Archinect - Features

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 ...

New Ground II: Countryside 2030

2018-02-28T12:56:00-05:00

New Ground II, the second installment of Archinect’s two-part feature series on the contemporary countryside, is playfully set in rural California in the year 2030. Certain trends Christine Bjerke and I dug into in last month’s feature, New Ground I: Advancing the Countryside, have been extrapolated to present a future pastoral landscape, recognizable yet markedly different than that which we might encounter today. We discuss this future outlook with Benjamin Bratton, director of the Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego and author of The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty and Martin Abell from the agricultural robotics firm Precision Decisions, the first company to farm a field without human intervention.

New Ground I: Advancing the Countryside

2018-01-31T09:50:00-05:00

Across the urbanized world, the contemporary countryside is a paradox. While media attention is absorbed by the city, many rural regions are experiencing accelerating change due to increased automation, the emergence of megastructures and new self-learning systems, all of which are reshaping the terrain. The divisive political events of 2017 exhibited just how much today’s countryside has grown apart from the city both ideologically and spatially. To kick off 2018, in New Ground I, the first of a two-part feature series co-authored with Christine Bjerke from In-Between Economies, we will briefly explore a selection of major shifts that have influenced how the countryside operates today. We check in with rural demographer and sociologist Ken Johnson from the University of New Hampshire and Ivan Sergejev, an architect exploring the potential of the data center typology. In addition, will be tapping into the latest research from international architecture practice OMA*AMO, who have bee...

Co-living 2030: Are you ready for the sharing economy?

2017-12-28T09:15:00-05:00

Last month I attended a SPACE10 forum led by New York-based design duo Anton and Irene on the resurgence of co-living. They suggest the financial squeeze of modern life combined with an upsurge in digital nomads is bringing the ‘sharing economy’ into the home. As 40% of the urban areas required by 2030 are not yet built—which means a city the size of New York needs to be constructed globally every month—it is crucial architects stay up-to-date with contemporary living patterns to respond appropriately to shifts in housing requirements. My last Archinect feature of the year will provide a short overview of the history and challenges that co-living has previously faced, discuss trends emerging from the 'ONE SHARED HOUSE 2030' survey and speak to Dorte Mandrup, architect of the Lang Eng Co-housing Community, on how to approach the challenge of designing successful spaces for co-living.

Dwelling in the Golden Years: Experiments in Senior Living

2017-12-08T12:21:00-05:00

Global populations are aging—according to the UN, by 2030 the number of citizens aged 60 years or over is projected to grow by 56%, a figure which by 2050 is expected to double again, to a total of 2.1 billion seniors worldwide, skewed towards 'greying economies' such as those of the US and Europe. Where and how will our seniors live in the future? This month I speak to architect and KADK professor Deane Simpson, who researches shifts in the built environment which are occurring as a consequence of population aging, and Stephen Bates of award-winning firm Sergison Bates who recently completed the Housing for Older Residents project in Hampstead, London. Is it possible to move beyond stereotypes to create an architecture which is functional, healthy and beneficial for the older generation?

America and the AV: Digital Mobility for Architects

2017-11-15T09:00:00-05:00

American cities and their suburbs were built on innovations in transport technology. The spatial imprint of car ownership is so apparent it led urban activist Jane Jacobs to question whether American cities had in fact been built for people or for cars. In the past five years, a digital-hybrid layer of urban mobility has emerged—a fleet of autonomous, self-driving, car-pooling, electric vehicles have been set in motion. Google’s Waymo project is now driving 25,000 autonomous miles each week, and the net worth of the automated vehicle (AV) industry is projected at $7 trillion. This month I discuss how architects can participate in this emerging technology with architect and Yale professor Keller Easterling and Carlo Ratti of MIT’s Senseable City Lab. Will the uptake of AV’s deter people from public transit, pressurizing motorway expansion, or will we instead create an architectural switch, for a smarter, more equitable transport network?

Housing after Debt? A discussion with Alastair Parvin

2017-10-20T11:28:00-04:00

This month Archinect looks closer at our housing economy—how we commission and produce homes in today’s financial climate. This year a primary index tracking residential real estate value in major US cities revealed American house prices are now rising at a rate of 5.9% per annum—a three year high—significantly outpacing relative income gains. This growth now more than doubles the hourly earnings of the average American, pricing many families out of the market and out of the city. Similar trends can be found across major metropolitan areas in Europe and Asia, fueling acute housing crises such as the well documented situation in London, England. I speak to designer and civic entrepreneur Alastair Parvin of London-based studio Architecture 00 who, frustrated by a select number of poor quality homes for sale at sensational prices, is now actively looking for ways to reshape the market itself; starting by rethinking the business model.

Rethinking Frank Lloyd Wright: Thoughts from a trip through the Rustbelt

2017-09-07T12:00:00-04:00

While in New York this July I visited MoMA’s retrospective of Frank Lloyd Wright, ‘Unpacking the Archive’, an extensive collection of Wright’s production to celebrate his 150 year anniversary. Despite his revered position as America’s protégé architect and seminal figure—and having studied his work in the past—a number of surprising and unexpected thoughts from the show stuck with me during my subsequent month-long journey through the American Midwest. Both a pioneer of radical experimentation and a deep-rooted member of the status quo, Wright’s projects draw from many cultural histories and are, at times, divisive. But is it time the architecture press retires from reinventing Frank Lloyd Wright, the tireless self-publicist, and instead focuses the spotlight elsewhere? I discuss my thoughts with architect, cultural historian and Wright scholar Mabel O. Wilson, who currently teaches architectural history and theory at Columbia GSAAP.

...

Emergency Shelter: Housing for the Age of Mass Displacement

2017-07-20T11:30:00-04:00

Today, forced displacement affects more people than any crisis or conflict. According to the UN, 65.3 million people, or one person in every 113, is now internally or externally displaced. The average time families remain in emergency accommodation is now 17 years, longer than the average US house buyer will stay in their home. No longer temporary but not yet a city, these ‘camps’ are where millions of children will grow up. In this month’s feature we speak to architects working with the concept of emergency shelter to find out how they are approaching the issue. An overview will be provided by former UNHCR official Kilian Kleinschmidt, now director of Switxboard, who will discuss where and how input from the design disciplines would be most welcomed.

Architects of Social Responsibility: Views of Humanitarian Architecture in Practice

2017-05-24T12:11:00-04:00

Last month, Airbnb announced they had hired former Architecture for Humanity co-founder Cameron Sinclair to lead their project to supply temporary housing to 100,000 people in need, shortly after launching a program to secure refuge for members of Chicago’s homeless community. Users of the online hospitality service can now register as ‘hosts for good’, and architects are stepping in to make that happen. IKEA’s recent drive to create flat-pack temporary homes for refugee camps through their Foundation in collaboration with UNHCR is another example of how companies are exploring philanthropic interests through the medium of architecture. This month’s feature engages with architects adopting a range of business models to pursue social responsibility and looks deeper into ways the profession is engaging with building for a common good.

Never Meant to Copy, Only to Surpass: Plagiarism Versus Innovation in Architectural Imitation

2017-04-13T12:15:00-04:00

Wangjing SOHO, a three tower complex in Beijing penned by Zaha Hadid, became a worldwide sensation when it was revealed that the scheme was being allegedly plagiarized by a construction team in Chongqing, southern China. Despite the subsequent outcry from the professional design world, Hadid responded that if the ‘copy-cat’ designs displayed innovative mutations, “that would be exciting”. While many architectural icons are commissioned precisely for their artistic originality, the design response is often non-site specific, which raises interesting questions when such icons are reproduced around the globe. What does it mean for architectural originality and innovation, when a ‘copy-paste’ strategy is normalized?

The Architecture of Artificial Intelligence

2017-03-08T12:09:00-05:00

“Let us consider an augmented architect at work. He sits at a working station that has a visual display screen some three feet on a side, this is his working surface, controlled by a computer with which he can communicate by means of small keyboards and various other devices.” – Douglas Engelbart

Spatial Activism: Profiling a New Wave of European Architecture Collectives and Their Spatial Manifestos

2017-02-01T12:05:00-05:00

While there exists an extensive volume of politically engaged architecture projects and countless architects who, particularly in their youth, practiced with explicit agendas, architecture offices have in the main been formed around a signature typology or aesthetic. Consider Zaha Hadid’s cultural icons, Christopher Wren’s churches or Santiago Calatrava’s sculptural engineering: such designers branded their careers upon a signature feature, their trademark image subsequently produced and reproduced in design journals. However, a contingent of young European architects have begun to challenge this custom to instead orient their practice around what might be referred to as the ‘political object’. These spatial activists operate from the sidelines as facilitators, utilising design not as an end in itself but as a means to pursue a specific objective.