Archinect - News

Rural China rediscovers its vernacular architecture

2021-03-29T16:39:00-04:00

After 20 years of frantic city-building, rustic China is in a death spiral. Now architects are helping to reverse the exodus – with inspirational tofu factories, rice wine distilleries and lotus tea plants

Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian's architecture critic, on the new crop of Chinese architects seeking to create a renewed sense of local pride and cultural identity across the country's vast rural areas.

"After an era of foreign architects using China as their playground," Wainwright quotes design critic Aric Chen, "we’re seeing a new generation of Chinese architects defining their own approach [...]."

Kengo Kuma: 'My dream is to start my own school'

2019-06-19T18:52:00-04:00

INT: Do you think sustainability in architecture is less of an issue in Japan? KK: Historically, traditional Japanese architecture uses very sustainable designs that incorporate features such as natural ventilation instead of air conditioning, and things like that. But in the 20th century, as Western culture came to Japan, we forgot these kinds of designs. That’s what I’m trying to go back to.

"My dream is to start my own school and pass my lessons on to younger generations in the same way that Frank Lloyd Wright did with his School of Architecture at Taliesin [in Wisconsin]," Kengo Kuma told It's Nice That when asked about his future aspirations. "He has inspired me in many ways, but I think this has been his biggest influence on me. It will be an international school in Tokyo, where students will be taught the art of building in harmony with nature."

The Kengo Kuma-designed V&A Dundee in Scotland opened in 2018. Photo: Beth/Flickr

What makes a work of architecture American?

2017-09-11T20:53:00-04:00

“Whether there is or is not a Northwest regional style of architecture is debatable,” said John Yeon in 1986, “but what is certain is that lot of people want to think there is.”

In "A Fortuitous Shadow," Keith Eggener is inspired by the Portland Art Museum's recent exhibition on John Yeon's life and legacy to explore the concept of regionalism in architecture, beginning with the doubts expressed by the architect long associated with Pacific Northwest regional modernism.

Editor's Picks #429

2015-09-18T12:46:00-04:00

Today's Editor's Picks is a special themed "place based" edition - highlighting content (old/newish) from the archives/site - about Denver and Colorado. Partly as an apology for the brief/unexpected lull in the Picks. Also, inspired by my own recent relocation to The Mile High City. Just one part of an ongoing attempt to learn about my new home.

While MArch students at the University of Colorado, Denver, Patrick Beseda and Lacy Williams realized a design/build project for a micro-dwelling. FOUNDhouse inspired by the WikiHouse project, was an exploration of digital fabrication, the possibilities of DIY and the democratization of housing/shelter.

News
Back in the 1990s the Denver area was site of an extreme makeover (aka environmental remediation) for the 6,500 acre Rocky Flats DOE nuclear industrial site.

Archinect ex-Editor in Chief | Staff Editor John Jourden coined Bil(Denver)bao in response to the news that David Adjaye, Steven Holl, and Daniel Libeskind, all had active projects in the same city - Denver. Similarly in a post on how cities across America are gambling on architecture to revitalize aging downtowns, Orhan Ayyüce criticized "i hate the new 'ready made culture' trend. new museums=starbucks".

Richard Florida used occupational data from the labor market data and research firm EMSI to map America's Leading Design Cit...

New documentary showcases Bolivia's “spaceship architecture”

2015-02-23T13:29:00-05:00

The architect Freddy Mamani Silvestre’s extravagant urban mansions in El Alto, Bolivia, have been derided as kitschy-looking cohetillos, meaning “spaceships”—giving his work the nickname “spaceship architecture.” But the admirers of Freddy Mamani, as he is generally known, say his colorful “new Andean” style has also served to reinvent a city once aesthetically monochromatic, and that he has found a way to bring traditional Andean and Tiwanaku cultures into an urban setting.

Previously: 'Neo-Andean' architecture sprouts in Bolivia

Why local architects do it better, and the case against franchised architecture

2014-06-12T16:16:00-04:00

Architecture, however, is a social art, rather than a personal one, a reflection of a society and its values rather than a medium of individual expression. So it’s a problem when the prevailing trend is one of franchises, particularly those of the globe-trotters: Renzo, Rem, Zaha and Frank. It’s exciting to bring high-powered architects in from outside... But in the long run it’s wiser to nurture local talent; instead of starchitects, locatects.

How Helsinki mashed up “open data” with regionalism

2014-04-29T15:27:00-04:00

For more than a century, [Helsinki] has funded its own statistics bureaus to keep data on the population, businesses, building permits, and most other things you can think of. [...] Helsinki and three of its neighboring cities are now banding together... Through an entity called Helsinki Region Infoshare, they are bringing together their data so that a fuller picture of the metro area can come into view.

As city governments become stronger drivers of infrastructural change, and the idea of a "connected city" becomes imminent, cities must learn how to manage and wield the vast amount of data collected. Parallel developments in city demographics, creating stronger links between cities within a larger region, means that more people are contributing to and relying on that data. Making it comprehensive and accessible to all is the obvious (and necessary) next step.

To access data for both Helsinki and its greater regional area, check out City of Helsinki Urban Facts and the Helsinki Region Infoshare (both websites in English).

Related: A survey released earlier this month ranks U.S. cities on how accessible their data is, whether or not they have an open data policy. Perhaps not surprisingly, San Francisco is ranked as #1.