Archinect - News

Are architecture firms ready for Gen Z?

2019-08-22T09:38:00-04:00

There's no denying it, the workforce is changing and after the impact Millennials made over the years a new demographic cohort is quickly replacing this group. Generation Z or "Gen Z" as many have grown to call them are a generation who have been surrounded by technology since birth.

With high levels of digital literacy their ability to adapt to this every evolving technological world is exciting. The young people of today are filled with ideas and collaborative efforts that will create distinct societal shifts. However, can their work ethic stack up to the demands of the architecture profession? Perhaps their levels of digital and emotional aptitude can help the profession exceed past its aging nuances?

Gen Z, with their technical savvy and tendency toward collaboration and individual expression, may be the best fit yet for the profession"

In a recent article written by Michele Russo for AIA Architect, she highlights this new group's impact in the workplace. Russo elaborates their ...

The Young Architect Conference seeks to reinvent the traditional conference format for a new generation of professionals

2019-07-25T20:39:00-04:00

Michael Riscica, the founder of Young Architect has created a new kind of architecture conference. One that is geared specifically for the emerging generation of students and professionals. From his past experiences participating and speaking at architecture conferences, Riscica has identified some common characteristics that he feels need to be improved. In his view, traditional conferences tend to focus too much on lecturing from the stage and not enough on engagement and interaction. They do not typically focus on the next generation of the profession, and products and economics can sometimes grab too much of the focus. Riscica believes that an engaging conference should be "harnessing the power of the minds of the audience to see how we can serve our profession and our communities."

As emerging professionals rise to positions of power, preparation, mentorship, and growth become indispensable characteristics to embrace. The Young Architect Conference aims to address these areas. ...

San Jose will be home to the largest co-housing building in the world set to feature "vertical neighborhoods"

2019-06-10T16:24:00-04:00

The co-living startup Starcity plans to build an 800-unit, 18-story “dorm for adults” to help affordably house Silicon Valley’s booming workforce. Dishotsky, the co-founder/CEO of the co-housing start-up Starcity, is now working to fill America’s housing-strapped cities with a scaled-up version of his childhood idyll.

Said to be the an 18-story "dorm for adults" the co-living startup Starcity aims to "redefining the meaning of home." The co-founder and CEO Jon Dishotsky is an advocate for co-living due to his upbringing in suburban Palo Alto. If asked about his upbringing, Dishotsky will share the story of growing up in a co-housing compound thanks to his Stanford professor dad who would often host students during the years. With this upbringing Dishotsky believes this model of creating housing developments with this method of co-living will help "fill America's housing-strapped cities with scaled up versions of his childhood idyll."

A rendering of Starcity's proposed co-living complex, slated to be built in downtown San Jose. Image © Starcity

After launching in 2016, Dishotsky and his team have already broke ground on seven developments in Los Angeles and San Francisco. However, Starcity will be the largest. Aiming to attract renters with "Millennial-friendly amenities" individuals who decided to...

Editor's Picks #446

2016-05-23T09:19:00-04:00

Robert Urquhart spoke with curators Jack Self, Shumi Bose and Finn Williams, previewing their British Pavilion for the 2016 Venice Biennale.

As they explained;

"We’re interested in the influence of bureaucratic apparatus like the Terms & Conditions of Airbnb, the semantics of a mortgage, or the lifespan of product warranties, on the design of the home. But rather than seeing these as constraints, we want to show these as fields where architecture can expand its agency."

Plus, Julia Ingalls h ad a chance to visit Snøhetta's expanded SFMOMA. Her conclusion, that it "elegantly achieves its stated goals of being accessible and welcoming to all, if not necessarily being a stunning piece of architecture in its own right." LiMX liked what he read "Good review, not the boring contrarianism I've read elsewhere."

News
In late April the Vanna Venturi House, was sold after more than nine months on the open market. In response quondam…, Orhan Ayyüce and others, explored whether a building as "volumi...

Is America actually shifting away from its car obsession? Not entirely.

2015-10-23T18:45:00-04:00

The plateauing and decline in U.S. vehicle miles traveled per capita that occurred between [2005-2014] was described by some hopeful commentators as a dramatic shift that was indicative of the preferences of a new workforce...Marginal changes in the way a new generation behaves...cannot overcome the realities of a country where more than three-fourths of jobs are located more than three miles from downtowns and where only one-fourth of homes are in places that their residents refer to as urban.

More about car transit on Archinect:

Welcome to Evanston, Illinois: the carless suburbia

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

From California to Texas, car culture is losing its monopoly

Can a loss of driver autonomy save lives?

Designers imagine a world of self-driving, mobile offices

Rural Japanese town applies "creative depopulation" to attract millennials in aging population

2015-06-03T13:45:00-04:00

As rural Japan battles the twin afflictions of a population that is getting smaller almost as quickly as it’s getting older, Kamiyama is one of a handful of towns that is bucking the trend. It’s practicing 'creative depopulation' — trying to make sure it gets younger and more innovative, even as it shrinks, by attracting youthful newcomers who are weary of big-city life to work in new rural industries.

Find your ideal neighborhood with this new 'Livability Index' online tool

Revisiting Sharon Zukin's "Loft Living" and NYC gentrification

Renzo Piano: the future of European architecture lies in the suburbs

Designing for Seniors and Soldiers, Toward a "Silver" Architecture

2014-11-11T14:25:00-05:00

In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, geriatrician Louise Aronson advocated for a new type of building, one designed with an aging population in mind, which, she suggests, might be dubbed “silver” architecture. [...] It being Veterans Day, this article got me thinking about architect Michael Graves, who recently designed a pair of houses for returning soldiers that follow through on many of Aronson’s suggested parameters for silver design.

Millennials, not forming enough households

2014-07-02T23:03:00-04:00

One reason for weakness: many young people, saddled with student loan debt, elevated unemployment and less-than-perfect credit scores, are staying out of the market.

New research from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, focuses in on the role of millennial generation in driving demand and shaping recovery.

As Gregory Walker noted recently, in broad terms, looking at US economy, it is clear we're not really 'there' yet. Remember, the last reported ABI reverted into negative territory. This despite the fact that "Architecture firms with a residential specialization continued to report extremely strong billings in May".

Back in April, Neil Irwin of the NYT, dug into the numbers, for what is holding housing back. Though there was an initial post-recession glut, demand is now the issue. If only, because much of the demand that is there now, is for rental multifamily properties. This shift to non-single family homes, by millennials is he argues generating "less spillover benefits for the broader economy".