Archinect - News

John Southern unpacks the role of the skyscraper in the 21st century city at a new exhibition at Jai & Jai Gallery

2016-11-03T17:57:00-04:00

In the public imaginary, skyscrapers represent something like the pinnacle of architecture. Cities compete to have the tallest. The most iconic become keychains. Tourists wait for hours—and forfeit cash—to climb to their tops. But according to John Southern of Urban Operations, there is something deeply sinister about the skyscraper and its role in the contemporary city.

“If the early modernist skyscraper proposals of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe were attempts at utopian urbanity and aesthetic prowess, then today’s towers reflect a darker, more nihilistic attitude toward spatial democracy,” writes Southern in a text accompanying his new exhibit Hot on the Heels of Love: Sensational Speculations, which opens this Saturday at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles.

“Packed with every experience and function, and produced in almost every shape and material finish imaginable, the contemporary skyscraper has become a disaffected breeding ground for neoliberal proposals, which reject the op...

Next Up Mini-Session #6: a panel discussion with Dry Futures jurors

2015-11-04T15:32:00-05:00

Tomorrow (!!!) we'll premiere season two of Archinect Sessions, and in anticipation of the launch, we've been posting Mini-Sessions – interviews recorded during our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here. We'll also be launching a brand new podcast soon.

For our last Mini-Session recorded at Jai & Jai, we spoke with a panel of jurors from Archinect's Dry Futures competition, featuring: Charles Anderson of werk, Hadley Arnold of the Arid Lands Institute, Ian Quate and Colleen Tuite of GRNASFCK (who joined us via Skype), and Peter Zellner of Zellner Naecker Architects LLP. The winners had been announced just a few days prior.

Listen to the "Next Up" interview with select Dry Futures jurors:

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Next Up Mini-Session #5: Marcelo Spina of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S

2015-11-03T15:29:00-05:00

Leading up to (and continuing after) the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on November 5, we're posting individual interviews as Mini-Sessions from our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here. We'll also be launching another brand new podcast soon.

Here you can listen to our fifth Next Up Mini-Session with Marcelo Spina of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S. More Mini-Sessions will be released in the coming days, and remember to subscribe to Archinect Sessions to not miss an episode!

Listen to the "Next Up" interview with Marcelo Spina of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S:

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Next Up Mini-Session #4: Andrew Atwood and Anna Neimark of First Office

2015-11-02T16:30:00-05:00

If you couldn't join us during our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, then good news – you can still listen to the over four hours of live interviews we recorded. Leading up to the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on Thursday, November 5, we'll be releasing them as individual "Mini-Sessions". We'll also be launching another brand new podcast soon. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.

So please enjoy our fourth Next Up Mini-Session, an interview with Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood of First Office. More Mini-Sessions will be released in the coming days, and remember to subscribe to Archinect Sessions to not miss an episode!

Listen to the "Next Up" interview with Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood of First Office:

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
Apple Podcast App ...

Next Up Mini-Session #3: a panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai

2015-11-01T13:30:00-05:00

After accumulating over four hours of live interviews from our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we're now letting them go, one by one. Leading up to the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on Thursday, November 5, we'll be releasing them as "Mini-Sessions". We'll also be launching another brand new podcast soon.

Without further ado, please enjoy our third Next Up Mini-Session, a panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai. We'll be sharing more Mini-Sessions in the coming days, and remember to subscribe to Archinect Sessions to not miss an episode! You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.

Listen to our "Next Up" panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai:

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
Apple Po...

Archinect presents Next Up: Podcasting the Future of Architecture at Jai & Jai Gallery, Sat. Sept. 19!

2015-09-10T12:15:00-04:00

Archinect is pleased to invite you to the first iteration of a two-part live-podcasting event, Next Up, at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles! From 7-9PM on Saturday, September 19, we’ll be conducting a series of live interviews, panels, and talks with local architects at the forefront of a rapidly changing field.

Today, architecture is in the midst of a radical transformation and expansion as it adapts to unprecedented changes in the environment, technology, economy, and social spheres. Next Up is the first of an ongoing conversation with some of the figures helping to shape that change, and their take on the forces predicating it.

In Los Angeles, perhaps no issue more dramatically pertains to our urban future than water scarcity. Join us as we address the on-going California drought with the first public announcement of the winners of our Dry Futures competition alongside a conversation with the jurors.

In an adjacent space, we’re screening a series of video works by architects ...

Art + Architecture: Jimenez Lai's 'Beachside Lonelyhearts' at Jai & Jai Gallery

2015-07-08T19:35:00-04:00

“Is there a line between architecture and art?” Sylvia Lavin, the influential architecture critic and scholar, asked Jimenez Lai, the architect-cum-artist, during a “Pillowtalk” reopening of his ongoing exhibit at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles. It’s a question that hovers over the rest of their open conversation, documented in videos posted below, as well as the show itself.

Beachside Lonelyhearts is the name of Lai’s immersive art installation, but it also encompasses what could be considered a durational performance or an architectural intervention. In fact, it’s a show that seems to inevitably precipitate such reflections about the status and relevance of genre distinctions – in no small part because of the distinction-defying oeuvres of both the artist and the gallery.

On the other hand, it’s an installation that has the capacity to grip you in its dizzying embrace, initiating a momentary lapse into a near-fugue state as you’re overcome by its byzantine array of black lines an...