Archinect - News

Occupying Wall Street and Mapping Liberty Plaza (Video Trailer)

2012-09-17T12:41:00-04:00

As Occupiers posted links, updates, photos and videos on social media sites; as they deliberated in chat rooms and collaborated on crowdmaps; as they took to the streets with smartphones, they tested the parameters of this multiply mediated world. What is the layout of this place? What are its codes and protocols? Who owns it? How does its design condition opportunities for individual and collective action?

On the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, architects Jonathan Massey and Brett Snyder investigate the spatial dimensions of political action in two related features on Places, including axonometric drawings that follow the transformation of Zuccotti Park into Liberty Plaza. See the trailer below.

Editor's Picks #278

2012-08-21T11:50:00-04:00

Reacting to Tatzu Nishi’s concept for Discovering Columbus, Donna Sink exclaimed "Wow, I love the interior environments he makes for these installations! The existing piece is so out-of-place." The conceptual piece will consist a living room six stories up in the air wrapped around the historic statue of Christopher Columbus found in Columbus Circle, NYC.

In the latest edition of the UpStarts: feature FreelandBuck aka David Freeland and Brennan Buck (an architectural design practice based in New York and Los Angeles affiliated with Yale School of Architecture, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) and Woodbury University, ed. wow that is a lot of affiliated withs...) discussed; their first built project, "scale jump moments", the impact of the recession on the architecture + construction industry and finally the importance of "Making work" via email with Orhan Ayyüce.

Jason Muller shared "While I was studying for my undergraduate in Architecture at Woodbury University in Burbank California, my second year design architecture studio was tough by David Freeland and it was one of the best and inspiring experiences of my life."

House KE12 is the focus of the latest Showcase. The project by SoHo Architektur is in Memmingen Germany. It is a townhouse with two housing units, designed as a “three-window house”. ...

Open Letter by Bryan Bell: PUBLIC SPACE FOR THE PUBLIC – OR 99% OF IT

2011-11-25T14:57:23-05:00

The message of the 99% movement is even more fundamental -- that the 99% should have representative voice in the decisions made for this country. I feel aligned with their message and ours. We support their message and their tactics 100%. As designers, we should respect the rights of the 99% to gather in public spaces.

Open Letter by Bryan Bell, founder of Design Corps, sends this open letter in support of #OWS

PUBLIC SPACE FOR THE PUBLIC – OR 99% OF IT

In a time when the Supreme Court grants the constitutional rights of free speech to corporations, for corporations to have the same rights as individuals to shape the political process through unlimited financial gifts, it is bitter to see the same rights being denied to the individuals of the Occupy Wall Street movement, (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 08-205, 2010).

Daily, protesters are being removed from public spaces all across the country. Their primary message could not be of more relevance to the public, that the voice of the 99% is not being heard in the decisions that are shaping our country. What irony that this message is being physically moved from our public spaces. Who is public space for? Whose resources paid for public space? Whose resources pay the mayors and police who are removing this democrat...