Archinect - News

Make Music NY crowdfunds upcoming youth archi-music show "Concerto for Buildings"

2015-06-11T09:04:00-04:00

The architecturally and musically inclined can join in on Make Music New York festivities this year with a special orchestral performance called "Concerto for Buildings" on Sunday, June 21. Make Music New York is a one-day music fest on the first day of summer that boasts more than 1,000 free concerts, which all take place throughout NYC's five borroughs.

For its ninth year, MMNY set up an Indiegogo campaign with a flexible goal of $7,000 to reel in further support for Concerto for Buildings. The musical showcase stars two NYC youth orchestra ensembles, Face The Music and Mantra Youth Percussion, and four composers: Paula Matthusen (winner of the 2014-2015 Rome Prize), Scott Wollshleger, Daniel Goode, and Face the Music student-composer Elijah Valongo. Surrounded by SoHo's historic cast-iron buildings, the performers will play their hearts out as they take advantage of the structures' percussive qualities, thus transforming them into a complementary musical backdrop.

Funds from the In...

Philadelphia University offering free Sustainable Design online course once again

2015-03-09T20:38:00-04:00

After a successful first run last June, Philadelphia University is inviting students, industry professionals, and all who are interested to enroll in the free massive open online course (MOOC), Principles of Sustainable Design. The graduate-level course, which starts today until April 24, 2015, focuses on topics like demand for resources, energy systems, self-interest and altruism. The course also allow students to learn about new methods of sustainable practices that work towards "authentic sustainability" instead of "superficial greening."

Taught by Robert Fleming, co-creator and Director of the Master of Science in Sustainable Design Program at Philadelphia University, the course will be taught via HD videos, narrated PowerPoint presentations, text-based learning modules + interactive quizzes, and faculty-moderated and peer online discussions. Students will collaborate to design and implement an impact project that addresses sustainability-related issues for the final class.

Additi...

Guggenheim to host "Competing Intelligence" Digital Architecture Masterclass this Saturday

2015-03-04T20:40:00-05:00

Mark your calendars, The Guggenheim is hosting a free one-day "Competing Intelligence" Digital Architecture Masterclass this Saturday, March 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All current architecture students and recent graduates (from within the past five years) in the New York metro area are encouraged to join!

This experiment will bring together human and artificial intelligence in evaluating design, as an interactive way to test the limits of artificial intelligence in an architectural context, specifically in the architecture competition. To make things even more interesting, the Stage One entries of the popular Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition will be used as the data set.

The one-day workshop will be led by Hugo Liu, principal scientist at eBay and a Ph.D. holder from the MIT Media Lab, and Troy Conrad Therrien, who is the curator of the Architecture and Digital Initiatives.

Results will be showcased in the forthcoming Guggenheim Helsinki Now exhibition at the Kunsthalle Helsinki a...

Can offering free rides invigorate public transit?

2014-01-30T19:27:00-05:00

Last January, Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, did something that no other city its size had done before: It made all public transit in the city free for residents. [...] One year later, this city of 430,000 people has firmly established itself as the leader of a budding international free-transit movement. [...] What’s less clear on the first anniversary of free transit in Tallinn is whether it has actually changed commuting behavior all that much.

As it turned out, Tallinn's bold move last year to offer free-transit to its residents did not have a very dramatic effect on its own ridership. But the experiment has clarified some subtle issues in public transit:

Free-transit as a "second-best pricing scheme": if a city wants to curb drivers and increase public-transit use, it may be best to de-incentivize driving, rather than incentivizing public transit. Fees on drivers and increased taxes for car ownership may be more effective in getting folks on public transit than offering free rides.
Price affects accessibility, but not necessarily use: This may seem obvious, but without price-barriers, the unemployed could commute through all of Tallinn and increase access to potential employers. Transit ridership grew the most in Lasnamäe, a densely populated area with high unemployment.
Free-rides for everyone may not be sustainable, but it can still be good policy for some demographics. Cities like Hasselt, Belgium and Chengdu in China ha...