Archinect - Features

Using algorithms to disrupt suburbia's monotonous designs

2016-10-13T12:22:00-04:00

“Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same,” Malvina Reynolds sang in 1962, forty-three years before her verses served as the theme music for the TV show Weeds. The song still resonates because, despite formal changes, suburban developments have, for some, represented monotony and homogeneity since they were first constructed in the late 1920s. But who said that mass-produced housing has to be boring?

If you can’t stand the domesticity, get out of the kitchen

2016-08-15T09:26:00-04:00

Kitchen design in the U.S. has evolved substantially in the last 100 years, moving from a service-oriented back room to the third largest space in houses. This shift has played a role in how people define domesticity, domestic relationships, and even community at large.

Touring some of the world's most attractive public housing projects

2016-08-09T09:24:00-04:00

Can affordable public housing be beautiful? It’s a question that for years was answered with indifference.

Deciding how to bill clients is complicated. What are the basic fee structures behind residential projects?

2016-07-14T10:03:00-04:00

In the same way that no two designers have the exact same aesthetic sensibility, architectural billing is tailored to the demands of a specific project. Nonetheless, certain industry-wide guidelines do apply. Here, Archinect breaks down common architectural fee structures in the U.S. as they relate to residential construction projects.

Falling through the sharing economy's looking glass—and into an ocean of unpaid, gendered, domestic labor

2016-07-13T15:17:00-04:00

“Work, work, work, work, work, work,” instructs Rihanna as we drive through the mountain pass; her dancehall, reggae-pop anthem to staying on the grind despite poor returns on libidinal investment providing the tempo for my own frantic attempts to capture any last emails before I abandon the world of 3G for cacti, a meteor shower, and a cheap Airbnb.

Finding "Shelter" in Los Angeles' housing chaos

2015-09-08T12:00:00-04:00

With all the media attention on California’s drought, the “atoning L.A.” narrative has gotten pretty common. The city’s gluttonous lawns, sprawling infrastructures and indulgent residents – in short, its sinful stereotypes – have become untenable as the drought, a housing crisis and pressing sustainability measures come knocking at the city’s door.