Archinect - News

“Beauty in unexpected places”: Hélène Binet looks back on her work ahead of Royal Academy retrospective

2021-10-12T11:22:00-04:00

I am very glad to see the genre of photographing architectural space being lifted to the level of portraiture and landscape photography,” Ms. Binet said. This is “not only a profession, not only a service. It’s also a form of art.

Binet’s work for the late Zaha Hadid features prominently in the show alongside 90 other select images showcasing the genius of Peter Zumthor, Le Corbusier, and others. The photographer’s recent centenary examination of Gottfried Böhm’s Cologne churches will be on view as well.

“I think to shoot is like a performance. You have to give the best of yourself,” Binet told Archinect at the opening of her solo show at Woodbury University’s WUHO Gallery 2015. The exhibition opens its three-month run on October 23rd.

Elevate your Zoom meeting game with these virtual backgrounds from architectural photographers

2020-05-19T13:51:00-04:00

Since the sudden transition to working from home and remote learning/teaching earlier this year, online gatherings via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet have become standard business routine for most of us.

But what about some privacy? Not having to share the interior of your own residence (including that unsightly pile of unfolded laundry in the corner) with everyone? How about some custom — and architectural, of course — backgrounds for your online meeting tool of choice?

Do we have news for you.

In our recent roundup of interviews with architectural photographers, How the Pandemic Is Impacting Architectural Photography, we learned more about their pandemic coping strategies and also generously received images that Archinect's readers are free to use as backdrops.

Marc Goodwin (UK)

"I don't know whether all of my shoots planned this year have just been postponed or are now completely washed away. I suppose my clients are in a similar situation, as are most photographers."

3-S...

Editor's Picks #338

2013-10-22T11:45:00-04:00

Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in Architecture History and Theory at the University of Michigan provided a review of "Air Rights" – an exhibition by the Drone Research Lab (DRL) at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning...Responding either to the author or to projects found in the exhibition (perhaps both?), Darkman criticized "The BLDGBLOG type inquiry walks a fine line between futurism and self-indulgance"

For the latest edition of the In Focus series, dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better, Archinect spoke with Stockholm-based English photographer Robin Hayes.

Plus, Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in Architecture History and Theory at the University of Michigan provided a review of "Air Rights" – an exhibition by the Drone Research Lab (DRL) at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Therein he explains "The exhibit seems to argue that the site of misbehavior and appropriation is shifting from the tagged surfaces of graffiti to aberrant spatial practices of collection and documentation...The show is a mixed bag, displaying everything from a metaphoric play on US intelligence procedures to a pragmatic consumer drone kit. Notably absent is any attempt at using drones for the fabrication of habitable spaces".

Responding either to the author or to projects found in the exhibition (per...

Editor's Picks #337

2013-10-14T23:46:00-04:00

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Editorial Manager for Archinect, traveled to Aedes Network Campus Berlin as a fly-on-the-wall, and reported back with 7 Lessons from the 3rd International Architectural Education Summit. These were; 1) The relevancy of the “Architect” is fleeting, 2) Kids today don’t know a thing about radicalism, 3) The powers that be are male, and architecture is a gender-divisive practice, 4) Architects need to be “strategically naive”, 5) Architectural authority is not above democratic authority (?), 6) Form before finances and lastly 7) The student has become the master (at least regarding computers).

In response Thayer-D opined "The main problem with architectural education isn't the lack of branding or radicalism, or even male dominated pedagogy (although that does suck). It's the lack of faith that tackling the myriad of issues associated with any given project will result in the most compelling and present project possible, regardless of one's aesthetic proclivi...

The Hypnotic Architecture Of Empty Swimming Pools

2013-08-20T20:38:00-04:00

We have to admit, we haven't spent much time ogling the architecture of public pools. But those days are over, at least after catching a glimpse of Franck Bohbot's hypnotic photos of empty swimming vessels. [...] He is, he expressed, "interested in the relationship between the water, the architecture and the individual."

If you are in love with Franck Bohbot's photographs as much as we are, go and check out the Archinect In Focus feature we did with him in 2012.

Editor's Picks #250

2012-02-12T23:32:00-05:00

Jeanne Gang and Greg Lindsay suggested some ways of Designing a Fix for Housing, beginning with rethinking our historic commitment to detached, single-family homes and segregated Euclidean zoning. Louis Arleo agreed that we need to redesign suburbia but argued "however suburbia will never be improved until architects embrace the idea of a developers business model."

Anthony Carfello, analyzed Los Angeles media’s failings in their role as "the de facto voice" of AEG’s development plans for Farmers Field in Farmers Field: Bringing Football Back on a Need-to-Know Basis. Carfello contended "The existing biases, the assumptions in play, the prized status of CEQA exemption, the traffic, the legitimate fiscal drawbacks weighed against any foreseeable benefits (to the non-AEG public), and greater questions of diversity of primary uses in downtown’s future buildings all beg for further dialogue."and then offered up (323) Projects as an alternative model of citizen discourse.

In the latest addition to the CONTOURS: series Sherin Wing touched on some of the ways various changes taking place in architecture firms with regards to compensation and valuatization, are a result of the "realization that employees are people, not just ‘workers’ or ‘laborers’." in On Business and Bosses.

Gregory Walker commented he would like Sherin to "come on here and enga...

Editor's Picks #248

2012-01-29T21:08:00-05:00

This week the U.S. Department of Energy announced the 20 collegiate teams selected to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 and unveiled the competition’s location, the Orange County Great Park. caffeine junkie is disheartened by the decision "This is a real miss-step in my opinion.

In New, Energy-Efficient Technologies, Part II, the latest installment of the Contours feature, Sherin Wing, turned her attention to work from two teams at MIT who are developing the next generation of photovolotaic systems using metamaterials. Regardless of these advances however, Sherin concluded "Even then, when these super PVs do come online, to confuse availability with widespread, institutionalized use is to conflate two very different issues. Making them available will be half the battle."

In the latest In Focus feature Archinect interviewed Portland-based photo artist Jim Kazanjian. He received nothing but complements for his work in the comments.

For our third and final feature this week Columbia University GSAPP Fast Forward, Jason Ivaliotis, profiles a semesters worth of work by Columbia students made using the Vray RT rendering engine for 3D Studio Max . Therein we read "The components of the course exist as three forms of the same product: (1) the interactive comp...

Editor's Picks #247

2012-01-22T16:32:00-05:00

Guy wrote “why, when the evidence is out there, were a number of architects so defensive about the “Don’t Major in Architecture” article? Why are they whining? My conclusion, so far, is that this touched a nerve precisely because this isn’t new information to architects.” In response emergency exit wound asked, “And the assumption that 'an informed public makes the space for architecture more possible' is based on what exactly?

In the latest edition of the CONTOURS feature The Divisions that Bind Us, Guy Horton, analyzed the online commentariat’s response to Catherine Rampell, an economics reporter for The New York Times, article “Want a Job? Go to College, and Don’t Major in Architecture”. Guy wrote “why, when the evidence is out there, were a number of architects so defensive about the “Don’t Major in Architecture” article? Why are they whining? My conclusion, so far, is that this touched a nerve precisely because this isn’t new information to architects.”

In response emergency exit wound asked, “And the assumption that 'an informed public makes the space for architecture more possible' is based on what exactly? Is the desire for 'public discourse' really just a euphemism for 'expanded client base'?" Guy replied “Can architects in a professional setting and in the academy enhance the public discourse and challenge it? Or is it a lost cause. This is the binary problem of casting the public as one pole...

Archinect's Last Minute Gift Guide - 2012 Archinect Calendar and T-Shirts!

2011-12-15T18:25:22-05:00

Need a last minute Christmas gift idea? For an architect even? – Worry not, we got you covered with cool gifts from the Archinect Shop that even Santa will envy you for!

In Focus is Archinect's series of features dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better.

This 2012 calendar celebrates the work of twelve outstanding architectural photographers previously featured on Archinect, including Nelson Girrado, Jordi Miralles, Luc Roymans, Eugeni Pons, Amy Barkow, Leonardo Finotti, Miguel Coelho, Thomas Volstorf, Simon Gardiner, GRIDUO, Kevin Bauman, and Kim Høltermand.

All profits from the calendar will be donated to Architecture for Humanity.

Get the Archinect In Focus Calendar here.

Forget the Frank Lloyd Wright book, architects want Archinect T-Shirts for Christmas! Orders placed before December 21 will arrive in time for Christmas (for orders within the USA). Act fast, many of the popular designs ...