Archinect - Features

A Conversation With Julia Koerner, Architecture’s Queen of 3D Fabrication

2019-05-06T12:00:00-04:00

From the runway to the big screen, and now the red carpet, Austrian architect Julia Koerner has set herself apart as a designer due to her relentless quest for 3D fabrication mastery. Quickly becoming a household name, Koerner splits her time running her practice JK Design GmbH and her role as a faculty member at UCLA's Architecture and Urban Design department. Her architecture background is nothing short of impressive, attending the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Architectural Association in London. During her studies, she was surrounded and influenced by the minds of Zaha Hadid, Wolf Prix, and Greg Lynn.

Koerner's prowess in digital computation transformed her into one of the industry's leading 3D fabrication designers. Archinect spent some time with Koerner for an in-depth interview discussing her start as a designer, working in fashion, teaching, and what it was like working on the Oscar-winning film, Black Panther.

The New Wave of Female Powerhouses are Pushing the Boundaries of Professional Practice

2019-03-08T09:45:00-05:00

The gradually increasing presence of a diverse range of practitioners across the architectural profession has provided a stronger platform for women to showcase their work, leadership, and innovation. In remembering the past, pioneering female architects such as Denise Scott Brown and Norma Merrick Sklarek have paved the way for women like Kazuyo Sejima, Dame Zaha Hadid, and Jeanne Gang to push the boundaries of representation in the field. Further, architecture's new class of female architects are learning from their predecessors and making moves for what architecture will become in 2019. With discussions of the #MeToo movement, equitable labor practices, and diversity weighing heavily on the field, the profession still has a long way to go.

How 6 Successful Women in Architecture, Planning, and Engineering Joined Forces to Win "The Cambridge to Oxford Connection: Ideas Competition"

2018-02-19T15:48:00-05:00

The VeloCity team met through PedElle, a charity cycling endurance event open to female riders working in the property industry. Each successful in their own right, they decided they wanted to work together combining their expertise in architecture, design, engineering and town planning - a place-making competition developing the corridor that spans Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Oxford, seemed the perfect opportunity.

I recently met with the team to find out more about how they work together collaboratively and what made their entry stand out. Since we met they have gone on to win the 'The Cambridge to Oxford Connection: Ideas Competition', cementing their exciting future working together.

#EthelDay: celebrating the contributions made by woman to the field of architecture

2017-07-05T15:15:00-04:00

In 1898, Ethel Charles became the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and today RIBA is celebrating the trailblazer with a social media campaign marked by the hashtag #Ethelday.

Working Warrior: an interview with Katy Marks of Citizens Design Bureau

2016-02-23T04:50:00-05:00

Three awards sit centre stage on the desk of Citizens Design Bureau’s tiny office and workshop in Hackney Downs, in East London. First a Sterling Award 2014 for The Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, from CDB founder Katy Marks’ time at Haworth Tompkins Architects, and then two fresh World Interiors Awards: Best Leisure and Entertainment Venue, again with Haworth Tompkins, and Best Bar for the Royal Court, with Lyndon Goode Architects. This is no ostentatious display: these are hard-won trophies for an architect with a visionary, warrior-like approach to contemporary practice.

Gender and Design Leadership

2011-10-24T13:12:37-04:00

Women in the architecture workplace is, oddly, a subject that does not receive a lot of press. Perhaps it is because from the time of school onward, women in the field are indoctrinated into being either as “hard,” “iron-like” or on a practical level, unbathed and unhygienic, as their male counterparts in order to be accepted. Indeed, at one school in Los Angeles, the women actively cultivate a hardened exterior that rivals any of their male classmates. Those who do not relinquish obvious signifiers of womanhood are dismissed as either attempting to “sleep their way to success” or as “lightweights.”