Archinect - Features

How to Face a Jury in Architecture School

2019-09-03T07:00:00-04:00

A while back, we talked about how our ability to communicate as creative people can sometimes make or break our success. Effective communication is one factor of life as an architecture student, but another one is in how we face up to a jury of people ready to critique our work. It is something sure to cause most new students to melt in anxiety. The moments leading up to a review can be filled with uncertainty and worry. Standing in front of a group of people and presenting something we’ve created can be daunting, and we brood over the stamp of approval we yearn for. Our primary preoccupation tends to be a fear of looking bad, of not appearing smart, capable, and competent enough. And the need to be seen in this favorable light is what often encourages the uneasiness that swells within us.

To fight this, we must modify our view of the jury and the part they have to play in our development.

Jerry Saltz is Wrong

2019-07-26T10:25:00-04:00

Yesterday I was sitting in the waiting area of a car dealership outside of Columbus, Ohio. My car was having some service done for a recall and I came prepared for a wait, so I turned on a podcast, got a complimentary cup of coffee, and picked up my Nintendo Switch to continue where I left off replaying Final Fantasy X for the nth time. I’m not prodding for sponsorship (though I will listen to any offers!), but framing the importance of expediency in current criticism and online discourse. As the 15 minute podcast finished, I hopped onto Instagram and the first image that came up struck a nerve.

Senior art critic and columnist for New York Magazine Jerry Saltz had posted his advice for architects designing an art museum. The post had me shook. I felt an immediate urge to form a rebuttal, so I took a break from helping Yuna save the world of Spira, and went into my mobile image editor to challenge his points one by one.

Let's get a little deeper into what is so problematic about th...

Better Critics Than Crickets: Thoughts on Criticism and the Willingness to Be Teachable

2019-06-06T14:19:00-04:00

“The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?

- Pablo Picasso

Einstein, Rejection, and Crafting a Future

2019-05-14T12:23:00-04:00

Rejection is one of those things all of us have to face. It might be in a studio review; our professor is not happy with our work or the direction we've taken. It can even be in the workplace, after working hard on something, those above us ridicule and criticize it. And there are still those moments when we are in search of a job or some opportunity; we put our best self out there only to receive rejection after rejection. We begin to see a future devoid of any promise, as we focus on these present moments of misfortune. But when we look back at our lives, we realize that many of our defining moments stemmed from times of hardship. How do we take what seems to be a setback and see it as a progressive step forward? As we craft a future for ourselves, facing tribulation becomes a paramount necessity.

The Candid Musings of a Seasoned Observer: A review of Craig Hodgetts' 'Swimming to Suburbia'

2019-03-13T12:00:00-04:00

In his collected book of essays, Swimming to Utopia, Craig Hodgetts appears to be a proud writer, though his career never seems to have depended on it. Throughout the book one finds writing written purely for the thrill of it, and that is precisely why it is arguably more pleasurable than so much other architectural criticism.

Archinect Outpost is hosting Swimming to Suburbia on Saturday, March 16th, from 7-9pm. You can preorder a copy of his book here and RSVP to the event here. Craig will be speaking about the book, followed by a book signing.

Extra Extra: Cultural Warfare

2018-11-26T11:53:00-05:00

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.

"Do you think in RGB or CMYK?" – A Look at What Goes Into the Production of Project Journal

2018-10-25T13:28:00-04:00

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 speak to Alfie Koetter, one of three editors of Project Journal, about their newest issue.

Project and other publications featured in the series are now available at Archinect Outpost, our new initiative in downtown LA’s Arts District, as well as our online store.

Join us in celebrating the launch of the newest issue of Project Journal at Archinect Outpost on Friday, October 26th, 6-9 PM.

RSVP to reserve your spot!

#ArchinectMeets @sssscavvvv

2018-09-25T10:00:00-04:00

#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 Ryan Scavnicky, the meme extraordinaire behind @sssscavvvv. Marshall Mcluhan's maxim, "the medium is the message," is nowhere more tested than with his class-bending Instagram posts, where a cryptic essay on Object Oriented Ontology can be interrogated by a forcefully skewed image under Clip Art text. Between his Instagram and his teaching fellowship at the School of Architecture at Talies...

Cross-Talk #5: 'Radical Candor'; Some Thoughts on Criticism from the Archinect Sessions Podcast

2018-04-20T16:03:00-04:00

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.

Cross-Talk #5: 'The Beheaded Medusa' by Deborah Garcia

2018-04-18T09:00:00-04:00

Cross-Talk #5: 'The Practice of Criticism' by Eric Baldwin

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

Cross-Talk #5: 'Decadent Critic(sch)ism, Words for Fingers' by Clemens Finkelstein

2018-04-16T12:00:00-04:00

Cross-Talk #5: Criticism — Introduction

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

Soapbox: Criticism

2018-02-28T09:00:00-05:00

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.

Op-Ed: Beyond Stars, Icons and Much More, by Patrik Schumacher

2015-06-08T15:21:00-04:00

In mid-April I had posted a note entitled "In Defense of Stars and Icons" on my Facebook page. This was picked up and extensively commented on, here on Archinect. I am thrilled about the lively debate that followed (in which I had participated as ‘parametricist’) and I am happy to get the opportunity to come back to this debate once more in this op-ed.

Stop the presses: Paul Goldberger's take on critical relevance in the social media age

2015-05-20T11:31:00-04:00

In architecture, the rise of the 21st century media landscape has created connective tissue where none used to exist: the day-to-day work of architecture used to be relatively obscure, and now it is spotlighted and deconstructed regularly. The most successful architects are not those who shun this newfound audience, but rather engage with it. Of course, this poses a challenge for architectural journalists. New work must now be evaluated not only in the context of the built environment, but in the virtual environment as well.

Screen/Print #16: Project Journal's "Issue 3", featuring a conversation with Neil Denari

2014-05-21T10:32:00-04:00

Project Journal is a place for critical architectural discourse, with few restrictions regarding content, but an insistence on zealous, young voices. The journal aims simply to provide a platform for new, potentially dissenting ideas in architecture, but (as the name implies) was initially inspired by discussions with practicing architects about the motivations and explanations behind individual projects. For its third issue, featured here, Project Journal is now published under the Consolidated Urbanism nonprofit, its prior two issues made possible via Kickstarter.

The Deans List: David Gissen of California College of the Arts

2013-11-21T13:27:00-05:00

The Deans List is an interview series with the leaders of architecture schools, worldwide. The series profiles the school’s programming, as defined by the head honcho – giving an invaluable perspective into the institution’s unique curriculum, faculty and academic environment.

For our first installment, we spoke with David Gissen, the Director of Architecture at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.