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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 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.

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).

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.

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!

Who Needs Walls And Ceilings When You Live In A Phalanstery

2011-06-27T17:19:09-04:00

Walls are so underutilized, just sitting there holding up the ceiling, while the floor does all the work of supporting everything that we do. Jiminez Lai of the Bureau Spectactular designed the Phalanstery Module, where all surfaces can be occupied. He designed it for a hypothetical zero gravity environment, but it appears to work on earth as well.