Archinect - News

Brooklyn group opposes new Tony Hawk-backed skatepark: 'Pouring concrete is Stone Age'

2024-04-08T11:58:00-04:00

The city has construction plans for Mount Prospect Park, once the site of a lookout station for George Washington’s army. About 40,000 square feet of the 7.79-acre park are to be turned into one of the largest skateboarding spots on the East Coast. Some nearby residents are fighting the plan. [...] They say the poured-concrete skateboarding facility would take up precious green space in a city that does not have enough of it.

A total of four skatepark designs are scheduled to be built in the Bronx and Brooklyn, courtesy of The Skatepark Project (or TSP). Costs for a new park at the contested Brooklyn location are about $100,000.

The Mount Prospect Park location calls for 40,000 square feet worth of concrete to be poured, leading to local protests recently. Hayley Gorenberg of the group Friends of Mount Prospect Park told the Times, “Paving green space isn’t acceptable to the community, and it’s not the way for New York City to look forward to a more resilient future. It’s backwards thinking.”

Tony Hawk is also involved in Peterson Rich Office and OSD’s new adaptive reuse design for the Shepherd Gallery and Art Center in Detroit.

UN rights experts weigh in on Saudi Arabia’s planned execution of three NEOM opponents

2023-05-05T17:28:00-04:00

UN rights experts have denounced the pending execution of three members of a Saudi tribe, reportedly in connection with their opposition to a planned Red Sea megacity. [...] The three men – Shadly Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, Ibrahim Salih Ahmad Abou Khalil al-Huwaiti and Atallah Moussa Mohammed al-Huwaiti – were reportedly sentenced to death on 5 August last year and their sentences were upheld on appeal on 23 January, the statement said.

The men were originally charged under a 2017 anti-terrorism law. The Saudi government has also reportedly plagued their tribal group with drone surveillance, bribery, and even threats of violence since the announcement of the project the same year. Other opponents inside the development’s massive 105- by 200-mile master planning area have been imprisoned as well.

Previously on Archinect: Opposition to NEOM displacement leads three Saudi tribesmen to death sentences

UN rights experts say their planned deaths cannot be justified by international standards. Saudi Arabia alarmingly executed nearly twice as many citizens between 2015 and 2022 as it did in the four-year period prior, despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's attempts to present himself as a liberal reformer.

Architecture's controversies in 2022: The industry continued to be scarred by strife and scandal

2022-12-21T08:00:00-05:00

The year’s end brings the chance to survey architecture’s progression and social impact through salient entryways that include labor, activism, and the development of topical building trends.

Another way of recapping things is by looking at the varied rows, discord, stories of ill-treatment, and critical reactions to certain projects that shape the way the architecture progresses and is viewed by the broader public. With everything from conflict to college dorms domineering the news cycle, our coverage has been as influenced by current events as it was by goings-on inside halls of higher learning and professional practice.

Previously on Archinect: Updated Munger Hall images show two floors removed as controversial project seeks approval

Twelve months ago, we documented what happened once the industry began to recover from a years-long pandemic-plagued economy. What followed was a year marked by new pinnacles and uncertainty within the industry. With an eye for the murkiness that ha...

Opposition to NEOM displacement leads three Saudi tribesmen to death sentences

2022-10-18T15:45:00-04:00

Three men have been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over their alleged opposition to the country’s NEOM project, according to a report published last week by the human rights monitoring group ALQST.

Image courtesy ALQST

The Saudi Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) handed down the sentences on October 2nd in the face of their continued social media criticism and organizing against the government's program of forced evictions that had been enacted in order to make room for the $500 billion megaproject.

Previously: The Line, the largest part of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious NEOM project, looks like a total fantasy

The three men are members of the Huwaitat Tribe, a formerly nomadic group endemic to the northern Tabuk province, which has been the subject of bribes, violence, surveillance drones, and other forms of harassment since the first announcement of crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s "new way of living" in 2017. They are also known to be the relatives of Abdul Rahim Al-Huwaiti, a 43-yea...

Oxford's 'Shark House' owner detests its new landmark designation status

2022-04-01T13:38:00-04:00

The 25-foot tall (7.6 meter) sculpture of a shark crashing through the roof of Magnus Hanson-Heine’s house in rural Oxford, England, is now a protected landmark — and he’s not happy about it.

City Council members in Oxford voted earlier in the month to add the protest artwork to its Heritage Asset Register along with 16 other sites.

Officially named the Headington Shark, the sculpture was installed on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki in 1986 as a powerful anti-war message lobbed against the U.S. government by American ex-pat homeowner Bill Hanson-Heine and local artist John Buckley. Hanson-Heine died in 2019 and apparently passed down his grudge against the planning body, which had for years attempted to effect last night’s removal via a series of orders that were eventually halted by Department of the Environment Minister Michael Heseltine in 1992.

“Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd on the face of it,” Magnus told the AP earlier this week.

Over 6,700 Russian architects and urban planners pen open letter decrying their country's war with Ukraine

2022-03-03T13:56:00-05:00

UPDATE, March 4th, 2022: New media crackdown in Russia forces censorship of open letter signed by country's architects and urban planners

A new missive in the architectural community’s fight against the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been launched as this time, a group from inside the Federation has issued its own statement condemning the Kremlin for its purblind and illegal attempt at prosecuting a war.

The group published the letter in a magazine called Project Russia and boasts more than 6,790 signatories who collectively expressed frustration with their government’s “unacceptable” actions.

The letter was originally published on February 24th. The full text of the web-translated statement reads as follows:

An open letter from architects and urban planners of Russia against military operations in Ukraine

We, the architects and urban planners of Russia, consider the offensive of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine unacceptable. Foreign policy issues must be resolved exclusi...

Prominent architecture firms voice intent to suspend work in Russia as statements of solidarity with Ukraine continue

2022-03-02T17:50:00-05:00

As the walls of the international community begin to cave in on Vladimir Putin and his acolytes in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more prominent architecture and design firms have joined the effort to isolate Moscow from the rest of the world economically.

The past 24 hours saw the addition of David Chipperfield and Zaha Hadid Architects to the list of practices that includes BIG, UNStudio, MVRDV, Herzog & de Meuron, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Foster + Partners in either refusing to continue work on ongoing projects or issuing statements of solidarity which have resounded across the professional design world.

“As a practice, we are affected twofold. Our projects in Ukraine have sadly been put on hold by the atrocities,” began the statement published Monday by MVRDV. “Right after the start of the invasion, we began contacting our Ukrainian friends and partners in support, and we try to remain in touch. They are brave, and they are experiencing incredible hardship. We h...

Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle is set to break ground in Paris despite a last-minute effort to stop it

2021-11-19T17:03:00-05:00

The debate surrounding Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle is picking up this week amidst news that the €670 million ($757 million) project will begin construction within the next month in spite of a torrent of backlash that has beset the development since its announcement in 2008.

As the plan moves forward, a last-minute effort has propped up among Parisians intent on making a final stand against the looming tower.

Located in the 15th arrondissement, the 42-story glass triangle would become the city’s third-tallest building outside of the city’s bifurcated La Défense business district. The mayor of the 15th (who compared the development to the Hydra of Lerna) lobbed a last-minute effort to postpone the plan at yesterday’s meeting of the Conseil de Paris, stating that an office building of its type is no longer necessary in the post-pandemic economy, which resulted in a verbal back-and-forth between himself and socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has been an ardent supporter of the pr...

UC Berkeley revises proposed People's Park housing scheme as Chancellor promises to accommodate its unhoused population

2021-09-01T16:48:00-04:00

An amended plan for new student housing at the University of California, Berkeley has been announced amidst protests surrounding the development that have touched on issues related to the state’s ongoing housing crisis.

Local outlets are now reporting that the planned dormitory in People’s Park will be reduced to 12 stories and moved to direct more sunlight onto the city’s landmark First Church of Christ, Scientist, which was designed by prominent Arts and Crafts Movement architect Bernard Maybeck in 1910.

The housing development as viewed from Dwight Way. Image courtesy LMS Architects / Hood Design Studio via UC Berkeley.

University Chancellor Carol Christ said the revised double-winged scheme will still be able to accommodate approximately 1,100 residents (down from the original 1,200) and that the school will wait until it can comply with demands of protesters before it breaks ground on the new housing complex.

Students gathered last week at the park’s iconic Sather Gate to prot...

Forensic Architecture reinstates exhibition at University of Manchester following censorship row

2021-08-19T20:55:00-04:00

A statement in support of Palestinian rights put up by Forensic Architecture as part of an exhibition at the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery is back in its rightful place tonight after backlash against the message caused the group to temporarily withdraw the exhibition over censorship concerns.

The group shared a social media post on Wednesday showcasing the re-installation of their statement that decried the “ethnic cleansing” of the country as a prominent introduction to their exhibition titled Cloud Studies which opened on July 2nd. The exhibition outlines FA's initial phase of the latest investigation which explores and exposes how “power reshapes the very air we breathe," according to a brief posted on the group's website.

Our statement is back up! pic.twitter.com/uwE5pJM7Am
— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) August 18, 2021

Read Forensic Architecture's statement standing with Palestine here.

The move came after the announcement earlier in the week that the g...

Preservationists are trying to save a piece of Polish Postmodernist Architecture

2021-08-13T11:05:00-04:00

In a last-ditch effort to save an iconic piece of postmodern architecture from its looming demolition, preservationists in Wrocław, Poland have taken an unconventional, yet jovial approach to protesting. Dancing to hits from the 1990s, clad in that era’s attire, in which there was an accompanying fashion show, protestors are paying homage to the Solpol department store.

Built in 1993 and designed by Wojciech Jarząbek, the structure has become one of the most notable examples of Polish postmodernist architecture, reflecting the country’s seismic transformation following the fall of the Iron Curtain. The building broke away from the grey, uniform aesthetics of its built surroundings with its exuberant façade in violet, pink, and green and unique geometric form. While polarizing due to its unique design, Solpol stood out with its modernity compared to other commercial facilities of its type in Wrocław, attracting both locals and tourists.

Photo: Zofia Banaś

However, at the turn of the...

Plywood boards used to protect New York establishments are repurposed into captivating sculptures

2021-05-25T17:52:00-04:00

Across New York City’s five boroughs, five new public art installations are on display, each made from salvaged plywood boards that were used for a much different purpose a year ago.

Be Heard by Behin Ha Design Studio.

The sculptural pieces were created as part of New York art nonprofit worthless studios’ Plywood Protection Project. The initiative sought and repurposed discarded plywood boards that were formerly used to seal and protect New York City storefronts closed due to the pandemic and last summer’s protests calling for justice and reform regarding systemic racism and police brutality towards Black Americans. worthless studios notes that during peak protest months across the city, prices skyrocketed to above $90 for a single 4’ x 8’ AC plywood board, and supply rapidly depleted.

In Honor of Black Lives Matter by KaN Landscape Design and Caroline Mardok.

Rather than l...

New art exhibition explores prejudice in western society

2021-02-11T16:44:00-05:00

Hosted at HOFA Gallery in London and presented by PAVE Contemporary, CURE/RATED: Bigotry, A Societal Cancer, is a new group exhibition that "explores the tensions and emotions systematic prejudices engender in society." It will feature a group of multimedia and multidisciplinary contemporary artists who use their respective mediums to investigate discrimination and bias in western society.

Alannah Farrell. © Stella Rose St. Clair.

The exhibition will feature the work of painter and sculptor Amir Fallah, painter Alannah Farrell, poet and artist Christian Ruiz Berman, and select works by Katelyn Ledford, Lindsey Kircher, and Jacob Hicks, among others.

Double Xolotl by Christian Ruiz Berman, Acrylic on panel, 2020

The installment is jointly curated by Las Vegas-based oncologist Dr. Fadi Braiteh, and New York-based physician and entrepreneur Dr. Dan Hguyen.

Life Ain't a Picnic by Katelyn Ledford, Acrylic, oil, gouache, and molding paste on canvas over panel, 2021

Of the project, PAVe Cont...

Cooper Hewitt Trustees resign en masse

2020-02-18T13:13:00-05:00

Six trustees, among them the prominent designer David Rockwell, have resigned from the board of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum to protest the removal of the museum’s director, Caroline Baumann, following an investigation into issues including her 2018 wedding. Ms. Baumann was forced to resign on Feb. 7 after an investigation by the Smithsonian’s inspector general into how Ms. Baumann procured her dress and the venue for the ceremony.

In a resignation letter protesting the ouster of former Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum director Caroline Baumann for suspected improprieties involving her purchase of a bargain designer wedding dress, architect David Rockwell of Rockwell Group writes, "We all serve on the board because we share the principles of the institution and the values of its leadership. I cannot in good conscience continue on the board given how Caroline’s dismissal was handled.”

Along with their expertise, several of the departing trustees are taking funding they had planned to provide to the museum with them.

The Cooper-Hewitt is run by the Smithsonian Institute, a partially publicly funded entity that, according to a The New York Times report from journalist Robin Pogrebin, has a conflict of interest policy stating that employees "must not engage in private or personal activities that might conflict, or appear to conflict, with Smithsonian interests, such as using Smithsonian employment for pri...

How the Hong Kong protests are reshaping the city's urban design

2019-12-30T19:54:00-05:00

The reconfiguration of these mundane sites into spaces of political expression show how Hong Kong’s public space “is clearly made by the people, not something simply given by the state, and certainly not to be taken for granted,” said Jeff Hou, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington and the co-editor of City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy.

This artist trolls investors with fake real estate billboards

2019-10-22T15:47:00-04:00

A Berlin-based artist who put up billboards advertising fake real estate projects in protest against runaway property development received more than 200 calls from would-be investors who didn’t get the joke. [...] At a distance, the adverts look plausible but closer inspection of the images visualising what the new properties would look like reveals odd details.

Treptown Visions, billboard in public space, Treptow, Berlin, 2019 by Dorothea Nold. Image: Dorothea Nold/aussenwelt

"Citizens are not being asked for their permission when investors make
such drastic changes in their city, that’s why I thought it is okay to
put them without permission up to give attention to this issue," Berlin-based artist Dorothea Nold, the creative mind behind the anonymous aussenwelt billboards, said in a recent Pop-Up City article.

Hong Kong protestors take aim at Chinese urban surveillance infrastructure

2019-08-26T13:00:00-04:00

Widespread protests focused on countering China's quasi-colonial reign over Hong Kong continued over the weekend, as demonstrators began to take aim at the city's widespread surveillance infrastructure, The Guardian reports.

Organizing in response to reports that Chinese authorities are using smart lampposts to collect personal information, including facial recognition data, on Hongkongers, protesters over the weekend trained their efforts on removing some the city's new smart city infrastructure as local police fired tear gas. Australian news outlet ABC News reports that 400 of the smart lampposts are due to be installed in four of the city's urban districts, including 50 lampposts in the Kwun Tong area, the site of this weekend's protests. During a march this weekend, protestors used electric saws to destroy several of the lampposts, while others topped the lights with ropes.

Protestors in Hong Kong are cutting down facial recognition towers. pic.twitter.com/bTvb8uis7V
— Jordan ...

Hawaii allows Thirty Meter Telescope to start construction on disputed Mauna Kea peak

2019-06-21T14:20:00-04:00

After years of protests and legal battles, Hawaii officials announced Thursday that a massive telescope which will allow scientists to peer into the most distant reaches of our early universe will be built on a volcano that some consider sacred. The state has issued a “notice to proceed” for the Thirty Meter Telescope project, Gov. David Ige said at a news conference. In October, a state Supreme Court’s 4-1 ruling upheld the project’s permits for the $1.4 billion instrument.

Meanwhile protests continue by a group of native Hawaiians who see the telescope's site on top of Mount Mauna Kea as sacred ground and have been trying for years to block the project at this location.

Hawaiian Supreme Court green-lights construction of $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope

2018-11-02T13:46:00-04:00

Hawaii's Supreme Court has sided with scientists in a battle to build one of the world's largest telescopes, rejecting efforts by native Hawaiians to block its construction atop what some consider a sacred volcano. In 2015, a construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, to be built on Mauna Kea, was invalidated amid protests and court appeals, claiming the dormant volcano is sacred land that would be violated in the building process.

The embattled TMT astronomical observatory project on Mauna Kea previously in the Archinect news:

Occupying institutional space with light: The Illuminator

2018-10-31T16:29:00-04:00

Enter the Illuminator, a New York-based art activist collective, whose shifting membership has mastered the legal grey zone that regulates projection in public. [...] the Illuminator takes the normally stationary technology out of the classroom and onto the streets, affixing a high-powered, 12,000-lumens projector atop a van — or, when special nimbleness is required, a trolley — to ignite urban façades with political statements that are as bold as they are temporary.

Image: The Illuminator Collective.

For this recent Urban Omnibus feature, digital media scholar Eli Horwatt interviews art-activist collective The Illuminator. Since capturing the public attention with their Occupy-inspired 99% Bat Signal projection in 2011, the collective has been, quite literally, making headlines with large-scale interventions on institutional facades such as the "We’re all sitting ducks" slogan beamed on the outside of the United Nations building during a Nuclear Non-Proliferation conference in 2015 as well as smaller installations like the Edward Snowden hologram.

Image: The Illuminator Collective.

"When we project directly onto the facade of an institution whose policies and actions we stand against, we know that we are working within a set of constraints that require precise planning and rapid adaptability. We know that if they become aware of our actions, institutions will work quickly to remove any type of critical messaging from association with their buildi...

#SailsNotSales: public protests after Sydney Opera House displays horse racing ad on its facade

2018-10-15T16:13:00-04:00

After a horse race ad was projected onto the structure’s iconic roof earlier this week, protestors took to the streets in objection to the commodification of their beloved building.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered in the evening hours of October 9 when the, usually, off-white iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House were used as a video projection canvas to promote a major upcoming horse race in New South Wales. The crowd booed and tried to interrupt the projection with a small army of flash lights, chanting "Whose house? Our house".

The protest meanwhile has drawn much wider circles, resulting in a Change.org petition with over 300,000 supporters against any future use of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as a promotional billboard and a rebuke from the Heritage Council of NSW.

Hundreds of construction workers protest Hudson Yards developer Steve Ross, calling on NFL to remove him from commitee

2018-08-24T13:31:00-04:00

Thousands of union construction workers gathered Wednesday at the NFL HQ in New York City to protest the founder of Related Companies, the developer behind the large-scale redevelopment of Hudson Yards. Wearing t-shirts that read "Step down Steve Ross," the workers were calling on the organization to remove Ross, who is also the owner of the Miami Dolphins, from the NFL's Social & Racial Justice Committee.

Organized by the Building and Construction Trades Council and its "Count Me In" campaign, the city's 100,000-member unionized workforce has been protesting the development company's use of nonunion labor at Hudson Yards. Wednesday's action at the NFL Headquarters—where over 50 construction workers were arrested after temporarily blocking traffic on Park Avenue—was followed the next day with further protests held outside of Hudson Yards. The union has been holding demonstrations at the site every week since last year.

Thousands of union construction workers rallied calling on Steve...

Resignation towards the demolition of SOM's Union Carbide skyscaper

2018-03-05T16:53:00-05:00

[...] historians were dumbstruck last week when Chase announced plans to demolish the 52-story glass-curtain-wall skyscraper, which opened in 1961, and replace it with an even bigger structure. The news prompted two immediate responses. The first was an outcry by preservationists. That part was predictable; what is surprising this time around was their wistful sense of resignation.

News of the Union Carbide building's demolition a little over a week ago has incited commotion, yet there is a level of resignation to many of the outcries. Jeffrey Lieber takes a deeper look into why this relinquishment may exist around the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill skyscraper.

The building is not protected by landmark status and protestors grow weary of fighting for preservation and loosing time and time again. While these are key factors Leiber acknowledges, he also delves into the misattribution of the building and how this plays into its perception. Leiber explains, "...the architect remained invisible. This made it seem as if the building had arranged itself around the corporation’s internal drives. The corporation was de facto the architect."

UK Architecture students install giant, red picket fence in support of USSstrike

2018-02-28T14:13:00-05:00

Since last Thursday, thousands of educators and students across the UK have been protesting changes made to the pensions of university workers—a 40% cut to their USS pension scheme that the University and College Union says could cost staff up to half of their retirement income. The downgrade has unmistakably angered academics, with an estimated 45,000 lecturers across 64 universities going on a 14-day strike.

Oxford and Cambridge universities, some of the country's wealthiest and most well-established schools, have been at the center of the controversy, receiving much of the blame. The schools have backed policies resulting in the harsh cuts, and may have also had an overly skewed input in the survey that lead to the decision.

Image via Cambridge Defend Education Facebook page.

Yesterday, in response to Cambridge's unique role in the dispute, a giant, 8ft red picket fence was chained to the gates of the school, blockading the Sena...

Planned demolition of SOM-designed JPMorgan Chase HQ draws criticism

2018-02-22T13:48:00-05:00

Earlier today, news broke that the De Blasio administration has hashed out a deal with JPMorgan Chase to demolish its existing headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, and replace the structure with a shiny new 70-story building. The deal was negotiated in the wake of the Midtown East rezoning, which loosened zoning regulations for the area in exchange for developers providing street-level and infrastructure improvements.

Not so fast! said architecture critics and preservationists when news broke that the midcentury 270 Park Avenue tower in Manhattan's East Midtown, currently home of banking giant JPMorgan Chase, had quietly been selected—not for landmark designation—but for the chopping block.

Designed by SOM's Natalie de Blois as Union Carbide Building, the 50-story skyscraper was completed in 1961 and is considered an important example of female-led midcentury corporate architecture.

The need to reclaim public spaces from white supremacists

2017-08-22T20:03:00-04:00

In this article on the Huffington Post, Lance Hosey writes about the horror of watching white surpremacists marching in the Charlottesville Downtown Mall on August 11th and 12th of this year. The Mall, which was significantly redesigned in the 1970s, serves as a unavoidable visual reminder of the pressing need for architects, designers, and city planners to reclaim public spaces from hate groups. As Hosey explains, "In the 70s, when the late landscape architect Lawrence Halprin led a community-driven design process that closed East Main Street to cars, they had the foresight to lift the brick paving on pedestals and give room to breathe for the newly planted trees’ root system, and four decades later the majestic Willow Oaks are bigger than buildings. Strolling down the Mall is like a walk in the woods. On Friday evenings in summer, 'Charlottesville's living room' teems with life, the most vivid sense of community I have ever known."

After describing the despicable events of the nig...

Thousands protest in Moscow against planned demolition of Soviet-era housing blocks

2017-05-15T14:46:00-04:00

An interactive map of the former Soviet Union’s Constructivist architectural heritage went online just days before the city of Moscow published a list of 4,500 apartment buildings proposed for demolition as part of a plan to relocate up to 1.6 million residents. Describe by many residents as a property grab [...] the demolition plan has proven so unpopular that thousands turned up for a demonstration against it in Moscow on Sunday 14 May carrying signs with slogans like “My house is my castle”.

"The plan has also alarmed preservationists," The Art Newspaper writes. "Initially described as an effort to upgrade residents from pre-fabricated mass housing built under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, the architectural targets have broadened and fears are mounting that it has become a carte-blanche for developers to destroy any building that stands in their way."

The Guardian's Alec Luhn calls the demolition plans "the most extensive Russian resettlement project in half a century," and some compare them to the forced collectivization of property under Stalin.

"A Night in Paris"

2017-04-23T21:58:00-04:00

Protests in Paris in the aftermath of the vote have turned violent with smoke grenades, flares and glass bottles thrown at police. More rallies, dubbed the “night of the barricades,” are expected to take place in 13 cities across France.

Live event cameras covering the night of French elections. The footage follows night time streets and other public spaces romancing the dreamy city with shadowy elevations, silhouettes and the sounds of the Parisian architecture and urbanism. Considering the French tradition of protest, this is certain to get bigger as the second round of elections approaching in May. Let's hope nobody gets hurt.

New Competition from Archistophanes: Complicity and Defiance in Architecture

2017-03-16T17:50:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Reality Cues.

Architecture is historically complicit with the policies of those in power, both symbolically and functionally. It offers not only representations of power, but also vehicles for enacting power in its most grandiose, oppressive, and physically enduring expressions, from palaces and corporate skyscrapers to border walls and prisons.

Art that opposes power, on the other hand, is more fluid. Graffiti, protest songs, and written manifestos cost nothing and are easily disseminated–all things that architecture has historically never been. As such, there is no canon of activist built architecture. And while there have been revolutionary movements and utopian visionaries in the history of architecture, only now through Photoshop and the internet can an architecture of protest and revolution truly form and proliferate, through imagery that is arguably more provocative in imagined scenarios than built projects in their real-life executions.

We are on...

The Architecture Lobby calls on architects + engineers to protest border wall on March 10 day of action

2017-03-01T18:25:00-05:00

As the Department of Homeland Security prepares to officially launch the RFP for Trump's proposed border wall on March 6, the Architecture Lobby is calling on all architects and engineers across the U.S. to participate in a national day of action to boycott the project on Friday, March 10 — the same day that the first round of submissions in the RFP are due.

Starting at 4 p.m. EST, the 45-minute united action calls for participants to leave their desks and walk out “to make clear not only to the current and future administrations, but also to themselves and each other, that their agency will not be exploited in the service of xenophobia, discrimination and racism”, the Lobby says.

The Architecture Lobby is hoping the March 10 boycott will build solidarity amongst architects and engineers and inspire an ongoing grassroots resistance. After the day of action, the Architecture Lobby encourages participants to send their photos, reports, statements of support, successes, failures, poten...