a highly relevant query in today's digital landscape. Throughout the festival the aim will be to explore the idea of craft and "its multi-faceted manifestations through three different allegories, Objects, Time, and Digital, each d...

Dan Ohlmann creates impossibly detailed miniature interiors

2019-05-14T13:28:00-04:00

If you ever find yourself in Lyon, France, you'll want to make time for a visit to the Musée Miniature et Cinéma, one of the city's most peculiar museums. It is most notably for featuring Dan Ohlmann's impeccably detailed 1/10th and 1/12th scale models of architectural interiors.

The Brooklyn Collection Miniature, by Dan Ohlmann.

His models are so realistic, in fact, that the only way their illusions can be broken is by the addition of the artist's body, whether that's a hand adding or removing a piece of furniture, his head poking through to revel in the model's completion, or even his whole body, as he was able to achieve in his rendition of a natural history museum.

Maxims de Paris Miniature, by Dan Ohlmann.

His practice can be likened to that of Thomas Demand, a contemporary German artist that photographs intricate models of architectural spaces. The crucial difference is that while Demand destroys his models after photographing them, Ohlmann proudly displays his behind glass, a...

The challenges of urban planning in Kabul: formalizing the informal

2019-05-13T14:37:00-04:00

Barely built for a million people, Kabul, now has close to five million residents with the majority – 80% – still living in informal, unplanned areas [...]. More than one million properties still need to be officially registered, according to City for All, a government urban planning initiative. [...] But while decades of war have destroyed much of the capital, an urban revolution is growing, creating small pockets of peace.

The Guardian's Stefanie Glinski writes about the efforts residents and the local government in the rapidly growing Afghan capital are taking to cope with the overwhelming urbanization, turn informal settlements into formal ones, set urban planning goals, and rediscover architectural heritage and craftsmanship that has defined the region for centuries.

"I don’t want our children to forget about our historical background," the article quotes an Afghan master carpenter. "Both regime changes and war destroyed our country. As Kabul is growing, many modern buildings are put up carelessly. We can’t forget about our architectural history and its beauty."

Wim Delvoye touches up building equipment with a Gothic spin

2019-04-24T20:43:00-04:00

If our recently published article featuring a computer mouse/Eames chair mashup didn't provoke you, this one might just do the trick. With his series of heavy utility trucks outfitted in Gothic ornament, artist Wim Delvoye conceived of a mashup of two elements nearly a full millennium apart.

Cement Truck, by Wim Delvoye

The series likely came about given a genuine similarity between modern automobiles and Gothic cathedrals; unquestionably, both are marvels of human engineering and craftsmanship; one pursued for the appeasement of a higher being, the other for the satisfaction of a consumptive economy.

Caterpillar no. 5, by Wim Delvoye