Archinect - News

Networking tip: Small talk

2019-10-21T14:15:00-04:00

Small talk is a dreaded practice for many professionals. It's often forced, and the parties involved participate out of obligation as opposed to genuine interest. Naturally, there are those of us who don't mind it, we actually enjoy it. Instead of hysterically pressing the close door button in the elevator, we hold the door, and seemlessly start a little small talk.

But, there are those of us who, on our way to get coffee, turn around and go back to our desks if we see someone else in the break room. I can wait, we think, I want to get my coffee in peace. We put on our headphones to signal we are busy and avoid eye contact with our talkative peers.

It's easier to pull this off during the work day, even at lunch, we can continue our avoidance, but in social settings we aren't so fortunate. What about Beer Fridays? Holiday parties? Networking events? Even meetings? Will our anti-social tendencies serve us well in these settings? It's not always the best idea to alienate ourselves f...

Keller Easterling discusses her latest book "Medium Design" with Failed Architecture

2018-07-09T23:07:00-04:00

In her latest book Medium Design, Easterling turns this idea of disposition to our ways of thinking, and rehearses a set of tools to address unfolding relations in spatial and non-spatial contexts. She rejects the righteousness of manifestos and certainty of ideologies, urging ways of thinking better attuned to complexity and ambiguity.

Keller Easterling, architect, theorist, writer and Professor at Yale University School of Architecture, discusses her new book, Medium Design, with Hettie O’Brien. In this conversation she expounds on the ideas around no new master plans or right answers, tying together concepts from her previous book Extrastatecraft. Easterling asserts, “Culture is good at pointing to things and calling their name but not so good at describing the relationships between things or the repertoires they enact.”

Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound; A Discussion of Recent News and Features

2018-02-22T18:31:00-05:00

This week we release a relatively spontaneous, and completely silly, look at news and features recently published on Archinect. We also turn Ken's famous last 2 questions, "What are you reading and listening to" onto ourselves.

Discussed during the show:

The French Laundry gets a $10 million Michelin-starred revamp from Snøhetta

Snøhetta unveils “Svart”, the Arctic Circle's first energy-positive hotel

Snøhetta designs controversial black crystalline U.F.O for Norwegian artist + Discussion in Forum

Employees at Apple's new headquarters keep walking into its famed glass walls

Snøhetta's much-discussed underwater restaurant breaks ground

"Probably the most creative person in the world" — The New Yorker profiles Thomas Heatherwick

Has the ADA gone too far?

Architecture Billings Index kicks new year off strong with highest January score since 2007

70-story wooden skyscraper proposed for Tokyo could become world's tallest

Brand New Reviews Logos of the 10 Most-Followed Firm Profiles on A...

Duality + tension = elegance in the Ivanhoe House

2017-05-11T18:03:00-04:00

How does one maintain excitement while embodying elegance? The artful tension of the Ivanhoe House, as designed by Billy Kavellaris of the Australian firm KUD, is an excellent example. Located in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, the single-story 370 square meter house initially engages visitors with its unusual aesthetics and then creates settings that are elegant without ever becoming staid. "The house is a clever orchestration of balancing tension that has created wondrous moments throughout. Ivanhoe house can be read as a conversation of dualities, of heavy and lightness, public and private and of light and darkness," as the architect explains in his project description.

This conversation starts with the imposing rectilinear entryway, which combines weighty solidity with the allure of a luxurious glassed-in portico. During the day, the entryway resembles a black void, but at night with the lights on, it becomes a vividly lit domestic portal. The mass of the entryway is echoed by a...

"[Architects] are not the creators of the city, but the midwives" says Bjarke Ingels

2015-07-23T13:51:00-04:00

In a fifty-one minute conversation with New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman, Bjarke Ingels does little to dispel his reputation as a media-friendly starchitect who dances his way around thorny design issues by reminding everyone of the rose. When Kimmelman brings up the wind issues that an 80th story outdoor space (such as the ones proposed for Two World Trade Center) is likely to encounter, Ingels relates an anecdote about how in Denmark the only car to have is a convertible, because even if the pleasant days are rare, they must be savored fully.

However, it is Ingels' redefinition of the architect's role, especially in the context of the discussion about how to shape the future cultural vibe of Manhattan, that makes Kimmelman shift in his seat:

Ingels: [Architects] are not the creators of the city, but the midwives.

Kimmelman: You make the architect sound a little more passive or receptive than maybe I'm comfortable with. Do you think the architect is just receiving other peopl...

Marlon Blackwell and Rick Joy in conversation

2015-03-26T12:00:00-04:00

Architects Marlon Blackwell and Rick Joy have built their practices marrying diligent attention to the existing community, ecology, and building culture of a place with the refined craft of contemporary architecture. [...] The two sat down with Anne Rieselbach, the League’s Program Director, in October 2014 to discuss their first meeting 15 years ago, teaching, drawing, distaste for e-mail, and “transgressing the vernacular.”

Book Launch: "L.A. [TEN]: Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s-1990s" author in conversation with Aaron Betsky, Sylvia Lavin

2014-02-06T12:34:00-05:00

Last Tuesday's book launch for L.A. [TEN]: Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s-1990s at the A+D Museum brought author Stephen Phillips in conversation with the book’s publisher, Lars Müller, and architecture critics (among other things) Aaron Betsky and Sylvia Lavin. The book is a collaborative effort, culling work from students in Cal Poly’s L.A. Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design, Wim de Wit and Christopher Alexander of the Getty Research Institute, and Phillips himself. As an initiative that pits students alongside practicing professionals, combining oral history with journalistic investigation, L.A. [TEN] is both the artifact of an educational performance and a signpost in the continuing attempt to historicize L.A.’s messy architectural identity.

Lavin and Betsky kicked off the launch with miniature lectures, riffing on L.A.’s environmental and cultural context during the book’s era. Lacking the institutional validation of a strong publishing culture, archite...

John Edwards Lecture 2013: Peter Marino in conversation with Marc Jacobs

2013-12-30T15:18:00-05:00

The 2013 edition of The AF’s annual headline event and trans-disciplinary dialogue presented New York-based architect Peter Marino in conversation with fashion designer Marc Jacobs. The event, which took place at Tate Modern’s Starr Auditorium, was chaired by Penny Martin, editor in chief, The Gentlewoman explored the territories of fashion and architecture and the space in which these two art forms interlink.

Jorge Pardo & Oscar Tuazon, in conversation

2013-05-23T18:22:00-04:00

Though indebted to conventional artistic methodologies, the vibrant, playful works of Jorge Prado lack traditional notions of artistic autonomy, with multiple uses straddling sculpture, furniture and architecture. Over espresso and a cigarette in the kitchen of his Los Angeles home, Pardo shares with Oscar Tuazon his processes of transforming built environments into functionally fluid sites designed to facilitate a diversity of experience.

‘Architecture Whispers’ Brings Intimate Architectural Discourse to Paris

2013-05-06T18:32:00-04:00

Paris has a new monthly event highlight: Architecture Whispers, a series of intimate multidisciplinary and cross-cultural conversations between emerging, established and visionary international architects and their colleagues in other disciplines. They take place in the Silencio Club located at 142 Rue Montmartre, an exclusive venue for writers, directors and musicians, established by American filmmaker/visual artist/musician David Lynch.

Architecture on Film: Rem Koolhaas and Shumon Basar in conversation

2011-11-12T18:27:59-05:00

Architecture on Film: Rem Koolhaas and Shumon Basar in conversation before the UK premiere of "1,2,3 Rhapsody" and "The White Slave" 10th October 2011, Cinema 1, Barbican Centre, London