Archinect - News

Reflecting on Joseph Giovannini's review of "The Shed" three months after its opening

2019-07-31T10:33:00-04:00

Roughly three months after the opening of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and the Rockwell Group's cultural venue at Hudson Yards, several media publications and critics have voiced their opinions about The Shed. Having received a variety of reviews, some have shown interest and praise of the space while others have addressed the Shed's connectivity to corporate greed, false philanthropy, and inclusion. Despite it all Manhattan's newest cultural hub still stands, hosting performances and other events since its grand opening, as intended. However, a review made by famed architectural critic Joseph Giovannini back in April casts The Shed in a different light.

Image © Ajay Suresh via flickr

A prominent figure in architectural writing and criticism, Giovannini has reviewed and shared his thoughts on several projects over the years, including Zumthor's LACMA design, Zaha's Port House, and Ghery's Louis Vuitton Foundation. Pulling from his own experience in professional practice and writing, Giov...

An art critic's soul-sucking experience visiting several “Instagram Museums”

2018-09-27T19:06:00-04:00

The central disappointment of these spaces is not that they are so narcissistic, but rather that they seem to have such a low view of the people who visit them. Observing a work of art or climbing a mountain actually invites us to create meaning in our lives. But in these spaces, the idea of “interacting” with the world is made so slickly transactional that our role is hugely diminished. Stalking through the colorful hallways of New York’s “experiences,” I felt like a shell of a person.

In this snarky piece, New York Times critic-at-large Amanda Hess recounts what it was like visiting as many of these hyped-up Instagrammable "museums" that have popped up around the U.S. in recent years.

“What began as a kicky story idea became a masochistic march through voids of meaning. I found myself sleepwalking through them, fantasizing about going to a real museum. Or watching television. Or being on Twitter,” Hess writes.

Reinier de Graaf: “Architecture is in a State of Denial”

2017-11-08T17:43:00-05:00

I never realised how nostalgic I am, until I started writing. An architect is not supposed to be nostalgic but forward-looking. But I’m nostalgic for a time when mankind was a lot more forward-looking than it is today; for a gradual optimism about the future. That’s the paradox.

"In his book Four Walls and a Roof – The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, Reinier de Graaf paints an honest picture of what it is like to work as an architect today. De Graaf, who is a partner at OMA and director of AMO, the office’s think tank, provides engaging stories about the banal, everyday reality of working for an acclaimed firm. These vivid, uncompromising narratives are contextualised with shrewd essays about architecture’s lost ideals, its false pretentions, and utter dependence on forces far more powerful than design. We sat down to talk about housing and political mobilisation, his compromises, and his radical pursuit of the mundane."

An excerpt,

Mark Minkjan: The book’s journal-like descriptions of encounters with politicians, bureaucrats, real estate developers and celebrated architects are highly entertaining – and often depressing. I had to laugh more than once, for example when reading your account of a meaningless talk by Richard Rogers in Abu Dhabi, in whic...

Architecture has sacrificed its aspiration to deepen public life

2016-09-01T20:23:00-04:00

Modern architecture, during its heyday, was deeply concerned with its civic function; its mission to reform housing and improve the city was a moral imperative. But the failure of this utopian vision has served to...[give] rise to a profession in which its practice is defined increasingly by individual “star” architects and “architecture for architecture’s sake”...

In a piece on the civic benefits of music, literature, and architecture to the public sphere, Rebecca Burgess finds architecture to be somewhat lacking, based on the writings of Michael J. Lewis. Is this a complaint about the good old days in the vein of Prince Charles, or a meaningful critique in an era of starchitects?

For all the latest on starchitecture:

Dissecting McMansion ugliness

2016-08-16T15:56:00-04:00

The aptly named "McMansionhell" tumblr has taken the time to carefully note just what makes a McMansion an ugly, terrible, no good architectural atrocity. Skipping over frothy diatribe and going straight into meticulous point by point dissection, the tumblr notes that McMansions fail in four key areas: Masses & Voids, Balance, Proportion, and crucially, Rhythm. "McMansions lack architectural rhythm," the tumblr states, using slidetool graphics to help you wince and blanch in an informed way (as opposed to just experiencing an overpowering visceral dislike each time you pass one on the street).

Other ugly building news:

Fun game: spot the double-standards in this Zaha-bashing piece!

2015-08-06T15:49:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid is the most famous woman architect in the world. Would women or, indeed, architecture, be better off without her pushily hard-won, global celebrity? [...] Hadid began a global strut in billowing drapery by Prada or Issey Miyake. She became the champion of an architecture that was more about personal ‘vision’ than public utility. [...] From the air, Hadid’s 2022 World Cup stadium with its almond-shaped opening and labial folds looks bogglingly like giant pudenda.

Sure, roasting starchitects is fun, and – at its best – can volley constructive criticism towards those architects most visible in the public eye as "Architects", ideally improving the profession at large. And then there's a piece like The Heckler's, which discredits any otherwise pointed jabs at Zaha by wrapping them in sexist stereotypes. See if you can spot them all!

1st year goals and final crit anxieties: a few words from USC Architecture students

2014-06-03T12:42:00-04:00

Last month, the University of Southern California's School of Architecture hosted its annual Blue Tape event, an exhibition surveying work from all levels and discipline. The massive show of work from first year bachelors to masters thesis levels is a prime chance for students to see what's been going on in other studios, and for the School of Architecture to showcase its output to those outside its walls.

Fellow Archinect editor, Justine Testado, and I visited the Blue Tape exhibitions to talk with students, administrators and teachers about what it's like for an entire school of architecture to be on display -- and why it's so important that they open their doors each year.

I intercepted a gaggle of first years exiting their final critique, who kindly agreed (after sighs of exhaustion and shouts of relief) to answer a few questions about life at USC Architecture.

What's first year at USC Architecture like?

Why did you choose USC? [Undergraduate]

Why did you choose USC? [Graduate] (We b...