Archinect - News

Recycled plastic blocks are being used to create LEGO-like architecture

2018-01-10T13:37:00-05:00

A company in Colombia is tackling plastic waste issues and affordable housing with a single ingenious solution: interlocking LEGO-like bricks that can be used to build houses for a few thousand dollars per structure. Walls are formed using a slim slotted brick then framed using a thicker module used for beams and columns, locking the smaller units into place and providing rigid vertical and lateral support.

What to do with the heaps and mounds of plastic piling up all over our planet? Build LEGO's. Conceptos Plásticos' technological innovations make their plastic block homes cost only $5,000. The company is also using this new method to build emergency shelters, community and educational buildings.

These upcycled blocks are designed to be used by anyone regardless of construction experience. Conceptos Plásticos boasts building blocks that are fire and earthquake resistant, cost effective, and durable lasting about 500 years.

GSAPP displays unusual + intriguing photographs of famed architectural models with "Stagecraft: Models and Photos"

2017-02-02T18:31:00-05:00

Photographer James Ewing was given a studio and several weeks to creatively photograph architectural models made by students of the Columbia GSAPP between 1994 and 2003. The resulting work will form a show, "Stagecraft: Models and Photos," that opens at the GSAPP on February 9th.

Featuring photographs of models of structures such as Le Corbusier's Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux, Norman Foster's Renault Distribution Center, and Peter Zumthor's Saint Benedict Chapel among others, the photographs avoid the atmosphere of your typical two-in-the-morning-on-a-work-day professional studio snaps, instead investing each of these models with unusual drama.

Because the models and the photographer are so removed from the original architectural design process, the work is necessarily interpretive. These are miniature echo chambers of history, models of models of structures some of these students undoubtedly visited in real life, photographed against occasionally surreal backdrops.

...

Turning plastic trash into "LEGO"-like building materials

2016-07-25T20:36:00-04:00

The [plastic] materials are thoroughly cleaned, before being ground into a rough power, mixed, melted and extruded into a range of shapes – mostly beams, blocks and pillars – which lock together to form buildings. Importantly, [Conceptos Plásticos] also trains communities in how to build these structures, giving them ownership over their homes [...] Like LEGO blocks, these interlocking structures don’t need adhesive to be strong and sturdy, which makes them a good option for mobile shelters.

Related on Archinect:

Get Lectured: Columbia GSAPP, Fall '15

2015-09-11T14:08:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2015

Archinect's Get Lectured is ready for another school year. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Our next featured poster comes from the Columbia University GSAPP with their Fall '15 Core Series.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Columbia GSAPP has a calendar full of upcoming events! Free and open to the public. Find each event's time and location in the PDF link below.

Sept 14
Kersten Geers and David Van Severen / OFFICE Kersten Geers and David Van Severen

Sept 18
Information Fall-Out: Buckminster Fuller's World Game
Symposium and Opening

Sept 21
Kate Orff / SCAPE

Sept 25
Imprecise Tropics
Camilo Restrepo in conversation with Barry Bergdoll (Columbia Art History) and Clara Iraza...

Kate Orff to emphasize "climate dynamics" as new Director of Columbia GSAPP's Urban Design Program

2015-04-06T15:24:00-04:00

SCAPE founder and Columbia GSAPP Associate Professor Katherine Orff will succeed leading urban housing authority Professor Richard Plunz as the new GSAPP Director of the Urban Design Program starting this June. As a longtime GSAPP and Urban Design Program faculty member and landscape architect, Orff is best known for her eco-sensitive and resilient approach in her projects that integrate urban design, landscape design, and architecture.

Strongly reflecting SCAPE's design philosophy, Orff plans to expand the Program with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research and engagement in dealing with timely issues of climate change and social topics. "My goal is to magnify the social and humanitarian ethos that the Program is well known for, and bring it together with themes of infrastructure, urbanism and climate dynamics," Orff said in a statement.

Evidently, Orff's work throughout her time in Columbia is heavy in collaboration. In the past, she has led various multi-disciplinary collaborat...

Get Lectured: Columbia GSAPP, Spring '15

2015-01-28T16:19:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter-Spring 2015

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session! Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

The next featured poster comes from Columbia GSAPP with their Spring '15 Core Series of lecture events.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Unless noted, events will take place on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. in Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall. Free and open to the public.

Lectures can be viewed on GSAPP's Livestream channel. Previous lecture videos can be found here.

Jan 28
Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi
Response by Dean Amale Andraos and Justin Davidson, New York Magazine

Feb 4
Juan Herreros
Response by David Benjamin, GSAPP

Feb 11
Lucia Allais - The Inaugural Detlef Mertins Lecture on the Hist...

Get Lectured: Columbia GSAPP, Fall '14

2014-09-05T13:44:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2014

Say hello to another edition of Archinect's Get Lectured! As a refresher, we'll be featuring a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. If you're not doing so already, be sure to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Today's two-sided poster comes from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation in New York. Their Fall '14 Core Series pays homage to William H. Whyte's The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Highlights include David Adjaye, Kazuyo Sejima, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Christophe Girot, and incoming GSAPP Dean Amale Andraos.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Unless noted, lectures take place in Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall. Events free and open to the public.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 17
6:30 pm
Kazuyo Sejima / SANAA
"Gathering Space"
Response by GSAPP Dea...

Amale Andraos to succeed Mark Wigley as GSAPP's new dean

2014-08-12T16:11:00-04:00

Andraos, an associate professor of architecture, planning and preservation at GSAPP since 2011 and a principal at WORKac., will succeed Mark Wigley, who announced he would retire at the end of the 2013-2014 academic year [...] “Columbia is already a leader in addressing the challenges of high-speed urbanization around the globe and I believe it can lead in recasting architecture in dialogue with our urban societies and the natural environment,” Andraos said in the release.

Just shy of the new academic year, Columbia's GSAPP has appointed Amale Andraos to succeed Mark Wigley as Dean, effective this fall. Andraos is a firm presence in New York architecture and beyond, as principal of WORKac alongside her husband, Dan Wood (both previously profiled in our UpStarts series). The Wall Street Journal named her one of Rem Koolhaas' protégés, and her writing has been featured in our Screen/Print series.

You can see what kind of post Andraos is inheriting in our Deans List interview with Mark Wigley, the prior GSAPP dean.

Medellín made urban escalators famous, but have they had any impact?

2014-07-24T12:50:00-04:00

Medellín has gained much attention for its urban transformation — and the escalators, which won several international prizes for innovation, make up one of the most striking projects. [...] But are the escalators making any real economic or social impact in the neighborhood? To find out, I spent three months in Medellín talking with people in Comuna 13 about what has and hasn’t changed here.

Get Lectured: Columbia GSAPP, Spring '14

2014-01-29T12:44:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2014

Archinect's Get Lectured is up and running again for the Winter/Spring '14 term! As a refresher from our Fall 2013 guide, every week we'll feature a school's lecture series--and their snazzy posters--for the current season. Be sure to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Today's eventful poster comes from Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. If you'll be in the area, you're bound to catch at least a few of GSAPP's many upcoming events.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Events will take place at 6:30 pm in Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, unless noted. Free and open to the public.

JANUARY

Jan 29
Twelve Ecologies of the Envelope

FEBRUARY

Feb 3
Advanced Data Visualization Project

Feb 7
1:00 pm
New York Minutes - part of the Collecting Architecture Territories symposia
at East Gallery, Buel...

Mark Wigley steps down as Dean of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia

2013-09-23T19:52:00-04:00

A source from Columbia University has shared with Archinect that Mark Wigley, the Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, will step down from his position at the end of the academic year. Wigley has been a formidable presence as dean for nearly the past ten years, and his successor will no doubt have some very large shoes to fill.

The announcement was made in an email (excerpted below) from Columbia's president, Lee C. Bollinger:

After nearly a decade of innovative leadership, Dean of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Mark Wigley has shared the news that this will be his final academic year as the School's dean.

Let me just say now that Mark has been an extraordinary dean, a University citizen of the first order, and a friend I, and I know we, cherish. In every context, he has represented the School and the institution in ways that make us all proud to be part of such a vibrant place. And to all of it he has brought his...

Why did some Columbia architecture students treat their annual like garbage?

2013-04-16T13:01:00-04:00

Departing with the familiar tradition of producing a hefty physical volume, GSAPP offered its most recent Abstract in the form of an iPad app. In addition to (or on cover-like behalf of) this app, students received an object: It looks like a book, but turns out to be a book-shaped plastic box, and its contents consist of a URL, where the app can be downloaded. This object, as you can see, has not been universally embraced.

"GSAPP 2012 - 6 Months After Graduation" Employment Status Report

2013-03-05T18:53:00-05:00

An independently-led survey of graduates from Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation was recently conducted, to assess the overall status of employment. The infographic-rich document can be seen below.

“GSAPP 2012 - 6 Months After Graduation” is an attempt to capture the state of our class in our first year of post-gradschool life. Did we finally find a job? Did we move to another city? Another country? How many hours a week are we working? How much are we making? What software are we finally using? These are some of the questions this survey tries to answer, and in doing so, it may also serve as a snapshot of the architectural profession itself, how it treats its newest members and how it is doing in this fragile economy.

The survey was made up of 17 questions and was voluntarily responded by 63 graduates from the Masters of Architecture program at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

Frank Lloyd Wright Collection Moves to MoMA and Columbia

2012-09-04T12:30:00-04:00

[FLW's] entire archive is moving permanently to New York in an unusual joint partnership between the Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, where it will become more accessible to the public for viewing and scholarship. The collection includes more than 23,000 architectural drawings, about 40 large-scale, architectural models, some 44,000 photographs, 600 manuscripts and more than 300,000 pieces of office and personal correspondence.

DS+R's Design for Columbia's Medical and Graduate Education Building Unveiled

2012-06-27T18:08:00-04:00

The design centralizes all social and public spaces in a vertical stack at the south face of the building. This continuous space features a multi-story glass façade that maximizes light and offers exceptional views to the south. The interiors of the study cascade – a system of special alcoves reserved for social interaction – are complemented by outdoor gathering spaces and terraces that are clad in cement panels, wood, and other materials.

A critical shift in urban policy

2012-04-12T17:42:00-04:00

Medellín has turned itself into a model Latin American city, with good transport, dynamic public spaces, new schools and a culture of civic architecture. The real design project, however, was one of social organisation, with a section of society grouping together and deciding to rewrite their city's story.

Justin McGuirk analyzes the "social urbanism" of Medellín's "self-consciously iconic" architecture. Efforts by politicians such as Sergio Fajardo and architects like Giancarlo Mazzanti to focus on public space and civic architecture, were he finds part of a larger program of "social architecture" which saw all members of society focusing on ensuring that "future development outcomes are as equitable, sustainable and pro-poor as possible".

For more on these developments in Columbia make sure to visit the exhibition Colombia: Transformed/Architecture=Politics at The Instituto Cervantes of Chicago (put on in collaboration with MAS Studio). The exhibit features ten recently built social projects by five leading voices in contemporary Colombian architecture. The projects all "demonstrate ideas of social inclusion as well as innovative architectural forms and spaces, which have been steadily transforming Colombian cities and the nation".

Columbia University GSAPP and SOA Unveil Temporary/Contemporary Pavilion – BOB

2011-05-25T18:51:21-04:00

BOB, an inflatable cloud above a public bathroom and forum, will officially open on June 1, 2011. The pavilion is the result of a pedagogical experiment involving graduate art and architecture students at Columbia University. Supported by the Bridge Grant for the Art and Architecture, Professors Galia Solomonoff (GSAPP), Nathan Carter (GSAPP), and Liam Gillick (SoA) advised and provoked a joint team from the Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning (GSAPP), and the School of the Arts (SoA).

The pavilion will be open from June 1st to July 25th, and features a public restroom installation, a projection screen, twelve student-designed seats and a bar beneath an inflatable canopy. The public restroom, which includes a composting toilet, is enclosed by a screen for the projection of ideas. Reconsidering the idea of graffiti and public anonymity, images and shadows are cast upon a translucent scrim. Privacy is preserved, but information is not restricted by solid wal...

From the School Blogs: #23: EOYS [Icing on the Cake]

2011-05-20T20:42:31-04:00

So the summer is here and it's been raining all week in NYC. I'm off to DC for the weekend! As I promised, photos from the GSAPP 2011 End-of-the-Year Show. Are you excited? I am particularly proud of all the work everyone at our school produced. Architecture is alive and kicking.

From the School Blogs: #22: Black & Yellow [End-of-Year Show Sneak Peek]

2011-05-17T13:41:46-04:00

Lucky you! A sneak peek into the GSAPP End-of-the-Year show which opens tomorrow Saturday May 13 at 5:00 PM, AVERY HALL. All classes from studios, visual studies, technology, and seminars will be taking over the school from basement to rooftop adorning walls with drawings, ceilings with models, and every kind of eye-candy to satisfy your sweet tooth.

From the School Blogs: #21: 18 critics, 10 projects, 2 dyson air multipliers, 115 avery

2011-05-11T13:43:47-04:00

Place: Living Room Studio Time: 12:18 PM Photos from the final!

Anthony shares with us photos from the final reviews at Columbia. Star-studded cast!

From the Blogs: #20: Postpartum Depression

2011-05-02T18:14:15-04:00

On campus, Bacchanal, is throwing a concert featuring Snoop Dog. I'm at home nursing my postpartum depression after birthing my final project and trying to do my paper for Kenneth Frampton's Architecture History II.