Archinect - News

Learning from the last of Louis Kahn’s important sketchbooks

2024-07-13T10:00:00-04:00

The architect who designed some of the 20th century’s great buildings kept a notebook with intimate glimpses into his creative vision. Now it’s his daughter’s final goodbye. [...] We’re reminded of the nuts and bolts of architecture — how legends, too, are susceptible to so-called value engineering.

Sketches for posthumously completed projects for the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park in New York City are included in the recreated facsimile, which Kahn’s daughter Sue Ann put together for the 50th anniversary of his death with help from Swiss publisher Lars Müller.

The result, Sam Lubell writes for the Times, is a "remarkable creation." (It's important to note that these are separate from the Kickstarter-funded push for another facsimile copy of earlier sketchbooks from Designers & Books.)

Conservation work on the YCBA, meanwhile, is expected to wrap up later this year.

Portfolio tip: Show your work

2019-10-25T12:38:00-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we looked at the importance of tailoring your resume to a particular job opportunity. While a resume provides a brief picture of your experience, a portfolio presents a tangible proof of your ability. Today, we'll look at one overarching principle that can work as a measuring stick for all of the decisions you make as you create your application package. When it comes to your work samples, you want to do your best to capitalize on your opportunities to show your work.

Page spread from Archinect user Sirapa Supakalin's portfolio

There are too many portfolios out their that just look too pretty, too perfect. We need to start roughing them up a bit. The final product (the "money shot") is the culmination of all of your work. An employer wants to see how you arrived at that final result. Think about math class in grade school. You had to show the teacher how you solved your long division problem. The teacher's job was to teach you how to arrive at the solution not j...

Stanley Tigerman Rides Again: Architect's final sketches go on display in Chicago

2019-09-16T20:09:00-04:00

A collection of engrossing sketches created by the late architect Stanley Tigerman are currently on view at Chicago's Volume Gallery. The exhibition, titled Tigerman Rides Again, presents some of the final creative works produced by the iconoclastic architect who passed away in June of 2019.

According to exhibition text, "After a hiatus from his daily drawing practice, Stanley Tigerman picked up his pen and his moleskin notebook in January 2019. He began creating images that harkened back to his early paintings and moved away from the drawings he made to express, explore, and develop ideas on architecture throughout his over five decade-long practice. While he is known for his lively and often colorful collages of buildings and cartoons, these black and white drawings revert to another time. The works produce optical illusions and align with his paintings from the 60’s that reveal influences of his former Yale professor, Josef Albers."

Tigerman Rides Again. Images courtesy of Volum...

Win the latest Grids & Guides Notebook for Visual Thinkers!

2018-10-15T12:00:00-04:00

In need of a fresh sketchbook to jot down all those ideas? Princeton Architectural Press has released the latest version of their popular Grids & Guides Notebook for Visual Thinkers — now in a classy navy! Thanks to Princeton Architectural Press, Archinect is giving away five notebooks to our readers!

Photo courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press.

Bounded in a navy cloth hardcover, this 160-page notebook features eight distinctive grid designs interspersed with various scientific diagrams — including golden ratio constructions, simple machines, a chart of unit equivalents, optics, and even cell biology.

Photo courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press.

Want a chance to win the “Grids & Guides” notebook? Fill out this survey by the deadline on Thursday, October 25, end of day. Five notebooks are available to win. Winners will be announced in t...

Generate your next creative idea with Morpholio's Journal app, a digital super-tool sketchbook

2015-08-04T12:00:00-04:00

Architects and designers have adapted to the digitization of the creative process, although trustworthy paper sketchbooks, notepads, and journals remain as an essential free-flowing workspace for brainstorming ideas. Morpholio conveniently combines both realms in Journal, a new app that redefines the portable sketchbook as a mixing chamber where designers, artists, writers, and all creative types can effortlessly record, organize, collage, or sketch to develop their ideas — right at their fingertips.

Journal Unleashes 5 Super Tools:

1. Sketch on anything, anywhere

Journal allows you to sketch and write on any media. Not everyone wants to start with a blank canvas and now you don't have to. Design over an image, get creative with a photo, or make backgrounds of any type. You can sketch on top of any surface, and the sketch will literally move, twist and scale with the image it's on. Draw on everything to build the ultimate archive of inspirations, ideas, and encounters; allowing the lon...

Editor's Picks #304

2013-02-26T13:39:00-05:00

For the latest edition of the ShowCase feature, Archinect published the first fire station designed by Pritzker Prize winner Álvaro Siza Veira. The project, Santo Tirso Fire Station is located in Quinta de Geão, Portugal "comprises a total gross area of 1173 m2 and lodges the support functions to the fire brigade...it is organized in 3 floors”.

Chris Moody's initial reaction was that "At first glance, it would be hard to picture this building as a fire station. But then again, that's probably the point. Nicely done! Alvaro." toasteroven added "that brick is yummy, the exterior is really nice - but - the interiors seem a little cold and off-putting. all shades of grey and white - like a bunker in Antarctica in the dead of winter”.

News

According to released figures the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) showed its strongest growth since November 2007. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the January ABI score was 54.2, up sharply from a mark of 51.2* in Dec...

Winners of Grand Central Terminal Drawing Competition

2012-12-24T15:25:00-05:00

In celebration of the upcoming centennial of New York City's Grand Central Terminal, the Architectural League of New York and the New York Transit Museum have announced the winners of a competition to select sketches by contemporary architects for a new Grand Central Terminal sketchbook produced in collaboration with Moleskine.