Archinect - Features

University of Toronto Graduate Student Rachel Chan Visualizes The Everyday Futures of Big Data

2020-07-08T12:04:00-04:00

Data has become a commodity that influences the world of design. This week Archinect, connects with M.Arch graduate Rachel Chan who studied at the University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Chan's exploration of a data-driven world is given a comic-like visual narrative to question information's impact on culture and the physical world. Chan explains, "technology is coming to us much faster than our culture and ideologies are forming. How can we be better prepared to design for this future? [...] as the Internet’s presence becomes overwhelmingly significant and will require more mega structures to keep it online."

Archinect's Spotlight on 2020 Thesis Projects: 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year for architecture graduates. Students were displaced as schools shut down, academic communities had to adapt to a new virtual format, end-of-year celebrations were canceled or changed dramatically, and now these students are graduating ...

Comic Relief(s): Exploring the Architectural Imagination of Ben Katchor

2017-04-07T13:27:00-04:00

Architecture is one of the most expansive fields there is: it bridges the loftiest conceptual realm with nuts-and-bolts physicality. Some architects never leave the paper world, while others dwell primarily in crowded conference rooms and muddy building sites. This is partially why the comic strip of work Ben Katchor is so remarkable; it acts not only as an idiosyncratic survey of the built world, but as a humorous exploration of the conceptual one.

Screen/Print #43: 'Beautifully Banal' by Architecture Hero

2016-08-24T09:00:00-04:00

Beautifully Banal, a marvelously detailed, narrative-driven exploration of architectural drawing types via a fly’s structural adventures, is both a slender comic and an architectural delight.

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.