Dominique Perrault on the role architects have in post-pandemic society

2021-11-09T11:48:00-05:00

In my opinion, many people consider architects less important today, while they demand engineers, landscape experts and environmentalists. It seems they no longer expect a comprehensive perspective and sensibility from architects. Architects should become advocates for architecture and fight for their role.

With the completion of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021, Perrault will now pivot his focus to the 2024 Olympic Village plan that will help revitalize Saint-Denis, long-held to be one of the most neglected communes in the French capital region.

This year’s program focused on building resilience in cities as the specter of Covid loomed over the Biennale, causing disruptions in its traditional slate of in-person events. Perrault is currently finalizing plans for a new transit center in Seoul’s Gangnam district that will be completed in 2023.

Previously on Archinect: 2021 Seoul Biennale to open with online event on September 16th

“Going through the pandemic, it seems the proximity and heterogeneity of spaces have become important,” he said. “In order to keep up with the changing demand, new types of investment and a variety of projects are called for.”

Third wave Open Streets: Open for whom?

2021-07-02T09:00:00-04:00

According to New York Times restaurant critic, Pete Wells, who “loves outdoor dining,” the Big Apple is in the process of another makeover with a “third wave” of Open Restaurants being added to the city’s already bustling streets.

Nevertheless, as more parking spaces are given over to myriad semi-permanent structures, how this program is enacted will determine who is able to enjoy the public realm. Are restaurant-going people the only New Yorkers that should stand to benefit from this significant shift in urban design?

Open Restaurants and Open Streets were conceived in 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, in which indoor dining was prohibited, allowing restaurants to move their tables outside. The latter was designed to provide additional public space for New Yorkers to socially distance outdoors. Restaurant-going locals have enjoyed the redesign of city streets—however provisional the structures—and now, through regulation, the city has the opportunity to make this a...

Archinect - News

Dominique Perrault on the role architects have in post-pandemic society

Third wave Open Streets: Open for whom?