Archinect - News

Architecture critic Mark Lamster on the inaccessible trope 'plaguing new buildings'

2024-05-22T18:43:00-04:00

Over the past decade or so, bleacher stairs have become a ubiquitous marker of contemporary public architecture. It’s time for the trend to stop. Its subsequent proliferation serves as a good example of how avant-garde design, or at least a consumerist version of it, filters down to the mainstream. The broader point is that architects need to be more inventive as they plan new public spaces, and their patrons need to demand that those spaces are accessible for the entire population.

The ubiquitous “bleacher stair” feature can be seen in designs for the Studio Museum of Harlem, Perez Art Museum Miami, and the new Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History (just by my count) and can be traced to Rem Koolhaas’ design for Prada’s NYC flagship in 2001, says architecture critic Mark Lamster in a look around Dallas. (He later mentions SOM’s new Schwarzman College of Computing for MIT as a positive adaptation of the trend.)

Interestingly, architect and disability advocate David Gissen tells him, “I think a giant mattress would be a more appropriate element with which to gather people together. Many disabled people have called for cities to re-imagine rest as a public good, and I think it is important that we explore the possibilities.”

Other critics have begun taking note elsewhere. How refreshing it is still to see criticism include a discussion like this that doesn’t expressly encourage “bad building.”

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This anonymous L.A. artist is installing new bus-stop benches in the city's Eastside

2018-11-28T15:18:00-05:00

Some of his benches have become part of the fabric of the city — sat on and rained on, captured on Google Street View and even vandalized. Scrawled in tidy handwriting on one bench was, “i love it, thank you,” punctuated by a small heart. His greatest frustration is that whoever is removing them is leaving bus riders with no place to sit. The benches and their removal get at one of the more byzantine corners of transit bureaucracy in Los Angeles.

Realizing he had no place to rest at the bus stop near his Eastside home while recovering from a knee injury, this anonymous Los Angeles artist took matters into his own hands and began installing benches at neglected bus stops around the area, Carolina Miranda writes. Unsurprisingly, some of his benches have been removed, shedding light on L.A.'s frustratingly tedious process to approve the installation of more bus benches and shelters.

Jems Architecki's Polish conference center is built on an old coal mine

2016-07-29T14:52:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Figueras International Seating.

Katowice, a city of 300,000 inhabitants in the South of Poland, wants to leave its past of mining industry behind. In the heart of the city, and on what was formerly a mine and its inevitable mountains of mining residue, today we find there the new City Conference Centre: MCK ‐ International Conference Centre (ICC), designed by the most internationally known group in Poland, Jems Architecki.

The building, a unique block of 388,500m3, was erected (or submerged, depending how you look at it) in the new cultural area of the city, right next to the Spodek (saucer in English), the emblematic building of 1962, symbol of the city and which needed to be complemented in both aesthetics and in what it had to offer. Together they form Poland's largest Conference Centre.

After three years of construction, the ICC shows colossal dimensions. The structure is divided in two and at the intersection, the architects have created hills that ...

Unique seating for the Philharmonie de Paris: How to create a seat with low acoustic absorption for a perfect symphony hall

2016-07-20T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Figueras International Seating.

The building of the Philharmonie de Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel, is a unique architectural work in the Parc de La Villette in the French capital. The seating installed inside was specifically created for the hall by Jean Nouvel in partnership with Figueras. Up to 10 acoustic tests, in laboratories in Paris and Barcelona, were needed to achieve the desired product.

Jean Nouvel gave the Philharmonie concert hall a unique shape, as it is an adjustable space that surrounds the spectator. The Grande Salle of the Philharmonie is not designed in a “vineyard” or “shoebox” shape like traditionally. The Grande Salle starts a new model, enveloping and moveable. Jean Nouvel chose a unique solution to offer a total and enveloping experience, placing the spectators in hanging balconies at different heights. In this way, they are immersed in the hall with the feeling of heading toward the orchestra. The sound literally wraps each of ...