Archinect - News

Andrés Jaque appointed as new Dean of Columbia GSAPP

2022-08-18T19:05:00-04:00

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) has appointed architect, curator, and artist Andrés Jaque as its next Dean. He replaces Amale Andraos, who stepped down from the role in May 2021.

Jaque received his Ph.D. and MArch from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid. He has been involved with GSAPP since 2013, where he began teaching advanced design studios. He directs the school's Master of Science program in Advanced Architectural Design, to which he was appointed in 2018.

Aside from his work at GSAPP, Jaque is the founder of Office for Political Innovation, an international architecture firm based in New York and Madrid. His practice has been recognized and part of collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago, along with other exhibitions at institutions arou...

GSAPP's Andrés Jaque to curate 2020 Shanghai Biennale

2019-12-09T12:40:00-05:00

Spanish architect and educator Andrés Jaque has been selected as the Chief Curator of the 13th Shanghai Biennale that is slated to take place starting on November 13, 2020.

Jaque is currently the Director of the Advanced Architectural Design Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). He is also the founder of the Office for Political Innovation, an architectural practice based in New York City and Madrid. In 2018, Jaque co-curated the Manifesta 12, the "European Nomadic Biennale," in Palermo, Italy with Bregtje van der Haak, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, and Mirjam Varadinis.

In a press release announcing his selection, Jaque writes, "It will be my priority that the city of Shanghai is not only a venue but also a fundamental actor in the discourse, content, and experience of the Shanghai Biennale," adding, "I very much look forward to working with agile artists to develop new productions in response to specific sites."

Jaq...

Andrés Jaque appointed as Columbia GSAPP's new Director of Advanced Architectural Design Program

2018-05-23T14:11:00-04:00

Columbia GSAPP Dean Amale Andraos announced today that Andrés Jaque will be the new director of the school's Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design program, effective June 1, 2018. As founder of the Office for Political of Innovation and a teacher of advanced design studios at GSAPP since 2013, Jaque will succeed Associate Professor Enrique Walker, who has directed the program since 2008.

The three-semester Advanced Architectural Design program is for outstanding students who already have a bachelor's or M.Arch degree, and is best known for offering students a framework through which they can explore professional and academic concerns. In directing the program, Jaque aims to further develop architecture's role as a critical practice that is based on constructive debate of ideas and innovative experimentation.

“More than ever, architecture is now a key player in the challenges the world faces. The AAD program occupies a unique position from which the relevance of architec...

Christopher Hawthorne on when architecture and performance intersect

2017-06-30T12:06:00-04:00

This interest in performance among architects is less a style or a fledgling movement than a register, a way of working. It’s a means of sketching out a new set of priorities — and giving up older ones that are tarnished or compromised. It’s also open-ended, challenging the idea that a building can ever really qualify as finished. It makes room for perspectives that come from other fields.

According to Hawthorne, this new trend—seen in the work of architects from Andrés Jaque to Bryony Roberts—evidences the appeal of "impermanence and often...informality," putting the work in contrast to the ritzy architecture that seems to dominant these days.

Cutting across the Chicago Architecture Biennial: Andrés Jaque's "Superpowers of Ten" performance

2015-10-12T18:45:00-04:00

A sausage as tall as you are. A skin cell the size of a dinner plate. The universe, in a glittery fan. These are a few of the props used by Andrés Jaque, founding architect of the Office for Political Innovation, in his "Superpowers of Ten" performance – a play staged on the ground floor of the Chicago Athletic Association during the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Inspired by the Eames’ 1977 “Powers of Ten” film (the same year the Biennial’s namesake conference was held), the under-an-hour performance investigates the power of design to scale up, or down, into historic social and cultural sea changes.

Initially developed for the Lisbon Architecture Triennial in 2013, “Superpowers” is staged like a super-polemical elementary school play: a narrator guides actors, dressed in cartoonish cardboard or papier-mâché costumes, through stories of 20th century design history. The opening act plays direct homage to the Eames’ film, recreating the zooming in and out on the...

What happens to the MoMA PS1 Young Architecture Program pavilions after Warm Up is Over?

2015-08-25T13:51:00-04:00

For nearly two decades, the Young Architect's Program (YAP) has brought both young and established talent to MoMA PS1's courtyard to form a welcome space for overheated crowds that often interact with the work during the institution's popular Warm Up series [...] So what happens to the pavilions and their creators once the DJs pack up their gear, the throngs of people leave, and the summer is over?

Artnet news looked at the afterlife of some of YAP pavilions that have graced the MoMA PS1 courtyard in Queens. Here's a quick summary of some of the featured anecdotes:

SHoP Architects "Dunescape," 2000

SHoP Architects, the firm behind the recently-inaugurated Barclays Center in Brooklyn, designed "Dunescape" comprising cedar structures that you could climb over and in. At the end of the summer, the wood was donated to a trade school where it used for woodworking practice.

Hot Work in the Summertime: From Helsinki to London to NYC, Archinect Sessions #35

2015-06-25T17:20:00-04:00

Lots of summer blockbuster news to discuss on this week's podcast. The winner of the Helsinki Guggenheim competition was announced (a young husband-wife firm from Paris took the cake), SelgasCano's "psychedelic chrysalis" Serpentine Pavilion opened, and Andres Jaque's COSMO for MoMA PS1's "Warm Up" began its water cycle. And while not quite blockbusting, in what could easily be the premise for a Vincent Price flick, residents of the blighted Robin Hood Gardens dared Lord Rogers to spend a night in their quarters.

Special guests Quilian Riano and Peggy Deamer of The Architecture Lobby join our news discussion this week, dropping their excellent and incisive commentary on ethical practice into every topic. We are collaborating with the Lobby to measure satisfaction with work-life balance in architecture – take the 3-question survey here.

Listen to episode thirty-five of Archinect Sessions, "Hot Work in the Summertime":

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button bel...

Archinect Sessions Episode #18: Moonwalking Or (The Expected Virtue of Social Architecture) with Andrés Jaque, winner of MoMA PS1's YAP

2015-02-26T13:38:00-05:00

Winner of this year's MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program, Andrés Jaque of the Office for Political Innovation, joins us on the podcast this week to discuss his winning design, COSMO. In a continued thread from last year's YAP, The Living's "Hy-Fi", Jaque's COSMO focuses on issues of sustainability and ecology – its main element is a series of pipes that will purify water with biological treatments.

Before winning the YAP, Jaque's office already had a piece in MoMA's permanent collection, IKEA Disobedients (2011), the museum's first "architectural performance" acquisition. COSMO will be installed from June 23 through September 7.

As always, you can send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421. And if you can, we'd love for you to rate us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Listen to episode eighteen of Archinect Sessions, "Moonwalking Or (The Expected Virtue of Social Architecture) with Andres Jaque, winner of MoMA P...

YAP 2015 winner Andrés Jaque/Office to install "Cosmo" at MoMA PS1 this summer

2015-02-05T19:06:00-05:00

MoMA PS1 announced today that "COSMO" by Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation is the winner of the 2015 Young Architects Program competition. Every year, the YAP winning design is realized into a temporary outdoor installation placed in the outdoor courtyard of MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York during the annual Warm Up summer music festivities in late June. YAP proposals have to provide seating, shade, and water, and also follow guidelines that address environmental issues and sustainability.

Made of customized irrigation components, COSMO is described as a moveable party artifact that is also biochemically engineered to filter and purify 3,000 gallons of water in a period of four days. The structure will continuously eliminate suspended particles and nitrates, balance pH levels, and increase the level of dissolved oxygen. As a result, the same body of water will become more purified with each cycle.

Similar to last year's winning installation "Hy-Fi", COSMO is more t...