Archinect - Features

Form Follows Fascism Redux

2021-01-07T12:43:00-05:00

This country’s deeply ingrained white supremacy and the resurgence of fascism have revealed themselves, last night, to be undeniably mutually reinforcing. When this antidemocratic and racist president was first elected I wrote here about The White Flight from American Democracy. I could not have imagined it would go so far as a mob storming the Capitol with matching red hats and corporate logos for flags. In the first few weeks of the administration, I outlined some of the ways that our field has been complicit in the rise of autocracy both here and around the world.

From the Ground Up: Philip Johnson

2018-04-06T09:00:00-04:00

From the Ground Up is a series on Archinect focused on discovering the early stages & signs of history's most prolific architects. Starting from the beginning allows us to understand the long journey architecture takes in even the most formative of hands and the often, surprising shifts that occur on its journey. These early projects grant us a glimpse into the early, naive, ambitious—and at points, rough—edges of soon to be architectural masters.

Renovating My Religion: Johnson Fain Updates Philip Johnson's Crystal Cathedral

2016-12-05T12:06:00-05:00

How does one design tangible structures for that most intangible of qualities, faith? More to the point: how does one renovate an existing place of worship to suit a new dogma? Johnson Fain’s renovation of Philip Johnson and John Burgee’s Crystal Cathedral is the culmination of metaphor, media, and the historical Christian tradition of repurposing.

Screen/Print #40: Alexandra Lange's "Power Positions" from Dirty Furniture, issue #2

2016-02-17T17:43:00-05:00

In the high-gloss landscape of design magazines, all tables have been wiped clean. But in practice, things get messy: our desks are cluttered, our kitchens are flecked with sauce, our careers take form or falter as we finger the seams in the Formica. In this issue of Dirty Furniture, the second in a finite series of six, an object usually shrouded by its ubiquity is illuminated by a series of essays that considers the table not just as a formal object, but also as an architecture and convention that structures our familial, social, political, and spiritual relationships.