Archinect - Features

AI Bias and Digital Colonialism; A Conversation with Morehshin Allahyari

2023-10-16T08:16:00-04:00

Whether through her art, writings, or lectures, Morehshin Allahyari's work evokes a range of emotions among its audience. There is wonder and intrigue at her reinterpretation of centuries-old Middle Eastern stories, images, and artifacts. There is introspection on our preconceived views on concepts from open-source data to digital archiving. Finally, there is a blend of frustration and motivation to act as Allahyari takes us on a journey through the exploitative history of colonial power relations between the West and the Middle East.

Using 3D simulation, video, sculpture, and digital fabrication, Allahyari warns us of a modern landscape in which power dynamics straddle both digital and physical worlds, articulating her theory of Digital Colonialism as a "framework for critically examining the tendency for information technologies to be deployed in ways that reproduce colonial power relations." In an age of artificial intelligence, the messages and critiques found within Allahyari's...

'You Need to Use AI Much More Than You Think to Get Unique Results From It'; A Conversation with Alexis Christodoulou

2023-07-26T08:00:00-04:00

Studying Alexis Christodoulou’s work, including his highly popular Instagram portfolio, one would expect his images to be the product of decades of education, training, and practice at the top of the field. The fact that Christodoulou is a self-taught artist of ten years, preceded by a career in advertising and winemaking, is a testament to the artist’s flair and passion for exploring new frontiers.

That same passion for exploration has allowed Christodoulou’s work to evolve from its simple architectural beginnings to vivid, minimalist experiments in Modernism, Brutalism, and the natural world, to present-day commissions by luxury brands through his company, Color C Design Studio.

In June 2023, Archinect’s Niall Patrick Walsh spoke with Christodoulou about his career in 3D visualization, including his background, process, tools, and thoughts on how artificial intelligence intersects with his field. The discussion, edited slightly for clarity, is published below.

This article is part...

Investigating the Relationship Between Public Art and Public Space with LAA Office

2021-12-13T15:25:00-05:00

When public art is incorporated into a design space, how does it interact with its surrounding architecture and landscapes? For Lulu Loquidis and Daniel Luis Martinez, the importance of bridging the gap between public space, community-driven design, and the built environment is essential. The duo are co-principals of the multi-disciplinary design studio LAA Office based in Columbus, Indiana.

After living and working in New York City for several years, their move to the Midwest helped foster an eye-opening opportunity for creating positive design interventions. They explain: "Some of the biggest issues that need to be addressed relate to social, economic, and cultural inequities that privilege certain groups over others. Specifically, in our work, we're hoping to find ways of making art and design accessible to folks that can't normally afford it or who see themselves removed from the processes that shape the built environment around them."

To learn more about LAA Office's path to s...

‘As Compton Natives, It Is Our Lifelong Goal to Give Back to the Community’ — Gallery 90220’s Founder on Empowering a New Generation of Black and Brown Artists in Los Angeles

2021-08-05T11:54:00-04:00

A new Black-owned and operated gallery has just opened in South Los Angeles, sprouting out of a vibrant artistic revival in Compton, California, and paving the way for an urban renaissance centered around the artistic expression of Black and Brown creatives.

Extra Extra: Meow Wolf Transmogrification

2019-06-01T10:48:00-04:00

“It is art, just like sci-fi and fantasy is literature” — George R.R. Martin on Meow Wolf

Everyone knows that most interstellar spacecraft visiting Earth prefer landing in New Mexico. UFO’s consistently enjoy the remote landscapes, fresh cuisine, and picturesque scenery of the Southwestern United States. In a recent visit I decided to search for stranded vessels. What I found was an entirely different type of otherness in the desert. But I didn’t look in the vast empty darkness of Roswell or the secure and mysterious Area 51. My search began and ended with Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return at 1352 Rufina Circle in Santa Fe.

Patrick Lam Discusses the Search for Complexity Through Simplicity

2019-05-13T12:04:00-04:00

Hong Kong is known for its skyscrapers and busy urban landscapes. However, within the dense complexity of the city architect Patrick Lam uses Hong Kong's crowded landscape as inspiration to creating simple design solutions for residential living. Skilled in both architecture and fine arts, Lam's design firm Sim-Plex taught him to think of every possibility a small space could offer.

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect chats with Lam about art, living in Kowloon City, and what it means to expand the possibilities of limited space.

The Architectural Backdrops and Studio Backlots of the Inaugural Frieze LA Art Fair

2019-02-21T11:43:00-05:00

This past weekend, the city of Los Angeles was buzzing with art events; however, the most anticipated event of all was the inaugural edition of Frieze LA. Making its debut in a city famed for the glitz and glamour of the movie industry, the decision to host the event within the Paramount Studios backlot seemed appropriate. Accompanying the historic backlot was Los Angeles' own Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY, who designed the indoor-outdoor art area. Riddled with architectural styles and motifs, Paramount Studios seemed up to the challenge of hosting this event in Los Angeles. But, was architecture merely an accessory to the event or did Frieze LA allow for these structures to shine in their own way?

The Negative Spaces of Domesticity

2018-10-24T11:32:00-04:00

Soapbox is a weekly series delivering a curated set of lectures, talks and symposia concerning contemporary themes but explored through the archives of lectures past and present. With the plethora of lectures, talks, symposia and panels occurring world wide on a daily basis, how can we begin to keep up and if not, find them once they are gone? Soapbox looks to assemble a selection of recent, archived and outlier lectures surrounding a given theme. Soapbox looks to curate this never-ending library of ideas into an engaging and diverse list of thoughts and provocations. Soapbox is just that, a collection aimed at discovering the occasional needle in a haystack.

This week we take a look at English artist, Rachel Whiteread. Whiteread was the first female artist to win the Turner Prize in 1993.

The Architecture Collective KnitKnot Shows Us the Possibilities of Practice in a Hypermobile World

2018-10-16T10:15:00-04:00

KnitKnot Architecture is an international collective born out of a competition entry. The team of architects, urban planners, artists and thinkers operate on a role-based structure, constantly adapting to meet the specificities of a given project.

Though spread across the globe, the group recently moved their offices into the GSAPP Incubator at NEW INC, Columbia University's launchpad for entrepreneurship and expanded modes of practice. Beyond serving as the physical office for its members in New York, the group hopes the new digs will bring about new ways of rethinking their practice. Here, the team talks about how they met, the recent move, and their unique working methodology.

In Focus: Neal Johnson

2018-07-13T10:00:00-04:00

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, Nathan Smith interviews Neal Johnson, a freelance photographer based out of Louisville, Kentucky.

Audain Art Museum by Patkau Architects

2017-07-31T09:58:00-04:00

Designed by Patkau Architects, the Audain Art Museum, located in Whistler, British Columbia, is a 56,000 square foot museum housing Michael Audain’s personal art collection which spans the history of British Columbia from the late 18th century to the present day. Spacious and minimal, the structure fits elegantly into Whistler's forest landscape, creating a serene environment for visitors. Recently, the art museum received a Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Awards in Architecture medal in the 2017 AIBC Architectural Awards.

When you cut funding and abandon people, surprises happen

2017-01-17T11:42:00-05:00

Detroit, once one of the 20th century’s top three thriving U.S. metropolises, has been a case study in ruin and decay for nearly half a century. “Detroit is No Dry Bones: The Eternal City of the Industrial Age,” a new book of photographs and nuanced essays by Camilo Jose Vergara, delves into this culture of ruin, offering architects and urban planners an intriguing (and often surprising) pictorial atlas of what happens to a civilization during uncivilized times.

‘To be with architecture is all we ask.’ – interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries

2016-08-08T05:49:00-04:00

Artistic Director of Serpentine Galleries, Hans-Ulrich Obrist is a much revered polymath. Curator, historian, critic and interviewer of the world’s leading artists, Obrist has often courted the world of architecture, most notably for his curatorship of the Swiss Pavilion at 2014's Venice Architecture Biennale.

paraSITE: the bandage over the nomadic wound

2016-05-27T11:04:00-04:00

Using the air discharged from publicly accessible HVAC units, artist Michael Rakowitz has created a series of inflatable temporary plastic shelters for the homeless he calls “paraSITE.” The work, which began in 1998 and was later added to the MoMA’s Architecture and Design online collection, is both a form of social protest and an ingenious, budget-conscious design (most units cost around $5 to construct).

Telling semiotic tales with Laurel Broughton of WELCOMEPROJECTS

2016-04-07T09:07:00-04:00

Designer Laurel Broughton is serious about playfulness in WELCOMEPROJECTS, a multi-disciplinary studio she established in Los Angeles in 2012. Since then, her studio has worked on a variety of art installations, interiors, and a growing collection of thematic sartorial accessories called WELCOMECOMPANIONS. Regardless of the project type, they’re all imbued with Broughton’s own surrealistic sense of whimsical flair that has captured the attention of designers, artists, and fashionistas alike.

Art + Architecture: Swipes and Changeups with Mike Nesbit

2015-11-25T14:12:00-05:00

"I'm always looking at things and taking them at face value," said Mike Nesbit, a Los Angeles-based architect and artist, as he leaned over the table and grabbed an empty glass to use as illustration. He turned the glass over in his hands several times causing the reflection of an overhead light to splinter and reform with each rotation. “Surveying a found object,” he continued, “and trying to eliminate the predetermined meaning that I have in my hand.”

What makes an artless museum?

2015-06-16T11:00:00-04:00

Architectural criticism that begins with “it looks like [insert Platonic object here]” is suspect at best, but the temptation to gamble with semiotic stickiness is too great: if I see a contraceptive sponge when I look at the new Broad Museum, I want to say that.

Working out of the Box: Abraham Burickson, poet, conceptual artist and founder of "Odyssey Works"

2015-03-27T12:13:00-04:00

Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.

In this installment, we're talking with Abraham Burickson, founder of Odyssey Works.

Are you an architect working out of the box? Do you know of someone that has changed careers and has an interesting story to share? If you would like to suggest an (ex-)architect, please send us a message.

Ghosts of Schindler's past haunt Renee Green's MAK Center exhibition

2015-03-24T12:10:00-04:00

Where does an encounter with a work of architecture begin? There is the building as it first emerges on the horizon. Then the series of connected moments as you approach, that, like in a film, change according to variables of speed and distance, of the position of the subject in relation to the object. There is also the moment of crossing the threshold, the ambiguous line that demarcates inside from outside.

Oyler Wu Collaborative in ink, graphite and steel

2015-02-09T11:22:00-05:00

Painters paint, sculptors sculpt, and writers write, yet architects do not architect – they draw, model, and write. Architecture is one of the few creative fields that does not allow the artist to work in the medium where the final work will be produced. Yet Oyler Wu Collaborative makes productive use of that cognitive jump.

White Space: The Architecture of the Art Fair

2015-01-13T09:30:00-05:00

In his 1942 short story “The Library of Babel,” Jorge Luis Borges describes a universe consisting of a potentially infinite library of adjacent hexagonal rooms. Convinced that the library contains every imaginable ordering of twenty-five orthographic symbols, the inhabitants of this universe search incessantly, and futilely, for meaning amid the endless shelves. While an individual art fair is never actually infinite, its labyrinthine rows of cubicles can appear endless.

Working out of the Box: Santiago Borja

2014-12-11T10:37:00-05:00

Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.

In this installment, we're talking with artist and architecture theorist, Santiago Borja.

Working out of the Box: Daniel Dorall, Architect turned Maze Artist

2014-10-20T17:14:00-04:00

Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.

In this installment, we're talking with Malaysia-born Melbourne-based sculptor and creator of fascinating miniature objects Daniel Dorall.

Art + Architecture: Felix Melia and Josh Bitelli in the Gaps Between Buildings

2014-10-17T12:44:00-04:00

Felix Melia and Josh Bitelli are artists who live and work in London. We met last year and have remained in contact through email since then, exchanging periodic updates and continuing our fragmentary, rambling conversations over shared interests (and confusions) regarding the contemporary urban experience. Threads of continuity arise between individual emails with each of them, unsurprising since the two are old friends, share a new studio space, and often collaborate. Our conversations are inescapably informed by the digital media that allows them but at the same time bears traces of a perhaps nostalgic notion of letter exchanges. Both Melia and Bitelli investigate the city through the (often unnoticed) infrastructure and industrial processes that support it, while also grappling with the shifts in phenomenological experience produced by the internet – all of which is often tinged with an undeniable romanticism.

Art + Architecture: Bruno Zhu in a Symphony of Objects

2014-08-19T19:01:00-04:00

Bruno Zhu’s work, contained in self-published books but also posted on social media sites like Tumblr and Instagram, captures accidental sculptures and fleeting moments as he wanders cities. Instead of vast landscapes, urban environments are portrayed through intimate encounters with objects. Zhu also investigates the lives of his images as they become dispersed across various networks, excavating nonfictional narratives centered around the ghostly protagonist of the image itself in his book, Facsimile.

Art + Architecture: Schumacher vs. Post-Net

2014-07-09T17:23:00-04:00

In some architecture circles, hating on Patrik Shumacher’s “parametricism” is like hating on Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”. It signals a basic shared understanding that, among many other things, artistic professions are not removed from politics, that their practitioners do have responsibilities outside of formal concerns, and that replicating structures of violence is, in general, not a good thing. These conversations are so frequent that they are starting to feel rehearsed: first the staid question, then the momentary pause, finally the sigh of relief. “Now we can move on to the important things.”

Screen/Print #15: Sophie Yanow's "War of Streets and Houses"

2014-05-08T09:47:00-04:00

Student protests broke out in Montreal in February of 2012, rallying against Quebec’s proposed university tuition hike. The protests were massive, flooding the streets for days with students, sympathizers and police, while universities saw dramatic student walkouts. Sophie Yanow was one such sympathizer, whose experience in the protests made her reconsider the city as a place where systems of control are made physical. Her graphic novel, War of Streets and Houses, reflects on the protests and her own place in the city’s power structure.

Screen/Print #7: Horizonte

2014-02-18T11:46:00-05:00

Screen/Print is an experiment in translation across media, featuring a close-up digital look at printed architectural writing. Divorcing content from the physical page, the series lends a new perspective to nuanced architectural thought.

For this issue, we’re featuring Horizonte's Ausgabe 08.

Do you run an architectural publication? If you’d like to submit a piece of writing to Screen/Print, please send us a message.

Art Basel comes to Hong Kong

2013-05-30T15:20:00-04:00

During the yearly art fair in Basel, Switzerland, the city is activated and reconfigured, and art is brought to the forefront of civic discourse. What, if any, impact could the fair have on daily life in a city of 7 million? How would this art world mega-event translate to the Hong Kong context?

Working out of the Box: Ioana Urma

2012-10-03T14:23:00-04:00

Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.