Archinect - News

Toyo Ito donates early-career archive to the Canadian Centre for Architecture

2023-12-06T17:21:00-05:00

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) has just announced its acquisition of architect Toyo Ito’s early-career archive.

The trove entails drawings, models, and sketches related to his practice Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects (founded as Urban Robot) from 1971 until 1989. The CCA says the donation will help researchers establish a better through line from the 2013 Pritzker Prize winner's early-career work in dialogue with its other archival holdings. The decision was made in September after 82-year-old Ito apparently determined he could not find an “appropriate place” in his home country in which to store the collection, according to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

In a press announcement, Ito said: “The CCA is an architectural museum and research center I have the utmost trust in. Upon this donation, I received requests from many Japanese architects and researchers, asking if it is possible to keep those archives in Japan. However, I have the confidence that CCA offers unparalleled ac...

CCA's Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab Launches in San Francisco Bay

2019-12-27T14:14:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by California College of the Arts (CCA)

In August 2019, California College of the Arts (CCA) Architectural Ecologies Lab, one of five research and teaching labs in CCA’s Architecture Division, launched the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab in San Francisco Bay. The Float Lab, a cutting-edge prototype for an ecologically productive floating breakwater, builds on five years of applied research at CCA. It was initiated in the college’s integrated building design studios, in which students developed architectural proposals questioning traditional boundaries between land and water.

Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab on CCA's back lot prior to deployment. CCA Architectural Ecologies Lab

Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, CCA Architectural Ecologies Lab

Merging expertise from design, advanced digital manufacturing, and marine ecology, the Float Lab imagines a new kind of architecture for climate adaptation. Conceived as a link in a chain of bean-shaped, wave-attenuating floating ...

Get Lectured: California College of the Arts, Fall '19

2019-09-12T12:00:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2019

With a new school year already here, it's time for Archinect's latest edition of Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

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

The California College of the Arts' architecture lecture series for Fall '19 kicks off with the exhibition, “Perspectivas: We the City - Latinos in Architecture”, which officially opens on September 19. Lectures will be given by Diego Ricalde, Peggy Deamer, Jia Gu, Ana Arriola, Marc J Neveu, Clark Thenhaus, Andrew Kudless, and Ana Miljacki.

Other upcoming events this semester include the “Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space” gallery talk, the Design Earth Lecture, the “Condemned Buildings and Other Stories:...

Curator Giovanna Borasi picked to lead the Canadian Centre for Architecture

2019-09-11T20:15:00-04:00

A change in leadership is taking place at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal, where the current chief curator, Giovanna Borasi, has been tapped to take over the institution as long-time director Mirko Zardini steps aside.

Zardini has led CCA for over 14 years and is responsible for the organization's enhanced international reputation, as well as its evolving approach to conveying architectural concepts and issues. Borsai, speaking with The Globe and Mail, said, "Our specialty is to take a broad societal issue, and bring it into a dialogue with architecture.”

After nearly 15 years of disruptive provocation, Mirko Zardini will step down as our Director this December. Today, we are thrilled to announce that Giovanna Borasi, Chief Curator since 2014, will take over the role in January 2020. pic.twitter.com/anJMjUo397
— CCA (@ccawire) September 11, 2019

CCA was founded in 1979 by influential architect and curator Phyllis Lambert and has rocked the boat ever since, pro...

Montreal's CCA to study postcolonial perspectives on the architecture of the African continent

2019-07-29T13:12:00-04:00

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is embarking on a new initiative aimed at understanding "architecture's historical role in decolonization, neocolonialism, globalization, and their manifestations" across the African continent, according to a recent announcement.

The focus on Africa's architecture represents a desire on the part of CCA to expand scholarly research efforts by reconsidering its archives in order to "challenge the reliance on Western sources by looking beyond institutional archives to others constructed around single buildings, international organizations, urban spaces, new policies, statistics, laws, photography, financial programs, and philosophical, intellectual, or cultural propositions."

Starting in October 2019, CCA will host an 18-month research effort in collaboration with 10 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation researchers to undertake this challenge. The scholars will develop projects that "seek to analyze and historicize the ways in which architecture manif...

AIA|LA recognizes the work of California's architecture students at the 2019 2x8:Exchange Competition

2019-05-15T15:04:00-04:00

This week the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapterfeatures work from architecture students in California. The 2x8: Exchange is a three-pronged program that provides students the opportunity to submit their work for the competition, be apart of the student exhibition, as well as provide scholarship opportunities. Now in its 13th iteration, the competition received participation from 16 schools throughout the state to participate in the annual show. In celebration of California's unrivaled diversity in academic pedagogy and programming, each school selects two students to represent the program's ethos and vision.

2x8:Exchange at Helms Design Center, 2019. Image courtesy of Katherine Guimapang

Open to the public, this year's student exhibition takes place in Culver City at the Helms Design Center. Focusing on a forward-thinking take of gallery presentation and setting the show features VR immersion stations, a zero-waste plan, and an ornate display of student work in th...

Archinect Outpost to host book launch for "New Investigations In Collective Form," the latest publication by Neeraj Bhatia

2019-04-11T13:17:00-04:00

Join us in celebrating New Investigations In Collective Form: The Open Workshop, the latest book by Neeraj Bhatia at Archinect Outpost on Friday, April 26, 7–9pm.

Keith Krumwiede will give a short introduction to kick off the event, followed by a panel conversation between Neeraj Bhatia, Noémie Despland-Lichtert and Jimenez Lai.

The book can be preordered here for pickup at the event, or shipping immediately after the event. Please go here to RSVP for the event.

New Investigations in Collective Form presents a group of design experiments by the design-research office The Open Workshop, that test how architecture can empower the diverse voices that make up the public realm and the environments in which they exist. Today, society continues to face urban challenges—from economic inequality to a progressively fragile natural environment—that, in order to be addressed, require us to come together in a moment when what we collectively value is increasingly difficult to locate. Organize...

Get Lectured: California College of the Arts, Spring '19

2019-01-22T13:46:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Spring 2019

It's time for Archinect's latest Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

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

The California College of the Arts' Spring '19 architecture lecture series will start off with the Possible Mediums book launch and dialogue on January 28. This semester's lineup also includes David Gissen, Barbara Bestor, Lisa Iwamoto & Craig Scott, Meejin Yoon, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Rahul Mehrotra, and more.

Other upcoming events are a film screening of “Owned: A Tale of Two Americas” and a Q&A with the film's director Giorgio Angelini; a conversation highlighting the digital release of Design Book Review, and The Ecopoesis project launch with a keynote lecture f...

Amid major campus expansion, CCA announces Keith Krumwiede as new Dean of Architecture

2018-05-14T20:03:00-04:00

The California College of the Arts has announced Keith Krumwiede as the school's new Dean of Architecture. Beginning in August, Krumwiede will be taking over duties from Lisa Findley, who has been serving as Interim Dean since Jonathan Massey left to head the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of Michigan back in August of 2017.

“We are thrilled to welcome educator, designer, author, and satirist Keith
Krumwiede to CCA. Keith is a multifaceted professional that maintains a rare sense of humor about architecture while greatly advancing the field through his work in higher education, scholarship, criticism, and design,” says CCA Provost Tammy Rae Carland. “I am looking forward to seeing the students and the division benefit from his wide-ranging experience, critical insights, architectural knowledge, and demonstrated leadership in the classroom.”

Krumwiede is joining the school from the American Academy in Rome, where he is currently an Arnold W. Brunner/...

From concrete to composites, Designing Material Innovation exhibit at CCA addresses questions about our past, present, and possible futures

2017-10-24T17:58:00-04:00

From glass fiber reinforced concrete to upcycled waste foam, the building blocks of the future are being developed in the research labs of today and a current exhibit at the California College of Arts in San Francisco is putting some of these new methods and techniques on display. Curated by Jonathan Massey—the new Dean of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning—and designed by Clark Thenhaus of Endemic, Designing Material Innovation features five full-scale prototypes that conjoin form and material in fresh ways.

Located on the school's Back Lot, the five pieces "explore the functional and experiential dimensions of architecture generated at the intersection of formal and material research." All products of experimentation in and around North American architecture schools, the prototypes exemplify great technical capacities in concrete and composites. In showing advanced design and fabrication techniques, they demonstrate how "architectural research addresses...

New approaches to material, fabrication, and design on display at CCA's "Designing Material Innovation"

2017-09-27T19:18:00-04:00

Beginning tomorrow, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, will host Designing Material Innovation, an exhibition being held on the College's Back Lot—soon to be converted into their new campus by Studio Gang—which will put on display new approaches to material, fabrication, and design. Created through collaborations between architects and industry partners, the works combine technological innovation in materials research and fabrication with aesthetic and ethical approaches to form and appearance.

"Confetti Urbanism" by Clark Thenhaus.

"Thinness" by Aptum Architecture.

The exhibition, and accompanying symposium, has been organized by Taubman's new dean Jonathan Massey and will feature five full-scale architectural prototypes and pavilions by CCA Digital Craft Lab, APTUM Architecture, Matter Design with M.I.T. Architecture, and T+E+A+M. Design of the exhibition has been carried out by Clark Thenhaus of Endemic Architecture and features a “confetti urbanism” that rearrang...

"Complexity and Convention", an exhibition curated by Greg Lynn, to open at the Yale School of Architecture

2016-12-19T12:37:00-05:00

Opening on Thursday, January 12 at the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, “Archaeology of the Digital: Complexity and Convention” is a new exhibition that considers the integration of digital technologies in architecture practice during the 1990s and 2000s. The exhibition, which is curated by Greg Lynn, is the third and final exhibition of the “Archaeology of the Digital” series organized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). The series highlights 25 seminal projects while considering the preservation challenges posed by digital archives.

Unlike the first two exhibitions, “Complexity and Convention” looks at similarities, rather than distinctions, in the approaches of various projects. The exhibition is divided into five themes: high fidelity 3D, structure/cladding, data, photorealism, and topography/topology.

Projects featured in the exhibition include:

Erasmus Bridge (Rotterdam, The Netherlands; 1990-1996) by Van Berkel & Bos Architects; Chemnitz Stadium (Chemnitz, Ge...

Studio Gang to design new, unified campus for the California College of the Arts in San Francisco

2016-12-12T13:45:00-05:00

Studio Gang has beat out Allied Works and Michael Maltzan to win a commission to design an expanded art and design campus for the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. The decision follows a two-year search and planning process.

Currently, the CCA campus is split between two sites in San Francisco and Oakland. The new unified campus, which will extend on to a 2.4 acre site adjacent to the existing San Francisco campus, will house all of the school’s programs. “We are excited to discover with CCA the possibilities that a unified campus in San Francisco presents for the future of art teaching, learning, and making,” said founding principal Jeanne Gang in a press statement.

Major components of the plan include continuing the school’s tradition of sustainable building practices as well as creating affordable student housing. In recent years, rent in San Francisco has become increasingly unaffordable for most young people. CCA plans to add twice the amount of beds it curre...

"The Other Architect" explores alternative practices and radical research projects

2015-10-27T15:59:00-04:00

For as long as architecture has been reduced to a service to society or an “industry” whose ultimate goal is only to build, there have been others who imagine it instead as a field of intellectual research: energetic, critical, and radical. But how can we produce or maintain this position?

The Other Architect, an expansive exhibition that considers "architecture’s potential to identify the urgent issues of our time" through twenty-three case studies from the 1960s to the present, opens tomorrow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal.

Curated by Giovanna Borasi, the exhibition looks at various groups that have sought to critically intervene in the architectural profession, as well as to mobilize architectural thinking towards an expanded field. If the "normal architect" works within established conditions and using a defined toolset, these "other architects" developed (or borrowed) new methodologies, experimented formally and conceptually, and sought alternative organizational structures.

Architecture witnessed a proliferation of radical experiments beginning in the mid-20th century, resulting in outputs in a variety of a media, such as pamphlets, manifestos, videos, questionnaires, and books. In the exhibition, the material is organized in thematic ga...

Get Lectured: California College of the Arts, Fall '15

2015-09-16T17:53:00-04:00

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 California College of the Arts, Architecture Division.

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

Check out their upcoming events below. Unless noted otherwise, lectures start at 7 p.m. in Timken Lecture Hall: 1111 Eighth St, San Francisco. Free and open to the public.

Sept 21
WHAT’S NEXT AT WORK Forum
Moderated by Katherine Lambert of CCA, featuring:
Aaron Taylor Harvey, Airbnb Environments
Emily Ma, Google[x]
Primo Orpilla, Studio O+A

Sept 28
THOM MAYNE / Morphosis

Oct 12
KAI-UWE BERGMANN / BIG

Oct 19
STEVEN MILLER / Steven Miller Design Studio and The N...

Get Lectured: California College of the Arts, Spring '15

2015-02-20T19:16:00-05:00

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.

Printed in bright fluorescent ink, the next poster features the Spring '15 Architecture + Interior Architecture lecture series at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

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

Listed below are upcoming events only. Note each event's time + location. Free and open to the public.

Feb 23
7-9 pm
Khoi Vo / Savannah College of Art and Design
at Timken Lecture Hall, San Francisco Campus

Mar 2
7-9 pm
Tina Manis / Tina Manis Associates
at Timken Lecture Hall, San Francisco Campus

Mar 12
4 pm
Diffuse Density: Making Housing Affordable Symposium
at SPUR: 654 Mis...

Get Lectured: California College of the Arts, Fall '14

2014-09-04T14:02:00-04:00

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 poster comes from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Speakers include Neeraj Bhatia, Elena Manferdini, Jorge Otero-Pailos, and David Benjamin of The Living -- who designed the Hy-Fi Tower at MoMA PS1.

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 begin at 7 pm in Timken Lecture Hall at the CCA San Francisco campus. All events free and open to the public.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 3
Chip Lord & Curtis Schreier / Ant Farm; UC Santa Cruz

Sept. 15
Neeraj Bhatia / InfraNet Lab; The Open Workshop; CCA Urban Works Agency San Francisco

Sept. 22
Frida Escobedo / Taller Frida Escobedo - Mexico City

OCTOBER

Oct. 6
Interior ...

Álvaro Siza donates his architectural archives to institutions in Portugal and Canada

2014-07-24T18:53:00-04:00

Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza this week announced to donate his architectural archive to public architectural institutions in Portugal and Canada. The decision was motivated by Siza's desire of fostering discussion and dialogue in a research-oriented context.

One part of the archive will be donated to the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal, and the other part will be given to two Portuguese institutions, the Fundação Gulbenkian in Lisbon and the Fundação de Serralves in Porto.

“The CCA is thrilled to accept this generous donation," remarked CCA Director Mirko Zardini. "I have known Álvaro Siza and followed his work closely for several decades. His architecture escapes easy classification, but always offers a lesson – a new way of seeing the world around us. His buildings have a distinct character and particular relationship to their urban or natural settings, always born from the desire to participate in the world. Siza’s drawings and sketches reflect his ability to...

Get Lectured: CCA, Spring '14

2014-01-20T12:49:00-05:00

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 poster features the Architecture and Interior Design Lecture Series at the California College of the Arts.

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

Unless otherwise noted**, lectures will take place at 7:00 p.m. in the Timken Lecture Hall, CCA San Francisco Campus: 1111 Eighth St (at 16th and Wisconsin)

ARCHITECTURE LECTURE SERIES

Jan 23
12:00 p.m.**
Bjarke Ingels / Bjarke Ingels Group - Copenhagen

Jan 27
Beatriz Colomina / Princeton University

Feb 12
Natalie Jeremijenko / New York University

Feb 24
Aaron Betsky / Cinci...

Phyllis Lambert steps down from Canadian Centre for Architecture

2013-12-05T14:01:00-05:00

Phyllis Lambert, 86, announced Wednesday she is retiring as chair of the board of trustees of the museum and research centre she founded in 1979. A tireless defender of Montreal’s built heritage, Lambert has taken an active role in every major urban planning debate in the city in the last four decades, from redeveloping the Old Port to protecting Mount Royal.

Phyllis Lambert, founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, is stepping down as chairperson. She had also served as Director of the CCA until 1999. Toronto architect Bruce Kuwabara will succeed her as chair of the world-renowned museum and research center.

Before becoming an architect in the 1960s, Lambert established herself as Director of Planning for the Seagram Building, where she was responsible for hiring Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the designer. She recently published a book, Building Seagram, chronicling the experience.

Editor's Picks #343

2013-11-26T12:22:00-05:00

Archinect inaugurated a new interview series The Deans List. For the first installment, Archinect talked with David Gissen, the Director of Architecture at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Reflecting on current trends and his own interests for the future of architectural education he reflects "I think lots of architecture schools are interested in working with cities, and with centers of power like a municipal office – some powerful agent that has the ability to transform and legislate the shape of the city. It’s an exciting thing for architecture students to be involved in those forms of power".

While in the latest edition of Showcase; featured Taipei Sales Center by Oyler Wu Collaborative. A somewhat temporary project with limited programmatic needs resulted in "a five-story volume pierced (quite literally) and interconnected by an intricate ribbon of rope, steel, and fabric. The renovation creates an entirely new identity and is suggestive of the modern ...

Get Lectured: California College of the Arts Fall '13

2013-09-13T11:46:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2013

Happy Friday! Here on Archinect we recently launched "Get Lectured", where we'll feature a school's lecture series--along with their snazzy posters--for the current season. Check back regularly to stay up-to-date and mark your calendars for any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Today's series is from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

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

Below are Architecture and Interior Design Lecture Events only, as listed on the poster.
(Interior Design events will be marked with ** )

Unless noted, all events will be held at Timken Lecture Hall at 7:00 pm

SEPTEMBER

September 23
Jing Liu / Solid Objectives (SO-IL)

OCTOBER

October 7**
Jason Logan and Matthew Johnson / LOJO

October 12
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Test Sites: Experiments in the History of Space
(Learn more about this symposium...

Archeology of the Digital

2013-05-08T12:41:00-04:00

Now is the time stop starting with "in the future" in relationship to digital technology. This show will tell, "in the past digital technology did this." It is time to write its history.

Greg Lynn aims to pull the curtain on the digital positioning of sci-fi and other camps and record the history of the subject for what it really is or was. This could help the recent debates of what is what, and, depending on the curation, place certain legacies in place.

The CCA is offering Curatorial Opportunities again for 2013

2013-04-11T18:13:00-04:00

Curatorial practice as it emerged during the twentieth century is being extensively recast. The tremendous change in the status of the object, culture, the various disciplines, information and education, implies an inevitable transformation of the curator’s role and competences. A renewed interest for curatorial practice has recently emerged within the field of architecture.

For the third year the CCA launches two curatorial opportunities beginning in fall 2013: the Young Curator Program and the Curatorial Internships Program.

Young Curator Program
The Program offers the opportunity to propose and curate a project on the contemporary debate in architecture, urbanism, and landscape design during a residency of 3 months at the CCA. Read the guidelines here.
Deadline extended to 5pm EST, Monday, 29 April 2013

Curatorial Internships
With the generous support of the Power Corporation of Canada, the Curatorial Internships are designed to share the CCA’s expertise with students ...

Architecture in Uniform Designing and Building for the Second World War

2011-04-05T19:57:48-04:00

Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War documents the extensive contribution of architecture to the war between the bombings of Guernica in 1937 and Hiroshima in 1945, and considers how this questioned architectural methods and construction technologies, and lead to the supremacy of modernism.