Archinect - News

Online events today include Geoff Manaugh, Vishaan Chakrabarti, Dror & Bruce Mau, Studio Libeskind, and Ignacio G. Galán

2020-04-29T14:01:00-04:00

Looking for some inspiration? Today's list of featured online events from our recently launched Virtual Event Guide include a lecture hosted by UCLA, a conversation between Dror Benshetrit and Bruce Mau, a conversation with Geoff Manaugh on his forthcoming book on the history and future of quarantine, and much more.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

Virtual Lecture with Ignacio G. Galán
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 | 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PDT
Join us for a virtual lecture with Ignacio G. Galán, Principal of [igg - office for architecture] as part of our 2019-20 Event Series.
Click here to attend and/or register

Dror and Bruce Mau in Conversation
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT
Join Dror and Bruce Mau for an online conversation about yesterd...

Strelka announces "The Terraforming," a research program headed by Benjamin Bratton

2019-08-27T17:45:00-04:00

The Moscow-based Strelka Institute has announced a new research program geared toward exploring the issues of planetary urbanism, global energy infrastructure, “geotechnology,” and speculative design, among other topics.

Directed by professor and theorist Benjamin Bratton, the three-year program will be tuition-free and will explore the topics above as part of a multi-disciplinary effort involving both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The initiative, The Terraforming, seeks to approach the future inhabitation of planet Earth a literal world-building exercise. A website announcing the program explains: "The term 'terraforming' usually refers to transforming the ecosystems of other planets or moons to make them capable of supporting Earth-like life. However, the looming ecological consequences of human activities suggest that in the decades to come we might need to terraform our own planet if it is to remain a viable host for Earth-like life."

A focu...

Geoff Manaugh joins Liam Young at Archinect Outpost to discuss the just-released book Machine Landscapes: Architectures of the Post-Anthropocene

2019-03-14T14:21:00-04:00

Join us at Archinect Outpost on March 23th, from 7–9pm to host Liam Young and his newly edited book: Machine Landscapes: Architectures of the Post-Anthropocene.

Young and Geoff Manaugh will be in attendance to present their thoughts on the book, followed by a book signing. Machine Landscapes can be preordered from Archinect Outpost here.

You can RSVP here to reserve your spot at the event.

From the publishers at Wiley Books: "Machine Landscapes surveys the architectural spaces in the world that are now entirely empty of people. The data centers, telecommunications networks, distribution warehouses, unmanned ports and industrialized agriculture that define the very nature of who we are today are at the same time places we can never visit. Instead they are occupied by server stacks and hard drives, logistics bots and mobile shelving units, autonomous cranes and container ships, robot vacuum cleaners and internet-connected toasters, driverless tractors and taxis."

New City, Liam Youn...

Geoff Manaugh reports on the US' obsession with the Hyperloop and charismatic mega-projects alike

2017-07-27T17:34:00-04:00

Still, the trouble with the Hyperloop is not its breathless gee-whizzery. It’s the fact that it mistakes the charismatic mega-project for a viable solution to current problems. If the Hyperloop’s purpose is to address large-scale urban mobility, then there are many other options already deserving of public funding and attention—ones that do not require a hard rebooting of the entire urban world to be realized.

Musk’s visions are valuable because they show that even people far outside the field of urban planning can be frustrated with the world others have built for us. They, too, should have a say.

It’s great set design, but terrible city planning. Tunnels might abruptly end where investors fear to tread; driverless cars might be blocked from crossing bridges managed by rival tech firms. As for the Hyperloop, it is a P.R. coup for Elon Musk—and a project that, if realized, would undoubtedly be a thrill to experience. But it is by no means the solution that most people have been waiting for, other than the journalists wondering what story they might cover next.

Geoff Manaugh's "A Burglar's Guide to the City" headed to TV

2016-10-04T19:31:00-04:00

CBS has given a put pilot commitment to "A Burglar's Guide to the City," a television series based off the book by BLDGBLOG founder Geoff Manaugh, who interviewed former bank robbers like Joe Loya to explore the role of architecture in crime, and the corresponding shifts in privacy in both the physical and virtual realms. An article by Deadline describes the thrust of the series thusly:

"Written by Grellong, A Burglar’s Guide to the City centers on a team of modern-day Robin Hoods, led by a brilliant architect with a troubled past. They use their unique skills to gain access to any stronghold in order to steal from rich criminals and give to those who have been wronged by a corrupt system."

Listen to our conversation with Geoff about the book, recorded earlier this year:

For more on the intersection between architecture and Hollywood:

Casing the joint: Geoff Manaugh discusses his latest book, "A Burglar's Guide to the City" on One-to-One #26

2016-06-06T14:19:00-04:00

Writer and BLDGBLOG founder Geoff Manaugh's latest book, A Burglar's Guide to the City, isn't just a set of case studies on bank vaults and getaway routes—it's a dialectic for public and private space. It’s definitely the first book I’ve come across classified jointly under “architecture” and “true crime”, and it's full of fascinating insights into how burglars exploit architecture to pull off the perfect crime, as well as the extent architects go to prevent that from happening.

Geoff spoke with me about the research behind the book, and how a personal experience with burglary changed his ideas about privacy in architecture. For more podcasting with Geoff, check out our conversation about autonomous vehicles on Archinect Sessions #43.

Listen to One-to-One #26 with Geoff Manaugh:

iTunes: Click here to listen and subscribe to the new "Archinect Sessions One-to-One" podcast
SoundCloud: click here to follow Archinect
RSS: subscribe with any of your favorite podcasting apps via our RSS feed: ...

A bird's-eye view of LA with Geoff Manaugh and the LAPD

2016-03-23T13:11:00-04:00

The police had allowed me to fly with them so that I could see the world from their perspective. Through its aerial patrols, the division has uniquely unfettered access to a fundamentally different experience of Los Angeles, one in which the city must constantly be reinterpreted from above, in real time, with the intention of locating, tracking and interrupting criminal activity. This also means that the police are not only thinking about Los Angeles as it currently exists.

"Their job is to anticipate things that have yet to occur — not just where criminals are, but where and when they might arrive next. They patrol time as well as space. In this sense, although it has been in continual operation for the past 60 years, the division has much to tell us about policing the cities of the future."

In a fascinating excerpt from his forthcoming book A Burglar's Guide to the City, Geoff Manaugh relates his experience with the LAPD on their helicopter patrols of the city. "Cities get the types of crime their design calls for," he writes. And the sprawl of Los Angeles demands, and facilitates, a policial gaze from above.

For more from the author of BLDGBLOG, check out some articles from the archive:

Or more recent content:

"In LiDAR We Trust" – Poking the subconscious of autonomous vehicles with special guest Geoff Manaugh, on Archinect Sessions #43

2015-11-19T17:34:00-05:00

Long-time Archinector and BLDGBLOG-runner Geoff Manaugh joins us on the podcast this week to discuss his piece on "The Dream Life of Driverless Cars" for the New York Times Magazine. Referencing work like that of London-based design studio, ScanLAB Projects, who use LiDAR (light + radar) technology to map how autonomous vehicles see and understand the built environment, Manaugh spoke with us about how these vehicles could potentially change the structures and sensations of our cities – and all the unknowns that accompany such speculation.

We also briefly touch on the recent news of Philadelphia becoming an UNESCO World Heritage site; the first city in the U.S. to receive such status. This episode is sponsored by BQE's ArchiOffice.

Listen to episode 43 of Archinect Sessions, "In LiDAR We Trust":

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
Apple Podcast App (iOS): click here to subscribe
Stitcher: click here to liste...

The "algorithmic dreams" of driverless cars, and how they might affect real-world urban design

2015-11-12T15:43:00-05:00

The sensory limitations of these vehicles must be accounted for, Nourbakhsh explained, especially in an urban world filled with complex architectural forms, reflective surfaces, unpredictable weather and temporary construction sites. This means that cities may have to be redesigned, or may simply mutate over time, to accommodate a car’s peculiar way of experiencing the built environment...

"...The flip side of this example is that, in these brief moments of misinterpretation, a different version of the urban world exists...If we can learn from human misperception, perhaps we can also learn something from the delusions and hallucinations of sensing machines. But what?"

As self-driving cars gradually integrate themselves into urban society, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG spotlights emerging lidar (light + radar) scanning technologies that the cars use to navigate. He weighs the possible advantages and risks that these technologies — which still have their vulnerabilities — can pose on the built environment.

More recent news about driverless cars on Archinect:

Tokyo's 2020 Olympics won't have Zaha, but it's looking like there will be "Robot Taxi"

Dawn of the self-driving car: testing out Tesla's autopilot function

Milton Keynes invests in driverless cars over public transit infrastructure

Can a loss of driver autonomy save lives?

Geoff Manaugh, Smout Allen, and co. investigate the future of Los Angeles in a new exhibition at the USC Libraries

2015-10-28T15:39:00-04:00

It’s 2040, and Los Angeles has just begun to recover from a devastating epidemic that wiped out much of its population. Former residents slowly trickle back, alongside new immigrants drawn to the city’s surplus housing stock. But at a lab in Westwood, epidemiologists fear the disease is mutating and could potentially return…

At least that’s one possibility. Alternatively, the city may triple in population and expand into the Pacific Northwest. Immigrants may flock to Southern California from Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia. Or, contrarily, officials may exploit census data to facilitate mass deportations.

These are some of the many possible future scenarios for Los Angeles imagined in L.A.T.B.D., a project by writer Geoff Manaugh in collaboration with the London-based studio Smout Allen – comprised of Mark Smout and Laura Allen – and Jeff Watson, the Assistant Professor of Interactive Media and Games at the University of Southern California, with input from a host of other experts incl...

Meet the jury of Archinect's "Dry Futures" competition: Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG

2015-08-26T11:50:00-04:00

Geoff Manaugh is a design and architecture writer, contributing to publications such as Dwell, New Scientist and The New Yorker, as well as authoring several books and the long-running design and architecture site, BLDGBLOG.

Manaugh’s perspective on the drought focuses on the ripe opportunities for improving California’s remarkably inefficient, and in some ways, “undesigned” water systems, extending from its physical infrastructures to the economic market for buying and selling water rights. “I think that the actual pragmatic, ecosystem-based solutions to this – as well as the rethinking of agriculture on a statewide basis, as well as individual water use – I think is something that is really exciting and interesting about this contest.”

In collaboration with Smout Allen Architectural & Design Research, Manaugh will be participating at the Chicago Architecture Biennial this fall.

Have an idea for how to address the drought with design? Submit your ideas to the Dry Futures competition!

...

Gehry worst living architect? Reasonable critique or typical Gizmodo link bait?

2014-02-16T11:31:00-05:00

His work is badly constructed, ravey-balls hair metal, a C.C. DeVille guitar solo that cannot—will not—end until the billionaire clients who keep paying for this shit can be stopped.

I guess this is what you get when you put a decent writer in charge of driving traffic.

CPM = 1 / Journalism = 0

Hey New Yorkers, here's something to do after work today!

2011-09-13T17:17:21-04:00

In October 2010, Simon Norfolk began a series of new photographs in Afghanistan, which takes its cue from the work of nineteenth-century British photographer John Burke. Norfolk’s photographs reimagine or respond to Burke’s Afghan war scenes in the context of the contemporary conflict. Conceived as a collaborative project with Burke across time, this new body of work is presented alongside Burke’s original portfolios.

Our friend and colleague, Geoff Manaugh, from BLDG.BLOG, has recently moved back to NYC to take on his new role of co-director of Studio-X NYC (with his wife, Nicola Twilley).

Tonight, starting at 6:30 at Studio-X NYC, they will be hosting two back-to-back live interviews, with photographer Simon Norfolk and with Noah Shachtman from Danger Room, discussing spaces of conflict, military technologies, the geography of imperial power, the spatial limits of the battlefield, and much more.

RSVP to studioxnyc [at] gmail [dot] com if you plan to attend. The event is free and open to the public.