Archinect - News

On the cultural implications of SANAA's latest Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion

2023-01-11T15:09:00-05:00

The Art Gallery of New South Wales, one of Australia’s most important art institutions, faces an especially acute cultural challenge. Museum building in a real-estate obsessed city that Mark Twain called “superbly beautiful” — in the sunny heart of a proud “sporting nation” — often requires overcoming a barrage of negativity. The Sydney Opera House was loathed before it was loved, and the Modern has traveled a rough road already.

The debate around SANAA’s newly-opened $344 million expansion in some ways mirrors the one leading up to the (then $102 million AUS) Sydney Opera House in the late-1960s, which, at the time. centered on a discussion over the value of cultural investments that culminated in philosopher Peter Singer’s groundbreaking text Famine, Affluence, and Morality.

“Most of the rulers and commentators really do believe that ‘culture’ is a nonessential or luxury additive rather than part of the educational, civic, ethical and moral systems whereby a society might govern its core values and activities,” University of Canberra professor Ross Gibson told the Times in summary of that history.

The gallery has reported a total of 120,000 visitors in the first ten days of opening.

The Guardian picks up on the contentious debate surrounding modernist preservation in the UK

2022-04-04T18:44:00-04:00

A trio of concerned letter writers replied to a March 31st opinion piece by The Guardian’s Owen Hatherley in which the critic declared that “hardline modern architecture is now something of a cult.”

“A living city has to strike some sort of balance between avoiding the strangulation and depopulation that happens when you conserve everything, and the visual slurry that occurs if you let developers do what they like,” Hatherley wrote. “The result has been a new tension between different notions of conservation. This is a tension that serves mainly to benefit property developers, who can make money both from new buildings, and as 'saviors' of great modern buildings at the cost of destroying their original purely social purpose, as has happened in the privatisation of London’s Keeling House or Sheffield’s Park Hill.”

The Twentieth Century Society’s London Director Catherine ...

From transparent staircases to faraway restrooms, why these benign design details can be a nuisance for some women

2018-07-16T16:07:00-04:00

“If I were commissioning the interior of any kind of store and someone brought me blueprints including glass staircases, I’d tell him to take a hike,” she wrote then. “I wouldn’t give him a second shot. If he’s not intuitive enough to grasp that women in skirts will be uncomfortable walking upstairs, clouded glass or not, then what other errors has he made in his design?”

Last month, LA Times culture writer Carolina Miranda tweeted that “all male architects should be required to navigate their own buildings in a skirt”, recalling the time she walked on the transparent floors of a Diego Portales University library and happened to be wearing a skirt. Others responded to her tweet saying they should also wear heels and carry babies, and also called out the see-through walkways in some Apple Store locations and certain architecture schools (you know who you are).

“The tweet reignited a debate about an ongoing design issue in many public spaces — that some of them simply do not keep women in mind,” Miranda writes in her article above.

Grammatical Supremacy; A conversation with Cross-Talk's Anthony Morey

2017-08-03T20:02:00-04:00

This week we're joined with Anthony Morey, LA-based theorist, designer, educator, writer, and curator. Readers of Archinect will probably recognize his name from his curatorial work with the exciting annual architecture show "One Night Stand", and his relatively new series on Archinect “Cross-Talk”.

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How the design of a parliament building affects the politics that happen inside

2016-09-19T18:56:00-04:00

For the past five years van der Vegt and Max Cohen de Lara, his partner at XML, have studied the halls of parliament of all 193 United Nations member states. In a new book, Parliament, the duo elegantly connects architecture to the political process. All 193 assembly halls fall into one of five organizational layouts: “semicircle,” “horseshoe,” “opposing benches,” “circle,” and “classroom.” And these layouts make a difference.

If you can imagine how debating with someone seated beside you might feel different from arguing with someone standing at a pulpit, you can appreciate the impact.

For more on the intersections of the architectural and the political, follow these links:

London's architectural debate society, Turncoats, is coming to D.C.

2016-08-23T13:13:00-04:00

The idea behind Turncoats is for people to relax, slough off their more cautious professional selves, and engage in full-throated (yet respectful!), rapid-fire debate on a broad range of topics. Audience members are encouraged to speak up, Powerpoints are strictly forbidden, and alcohol is served liberally.

Started in London in the last couple years, Turncoats has chapters in Scotland, Vancouver, Serbia and now, the U.S. The first D.C. Turncoats event takes place tomorrow, August 24, and is centered around the debate topic of "D.C. Wants Boring Architecture". Find more details here.

Provocative architecture debating series Turncoats goes international

2016-07-13T11:46:00-04:00

Debates are rubbish. We've all been there: a panel of similar people with similar views taking it in turns to talk at length about their similar work - too polite, too deferential, too dull. At best they are lukewarm love-ins, critically impotent, elitist and stuffy. Turncoats is a shot in the arm.

Turncoats, a provocative architectural debating society that originated in London last year, has expanded to Scotland, the USA, Canada and Serbia, with more cities in the pipeline. The London originators have turned the premise into a franchise, inviting cities to apply for free and start a Turncoats debate series. The aim is to start confrontational and challenging architectural debate, and make it free for anyone who wants to listen. The premise of a Turncoats debate is the presentation of two opposing 'theatrically provocative opening gambits', then, in the spirit of its name the opposing parties switch sides.

I attended 'Rip it Up and Start Again', held in Glasgow, Scotland last week. In the Turncoats tradition, mobile phones are placed in envelopes to prohibit recording and a 'shot in the dark' of tequila and a Turncoats badge is offered on arrival. The debate was held in an old glue factory, and the panel consisted of industry professionals arguing for and against the architec...

Architect behind Matrera Castle restoration argues criticism "is prejudiced"

2016-03-10T18:22:00-05:00

A recently completed restoration project [of Spain's Matrera Castle] has provoked an incredulous reaction from some locals and a Spanish conservation group... However, Carlos Quevedo, the architect who oversaw the restoration of the castle...pointed out that the project had been painstaking, professional, and legal...'I do think that some basic, accurate information can help avoid some of the prejudices that spring from a simple image.'

Spain is having another cultural kerfuffle over the recent restoration of the ancient Matrera Castle in Cadiz. While locals and preservation groups are mocking and criticizing the makeover, architect Carlos Quevedo says that it was done to prevent further structural collapse.

More about historic preservation:

As Ho Chi Minh City develops rapidly, historic colonial architecture comes under threat

Has preservation become too conservative and elitist?

Another bittersweet look at Hotel Okura's legacy, as redesign is underway

Debated relocation of U.S. Embassy in London is "inevitably painful" for locals

2015-06-10T15:58:00-04:00

The United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square, a Modernist concrete building in the heart of Mayfair, London’s most exclusive neighborhood, has been a potential terrorist target for years, creating anxiety for both employees and neighbors...So a new embassy [by KieranTimberlake] is under construction for a move by 2017, and the residents of Mayfair are relieved. But this being Britain, the new embassy has become the object of debate and, in some quarters, ridicule.

KieranTimberlake’s U.S. Embassy in London celebrates groundbreaking

Rescuing Washington's Skyline

2014-10-20T17:10:00-04:00

Clinging to antiquated urban notions, the District’s building height regulations imagine a skyline filled with spires, domes and minarets.

The debate over the Capital's skyline should not pit preservationists against contemporary designers. In fact, regulations that take advantage of the rooftop space would contribute to the monumental character of the city.

NY Times Enters the "Starchitect" Debate

2014-07-30T13:58:00-04:00

Witold Rybczynski, the architect and emeritus professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, complained recently about “starchitects” who often work in cities they are unfamiliar with, creating buildings that are out of sync with their surroundings. In an interview, he argued in favor of local architectural talent, or “locatecture.” Are superstar architects ruining city skylines?

In this "Room for Debate" at the New York Times, Allison Arieff, Vishaan Chakrabarti, Beverly Willis, and Angel Borrego Cubero all provide their opinions on the much-used and controversial portmanteau.

5 Building Ideas From the D.C. Mayoral Architecture Debate

2014-02-20T14:35:00-05:00

With Jack Evans and Vince Gray headed to New York and Muriel Bowser and Andy Shallal otherwise occupied, the small candidate crowd at last night's architecture debate must have left the hosts feeling as lonely as sad architect archetype Ted Mosby. The lack of candidates at the District Architecture Center brought about a similar lack of political tension, but that didn't keep the candidates who did show up from having ideas about buildings.

Parametric smackdown: Patrik Schumacher and Reinhold Martin debate at CalArts conference

2013-11-19T16:05:00-05:00

CalArts two-day symposium on “The Politics of Parametricism” opened last Friday with a conversation between Reinhold Martin, associate professor at Columbia University’s GSAPP, and Patrik Schumacher, partner at Zaha Hadid Architects. Their debate, while at times tending more towards dysfunctional improv theater than academic discussion, revolved around the relationship between architecture and politics -- generally speaking, Martin sees the two as indelibly linked, while Schumacher idealizes their explicit separation. Their debate didn’t concern the visual aesthetics of parametric design, so much as argue about its utility in political systems.

Patrik Schumacher

As an event presented by CalArts’ MA Aesthetics & Politics program, the Martin-Schumacher debate did not explicitly discuss individual architecture projects, but tended more on the side of critical architectural theory. To introduce their debate, both Martin and Schumacher presented papers on their approach to parametr...

What's the point of architecture and design festivals?

2013-06-24T15:33:00-04:00

"Are festivals and biennales dynamic catalysts to discuss and celebrate the city and architectural culture?" asks the Architecture Foundation, which is putting on the event as part of London's own month-long festival of architecture. "Or are they calculated devices of tourism and industrial promotion?"

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