Archinect - Features

The Brochures of the Venice Architecture Biennale

2018-07-28T09:00:00-04:00

For 16 nonconsecutive years, architecture has had a starring role at the Venice Biennale, located at the Southeast tip of Venice Italy. Countries from around the world represent their best architectural research and design; first within designated buildings on two campuses and second - if they strike a chord with visitors - throughout social media channels. What is often strewn across the internet are only the most daring designs and the most apparent research intentions: full-scale prototypes, immersive ephemera and provocative statements as big as the walls that contain them.

What the social media universe rarely gets to see from the Biennale, however, are the pamphlets that its visitors collect ravenously as they pass from pavilion to pavilion. These print documents reveal a significant amount of information relative to the individual pavilions (and significantly more than the photos of those pavilions themselves); some of them have short stories, a few are evasively poetic, whil...

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.

Screen/Print #15: Sophie Yanow's "War of Streets and Houses"

2014-05-08T09:47:00-04:00

Student protests broke out in Montreal in February of 2012, rallying against Quebec’s proposed university tuition hike. The protests were massive, flooding the streets for days with students, sympathizers and police, while universities saw dramatic student walkouts. Sophie Yanow was one such sympathizer, whose experience in the protests made her reconsider the city as a place where systems of control are made physical. Her graphic novel, War of Streets and Houses, reflects on the protests and her own place in the city’s power structure.

Screen/Print #3: BI's "Free"

2013-12-19T15:02:00-05:00

Screen/Print is an experimentation in translation across media, featuring a close-up digital look at printed architectural writing. Divorcing content from the physical page, the series lends a new perspective to nuanced architectural thought.

For this issue, we’re featuring BI's inaugural publication, "FREE".

Do you run an architectural publication? If you’d like to submit a piece of writing to Screen/Print, please send us a message.