Archinect - News

Architectural League of New York names ten editorial teams to investigate overlooked American regions

2020-04-30T20:03:00-04:00

The Architectural League of New York has named ten editorial teams that it has commissioned to document a collection of “small to mid-size communities from across the United States” in an effort to “bring together on-the-ground perspectives on the condition of American communities and what they need to thrive going forward.”

The group’s American Roundtable initiative will “give voice to local places to envision a better, collective future,” according to architect Paul Lewis, Architectural League President.

A press release highlighting the initiative states, “Communities across America are being transformed by changing economic drivers; new patterns of mobility; legacies of environmental, racial, class, and spatial injustice; volatile and vitriolic politics coupled with chronic short-termism and near-sightedness; the impacts of climate change; and other forces. Yet our understanding of these small and mid-size communities is often reduced to caricature and oversimplification.”

The ...

Vincent Scully, prominent architecture historian, dies at age 97

2017-12-01T14:54:00-05:00

Yale art historian for more than 60 years, Vincent Scully died on Thursday night in his Lynchburg, Virginia residence due to complications of Parkinson's disease. His architectural writings had an immense impact on the later half of the 20th century giving context to architecture in culture and society. Known for his theatrical lectures, Scully taught at Yale from 1947 to 1991 where his retirement only lasted a year. By popular demand he returned and taught until 2009, when health related issues caused him to cease lecturing.

Scully promoted strong modernist opinions while also championing contextual and social awareness. His association with the New Urbanism movement stressed his beliefs on the importance of the pedestrian, human-scale construction, and retaining a sense of community. The Vincent Scully Prize is awarded annually and is a testament to his influence over culture as a whole.

'American Architecture and Urbanism' an important work by Vincent Scully published in 1969.

H...

Open Call : MASKS the Journal // FAUX FAMI(lies)

2016-08-11T18:56:00-04:00

MASKS is an independent journal of dissimulation in art | architecture | design founded in 2015 by Clemens Finkelstein and Anthony Morey while being graduate students in the History and Philosophy of Design at Harvard University.

Faux Families exploits our insatiable longing for be-longing. It infiltrates our conscious and unconscious disciplinary behavior. Conceived at a time that has been dubbed the age after-belonging, the upcoming issue of MASKS will take a closer look at the structures of connectivity and the patterns of disconnection at work …

MASKS is a questing spirit for everything exploring the aggregate of present, past and future disciplinary structures in and between the fields of art, architecture and design.

MASKS challenges the basic assumption of the dialectic reality/fiction. Fictional narratives become reality through ritualistic events. MASKS is the shaman that performs these rituals.

MASKS believes in the performance of appearance, not the predetermined disciplin...

Archinect chats with Benjamin Gilmartin, Diller Scofidio + Renfro's new partner

2015-10-26T17:52:00-04:00

Last week, Diller Scofidio + Renfro announced that Benjamin Gilmartin had become their fourth partner. I had a chance to ask Gilmartin about his past history as a writer, how that has influenced his working relationship with DS+R, and what the future holds for both him and the firm.

JI: You've been with DS+R since 2004, and been a principal there since 2011. What is the biggest change now that you're partner?

BG: I think day-to-day not a lot. [laughs] I've been collaborating with Liz, Rick and Charles for years on most of the projects that go through the studio, and that continues to be the case. I think that in truth there's not really a plan for the studio but there's a sense that there's a potential future beyond the founding partners. That's not for sure, but there's definite optimism about the possibility of that.

JI: You wrote for PRAXIS. How did writing shape your concepts of design, and what did you bring from that experience into the design process with your new partners?

BG:...