Archinect - Features

The Brutalist Is a Cinematic Reflection of Brutalism

2024-12-21T00:20:00-05:00

Brutalist architecture is raw, powerful, emotional, and unapologetically honest. It rejects ornamentation and architectural devices designed to make its inhabitants feel comfortable, instead creating a visceral, primal experience. Brutalism is a feeling—a bold statement that doesn’t need to justify itself. Composed of raw, unrefined materials, it strips architecture down to its essence, evoking reactions that are often as extreme as the style itself. These are some of the reasons why I personally love brutalism, and perhaps also why I found myself captivated by The Brutalist.

To delve deeper into the mindset of the fictional architect, László Tóth, and his work, I spoke with Adrien Brody, the film’s lead actor, and Judy Becker, its visionary production designer. Their insights illuminate the emotional and symbolic layers behind this unique cinematic endeavor.

USC Students Try a ‘Bottom-Up’ Approach To Sustainable Housing Delivery in the School of Architecture’s Adaptive P/Re-Use Studios

2024-12-20T16:00:00-05:00

Our latest Archinect Studio Pin-Ups takes a look at three studios at Archinect Partner School USC School of Architecture, offered as part of their one-year Master of Advanced Architectural Research Studies (M.AARS) postgraduate program.

Led by instructors Julia Sulzer and Sascha Delz, the Adaptive P/Re-use studios explored new possibilities for adaptive reuse schemes and non-speculative housing models as weapons to combat the crises of affordable housing and accessible urban services in Los Angeles.

The results showcase the greater need for deep sustainability, resilient design, zoning reforms, and more inclusive and democratic economic systems. A report was produced as part of one studio, and students learning under Sulzer's Spring 2024 offering collectively designed a 1-1 intervention using the adaptive p/re-use design ideas they produced in the previous term.

Upcoming Architecture School Admission Deadlines You Shouldn’t Miss

2024-12-17T08:00:00-05:00

As 2024 winds down, there’s still time to apply to architecture programs! Many schools are accepting undergraduate and graduate applications through January and February 2025 (and some even beyond that).

If you’re planning to start your architecture journey in Fall '25, check out key deadlines, including those from seven featured Archinect Partner Schools.

How Computing Transformed Architectural Visualization

2024-12-12T08:00:00-05:00

Over the past seven decades, the invention and evolution of computing technology have had a profound and transformative impact on the field of architectural visualization. From early computer-aided design (CAD) software to today's photorealistic 3D rendering, virtual reality, and generative AI tools, the advent of digital architectural visualization has offered the profession the means to produce imagery faster and cheaper than the exclusively analog visualizations of previous centuries.

Moreover, computing has enabled such visuals to be produced at an increasingly intuitive, accessible level; while the entry-level skills required to generate architectural visuals plummets, the photorealistic quality of such visuals soars.

In this latest edition of Archinect In-Depth: Visualization, we explore how advances in computing from sectors beyond architecture, from aviation to art, mechanics to media, were adopted, shaped, and molded by architects throughout the 20th and 21st century in th...

AI, Climate, and Advice for the Next Generation: Watch Our Roundtable with SCI-Arc Program Chairs

2024-12-11T11:55:00-05:00

In November 2024, Archinect brought together four program chairs from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) for a wide-ranging roundtable conversation.

The questions up for debate and discussion were among the most pressing facing the architectural community, be it in education, practice, or beyond: What will the impact of artificial intelligence be on the profession? How do we respond to the built environment's contributions to climate change? What issues are we not talking about enough? What advice can we give to the next generation?

The roundtable discussion, edited for clarity, is available to watch and read below.

Architecture Business Metrics Begin To Turn Positive: Archinect’s State of AEC November 2024

2024-12-02T13:55:00-05:00

Welcome to the sixth installment of Archinect's series, State of AEC. At the end of each month, we will guide you through the latest analyses, indexes, and trends on how the architecture and construction industries are performing economically.

Throughout the past month, several key indicators related to architectural business have either stabilized or turned positive, counteracting a year of largely negative numbers. The AIA's Architecture Billings Index marginally turned positive for the first time in almost two years, while billings also increased in firms located in the South region and in firms specializing in institutional projects. For some commentators, such numbers are the early shoots of a more positive economic landscape expected in 2025.

Read our full roundup of the month's economic and business figures below and find out more about how the business health of the architecture profession is faring via our recently released survey results here.

From the Editors: What We're Thankful for in 2024

2024-11-28T08:00:00-05:00

As we bid farewell to 2024, the Archinect editorial team reflects on a year filled with pivotal moments, challenges, and milestones. Through it all, we've been privileged to observe, document, and engage with the ever-evolving world of architecture and design. The incredible work, voices, and contributions of our community have shaped this year.

With the holiday season upon us and the year drawing to a close, we want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude. Join us as we celebrate and share what we're most thankful for in 2024.

Archinect's 2024 Mental Health Survey Results: 11 Key Takeaways

2024-11-21T12:01:00-05:00

On October 10th, we marked World Mental Health Day by launching Archinect's 2024 Mental Health Survey. Over 120 people participated, sharing their experiences of the past year, where mental health issues are arising from, and what steps they are taking to improve their own mental health.

This year’s survey results reveal both progress and persistent challenges. While 2023 highlighted an increasing awareness and openness about mental health, the 2024 findings emphasize a continued struggle with stressors such as workload, compensation, and burnout. Notably, the stigma around mental health discussions has further diminished, with many participants reporting improved comfort in seeking support. However, the data also underscores significant gaps in institutional resources and support systems.

Compared to last year, the community shows incremental improvements in mental health metrics, with a higher proportion of respondents ranking their mental health above average. Yet, the ongoing pr...

Meet NYIT School of Architecture & Design's New Faculty Members

2024-11-19T15:00:00-05:00

The School of Architecture and Design at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), with campuses in New York City and Old Westbury, Long Island, delivers a technology-driven, design-focused education across its Architecture, Interior Design, and Digital Art & Design programs.

As part of Archinect's School Partners initiative, the spotlight turns to eighteen distinguished faculty members and their objectives for advancing academic and professional excellence in the 2024/25 academic year.

Get To Know Tulane School of Architecture’s Newest Faculty Cohort

2024-11-15T08:30:00-05:00

With the new 2024/25 academic year in full swing, we are taking a moment to introduce fifteen newly appointed permanent faculty members at the Tulane School of Architecture (TuSA), one of Archinect’s School Partners.

The new tenure and tenure-track faculty bring expertise across Architecture, Design, Historic Preservation, and Real Estate Development, including two directors for the flagship Preservation and Real Estate programs.

When Should Architecture Firms Start Hiring? Five Factors To Consider

2024-11-14T13:46:00-05:00

With the U.S. Federal Reserve embarking on rounds of target interest rate cuts in late 2024, AEC industry commentators are forecasting that architectural business conditions may improve in the coming months. Architecture firms experiencing an increased workload may, therefore, find themselves asking the deceptively simple question: When should I start hiring?

Should hiring decisions be made in response to secure work or more speculative projections? Should onboarding time be taken into account? Are there economic considerations beyond workload projects that should be factored in?

In search of answers, Archinect spoke with four firms about their hiring strategies: Fogarty Finger, FXCollaborative, Marmol Radziner, and Marvel. From our conversations, five key factors emerged for firms to consider when designing their own hiring strategies.

Beaux-Arts to Bauhaus: How Two Schools Shaped Architectural Visualization

2024-11-13T08:00:00-05:00

Architecture schools have long held a significant role in shaping the field of architectural visualization. Through fostering particular artistic philosophies, drawing techniques, and design ideologies, such institutions shape not only the architects themselves but also the way they convey their ideas to others.

In this latest edition of Archinect In-Depth: Visualization, we explore the impact of two influential schools of architecture, the École des Beaux-Arts in France and the Bauhaus in Germany, both of whom continue to exert an influence on our approach to architectural visualization today.

Organizing and Reforming Architectural Education: A Conversation With Tessa Forde

2024-11-06T11:49:00-05:00

In recent years, the word 'organizing' has taken on a heightened power in architectural discourse, most notably through grassroots efforts by architectural workers across the United States to organize for better workplace conditions.

For Tessa Forde, organizing centers on a vast network of relationships that transcends different scales, disciplines, and actors across and beyond the architectural profession. In particular, Forde sees architectural education as an arena in which organizing holds great potential, with positive benefits for educators, students, the profession, the public, and the planet.

In that spirit, Forde is one of seven co-authors of the new book The Organizer's Guide to Architecture Education, alongside Kirsten Day, Peggy Deamer, Andrea Dietz, Jessica Garcia Fritz, Palmyra Geraki, and Valérie Lechêne. In October 2024, Archinect's Niall Patrick Walsh spoke with Forde about the book and its underlying message. The conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity...

Interest Rates Were Cut, but Growth Takes Time: Archinect’s State of AEC October 2024

2024-11-05T08:00:00-05:00

Welcome to the fifth installment of Archinect's new series, State of AEC. At the end of each month, we will guide you through the latest analyses, indexes, and trends on how the architecture and construction industries are performing economically.

Throughout the last month, commentators in the architecture and planning spheres have noted that, although interest rates were cut in September, clients remain cautious about commissioning architects for new projects or committing projects to planning. For one commentator, the industry may not feel the full positive impact of the rate cuts until the middle of 2025, which may lead to strong nonresidential planning performance.

At Tyler’s Urban Workshop, Architecture Students Build With, and For, Underserved Communities

2024-11-01T06:29:00-04:00

On November 8th, the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University will host the Urban Workshop Symposium, the latest iteration of the Urban Workshop's engagements in community-based design and education. The event brings to the fore questions, conversations, and exemplars in how architectural education can engage with real-world stakeholders to the benefit of students and communities alike.

10 Ghost Towns With Unique Architecture

2024-10-30T13:55:00-04:00

Cities are like living bodies, each one animated by the pulse of human life. People give a city purpose, identity, and movement. When a city is abandoned, its soul departs, leaving behind only the silent architecture, a skeletal remnant of what once was.

While such environments can be hauntingly beautiful in their own right, they nonetheless evoke a sense of unease in the returning visitor who, even subconsciously, will be aware that their surroundings are akin to an architectural 'out of body' experience. They may be aware, too, that the thriving modern city they live and work in may one day suffer the same fate.

To mark Halloween 2024, we explore ten such cities that, while once filled with the soul of human activity, have since been left to decay and gently return to nature.

Applying to architecture school? Don't miss these info sessions and open houses this fall

2024-10-29T12:55:00-04:00

Application deadlines for 2025 architecture academic programs are coming up soon! To learn more about exciting undergraduate and graduate degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning, take a look below at Archinect's latest highlight of upcoming information sessions and open houses (online and in-person) as a guide to your application process.

Architectural Visualization Was Rather Flat: Then We Invented Perspective

2024-10-23T12:32:00-04:00

Before the invention of architectural perspective, architects and artists faced significant challenges in visualizing and communicating architectural space. Without a systematic way to represent depth and spatial relationships, architectural drawings were often symbolic, schematic, or abstract rather than realistic.

From ancient times through the Middle Ages, the ability to convey three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional medium, representing space in a manner satisfactory to the human eye, eluded even the most advanced societies and civilizations — at least, as far as historians know.

Then, in Renaissance Italy, a solution emerged that would change the field of architectural visualization, and of architecture, forever.

This article is part of the Archinect In-Depth: Visualization series.

10 Tips for Architects To Survive Downturns by Former HOK CEO Patrick MacLeamy

2024-10-18T13:55:00-04:00

“I spent 50 years at HOK, working my way up from junior designer to CEO,” Patrick MacLeamy wrote in his 2020 book Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm: The People, Stories, and Strategies Behind HOK. “Where else can you do that?”

During his time as HOK CEO and Chairman from 2003 to 2016, MacLeamy exerted great effort in shaping a resilient practice that, in many ways, harks back to the ethos of the firm’s founding. As a child of the Great Depression, co-founder George Hellmuth purposely structured HOK along the principles of what he described in 1944 as a 'Depression-Proof Firm,' one that could step off the typical economic rollercoaster that many firms, then and now, continue to ride.

Eight decades later, MacLeamy believes the industry has much to learn from the approach taken by Hellmuth, along with his co-founders Gyo Obata and George Kassabaum. “Architecture is a passion, not just a profession, and my own passion for the field extends to the business side,” MacLeamy writes...

Let’s Talk About Architectural Visualization

2024-10-14T08:00:00-04:00

Welcome to Archinect In-Depth: Visualization. Over the coming weeks, Archinect will explore the process of visualizing architectural work and what challenges and opportunities the field presents for the architectural design process. Our journey will include not only tips and advice for designers seeking to improve their own visualization skills in the present day but also reflections on the history of architectural visualization and explorations into the forces shaping its future.

What we will cover in this series:

History of Visualization
Contemporary Questions
External Influences
Tips for Designers
Future Trends

'Starting a Successful Woman-Owned Business in a Heavily Male-Dominated Industry Is No Joke': A Conversation with Open Studio Collective

2024-10-11T12:14:00-04:00

In this episode of our Studio Snapshot series, Archinect connected with Allison Bryan, Founding Principal of multi-disciplinary design practice Open Studio Collective, based in Bozeman, Montana, and Ojai, California.

Trained in both graphic design and architecture, Bryan talks about the importance of establishing an open-minded approach to business, what it means to build success as a female business owner in a male-dominated field, and the qualities her studio looks for in new hires.

‘We Have To Get Much Better at Speaking To Wider and Wider Audiences:’ A Conversation With USC Architecture Dean Brett Steele

2024-10-09T12:03:00-04:00

In February 2024, Brett Steele took up the position of Dean of the University of Southern California School of Architecture. Since then, Steele has been busy capitalizing on the opportunities and responsibilities that come with leading a Los Angeles design school in a city known globally for its creativity; a landscape Steele also experienced in his past roles at fellow Los Angeles school UCLA and at the AA in London.

Steele's mission at USC centers not only on preparing students for unpredictable futures but also on "speaking to wider and wider audiences." In that spirit, USC architecture students forge links with their peers in landscape, building science, and beyond, led by a faculty of diverse practitioners. "This isn't a place to just show up for courses; you've got to want to absorb everything around you," Steele notes.

In September 2024, Archinect's Niall Patrick Walsh caught up with Steele as part of our Deans List series to gain an insight into USC Architecture's approach t...

The Industry Reacts to Interest Rate Cuts: Archinect’s State of AEC September 2024

2024-10-08T08:39:00-04:00

Welcome to the fourth installment of Archinect's new series, State of AEC. At the end of each month, we will guide you through the latest analyses, indexes, and trends on how the architecture and construction industries are performing economically.

Since our last edition, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its first interest cut in four years, lowering its rate by half a percentage point. In previous editions of this series, we noted that many commentators had expressed hope that such a move would begin to reverse the fortunes of firms that, as can be seen in the data published below, continue to see declining billings. As we noted in a recent feature published after the rate cut, history tells us the move will indeed have a positive impact on architectural business conditions, though it may be several months before such an impact is felt.

Read our full roundup of the month's economic and business figures below and find out more about how the business health of the architecture prof...

10 Controversial Buildings That Became Iconic Landmarks

2024-10-07T06:48:00-04:00

Architectural landmarks often become beloved symbols of their cities, but many were not always welcomed with open arms. Throughout history, some of our most acclaimed structures have in fact provoked heated debates, divided public opinion, sparked fierce controversy, and in one case, caused the late great architect Richard Rogers to be attacked by an elderly Parisian with an umbrella.

To mark World Architecture Day 2024, we take a look back through the history of some of the architectural structures most beloved by the public today, and demonstrate how their status as landmarks was hard-won.

To see how a building initially deemed a monstrosity, an eyesore, or an insult to tradition can evolve into the defining element of a city’s character is an interesting exercise in itself. Beyond the novelty, however, these stories raise apt questions for architects today. To what extent do, or should, we design in response to present tastes? Do we too quickly abandon ideas today in response t...

Some of the World’s Most Beautiful Coffee Shops

2024-10-01T03:00:00-04:00

Happy International Coffee Day! To celebrate this culturally significant October 1st holiday, we have picked a few of our favorite examples of coffee and architecture existing in blissful harmony.

So pour yourself another cup of your favorite roast (how about Archinect's very own Brutal line of varietals?), sit back, and enjoy our curated selection of outstanding new café designs from across the globe.

Have you designed a space that should be showcased on Archinect? Additional projects can be considered via our submission form.

Delivering Projects on Time Is a Challenge. Here’s How Architects Do It

2024-09-30T14:35:00-04:00

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “plans are nothing; planning is everything.” This sentiment rings true in architecture, where architects are required to establish project timelines potentially spanning several years for schemes potentially costing millions of dollars. No matter how robust the timeline is at the beginning of the project, however, unforeseen circumstances often threaten to derail our best-laid plans.

To explore how architects can effectively design project timelines, as well as adhere to plans and respond to disruption, we speak with both Assembledge+ founder and principal David Thompson and EC3 founder Edwin Chan for their tips and perspectives.

The Fed Just Cut Interest Rates. What Does It Mean for Architects?

2024-09-27T08:13:00-04:00

In September 2024, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut the target range of interest rates for the first time in four years. The move was long anticipated by AEC commentators, who hoped that the lower cost of borrowing would begin to pull the sector out of a two-year stagnation in business conditions.

We explore what the interest rate cut means in the context of 2024’s architectural business conditions with input from Phillip Ross, partner at the AEC division of financial firm Anchin.

Climate, Justice, and Collaboration in Academia: A Conversation with Tyler School of Art and Architecture's Director Kate Wingert-Playdon

2024-09-23T12:25:00-04:00

At Temple University's Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Kate Wingert-Playdon is building an academic culture grounded in collaboration. As Senior Associate Dean and Director of Architecture, Wingert-Playdon is engaged in a mission of encouraging cross-disciplinary interaction between architecture, planning, landscape, and beyond, in addition to encouraging and cultivating the views of communities beyond the profession.

For Wingert-Playdon, this emphasis on collaboration takes on a heightened sense of urgency when preparing students to tackle challenges of the present and future, from climate change to social justice to the demographics of the profession.

In September 2024, Archinect's Niall Patrick Walsh spoke with Wingert-Playdon as part of our Deans List series, to gain an insight into Tyler's approach to education, the student experience, and building a holistic curriculum. The conversation, lightly edited for clarity, is published below.

How Architectural Licensure Helps and Hurts the Profession

2024-09-21T08:00:00-04:00

Our Archinect In-Depth: Licensure series concludes with a look back on a four-month journey through the U.S. architectural licensure system. Reflecting on the challenges and opportunities in the current system highlighted by readers and commentators, we offer final thoughts on how licensure helps and hurts the architectural profession.

Your Architecture Work Sample Isn’t Your Portfolio. 10 Creative Tips To Keep in Mind When Job Searching

2024-09-12T12:20:00-04:00

In many cases, your work sample is the first visual evidence you will offer a prospective employer when applying for a new architectural position. What you include in your sample, as well as how you structure and present it, is therefore important for creating a good first impression and increasing your chances of progressing through to an interview and job offer.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to work samples, just as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to design. Your own work sample will be influenced not only by your preferences and tastes but also by the medium through which you are presenting it, the type of firm you are applying to, and the stage of your career.

The following set of ten tips on creating your work sample is, therefore, not a rigid prescription but answers to common queries we hear on the topic, suggestions based on the experience of our team and community, and questions to ask yourself as you assemble your own work sample to aid your next job searc...