Archinect - News

When Facebook and Instagram went dark, architecture Twitter was there for the laughs

2021-10-05T11:46:00-04:00

In my opinion, remembering what it was like before social media and high-speed internet access is a gift. The early days of social media barely resemble the landscape of how impressionable and profit-driven it is today. Data privacy wasn't considered "a thing," and promoting a product or service back then was influential thanks to television, radio, and print media. However, when social media titans Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down, many came flooding back to Twitter to stay connected. Thanks to this 6-hour social media outage, 'architecture Twitter' was there to express what many of us were thinking.

Social media is defined as "forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)." Today, this term has become synonymous with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Twitter to name a few...

Melissa Daniel, host of Architecture Is Political podcast, creates a new voice for architectural discourse

2020-09-22T08:55:00-04:00

As Black and minority voices continue to impact the industry's progress towards equity and inclusivity, one woman is sparking opportunities for Black and Brown voices and opinions to be heard.

Architectural designer Melissa Daniel is the creator and host of the growing podcast series Architecture is Political. Daniel specifically emphasizes the podcast is where "Black and Brown folks have a conversation about architecture," and the reasons for starting the podcast is to "rediscover why I went into architecture." It's this point that makes her mission towards amplifying the experiences of minority voices and their views on how the discipline impacts their lives a much-needed outlet for digestible discourse.

Having launched her first podcast episode earlier this year, topics include mapping segregation in D.C., Muslim Women in architecture, gentrification, and issues on "curated tolerance." After listening to a few of her podcasts, it's clear that her vocal presence, openness, and con...

Jennifer Bonner's award-winning Office Stack reimagines the perception of mid-rise office design

2019-02-27T13:51:00-05:00

A growing household name within the profession and in academia, Jennifer Bonner's whimsical and highly technical design approach has enabled her to create and re-work traditional design methods. Her creative practice, MALL, is a compilation of playful approaches to "ordinary architecture." The name itself is an acronym with its own flexible meaning, similar to Bonner's design process. By focusing on everyday materials and familiar architecture motifs, the Alabama native architect seeks to perceive and portray architecture through whimsical discourse.

Best Sandwiches by Jennifer Bonner, MALL. Image by Adam DeTour

Office Stacks - Picnic Model by Jennifer Bonner, MALL. Image by Adam DeTour

Recently a winner of the 2019 Progressive Architecture Award, Bonner used her original project study, Best Sandwiches to help create her award-winning project Office Stack. The architectural stack may seem like a conventional building process. However, Bonner allows for each layer of the structure to ...

The Architect and The Artist: Frank Gehry and Ai Weiwei meet for a memorable conversation

2019-02-14T13:42:00-05:00

For Deitch’s gallery, Gehry, 89, transformed a 15,000-square-foot former movie-lighting warehouse in Hollywood into a bright exhibition space. Ai then filled the gallery with a series of Chinese zodiac-themed works made out of Legos and a sweeping installation, first shown in 2014: a mass of nearly 6,000 antique wooden stools, scavenged from antique furniture dealers in China...

As cultural renegades of the art and architecture world, it's safe to say both have more similarities than differences. During their careers, both have had their hand in art and architecture practice. Ai Weiwei has collaborated with Herzog & de Meuron for the Beijing Olympic's 2008 Bird's Nest stadium as well as his design works for an art gallery in Beverly Hills. Frank Gehry has produced sculptural pieces like his memorable Fish Lamps and his cardboard Carumba Experimental Edges chair. After their contributions to the Deitch's gallery, Gehry who designed the space and Weiwei exhibiting his work, the two sat together to discuss their views on architecture, art, and their iconic professional careers.

Below are excerpts taken from their conversation with the NY Times written by Jori Finkel.

When discussing project freedoms between galleries and developers the two discussed their experiences.

FG: You know, I grew up in the art world — this was the way I wanted to work, more hands-on, ...

The Future of Architectural Discourse

2013-10-28T16:56:00-04:00

In this post I’d like to take you through the reasoning for why I chose to publish my thesis online, and what this might tell us about the future direction of architectural discourse.

Important thoughts regarding the future of architectural discourse. Mr. Davis compares the old concept of "publish or perish" to the new methods of digital publishing and discourse.

h/t eatingbark

Women in American Architecture: 1977 and Today

2013-09-04T10:04:00-04:00

I think the development of design and planning ideas over the past three decades is where feminism has actually been most effective but least acknowledged...Architecture and planning have been reshaped by these feminist agendas in many areas...but I don’t believe academic culture acknowledges explicitly the influence of feminist ideas on the architectural and urban design practices and projects of the past three decades. - Torre

The Architectural League has published some of the content (the introductory essay) of Susan Torres's 1977 exhibition/book Women in American Architecture. They also released an interview with Susana Torre conducted earlier this year, by Rosalie Genevro and Anne Rieselbach.

h/t @amlblog here

‘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.

Exhibition Opening: UNFINISHED BUSINESS – 25 Years of Discourse in Los Angeles

2012-07-12T15:47:00-04:00

If you're in Los Angeles this weekend, don't miss the opening of UNFINISHED BUSINESS – 25 Years of Discourse in Los Angeles, a major retrospective exhibition by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. The exhibition will be on view from July 13 through August 26, 2012 at the WUHO Gallery in Hollywood.

The opening weekend will include panel discussions and other events. Discussion panelists this Saturday afternoon will be Aaron Betsky, Joe Day, Tim Durfee, John Dutton, Todd Gannon, Barbara Bestor, Thurman Grant, Craig Hodgetts, Christian Hubert, and Kimberli Meyer; moderators are John Southern and Mimi Zeiger. The panel discussions start at 2pm, and Saturday's opening night is from 6-9pm.

Art & Agenda: Political Art and Activism

2011-04-28T17:50:15-04:00

Life has become significantly more political in the new millennium, especially in the aftermath of worldwide financial crisis. Art is both driving and documenting this upheaval. Increasingly, new visual concepts and commentaries are being used to represent and communicate emotionally charged topics, thereby bringing them onto local political and social agendas in a way far more powerful than words alone.

In the light of politically active artists facing more and more opposition and oppression (Ai Weiwei remains under Chinese arrest), the just released book Art & Agenda is an important documentation of current urban interventions, installations, performances, sculptures, and paintings and also points to future forms of political discourse.