Archinect - Features

NEXT SERIES: And The List Goes On

2013-08-13T17:12:00-04:00

Speed of architectural style trends finally caught up with speed of fashion about 1 to 1. It took long years during modernism that a particular form would find its place in present design mainstream because it was pretty well established by the Bauhaus and other white wall-ers and the elite still was The Elite.

That has changed during the postmodern years but still it took five years or so for formal trends to take shape.

With the advancement of the digital technology, time span of formal gestures in building designs have just about caught up with fashion industry’s seasonality, authors' whim and students' desire to participate in the advancement of architectural relevancy. Perhaps you can blame the rise of the narrative for this but the stories only amount to cheap slogans in most cases.

So much for architecture's empirical operatives.

NEXT SERIES: Media Specialist Wanted

2013-04-10T11:59:00-04:00

In architectural media, what it used to be "there is no such thing as bad publicity" in the prime print years, has turned into "puffery is the only publicity" in the age of social media and infinite promotion. There might be some flickers of hope here and there for intelligent criticism, but media in general might as well be one big love fest for the positive thinking which is explained in Herbert Marcuse's One Dimensional Man. The quantity is the key word here and it is counted by thumb up style likes..

NEXT SERIES: FASTER PUSSYCAT CITY

2012-03-21T15:23:00-04:00

I used to be more intrigued by the voodoo goat head in New Orleans, but lately, cities designed in few charrette hours became more of a curiosity.

I like the ones that twirl but I even developed a particular taste for those 20 ft. square ones on pedestals attended by architecture students, their teachers, bartenders and by others who go to pecha kucha parties.

Playing instant cities on plywood trays are easy, fast and you get to meet a lot of people. This activity is usually done with creative types who like cultural districts full of galleries and sidewalk cafes where trend followers wait on the line to get eggs Benedict with fresh urban farmed herbs in weekend mornings.

NEXT SERIES: RADAR LOVE

2011-12-29T12:39:08-05:00

Something happened somewhere and I am having a hard time writing anything about any of the stuff I see in the media about architecture, public space, occupy, theory of architecture, urbanism... Including most everything I say I am interested in my 'about' section. Just months ago I was writing about these things provoking arguments, at least in my own mind if not with my students and friends. Then social responsibility, unemployment and public space became ubiquitous conversations due to economic downturn and occupy movement. People start to write about them, take pictures and notes, lament, resist, notice.

NEXT SERIES: ARCHITECTURE JURY, A Factual and Fictional Manual

2011-05-31T16:53:46-04:00

To spectators, the architecture jury critics might mean deities if they don't know they are not. In fact, some students know this but it is a best kept secret so they can stand back and watch the divine comedy folding out on the first rows of their presentation. Not all students take criticism personally although it is hard not to.

Most architecture schools are the continuation of the traditional model, design studios taught by people who are, if you say so, spatial experts. In general, architecture education is defined by how to draw and produce space. Most people in the world can say something about buildings. Naturally, architects use a unique vocabulary to control and develop their craft.

I was asked if I would write a piece on architectural juries. After thinking about it for a few hours I came up with this idea of subjectively stereotyping the people who sit in front of the presentations and say 'wise' things about student projects. I hope this will help the audience and...