Archinect - News

A ‘ham-fisted ego trip’: Rowan Moore delves into Modi's divisive Central Vista project

2023-04-06T11:02:00-04:00

It is the centrepiece of the Central Vista Project, an ambitious plan to make over the city’s British-built administrative centre. Critics of the new building say that it is an unnecessary replacement of the existing parliament, that short cuts were taken with its procurement and the obtaining of permissions, and that there was minimal consultation with parliamentarians and the public.

The Prime Minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party has maintained the US$150M project is a “necessity” and expects its inauguration to take place soon after previously redying for a debut by the end of October.

Modi appeared encouraged on a “surprise” hour-long site visit last Thursday. The more modernized four-story facility will offer 40 square meters of office space to each of India’s 545 parliament members in addition to holding a lounge, dining areas, library, 5,000-piece art collection, and constitution hall meant to honor its now 75 years of independence.

Sidewalk Labs' Toronto waterfront smart city raises dystopian concerns

2018-08-10T14:40:00-04:00

Sidewalk’s vision for Quayside — as a place populated by self-driving vehicles and robotic garbage collectors, where the urban fabric is embedded with cameras and sensors capable of gleaning information from the phone in your pocket — certainly sounds Orwellian. Yet the company contends that the data gathered from fully wired urban infrastructure is needed to refine inefficient urban systems and achieve ambitious innovations like zero-emission energy grids.

Last fall Sidewalk Labs, a Google-affiliated company, announced plans to build a new smart city model on 12 acres of the Toronto waterfront named Quayside. The design would include infrastructure with sensors and data analytics with the claim of building an overall more streamlined, economical, and green urban space. Sidewalk Labs' partnership with Canada is the beginning of an urban model they hope to expand globally.

While the goal may look utopian, many see an ominous future where governance is under threat rather than the projected promise of urban innovation. Concerns center around tech monopolies, the collection and commodification of city data, and a democratic process of decision making for our environments.

Swedish train gets officially named "Trainy McTrainface"

2017-10-19T17:11:00-04:00

It’s happened again. A public vote to name four trains running between the Swedish cities of Stockholm and Gothenburg has resulted in one of the four being called Trainy McTrainface in an echo of the name chosen by the British public for the new polar research vessel.

Last year, the British public voted to name its new polar research vessel "Boaty McBoatface"—a decision that the British government quickly overturned in favor of the less comical name "RRS Sir David Attenborough."

Hopefully, Boaty McBoatface's legacy will live on in Sweden, where the public voted to name one of its trains, running between Stockholm and Gothenburg, "Trainy McTrainface"

"We saw pretty quickly that Trainy McTrainface was in the lead in the popular option. There was a bit of international attention on the vote, and I imagine that some people were quite delighted to get some revenge for the Boaty McBoatface thing," said Swedish rail company MTR marketing chief Peter Nasfi.

Proving to have a better sense of British humor than the UK government, neither the train company, nor the Swedish government, repealed the popular vote.

Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan's first woman architect: "We need to democratize architecture"

2016-04-12T14:07:00-04:00

All of us, including myself have been engaged in catering to the 0.1 per cent through our work. Our training has always been in material and designing architecture for that one per cent. The kind of world we live in today, we need to democratise architecture. I know that it may give an impression that I am saying this only because I am retired now, but I have become deeply involved in how architecture can provide social justice and (grounds) for an equitable society.

Michael Kimmelman on Public Squares

2016-04-01T14:40:00-04:00

Squares have defined urban living since the dawn of democracy, from which they are inseparable. [...] I don’t think it’s coincidental that early in 2011 the Egyptian revolution centered around Tahrir Square, or that the Occupy Movement later that same year, partly inspired by the Arab Spring, expressed itself by taking over squares like Taksim in Istanbul, the Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona, and Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan.

The winners of this year's Critical Halloween at the Storefront for Art and Architecture

2015-11-04T19:49:00-05:00

Each year, Critical Halloween celebrates a feared ghost of art and architectural production. This year, we explore DEMO, which operates simultaneously as an abbreviation, a prefix, a verb, and a noun. From acts of collective will (DEMOnstration) to institutional erasure (DEMOlition), DEMO invites guests to intellectually examine ideas, issues, and objects in art, architecture, and design with a focus on those that should get a dose of DEMO.

Critical Halloween, an annual event hosted by the Storefront for Art and Architecture, is a hybrid party, critical debate, and costume contest. Each year, the organizers announce a "spooky" architectural issue or concept, which is then interpreted by design aficionados and practitioners from around the city. Then an esteemed jury selects the winners of a series of theme-appropriate categories.

This year, the theme was "DEMO" – as in demonstration, but also demolition, demon, demos, democracy, demography, etc. The jury comprised Keller Easterling, author of Extrastatecraft and other notable titles, Winka Dubbeldam of Archi-Tectonics, Andres Jacque of the Office for Political Innovation, and Beatrice Galilee, the architecture and design curator at the Met.

The Storefront has also teamed up with the art website Hyperallergic to host a "Democratic People's Choice Award" and you can vote here.

So, without any further ado, the winners of the 2015 Critical Halloween costume contest...

Best Ove...

‘In the end, they will destroy democracy' – The Guardian on smart cities

2014-12-29T13:05:00-05:00

The smart city is, to many urban thinkers, just a buzzphrase that has outlived its usefulness: ‘the wrong idea pitched in the wrong way to the wrong people’. So why did that happen – and what’s coming in its place?

Does America Need a Tahrir Square?

2014-04-17T18:24:00-04:00

Maidan Square in Kiev. Taksim Square in Istanbul. Tahrir Square in Cairo. Recent democratic movements around the globe have risen, or crashed and burned, on the hard pavement of vast urban public squares. [...] But too few observers have considered the significance of the empty public spaces themselves. [...] If public squares are essential to democracy, is their relative absence in modern American life bad for our democracy—or a sign that we’re not as democratic as we imagine?

Parliament-themed Austrian Pavilion revealed for 2014 Venice Biennale

2014-03-18T19:39:00-04:00

Power to the people is the driving force behind the Austrian Pavilion for the upcoming 2014 Venice Biennale. The pavilion will include an exhibition that explores the concept of parliament and its architectural influence on the world's more than 200 national parliament monuments.

The pavilion was designed by a collective team including Commissioner Dr. Christian Kühn, Harald Trapp, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Auböck + Kárász Landscape Architects, Kollektiv/Rauschen, and the Vienna University of Technology - Institute of Architecture and Design.

Here's a glimpse of the models in the exhibition:

Find out more on Bustler.

Full-Page Ad Inspired By Turkish Protests Is One Of Indiegogo's Fastest Campaigns Ever

2013-06-05T14:39:00-04:00

As protests have rocked Turkey over the past few days, three Turkish professionals in the U.S. decided on Sunday that they had to take some action. Turning to their technology backgrounds, the trio launched a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign on Indiegogo to buy a full-page ad in the front section of the New York Times in support of their fellow Turkish citizens who’ve clashed with the government across dozens of cities.

For more information on the protests in Istanbul, check Orhan's report with ongoing commentary. Here's a link to the Indiegogo campaign.

Whose Public Space Is This? 80 Arrested in 'Occupied Wall Street'

2011-09-27T20:13:33-04:00

Inspired by the massive public protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Square, hundreds have camped out in a square near Wall Street since Sept. 17, 2011, as part of a campaign dubbed "Occupy Wall Street."

On Saturday NYPD and its counter terrorism beat arrested and humiliated 80 activist for terrorizing Wall Street. These are the peaceful protesters with articulate voice and a message, aware of social injustice growing in American cities. Could this be the beginnings of American Spring?

In the mean time around the high culture speak, the architectural press has a more positive 'view' of a thriving city, ohh.., the Big Apple love... "The decade has been a golden age for the city, a renaissance in architecture and urban design."

Urban Design how and for whom madam? For the tourists of New York?

Anyway.

Occupy Wall Street! It is about time and It is your City!