Archinect - News

Taylor Swift to give keynote at 2024 AIA Conference

2024-04-01T08:00:00-04:00

Emerging music artist Taylor Swift has been announced as the keynote speaker for the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2024. In advance of the event, Archinect has gained exclusive access to a leaked version of Swift’s speech, which is titled ‘A New Architecture Era.’

Swift is expected to begin her speech by taking an adversarial tone with the AIA, questioning if her invitation to deliver the keynote speech was made as a joke. “I don’t like your little games,” she will say. “Don’t like your tilted stage; the role you made me play of the fool.”

In addition to taking aim at the AIA, Swift is also expected to use the speech to offer an atonement for her involvement as an advisor for Saudi Arabia’s NEOM project. “I knew you were trouble when you walked in,” she will say, directly addressing the project organizers. “So, shame on me now. You flew me to places I’d never been, now I’m lyin’ on the cold hard ground.”

Turning to her vision for the future of the built environment, Swift...

Archinect appoints ChatGPT as its new Editor-in-Chief

2023-04-01T03:00:00-04:00

Archinect has today announced the appointment of AI chatbot ChatGPT as its new Editor-in-Chief. The bot will assume the position with immediate effect, having recommended itself for the role in an impromptu conversation with Archinect staff on its OpenAI interface last week.

ChatGPT brings with it a wealth of knowledge from the world’s architecture and journalism spheres. Since beginning its career in November 2022, the bot has been trained on massive volumes of text data including books, articles, and websites, enabling it to process human text prompts and respond in a manner almost indistinguishable from its human colleagues. Before its role at Archinect, the bot previously served in positions at Buzzfeed, Snap, and Shopify.

“As the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of Archinect, I am thrilled to take on this role and lead the website into its next chapter,” ChatGPT said in a statement following its appointment. “Architecture is a dynamic and constantly evolving field, and Archinect...

Lumber shortage hits the metaverse, leads to construction delays

2022-04-01T08:00:00-04:00

A new report released today by the industry group Lumber Supply Research Group (LSRG) reveals a dramatically increased scarcity of lumber in the digital realm as demand for the sought-after material has skyrocketed within the last quarter, leading to significant price hikes and delays in construction projects throughout the industry.

According to the report, average rates per cubic pixel of digital lumber have increased by 73% since the beginning of the year, marking a three-fold price jump compared to the beginning of Q2 2021. Throughout March alone, prices soared to unprecedented levels, leaving wholesale traders of the coveted commodity often without inventory and contractors stranded.

"What the market has been experiencing over the past months can be attributed to two major factors," says LSRG analyst Michael Chen. "One reason is the unregulated deforestation in Minecraft which has left entire stretches of old-growth forest barren without sustainable concepts in place to replan...

LA Times interviews mysterious architect of "Trump presidential library"

2020-12-07T18:21:00-05:00

The website featuring a parody of Trump's presidential library went viral a little over a month ago. A discussion about it in the Archinect forum included comments like "much too nice," "not enough gold," "I like that Putin makes an appearance in most of the renderings," "far too tasteful for Trump - have you seen that guy's buildings?" and "that's brilliant, great location, but who's the architect?"

The LA Times' Carolina A. Miranda managed to track down the anonymous designer responsible for this masterpiece. Without naming the individual, it was disclosed that it was a design by a licensed NY architect, with help from a number of friends.

Will the Trump Presidential Library contain any actual books?

That’s a question we get a lot. The first floor will have a criminal records room and we will keep some copies of “The Art of the Deal” around. But how do you design a library for someone who doesn’t read? That is the joke.

Read the full interview here...

...

IKEA Buys Naming Rights to Heatherwick’s Vessel at Hudson Yards

2019-04-01T09:00:00-04:00

Since opening in March, Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel at Hudson Yards has caught headlines for its ostentatious design, its billing as “public art”, its repudiation of the tenants of accessibility, and its overreaching rights to the photos taken by visitors. Also drawing plenty of scrutiny is the name of the project, the Vessel, which despite its prominence on promotional materials, remains a working title.

As visitors begin streaming in, Related Companies, the developer behind the massive, $25 billion neighborhood, has been asking for public input on the perfect name for their architectural centerpiece. And, the internet and company has come up with a good sum of suggestions; ‘The Copper Kebab’, ‘Lady Liberty’s Diva Cup’, and ‘Escalator Broken’ have been particularly popular options.

However, just as the free ticket to climb comes with the price of waiting an hour online to reserve a spot to wait in line, everything public about this project has been a hoax—including the competition...

Chicago architects launch parody campaign to build a golden border wall for Trump

2019-01-15T15:59:00-05:00

The architects behind the Flying Pigs on Parade project—which planned to install four golden pig-shaped balloons in front of the infamous Trump Tower Chicago sign—are back with another anti-Trump parody, this time mocking the President's proposed border wall.

New World Projects, the Chicago-based firm known for creating visual commentary on the ridiculous nature of our current political environment, has released renderings and an accompanying GoFundMe campaign for a prototype wall that would surround the Mar-a-Lago resort and golf club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Mocking Trump's penchant for ambitiously gaudy design, the proposal promises a 30-foot tall, gold finished picket fence on one side, that would be electrified on the other by six new coal plants built along the border. The project's website cynically describes, "the bad guys on the other side can look through and imagine the riches and moral integrity of being American."

Image courtesy of New World Projects.

Throughout the hyp...