An Interview with Frank Gehry, Who Turns 90 Today, Upon Receiving the Neutra Award for Professional Excellence, Thu, Feb 28 '19

Over the course of his career, Frank Gehry, who turns 90 today, has become a household name, achieving a level of architectural stardom rivaled by few, if any. Honoring this impressive legacy, Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Architecture recognized Gehry earlier this month with the Richard ...

A Conversation with Guy Nordenson, Recipient of the 2017 Richard Neutra Award , Thu, Dec 14 '17

On October 9th Guy Nordenson was presented with the 2017 Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence from the Cal Poly Pomona Department of Architecture. Established in honor of Richard Neutra's architectural legacy, the medal recognizes individuals for their dedication to ...

Spec Houses from the Future; an Interview with LA-Based Design-Builders Domaen, Wed, Oct 25 '17

Domaen is a versatile, multi-disciplinary, and comprehensive service company based in Los Angeles. Two partners, Chris Lowe and Axel Schmitzberger, are the driving engines of the firm. I had met with Axel at one of their construction sites and had the following conversation.

How to Inject Poetry into Architecture: Carme Pinós in Conversation with Orhan Ayyüce, Tue, Jan 10 '17

Can architecture be both poetic and serve the needs of the people who use it? That’s the question that orients this conversation between Orhan Ayyuce and Carme Pinós, the award-winning Spanish architect. Conducted at the former home of the famed architect Richard Neutra—what is ...

It's the Culture, Stupid: curatorial statement for the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, from executive director George Brugmans , Sat, Jul 9 '16

It all started January 2010 when I first interviewed the director of International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam George Brugmans for Archinect. Since then, our relationship developed and I closely followed his work at IABR which I find arguably the most serious biennale concerning urbanism ...

Los Angeles, the Industrial City, Wed, Apr 13 '16

L.A. the INDUSTRIAL CITY is vast and beautiful. To drive from downtown to Port of Los Angeles on Alameda Corridor is a railroad state of mind and these are some of its stations. 

Touching Base with Volkan Alkanoglu, Tue, Apr 21 '15

"Touching Base" is a series of mini-interviews meant to expose, promote and occasionally burn highly talented people in architecture, who are working outside of the mainstream's limelight.

Interview: José Oubrerie, Fri, Apr 11 '14

I met with José Oubrerie in February at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and later we drove to the Schindler House on Kings Road. He was in town for the book launch of Et in Suburbia Ego: José Oubrerie’s Miller House edited by Todd Gannon. The following is our conversation.

Slow Weather of Architecture, Wed, Sep 4 '13

Larry Totah died few years ago. All his close friends, including me, have seen him wither away, but he managed to keep an encompassing fog around his demise as if his architecture was going to survive in it, and it did.Only then but not now. It remained there not frozen but still, not void nor ...

NEXT SERIES: And The List Goes On, Tue, Aug 13 '13

Speed of architectural style trends finally caught up with speed of fashion about 1 to 1. It took long years during modernism that a particular form would find its place in present design mainstream because it was pretty well established by the Bauhaus and other white wall-ers and the elite still ...

NEXT SERIES: Media Specialist Wanted, Wed, Apr 10 '13

In architectural media, what it used to be "there is no such thing as bad publicity" in the prime print years, has turned into "puffery is the only publicity" in the age of social media and infinite promotion. There might be some flickers of hope here and there for intelligent criticism, but ...

Archinect Interviews George Brugmans, IABR - Part 3, São Paulo, Rotterdam and Beyond, Wed, Jan 30 '13

Continuation of Orhan Ayyüce's interview with George Brugmans, Executive Director of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR). Previously: PART 1, Making City and PART 2, Arnavutköy, Istanbul

Archinect Interviews George Brugmans, IABR - Part 2, Arnavutköy, Istanbul, Mon, Jan 28 '13

Continuation of Orhan Ayyüce's interview with George Brugmans, Executive Director of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR). Previously: PART 1, Making City

Archinect Interviews George Brugmans, IABR - Part 1, Making City, Wed, Jan 23 '13

“I do not believe in throwing good stuff away. Every IABR edition builds on earlier editions. We refocus, change perspective, pick up new elements; we re-use and reconfigure, and then we scramble and stir. Compared to most other Biennales, we’re poor and small, so we have to be smart, not ...

Fishing for Architecture with John Lurie, Wed, Jan 16 '13

I became familiar with the work of John Lurie in mid 80's when a friend put in a cassette tape during an intoxicating balmy night on Aegean coast of Turkey with meandering sounds of Lounge Lizards mixing into the starry skies above. Since then, I have listened to more of his music, watched the ...

UpStarts: FreelandBuck, Mon, Aug 13 '12

FreelandBuck is an architectural design practice based in New York and Los Angeles affiliated with Yale School of Architecture, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) and Woodbury University. The office focuses on research and design, exploring the overlap between ...

Soriano's Glen Lukens House: Back to Life and Happy, Thu, Jul 26 '12

Opportunities to write about historically significant modern houses in Los Angeles keep coming to my attention this summer and more are on the way. It is kind of fun to write about these masterpieces from my messy office alcove next to the kitchen in our little happy dingbat apartment in ...

Lautner's Concannon Residence, from Dust to Dust, Mon, Jul 2 '12

John Lautner's Concannon Residence, designed in 1960, was built in a blurry area contested by the cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, with BH having the post office address but not collecting the property taxes. Both cities have a sad track record with the protection of historically ...

Tadao Ando Interview: 20 Minutes with a Master, Mon, Apr 23 '12

I can easily point to Tadao Ando's work as one of my earliest sources of inspiration, pulling me toward a life embedded in architecture. The powerful simplicity of his forms has always seemed to me, to represent an understanding far greater than that of the built environment alone. A few weeks ...

NEXT SERIES: FASTER PUSSYCAT CITY, Wed, Mar 21 '12

I used to be more intrigued by the voodoo goat head in New Orleans, but lately, cities designed in few charrette hours became more of a curiosity. I like the ones that twirl but I even developed a particular taste for those 20 ft. square ones on pedestals attended by architecture students, their ...

NEXT SERIES: RADAR LOVE, Thu, Dec 29 '11

Something happened somewhere and I am having a hard time writing anything about any of the stuff I see in the media about architecture, public space, occupy, theory of architecture, urbanism... Including most everything I say I am interested in my 'about' section. Just months ago I was ...

Journey to Lovell Beach House, R.M. Schindler, 1926, Mon, Oct 17 '11

Lovell Beach House, one of the pioneering monuments to modern houses in Southern California, sits there on the corner lot in Newport Beach, still the most radically configured architecture on the block and still holding its own ground as one of the most important examples of what would later ...

Review: Shannon Ebner, &, Verses in Urban Art, Mon, Jul 25 '11

Shannon Ebner: and, per se and, 2011 Painted wood, steel, aluminum, light emitting diodes, photovoltaic solar cells, 12 volt battery
 Jul 15 - Oct 9, 2011 Through a collaboration with the City of Culver City, the Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission, and the Culver City ...

NEXT SERIES: ARCHITECTURE JURY, A Factual and Fictional Manual , Tue, May 31 '11

To spectators, the architecture jury critics might mean deities if they don't know they are not. In fact, some students know this but it is a best kept secret so they can stand back and watch the divine comedy folding out on the first rows of their presentation. Not all students take ...

Review: Central Park at Playa Vista by Michael Maltzan Architects, Wed, Apr 27 '11

Placed near the east end of continuously expanding Playa Vista, a mixed use development with the marketing strategies and lifestyles of loosely called New Urbanist or thereabouts genre, the newly opened “Central Park“ could be described with the words of my film maker friend as a “designer ...

A Conversation with Michael Woo, Thu, Apr 7 '11

By Orhan Ayyüce   Michael Woo is the dean of California Polytechnic University, Pomona the College of Environmental Design which contains departments of Architecture, Art, Landscape Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, and the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies. He ...

Coy Howard Interview, Tue, Oct 12 '10

Coy Howard’s Ellen and Jay McCafferty House in San Pedro was built in 1980, just around the pivotal, transforming times in California architecture. This is when experimentation with form and materials inspired the whole generation of architects as fresh ideas were beaming from Los Angeles. Group ...

NEXT SERIES: APARTMENT STORIES , Tue, Jun 22 '10

Sitting in my architectural ‘writing studio’ thinking that I have nothing to say, no books to write, no gossipy quarters to spread the word, no invitations from prestigious magazines who publish noteworthy architectural projects and noteworthy opinion pieces written by noteworthy ...

OLE BOUMAN: On Survival, Tue, Mar 16 '10

As well as being the director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) and many other things, Ole Bouman is contributing editor of the journal Volume , which is jointly produced by Archis Foundation , AMO (the research bureau of OMA) and the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and ...

NEXT SERIES: TWINS, Fri, Feb 12 '10

Sitting in my architectural ‘writing studio’ thinking that I have nothing to say, no books to write, no gossipy quarters to spread the word, no invitations from prestigious magazines who publish noteworthy architectural projects and noteworthy opinion pieces written by noteworthy ...

Interview with George Brugmans, Director – International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, Mon, Jan 18 '10

In many ways architecture is evolving into a discipline which it does not quite understand yet. As practitioners, academics, and critics try to define and chart these emergent conditions of the new urban reality, the current popular architectural practice is increasingly becoming inadequate and ...

Meeting Mike Davis, Mon, Oct 12 '09

Mike Davis and I met on a summer day in San Diego. He graciously drove his truck and showed me his collection of “interesting sites” he planned for us to see in the area. As we were visiting those places, we talked about variety of subjects.

UpStarts: SUPERPOOL, Tue, Sep 15 '09

Selva Gürdoğan, Architect (born 1979, Turkey. 2003 graduate from Sci-Arc, USA) and Gregers Tang Thomsen, Architect (born 1974, Denmark. 2003 graduate from Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark) founded Superpool in Istanbul in 2006. They met at Rem Koolhaas’ studio Office for Metropolitan ...

CONSTELLATIONS OF LOS ANGELES, Thu, Apr 2 '09

Random Memory: The Master of Rugtown, Tue, Dec 2 '08

ISTANBUL ISTANBUL, Mon, Jul 28 '08

Built on many layers of past empires and having shed glorious names like Byzantium, Constantinople and Stambuli, Istanbul is a much contested territory at the moment by foreign and domestic investors and by the international architects playing the we-know-how card. The city's regain of rock star ...

Conversation with Peter Cook on the State of Things, Mon, Jun 16 '08

If I didn’t sit on a jury with a great educator like Sir Peter Cook, in USC the day before, perhaps this conversation would never materialize. Most certainly, the comments inserted during that studio review made me wanting to talk with Sir Peter Cook on the state of the architectural ...

Eric Owen Moss: Untitled, Wed, Apr 16 '08

I went to Culver City the day before my interview with Eric Owen Moss. I needed to see what the architect was doing or done, and why it got attention. EOM Architects’ business campus commissioned by Samitaur Development is easy to write off as architect gone mad. The place is like the ...

Neutra's VDL House; v. Hard Times , Mon, Mar 17 '08

Home Front Invasion Wartime Interview with Mark Mothersbaugh, Tue, Dec 25 '07

Review: Public Space LA! It’s Not Just a Visionary Thing Anymore and Re-Introducing 'La Citta Capitalista', Mon, Nov 5 '07

Los Angeles is pregnant. Ultrasound says it is going to be an urban baby. Sure to be a hyperactive child who has been punching mother's womb relentlessly since its inception. We do not know who the father is. They say, he might be an action-type of dude who likes dense urban environments and ...

Neil Denari @ work., Wed, Sep 19 '07

Thom Mayne in 'Coffee Break', Fri, Jul 20 '07

Transversing Michael Rotondi, Fri, Mar 9 '07

Archinect Travels: Izmir, Turkey, Mon, Dec 18 '06

by Orhan Ayyuce Even though they call it the pearl of Aegean Sea, Izmir is no ivory colored postcard. Early on the city surrounded its bay like a necklace all right, but later morphed into a collar first and shortly after, the whole shirt. Mass immigration, increased birth rates and unplanned ...

Silica Boy: A Photo-Novella by Orhan Ayyuce, Tue, Oct 24 '06

AIA06 Diary: An Architect Goes Towards the Edge, Wed, Jun 14 '06