Archinect - News

Reinhold Martin hosts contentious 'House Housing' panel, provoking discussion on inequality, real estate and architecture

2016-07-14T17:16:00-04:00

"House Housing; An Untimely History of Architecture and Real Estate", a globally touring exhibit, has finally arrived in its place of conception, New York City. After first appearing at the 2014 Venice Biennale, “House Housing” has popped up in Chicago, Berlin and Los Angeles. The exhibit opened this past Tuesday, July 12 at the AIA New York Center for Architecture.

Researched and organized by Columbia University’s Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, the opening was accompanied by a panel discussion moderated by Reinhold Martin, Director of the Buell Center. Martin was joined by Patrice Derrington, Director of the Real Estate Development Program at Columbia, GSAPP and Lissa So, Founding Partner at Marvel Architects.

The exhibit is quite timely, given the frequency with which New York’s housing stock is embroiled in tension between real estate, architecture, private capital and the demand for more affordable housing. If anything, the exhibit and panel disc...

Weekly News Round-Up for August 11, 2014: Monumental politics, smart homes and GSAPP's new dean

2014-08-18T12:53:00-04:00

Friday, August 15

Farewell to the Old Okura: The famous Hotel Okura, built in the 1960s in a distinctive fusion of modern and traditional Japanese styles, is closing in response to prohibitive earthquake retrofits and larger, newer hotels in the area.
Samsung Acquires SmartThings, A Fast-Growing Home Automation Startup: SmartThings, an aggregator for all "smart" internet-connected devices in the home, cost Samsung an estimated $200 million —chump change in comparison to Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest.

Thursday, August 14

One ridesharing app to rule them all: Ridescout moves into the competitive world of rideshare: Ridescout aggregates hundreds of ridesharing services to compare trips, and will now include "carpool" options that can help users share trips. The announcement comes after last week's news that Uber and Lyft are now both offering carpooling services.
Revisiting the American Folk Art Museum controversy, through comics: A thoughtful and diplomatic look at AFAM's his...

Koolhaas' missing Fundamental is alive and kicking in "House Housing" exhibition

2014-08-11T11:08:00-04:00

While most attention falls on the national pavilions at the Venice Biennale, the city itself hosts an uncertain number of simultaneous, satellite events, operating somewhat under the public's radar but still orbiting around the Biennale's curatorial center. There are the Biennale-recognized roster of exhibitions, called "Collateral Events", and then there are the outer planets of the Biennale's solar system; the unsolicited riffs taking place at smaller, less conventional spaces throughout the city. The Biennale's five-month run gives ample time for dissent and complication within the city, offering alternate interpretations to this year's sanctioned theme: "Fundamentals", from Rem Koolhaas.

Criticism of Koolhaas' biennale has been well-trodden. Creating a catalogue of architecture's supposedly "fundamental" elements has been called depressing, inappropriate, cynical, or pejoratively part of Koolhaas' cult of personality. Reporters griping and academics critiquing is a fundamental pa...