Archinect - Features

The Geometry of the World

2019-04-30T12:14:00-04:00

City-States

Permanent Crisis

The American City seems to exist now in a state of permanent crisis.

That is to say: our cities seem lashed to a self-renewing state of emergency driven by entrenched and multiplying acts of violence. We bear witness to police violence against civilians; civilian aggression towards officers of the peace and, inevitably, mass shootings by radicalized citizens against communities: Las Vegas, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Parkland, Thousand Oaks, Poway and so on and so on. Add to this ongoing acts of seemingly retaliatory public rioting and counter-violence organized by the citizen militias as far afield as Portland and Charlottesville. In this context and we can and should consider the possibility that our cities have become settings for persistent urban confrontations pitting citizens against citizens and civilians against the police, the very branch of local government retained to maintain a civil society.

Checking Back in With the Free School of Architecture, its First Year now Complete

2017-11-10T09:00:00-05:00

Last year, architect Peter Zellner announced his plans of a new, tuition-free educational institution dubbed the Free School of Architecture. Held at the Container Yard in Los Angeles, the school made its debut over the summer, launching on June 1st, 2017 with a class of 30 post-graduate students and a faculty of 22 teachers engaging in 12 courses over the span of 6 weeks.

With the first year now complete, we got the chance to talk to Zellner about the outcome of its inaugural program as well as the goals for the school going forward.

Peter Zellner on How His Practice Stays as Small as Possible While Doing Work that is as Big as Possible

2017-10-27T11:58:00-04:00

ZELLNERandCompany is an award-winning design firm based out of Los Angeles. Run by Peter Zellner, the firm has become best known for designing several notable public and private art galleries but has recently scaled up the size of their work, taking on several masterplanning projects.

We spoke with Peter back in January as part of our Small Studio Snapshot series, in which he discussed his practice's vision of "develop[ing] as an independent studio that punches above its weight while remaining open to other forms of collaboration." We caught up with Peter to discuss this process and recent growth in output.

Small Studio Snapshots: Peter Zellner of ZELLNERandCompany

2017-01-16T12:15:00-05:00

Chances are, when you first considered pursuing architecture, you imagined forging your own path. But, of course, the realities of practicing architecture in the 21st century make that easier said than done. Starting your own small practice is no small feat. We’re interviewing a variety of different, small-scale practices about the difficulties they’ve encountered and the rewards they’ve reaped. For this installment, we talk with Peter Zellner of ZELLNERandCompany, an award-winning design firm based out of Los Angeles.