Archinect - Features

VolumeOne Explains Their Method for Embracing Scale and Cultural Differences to Create Impactful Projects

2019-09-10T09:00:00-04:00

Germany. Detroit. China. Spain. All four regions couldn't be more different, but, to Lars Gräbner and Christina Hansen of VolumeOne Design Studio, these locations provide them with the opportunity to approach architecture and design with a new perspective.

According to Gräbner and Hansen, exploring and testing new design solutions means learning to "not react to each task with predetermined concepts or solutions." For the duo, it is essential to learn how to develop an agile design process.

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect had a chance to connect with Gräbner and Hansen. Together, they share their experiences working within the constructs of design by exploring regional differences and learning how to celebrate them. With their knowledge of running a practice, teaching at the University of Michigan's Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and having an extensive client list in China, both discuss the importance of communication and embracing scale and cultural ...

Deans List: University of Detroit Mercy's Dan Pitera and the Three Questions That Drive His Career

2019-08-30T09:00:00-04:00

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 dean—giving an invaluable perspective into the institution’s unique curriculum, faculty, and academic environment.

For this installment, Archinect spoke with Dan Pitera, newly appointed dean at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. An influential leader in architectural academia, social justice practices, and community engagement in the city of Detroit, Pitera brings a passion for education and dedication to creating "practice-ready graduates." According to Pitera, "design is really an issue of social justice, which our School defines as the distribution of both advantages and disadvantages across the full cross-section of society."

EXTENTS on the Importance of Being Earnest, Contemporary Urbanism, and the Digital World

2019-08-21T12:00:00-04:00

How do you re-image a city? How would you re-tell this narrative? The Ann Arbor-based duo Cyrus Peñarroyo and McLain Clutter use their passions in digital media, urbanism, and visualization to help answer this very question. Heavily invested in reshaping and reworking architectural practice and academia, both are faculty at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, and also, co-founders of EXTENTS, their architectural practice. Keen on finding new ways to "see the city," the duo creates digital and spatial practices for experiencing and understanding contemporary urbanism.

According to Peñarroyo and Clutter, "if we're able to see the city differently, maybe we can get other people to see it differently, too."

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect had a chance to connect with Peñarroyo and Clutter. Together, they share their goals for running a practice as well as the role academia plays in their work. They also share their values when co...

The City That Could: Understanding Detroit Through Inclusive Design and Public Policy

2019-08-14T07:00:00-04:00

In 2015, Detroit was announced as a UNESCO City of Design honoree, the first American city to receive the recognition. Since then, Detroit has made efforts to revitalize and revamp its once declining fortunes. A city with a complicated history of trying to reposition its vibrant industrial past into a thriving future, the current push to modernize Detroit has taken time, if nothing else. However, collaborative efforts between local government, planners, designers, and the community at large has helped turn the once "forgotten city" into "the city that could."

To learn more about Detroit's progress, Archinect chats with Executive Director Olga Stella of Design Core Detroit. A formidable force for change within the city, Stella helped initiate the Detroit City of Design Competition that calls for architects and designers to create solutions to help transform Detroit neighborhoods for the better. Together with Stella, we discuss the role public policy plays in architecture, the import...

A(n) Office conceive of their small architectural studio like a publication

2017-07-31T12:00:00-04:00

Mitch McEwen and Marcelo López-Dinard, of A(n) Office, explore the intersection of architecture and exhibition, conceiving their New York and Detroit based studio, A(n) Office, as a publication of sorts.

When you cut funding and abandon people, surprises happen

2017-01-17T11:42:00-05:00

Detroit, once one of the 20th century’s top three thriving U.S. metropolises, has been a case study in ruin and decay for nearly half a century. “Detroit is No Dry Bones: The Eternal City of the Industrial Age,” a new book of photographs and nuanced essays by Camilo Jose Vergara, delves into this culture of ruin, offering architects and urban planners an intriguing (and often surprising) pictorial atlas of what happens to a civilization during uncivilized times.

Interview with John Szot of "Architecture and the Unspeakable" film series

2014-04-04T17:45:00-04:00

Architecture and the Unspeakable is a triptych of short, magnificently animated films, each exploring a different symptom of architecture’s vulnerabilities. Produced by Brooklyn Digital Foundry and directed by architect John Szot, the films feature architecture proposals from John Szot Studio, imagining distinct fictional buildings in New York, Tokyo, and Detroit -- all animated in striking digital realities.