Archinect - News

Can 1970s sustainability practices enhance Canada's 2017 architecture?

2017-01-03T15:45:00-05:00

Did architects have sustainability figured out in the 1970s, and can the lessons they learned help contemporary architects design for the challenges of climate change? In an attempt to answer this question, Canada is taking a closer look at its previously built sustainable architecture during the energy crisis in the 1970s in the form of two museum exhibitions. The Globe and Mail explains that:

The 1970s has much to teach us as we face the reality of climate change and the changes that it will bring about. That insight drives two thoughtful museum shows up this winter, the PEI exhibition [curated by Dalhousie University professor Steven Mannell] and "It's All Happening So Fast" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

For the latest on climate-change oriented architecture:

Eero Saarinen's CIA weapon-designing past

2016-06-22T13:27:00-04:00

Saarinen’s work for the spy agency mostly involved designing models of buildings and weapons that had yet to be built. He even worked on designs for the original war room in the White House. And the people at OSS claimed that he was so good at his job that he could not be replaced.

It's lucky for architecture that Eero Saarinen, who was known in the CIA as "Architectural Designer (Chief, Special Exhibits Division)" wasn't so successful at his work for the agency that he couldn't be replaced, although one wonders how much of that top secret work rubbed off on his later designs...

For an in-depth look at trained architects who have succeeded in other pursuits:

"The future is in the past" – Christopher Hawthorne looks at Architecture trends in 2014

2014-12-19T13:23:00-05:00

These were the words of the year in architecture: Basic. Fundamental. Primitive. Ancient. If fashion had normcore — the flaunting of a bland, practical and Gap-like aesthetic, the plain sweatshirt as statement of principles — architecture reset itself this year in an even more fascinating (if occasionally desperate) way. In a culture and an economy being dizzyingly remade by technology, architecture chose to embrace not the future, where architects [...] can seem superfluous, but the past.

For more Christopher Hawthorne listen to episode 10 of Archinect Sessions.