Archinect - News

Rem praises Dubai for its sophistication

2015-03-18T17:07:00-04:00

[Rem Koolhaas] addressed a packed auditorium at the American University of Sharjah on Tuesday..."Dubai has escaped from its architectural caricatures,” Mr Koolhaas said... [He] had a positive outlook on the region despite recent upheaval and said that it provided the opportunity for the dawn of something new. He also praised the involvement of the country’s rulers and the freedom they have given to designers to transform the landscape of the region.

Zaera-Polo responds to alleged Wikipedia plagiarism in Biennale texts

2015-03-17T14:16:00-04:00

Explaining his move, he said that, while it was ‘unorthodox in an academic setting’, the citations were removed to give the publication more relevance to the general public and less of an academic tone. [...] In a letter to Princeton University, Koolhaas defended Zaera-Polo, saying that the publication was intended as a ‘polemic, not an academic document’.

Alejandro Zaera-Polo resigned from his deanship at Princeton University's School of Architecture back in October, amidst rumors of plagiarism in texts supplied to Rem Koolhaas' 2014 Venice Biennale. Now, in a letter published on his website, Zaera-Polo clarifies the rumors, and addresses the precise incidents of alleged plagiarism. His position, one supported by Rem Koolhaas, maintains that as the Biennale's texts were intended to be "polemic", "non-academic" and "speculative", they did not require the same academic citation standards that a university like Princeton would require.

See the full text of Zaera-Polo's statement below, titled "A Clarifying Statement", courtesy of architectsjournal.co.uk:

To whom it may concern:

I am making the following statement in order to finally clarify the reasons for my sudden resignation from the Post of Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University on October 30 2014. This is now imperative not just in respect to the rumors spread on t...

Weekly News Round-Up for August 11, 2014: Monumental politics, smart homes and GSAPP's new dean

2014-08-18T12:53:00-04:00

Friday, August 15

Farewell to the Old Okura: The famous Hotel Okura, built in the 1960s in a distinctive fusion of modern and traditional Japanese styles, is closing in response to prohibitive earthquake retrofits and larger, newer hotels in the area.
Samsung Acquires SmartThings, A Fast-Growing Home Automation Startup: SmartThings, an aggregator for all "smart" internet-connected devices in the home, cost Samsung an estimated $200 million —chump change in comparison to Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest.

Thursday, August 14

One ridesharing app to rule them all: Ridescout moves into the competitive world of rideshare: Ridescout aggregates hundreds of ridesharing services to compare trips, and will now include "carpool" options that can help users share trips. The announcement comes after last week's news that Uber and Lyft are now both offering carpooling services.
Revisiting the American Folk Art Museum controversy, through comics: A thoughtful and diplomatic look at AFAM's his...

Rem Koolhaas interview: 'Architecture was at its best in antiquity'

2014-06-06T18:40:00-04:00

Rem Koolhaas, curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, tells Jonathan Glancey why the uniformity of modern cities drives him up the wall

Rem Koolhaas's Venice Biennale will 'be about architecture, not architects'

2014-03-12T11:23:00-04:00

Provocative Dutch practitioner finally accepts offer to curate biannual exhibition, declaring it will 'sever all connections with contemporary architecture'