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LAForum's 2020 Summer Exhibition “Every. Thing. Changes.” showcases the collective views of 20 Los Angeles-based designers and thinkers

2020-08-06T13:27:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by the L.A. Forum

The summer exhibition “Every. Thing. Changes.” by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design presents 20 new works documenting the collective view of life in Los Angeles in its new decade. The newly commissioned texts and visual works exhibited in “Every. Thing. Changes.” were developed over the course of spring 2020, and are the outcomes of a “call and response” process between five initial L.A.-based writers, their texts, and the visual responses of five L.A.-based collaborators (of the allied design disciplines: architecture, landscape architecture, urban design). The 10 writers/designers then chose one additional collaborator each to bring into the process, for a total of 20 new visual and text-based works.

Featured Participants:

LA Forum interviews Geoff Manaugh on the architecture of quarantine

2020-06-17T16:15:00-04:00

I think that, if anything, the quarantine experience that we’re having is the realization that large-scale, drastic changes are actually possible.

LA Forum's publication Delirious LA interviews BLDGBLOG's Geoff Manaugh on the quarantine as a possible enabler to change in architecture and other conjectures it may bring to architecture and urban design.

"For me, as someone who writes about architecture, it was the idea that there was a way of dealing with disease—which, from a modern point of view, I would associate with vaccines, pills, or surgery—instead you can design a building in such a way that you can prevent the spread of a disease from one person to the next. It seemed like a way to instrumentalize architecture beyond just aesthetics, or beyond just everyday use value such as, you know, this is a restaurant or this is a home. It gives architecture – and the very fundamentals of architecture, including questions of circulation and sequence, and where walls and doors might be placed – a medical effect. And it helps to avoid the need for a vaccine or avoid the need for medical treatment later.

There was something fascinati...

Los Angeles celebrates the Bauhaus

2019-09-11T19:45:00-04:00

Like many cities around the world, the Los Angeles region is gearing up to celebrate the centennial of the founding of the Bauhaus.

An upcoming panel discussion titled Bauhaus-L.A.-Now orchestrated by the Los Angeles Forum of Architecture and Urban Design looks to catalog the school's influence on Los Angele creatives. For the discussion, each panelist will talk about how the Bauhaus has influenced their own work by juxtaposing "two images side-by-side: one from their own body of work and one produced by Bauhaus members, teachers, graduates, and practitioners." The event will coincide with the WUHO Gallery's exhibition BAUHAUS PHOTO, which "showcases photography from the Bauhaus Archive..." The panel will take place at WUHO Gallery on Saturday, September 21st at 5pm.

This panel event and exhibition are presented as part of a series of programs put on by the Getty Research Institute, The Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, A+D Museum, and WUHO Woodbury University Hollywood Outpost that wil...

The LA Forum Reader Traces 30 Years of LA's Architectural Discourse

2018-07-06T17:40:00-04:00

The LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design has offered a critical look at the city of Los Angeles since the late 80's. The nonprofit has been providing public programming, exhibitions, and publications through its ever-shifting board of directors and volunteer contributors. To celebrate this 30-year milestone, the Forum has carefully selected a collection of pieces published from its origin to today, and has published these in a book under the themes of Experiments, Detours, Hunches, and Santa Anas.

Today, Los Angeles is a major architectural and urban player, but for decades the city was dismissed suburban and centerless. In republishing three decades of material on architecture and design in Los Angeles, the LA Forum Reader reclaims and reconsiders the city’s architectural and discursive histories. It establishes, or reestablishes, a textual context for critical experimentation and urban investigation. This anthological volume includes essays, interviews, and reproductions of...

Bid for a cocktail party at the VDL, a “Hostage Situationist” experience, and more fun items in L.A. Forum's 2016 auction

2016-10-28T15:02:00-04:00

The L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is hosting a silent online auction as part of their Fall Benefit starting now until November 13. When architecture is involved, the items up for bidding are bound to be an interesting mix — and the more than 80 items in this particular auction don't disappoint.

Bidders can choose from books signed by the likes of Frank Gehry, Barbara Bestor, and Aaron Betsky, unique hand-made accessories, photographs, and one-of-a-kind experiences (Hostage Situationist, anyone?), all ranging from $50 to $1,000 — so no need to worry about million-dollar pricetags here. For starters, here are some items that caught our attention:

All screenshots via L.A. Forum.

Find all the auction items here. More info here.

Say goodbye to the Sixth Street Viaduct along the L.A. River at ForumFest 2015, Oct. 25

2015-10-15T20:43:00-04:00

The L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is partying along the Los Angeles River for ForumFest 2015, Bridge. Tunnel. Channel., happening at the Sixth Street Bridge tunnel on Sunday, October 25.

ForumFest highlights the historic Sixth Street Viaduct as a signifier of change in the city. The viaduct will be demolished in the coming weeks and be replaced by a new bridge by Michael Maltzan Architecture.

Enjoy a festive evening of DJs, live music, food and trucks, and artistic and musical surprises — all while supporting the L.A. Forum!

The party will feature temporary installations by architects and designers in the Forum’s 2015 Out There Doing It series: Typical Office (Duygun Inal and Ben Warwas); LA-BOR (Jia Gu and Jonathan Crisman); and PAR (Jennifer Marmon).

Jai & Jai Gallery (Jomjai and Jaitip Srisomburananont) will also present a curated series of video works by Chris Gassaway, Devin Gharakhanian, Nick Korody, Juanito Olivarria, Tomas Koolhaas, Akiko Yamashita, and art by...

LA Forum releases Summer Newsletter on Brutalism in Los Angeles

2015-08-05T13:35:00-04:00

“Musings about a Brutalist building’s friendliness quotient are a distraction” - Anthony Carfello, artist

Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design Summer 2015 Newsletter surveys and critiques LA's own collection of high-quality brutalist buildings in a 'must be collected" issue that grew out of its own google map “Brutalism Los Angeles” and other resources.

The Newsletter features a collection of articles, interviews and an op-ed by architects, historians, and critics.

You can write to LA Forum and request your free copy with an optional membership that goes a long way with many benefits and preferred access to events and publications.

LA Forum talks with Brooke Hodge, curator of "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio"

2015-03-11T14:54:00-04:00

"From the beginning, I wanted to give a sense of the variety of scale of the studio’s projects, from the more intimate objects like the Christmas cards to large-scale mockups like those for the Paternoster Square vents. [...] Thomas is trained as a designer and not as an architect and he has always made things as a way to test his ideas. He often mentions how unusual it is that most architects have never actually made anything themselves." – Brooke Hodge

When news broke that Heatherwick Studio would be collaborating with BIG on Google's campus expansion, many were hearing Thomas Heatherwick's name for the first time. "Provocations", the first exhibition devoted to Heatherwick Studios to be shown in North America, will make sure that Heatherwick becomes a name in the states not just for the Google project, but for a significant catalogue of distinct work. Brooke Hodge, the curator of "Provocations", recognized Heatherwick's unique status in architecture and design long before Google's announcement, and now the timing couldn't be better to get to know Heatherwick.

Currently the Deputy Director at the Cooper Hewitt's National Design Museum, Hodge casts Heatherwick not as architect or designer per se, but as an inventor – the tinkerer who sets out to solve problems, not develop a style. The LA Forum interview posted here is a quick overview of Hodge's organizational strategy for the exhibition.

"Provocations" is currently on display at ...

Nine days left for L.A. Forum's DINGBAT 2.0 Kickstarter campaign

2014-02-07T15:17:00-05:00

With a little over a week left, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design launched their first Kickstarter campaign to support the production and distribution of their upcoming book, DINGBAT 2.0, the first in-depth study of the ubiquitous dingbat apartment -- a common, easy-to-identify structure in Los Angeles that apparently no one talks about.

Co-edited by former L.A. Forum Board of Directors president Thurman Grant and former board member and Radical Craft principal Joshua G. Stein, each section of the book offers a look into its history, future, and value in L.A.'s urban identity. Features include essays, winning entries of the Dingbat 2.0 competition, and panel discussions between some notable figures.

Here's more detail about the book:

"Just as Banham used Los Angeles as a lens through which we could imagine a new form of urbanism emerging across the globe, Dingbat 2.0 uses the dingbat apartment type to explore the seemingly paradoxical potential for individual id...

Makers and Shakers: LA Forum's "Out There Doing It" 2013

2013-11-15T13:43:00-05:00

One of Los Angeles’ most sly urban characteristics is its sprawl: by being so large, its widely cast net defies characterization while also incubating remarkable experimentations. A few outstanding selections from that mélange are the members of Out There Doing It -- a collection of architects and designers curated by the LA Forum “as diverse as they are interdisciplinary”. These emerging professionals “actively question how architecture is represented, conceptualized, materialized, and publicized” -- encouraging accountability throughout the design process. The 2013 OTDI participants are: Anna Neimark of First Office, Bryony Roberts, ALLTHATISSOLID, and Design, Bitches.

Inspired by Russian suprematism and Metallica, practicing in bathrooms and coffeehouses, these designers cover ideas as expansive as the L.A. basin, in all its nooks and crannies. The 2013 OTDIers just completed their final event at ForumFest, the LA Forum’s annual fundraiser (this year honoring Michael Maltzan...

Interview with Michael Maltzan, ForumFest 2013 Honoree

2013-11-08T10:59:00-05:00

This Saturday, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design will hold its annual ForumFest fundraiser, this year honoring Michael Maltzan. Operating as both educational and artistic platform, the LA Forum has helped shape the critical perspective on Los Angeles urbanism since 1987. In line with the Forum's impact on the city, Maltzan has contributed to L.A.’s theoretical urban identity as well as its physical one -- producing many critical writings on the city, along with projects on a variety of scales.

In anticipation of ForumFest, I spoke with Michael about his relationship to the city of Los Angeles, why he makes himself write, and the models for successful future cities.

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg: How is writing useful to architectural practice, and when considering urbanism?

Michael Maltzan: The thing I like so much about writing is that I find it very hard, and because of that, because it's not the most immediate way that I express what I'm thinking about, ...

LA ForumFest to honor Michael Maltzan

2013-11-01T15:02:00-04:00

Celebrating over 25 years of educational and advocacy work, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design will honor architect Michael Maltzan, FAIA, of Michael Maltzan Architecture at their annual ForumFest. The LA Forum is a discussion platform for local architecture and urbanism, where design professionals and the general public alike can reflect on the nature and impact of architecture in Los Angeles.

Michael Maltzan was a natural choice for this year's ForumFest honoree -- established in Los Angeles since 1995, his firm embraces the diverse, sometimes contradictory Los Angeles landscape, while retaining a recognizable personality and form specific to his practice. He has also contributed to the architectural discourse on Los Angeles through multiple essays and critical pieces. Maltzan is perhaps most well-known in Los Angeles for his work with the Skid Row Housing Trust, as well as his many architectural and urban planning projects at the intersection of education...