Archinect - News

"Are we human?" Curators Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley announce concept for 2016 Istanbul Design Biennial

2015-12-01T15:05:00-05:00

We live in a time when everything is designed, from our carefully crafted individual looks and online identities, to the surrounding galaxies of personal devices, new materials, interfaces, networks, systems, infrastructures, data, chemicals, organisms, and genetic codes... Even the planet itself has been completely encrusted by design as a geological layer. There is no longer an outside to the world of design. Design has become the world.

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, the curators of the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, announced the conceptual framework for next year's biennial in a press release held today in a library of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.

Its overlong title, ARE WE HUMAN?: The Design of the Species: 2 seconds, 2 years, 200 years, 200,000 years, indicates primary conceptual concerns: the omnipresence of design, or the world as a designed object; the category of the human, alongside and contra that of the animal; and an expanded temporal focus that "spans from the last 2 seconds to the last 200,000 years."

"Design always presents itself as serving the human but its real ambition is to redesign the human," the curators state in the press release. "The history of design is therefore a history of evolving conceptions of the human. To talk about design is to talk about the state of our species."

Rather than celebrate particular designers or imagine speculative futures, the biennial will be an "archaeolo...

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley will curate 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial

2015-05-27T13:23:00-04:00

In a press release issued today, the Istanbul Design Biennial announced that powerhouse architectural historians, theorists and educators Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley will curate the 3rd Biennial, taking place in 2016. Both are based in New York City (and happen to be married) – Colomina teaches and is a curator at Princeton University, and Wigley recently stepped down from his deanship at Columbia University's GSAPP.

The Biennial's agenda is to bring together a diversity of ideas and people within the design community to an international forum, and consider global issues from a design-minded perspective. Colomina and Wigley will announce the Biennial's "conceptual framework" in December 2015.

Their selection also continues the Biennial's trend of selecting international architecture figures for its curators – 2012's Biennial was headed by architects and researchers Emre Arolat (Istanbul) and Joseph Grima (Genoa), and 2014's was led by curator and writer Zoë Ryan (Chicago-based). ...

Weekly News Round-Up for August 11, 2014: Monumental politics, smart homes and GSAPP's new dean

2014-08-18T12:53:00-04:00

Friday, August 15

Farewell to the Old Okura: The famous Hotel Okura, built in the 1960s in a distinctive fusion of modern and traditional Japanese styles, is closing in response to prohibitive earthquake retrofits and larger, newer hotels in the area.
Samsung Acquires SmartThings, A Fast-Growing Home Automation Startup: SmartThings, an aggregator for all "smart" internet-connected devices in the home, cost Samsung an estimated $200 million —chump change in comparison to Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest.

Thursday, August 14

One ridesharing app to rule them all: Ridescout moves into the competitive world of rideshare: Ridescout aggregates hundreds of ridesharing services to compare trips, and will now include "carpool" options that can help users share trips. The announcement comes after last week's news that Uber and Lyft are now both offering carpooling services.
Revisiting the American Folk Art Museum controversy, through comics: A thoughtful and diplomatic look at AFAM's his...

Editor's Picks #376

2014-07-17T15:17:00-04:00

For the latest edition of The Deans List: Amelia Taylor-Hochberg interviewed Mark Wigley, former Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Reflecting on the service-model of architecture he suggested "There will be the financial equivalent of Archinect in my opinion, and that will be a beautiful space for multi-dimensional practice. We must be within a few years of this…" He also shared that after "stepping up" as dean this past June he is taking a sabbatical, partly to finish a book on Buckminster Fuller and Architecture in the Age of Radio.

Olaf Design Ninja_ felt it was "Another good piece of journalism ATH......in short if I were to summarize Wigley's description of what an architecture school role is and what a university could be - its an open source experimental platform for creatives".

Plus, Nicholas Korody explored connections between Patrik Shumacher and post-internet discourses. toasteroven thought it was great stuff "however- ...

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...

Video from Jacque Herzog's Columbia Lecture

2013-09-16T13:41:00-04:00

I think it is a compliment that our very best architects make people seem stupid.

Let’s Raze Javits Center (but First Finish Renovations)

2012-01-24T13:56:00-05:00

“It’s just such an awful building that the only reason to keep it would be as a monument to stupidity,” said Mark Wigley, the dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

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: #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!