Archinect - News

Gia Wolff wins $100,000 Wheelwright Prize

2013-05-17T18:46:00-04:00

Gia Wolff, Brooklyn-based architect, wins $100,000 travel grant for her proposal Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats

Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, is pleased to announce that Gia Wolff, an architect based in Brooklyn, New York, is the winner of the inaugural Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 traveling fellowship dedicated to fostering new forms of architectural research informed by cross-cultural engagement.

The Wheelwright Prize jury—Mostafavi, Yung Ho Chang, Farès el-Dahdah, K. Michael Hays, Farshid Moussavi, Zoe Ryan, and Jorge Silvetti—selected Gia Wolff from among 231 applicants from 45 countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, and Spain. Applicants were asked to submit portfolios along with a research proposal and travel itinerary, outlining an extended field investigation and its anticipated benefits for the field of architecture. “The positive response to the Wheelwright Prize has been extraordinary,” said Mostafavi. “It is inspiring to see so many talented architects with clear agendas...

Harvard Graduate School of Design: Ecological Urbanism App

2012-11-09T13:10:00-05:00

The Ecological Urbanism app adapts content from the GSD’s book of the same name for a tablet. Much more than an ebook, it’s an entirely new way of looking at the information interactively. With the majority of the world’s population expected to live in cities by the year 2050, Ecological Urbanism addresses the expanding practice of sustainable design. A timely evolution of the book, this iPad app visualizes the growing body of discourse surrounding the design and management of cities

2012 Curry Stone Design Prize Winners Announced

2012-10-24T20:46:00-04:00

The Curry Stone Foundation has announced the winners of the 2012 Curry Stone Design Prize. In a departure from previous years, and in honor of the fifth anniversary of the Prize, five winners will share the award equally, each recognized with $25,000 for their work as social design pioneers.

An awards ceremony will take place on November 15, 2012, at Harvard Graduate School of Design, followed the next day with a forum of presentations by the 2012 winners and panel discussions with a curated group of respondents. The awards ceremony and daylong forum are free and open to the public.

Video of Toyo Ito's lecture, "What Was Metabolism? Reflections on the Life of Kiyonori Kikutake"

2012-10-18T12:46:00-04:00

The Metabolist Movement in the 1960s established the foundation from which contemporary architecture in Japan has emerged up to the present. Even today, the visionary architectural and urban projects created by the leading Metabolist Kiyonori Kikutake continue to shine brightly, according to Toyo Ito. In this lecture, he will consider Metabolism’s significance today through his rereading of Kikutake's works of that time.

After March 11th, Kengo Kuma's Lecture at GSD

2012-10-11T18:21:00-04:00

The great disaster of March 11, 2011 differed from any other catastrophe since the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. In the age of advanced technology and "strong" buildings, the tsunami flattened Tohoku coastline in seconds. The nuclear accident that followed further revealed the vulnerability of "big and strong" architecture. In the face of radiation, materials such as concrete and steel were insufficient, even though nuclear energy had been a solution for our drive to be bigger, stronger...

To follow up with Lian's exceptional, as always, live coverage of Kuma's lecture, we present you with the video.

Marc Simmons, "Process Performance"

2012-04-06T18:34:00-04:00

With the firm Front, in which he is a Partner, Marc Simmons has collaborated on projects with OMA, Asymptote Architecture, ARO, Beyer Blinder Belle, Gehry Partners, Herzog & De Meuron, Kengo Kuma, KPF, Mack Scogin Merril Elam Architects, Renzo Piano, Sejima + Nishizawa Associates, Steven Holl Architects, Toshiko Mori, and many other architects. His lecture will explore themes in his recent work, including the speculative and experimental potential of the facade specialist.

Via Lian's GSD blog

Architecture school confidential

2012-02-06T13:34:00-05:00

A heartbreaking tale of sleepless nights, severed fingers, and a shitload of hard work

From the School Blogs: Live Blog TONIGHT at 6:30pm: Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of NYC Department of Transportation

2011-09-15T16:47:00-04:00

Janette Sadik-Khan, the New York City Department of Transportation Comissioner, is speaking in front of the golden curtain tonight at 6:30 pm, as part of the Roadmap to Sustainable Infrastructures & Green Cities Conference. I'll be live blogging here!

From the School Blogs: Live Blog: Naginski, Jarzombek, Savage, and Wodiczko on Memory, Vision, and Practice

2011-09-13T19:58:00-04:00

Live-blogging tonight from Piper Auditorium, where we have a new gold lamé curtain. Krzysztof Wodiczko, Erika Naginski, Mark Jarzombek, and Kirk Savage are talking in an event marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

From the School Blogs: Schmancy new website for the GSD

2011-08-29T14:36:00-04:00

Just a quick note to say that it looks like the GSD's new website, which has been in the works for the past few years, is live! I haven't even looked through it yet, but you can check it out here. The site is designed by Pentagram.

From the School Blogs: Arigatou gozaimasu, Mohsen-sama!

2011-08-27T19:25:22-04:00

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to this semester’s Paris studio offering, we have made plans to continue the Study Abroad Program in Tokyo for the Spring 2012 term. Toyo Ito will instruct the studio, focusing on the tsunami-hit area of Japan.

From the School Blogs: Gund Hall is Naked

2011-08-22T11:26:00-04:00

Like everyone else who's heading back to school this fall, I'm not yet prepared to let go of summer. There are so many things I wanted to do but haven't yet done! I just need a bit more time. I'm not ready yet!

From the School Blogs: Slow summer...slummer

2011-08-18T12:43:08-04:00

Do you remember when you took driving lessons and the teacher said to be particularly careful about your speed when you're exiting a highway, because you've adjusted to its high speeds? Same thing here, the other way around. And the lazy pace of a summer of glorious unemployment surely also helps, but a walk to the gym, to the river, or to see friends a few blocks away is enough for me at the moment.

From the School Blogs: On Loyalties Divided (re: sacking of Michael Jemtrud at McGill)

2011-06-26T12:03:36-04:00

An institution isn't just a logo, a set of buildings and protocols, and the legal and economic capacity to grant degrees, hire employees, and command public attention. It's not a means to an end—a place where you cough up your time, money, and effort in exchange for other goods, such as credentials or a salary. An institution is built on traditions, community, and relationships built one at a time between the people who make themselves a part of it. It is a family, of sorts.

In the School Blogs: HKGBOS: a collaborative photo project with School Blogger Andreas Viglakis

2011-05-31T14:18:36-04:00

And, well, now I'm in the hospital after a bicycle accident yesterday, waiting for surgery on my foot, ankle, and leg. Luckily I didn't hurt anything else. But you can follow my progress, in all the gory details, over the next few weeks at HKGBOS.

Get well soon Lian!

Live Blog: Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron

2011-05-05T18:10:00-04:00

Jacques Herzog: I don't believe in books on architecture; they're bound to fail and disappear even sooner than architecture...which can last for hundreds of years [before disappearing]. Not that I don't respect people who write books.

New UG Architecture Concentration Planned at GSD

2011-04-23T14:24:09-04:00

Harvard’s Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Graduate School of Design are developing a new undergraduate concentration in architectural studies planned to be offered for the first time in the fall of 2012.

Korean Dance-Off and Cory Booker

2011-04-15T20:10:06-04:00

Korea GSD hosts one of the very best Beer and Dogs* events of the year because they prepare Korean food and a dance performance. This year, the Graduate School of Education (GSE) also sent a group to perform.