Archinect - News

Architecture as Propaganda? What do we do now?

2017-12-12T11:40:00-05:00

This isn’t a new phenomenon for 2017–see Tiananmen Square, North Korea’s totalitarian buildings, Nazi architect Albert Speer. But this year we were reminded of architecture’s enduring power to be used as political propaganda thanks to Trump’s proposed border wall.

Architecture has played a fundamental role in the propagandized rhetoric of the Trump Administration. The aim of any kind of propaganda is to promote an idea or an ideology, and Trump and his administration have used architecture to promote their own program and ideology with an unquestionable emphasis on nationalism.

How are we to look forward and discuss this appropriation of a discipline, history and study as a tool for biased and demeaning indoctrination and publicity?

The need to reclaim public spaces from white supremacists

2017-08-22T20:03:00-04:00

In this article on the Huffington Post, Lance Hosey writes about the horror of watching white surpremacists marching in the Charlottesville Downtown Mall on August 11th and 12th of this year. The Mall, which was significantly redesigned in the 1970s, serves as a unavoidable visual reminder of the pressing need for architects, designers, and city planners to reclaim public spaces from hate groups. As Hosey explains, "In the 70s, when the late landscape architect Lawrence Halprin led a community-driven design process that closed East Main Street to cars, they had the foresight to lift the brick paving on pedestals and give room to breathe for the newly planted trees’ root system, and four decades later the majestic Willow Oaks are bigger than buildings. Strolling down the Mall is like a walk in the woods. On Friday evenings in summer, 'Charlottesville's living room' teems with life, the most vivid sense of community I have ever known."

After describing the despicable events of the nig...

Christo abandons $15 million U.S.-based river project as protest against "landlord" Trump

2017-01-31T12:46:00-05:00

Christo's proposed silver-fabric-panel draped "Over the River" project has been in the making for about 25 years, after he started hunting for a natural host site in 1992 and then gradually garnered the neccessary official approvals and permits over the following decades for a 42-mile stretch along the Colorado River. However, the artist is abandoning the $15 million dollar project as a protest against President Trump, explaining that “The federal government is our landlord. They own the land. And I can’t do a project that benefits this landlord.” Although it's doubtful that the official landlord would appreciate the nuance and splendor of Christo's work, the people of Colorado would have undoubtedly benefitted economically from tourists.

Aamodt/Plumb Architects resigns from the AIA over Robert Ivy's conciliatory comments toward Trump

2017-01-10T19:54:00-05:00

Don't pay your national AIA dues if you don't agree with the direction of the association. At least, that's what Mette Aamodt is doing this year. According to a press release issued by the firm, Aamodt explains that she:

is calling on architects to join her in refusing to work for clients engaged in discrimination, human rights violations, tyranny and exploitation. AIA National dues are due this week and every member has to make a choice about where they stand.

Together with her partner Andrew Plumb, Aamodt and their firm Aamodt / Plumb Architects is raising money to start a non-profit organization dedicated to education and advocacy around quality construction techniques, healthy materials and fair labor practices. “We have just elected one of the world’s worst developers as President, who exploits people and natural resources to build junk buildings that benefit no one but himself,” says Mette Aamodt. “It’s time for architects to take a stand and fight back, rather than rolling ove...

Black Lives Matter and the politics of protesting in privatized space

2016-01-08T15:15:00-05:00

Mall of America’s ability to so zealously suppress the December 23 [Black Lives Matter] protest there highlights how, in a nation where more and more public life takes place in privatized spaces, the ability to exercise First Amendment rights has become increasingly contingent... Legal arguments that free political speech should be allowed at malls center around the idea that the shopping center has replaced the town square as a place where opinions can be heard and exchanged.

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