Archinect - News

designjunction Talks Programme Announced

2017-09-07T03:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by designjunction.

Join us over two days this September for the most important conversations about cutting-edge design. Fourteen sessions will delve into a variety of engaging topics that affect and inform the design industry. Anchored around the show’s theme #wheredesignmeets, designjunction’s 2017 talks programme is designed to inspire, engage and provoke.

Our stellar line-up of speakers includes: Sir Kenneth Grange; Tina Norden, Conran; Julio Terra, Kickstarter; Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead, 2LG Studio; Dejan Sudjic, Design Museum; Jeremiah Tesolin, Iittala; Tom Lloyd, PearsonLloyd and many more.

For full details and to book tickets click here.

21-22 September
Ticket price: £6 Address: The Office Group, Stanley Building, 1 Pancras Road, King’s Cross, N1C 4AG

Follow designjunction on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. #wheredesignmeets

Jeanne Gang returns home to share her firm's work

2017-05-12T19:14:00-04:00

Jeanne Gang caught the architecture bug as a child. Her father was the Boone County engineer and family vacations were long road trips that crisscrossed the country, with countless stops along the way "to see every bridge there was."... "This concept of ecology — the idea of building relationships between each other and our environment — that's what really interests me," said Gang.

Last month, Jeanne Gang spoke in Rockford, Illinois, near her hometown of Belvidere, to present her firm's work at a well-attended luncheon.

In celebration of I.M. Pei's 100th birthday tomorrow, the National Gallery of Art revisits his legacy

2017-04-25T13:19:00-04:00

Harmonizing with architect John Russell Pope's neoclassical West Building, the award-winning East Building, which opened in 1978, was designed by Pei in the modern idiom of its time. Magnificently realizing the long-term vision of Gallery founder Andrew W. Mellon and his children, Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce, the East Building has taken its place as one of the great public structures in the nation's capital. — National Gallery of Art

I.M. Pei's 100th birthday is tomorrow! In celebration of the legendary architect's birthday, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. will host a public talk in the Pei-designed East Building featuring architect Perry Y. Chin – a longtime associate of Pei's — and Susan Wertheim, the Gallery's chief architect and deputy administrator for capital projects.

Learn more on Bustler.

Watch David Adjaye and James Turrell discuss light, space, and architecture

2016-10-14T18:40:00-04:00

Last week, the White House held its very own arts and culture festival in D.C., South by South Lawn (SXSL). Organizers arranged a list of panel discussions and programs that brought together a diverse troupe of creatives for a "festival of ideas, art, and action.” SXSL kicked off with a conversation between illustrious light artist James Turrell and award-winning architect David Adjaye, which was streamed live on The Creators Project’s Facebook Page.

"Over the course of their chat, which was moderated by LACMA director Michael Govan, the two artists unpacked their general philosophies on art, light, space, and culture, and discussed some of the influences that have driven their processes and works."

Video via The Creators Project.

Harvard GSD to host talk on "Habitation in Extreme Environments: Alpine Shelter" exhibition this Friday

2015-02-11T18:58:00-05:00

Curated by Spela Videcnik, Rok Oman, and John T. Dunlop (Design Critic in Housing and Urban Development), the "Habitation in Extreme Environments: Alpine Shelter" exhibition currently at the Harvard GSD presents a prototypical alpine shelter that students designed in an option studio this past fall. A public lecture and discussion by Spela Videcnik will formally introduce the topic this Friday, February 13 at Gund Hall. The exhibition and lecture are free and open to the public.

Guided by instructors Spela Videcnik and Rok Oman of Ljubljana-based OFIS arhitekti, the studio focused on investigating architectural solutions and responses to extreme climatic conditions, specifically referring to the ongoing heavy wintry conditions that ravage the North region of the U.S. The students researched traditional European alpine settlements in an effort to find new architectural solutions fit for a North American context.

The prototype shelter that will be presented at this Friday's lecture prov...

“The Space of Poetry” exhibition in Boston examines the built environment of poetry

2014-04-22T13:25:00-04:00

Who knew that architecture could let you perceive poetry in a new angle or two. Currently at Boston Architectural College's 951 Boylston Street Building until May 1, "The Space of Poetry" exhibition reveals the intricate ties between the written art form and architectural history, theory, and design — all by Cara Armstrong, a trained architect and poet who works as an educator, writer, and illustrator.

As an exhibition extra, the gallery is inviting everyone to a free talk on April 30 at 5 p.m. We can be sure this won't be like your typical poetry analysis class.

"The exhibition delves into the space of poetry by bringing it together with architecture history, theory and design, encouraging viewers to look critically at poetic construction and promoting a more evocative understanding of architecture and writing...

Using the lens of architecture and art, [Armstrong] visually considers story, structure, music, and imagination as building blocks. Then, through architectural analysis techniques such as solid/void analysis and diagramming, she translates individual poems into a set of spatial relationships that becomes art in its own right. This allows the work of poets such as John Donne, Jean Valentine, and Jane Mead to converse across time and brings to light similarities in form, structure, and meaning."

Find more details on Bustler.

Dispatches from 5468796 Architecture's Table for Twelve | Sydney

2014-02-26T14:44:00-05:00

Archinect is delighted to present 5468796 Architecture's travelogue for their award-winning research project, Table for Twelve. The Winnipeg-based firm received the 2013 Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture from the Canada Council for the Arts, awarded to emerging Canadian architects with outstanding artistic potential. The $50,000 prize is supporting the firm’s worldwide travels to both strengthen their skills and expand their presence within the international architectural community.

5468796’s Table for Twelve is a series of dinner parties held at architectural epicenters around the world, in the hopes that picking the brains of local talent will help them identify the drivers behind a strong design culture. Archinect plays host to their global dispatches through this travel blog, updated upon each city’s dinner.

From 5468796:

IMPRESSIONS

We left Japan with our heads still spinning from the colours, the sounds of gaming lounges, the continuous traffic jams, and the hordes upon ho...

LA Mayor talks urbanism and mass transit with architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne

2014-02-14T18:06:00-05:00

Last night on the bucolic hilltop campus of Occidental College, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke with the Los Angeles Times architecture critic, Christopher Hawthorne, about the state of L.A. urbanism. This broad topical platform positioned Hawthorne's interview not as a political interrogation, nor as a staged public appearance, but as a relaxed discourse for Garcetti to mention policy while riffing on the kind of place he believes L.A. is becoming. You can review Archinect's live-tweets of the event here.

The discourse of L.A. urbanism is often bogged down by insufficient comparisons and false dichotomies -- sprawl vs. density, cyclists vs. drivers, liberals vs. libertarians, east vs. west, etc. -- that doggedly try to force the region into the conventions of other, completely incomparable cities. Early on, Hawthorne made clear that "Los Angeles" has to be thought of on the "regional scale", and shouldn't copy the developmental models of radically different cities. Garcetti ce...

Hitoshi Abe on place-making and layered formalism at UCLA

2013-11-05T17:11:00-05:00

How can we understand a place, and seek to define it? What elements do we identify as components of that place, and how do they interact with each other? In a recent lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, Hitoshi Abe, chair of UCLA’s Architecture and Urban Design department, approached these questions through a study of Atelier Hitoshi Abe, his design practice located in both Los Angeles and Sendai, Japan. Drawing on Japanese ideas of place-making, Abe conceptualizes his structures not as monoliths of positive and negative spaces, but as a system of layers that collectively define the building.

The concepts of “space” and “place”, as conceived by Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida, are part of the objective reality that an individual uses to define themselves -- but instead of that objective reality being based on discrete physical forms, the sense of self arises from a reactive relationship with the space, rather than in opposition to it*. Highlighting internati...