Archinect - News

It has to do with electromagnetic fields and transmissions from the stones of these buildings

2018-03-19T11:12:00-04:00

Each piece of the structure tells that grander story. The poorly constructed stone walls in the original room hint at the area’s isolation and the need to use nearby materials. A sundial over the northern door installed by the fort’s early inhabitants is a celebration of the return of two men who were kidnapped during a Native American raid. In one room, a prayer is inscribed on a ceiling beam.

Serena Solomon traveled to the small town of San Ygnacio, Texas, where the River Pierce Foundation is working to identify, conserve and make known the built vernacular and cultural heritage of the rural village. With a special focus on the early 19th century sandstone complex of the Treviño-Uribe Rancho.

This contemporary medieval-style castle is being built using only medieval tools

2017-05-23T13:13:00-04:00

Funded mainly by tourist dollars, the French site of Guedelon has been building a medieval-style castle for the last 17 years using only the technology and tools that would have been available circa 1245. The result, which has created a living lab of craftspeople visited by curious schoolchildren, is helping archaeologists to understand not only what it was like to live and work in the Middle Ages, but also is reviving physical crafting techniques that are increasingly archaic, if not forgotten, in a digital age. In addition to inducing a desire to visit wine country, this video explains how the castle design itself was conceived:

Edoardo Tresoldi builds a ghostly wire mesh structure in Abu Dhabi

2017-05-22T12:32:00-04:00

Last year, artist Edoardo Tresoldi made waves with his wire mesh sculpture in Foggia, Italy. Installed adjacent to the basilica of Siponto, the sculpture is a full-size cathedral in its own right, built on the ruins of an older church that once stood on the site. The wire mesh creates an ethereal, spectral appearance, like a hologram or a project. Now, the artist has returned with another stunning installation—a massive event space for a royal event in Abu Dhabi.

Covering a 7,000 square meter space, the installation was built over three months. Like the sculpture in Foggia, this one is made of wire mesh and references classical architecture. After the event, pieces of the installation will be reinstalled separately in universities, parks and museums across the city.

Preservation with panache: the experimental structure preserving the Qianfoya Cliff Inscriptions in Guangyuan

2017-05-09T12:41:00-04:00

Designing a structure to protect a historic artifact or monument from the elements can often be a dry affair. At their most basic, such structures are often simple tent canopies, or more permanent, but still bare-bone, envelopes. Not the Qianfoya Cliff Inscriptions in Guangyuan, Sichuan Province, however. Rather, Cultural Heritage Protection Center at the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University crafted a unique structure to protect the 23 caves and niches containing inscriptions from the North Wei Dynasty, some 1700 years ago.

The project description details that the local climatological conditions—lots of rain, strong winds, and a fair amount of sunshine—all are to the disadvantage of conservation. So, first and foremost, the team collected a large amount of data, which was used to create, essentially, the design brief. In other words, the architecture had to protect the inscriptions from water, decrease the velocity of passing winds, and reduce temperatur...

The house has a vibe

2016-02-27T20:26:00-05:00

The utilitarian décor is in keeping with Bourgeois’s pragmatic nature...She was always interested in architectural spaces, and the rooms of 347 West 20th Street can be compared to her other artistic creations

Arthur Lubow highlights the work of the Easton Foundation, a non-profit started by the artist Louise Bourgeois. Begining this summer, the house will be accessible to the public, through tours arranged on the foundation’s website, theeastonfoundation.org. It is being maintained as closely as possible to the way it looked during its owner’s lifetime.

On a related note, check out the discussion regarding Experimental preservation and architectural authorship with Jorge Otero-Pailos, from Archinect Sessions #47

Preserving a Home in All Its Marred Glory

2016-01-11T23:24:00-05:00

Their biggest challenge was securing the house’s foundation....Other work included stabilizing the walls by injecting adhesive between the lath and plaster with a veterinarian’s needle and transforming a small bathroom into an elevator shaft

Jori Finkel profiles Carlie Wilmans founder of 500 Capp Street Foundation. The foundation was established to stabilize and preserve 500 Capp Street (exterior, interior, site-specific installations) in San Francisco, which was the longtime home and studio of the Conceptual artist David Ireland (1930-2009).

On a related note, check out the discussion regarding Experimental preservation and architectural authorship with Jorge Otero-Pailos, from Archinect Sessions #47

"Never the Same River Twice" – Experimental preservation and architectural authorship with Jorge Otero-Pailos, on Archinect Sessions #47

2016-01-07T19:19:00-05:00

Architect, artist, and experimental preservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos has created scents for Philip Johnson's Glass House, removed centuries of dust from the inside of Trajan's Column with latex, and is the newly appointed director of the Historic Preservation program at Columbia University's GSAPP, where he also began the "Future Anterior" journal. And this week, he joins us on the podcast to discuss ideas that he mulls over constantly in his work – what role should originality play in architecture? What's at stake when discourse and criticism come to rely more on representations than the in situ structure? And what role do media and virtual realities play in all of this?

This episode is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice, the only office and project management software designed specifically for architects. Check out their offer for Archinect Sessions listeners at bqe.com/startups.

Listen to episode 47 of Archinect Sessions, "Never the Same River Twice":

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