Archinect - News

What’s in a word? Nicholas de Monchaux considers the need to redefine how we think of ‘design’

2023-02-23T14:54:00-05:00

Though there was indeed a key shift in the meaning of “design” between 1300 and 1500, it had less to do with language and more with a fundamental shift in the making of things themselves. The relationship between drawing and design did not give rise to a word—or even expand its meaning. Rather, it diminished the word as it had previously been used, and in a way that may now be important to reverse.

What’s the difference between modern and historic conceptions of the industry’s most misused word? MIT Head of Architecture Nicholas de Monchaux says it was the “literal mechanization of production that firmly separated the work of designing from making — with profound consequences for the definition of design, as a word and as a structure of our society.”

Indeed, the advent of consumer economies has seen the word taken on a less-creative meaning “inextricable from a corollary diminishing of the planet’s finite resources,” according to his thinking. The ability to delineate in the now highly-technicized design process is the inevitable victim, remedied only, he says, by a further broadening to include “the resources and decisions on which a designed world depends.”

“We must reshape not just objects but also the culture and institutions that create them,” he concludes, jumping back two millennia. “Not incidentally, such work recaptures dē-signo in its original sense: Not just the sea...

The Moleskine Foundation's latest exhibition features notebooks of artists and architects such as Michael Graves, Carlo Stanga, and 2022 Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré

2022-05-13T17:07:00-04:00

A new book arts exhibition from celebrated notebook maker Moleskine is now on view at One World Trade Center’s One World Observatory, marking the first public exhibition of artwork in the attraction’s seven-year history.

Opened today, the Moleskine Foundation’s Detour New York exhibition features notebooks by the late architect Michael Graves, Italian architect Carlo Stanga, and this year’s Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré.

Carlo Stanga, "I had a dream" (2019). Image courtesy Moleskine Foundation.

According to the foundation, the suite of 75 individual artworks by various creative thinkers “celebrates how blank pages can become a work of art in themselves, providing moments of inspiration and introspection.” The exhibition is separated into five themes: Metamorphosis, Memory, Borders, Journey, and Imagination. Each notebook tells a different story, dream, or “distinctive way of being and relating to the world.”

In Memory, viewers can see this introspection perhaps most espe...

World Trade Center blueprints pulled from trash up for sale

2020-03-09T20:59:00-04:00

Blueprints for the original World Trade Center have gone on sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair on Friday after a Colorado man pulled them out of the trash. The set of plans for sale represents the largest floor plan of the Twin Towers complex ever offered for sale, according to the New York-based Janes Cummins Bookseller. Cummins told the Associated Press that he expected the sale to be in the six figures.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the plan set includes over 500 original plans from the 1960s and once belonged to Joseph Solomon, one of the World Trade Center architects.

The Twin Towers at the NYC World Trade Center in 2001, shortly before the September 11 attack. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith.

Make Architects discusses the importance of the drawing

2019-08-17T12:00:00-04:00

At their best, not only do architectural drawings convey architectural intention, but also something about the meaning of the project and the thinking behind it [...] Not all drawings can be judged in the same way, of course.

Reflecting on the upcoming drawing competition, The Architecture Drawing Prize, Paul Finch of Make Architects shares his thoughts on the importance of the architectural drawing.

Finch writes, "How does one assess the merits of a variety of drawing types? They are related but separate, some an attempt to indicate a whole outcome, while the working drawing explains the process by which individual elements combine at a detailed level. These elements can be combined in certain specialist drawings, often the hallmark of a particular architect."

Michael Graves drawings acquired by Princeton University Art Museum

2019-05-31T13:59:00-04:00

“We are pleased to be able to preserve and share these important drawings, which document numerous projects and reflect Michael Graves’s manifold interests and talents, here at the museum, where he was known as family, and with our global audiences,”

The Princeton University Art Museum has acquired a collection of nearly 5,000 drawings created by postmodern-era architect Michael Graves.

Graves, who died in 2015, was a prolific artist who sketched out many of his iconic building proposals using his signature yellow-, sienna-, and aqua-hued color pencils. The gifted collection is filled with many examples of Graves's virtuosic output and includes drawings made with ink washes, pen and marker, and pencil, as well.

Drawing of San Pietro church in Frascati, Italy from 1961 by Michael Graves. Image from the Estate of Michael Graves via the Princeton University Art Museum.

Graves started his practice in 1964 at Princeton University, where he taught for 39 years before retiring in 2001. Throughout that long and storied career, Graves drew up designs for an incredible array of boundary-pushing buildings, including the Portland Building in Oregon, the Dolphin and Swan hotels at the Walt Disney World resort in Florida, as well as an unbu...

How far off were the radical architects of the 1960s?

2018-12-31T12:53:00-05:00

The 1960s, a time when possibilities and technologies in many areas — artistic, political, scientific — seemed broader than ever, remain a seductive decade. Fifty years on from the first moon landing we need to remember that the most striking image from space (and the one that had the most real impact) were not those of the dusty, dead surface of the moon but those of our own planet, glimpsed as something delicate, whole and beautiful.

The future used to look brighter.

This may be the feeling gained when looking back at some of the most radical visions from familiar names in architecture. Archigram, Superstudio, Archizoom and Cedric Price each took their shot at a future based on post-war rhetoric, and we continue to marvel at the gap between their expectations and our reality.

Walking City, by Archigram

But this gap may be wider and more troublesome than anyone could have imaged at the time of these images of the imagined future were produced, according to Financial Times writer Edwin Heathcote. Looking back at the future of the 1960's from the 2010's might, in fact, be our way of coping with our precarious future, Heathcote argues. "All this is an escapist fantasy," he writes, "a way of sublimating our awareness of catastrophic climate change and our guilt at participating in the economies that fuel it."

No Stop City, by Archizoom

Heathcote ends his compelling article with a warning against the provocation of ...

Donald Trump's visionary architecture hits the auction block. No joke.

2017-12-07T15:28:00-05:00

“Deals are my art form,” reads the opening paragraph of Donald Trump’s memoir, The Art of the Deal, and yet the US President seems to have produced quite a few sketches over the years, too.

Archidoodle Giveaway - Complete the doodle and you could win the Archidoodle Bundle or a drawing by Steve Bowkett

2017-08-08T05:34:00-04:00

To celebrate the release of Archidoodle Postcards on the 28th August we have launched a competition inviting Archinect readers to share their very best Archidoodle drawings. The winners will be chosen by author Steve Bowkett with the top three receiving an Archidoodle bundle and one lucky winner a doodle of their home by Steve himself.

Save or download the image and complete the form to enter. Deadline 27th August.

Fans of Archidoodle and Archidoodle City can now send their best doodles through the post! 20 postcards containing images from the books can be doodled on and coloured. Share your best bridge design with a friend or wow your relatives with your futuristic cityscape. Archidoodle Postcards is the ideal gift for architects of all ages.

Don't miss Neil Denari's “Displaced Buildings in Aperiodic City” at the ‘T’ Space Gallery

2017-05-25T20:35:00-04:00

Think you've seen all of Neil Denari's work? Eleven inkjet drawings featuring unbuilt visions by Denari's studio NMDA will be showcased in his “Displaced Buildings in Aperiodic City” exhibition, opening May 27 at the Steven Holl-designed ‘T’ Space Gallery in Rhinebeck, New York. If you'll be in the area in the coming weeks, it could be worth checking out.

NMDA created the drawings over the past seven years. Ranging from port terminals to museums, each project was originally designed for specific contexts in various cities.

Image credit: Neil M. Denari Architects.

“A number of buildings designed over the last seven years have been displaced from their original context as a life-enhancing act, given that their material lives never began. Designed for specific contexts in various cities, they now occupy peculiar voids in Aperiodic City,” Neil Denari writes. “In this new context, these buildings take on new meanings, yet they retain all the attributes of their original locations. But the ...

Calvino's Invisible Cities Made Visible: The Drawings of Karina Puente

2016-11-05T16:23:00-04:00

Karina Puente, an architect and urbanist based in Lima, Peru, who has worked on plans for the Lima of the future, has also begun illustrating each of Calvino’s 55 cities. The drawings capture much from the text, but they also have a magic of their own.

Anastasia has concentric canals and much in it streets that captures our senses and feeds our desires.

We draw sources for inspiration wherever we can. This post reviews three illustrations for Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities, a project by Karina Puente. It has has links to her site—and her other drawings. The novel itself contains much to consider when we think about the life of our cities, past and present.

Instant, customizable digital architectural stencils hit the market

2016-09-06T14:38:00-04:00

With a press release that makes references to Banksy's iconic global stencils, the new digital architectural stencil set from Morpholio enables architects to instantly make customizable stencils of complex designs, from faces to condo layouts to intricately shaded trees. The initial image can come from a photograph, drawing, or render.

As Toru Hasegawa, co-creator of Morpholio Trace Pro explains: "Software should mirror the gestures, intuition and behavior of the creative. Trace Pro seeks to amplify it, and in doing so, make it as smart and elastic as possible."

This video illustrates the process, which involves gliding the stencil tool over a particular design, capturing it, and then replicating it/editing it at will with the assorted tool bars:

Is psychedelia the new black in student architectural work?

2016-07-14T15:22:00-04:00

Architects might be known for wearing black, as if in permanent mourning for the lives they once had, and for spending months searching for the perfect shade of grey. But judging by this year’s student shows, that monochromatic hegemony is under threat: the next generation appears to be plotting a psychedelic revolution.

Incorporating influences drawn from popular media and gaming, architecture is increasingly reflecting the multi-faceted world in which we live, at least if you take a look at this new UK-based student work. Students from The Bartlett at the University College London, The Royal College of Art, and the Architectural Association have created unusually vibrant and occasionally pop-culture referential drawings:

In the mood for more trippy-ness? Here's a sampling:

"It’s about recognizing someone as existing": Photo exhibit depicts L.A.'s homelessness crisis

2016-01-19T11:30:00-05:00

Los Angeles-based designers Sofia Borges and Susan Nwankpa recently collaborated in a photo exhibition titled "HOME(less)". Currently at the University of Southern California, the exhibition spotlights L.A.'s ongoing homelessness crisis in an interestingly positive manner. Borges and Nwankpa took a moment with Archinect to give more details into their project.

Read the full Archinect feature here.

More about homelessness in L.A.:

LA's freeway system is becoming an increasingly crowded 'neighborhood' for the city's homeless

Low-income housing in Los Angeles: A look at the past, present and future

Los Angeles to declare homelessness in the city an 'emergency' and pledge $100 million

In Los Angeles, homelessness is becoming more visible

Need another last-minute holiday idea? Build your own Gingerbread Village with these architectural drawings

2015-12-23T14:57:00-05:00

If last-minute is your signature style for the holiday season, here's a crafty idea from a fellow designer that you can use to impress your guests or as a fun family-friendly activity. Robert Christo is a Brooklyn-based architect who enjoys building gingerbread houses with his family during this time of year. He decided to take the well-loved pastime a step further and draw some IKEA-like architectural drawings for a Gingerbread Village. With some frosting, a good amount of gingerbread, and whatever sweet edibles you need, use Christo's handy instructions as a guide to assemble your own festive town, including homes, shops, village green, a schoolhouse, and sledding hill. (Hopefully you won't need an Allen wrench in the process.)

Update: Robert Christo shared a few more drawings he sketched.

To zoom in on the drawings, click here.

If you still have some gift shopping to do, check out Archinect's holiday gift guides:

The 2015 holiday gift-giving guide for architects

Archinect's 2015 holid...

A helping hand: Glasgow School of Art receives detailed Mackintosh Building sketches from Ph.D. alumnus, as restoration plan progresses

2015-09-08T18:40:00-04:00

Prospects look promising right now for the Glasgow School of Art as their plan to restore the historic Mackintosh Building from a devastating fire last May pieces itself together. After months of debate about whether to restore or replace the Mackintosh, locally based Page\Park Architects won the competition to work with the school in restoring the structure this past March.

Most recently, the GSA received a gift of 22 architectural drawings of the Mackintosh Building, meticulously drawn and donated by Professor George Cairns from the QUT Business School in Brisbane. They're considered to be the most comprehensive drawings of the building in existence.

George Cairns' drawing of the East Wing Staircase.

Perhaps this was a stroke of luck for the school. Cairns first created the drawings while working toward his Ph.D. at GSA's Mackintosh School of Architecture during the early 1990s. The A1-size drawings, which are mostly drawn at a 1:100 scale, depict the Mackintosh as it was completed i...

‘Choral Fields 1-6’ of MIRRORCITY in London ponders the urban city’s rhythmic flow

2014-10-30T23:18:00-04:00

For as long as digital technology continues to creep into every part of our daily lives, so will the discussion regarding its impact on everyday reality. Over at London's Hayward Gallery, the MIRRORCITY exhibition features the multimedia works of London-based emerging and established artists that address the dilemmas, consequences, and experiences of living in the digital revolution. MIRRORCITY will be at the Hayward Gallery until January 4, 2015.

One of the MIRRORCITY artists is Emma McNally whose Choral Fields (1-6) graphite drawings are featured in the exhibition. If McNally's name sounds familiar, she exhibited her beautiful cosmos-inspired drawing/space body of work in the Drawing Room's "Abstract Drawing" last year. Similar to drawing/space, McNally's Choral Fields offers a metaphysical, cartographic perspective to contemporary urbanism.

Win a copy of the reprinted “ÁLVARO SIZA. VIAGEM SEM PROGRAMA”

2014-08-06T18:43:00-04:00

The popular ÁLVARO SIZA. VIAGEM SEM PROGRAMA book tells the personal stories of renowned Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza through his own collection of drawings. Upon the success of the first edition, Red Publishing recently reprinted the book -- and guess what, Archinect is now giving away five copies to our readers!

To enter the book giveaway, fill out this survey by Wednesday, August 13, end of day. Winners will be chosen at random. Good luck!

The book presents 53 drawings that Siza created over a period of 60 years, beginning in Porto to the end of the 1950s when he made his way into the architecture world. In an interview, Siza talks about his most significant encounters with colleagues and friends, and the lasting relationships that were established.

Authors Raul Betti and Greta Ruffino worked with Siza himself in selecting which drawings to publish from his numerous sketchbooks and diaries. Digitally reproducing the drawings involved an in-depth study on materials and a digital ...

E Ink introduces display and new PocketBook tablet for use on the construction site

2013-12-03T11:38:00-05:00

"Our goal was to develop a device to be used on construction sites. We created a highly portable large format display device with a rugged and weatherproof case that could hold all the CAD drawings a team needs. This makes designs available virtually any place and any time,"

E Ink announces the 13.3" Fina E-ink Display in conjunction with Pocketbook announcing the new PocketBook CAD Reader. Utilizing the Fina display and running Android 4.04, the larger tablet was explicitly designed to display CAD drawings and be utilized in the field for construction. It utilizes touchscreen and a Wacom stylus input and is designed to be integrated with existing AutoCAD based applications. A case designed to withstand the stresses of construction. The tablet has a 1 Ghz dual-core processor, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB of storage, WiFi and 3g modules, and an 8000 mAh battery.

The tablet will be on display at the Autodesk University event in Las Vegas, NV, on December 5th.