Archinect - News

Tackling confirmation bias in the creative process

2019-11-11T17:00:00-05:00

In his Masterclass, Frank Gehry touches on an important creative principle:

"I have always felt if you know what you are going to do in advance then you won't do it. Your creativity starts with whether you're curious or not."

It's an intriguing point. As I rewatched the trailer for the course, it reminded me of how Leonardo da Vinci would often abandon commissions. Many say he'd leave his creations unfinished out of boredom, but that's not what was really happening for him. Rather, he grew disinterested after he had solved whatever creative obstacle he was tackling. Walter Isaacson puts it perfectly in his biography on the polymath: "He [da Vinci] enjoyed the challenge of conception more than the chore of completion," Isaacson writes.

That's what Gehry is touching on: That, as architects, a large part of the creative process is situated in an iterative exploratory process. The work is constantly evolving along the way, details get refined, materials dialed in, and program realized. ...

Win a copy of “Architecture and Modelbuilding”, a guide to help sharpen your model-building skills

2019-06-20T12:04:00-04:00

Eager to update your knowledge on the art of model-building? The book “Architecture and Modelbuilding: Concepts - Methods - Materials” is a guide that illustrates the possibilities of the medium and also explores its past and future. Thanks to publisher Birkhäuser, Archinect is giving away five copies of the book to our readers!

Authored by Alexander Schilling, an architect and lecturer at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the book builds on its successful predecessor “Basics Model Building”. This latest volume offers practical tips, techniques, simple explanations, and specific examples — with an abundance of photos, of course — for different work stages and tasks.

Courtesy of Birkhäuser.

Presentation and Views. Courtesy of Birkhäuser.

Find more images in the gallery below.

Want a chance to win a copy of “Architecture and Modelbuilding"? Fill out this survey by the deadline on Friday, June 28th, end of day. Five paperback copies of the book are available to win. Winners will b...

Meet British architects Chan + Eayrs, who inhabit their projects as they renovate them

2018-09-17T18:13:00-04:00

By collapsing the roles of architect, developer and interior designer, they make spaces with an unparalleled intimacy and a highly refined sense of place. “When we choose a project, it’s not just a project,” says Chan Eayrs. “It’s where we choose to spend two to three years of our life, every day, touching and feeling it, living it.”

The New York Times profiles British architect couple Zoe Chan Eayrs and Merlin Eayrs, whose highly dedicated design process — in which they live in whatever project they are currently renovating through completion — has resulted in a refreshing portfolio of unique living spaces that “feel as soulful as they do sophisticated”, The New York Times writes.

Want to read about more emerging firms? Check out Archinect's latest Small Studio Snapshots features!

“I love materials that absorb the passage of time”: Frida Escobedo speaks with Rowan Moore about her 2018 Serpentine Pavilion and her design philosophy

2018-06-05T14:28:00-04:00

Escobedo’s approach is, she says, not about the look of the architectural object, but “how you feel inside the space, how you go about it in the moment”. It is designed for the “very specific space and time” of the Serpentine’s lawn in summer, but is also for the future in which, like previous pavilions, it will be sold to private collectors. Since “we don’t know where it’s going”, the design “can absorb locality no matter where it is”.

In this piece for The Guardian, Rowan Moore speaks with 39-year-old Mexican architect Frida Escobedo about her Serpentine Pavilion, an “intimate public courtyard” that will open in London this month. Escobedo talks about her start in architecture, Mexican modernism, and the “always incomplete”, temporal nature of architecture — a core concept of her work. “I love materials that absorb the passage of time”, she tells Moore.

“Throughout Escobedo’s work, there’s an interest in whatever is already there, which she attributes both to the influence of the French philosopher Henri Bergson, and to the culture of her country. To Bergson she owes the idea that every action adds to previous actions, like pearls on a necklace, changing the whole but not replacing it,” Moore writes.

Come Fail With Us

2017-11-21T18:56:00-05:00

The museum showcases failures to provide visitors a learning experience about the important role of failure for innovation and to encourage organizations to become better at learning from failure.

This December, corporate flops will be showcased when the Museum of Failure comes to Los Angeles. Don’t let the name fool you. The Museum of Failure is a celebration of history’s failed products and services and the lessons learned from them.

Exhibited at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in the Los Angeles Arts District, the Museum of Failure welcomes visitors to enjoy an experiential journey of failures-past beginning December 1 through February 4, 2018.

welcomes visitors to enjoy an experiential journey of failures

The Museum of Failure will treat its visitors to a shrine of history’s epic fails by some of the world’s best known companies. Marketing catastrophe that was Bic for Her? Yup. The two-wheeled, self-balancing transport innovation, Segway? Better believe it. These, along with artifacts spanning from the 17th century right up to the present day, including the frozen beef lasagna by Colgate, demonstrate the types of failures the museum will showcase.

Image: Museum of...

Win a set of “50 Urban Blocks” designing flash cards!

2017-08-24T12:00:00-04:00

50 Urban Blocks is the first in a collection of designing cards (available in English and Spanish) aimed to simplify architectural design, by a+t architecture publishers. This first set of cards contains 50 examples of how to design a block, how to organize space and ultimately how to build the city. Thanks to a+t, Archinect is giving away two sets of the “50 Urban Blocks” cards to our readers!

Image courtesy of a+t architecture publishers.

Each of the 55 13 x 8 cm double-sided cards proposes a possible urban form including measurements and data on density in the city. Their reduced size and individual format mean that it is possible to lay out the 50 urban forms proposed in the pack all at once in front of you — a difficult task in the case of a book or a magazine. This means that architects can compare, order and disorder the cards so as to select the ones which best adapt to their scenario and combine the different forms to design their project. 50 Urban Blocks is especially usefu...

Get a glimpse of the EyeTime 2015 winners' photos

2015-12-09T15:26:00-05:00

Morpholio held another successful EyeTime photography competition! The popular contest for designers was established by photographers, professors and students to highlight the ongoing research and investigation brewing within today's emerging design talent.

Young professionals and students submitted their work to the guest jury (which included Archinect and Bustler founder Paul Petrunia). The public also had the opportunity to participate in picking the winning entries.

Take a gander at some of this year's winners:

↑ EMERGING TALENT - JURY WINNER: Jiawei Zhou - "Invisible City"

↑ EMERGING TALENT - JURY WINNER: Turjoy Chowdhury - "Nepal Quake Aftermath"

↑ EMERGING TALENT - JURY WINNER: Vanessa Vettorello - "Bollywood Talkies"

↑ EMERGING TALENT - PUBLIC WINNER: Yew Kiat Soh - "First Class"

↑ FUTURE VOICES - JURY WINNER: Md Shahnewaz Khan - "Fallen Stars"

↑ JESSICA LUM AWARD WINNER: Emese Benko - "#opentheborders"

↑ SPECIAL RECOGNITION: Luca Laghetti - "Sometimes you need to be brave"

See more of the winners on Bustler.

Win a set of these mini The Architect Says notebooks!

2015-12-09T12:20:00-05:00

While sketching ideas on digital tablets is increasingly the norm these days, having a pocket-sized notebook (or three) on hand has long been a trusty essential for any designer. If you're in need for more notebooks to fill, the Architect Says notebook set might be what you're looking for.

As a companion to Laura Dushkes' best-selling book "The Architect Says", these miniature notebooks feature foil-stamped words of wisdom from icons R. Buckminster Fuller, Le Corbusier, and Cesar Pelli. Each notebook consists of 64 gridded pages for drawing, planning, or jotting down notes.

Thanks to the Princeton Architectural Press, Archinect is giving away three sets of the notebooks to three of our readers!

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

Follow Archinect on Twitter (@archinect) and/or Instagram (archinect)
On Twitter: Retweet this post. Add #archinectgiveaway to your tweet.
On Instagram: "Like" this photo. For more chances to win, repost that same photo on your Instagram account. Include #archinectgiveaw...

Win "Drawing from Practice, Architects and the Meaning of Freehand" by J. Michael Welton

2015-08-21T14:32:00-04:00

"Drawing from Practice, Architects and the Meaning of Freehand" by architectural writer J. Michael Welton is a practitioner's handy reference for freehand-drawing inspiration and an adept resource to anyone who's curious about the creative processes behind some of today's most influential architects.

The 221-page book includes more than 200 full-color drawings from an international range of architects. With ample research, Welton guides readers through the creative process of 26 of today's most prominent architects, from the initial sketch to the final product.

The book explores the drawings of:

Aidlin Darling Design, Alberto Alfonso, Deborah Berke, Marlon Blackwell, Peter Bohlin, Warren Byrd, Ellen Cassilly, Jim Cutler, Chad Everhart, Formwork, Phil Freelon, Michael Graves, Frank Harmon, Eric Höweler and Meejin Yoon, Léon Krier, Tom Kundig, Daniel Libeskind, Brian McKay Lyons, Richard Meier, Bill Pedersen, Suchi Reddy, Witold Rybczynski, in situ studio, Laurinda Spear, Stanley Tigerma...

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...

Dump your old vector files in the Digital Junkyard to be recycled into real-world objects

2015-07-24T21:28:00-04:00

The Digital Junkyard is an experiment in virtual salvage. It is a repository of donated digital information that is used to generate real physical and spatial objects...This project is an embodiment of the growing collective intelligence that technology affords us; and an experiment in ideas about digital ecology. It also honours the time and energy that designers put into testing and making mistakes.

No, this isn't some snarky Craigslist ad. Recently launched by architecturally trained designer and artist Car Martin, the Digital Junkyard is a website with a mission to transform as much of your unwanted vector files into a new physical object or creative idea of sorts, in the real world. In addition to "dumping" their files, users can "salvage" and download donated files, and can eventually check out the resulting "artifacts" -- although that section of the site is yet to be filled.

The Digital Junkyard accepts a maximum of 250 MB and is mainly looking for vector files. More specifically:

Adobe (.ai .eps .pdf)
Autodesk (.dwg .rvt)
Mcneel/Rhino (.3dm .gh.ghx)
Sketchup (.skp)
GIS (.mxd & shapefile folders)
Other (.svg .dxf)

Screenshot via djunkyard.com

While the Digital Junkyard can be a practical outlet for architects and designers to clear up their digital workspaces, Martin's website has an introspective side to it that is greatly relevant at this point in our tightening relationship wit...

Win a copy of "Young Architects 16: Overlay" from the Architectural League Prize

2015-07-17T09:41:00-04:00

Since 1981, The Architectural League of New York has showcased the latest emerging design talent in the annual Architectural League Prize. Every year, the Architectural League selects three previous winners for the League Prize committee, who are tasked to develop the competition theme that engages certain aspects of architectural form and practice that are most relevant to their fellow young practitioners.

The 2014 edition took an intrinsic approach with the theme "Overlay", which had entrants contemplate how the interactive, incremental processes inform and direct their work. Participants examined their own creative processes and presented how their developed techniques are activated over time with additional layers of meaning as they further explore architectural concepts.

Earlier this month, the Architectural League published the winning entries from this competition in Young Architects 16: Overlay. The book highlights six American firms: Young & Ayata (Brooklyn), The LADG (Los An...

Editor's Picks #396

2014-12-05T14:37:00-05:00

Beth Mosenthal penned an Op-Ed: Response to Michael Kimmelman's Critique of 1 WTC. She writes "I can only imagine the list of priorities that 1 World Trade entailed, but am still celebratory of the feat that it was realized despite perhaps the greatest obstacles any project could possibly have—fear and memory".

Ken Koense chose to respectfully disagree with her "The building is a touchstone for the future of large scale bunker buildings in America...which will certainly preclude the kinds of mixed use that Kimmelman's real critique addressed...Thousands died, two wars waged, but we've got our post card view, our symbol, our icon, our Freedom Tower. How picturesque". Similarly Krimson struggles "to overlook the blatant closed off nature of the project".

Plus, the latest Showcase: features Sparrenburg Visitor Center by Max Dudler, a "brutalist, rammed concrete" addition to a historic castle/fortress.

News

Paul Katz, who as president and managing principal of KPF was the mastermind of m...

Spacemaker VR lets designers "walk through" their own 3D creations

2013-11-22T09:56:00-05:00

The Spacemaker VR by Digital Physical is a virtual reality software system that can add some new perspective to the entire design process. The Spacemaker lets designers export their 3D files and test out their creations, even during the design process. The software also includes customizable presentation display and realistic 3D models of world landmarks -- suitable for travel enthusiasts or perhaps a source of inspiration.

Digital Physical recently launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes for a beta release by the first half of 2014.

Here's more info DP sent us:

"Digital Physical, which includes a number of virtual reality veterans, architects and user experience designers, has set the funding goal at $100,000 USD. The Spacemaker system will include realistic 3d models of world landmarks and buildings, a real-time 3d visualizer, and a simple 3d model creation workflow to enable designers to quickly and easily experience what it's like to walk inside their designs."

"'Its b...

Denise Scott Brown and the myth of individual creativity

2013-10-17T21:43:00-04:00

Modern architecture, despite breaking with the past stylistically, nonetheless maintains this image of the gifted architect as a lone autonomous genius who overcomes gravity and prevails over his client [...] Rather than an inner activity done in solitude, it has been found that people often discover their thoughts and ideas through interactions with others [...] The centrality of collaboration in architecture is often overlooked in a culture celebrating and branding “starchitects.”

Referring to recent statistics concerning women in architectural practice and the Denise Scott Brown Pritzker controversy, architect Esther Sperber calls for an overhaul of how we think about creativity and authorship in architecture. Her piece for Lilith, "Revising Our Ideas about Collective Inspiration", argues that what is perceived as "creative genius" relies on cultural and social affirmation, and is therefore a necessarily collective act.

Endorsing D.S.B.'s demand that the architecture community "salute the notion of joint creativity", Sperber's piece recognizes issues of gender inequality within the practice, but is more concerned with the whole notion of individual intellectual ownership -- creativity just doesn't work this way, and prestigious awards shouldn't either.

As creative industries adapt "orchestrated serendipity" strategies to capitalize on collaborative processes, the presumption that intellectual production belongs to any one individual dissolves. Sperber'...

Win a Moleskine® notebook from the Inspiration and Process in Architecture collection!

2013-07-31T12:37:00-04:00

The foundation of architecture lies in the creative process. And for many architects, the beginning of that process involves none other than simple pencil and paper for jotting down those ideas, notes, and sketches to inspire the next project.

Inspiration and Process in Architecture, published by Moleskine® and curated by Francesca Serrazanetti and Matteo Schubert, is a growing collection of "notebooks" that reveal the creative process of some of the most notable figures in contemporary architecture. Each notebook contains critical essays, an interview with the architect, and a multi-media "Drawings" section that includes the architect's design materials and images taken right from their personal notebooks.

We are excited to be giving away five Moleskine notebooks from the collection! Winners will get their hands on a notebook of Wiel Arets, Cino Zucchi, Zaha Hadid, or one of the two latest names in the collection: Studio Mumbai and Dominique Perrault.

To enter, simply fi...