Archinect - News

Archinect Outpost to host book launch for "New Investigations In Collective Form," the latest publication by Neeraj Bhatia

2019-04-11T13:17:00-04:00

Join us in celebrating New Investigations In Collective Form: The Open Workshop, the latest book by Neeraj Bhatia at Archinect Outpost on Friday, April 26, 7–9pm.

Keith Krumwiede will give a short introduction to kick off the event, followed by a panel conversation between Neeraj Bhatia, Noémie Despland-Lichtert and Jimenez Lai.

The book can be preordered here for pickup at the event, or shipping immediately after the event. Please go here to RSVP for the event.

New Investigations in Collective Form presents a group of design experiments by the design-research office The Open Workshop, that test how architecture can empower the diverse voices that make up the public realm and the environments in which they exist. Today, society continues to face urban challenges—from economic inequality to a progressively fragile natural environment—that, in order to be addressed, require us to come together in a moment when what we collectively value is increasingly difficult to locate. Organize...

Archinect Sessions & Bureau Spectacular team up at the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival this Saturday in Pasadena

2017-06-22T17:45:00-04:00

For those of you in the Los Angeles area, you are already aware of the Arroyo Seco Weekend music festival, taking place in Pasadena this weekend. The festival is a new event hosted by the same people that run Coachella, Desert Trip, and other amazing art/music/culture events.

For this inaugural festival, Archinect has teamed up with Jimenez Lai/Bureau Spectacular. Hosted by Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody, we will be running our 5th Next Up podcasting event inside of Bureau Spectacular's project "Field House."

If you're coming to the festival, come by and say hi, or pull up a blanket and stick around for a few to listen to our conversations.

Lineup & Schedule

Mimi Zeiger: 1 PM
Mimi Zeiger is a Los Angeles-based critic, editor and curator that has covered art, architecture, urbanism and design for a number of publications including The New York Times, Domus, Architectural Review, and Architect. She is also author of New Museums, Tiny Houses, Micro Green: Tiny Houses i...

Jimenez Lai, Marjan Van Aubel and TAKT PROJECT unveil their crystalline innovations

2017-06-20T17:39:00-04:00

Design Miami took place last week in Basel, wrapping up over the weekend. One of the installations on display showcased work by Swarovski's Designers of the Future. The crystal empire commissioned three designers to craft a new prototype or design statement, highlighting the crystal and using Swarovski's diverse resources at hand. Established in 2006, the award encourages collaboration with young designers and acknowledges technological and conceptual innovations that work across disciplines. This years recipients were Jimenez Lai, Marjan Van Aubel and TAKT PROJECT.

Jimenez Lai created a terrazzo that re-uses and up-cycles 'second quality' crystals that do not meet Swarovski's quality control. With this material, Lai also created Terrazzo Palazzo. Formed by freestanding structures, his deconstructed palazzo served as the architectural environment housing the installation.

The Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel utilized solar technology to design Cyanometer. Working with the Energy Re...

Jimenez Lai named as one of the 2017 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award

2017-04-11T14:34:00-04:00

Perennial-favorite, Jimenez Lai, has been named as one Swarovski's 2017 Designers of the Future. Along with the story-teller and founder of the firm Bureau Spectacular, the crystal company has also knighted industrial-designer, Marjan van Aubel, and the "design do tank", Takt Project. In conjunction with Design Miami, the chosen designers will put forth innovative projects inspired by the transparent quartz Swarovski is famous for at this years event. While the winners will each create separate pieces, they will be exhibited as a single installation for Design Miami/Basel 2017.

Marjan van Aubel is experimenting with solar technology to develop a series of living light objects and Trakt Project is collaborating with MICRON3DP to produce a series of tabletop objects that will be 3D printed with Swarovski crystals. Lai will produce a surface-based installation for the event while also responsible for creating the overall architectural character of the piece, designing a string of three ...

Bureau Spectacular's installation to be exhibited at SFMOMA

2017-02-02T13:45:00-05:00

Not content to be merely groundbreaking, Bureau Spectacular's imaginative work is increasingly becoming prestigious. The SFMOMA will display "insideoutsidebetweenbeyond," a large-scale installation the museum specifically invited Bureau Spectacular to design, from February 11th through August 13, 2017.

As Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design at SFMOMA explains, "Led by Jimenez Lai, the Los Angeles–based studio considers architecture to be a medium capable of rewriting sociological narratives. In this view, architecture is not solely functional; informed by client input and civic policy, buildings also reveal societal values. Noting the banality of developed cities worldwide, Lai suggests that boxy skyscrapers are the result of a drive for economic efficiency. In their place, Bureau Spectacular proposes an architecture that reflects a balanced democracy of creative individuals."

MoMA PS1 YAP 2017 finalists announced; include Bureau Spectacular, Ania Jaworska

2016-11-18T12:56:00-05:00

Every summer, the winning design of MoMA's PS1 Young Architects Program helps set the mood for the museum's Warm Up music festivities, providing shade, seating, water and atmosphere. Installed in the museum's outdoor courtyard, the YAP-winning design must also address issues related to the environment and sustainability.

The finalists for 2017 are as follows: Bureau Spectacular / Jimenez Lai; Ania Jaworska; Office of III: Sean Canty, Ryan Golenberg and Stephanie Lin; Jenny E. Sabin; SCHAUM/SHIEH: Rosalyne Shieh and Troy Schaum.

In order to get this far, the firms first had to be among the ~30 nominated to the YAP by deans of architecture schools and editors of architecture publications. Their portfolios were then reviewed by the museum's panel, which consists of Glenn D. Lowry, Director of The Museum of Modern Art; Kathy Halbreich, Associate Director at MoMA; Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1; Peter Reed, Senior Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs; Martino Stierli, Philip Joh...

Bureau Spectacular's first retail project is now open in L.A.'s Arts District

2016-09-12T18:52:00-04:00

Bureau Spectacular etched their mark into Downtown L.A.'s Arts District with the new Frankie flagship store that opened last Friday, celebrating the relaunch of the high-end streetwear label as well as the firm's first retail store design. Frankie founder Kevin Chen worked alongside Jimenez Lai in designing the store. For starters, Lai created the striking graphic novel-like facade on the building's revamped exterior — but that's where the fun starts.

Inside, the 2,000 square-foot retail space has a room-within-a-room setup that alludes to Lai's earlier works like the “Speechbuster / 99 Chairs” sculpture and the “Briefcase House”.

Visitors will encounter one of Bureau Spectacular's Super-Furnitures, described as “a structure too small to be a building but too large to simply be a piece of furniture”. The nine-piece, 28-foot-long modular staircase is an interactive jigsaw structure that can be assembled into a runway or to provide seating, or disassembled into individual pieces for var...

Take a look at these installations from this year's Coachella Festival

2016-04-21T18:38:00-04:00

Every April, music fans venture in droves to the High Desert outside of Los Angeles for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival – a veritable rite of spring for the selfie era.

And, like with any good spring bacchanal, the musical experience is often enhanced through the consumption of substances, licit or otherwise. But while imbibing may help you maintain stamina for the dance floor, it can also ramp up your internal body temperature (likely already elevated by the grueling desert sun).

Enter the architects and artists responsible for the latter half of Coachella's proper name. Tasked with designing structures that both shade and visually-entertain, the selected designers are given one of the more unusual – and fun – prompts around.

Here's a look at some of the structures that adorned the Empire Polo Club this year:

The Tower of Twelve Stories
Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular)

Described in accompanying texts as a "a cartoonish metropolis of tiny bubble-like spaces populated by ecce...

Jimenez Lai to create "a very large structure" at Coachella 2016

2016-01-06T12:47:00-05:00

Proclaiming that he "want[s] to kiss the earth Kevin Costner style" via Instagram, Jimenez Lai of Bureau Spectacular expressed his joy about being on the same bill as LCD Soundsystem and Ice Cube for this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where he will be building what he describes as "a very large structure."

The festival, which reportedly has attracted 90,000 attendees to each of its dual three-day weekends, has featured art installations by notable architectural studios before, including Ball-Nogues Studio's "Pulp Pavilion" in 2015.

Listen to our conversation with Jimenez in a previous episode of Archinect Sessions...

If the above embed doesn't work, you can listen here.

Next Up Mini-Session #3: a panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai

2015-11-01T13:30:00-05:00

After accumulating over four hours of live interviews from our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we're now letting them go, one by one. Leading up to the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on Thursday, November 5, we'll be releasing them as "Mini-Sessions". We'll also be launching another brand new podcast soon.

Without further ado, please enjoy our third Next Up Mini-Session, a panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai. We'll be sharing more Mini-Sessions in the coming days, and remember to subscribe to Archinect Sessions to not miss an episode! You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.

Listen to our "Next Up" panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai:

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
Apple Po...

Watch the teaser trailer for fall's Chicago Architecture Biennial

2015-07-23T10:09:00-04:00

With a list of over 90 participants and partners including U.K.-based Assemble, Jimenez Lai, Jeanne Gang, Archinect and Sou Fujimoto, the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial will open to the public on October 3rd. Officially billed as "North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture," the Biennial will feature a variety of installations, exhibitions, and events, which perhaps figures into the concept behind the freshly released teaser trailer (which we've embedded below): gradually intersecting red grid lines meet over famous Chicago landmarks, including Anish Kapoor's "bean" or Cloud Gate. View it now:

Art + Architecture: Jimenez Lai's 'Beachside Lonelyhearts' at Jai & Jai Gallery

2015-07-08T19:35:00-04:00

“Is there a line between architecture and art?” Sylvia Lavin, the influential architecture critic and scholar, asked Jimenez Lai, the architect-cum-artist, during a “Pillowtalk” reopening of his ongoing exhibit at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles. It’s a question that hovers over the rest of their open conversation, documented in videos posted below, as well as the show itself.

Beachside Lonelyhearts is the name of Lai’s immersive art installation, but it also encompasses what could be considered a durational performance or an architectural intervention. In fact, it’s a show that seems to inevitably precipitate such reflections about the status and relevance of genre distinctions – in no small part because of the distinction-defying oeuvres of both the artist and the gallery.

On the other hand, it’s an installation that has the capacity to grip you in its dizzying embrace, initiating a momentary lapse into a near-fugue state as you’re overcome by its byzantine array of black lines an...

Archinect to host party & book launch for "Treatise: Why Write Alone?" at the Neutra VDL Saturday, May 2nd!

2015-04-24T12:48:00-04:00

Mark your calendars for Saturday evening, May 2! Archinect is heading out to the Neutra VDL House in Los Angeles for the "Treatise: Why Write Alone?" West Coast book launch. Archinect, Neutra VDL House, and The Graham Foundation will be co-hosting the event.

The Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake, Los Angeles will be hosting the event. (Photo: David Hartwell)

Organized by Jimenez Lai of Bureau Spectacular, "Treatise" is a publication project featuring the collective works of 14 young design offices, who each explore the concept: "Why Write? And why write alone?" "Treatise" originates from Lai's Graham Foundation grant to pursue non-conformist approaches to architecture, and it made its debut as an exhibition in Chicago's Graham Foundation in January.

Cognoscenti Coffee will be serving espresso and espresso-based drinks -- including espresso-based cocktails! Special guests will soon be announced.

RSVP now. (The event is free!)

View of “Treatise: Why Write Alone?”, 2015, Graham Foundation, Ch...

CHATTER opening at the Art Institute of Chicago - April 11

2015-04-04T15:00:00-04:00

Architecture is a perpetual conversation between the present and the past, knowing full well that the future is listening. So what happens when this dialogue is influenced by contemporary modes of communication such as texting, Twitter, and Instagram? Chatter: Architecture Talks Back looks at the diverse contemporary methods and approaches wielded by five emerging architects: Bureau Spectacular, Erin Besler, Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, Formlessfinder, and John Szot Studio.

CHATTER is opening next weekend (April 11th) at the Art Institute of Chicago with a panel discussion featuring Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular), John Szot, Chris Grimley (over,under), and Kelly Bair. The exhibit also features work from Iker Gil (MAS Studio and MAS Context).

"All Work and All Play": Archinect Sessions Episode #16 with Jimenez Lai and Robert Ivy, CEO of the AIA

2015-02-12T19:40:00-05:00

What do Robert Ivy FAIA, EVP/CEO of the AIA, and Jimenez Lai, of Bureau Spectacular, have in common? Other than they're both architects, not so much! What better way to celebrate a profession at the crossroads than featuring interviews with both in our latest podcast episode.

Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken spoke with Ivy about the AIA's newly launched "I Look Up" (#ilookup) public awareness campaign for architects, and Jimenez Lai joined us in studio to discuss his latest Graham Foundation-funded collaboration, Treatise: Why Write Alone?.

Treatise is currently being exhibited at the Graham Foundation in Chicago through March 28, and its eponymous publication launches March 18.

As always, you can send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.

Listen to episode sixteen of Archinect Sessions, "All Work and All Play" with Jimenez Lai and Robert Ivy FAIA, EVP/CEO of the AIA:

iTunes: Click here to listen, and...

"Treatise: Why Write Alone?" to debut at the Graham Foundation this Friday

2015-01-21T18:20:00-05:00

The upcoming publication and exhibition "Treatise: Why Write Alone?" at the Graham Foundation in Chicago utilizes the architectural treatise as a platform for experimentation, theoretical inquiry, and debate through the collective works of 14 emerging designers.

↑ Bureau Spectacular (Jimenez Lai),"Inside Outside In-between," 2014-15.

Bureau Spectacular founder Jimenez Lai developed the exhibition after receiving a recent grant from the Graham Foundation. Based on the idea, "Why Write? And why write alone?", the exhibition will display over 200 new and recent drawings, models, multimedia installations, and site-specific wall drawings that will fill the galleries of the Graham Foundation's historic Madlener House.

The exhibition will feature the works of:

Bittertang (Michael Loverich & Antonio Torres), New York, NY
Bureau Spectacular (Jimenez Lai), Chicago, IL
CAMES/Gibson (Grant Gibson), Chicago IL
Design With Company (Stewart Hicks & Allison Newmeyer), Chicago, IL
Fake Industries Architectu...

Editor's Picks #395

2014-11-28T13:12:00-05:00

Julia Ingalls reviews, the built work and paper architecture of Jimenez Lai. To wit "regardless of the medium...Understanding the role of storytelling within design is fundamental to all of Lai's work".

jla-x commented "The most interesting drawing that he did was a series of plans of a space ship city...really cool how he treated all surfaces as plan (the drawing was in zero gravity...)...A guy like him would be really great at film...I would love to see his drawings animated into short films". tanya enjoyed reading the article and summed up why "Understanding space from a different viewpoint , experiencing a variety of emotions while inhabiting a space , having the luxury to change the vibe of a specifically designed space, a sense of play within architecture, playing around with the art/part of architecture !"

Paul Keskeys, penned A First-Hand View of Gentrification in San Francisco. Arch2133 wasn’t happy "I really don't understand neutral positions like this and it leaves a bad t...

Look back, move forward: Weekly News Round-Up for November 3, 2014

2014-11-10T18:55:00-05:00

Friday, November 7:

8,000 Glowing Balloons Recreate the Berlin Wall: A 10 mile chain of balloons will line the path where the Wall previously stood, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its demolition.
First Ever Chicago Architecture Biennial Taking Shape for 2015: The Biennial's theme of "The State of the Art of Architecture" (named after Stanley Tigerman's 1977 conference), is starting to take shape, and will include a photo exhibition on Chicago from Iwan Baan.

Thursday, November 6:

Massive Hollywood project sits atop quake fault: The California Geological Survey confirmed that the Millenium Hollywood skyscraper sits on top of an active fault, despite the fact that the developer's consultants find no evidence of an active fault in their analysis of the data. LA's Department of Building and Safety will ultimately determine whether the Millenium can be built.
Centre Pompidou To Open Design and Architecture Gallery: Upon the opening of its new photography gallery, the renowned Parisian...

Jimenez Lai treats us to a teaser of his upcoming publication

2014-11-03T18:08:00-05:00

Last year the Graham Foundation awarded Jimenez Lai with a grant for a proposal "Manifestos, Summits, and Gangs", a collective publication of "monographic manifestos featuring a small cluster of young and relatively unestablished yet daring architects".

There seems to be a new class of architects who are on the verge of forming some strong opinions, and it is the desire for this project to expose them. This proposal knowingly regards three specific patterns of chapter-marking in the ongoing history of architecture: manifestoes, summits, and gangs. Considering Pamphlet Architecture (manifesto), Charlottesville Tapes (summits) and White on Gray (gangs) as three precedents, this work will reflect on these lessons as strategic whispers for Lai and his cohort on their journeys.

To get a taste of what's to come, check out the purposefully vague teaser site at t-r-e-a-t.us

Get Lectured: Cal Poly, Pomona

2014-10-11T22:14:21-04:00

Jimenez Lai wins the inaugural Lisbon Triennale Millennium BCP Début Award

2013-09-13T14:56:00-04:00

Jimenez Lai continues to take the world by storm: the founder of Chicago-based Bureau Spectacular was announced last night as the winner of the first Lisbon Triennale Millennium BCP Début Award for architects under 35. The announcement took place at Lisbon’s Electricity Museum marking the first day of the opening week of Close, Closer, the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale.

Editor's Picks #287

2012-10-22T00:13:00-04:00

The latest Archinect ShowCase featured Cassia Co-op Training Centre by TYIN tegnestue Architects. The project is located in Sungai Penuh, Sumatra, Indonesia.

News
The New York Observer reported on Cornell’s plans (unveiled this week) for a brand new 12.5-acre tech campus on Roosevelt Island this week. The master plan is by SOM and Field Operations, the first academic building is by Thom Mayne. snail commented "So they would have us believe that a great center of future technological innovation will look like a standard tower-in-the-park development with a few curves thrown in, and an atrium borrowed from John Portman?"

For his part toasteroven thought “cornell is trying to recreate MIT's medialab in NYC - on an island - by making a fancy new campus - BEFORE they've even established the program?...The city is making such a huge deal about this - but it seems like it's primarily being used as a marketing ploy to sell NYC as a new tech hub or something...it seems like there's a...

Jimenez Lai’s “Three Little Worlds” now open at the Architecture Foundation

2012-06-27T21:47:00-04:00

Remember Jimenez Lai's recent Kickstarter project, trying to turn his conceptual project Hefner/Beuys House into a reality at the Architecture Foundation in London? Well, it certainly worked out for him and his Chicago-based architecture practice Bureau Spectacular: the project got funded and the installation Three Little Worlds opened this week, just right on time for the London Festival of Architecture.

See more of the Bureau Spectacular: Three Little Worlds installation in this video on Crane.tv.

Previously in the Archinect News: Kickstart: Hefner/Beuys House by Jimenez Lai and Hefner/Beuys House by Jimenez Lai - FUNDED!

Hefner/Beuys House by Jimenez Lai - FUNDED!

2012-05-14T19:01:00-04:00

Congrats to Jimenez for getting his project funded, with minutes remaining. Can't wait to see the results!