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MASS Design founder Michael Murphy announces he is stepping down, will join the faculty at Georgia Tech

2022-10-10T11:30:00-04:00

MASS Design Group President and co-founder Michael Murphy has announced he will be stepping down from his post after 15 years to pursue new academic and professional initiatives in a move announced on Friday.

The announcement stated that MASS will continue under the leadership of Senior Principals and Managing Directors Christian Benimana and Patricia Gruits and Founding Principal and Chief Design Officer Alan Ricks. Murphy will now join the faculty at Georgia Tech as its new Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair.

The recent AIA Firm Award winners have become recognized throughout the design community for their commitment to restorative social justice projects and three core guiding principles of beauty, dignity, and the increased flow of natural air best exemplified in their designs for the Butaro District Hospital and subsequent commissions across Rwanda and the United States.

Previously on Archinect: new documentary tells the story behind MASS Design Group's cholera clinic ...

The experimental nature of Murray Music House, a single family home designed by Carazo Arquitectura

2017-05-11T14:03:00-04:00

Blending elements of brutalism and pronounced geometric framing, the Murray Music House designed by Carazo Arquitectura is technically a single family home, designed for two parents and three children. The fundamental concept underlying its design is "Living Through the Experimentation," which helps to explain the use of changeable elements like ceiling-suspended fabric chairs and mesh netting in the hallways. By placing malleable objects into the solid frame of the home, the architects hope to constantly engage the occupants in creating new uses for spaces such as the bedroom, kitchen, and the hallway. "Experiencing a home like Murray Music includes exploration, giving another meaning and other use to spaces that normally have specific functions," as the architects explain. But these elements are not the only method of inspiring experimentation.

The rather severe geometry, which includes a black rectilinear frame hovering over the kitchen and a vertical slanted skylight with unabas...

Milton Curry named USC's new Dean of the School of Architecture

2017-04-11T12:28:00-04:00

After serving two influential five-year terms, USC's Qingyun Ma will remain on the faculty but step down as the Dean of The School of Architecture on July 1st, when he will be replaced by Milton Curry. According to the L.A. Times:

Curry arrives from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where he is associate dean for academic affairs and strategic initiatives. He was chosen for the post at USC based upon his expertise “at the forefront of disciplinary areas on race, architecture and urbanism that engages cultural theory and humanities research,” the announcement said.

Curry founded the CriticalProductive Journal, which examined scholarship and creative pursuits in architecture, urbanism and cultural theory. He also co-founded Appendix Journal in the early 1990s, which helped to catalyze debate on architecture and race, among other subjects.

Nothing constant but change in The Open Workshop's "Malleable Monuments"

2017-03-16T17:33:00-04:00

With a stated goal of "reconciling and choreographing how the human and environmental subject and their individual, transforming, ephemeral, and often contradictory characteristics continuously recompose a permanent work," The Open Workshop's Malleable Monuments exhibition is a tour of three years worth of work by the Toronto/San Francisco-based collective.

Photo by Abraham Chan

With projects including consulting on the redesign of Bruce Mau's office and accolades like the Architectural League of New York Young Architects Prize and the Emerging Leaders Award from Design Intelligence, The Open Workshop is building a solid reputation while delving into the ephemeral. With taxonomic drawings divided into four categories (Frameworks, Living Archives, Articulated Surfaces, and Rewiring States), the exhibition also investigates its constantly evolving territory through two large installations.

Photo by Abraham Chan

The exhibition,...

Berlin After the Wall: A Microcosm of the World’s Chaotic Change

2014-11-18T14:18:00-05:00

Not far from the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz was a no man’s land during the Cold War. Then the Berlin Wall fell, and the German authorities made it a petting zoo for celebrity architecture. The corporate headquarters of Germany’s new global swagger. But the ambitions for Potsdamer Platz, like the hopes and fears about a united Germany, turned out differently. The architecture was not so great. Many companies fled.

Architecture’s New Age

2014-11-07T13:56:00-05:00

IS THE NEW ARCHITECTURAL century still stuck in the end of the last one? Yes, but not for long. Asked to take stock of their discipline, architects largely agree that one era is winding down and another is beginning. [...] “The time of the grand sculptural building is over,” says Mr. Sauerbruch, looking back on what he calls architecture’s “Mannerist period,” symbolized by figures such as Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.

Call for contributions zawia#01:Utopia

2012-12-17T13:20:00-05:00

"... If history has taught us that the realization of a utopia is necessarily its destruction, Can we regard this process as a continuously failing attempt of architectural hallucinations? Or is it a way to promote escapism from an inevitable dystopic reality? ..."

The call for contributions for the upcoming volume zawia#01:Utopia is out now. We are expecting abstracts until the 28th of January. Please download the document by visiting our website www.zawia.co or by simply clicking here http://www.zawia.co/issuedownload/zawia_01_Utopia_Call_for_Contributions.pdf

[Zawia is an English & Arabic publication & collaborative events on architecture, design & Urbanism]

zawia#00:Change – Newly released publication from Egypt on architecture and design

2012-09-03T12:18:00-04:00

"Zawia#00:Change discusses the significantly changing realities imposed on all social, political and economic systems and their influence on design disciplines. Zawia#00:Change will attempt to demonstrate whether architects are ready to embrace changing ideals and new modes of operation, and whether they are willing to help better people’s lives rather than focusing on glorifying design or architecture."

Zawia is a periodical, English and Arabic publication and collaborative events on architecture, design & urbanism. The first volume Zawia#00:Change is out now! It features contributions from Saskia Sassen, Stefano Boeri, Joseph Grima, WAI architecture think tank, Carlo Ratti, Markus Miessen and many more.Zawia#00:Change will be exceptionally available for preview from Zawia’s website [www.zawia.co]