Archinect - News

In an Ontario plaza, interactive pavements play music ‘as if by magic’

2024-02-28T13:28:00-05:00

Montreal-based studio Daily tous les jours has completed a public space design in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Titled 'River Lines,' the project saw the creation of an interactive stage in an urban plaza for big impromptu musical ensembles.

Video credit: doublespace photography

Part of the studio’s wider Musical Pavement series, the interactive wave-patterned pavement is embedded with 62 sensing light rings that “get people moving through musical collaboration exercises.” The infrastructure is formed of twelve in-house tailored audio tiles that have no visible hardware and blend with the wider pavement pattern, meaning “music emanates from the ground as if by magic.”

Image credit: doublespace photography

Located on the site of a 19th-century foundry, the artwork is “a response to the historical nature of the site” and “an exemplar of how investment in the public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places and encourage collective interacti...

Audio issue of architectural journal "Attention" released

2022-02-01T19:21:00-05:00

Architectural journal “Attention” has recently released an innovative all-audio issue of the publication, titled "Community is a Practice" (Issue 6), written and narrated by Portland State University School of Architecture faculty members Anna Goodman and Molly Esteve.

Anna Goodman, assistant professor in the Portland State University School of Architecture, wrote and narrated three episodes in the audio issue, titled “Community is a Practice” (Issue 6), and adjunct faculty member and recent PSU M.Arch graduate Molly Esteve wrote and narrated a fourth episode. The issue explores the vital, and evolving, role of community-engaged work in architecture in the U.S.

Listen to “Community is a Practice” here as well as on iTunes, Mixcloud and Stitcher.

The innovative aural format of this architectural journal gives rise to a new conversation about the opportunities that come with new methods and forums for presenting architectural scholarship. A virtual panel discussion will be held on F...

Looking into the White House's “much longer history” of slave labor

2016-07-28T15:17:00-04:00

I think it was a wonderful moment in American history. I thought what Michelle Obama was attempting to do was to draw that link to show that it isn't just what's going on in the White House now and isn't it great that there's a black family there, but there's a much longer history that needs to be appreciated... [It was] just grueling, grueling kind of work. And nobody was really willing ... to do it. So slave labor played a massive role in getting this city built.

During her speech at the DNC on Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama alluded to the White House's history of slave labor during the 1790s. NPR interviews Clarence Lusane, chairperson of Howard University's political science department and author of “The Black History of the White House”, who gives his two cents on the historically significant topic.

Barbara Bestor on the Jamba Juice “Innovation Bar” she redesigned in Pasadena

2016-06-28T15:34:00-04:00

Usually, you go to these fast casual things and you're in and out in a minute...In all of the commercial projects that we do, the reason that we do them and the reason that we probably get hired to do them is that we are interested in this idea of making a joyous space for everyday activities... It's not so much about the brand name being reinforced everywhere as much as it is to provide this urban amenity living room.

Most people don't rave about the interior design in the average Jamba Juice. But Barbara Bestor and her practice might have changed that in the expanded Old Town Pasadena location they recently revamped. Bestor chats with KPCC's Alex Cohen in this 8-minute conversation about the new “Innovation Bar” concept store, in addition to her other projects around LA.

You can also listen to this previous Archinect Sessions episode featuring Barbara Bestor:

Archinect Sessions #5: Barbara Bestor, The Michael Graves School & Material Witness

Unfolding dumpling design with Architecture Research Office

2016-02-05T15:09:00-05:00

'The dumpling maker has a structural problem,' says Jason Kim, a project manager at ARO. 'The skin has to be thin enough where you have the right ratio of meat to skin, but strong enough to hold together.'

"How do the principles of architecture and design apply to dumplings?" Sporkful has a quick chat with dumpling fanatics Architecture Research Office about how particular design concepts can structurally improve the Lunar New Year food staple. Maybe you'll learn a trick or two on how to eat the seemingly gravity-defying soup dumpling, too.

If you don't want to listen to the whole episode — although you should still give it a listen because, hello, dumplings — ARO's interview starts around 13:25.

More about food and architecture on Archinect:

Book Review: Katrina Palmer's "End Matter"

2015-06-09T20:02:00-04:00

On September 2, 1666, a fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in London. By the next day, the flames had fanned out north and west, engulfing much of the city’s medieval center. The fire, later knowns as the Great Fire of London, destroyed much of the old cathedral of St. Paul as well as the overcrowded, narrow streets that surrounded it. In the aftermath of the fire, a period of social unrest was followed by a large-scale reconstruction, helmed by the noted architect Sir Christopher Wren. He built a new cathedral in the English Baroque style and supervised, to some extent, the city’s larger reconstruction. Today, St. Paul’s Cathedral and much of the city’s core owes its appearance in part to Wren’s preference for a particular variety of white, soft stone hewed on the Isle of Portland. The restitution of London spurred the industrial development of Portland’s quarries. For every monument that rose up, such as the looming Doric column that memorialized the fire itself, a hole was e...

Buckminster Fuller tells the tale on His Geodesic Life in a mini storybook-style audio interview

2015-03-17T13:40:00-04:00

Quoted Studios — the creators of the acclaimed animated interview series Blank on Blank — introduced The Experimenters, a brand new mini interview series that offers a peek into the minds of iconic figures in science, technology, and innovation. The first episode, which aired today, shines the spotlight on ol' Buckminster Fuller on His Geodesic Life. The other two episodes will feature anthropologist Jane Goodall and theoretical physicist Richard Feynman.

Like a storybook, the short film features a recorded audio interview with Bucky by renowned broadcaster Studs Terkel from 1965 and 1970. "Everyone aware of his work agrees that Buckminster Fuller is one of the original minds of our time," Terkel remarks in the introduction. Colorful animations by Jennifer Yoo accompany Fuller's distinctive run-on conversational style and maintain a sense of charm as Fuller talks about how his own environment — particularly his own personal struggles and painful experiences — catapulted his architect...

"Towards Biology" tells the metaphysical tale of Ricardo Bofill's La Fábrica

2014-11-14T15:51:00-05:00

Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura collaborated with Onionlab from Barcelona to create a video-audio installation titled "Towards Biology" as part of the "Time Space Existence" exhibition at the soon-to-conclude Venice Biennale 2014 in Italy.

The exhibition explores going beyond the physical existence of La Fábrica -- the repurposed cement factory in Barcelona that has served as the Taller de Arquitectura's creative headquarters and Ricardo Bofill's private residence since the mid-1970s -- and reimagines it in different contexts, specifically in Venice.

In "Towards Biology", the rotunda-shaped screen draws in viewers to listen and watch a poetic narrative about La Fábrica, which symbolizes the fundamentals of Taller de Arquitectura and the firm's approaches to architecture.

Scroll further down to watch the installation in English or Italian.

Project credits:

Produced by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and Onionlab
Technical direction: Onionlab
Technical Engineering: Lloc Audiovisu...

Oren Safdie's play "False Solution" finishes up its 3-week run this weekend in Santa Monica

2014-05-07T17:36:00-04:00

Oren Safdie, architecture-turned-playwright (and son of Moshe Safdie), has taken his play False Solution to Santa Monica, after a run in NYC last year. False Solution, Safdie's 3rd architecture-themed play, following Private Jokes, Public Places and The Bilbao Effect, follows German-Jewish architect Anton Seligman (played by Daniel J. Travanti) as he designs a new Holocaust museum in Poland. Linda Johansson (played by Amanda Saunders), a first-year architecture student, brings sexual tension as she challenges his work.

I met up with Oren at his home in Venice Beach to talk about his work as a playwright. You can listen to our conversation below...

I also had a chance to record a read-through between leads Daniel J. Travanti, whom you may recognize as the captain from Hill Street Blues, and Amanda Saunders.

Tickets to False Solution can still be purchased for the final four performances this Thursday to Sunday.

Audiotopie awarded the Phyllis Lambert Design Montréal Grant 2013

2013-12-11T19:11:00-05:00

Audiotopie was awarded $10,000 from the 2013 Phyllis Lambert Design Montreal Grant in Montreal, Canada earlier this week. Established in 2007, the annual grant distinguishes young, emerging Montreal designers who have shown excellence in their work and research study that can contribute to the city of Montreal.

"The $10,000 grant will enable the Audiotopie team, which designs immersive sound works closely connected to physical spaces through creation of sensory experiences, to go on a study trip during which its members will compare sound environments in the underground spaces of three Asian cities."

Squarepusher and the Geometry of Sound

2012-10-14T23:16:00-04:00

Taking Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey as an inspiration for the mood of the Sound Portal, Arup created an intimidating black rubber shape that sits in the centre of Trafalgar Square but opens up to reveal light and sky within. The facility provides the perfect environment for some of the most thoughtful and innovative recording artists in the world, including one of my favourite Tom Jenkinson a.k.a. Squarepusher I spoke to him about using ambisonic arrays and exploring sound in three dimensions.

Sound of Buildings

2012-07-27T20:11:00-04:00

The Sound of Buildings is an audio exploration of Melbourne’s most architecturally significant buildings. Available free as an interactive iPhone and iPad app, The Sound of Buildings provides listeners with a deeper level of understanding and context for the selected buildings, as well highlighting Melbourne’s diverse architecture and urban spaces through an exploration of cultural, monuments, government, residential, commercial, transport, education, health and sporting projects.

High-tech system lets restaurant set noise level

2012-05-14T14:51:00-04:00

So Paluska and Meyer Sound, a world-renowned audio engineering company in Berkeley, teamed up to test a relatively new technology that controls reverberation levels with the press of a button. By using a combination of sound absorption materials, microphones, speakers and a digital processor, Paluska can make his restaurant as loud or as soft as he wants.