Archinect - News

Nordic 'citizen design critics' are gaining influence thanks to their online popularity

2023-08-07T18:07:00-04:00

Founded in Sweden in 2014 as a public Facebook group, [Architectural Uprising] is a collective of citizen design critics who object to what organizers call the “continued uglification” of developments in Nordic cities, and push for a return to classically informed design. [...] The movement’s size and persistence, however, has earned it a seat in the discourse. “When [historians] talk about architecture during these years, [the Architectural Uprising] will be part of that history”

A new report in Bloomberg tells of the staying power of social media-driven architectural criticism. Projects lambasted by the popular (mostly) Scandinavian group include Oslo’s new National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design by architect Klaus Schuwerk and estudio Herreros’ Munch Museum, which Oliver Wainwright also panned.

Its presence has apparently spurred Norwegian firm MAD Arkitektur’s concessions on the Sandakerveien 58 B/C renovation and other projects. Politicians in Norway have even begun reaching out for tacit endorsements in a turn mirroring the "ugly" debate in America concerning the design of federal buildings that has become a charge of late for Republicans in love with the concept of classicism in spite of its racist underpinnings and widely-critiqued past.

Rowan Moore wants a ‘truce’ between King Charles' traditionalists and the avant-garde

2023-05-09T12:08:00-04:00

The incurable optimist in me still wonders: could his yearnings about the built environment be more beneficially directed? Charles may have been at war with much of the architectural world for nearly 40 years, but might they not unite over what they have in common? They all want sustainable communities and good design. Architects and the monarch also have a shared enemy: the sacrifice of positive architectural qualities to housebuilders’ pursuit of profit.

Moore’s calls echo in some regard the statements made by housing secretary Michael Gove last year, in which he called for an openness to classicism given there is “no silver bullet to solve the housing crisis” domestically. Stirling Prize winners Mikhail Riches and Alison Brooks Architects are brought in as examples of those left out in the fray he created by virtue of his comments and status as an “unofficial addition” to the country's planning system.

“If he were to do anything more in the realm of architecture,” Moore writes, “it should be generous: He could praise those architects who, even if their style is not to his personal taste, dedicate energy and skill to making British towns and cities better places to live.”

Elsewhere, the Architects’ Journal reported that Norman Foster would also like a word with his new king.

UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove throws his hat behind the country's traditionalism movement

2023-01-05T15:50:00-05:00

The UK’s housing chief is throwing his name into the contentious ongoing debate surrounding the role and perception of traditionalism and classical architecture in the country’s design culture and academia.

The Architects’ Journal has details on Secretary Michael Gove’s foreword to a report authored by critic Ike Ijeh for a right-wing think tank that calls for the establishment of a “School of Place” and other educational changes that would “revive” traditionalism “from the annals of obscurity to which contemporary architecture education has unfairly consigned it.”

Gove tied the cause to the country’s housing crisis while also welcoming calls for the elevation of classicism in university curricula without expressly stating that it should be mandated in either educational Part of the RIBA-administered licensure process, stating: “There is no silver bullet to solve the housing crisis, nor to transform British towns and cities overnight or instantaneously deliver a workforce imbued wit...

Don't expect much from King Charles' reign architecturally, these two of his constituent critics say

2022-09-26T12:25:00-04:00

Poundbury, Paisley and Perspectives all ultimately failed to conquer the complex commercial and political challenges they faced. Their royal patron’s attempts to create human-centred townscapes have led to car-dominated suburbs. His efforts to uplift grand historic buildings have carved them into dreary flats. Our King is someone who sees the right problems but, ensconced in the very establishment that prevents meaningful solutions, he can only meddle around the edges of effecting real change.

The new British King is memorably the originator of the panned Poundbury estate that has failed to fall in line with its stated goals towards sustainability and car-free pedestrian orientation, according to Phineas Harper. He thinks the scion is hemmed in by a stolid commercial banking system and arcane land ownership laws and that class differences have otherwise made Charles' ability to gain perspective on the needs of his constituents otherwise impossible. As the Open City director sees it: “His view of society, as of architecture, is restricted to what can be seen from the tinted window of a chauffeured car.”

Previously on Archinect: Richard Rogers challenges Prince Charles to public debate over built environment

Meanwhile, in a different corner of the empire, new ArchitectureAU monthly critic Elizabeth Farrelly says she felt he “proved himself thoroughly unrepentant” during his time as Prince, citing his statements in support of traditionalism, and asking, “is he, as a constitut...

Critic Roger Bevan on the rise of caustic Traditionalism in city planning

2022-01-07T19:51:00-05:00

Traditionalist lunatics have succeeded in taking over the asylum. Reactionary ideas hostile to the cosmopolitan, to Modernism, to modernity itself, are in the ascendant.

The UK is one of many countries currently besieged by a right-wing movement to force parochial worldviews onto society via their integration into the built environment. The race-baiting views about architecture and city planning have extended into draconian laws punishing those caught defacing public monuments (although recently some have been more fortunate) in an echo of similar controversies including Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s appointments to the British Museum and BBC, which is now under pressure by conservatives to once again play the national anthem on a daily basis.

Bevan traced the popular movement from America to France and back again, stating that it has roots in the design fundamentals championed by Prince Charles for sometime.

“Traditionalist city-making ideas have been brewing for some time, now pushed by right-wing think-tanks such as the Policy Exchange and Legatum Institute, who are hostile to both public housing and fetters on the market, and whose adherents a...

Robert A.M. Stern's first Chicago tower nears completion

2018-11-09T13:46:00-05:00

Now, his first Chicago skyscraper, Streeterville’s One Bennett Park, is nearing completion. [...] “It has a very special site,” he said. “It will be a building that is memorable, I hope. I think it has already made an impression on the skyline. I would describe it as a building that has roots in the skyscrapers of New York in the 1920s and ‘30s, which people generally call Art Deco, but maybe that’s a kind of sloppy term.”

"There are a lot of architects who seem intent on entertaining other architects," Stern says in his WTTW interview. "I would like the respect of my peers, but I would like the public to embrace my buildings."

Image: Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Seoul housing development builds traditional hanok designs for a slower lifestyle

2018-09-04T13:36:00-04:00

Eunpyeong Hanok Village was selling locals hanok, the traditional Korean tile-roofed residences that have, after hundreds of years, increasingly been destroyed and replaced by towering steel structures; indeed, not since the 1930s have hanok been constructed in significant numbers. The decline of vernacular architecture in the face of global urbanization is, of course, hardly new, though traditional Korean hanok are a particularly stark contrast to modern city living.

A new housing development, Eunpyeong, in northern Seoul is solely dedicated to constructing traditional Korean hanok houses. The design adheres to certain guidelines on proportion and design, with a low center of gravity, a courtyard, and an orientation towards nature.

The hanok's popularity comes from a need to connect to Korean identity and a desire to slow down from a past-paced economy. The minimalist design confronts the occupant with the amount of stuff they own and orients them to reconsider a new, slower way of life.

Amateur Architecture Studio brings traditional Chinese materials and craftsmanship into modern architecture

2018-08-30T16:15:00-04:00

Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu, of China’s Amateur Architecture Studio want to protect Chinese culture and history by returning to artisanal building techniques and the use of materials such as natural stone, wood and bamboo. Wang Shu’s rejection of what he calls “professional, soulless architecture” has almost become a war cry. That kind of architecture, he believes, is ruining China.

Amateur Architecture Studio focuses on creating work that transcends the black and white divide of traditional and modern architecture. The duo have made it their mission to bring back handmade work and natural materials into modernization.

China Academy of Art Xiangshan Campus by Amateur Architecture Studio. Image: Tõnis Kimmel/Flickr.

Wang Shu was the first Chinese Pritzker winner, awarded back in 2012, for his commitment to reviving traditional craftsmanship in the profession.

China Academy of Art, Wa Shan Guesthouse, Xiangshan Campus by Amateur Architecture Studio. Image: Iwan Baan.

The studio works with material such as bamboo, stone, and wood rather than only focusing on concrete and steel. The Chinese tradition of handmade construction is essential to Shu, who prefers the title of "artisan" rather than "architect".

Twitter account dedicated to traditional European architecture draws ire as an architecture-themed dog-whistle

2018-08-15T15:17:00-04:00

A twitter account dedicated to traditional European architecture has drawn ire for being a magnet for white nationalism. In a recent article in the Newstatesman, writer Sarah Manavis chronicles how the account called ArchitecturalRevival—which posts pictures of old buildings and architectural details—has become a feed full of anti-Semites, Islamophobes, and white nationalists, their architectural and aesthetic preferences often tethered to their particular ideologies.

The account's more innocuous tweets tend to feature images and memes of classical architecture or new traditional styles that celebrate their beauty and craftsmanship. Repeatedly accompanied with harsh charges against examples of modernism, the International style and modernist architects such as Le Corbusier seem to provoke exceptional anger from the account and its followers. More incriminating, though, is the fact that as Manavis notes, "the account has also shown a preference for cultural conservatives in its 'lik...

Le Corbusier's influence on Japanese modernism

2018-08-09T15:31:00-04:00

Thanks to the overwhelming clarity of [Le Corbusier's] positions, the bewitching nature of his epigrammatic style and the already-powerful international movement for Modernism, the impact he had on a rising generation of Japanese architects would prove to be immense. But it would be the nature of that impact to be felt only in conditions of overwhelming ambivalence.

Nikil Saval traces Japan's modernism back to Le Corbusier citing influences on Kunio Maekawa and Kenzo Tange. Japan was the earliest country in all of East Asia to engage with Le Corbusier's work in the late 19th century, and by the 1930's many of his books has been translated into Japanese.

The piece navigates conflicting views in Japan with the introduction of modernism and the “Japan tradition debate”. Saval explores the struggle around a desire to embrace global modernity while also retaining a sense of tradition or “Japaneseness” in the culture.

Modernism invades a classically traditional Swedish island

2018-05-14T00:37:00-04:00

But recently, a generation of homeowners and architects...have started not just ignoring, but defying the Law of Jante....From cast-concrete bunkers to glass-framed aeries, the new houses shock, subverting long-established order with a cool blast of modernity, while also paying homage to the island’s chilly dignity.

Nancy Hass travels to Gotland, a low-key, summer retreat for Swedes. Traditionally, simple farmhouse vernacular reigned. Yet, now firms such as Skalso, Murman Arkitekter, Deve Architects and Tham & Videgård are exploring a more contemporary idiom.

Rowan Moore reviews book on British mosque design

2018-03-14T05:38:00-04:00

The dominant theme is that of the expression of identity, the overwhelming preference in British mosque design being for traditional elements and decoration – especially dome, minaret and arches – applied to sometimes basic box-like structures. From time to time the cry goes up, including in Jonathan Glancey’s introduction to this book, that a “contemporary” Islamic British style should be developed.

There are about 1,500 mosques in Britain most of which have been designed in the last decade. Rowan Moore reviews architect and academic Shahed Saleem's book The British Mosque, a survey looking at why British mosque design is mostly traditional. Saleem presents both sides of the argument for traditional and contemporary designs. While some accuse the traditional of architectural timidity, others argue that innovative design is a financial and cultural luxury.

New book highlights traditional lessons for modern architects to maximize sustainability

2018-01-09T18:14:00-05:00

Long before foam insulation and concrete tower blocks, humans were finding ingenious ways to address their needs through architecture. Using local materials and inherited construction techniques, societies have ensured that buildings provide protection and comfort. In Tonga, traditional curved roofs offered aerodynamic protection against storms and cyclones. In the Uros islands of Lake Titicaca in the Andes, reeds were used in houses due to the insulating properties of their hollow stems.

A key issue in sustainability lies with imported building materials, leading architects to look for more ways to use local resources. As attention is turned towards existing materials, traditional design solutions must also be taken into account as each culture has its own history of building in a particular climate and region.

The exterior of Toposa village dwellings, South Sudan, are given a distinct character by thatching with shorter length grass or reeds. ©Wolfgang Kaehler/Superstock

In a recently released book Habitat: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet, edited by Sandra Piesik, these unique cultural design solutions are highlighted as lessons for current architects. As the construction industry's resource-heavy techniques eat up energy and produce greenhouse gas emissions, the question at the center of these issues is "what is modern"? Traditional architecture is not necessarily in opposition to progress. Moving forward, many architects are now embracing a combinatio...

"Harry Potter effect": Christopher Hawthorne on America's Neo-Neo Gothic college architecture trend

2017-12-21T14:52:00-05:00

So what does the taste for Hogwarts-style dormitories say about the Yale or the USC of 2017? It says that the primary job of residential architecture on campus is to provide a sense of consistency and familiarity for donors and incoming students alike — to soften the edges of the college experience.

Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks back at 2017's resurgence of Neo Gothic and Neo-Gothic-ish college architecture and compares the newly completed USC Village and Yale residential complexes with architectural references of the manifestation of nostalgic Anglophilia, the wizard school Hogwarts, as found in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

"High school graduates on their way to college are hardly responsible for the architecture they find there, of course," Hawthorne writes. "Yale, USC and other wealthy and ambitious schools seem to be counting on a kind of double nostalgia, on the hope that this revival of the Gothic Revival will appeal both to incoming students and to wealthier alumni, who after all are the ones paying for and often helping dictate the architectural sensibility of new campus buildings."

Christopher Hawthorne reviews LA's newly opened USC Village development: "Equal parts Disneyland and Hogwarts"

2017-08-21T18:37:00-04:00

At a ceremony last week to mark the opening of the $700-million USC Village, C.L. Max Nikias, the university’s president, spoke at some length about the architecture of the new complex and what he called “USC’s extraordinary physical metamorphosis” in recent years. [...] Then came his ringing conclusion: “And let’s always remember, the looks of the University Village give us 1,000 years of history we don’t have. Thank you, and fight on!”

"Even delivered in a vacuum it would have been a remarkable statement," Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne remarks. "The president of the leading private university in Los Angeles taking up, as a rhetorical cudgel, one of the laziest clichés about the city, that it has no history to call its own."

Scott Merrill wins the 2016 Driehaus Prize

2016-01-20T14:29:00-05:00

Scott Merrill, an architect known for his originality and creative application of architectural precedents, has been named the recipient of the 2016 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. Merrill, the 14th Driehaus Prize laureate, will be awarded the $200,000 prize and a bronze miniature of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates during a ceremony on March 19 (Saturday) in Chicago.

Scott Merril, the founder and principal designer of Merrill, Pastor & Colgan in Vero Beach Florida, has been awarded the 2016 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame.

Now in it's 14th year, the Driehaus Prize is something like an alternative Pritzker awarded to "a living architect whose work embodies the highest ideals of traditional and classical architecture in contemporary society, and creates a positive cultural, environmental, and artistic impact."

Initiated by the fund manager and philanthropist Richard Driehaus, the Prize comes with a $200,000 check – about double the amount awarded with the Pritzker.

"The jury’s selection of Scott Merrill as the 2016 Driehaus Prize laureate brings into focus his remarkable ability to apply the principles of traditional architecture to a wide variety of building types while integrating unique regional identities,” Driehaus stated in the award announcement. “His work beautifully demonstrates the inherent versatility of tradition...

Extending an abandoned vocabulary: The New Yorker profiles Robert A.M. Stern

2015-08-24T15:12:00-04:00

New York has seen twenty-first-century buildings in early-twentieth-century drag before, but 30 Park Place stands out, both for its size [...] and for its location—cheek-by-jowl with some of the most ambitious buildings to emerge from the current high-rise boom [...] “We’re transposing a nineteen-thirties language to lower Manhattan, which has gotten overrun with glass and abstraction,” the architect said in a recent interview. “People want to look at buildings and make connections.”

Robert A.M. Stern Architects in the Archinect news:

Kengo Kuma: "Architecture can initiate communication among people."

2015-06-04T23:47:00-04:00

Tokyo is known for its mix of modern and traditional architecture, but for long-term residents it is easy to feel like the concrete is winning out. [...] The buildings done by acclaimed Tokyo-based architect Kengo Kuma are different. [...] Kuma’s campaign to bring Japanese-ness back to architecture has had fascinating results.

Where Architects Fear to Tread: Britain Bores Again

2015-04-03T12:16:00-04:00

Terry, 77, is Prince Charles’ favourite architect, a purveyor of classical confections from his drawing board in the quaint Essex village of Dedham. Scruton, 71, a philosopher of aesthetics, is a vocal enemy of modern architecture and author of The Classical Vernacular: Architectural Principles in an Age of Nihilism (as well as I Drink Therefore I Am: A Philosopher’s Guide to Wine).

Oh, man. Prince Charles: the new urban dictionary entry meaning "zero architectural innovation."

Quo vadis, Charleston architecture?

2015-01-23T14:15:00-05:00

Long accustomed to basing its reputation on the grandeur of its old buildings, the city now finds it almost impossible to agree on how to build new ones. In recent months, traditionalists have blocked efforts to introduce contemporary architecture in the historic core [...]. Modernists are rolling their eyes at new buildings that copy traditional styles, arguing that they pervert a record of architectural progress long documented in mortar and stone.

Don't miss these heated discussions on the subject matter:

London's traditionalist architects come back swinging in their fight against skyscrapers

2015-01-05T13:39:00-05:00

In a warren of rooms inside a 400-year-old townhouse on the Essex-Suffolk border, a counter-revolution against the most dramatic rebuilding of the London skyline in decades is gathering strength. Eschewing computer power for sharp pencils and tracing paper, father and son architect team Quinlan and Francis Terry are drafting classically inspired designs for some of the capital’s most prominent sites in a fightback against plans for hundreds of new skyscrapers.

Why Modern Architecture Struggles to Inspire Catholics

2014-09-02T13:45:00-04:00

Outside a few rare examples such as Ronchamp, I sense that Modernism has failed to deliver an architecture that connects with most Catholics and other traditional Christians. Much of this has to do with fact that Modernism as a cultural movement is inherently atheistic as it is based on a secular materialist philosophy.

Better a small house than a skyscraper that signifies nothing

2014-03-24T13:38:00-04:00

The White House may be the centre of great power, but it is not in itself that big or that shouty. It’s just a nice, white house, rather elegant, with a fine sweeping drive, but utterly dwarfed by the US Treasury next door – a fact that is, in itself, a bit of a clue to the relative significance of wealth in American society. [...] If the White House gleams simply because of the influence of the man inside it, the rest of the Washington complex is designed to make its case for significance.

Buildings That Lie About Their Age

2013-04-19T20:10:00-04:00

John Hill’s book “A Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture” is filled with examples of the crazy new forms of the last decade, like Frank Gehry’s white wind-filled “sail” on the West Side Highway in Chelsea. [...] And yet, the United States is in the middle of a great revival of traditional architecture — Georgian, neo-Classical, Arts and Crafts and so forth — that is almost absent from Mr. Hill’s stimulating and enjoyable work. So, what isn’t contemporary about traditional design?

Thomas H. Beeby Named 2013 Driehaus Prize Laureate

2012-12-18T14:36:00-05:00

American architect Thomas H. Beeby has been named the recipient of the 2013 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. Beeby has designed an array of cultural, academic, religious, residential, and commercial buildings.

The Bias Against Tradition

2011-09-13T12:18:18-04:00

Much of the debate involves modernist architecture's role in landmark settings of a traditional character. Preservation professionals often advocate modernist additions to these settings, while at the grass-roots level there is strong support for keeping the new work traditional.

The conversation: Architecture – modernism v traditionalism

2011-08-05T19:26:23-04:00

Is there an establishment bias against traditional architecture? Modernist Michael Taylor talks pastiche and passion with traditionalist Robert Adam