Archinect - Features

'What Is Truly Good About AI, Nobody Has Probably Thought of Yet'; A Conversation with Richard Saul Wurman

2023-07-25T08:00:00-04:00

To many, Richard Saul Wurman is inevitably introduced as "the man who created TED." Since Wurman organized the first TED conference in 1984, the organization's library has expanded to over 4,300 publicly available videos from some of the world's greatest minds about some of humanity's most curious and urgent subjects, not to mention the almost 50,000 independent TEDx talks which have been delivered since 2009.

The more one talks to or reads about Wurman, however, the smaller TED seems to shrink amidst a dizzying list of his pursuits into the world of the misunderstood, the unknown, and the unexplored. Born in 1935 in Philadelphia, an architectural alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, Wurman has counted Louis Kahn and Charles Eames among his mentors and Moshe Safdie and Frank Gehry among his great friends. He has published over 90 books on topics from architecture and graphic design to data and medicine, leaving a trail of influential projects such as TED and TEDMED, theories s...

Architecture and Urban Planning YouTubers worth a 'Like and Subscribe'

2021-12-01T14:31:00-05:00

A new crop of content creators is at the forefront of envisioning and producing some of today's most commonly consumed forms of media. Individuals on various internet platforms, namely YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, tell their stories covering a limitless range of topics.

While not nearly generating the same astronomical viewership as some of the medium's top stars, there is a large community of creators whose work centers on the built environment, covering architecture, design, urban planning, and construction subjects. Through a diverse array of perspectives and ways of communicating information, their content serves as a resource for students, professionals, and enthusiasts alike while making these subjects more accessible to wider audiences.

For this particular showcase, we focus on YouTube and its most exciting creators within this niche. While there are plenty of noteworthy genre-specific channels on this platform, here is our pick of fun, informative, and engaging channels...

A Bridge to Architectural Education: Exploring UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s Summer Programs with Julia Koerner

2021-05-13T11:32:00-04:00

With summer right around the corner, high school students, young professionals, and individuals looking to explore new disciplines seek programs that spark their interests while learning new skills. With virtual learning practices adopted globally, the opportunity for students to participate in notable summer school programs from any part of the world is readily available.

This summer, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's notable summer programs welcome individuals interested in exploring design and learning introductory skills in architecture in a new virtual format. By offering two programs created for high school students and adults, the Teen ArchStudio and JumpStart programs provide participants with a glimpse into studio culture at one of the leading public universities in the world in addition to earning University of California (UC) course credit. This year's summer program welcomes Assistant Adjunct Professor Julia Koerner as its newly appointed Summer Programs Director. Wit...

What Is the Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence to the Architecture Profession?

2021-04-22T08:03:00-04:00

Artificial intelligence could potentially help us streamline the more rudimentary and tedious aspects of design to free up more time for creative problem solving and response to human needs. It would be unreasonable to say that any AI that we could conceive in our lifetime would be able to intimately familiarize itself with the breadth of human experience to allow it to make accurate determinations about the things we need. Oftentimes the things we need are rooted in aesthetics that are meant to facilitate our emotional well-being or they are otherwise rooted in cultural lineages and traditions that are difficult as yet to quantify.

Post-Digital Rendering: Leaving Drawing Behind

2021-04-01T11:21:00-04:00

Not too long ago, a novel graphic representation, rebelling against the digital tools and techniques that dominated the past two decades, took the architecture world by surprise. Post-Digital Drawing, coming mostly from European offices, started propagating across professional circles, competitions, and academia. This style of representation, noted by Sam Jacob, embraces digital technology in a critical way; utilizes digital tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, and techniques like drawing and collage without aiming for realism. Instead, "this new cult of the drawing explores and exploits its artificiality, making us as viewers aware that we are looking at space as a fictional form of representation. This is in strict opposition to the digital rendering’s desire to make the fiction seem 'real.'" However, by taking a look at the work of emerging practices, competitions, and academia today, one can discern that an evolution starts to emerge. Ironically, this evolution of the Post-Digi...

From the Editors: What We're Thankful For in 2020

2020-11-26T16:21:00-05:00

2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year. Covid-19 forced us to isolate from family, friends and colleagues, and work from home as the industry struggled to keep up with the changes the pandemic brought. Many firms experienced drastic reductions in work, as industries such as hospitality and retail faced incredible hardship and an uncertain future. As a result, many individuals in our industry faced layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts. Political tensions, cultural divisions and a heightened push for social justice further defined this historic year. During this hardship, however, there remains much to be thankful for. We'd like to take this opportunity, as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, to share a few those things that our team is grateful for in 2020.

SCI-Arc's 2020 Digital Spring Show: The Future of Showcasing Student Work Online?

2020-06-04T13:48:00-04:00

With COVID-19 challenging the nature of in-person events, architecture groups and schools have been forced to think outside the box with how they conduct these gatherings by pivoting to virtual events for online audiences.

Specifically within the academic context, online video platforms and community streaming services have aided in adjusting to this new focus on virtual interactions and gatherings. However, when it comes to highly anticipated school events like thesis exhibitions, spring shows, and graduation, is it possible to replicate the excitement of the IRL experience?

WFH Show & Tell: Alvin Huang

2020-03-20T18:20:00-04:00

As the world shifts to a work-from-home (WFH) survival strategy, architects and architectural academics have been forced to learn a variety of new tools and methods to keep moving forward in the face of the growing COVID-19 pandemic. While many in our community are already fluent in this approach to work, due to opportunities brought to us with the internet, in a field that often requires travel and on-site work, many are struggling with not just the technology, but also the lack of personal connection with our friends and colleagues.

In this new series of features, Archinect is sharing some stories from members of our community about their own transitions, with personal experiences and images of what their new work environment looks like.

In this first installment, we're profiling Alvin Huang, an LA-based architect and educator. Alvin tells us about the changes he's made to adjust to continuing work with his staff and students.

Archinect's Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak

2020-03-17T16:55:00-04:00

These are crazy days we’re living in.

This COVID-19 pandemic is like nothing most of us have ever experienced. It’s affecting almost everyone in the world, without any bias toward nationality, race, religion or political affiliation. The crisis is forcing us to change the way we live, and the way we work. We don’t know how long this “new normal” will last, but the changes we make today will have lasting effects on us all.

Running a Virtual Architecture Practice With Jennifer Kretschmer

2020-03-17T13:23:00-04:00

With drastic measures underway to mitigate the novel COVID-19 pandemic, many architects are transitioning to remote work. Firms, both large and small, are making the shift towards a virtual practice, and for many, the move brings new terrain. Remote work has been a topic of discussion for quite some time, but there has always been a certain stigma in its relationship to architectural practice. Is this a feasible way for the design community to work?

As the industry continues to run this compelled experiment, we may soon find out. But, in the meantime, we know the integration of remote work is not novel to architecture. Just recently, Archinect connected with Diana Nicklaus, co-founder and principal at Saam Architecture, to discuss the firm’s remote work model and the fluidity with which it has been able to operate. And as we continue our investigation into the tools and tactics of the virtual office, this week we talk to Jennifer Kretschmer, AIA, founder of J Kretschmer Architect.

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Choosing the Right Specification Software for an Architecture or Interiors Firm

2019-12-04T20:08:00-05:00

Remember when we had to look up a business in the yellow pages? Or when we had to go to the library to learn about a topic of interest? Technological advances, particularly the internet, have drastically changed the way we perform such tasks. Clearly, this has had a profound impact on the way we work. Not only do we have a vast amount of information at our disposal, but that information can be accessed quickly, then managed and organized clearly and efficiently.

For an architecture practice, technology has particularly affected the way designers can specify products and materials. Rather than wading through an office's library of quickly-outdated catalogs, designers these days can search ever-expanding and constantly-updated resources with ease, identifying products from around the world to use in new architecture projects. Designers can connect with representatives, negotiate quotes, and coordinate delivery faster than ever.

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.

Introducing Archinect Jobs Visualizer; Browse the Best Architecture Job Board in a New, More Visual Format

2019-02-26T18:55:00-05:00

We're excited to officially announce the launch of Archinect Jobs Visualizer, a new website that presents new job opportunities by putting the work of the employers at the forefront.

Extra Extra: L o n g I m a g e

2018-12-14T09:00:00-05:00

Extra Extra won’t focus on memes but try to illustrate problems through them. To that end, the looser conditions of a column allow for visible cracks in my positions. Unanswered questions are welcomed. Criticisms formed on a mimetic hunch can be built up. Nothing here is too polished, neither is it expected to be.

As architecture culture breaks into architecture cultures, let's explore the fissures. Tomorrow, we begin together the construction of a constituency.

#ArchinectMeets @nemestudio

2018-12-07T10:25:00-05:00

#ArchinectMeets is a series of interviews with members of the architecture community that use Instagram as a creative medium. With the series, we ask some of Instagram’s architectural photographers, producers and curators about their relationship to the social media platform and how it has affected their practice.

Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. While we use our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform.

We spoke to Neyran Turan, an architect and partner at Nemestudio. Through their instagram page, @nemestudio, they get to explore their chosen themes of accumulation and digital waste taken up in their studio through a platform born of those traits.

#ArchinectMeets @modarchitecture

2018-12-04T12:00:00-05:00

We spoke to Darren Bradley, the photographer behind @modarchitecture. Bradley began his career as a history major and soon developed a following for his clear and stunning photographs of modern architecture from around the world. When he began collaborating with Sam Lubell in the production and photography of Phaidon's Mid-Century Modern Architecture Travel Guides: East Coast USA and West Coast USA, Bra...

Mismatches Between the Social Value of Art and Public Consumers; Some Thoughts by Erin Cuevas.

2018-11-22T09:00:00-05:00

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.

In this series, we are looking at the role Practice and Academia in today's disciplinary framework and how we can begin to analyze and recalibrate their relationship. In today's installment we hear from Erin Cuevas, a Los Angeles based designer and lead of Curious Minds Los Angeles.

#ArchinectMeets @chatelp

2018-11-20T12:00:00-05:00

We spoke to Pierre Chatel, the photographer behind @chatelp. A computer scientist by trade, Chatel recently took up architectural photography full time. His work can best be described as 'cool abstraction' thanks to a rare abilities to both discover rare moments in well-known buildings throughout Europe as well as to find the beauty in objects as mundane as storage containers.

#ArchinectMeets @krisprovoost

2018-11-09T10:00:00-05:00

We spoke to Kris Provoost, the photographer behind @krisprovoost. As a Belgian based in China, Provoost demonstrates an undying passion for his new home base as he uniquely documents it for his social media. And his background as an architect undoubtedly aided in his ability to photograph buildings as their designers might have envisioned (or wished they had).

40 Years of Discipline-Shifting Architecture with Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron

2018-11-07T09:00:00-05:00

To celebrate their firm turning 40, this week we take a look at Herzog de Meuron.

Books and Bots: Conversations on the Future of Architecture Publishing

2018-11-05T10:48:00-05:00

The ease of online publishing has influenced a surge in the production of architecture content—more text, images and video are now created and distributed than ever before. In this sink or swim environment of the global ‘mediasphere’, print-based architecture publishers face challenging questions when it comes to their future financial sustainability and role in a rapidly-changing industry. As Archinect’s own bookshop and event space in Downtown LA’s Arts District, Archinect Outpost, celebrates its first summer, this edition of Architecture Futures invites architecture publishers to reflect on the industry as it stands today and what the next decade may hold. Instead of ‘killing print’ will the fourth industrial revolution induce a mainstream resurgence of physical publications? What is the future role of editor as publishers add AI sorting mechanisms and user-driven editing practices to their oeuvre? What new forms of architectural content may soon exist? I discuss these questions ...

#ArchinectMeets @l_o00o_l

2018-10-30T13:56:00-04:00

Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. Using our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform as well as their thoughts on social media's impact on architecture.

We spoke with @l_o00o_l, a photographer based in Munich. Given their anonymity, a biographical introduction is hardly in order. Rather, what should be emphasized is their ability to capture the surreal, the disjunctive and the unsettling in the built environment so as to stand out among the typically florescent images in one's Instagram feed.

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#ArchinectMeets @shitgardens

2018-10-23T11:23:00-04:00

We spoke to the curators of @shitgardens, a curated selection of the worst landscaping the internet has to offer. A viable theory suggests that there is more to learn about humanity from the deplorable than the exemplary, either because it is in much greater numbers or it reveals basic human desires with less inhibition. As subscribers to this belief system, especially as it applies to our relationship ...

#ArchinectMeets @stoptheroc

2018-10-19T11:00:00-04:00

We spoke to Roc Isern, the photographer behind @stoptheroc and @barcelonafacades. With unmistakable pride for his Spanish hometown, Isern uniquely captures the spirit of Barcelonan architecture for a wide audience. Though perhaps no other architect's work has been photographed as much as Antonio Gaudi's, for instance, Isern deftly communicates elements of his work never before captured on camera.

#ArchinectMeets @casualtimetravel

2018-10-09T12:00:00-04:00

We spoke to Sinziana Velicescu, the photographer behind @casualtimetravel. Sun-bleached stucco and anonymous warehouses reveal the Los Angeles periphery as an undoubtable influence on Velicescu's photography, which perhaps lends it a unique presence on the image-based platform: though the fabled city is often represented in Hollywood blockbusters as a glittering Edenic backdrop, @casualtimetravel presen...

#ArchinectMeets @joaocarlostalves

2018-10-05T11:00:00-04:00

We spoke with Joāo Carlos Alves, the curator of @joaocarlostalves. An architect born in Portugal and currently living and working in Geneva, Switzerland, he produces imaginative architectural renderings specifically for Instagram in his spare time. Sharing his detailed imagery to the platform several times a month, Alves relishes the freedom i...

Ish~Ness & Counter-Absolutes: Maya Alam and the Harry der Boghosian Fellowship.

2018-09-28T09:00:00-04:00

Fellow Fellows is a series that focuses on the current eruption of fellowships in academia today. Within this realm, these positions produce a fantastic blend of practice, research, and design influence, traditionally done within a tight time-frame. Fellow Fellows sits down with these fellows and attempts to understand what these positions offer to both the participants and the discipline at large. It is about bringing attention and inquiry to the otherwise maddening pace of revolving academics while giving a broad view of the breakthrough work being done by those who exist in-between the newly minted graduate and the licensed associate.

This week we talk to Maya Alam who was the 2016-2017 Harry der Boghosian Fellow at Syracuse University School of Architecture.

Skateboarding as City Mapping. Talks on Cities, Skateboarding and Identity.

2018-09-26T09:00:00-04:00

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 skateboarding and its impact on city development.

A Collection of Thoughts and Wisdom from Robert Venturi.

2018-09-20T10:47:00-04:00

This week we look at Robert Venturi, whose wisdom and contribution to the discipline are unquestionable. With his passing this week, we look back at a collection of his public conversations and lectures.

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.