Archinect - Features

From the Farnsworth to Wikileaks: Metahaven on Transparency, Propaganda and Design

2017-03-30T06:15:00-04:00

Where are we? Somewhere in Eastern Ukraine, July 18, 2014—the day after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down, killing all 238 passengers as well as the fifteen crew members on board. Later, Russian media would suggest that the shooting was an attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin; that it was shot down by Ukrainians by mistake; that Ukrainian air traffic controllers had intentionally misdirected the plane over a war zone; that it was an attempt to smear the pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. Other stories spread: the plane was filled with 100 AIDS researchers or already-dead bodies and explosives. Eventually, the news cycle moved on.

Transparent Motives: the ins and outs of sex-specific architecture

2016-04-15T08:20:00-04:00

If sex is the ultimate form of openness, then the architecture designed specifically to facilitate it could, up until recently anyway, be described as opaque. Even those more flagrant hot spots, like Emperor Nero’s Domus Aurea or Japan’s ubiquitous love hotels, tended to be built to obscure their purpose, at least from the outside. Indeed, it is only within the last few decades that the notion of sex as an activity that could be displayed, or at least not obscured, has come into a more public architectural vogue. Transparency, in its boundary blurring form, is a defining characteristic of architecture for sex.

ShowCase: Archaeological Pavilion by kadawittfeldarchitektur

2014-02-07T09:39:00-05:00

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.