Archinect - Features

America’s Public Housing is Burning, Fueled by Cold Indifference

2022-03-09T13:22:00-05:00

In early 2022, building fires at publicly-funded properties in the Bronx and Philadelphia claimed 29 lives. The facts and conditions surrounding the fires expose an ongoing failure by officials to provide and maintain a safe standard of housing for some of America's most vulnerable. However, the reactions by the same officials would suggest that a moment requiring urgent reforms in regulations, funding, and oversight is instead being met with indifference.

The Great Chicago Fire at 150: Architectural Historian Jerry Larson Weighs in on Myths Surrounding the Architectural Changes it Brought to the City

2021-10-08T18:32:00-04:00

Today, October 8th, 2021, marks the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The three-day blaze, which killed an estimated 300 people and destroyed over 17,000 structures, is said to have been a catalyst in the history of modern design, sparking, as a direct result of the “blank slate” that was created, a revolution in the uses of different building methods, materials, and urban planning strategies around the city. From this, many of us learned, a direct line can be drawn connecting a variety of the changes that took place inside of Chicago thereafter with some of the architectural trends that shaped the development of modern cities through the end of the 20th century.

As convenient as this narrative is, it remains amongst the more dated that are still being routinely taught in design curriculums across the country. Today, we will reexamine the impacts the fire has (and has not) made using a simple two-question prompt: How has the event been misconceptualize...

FireCity | FireLAnd: New Models of Resilience and Community with UCLA's Hitoshi Abe and Jeffrey Inaba's Research Studios

2021-07-22T13:48:00-04:00

What does building resiliency look like for urban landscapes? With the effects of climate change increasing, architects, urban planners, and landscape architects must work towards land use design strategies while having humans and nature coexist effectively.

The University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design's faculty and students continue to unpack challenges between land development and urban conditions. An institution that focuses on collaborative research between its students and faculty, it strives to create learning environments fueled by experimentation and discovery. To highlight these initiatives, Archinect connected with Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba and Professor Hitoshi Abe to discuss their collaborative research studios FireCity and FireLAnd. In addition, they explain common misconceptions students have when learning about urban regeneration, land use, and ways to approach design strategies for fire resilient urban infrastr...

Screen/Print #62: A Year After Ghost Ship Fire, Writer and Activist Jaime Omar Yassin Reflects on City's Response

2017-09-22T09:00:00-04:00

In December of 2016, a fire broke out during a show at Oakland's Ghost Ship, a DIY-venue located in a two-story warehouse. The incident tragically took the lives of 36 young concert-goers and prompted national discussions (including one on our podcast) of the safety and vitality of DIY venues and the long-term effects of such building code violations for gentrification and zoning.

After being destroyed in a fire, Canadian-firm Patkau Architects rebuilds the Temple of Light

2017-07-06T12:23:00-04:00

Construction is nearing completion on the Temple of Light at the Yasodhara Ashram in British Columbia, Canada. Located near Crawford Bay and a visible landmark from Kootenay Lake, the temple was the vision of Swami Radha, a pioneer in the North American yoga movement who completed the original center in 1992.

The architects trying to restore Mackintosh's Library to its former glory

2016-04-23T11:43:00-04:00

The Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is an iconic structure and home of one of the greatest art schools in Europe. The building, voted the best British-designed building of the past 175 years in a nationwide poll conducted by The Sunday Times newspaper and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2009, is an iconic role model for what we perceive as the ideal art school: a space that exudes creativity through design, atmosphere and craft.