Archinect - Features

In Focus: Leonardo Mascaro

2017-07-06T16:00:00-04:00

In Focus is Archinect's recurring series dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better. What has attracted them to architecture? How do they work? What type of equipment do they use? What do they think about seeing their work in blogs?

For this installment, we interviewed the NYC-based photographer Leonardo Mascaro.

#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.

A look at 22 talented immigrants expanding the definition of American architecture

2017-07-04T13:40:00-04:00

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” read the famous lines inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Housing nearly 20% of all immigrants in the world, the United States is a famously diverse country and, when at its best, incredibly welcoming. This Fourth of July, we’re celebrating this proud tradition by taking a look at architects from around the world who’ve made America their home.

The Proust Questionnaire: Eric Owen Moss

2017-07-04T13:40:00-04:00

For this week's Proust Questionnaire, we're talking with the Los Angeles-based architect Eric Owen Moss who admits to relying too much on the enigmatic and (yet) would like to build on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro or the bottom of the ocean.

Why Not London?

2017-07-03T04:30:00-04:00

"Why not London?" I kept asking myself as I wandered round the spectacular opening reception of the spectacular HQ of the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid. Housed in the former Turkish Embassy building designed by Joaquin Soldana in 1902 the foundation is a treasure trove of Normanalia - early drawings, models, sketches, huge renderings, personal artefacts, bicycle designs and cross country skis. Everything presented in museum-quality perfection. Each room overseen by a uniformed assistant who not only asked you politely not to take photos but also could provide a bi-lingual description of the works on show.

Beyond hype and gentrification: Designing studios for artists

2017-06-30T04:15:00-04:00

The production of art has been present in our work since we started the practice nearly 8 years ago. One of our first projects was the studio of photographer Ori Gersht and painter Nogah Engler, which was for us a seminal work not only in terms of establishing some of the key principles that remain fundamental in our design approach until now, but it also marked the start of a body of work in the realm of arts and culture that has evolved into a wide range of projects, from collaborations with artists to exhibition design and gallery spaces. This was a natural consequence of the strong affinity we feel towards the process of artistic production, particularly when it comes to art from the 1960’s onwards when the ideas became as important as the making and production moved away from the artist, which brought it closer to the process of making architecture. Like some forms of art, our work often emerges from an idea of how the space or building will be experienced, and this idea ends u...

What is the Value of Historic Drawings for the Future? The Exhibition ‘Liminal Forms’ Wants to Find Out

2017-06-29T16:44:00-04:00

If you had to guess when some of the most pioneering and groundbreaking architectural drawing techniques were developed, it’s unlikely your first choice would be the 17th century.

At UCLA's Year-End Reviews, a Diversity of Impressive Student Work Makes for a Loud 'Rumble'

2017-06-28T13:29:00-04:00

As summer begins and the academic year comes to a close, all the rooms and narrow corridors of UCLA’s Perloff Hall are overflowing with models and drawings, celebrating the hard work of the students with the annual exhibition-style event, Rumble.

Why do we forget to look back when trying to move forward?

2017-06-28T04:45:00-04:00

I have recently become a trustee of the Turn End Trust, an organisation which conserves, protects and maintains one of three Grade II listed houses designed and built in the 1960’s by the architect Peter Aldington, in the Buckinghamshire village of Haddenham.

Screen/Print #57: Dora Epstein Jones On Re-centering 'the Building' in Architectural Discourse

2017-06-23T10:30:00-04:00

“We forgot about buildings,” claims Dora Epstein Jones in this provocative essay for The Building, a new volume edited by José Aragüez and published by Lars Müller, featured here as part of Archinect’s recurring series Screen/Print.

With 'Ways of Life,' 19 Architects Reimagine What It Means to Live and Work in Nature

2017-06-21T12:30:00-04:00

According to research from 2015, between 35-38% of people do some, if not all, work from home. And, even back in 2009, a study found that 1 in 5 spent two to ten hours working from bed. In short, the way we work and live is changing, as many ditch (or have to ditch) the commuter express for their bedrooms. While Walter Benjamin said of the 19th century, “for the private citizen, for the first time the living-space became distinguished from the place of work,” in the 21st, that distinction is blurring once more. Alongside this, the split between the urban, as loci of labor, and the rural or suburban, as retreat, is complicated.

The Proust Questionnaire: Craig Dykers

2017-06-20T11:54:00-04:00

Craig Dykers, of the international practice Snøhetta, takes our Proust Questionnaire and has some difficulty picking favorites!

(Un)believable Utopias: 6 Forgotten Projects and their Provocative Stories

2017-06-16T10:06:00-04:00

Consciously or otherwise, social context determines design. Architecture, in turn, is capable of not only representing political ideals but also of reinforcing or shaping them—for example, through fostering forms of collective living or through breaking down gendered behavioral norms. The following projects may not be well-remembered, but they represent ambitious attempts to address or challenge the status quo through the built environment.

Michael Wylie on the Far-Out Set Designs of 'Legion'

2017-06-15T12:16:00-04:00

By definition, a background can be easy to forget about—but it can have as much of an effect on the overall feel of a show as the script or an actor. When it comes to a show like Legion on FX, the set takes on additional importance, serving as a visual representation of the (incredibly unstable) mental state of the lead character.

Screen/Print #56: Alessandro Bava and Oskar Johanson Reflect on the Future of the AA in 'DUE'

2017-06-14T12:01:00-04:00

One of the preeminent schools of architecture in the world, the Architectural Association of Architecture (AA) in London is in the midst of some significant changes. Brett Steele, the director of the school, is heading out to Los Angeles where he will serve as Dean of the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture. During this time of transition, the students and alumni of the AA have taken to the school’s weekly publication DUE, featured here as part of Archinect’s recurring series Screen/Print, to reflect on the past and project towards the future of the institution.

Mia Lundström is Blurring Local and Global, Top-Down and Bottom-Up Planning with the Kalejdohill Project

2017-06-13T12:15:00-04:00

In today’s hyper-digitized environment, the local and the global aren’t so easily defined. Just search ‘locals only’ on Instagram, for example, and you’ll find photos tagged from around the world. So it’s only fitting that urban planning projects, when seeking to activate a new social space, should blur the lines as well. “Democracy in an age of social media, digitalizations, migration etc. asks for so many upgrades—how to plan cities is one of them,” states Mia Lundström, an urban planner and the Project Director of Kalejdohill, an initiative meant to activate a locality in a suburb outside of Stockholm years in advance of a future development.

How to Get a Job at OMA

2017-06-12T10:00:00-04:00

The search for employment is unpredictable and demands unrelenting patience. When you're at your wit's end, it can be tempting to send the same exact resume to what feels like the same job ad over and over again. However, no two firms are identical and there are particular qualities and red flags that a firm won't always simply list on their job ad. In Archinect's “How To Get A Job At ____”, we asked some architecture firms how candidates can stand out from the crowd when applying to their practice.

Discussing the role of jargon and difficulty with Harvard GSD's K. Michael Hays + Lisa Haber-Thomson

2017-06-09T10:30:00-04:00

Why are introductory architecture courses often packed with dense, off-putting jargon? It’s a question I didn't anticipate asking an esteemed architectural historian and current Harvard GSD professor, yet after I unintentionally offended K. Michael Hays by publicly airing my annoyances with jargon and difficulty as part of a recap of a review of his new online course, I realized that I needed to ask it. In fact, I owed it to the Professor; it’s unfair to criticize someone’s teaching style if one hasn’t thoroughly experienced it, although I've taken courses taught by others that used a similar approach.

For Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday, we interview Dan Nichols who has been living in and restoring Wright’s Sweeton House in New Jersey

2017-06-08T09:00:00-04:00

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the few architects who needs little introduction regardless of to whom you are talking. With a career lasting over 60 years, and with over 400 homes scattered across the US, his enduring legacy and contribution to the field of architecture is unparalleled. The famed architect would have turned 150 this month.

Helmut Jahn on His Practice, His Career, and His Most Recent Chicago Project 1000M

2017-06-07T16:40:00-04:00

Back in the day, he was known as “Flash Gordon”—a daring young German-American architect with equally daring designs for his adopted home of Chicago. Now, just over 50 years since he first arrived to the Windy City, a more experienced and restrained Helmut Jahn is working on a major new project for a prominent site on Michigan Avenue.

The Proust Questionnaire: Deborah Berke

2017-06-06T11:56:00-04:00

Architect and dean of the Yale School of Architecture, Deborah Berke talks engaging with art and culture, lacking an architectural signature and her love of repetition for this iteration of the Proust Questionnaire.

Environmentalism Matters for Architects — With or Without the Paris Agreement

2017-06-02T13:00:00-04:00

Yesterday, amidst the roses, magnolias, crabapples and Littleleaf lindens that populate the White House Rose Garden, the President announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the landmark international climate agreement made last year and signed by every country in the world except Syria and Nicaragua.*

Designing for Disaster, Before It Happens: Resilient by Design Seeks Architects

2017-06-02T12:41:00-04:00

Disasters resulting from climate change, such as sea level rise, often cause billions of dollars of damage. In an era when the United States Federal Government has largely withdrawn from climate change policy, San Francisco Bay Area-based Resilient by Design has released a design brief in hopes of assembling ten teams of architects, engineers, designers and experts to help anticipate and design for the needs of the region before massive devastation occurs. So what architects should apply?

Vision with New Lenses: On Designing with Machine Vision

2017-06-01T12:12:00-04:00

We increasingly design and inhabit spaces occupied and navigated by both humans and autonomous machines, each with their own unique methods of seeing and sense-making. In this gap between human and machine perception opens a new frontier: how does machine learning transform the vision of the designer?

A Final Shot for One-Night Stand LA #3: Last Call

2017-05-26T12:12:00-04:00

On May 20th, the third and final iteration of One-Night Stand for Art and Architecture (ONS-LA)—a popular annual event in Los Angeles where designers transform motel rooms into installations for the night—took over the Royal Viking Motel in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park. Over the course of its three year run, ONS-LA has established itself as a dynamic platform for alternative architectural production, exhibition and engagement. It’s also very fun. After all, how often do architects get to have a party of their own?

Cross-Talk: 'a Brick and a Bull' by Sofia Blanco Santos

2017-05-26T12:11:00-04:00

Architects are collectors. Collectors of different images, objects, ideas and other architectures. What we collect, and how we decide to put the different parts of this collection together, ultimately constitutes the architectures we make.

Brexit Diaries: Chris Williamson, 26 May 2017

2017-05-26T04:00:00-04:00

An eventful month indeed. Theresa May took everyone by surprise by announcing an election. I still can’t understand why the opposition didn’t table an amendment to have the election later – say in September – to give them time to get their act together whilst not appearing to be running scared

Cross-Talk: 'Between Architecture and People' by Caio Barboza

2017-05-25T12:10:00-04:00

Flexibility is the new f-word… PC is the face of contemporary architecture… and it adapts to people’s needs: stories of a promising 21st century for the discipline now subjugated to solidarity and justice.

In Focus: Aldo Amoretti

2017-05-25T04:00:00-04:00

For this installment, we interviewed the Barcelona-based photographer Aldo Amoretti.

Cross-Talk: 'Reflections of Agonist Reflections' by Eliyahu Keller

2017-05-24T12:10:00-04:00

The definition provided by Wikipedia for ‘agonism’ puts an emphasis on the legitimacy of struggle, on its “permanent place”, and less on the outcome of the conflict. With this—and not to say by any means that all struggles are valid—the point is still quite clear. It is the struggle that matters, not the result. It is the activity that counts, not where it leads. It is, as we tell children who lose a ball game, all about participation; it’s about moving, staying fit, agile; it’s about always being in flux.