Archinect - Features

Short and Not-So-Sweet: A Collection of Architecture Haiku Criticism

2016-11-28T12:09:00-05:00

In honor of November's XS theme, we asked readers to send us notes of architectural criticism, in haiku: the Japanese poetic form restricted to three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, in that order. And boy, did folks deliver. You can pack a lot of sour into 17 syllables, but also beauty. Below are the best haiku from our open call, and a few from Archinect's forum. Enjoy.

The Short Life and Bitter End to Munich's 'Yellow Submarine'

2016-11-26T12:26:00-05:00

Made of 16 bathtubs with specially installed portholes, 'Yellow Submarine' was a hotel room/political housing statement, and one of the 24-winning designs in the 2015 Shabbyshabby Apartments competition. Created by the Glasgow-based and Lithuanian-staffed collective Urban Restart along with Kurt Cleary, the design is purposefully referred to in the past tense: only two days after it was erected in Munich, it was destroyed. This prompted speculation that vandals, or right-wing extremists opposed to refugees, were responsible.

A Snarky Haiku Collection Targets Architecture's Most Frustrating Moments

2016-11-22T12:03:00-05:00

Created by three contributors who wish to remain anonymous, Five Seven Five: Nine to Five is a collection of haiku that wryly (and occasionally cynically) explores the realities of day-to-day architectural employment, from choosing between SketchUp and Revit to the challenges of working with developers.

Max Friedlander's "Wind Inhabitor" Goes Wherever the Weather Takes It

2016-11-18T14:25:00-05:00

A building fails when it falls victim to the elements. Stability, or firmatis, is the least common denominator of architecture: the first in Vitruvius’ Triad and the least contested. We want our buildings anchored to the ground, resilient against storms and seasons. But what would be the experience of an inverse architecture: a structure that could catch the wind?

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?

London is a game of life or death in 'Metropoly'

2016-08-31T09:33:00-04:00

“The city has long been a tool for social development and progression,” writes Adam Fryett in Metropoly, his submission to Archinect’s open call for August. “It is clear however that the neoliberal age of consumer capital has led to a regression of the social standards of modern city development, leading to a vast reduction in both the quality of life and life itself of a vast number of inhabitants.”

Stripped of cosmetics, but imbued with substance: inside the Berard Residence

2016-08-26T09:20:00-04:00

As conceptually oriented housing design goes, the Berard Residence has a bold aim: it attempts to shift the preconception of housing's elemental function away from shelter and into a more experiential mode, concerned with the qualities of human existence itself. Submitted to our open call under July's theme of Domesticity, the home aligns itself with a new interpretation of the 'case study' ideal.

A home that molds itself to your memories

2016-08-18T09:13:00-04:00

Traces of the past permeate a home, which acts as a sort of repository for memories. Thus, a move is never just a relocation, it’s also a departure from the past and its signifiers. But what if houses conformed to our memories rather than the other way around? In The Settlement, a submission to our July open call, Noah Gotlib and Pica Limbaseanu propose a future where a family “will soon be able to experience everything within the confines of the home, yet part with nothing.”

"Emergence: Home Beyond Boundaries" – a reader submission on Domesticity

2016-07-23T10:33:00-04:00

As one of the submissions to our Open Call for July's theme of "Domesticity," Duha Al Nasir tackled the challenge of envisioning her version of the next Case Study home, riffing on the realtor "ad" prompt with a rumination on the very nature of home. Al Nasir locates the essential home within the nexus of experience, likening it to an "emotional suitcase" and concluding that ultimately, one's home is not a physical enclosure but a metaphor for a sense of self.

One student's solution to the permanent limbo of refugee camps

2016-06-08T08:37:00-04:00

As conflicts continue to rage in the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, millions of people have found themselves without papers, a state, or a home. Architecture is directly implicated in this humanitarian crisis—providing shelter is, after all, a primary onus of the disciple—and it’s taken notice, as the projects rolling out of Venice make clear.

An alternative, smart "Homestead" for Kansas City

2016-06-06T13:43:00-04:00

What makes a truly smart city? Just as importantly, how do designers help revitalize older urban cores without repeating past mistakes that led to displacement and inequitable urbanism? These are some of the questions raised in Andrew Bruno's master's thesis project for the New Jersey Institute of Technology, submitted to May's open-call for equitable architecture proposals.

Tectr: Tinder for architecture?

2016-04-29T10:45:00-04:00

If you've ever blushed at the veiny ridges of 8 Spruce Street, or wanted to trace the outer lip of the now shuttered design for the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, Tectr may be for you. The 18+, NSFW experimental dating/hookup game, designed by Silverstring Media, pairs users with architectural structures, from empty foyers to ramrod straight skyscrapers.