Archinect - Features

The Revival of Human-Centered Architecture

2022-11-10T08:23:00-05:00

For too long, we have incessantly glorified freshly-poured concrete Romanesque columns and marveled over crumpled-paper-inspired museums. This isn’t real architecture. The real architecture that is worth observing, touching, feeling, admiring, studying, critiquing, and understanding is the one that lives in the unassuming shadows. The type made for ordinary people with ordinary lives; one that seeks not to occupy the cover of architectural digest, but to improve the lives of those who have been marginalized, under-designed-for or forgotten. Architecture where the artist fought for a little more sunlight, a little more fresh air—a little more space to plant a tiny tree that blossoms during gloomy, winter days, inspiring hope where it was seemingly lost. It is these artists and these battles that need our acknowledgement, our praise, and our motivation so that they may continue to design a better world.

Los Angeles Reckons with a Dark History by Asking the Public How to Memorialize the 1871 Chinese Massacre

2022-09-30T18:40:00-04:00

Architects and artists are frequently asked to contribute their ideas for proposed memorials and other works of public art. The City of Los Angeles recently issued a Request for Ideas (RFI) that many designers may find compelling at a time when America's history of race relations and violence are top of mind for many Americans.

Michael Pinto, Principal at NAC Architecture in Los Angeles, discussed the new L.A. RFI with two figures deeply involved in laying the groundwork for a new memorial to the 1871 Massacre of 18 Chinese in Los Angeles that was the largest mass killing in the city's history. Pinto, an advisor to the memorial process, spoke with Christopher Hawthorne, Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles (and former L.A. Times architecture critic), and Michael Woo, an urban planner who is a former city council member and dean emeritus of Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design.

The City That Could: Understanding Detroit Through Inclusive Design and Public Policy

2019-08-14T07:00:00-04:00

In 2015, Detroit was announced as a UNESCO City of Design honoree, the first American city to receive the recognition. Since then, Detroit has made efforts to revitalize and revamp its once declining fortunes. A city with a complicated history of trying to reposition its vibrant industrial past into a thriving future, the current push to modernize Detroit has taken time, if nothing else. However, collaborative efforts between local government, planners, designers, and the community at large has helped turn the once "forgotten city" into "the city that could."

To learn more about Detroit's progress, Archinect chats with Executive Director Olga Stella of Design Core Detroit. A formidable force for change within the city, Stella helped initiate the Detroit City of Design Competition that calls for architects and designers to create solutions to help transform Detroit neighborhoods for the better. Together with Stella, we discuss the role public policy plays in architecture, the import...

Looking Back at the Words of Stanley Tigerman, the Man who Shaped Chicago Architecture

2019-06-04T13:11:00-04:00

From being one of the central figures of the Chicago Seven to leading the pedagogical frameworks of the Chicago scene and producing a plethora of built works to the Midwest - Stanley Tigerman had one of the most prolific impacts on a wide variety of architectural and cultural platforms of his generation.

With his recent passing, we take the time to look back at the words, images and, thoughts that provided Stanley Tigerman with the inspiration and motivations for his approach to the discipline.

19 Young Architects on Why They Decided to Start Their Careers With Their Own Firms

2019-05-02T12:00:00-04:00

Striking it on your own can be an exhilarating process, the ability to take on your own clients, building your imagination and growing your own company. While your mind will jump immediately to the successes of your own company, learning the nuances of the nuts and bolts is just as if not more critical of launching your own design office. Looking through our Small Studio Snapshots, we look to highlight the reasons, decisions, and motivations from some of today's young, successful and productive offices.

Extra Extra: A Sprinkle of Defense of the Museum of Ice Cream

2019-03-29T14:35:00-04:00

The Museum of Ice Cream kicked our ass. It beat architecture to a project for a contemporary image-conscious culture in an era of social media. This is a shame considering architecture has a long history of staging the image of social life. From the success of the grand escalier at l’Opera Garnier de Paris and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim to the new and problematic Vessel at Hudson Yards, the faith in architecture to frame and showcase experience itself is unquestioned. An image-based culture has clearly developed and seeks to define its subsequent social media marketing as a major participant in the design process.

Playing in the World, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fetish with Jon Yoder

2019-03-13T09:30:00-04:00

In this installment of Cross-Talk #9 — The Architecture Play, we talk with Jon Yoder and the reunification of theory and practice into a purely playful disciplinary atmosphere.

The role of Archinect’s series Cross-Talk is to bring forward the positive aspects of the polemic and allow for the resulting conflict to bring to life an otherwise still and comfortable climate of creativity—if there can be one. Cross-Talk attempts—if to only say that it did—to allow text the freedom that the image has accepted and embraced. Cross-Talk attempts to force the no, to contradict itself, to anger, to please and then anger again, if only to force a stance, to pull out the position of the self, of the discipline and of the hour as a means to begin and maintain conversations moving forward.

Words from 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, Arata Isozaki

2019-03-05T10:13:00-05:00

Soapbox is a weekly series delivering a curated set of lectures, talks and symposia concerning contemporary themes but explored through the archives of lectures past and present. With the plethora of lectures, talks, symposia and panels occurring world wide on a daily basis, how can we begin to keep up and if not, find them once they are gone? Soapbox looks to assemble a selection of recent, archived and outlier lectures surrounding a given theme. Soapbox looks to curate this never-ending library of ideas into an engaging and diverse list of thoughts and provocations. Soapbox is just that, a collection aimed at discovering the occasional needle in a haystack.

This week, we look at the thoughts, inclinations and pursuits from the awarded 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, Arata Isozaki.

Meet Aleph Zero, the Young Architects Behind This Year's Best New Building

2018-11-21T09:05:00-05:00

Children Village, a boarding school for disadvantaged children in rural Brazil, has been crowned as the world's best new building of the year. Designed by the firm Aleph Zero in collaboration with Rosenbaum, the groundbreaking project has won the Royal Institute of British Architects' prestigious International Prize, a biennial award recognizing a new building from around the world that exemplifies design excellence, architectural ambition and delivers meaningful social impact.

Architecture & Design Podcasts to Listen to While Working

2018-10-03T09:00:00-04:00

Soapbox is a series delivering a curated set of lectures, talks and symposia concerning contemporary themes but explored through the archives of lectures past and present. With the plethora of lectures, talks, symposia and panels occurring world wide on a daily basis, how can we begin to keep up and if not, find them once they are gone? Soapbox looks to assemble a selection of recent, archived and outlier lectures surrounding a given theme. Soapbox looks to curate this never-ending library of ideas into an engaging and diverse list of thoughts and provocations. Soapbox is just that, a collection aimed at discovering the occasional needle in a haystack.

In this outing, we take a look at today's top podcasts covering contemporary architecture and design topics.

Cut. Copy. Paste. One in a Million. Cut. Copy. Paste.

2018-09-14T09:00:00-04:00

In this installment we hear from Yoonjee Koh. Yoonjee Koh is the Director of Intermediate Architecture Studios and full time faculty member at The Boston Architectural College.

Protecting our Unconscious. Controlling our Inspiration?

2018-09-13T09:00:00-04:00

In this installment we hear from Ricardo Lledo Souto. Ricardo is a New York based designer currently studying at Columbia's Advanced Architecture Design Masters Program.

Based on True Events. Copied from Past Ones.

2018-09-12T12:28:00-04:00

In this installment we hear from Brendan Shea on the topic of Creative Rights & Intellectual Property. Brendan is a Los Angeles based designer, educator and maker.

Cross-Talk #7: Creative Rights & Intellectual Property — Introduction

2018-09-10T14:13:00-04:00

In this series, we are looking at the autonomy of the student and their role in today's institutions as it relates to creative rights and intellectual property.

It Could Have Been Called SOB: Gordon Bunshaft and SOM

2018-09-07T13:23:00-04:00

From the Ground Up is a series on Archinect focused on discovering the early stages & signs of history's most prolific architects. Starting from the beginning allows us to understand the long journey architecture takes in even the formative of hands and often, surprising shifts that occur in its journey. These early projects grant us a glimpse into the early, naive, ambitious and at points rough edges of soon to be architectural masters.

In this installment we look at the work of Gordon Bunschaft, a seminal member at SOM for over 40 years.

From a B at Yale to a Built Memorial: Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial

2018-08-31T09:00:00-04:00

Soapbox: Christo and Jeanne-Claude

2018-08-22T09:00:00-04:00

From a Home to President Obama's Library: Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architect's Eisenberg Residence

2018-08-17T09:00:00-04:00

Readlines: Fresh Meat

2018-07-31T09:00:00-04:00

Redlines is a collection of interviews with editors that make today's most provocative architectural publications come to life. While architecture is traditionally concerned with buildings, materials, and scale, their importance and historical impact are recorded through words, books, and images that are often organized, published, and disseminated. Redlines seeks to understand the pedagogical and design frameworks that shape this process.

This week we look at Fresh Meat. Fresh Meat is run by architecture and design criticism students at the UIC School of Architecture.

Fresh Meat and other publications featured in the series are now available at Archinect Outpost, our new initiative in downtown LA’s Arts District!

Redlines: PLAT

2018-07-10T12:00:00-04:00

In this session, we look at PLAT, a journal run entirely by the students of the Rice School of Architecture.

Cross-Talk #6: WAI Think Tank on East vs West

2018-07-10T09:00:00-04:00

The role of Archinect’s new series Cross-Talk is to bring forward the positive aspects of the polemic and allow for the resulting conflict to bring to life an otherwise still and comfortable climate of creativity—if there can be one. Cross-Talk attempts—if to only say that it did—to allow text the freedom that the image has accepted and embraced. Cross-Talk attempts to force the no, to contradict itself, to anger, to please and then anger again, if only to force a stance, to pull out the position of the self, of the discipline and of the hour as a means to begin and maintain conversations moving forward.

Cross-Talk #6: East vs West - Introduction

2018-07-09T09:00:00-04:00

"If architects don’t attempt to maintain social and public relevance, I’m not certain what we are doing," a conversation with Lola Sheppard

2018-07-06T09:00:00-04:00

Looking to the future, Designing Practice is a series that explores how the practice of architecture can evolve in the 21st century. Framed by contemporary conditions, the series asks architects and designers to consider the discipline’s broader context and imagine new models for moving architecture forward.

In this installment, we talk with architect Lola Sheppard, partner at Lateral Office, and her approach to the discipline as it reaches across multiple scales, thinking through temporal, social and territorial implications of a project.

Everything Is Changing: But Not Architecture’s “Deep State”

2018-06-28T09:00:00-04:00

Designing Practice is a collection of conversations aimed at Moving Architecture Forward. In this installment, we hear from architect Duo Dickinson and his perspectives of the contemporary climate in regards to the profession as practice.

Looking to the future, Designing Practice is a series that explores how the practice of architecture can evolve in the 21st century. Framed by contemporary conditions, the series asks architects and designers to consider the discipline’s broader context and imagine new models for moving architecture forward.

Soapbox: John Quentin Hejduk

2018-06-27T09:00:00-04:00

Redlines: Thresholds

2018-05-29T09:00:00-04:00

In this session, we look at Thresholds, a publication housed within the History Theory Criticism group in the Department of Architecture at MIT.

Redlines: CLOG

2018-05-15T09:00:00-04:00

In this session, we look at CLOG, which was formed in 2011 by Kyle May, Julia van den Hout, PLAYLAB INC., Jacob Reidel, and Human Wu.

Soapbox: Elizabeth Diller

2018-04-25T09:00:00-04:00

Soapbox: Social Housing

2018-04-11T09:00:00-04:00

London-based Outpost Architecture & Design Talks About Developing Their Own Ideas as a Young Practice

2018-03-26T09:00:00-04:00

The London-based Architecture & Design studio Outpost was founded in 2016 by Robin Sjoholm and Thomas Housden. In the two years since, the studio has developed a growing portfolio of private commissions within the residential and commercial sectors as well as pursued their own self-initiated projects. They also recently won RIBA's gasholder base competition, which asked emerging architects to find creative future uses for the sub-surface circular voids left by decommissioned gasholders.

For this week's Small Studio Snapshot, we talked with the young firm about developing their own projects, their unique hand sketches, and where they'd like to end up.