Iwan Baan: Moments in Architecture on display at Vitra Museum October 21, 2023 to March 3, 2024. Image of National Taichung Theatre, Taiwan, 2016, Architecture: Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. Image credit: Iwan Baan

In a year marked with highs and lows, the Archinect editorial team has spent another year watching, listening, and reporting on the events of 2023. With the holidays drawing near and the year coming to a close, we pause to extend our gratitude to our dedicated readership and collaborators.

Join us as we reflect on the events of this year, from riveting breakthroughs in the industry to contemplative revelations in professional practice and academia and the moments that left us shaking our heads. For this special feature, we sharing our appreciation for the organizations, projects, events, and individuals that helped shape 2023. 

Josh Niland –– For The Folger Shakespeare Library renovation and expansion

Delayed over the summer due to its complexity, the project had been on track to open this month after a four-year and $80 million renovation. Its authors, KieranTimberlake, buried a new 12,000-square-foot space underneath the footprint of an existing 1932 structure designed by Paul Cret. Two halls of exhibition spaces containing a “visual vault” showcase for the entire First Folio and rest of Henry Clay Folger’s rare book and manuscripts collection forms the focus of their narrative. The firm has talked about its approach in terms of Shakespeare’s own acts of artistic renewal, hoping that 40 years from now their work will have inspired new audiences to find relevance in classrooms and cultural spaces well beyond the Capital half a millennia after its subject was born.

"What we’re doing with this work is to make it anew for a new time and a new age, so that it can go forward,” Partner Stephen Kieran said as part of a presentation held at the National Building Museum last September.

The official opening date in 2024 is still a mystery. I will be thankful then to see a new way of elevating Shakespeare's timeless words to the world’s stage. 

Nial Patrick Walsh –– To Matias Del Campo, for expert input on artificial intelligence

One of Archinect’s most significant editorial undertakings of 2023 was our Archinect In Depth: Artificial Intelligence series. Of the 30+ experts we spoke to as part of this series, Matias Del Campo was the first. Del Campo’s insights, both as the co-founder of the architecture practice SPAN and an associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College, were crucial for setting the tone and agenda for our wider investigation. Meanwhile, Del Campo’s SPAN co-founder Sandra Manninger served as a valued jury member for our Generative Futures ideas competition. The author of one feature in our series, and extensively quoted in another, Del Campo has also led several public-facing initiatives at Taubman of immense value to us and the public. Thank you, Matias, for your input in our editorial series, and your wider contributions to the discourse on architecture and artificial intelligence.

Nathan Bahaduringh –– To the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund’s continued commitment towards the preservation of historical African American sites

In June, the organization announced that $3.8 million in 2023 grant funding would be directed toward the protection of 40 sites representing African-American history. These figures add to the more than $91 million raised and the 242 preservation projects supported by the Action Fund since its launch in 2017.

The year’s announcement includes a commitment of $1.2 million towards the conservation of modernist structures designed by Black architects, which is part of the Conserving Black Modernism partnership led by the Action Fund with support from the Getty Foundation. Additionally, this year’s grant funding will also be directed toward the preservation of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through the organization’s HBCU Cultural Heritage Stewardship Initiative. 

It’s both assuring and inspiring to see African American history, through the lens of the built environment, championed and defended. As stated by the Action Fund’s executive director and National Trust for Historic Preservation senior vice president, Brent Leggs, “The history embodied in these places is emblematic of generational aspirations for freedom, the pursuit of education, a need for beauty and architecture, and joys of social life and community bonds. That’s why the Action Fund believes all Americans must see themselves and our shared history in this year’s grantee list if we are to create a culturally conscious nation.”

I hope this impactful work by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund continues to expand its reach in the years to come.

Katherine Guimapang –– To the Architectural Workers United and those fighting for fair labor practices

Within the industry, the Architectural Workers United (AWU) is assisting in reshaping labor discourse and amplifying professional voices. Advocating for fair labor practices, the group's efforts have rippled across the industry. Archinect recognizes AWU's pivotal role in shaping and reporting on the future of professional practice. This year, firms like Snøhetta, Sage and Coombe Architects, and architecture schools (RISD and University of Michigan Taubman College) pushed for better working conditions. In a nuanced landscape historically cautious about unionization, AWU is one of a handful of groups leading the discussions on workers' rights and fair working conditions. Archinect's ongoing coverage of unionization and labor practices serves as a catalyst for ongoing discourse and the need for reform. Groups like AWU urge practitioners and firms to engage critically with evolving labor dynamics. The organization stands as a beacon in the complex unionization dialogue, propelling the industry toward a more just and equitable future for architectural professionals. Thank you, AWU team, its leaders, and allies for your impact! 

Alexander Walter –– Henning Larsen's 'Changing Our Footprint' exhibition and demonstrated environmental leadership on projects of all scales

Open to the public at Berlin’s Aedes Architecture Forum earlier this year, the exhibition 'Changing Our Footprint' by Henning Larsen gave me a glimmer of hope in a series of news cycles that otherwise relentlessly paint a picture of despair. The show - part education, part exploration - presented various sustainable materials and building methods deployed in the firm's research and built work, including bio-based materials, such as straw-bale, mycelium, and rammed earth, as well as low-carbon concrete and waste-cutting technologies like 3D printing.

Henning Larsen kept impressing throughout the year with a number of completed and newly-announced projects at various scales that put the displayed sustainable principles front and center: a small school building executed in bio-based construction in a Danish village, an ambitious proposal for the reportedly "world’s largest urban construction project in wood" in Stockholm, in conjunction with White Arkitekter, an enormous green-roofed mass timber logistics center for retail giant Bestseller in the Netherlands, and detailing the computational design process behind Gothenburg's forthcoming mass timber 'World of Volvo' center.

If you missed 'Changing Our Footprint' in Berlin and still wish to be inspired, the exhibition just traveled to Copenhagen and is now on display at the Danish Architecture Center through March 3, 2024.

Paul Petrunia  –– For Longevity; 26 Years of Archinect

We tend to celebrate milestones relatively quietly here at Archinect. Our twenty-fifth anniversary last year came and went with not much more than a celebratory toast among our team. On this Thanksgiving, I want to express my immense gratitude for our community's support as we continue into the last half of our third decade. Things have changed quite a lot on Archinect since we launched in 1997, in the early days of the internet, as the first online architecture community. One thing that hasn't changed, however, is your commitment to our platform. Whether you've been with us from the start or recently joined our community, your contributions, interactions, and feedback have shaped Archinect into what it is today. Thank you for being an integral part of our story, for every click, every read, and every shared thought. Here's to continuing our journey together, fostering a vibrant and dynamic architectural community for many years to come.