Archinect - Features

Hear Ye! The New 10 Commandments for Architecture

2017-01-26T12:22:00-05:00

Since at least Vitruvius, architects have searched for rules to live by. After all, when your job is to shape the world we all have to live in, it’s a good idea to make sure you know what you’re doing. But dictates, like the profession itself, need to change with time. So we asked around to find out what today’s architectural “ten commandments” should be. Turns out that, in the 21st century, defining how we practice seems to be more of a concern than establishing rules for what it is we make.

Maryam Eskandari on Weaving Together Her Islamic Faith with Architecture Practice

2017-01-18T12:11:00-05:00

Recently, Archinect has been taking a look at the relationship between faith and architecture. In this interview, we speak to Maryam Eskandari, Principal of MIIM Designs and Adviser in History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. A practicing Muslim, Eskandari views her practice as an extension of her faith—which means, basically, to make "good architecture" for the 99%.

The Ulm Synagogue Mixes Modern Design with Memory

2017-01-06T12:00:00-05:00

On the night of November 9, 1938, members of the Sturmabteilung, the Nazi paramilitary force, and German citizens took to the streets, smashing the windows of Jewish-owned businesses and destroying over 1,000 synagogues. At least 91 people were murdered and some 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps. One of the synagogues destroyed that night, now known as Kristallnacht, was in the city of Ulm, along the River Danube. Just over 70 years later, the architecture studio kister scheithauer gross architects and urban planners (ksg) was tasked with building a new synagogue on the site, which would both enshrine its history and look towards the future. We got in touch with ksg to hear more about the project.

Strapping on the Sacred: When Religion Enters Virtual Reality

2016-12-15T12:14:00-05:00

A few months ago, I found myself a lone skeptic in a sea of believers at the VR L.A. Expo. I watched heads tilt toward the sky (then the ground, then side to side). I navigated long lines that snaked through a grid of cardboard booths, filled with eager believers awaiting communion not with God but with pixels. I heard the feverish whispers of the prophets of our 2D wilderness (they who consume Soylent instead of locusts and honey). A New World is coming, they said.

The Architect Behind Noah's Ark Shares How Faith Influences His Practice

2016-12-08T12:07:00-05:00

This month, in line with Archinect’s December theme, Faith, we’re talking to architects of various faiths about how their spiritual practice figures into their architectural practice. In this iteration, we speak with LeRoy Troyer, the president and chair of Troyer Group. Troyer Group is probably best-known for their project “Ark Encounter”, a full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark, built according to plans interpreted from Genesis.

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.