Archinect - Features

Storytelling, Bias, and Exploitation in Digital Realms; A Conversation with Miriam Hillawi Abraham

2023-10-24T12:01:00-04:00

For Miriam Hillawi Abraham, the digital realm is one fraught with both opportunities and dangers. The Ethiopian designer and researcher sees digital media as an impactful, playful, and unrestrained way of shaping immersive stories that challenge Western narratives and power dynamics imposed on the African continent, its histories, its built environment, and its people.

Meanwhile, Abraham sounds a timely note of caution on the potential for digital technologies and artificial intelligence to generate a single, incomplete visual language for the future, further propagating a Western-centric monoculture under a false guise of democratization, opportunity, and accessibility.

In July 2023, Archinect’s Niall Patrick Walsh spoke with Abraham about her life, work, and reflections on the relationship between architecture, storytelling, digital realms, and power relations. The discussion, edited slightly for clarity, is published below.

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

In With the Old: The Los Angeles Conservancy’s Adrian Scott-Fine on the Past, Present, and Future of Conservation Work in L.A.

2021-10-14T09:00:00-04:00

Los Angeles, a city that is perhaps the most filmed, photographed, and written about metropolitan area in modern history, has been at the center of public discourse surrounding the typical array of conservation issues in the past few years as more and more of the former Spanish Pueblo falls victim to development schemes and the pressure to modernize.

Now, as the city stands poised for an unprecedented decade of changes in which it will play host to the 2028 Olympic Games, the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Adrian Scott-Fine sits down with Archinect for a conversation about some of the challenges, recent developments, and contriving dilemmas facing conservationists in the City of Angels.

A former Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Scott-Fine shares his thoughts on the group’s efforts and upcoming projects in this exclusive interview.

Diversifying the Disciplines: Hacin + Associates on Integrating Multiple Expertises Under One Roof

2021-06-04T10:48:00-04:00

Established in 1993 by architect David Hacin as a traditional architecture firm, Boston-based Hacin + Associates has since grown into an interdisciplinary design practice with more than 30 team members.

We reached out to Hacin for this week's Studio Snapshot to learn more about the incentives for integrating interior design and branding departments, his take on an office size 'sweet spot,' and the importance of fostering Boston's local identity.

Urban Archive Opens a New Door for Digital Architectural Archives

2020-01-17T14:52:00-05:00

Historical archives and repositories are notorious for holding endless amounts of data and information of the built environment while struggling with offering public accessibility and access. The team at Urban Archive, a non-profit technology app, aims to merge passions for history, architecture, technology, and preservation to create a platform that enables others to not only learn about, but also experience the built environment in a whole new way.

Powered by a diverse team of professionals that includes preservationists, urbanists, coders, and museum specialists, Urban Archive has spent the past three years creating a new face for historical building archives. According to team member Sam Addeo, "This blend of technology, institutional buy-in, and data allows architects and students to trace contemporary debates over development and urban policy (including topics like gentrification, housing, and transit access) back to the records themselves." Archinect connected the multidisci...

Screen/Print #63: Experimental Preservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos Talks About Cherished Objects and Adolescence

2017-10-11T10:47:00-04:00

"What does it mean to be 17 in 2017?" That is the question the most recent issue of Harvard Design Magazine, Seventeen, seeks to explore by looking into teenagehood and its relation to the spatial imagination.

A modernist city in Africa and Art Deco buildings in China, among others, get added to UNESCO"s World Heritage List

2017-07-11T19:51:00-04:00

The 41st session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee has been taking place in Kraków, Poland since July 2nd. As the meeting comes to a close, the week has resulted in the designation of 21 new sites and five site boundary changes have also been approved.

Cuteness and the fight for architectural preservation

2016-08-19T09:19:00-04:00

We all know architecture is a deathly serious business—but sometimes, that severity weighs so heavily that it becomes oppressive, restricting debate to an academic mean and setting a glacial pace of cultural influence. When that happens, the key to liberating architectural discourse might just arrive in a coat made of kittens, painted in Lisa Frank fluorescence.

Screen/Print #27: "Future Anterior", a champion of historic preservation

2014-12-17T10:11:00-05:00

If the job’s done right, the architecture will outlast the architect. But when building for the present and unknowable future, the past is the only reliable hint at what may come next. Future Anterior is here towards that end, to critique and analyze architectural historic preservation.

Working out of the Box: Julia Watson of "Studio Rede"

2014-08-22T14:29:00-04:00

Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.

In this installment, we're talking with Julia Watson, landscape architect turned sacred space conservationist.

Are you an architect working out of the box? Do you know of someone that has changed careers and has an interesting story to share? If you would like to suggest an (ex-)architect, please send us a message.

ShowCase: Tussen-Ruimte (Between Space) by Office Jarrik Ouburg

2013-09-25T15:03:00-04:00

ShowCase is an on-going feature series on Archinect, presenting exciting new work from designers representing all creative fields and all geographies.

We are always accepting nominations for upcoming ShowCase features - if you would like to suggest a project, please send us a message.

Lautner's Concannon Residence, from Dust to Dust

2012-07-02T12:35:00-04:00

John Lautner's Concannon Residence, designed in 1960, was built in a blurry area contested by the cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, with BH having the post office address but not collecting the property taxes. Both cities have a sad track record with the protection of historically significant structures, and have countless modernist architecture bones in their walk-in closets. Both are gleaming their real estate teeth, and are penchant for greed and mediocre architecture. And both have a negligible clue of the cultural values bestowed upon them by their architectural heritage.

Neutra's VDL House; v. Hard Times

2008-03-17T14:14:00-04:00

Virtual Activism

2007-03-27T12:38:00-04:00

Virtual Activism is the first episode of a 3-part mini-series created by the Modern Architecture Protection Agency (mapa). Upcoming episodes will include a gallery of submissions from the SAVE ME! Design Charrette, background information on the Grosse Pointe Central Library and Marcel Breuer, coverage of the ongoing effort to save the Central Library from demolition, and thoughts on the future of mapa . Stay tuned.