Archinect - News

RIBA’s President-elect Chris Williamson pens defense of architectural competitions

2024-11-04T13:36:00-05:00

I find that competitions are stimulating, exciting and keep up the momentum of thinking and exploring. [...] I have often had difficulty convincing my Partners who are much less supportive of the competition process and much more prone to the disappointment of not winning. For me not winning is not taking part. Losing is learning. And I’ve learnt a lot.

Competitions are an essential part of professional practice and academia, dating to antiquity and counting even the Acropolis in Athens as one of their numerous contributions to at least Western culture and society. Williamson mentions his participation with the Norman Foster Foundation on the new Rebuild Kharkiv competition, saying it was a valuable learning opportunity. The post nonetheless garnered a considerable amount of backlash online—including a comment from popular UK architect Sarah Wigglesworth—who criticized their role in perpetuating a bad architectural culture and usury relationship with clients.

High Line founders release op-ed opposing final Hudson Yards development phase

2024-09-06T18:28:00-04:00

Related and Wynn’s new proposal would sweep away the years of civic engagement that led to a 2009 rezoning of the proposed development site. We have just one chance to get this right. Related and Wynn’s new plan fails the test of sensible and authentic urban design and must be fought with the same spirit that brought the High Line to life 25 years ago.

Leading with the claim that Related "wants to undo the agreement and rezone the site again", two founders of The High Line (Joshua David and Robert Hammond) say they are opposing the next phase of Hudson Yards’ redevelopment. The $12 billion plan, the details for which became a bit clearer on August 30th, would establish a hotel, casino, and office components with a 5.6-acre park over what is now the undeveloped Western Rail Yards at Eleventh Avenue and 33rd Street.

The agreement they're referring to pertains to the aesthetic agreement of any new developments with the existing character of the High Line. To that score, the authors say, "principal changes include much taller and wider buildings at an overwhelming scale, less accessible green space, more office space (in a city that has a glut), and less housing in a city that has a desperate shortage."

Yale School of Architecture students respond to AIA's comments in support of President-elect Donald Trump

2016-11-14T18:37:00-05:00

On November 9, 2016, the American Institute of Architects resigned itself to a cowardly position of economic and political subservience with its support of President-elect Trump. The AIA’s refusal to take a principled stance on an incoming administration that galvanized support through hatred, divisiveness, and fear constitutes an abdication of its self-proclaimed responsibility to speak on behalf of architects and a contradiction of its own stated beliefs.

We, the undersigned students of the Yale School of Architecture, unequivocally denounce the AIA’s endorsement of the new status quo. For too long, our profession has been complicit in giving form to landscapes of inequality and discrimination, and has itself been plagued by a history of racial and gender inequity. The AIA’s immediate and unquestioning pandering to the Trump administration threatens a continuation of our troubled past and demonstrates a willingness to pursue financial gain at the expense of our values. With the pro...

Tamara Roy AIA, President of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA responds to #NotMyAIA

2016-11-14T18:23:00-05:00

Dear Mr. Ivy:

On behalf of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA I am writing to share our shock and disappointment with last week’s post-election statement expressing the Institute’s willingness to work with President-elect Trump and members of the 115th Congress. While we support the need for design professionals and AIA members to work together to move the country forward, and the country’s need to address failing infrastructure, this statement fails to acknowledge the serious contradictions between the Trump campaign and the AIA’s own mission and values. The conciliatory and congratulatory tone of last week’s message in response to the election is at odds with the very goals and values articulated by the AIA. We agree with the Architect’s Newspaper. It would be irresponsible and reprehensible to “ignore the role design and designers could play in instituting and perpetuating the inequality inherent in the racist patriarchy Trump’s ideology embodies.” We wish to reaffirm our commit...

Cheryl Noel, AIA of Chicago's Wrap Architecture responds to #NotMyAIA

2016-11-14T18:22:00-05:00

I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me — the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art.

I am writing in response to Robert Ivy’s post-election statement committing the AIA’s 89,000 members to working with Donald Trump. As an architect, as a woman, this AIA member makes no such commitment.

The fact that in 2016 the very thought of an intelligent, talented, overqualified woman holding the highest political office in our country was still so intolerable to most voters that a misogynistic, bigoted bully was able to beat her is absolutely soul crushing. Though I fully support the funding of long overdue infrastructure improvements—obstructed in large p art by Mr. Trump’s Republican colleagues—ƒMr. Ivy’s insensitive statement in such close proximity to the election result, that so many of us are devastated by, is offensive and represents the latest saddest example of architects willing to sell their souls chasing the next project fee. There are moments in time when we are presented with choices, choices that define who we are. Who will we choose to be?

Donald Trump based his...

What the Paris Agreement means for architecture

2015-12-18T13:23:00-05:00

Last weekend in the outskirts of Paris, the rap of a green-tipped gavel announced an historically-unprecedented international climate agreement. A sense of accomplishment suffused the crowds gathered locally and the official statements broadcast globally – President Obama called the deal “a turning point for the world” – but it followed some real moments of tension, as years worth of planning for the COP21 nearly came undone in the face of disputed verbiage and policy.

Now, with the details announced, debate continues over the merits of the “Paris Agreement.” But first it should be noted that it won’t be official until at least 55 of the 195 pledge countries have ratified it, with the 55 ratifiers in turn accounting for at least 55% of global emissions. This pretty much necessitates ratification by the US government, whose Congress is currently run by the Republican party, a majority of whom refute mainstream scientific consensus and deny the existence of anthropogenic climate chang...

How to Rebuild Architecture: Another "Back to the Drawing Board" Op-Ed

2014-12-16T12:24:00-05:00

Architecture, of the capital “A” variety, is exceptionally capable of creating signature pieces, glorious one-offs. We’re brilliant at devising sublime (or bombastic) structures for a global elite who share our values. We seem increasingly incapable, however, of creating artful, harmonious work that resonates with a broad swath of the general population [...] We’ve taught generations of architects to speak out as artists, but we haven’t taught them how to listen.

Editor's Picks #396

2014-12-05T14:37:00-05:00

Beth Mosenthal penned an Op-Ed: Response to Michael Kimmelman's Critique of 1 WTC. She writes "I can only imagine the list of priorities that 1 World Trade entailed, but am still celebratory of the feat that it was realized despite perhaps the greatest obstacles any project could possibly have—fear and memory".

Ken Koense chose to respectfully disagree with her "The building is a touchstone for the future of large scale bunker buildings in America...which will certainly preclude the kinds of mixed use that Kimmelman's real critique addressed...Thousands died, two wars waged, but we've got our post card view, our symbol, our icon, our Freedom Tower. How picturesque". Similarly Krimson struggles "to overlook the blatant closed off nature of the project".

Plus, the latest Showcase: features Sparrenburg Visitor Center by Max Dudler, a "brutalist, rammed concrete" addition to a historic castle/fortress.

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Paul Katz, who as president and managing principal of KPF was the mastermind of m...

China's massive empty housing stock

2013-11-07T16:56:00-05:00

For those who do not believe travelers’ tales, there is the Chinese government’s own report, from 2010, concluding that home ownership rates in China were then nearly 90%. This compares with a world average of 63% and a U.S. average of 65%.

Anne Stevenson-Yang (co-founder and research director of J Capital Research Ltd.) penned an op-ed regarding the status and future of the Chinese housing market. The gist - massive urbanization has led to a vast oversupply according to the governments own figures and she predicts that "these 'urbanized” developments' will become crucibles of crime and poverty, plagues of which Chinese cities had been blessedly free".

The ‘Starchitect’ Stereotype

2013-10-10T12:08:00-04:00

Articles like “A Star Architect Leaves Some Clients Fuming” shouldn’t make us architects defensive about our work. It gives a deserved death blow to the “starchitect” and all the unhelpful stereotypes that come with it.... The image that architecture is done by a single genius has never conformed to reality, but particularly in today’s practice — relying as it does on extended technical expertise — it is ridiculous to attribute the design to a single genius.

Editor's Picks #316

2013-05-22T11:11:00-04:00

Beth Mosenthal penned a thoughtful Op-Ed titled The Ego and the Architect. Therein, she briefly examined "the idea of ‘leadership’ in an architectural office".

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Celebrating the fact that "the Museum of Modern Art blinked" Michael Kimmelman wrote an article Defending the Former American Folk Art Museum Building. Donna Sink commented "A lovely, calm argument and well- written article. Fingers crossed that MOMA's less egotisticsl and more community-focused board members will listen".

Archinect talked to Ivan Blanco, designer of the competition-winning entry in the LA Film Festival Director's Lounge Design Competition. Ivan heads LA-based multi-disciplinary design studio Blnko Design Labs. Eric Chavkin enjoyed the interview but had a couple of thoughts "The scheme is, well, kind of typical but does address the very important IMHO the after film-aspect of going to a screening. The 'windows frame' metaphor is just weak".

Following the release of CLOG: Brutalism—the NYC-...

Op-ed: Questions without Answers: the Venice Biennale 2012

2012-09-03T00:10:00-04:00

Architecture Biennale Venice 2012: Questions without answers
by Jaakko van ‘t Spijker

As opposed to what certain critics and commentators have suggested in about the opening week, they actually were there, the exhibitors with sociopolitical engagement asking relevant questions, at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale opening. What was lacking, however, were outspoken conclusions; the risky and exciting part of taking position after having made interesting observations. Where were the architectural mavericks, the polemical daredevils and provocateurs, to stir up and the debate and bring it further? It was in the Japanese pavilion that questions were asked as well as answered.

In one of the first pre-events of the Biennale, a surprise storm raged over the Venetian Laguna while in an old warehouse in Giudecca, MVRDV’s Winy Maas and his Delft University department The Why-Factory, put ‘the decline of the identity of The European City’ on the agenda by presenting a new EU C...