Archinect - News

The 2014 U.S. Venice Biennale pavilion reinterprets 100 years of American architecture

2014-06-13T02:30:00-04:00

Styled after American corporate identity throughout the 20th century, our next featured 2014 Venice Biennale pavilion is "OfficeUS" representing the U.S. of A. Organized by NYC's Storefront for Art and Architecture in collaboration with PRAXIS Journal, the two-part exhibition will showcase and critically reinterpret the global influence of American architecture in the last century...For each week of the Biennale, OfficeUS will also address 25 issues relevant to its project archive.

Why local architects do it better, and the case against franchised architecture

2014-06-12T16:16:00-04:00

Architecture, however, is a social art, rather than a personal one, a reflection of a society and its values rather than a medium of individual expression. So it’s a problem when the prevailing trend is one of franchises, particularly those of the globe-trotters: Renzo, Rem, Zaha and Frank. It’s exciting to bring high-powered architects in from outside... But in the long run it’s wiser to nurture local talent; instead of starchitects, locatects.

Creating a universal language for city data

2014-06-05T15:28:00-04:00

City policymakers will have objective standards to compare their services and performance with other cities around the world. And just as significant, the people of cities — civic, business organizations, ordinary citizens — will be able to access the same new global standards.

This is a big, global deal. The International Organization for Standardization, based in Geneva, has issued a list of standards dictating the precise kind of data cities should be collecting, to gauge performance and character. Previously, comparisons between supposedly identical data points in different cities was not guaranteed to be "apples to apples". For example, one city's definition of "unemployment" being more restrictive than another's, making rankings faulty and discrediting performance grades.

View the 46 indicators for cities to report on, that will place them in line with the new ISO standards.

Regarding comparisons between cities, rigorously investigating the exact definition of any data sounds like an obvious consideration, but with the earnest and speedy surge in city's data collection, "more" seems to have been the optimal word, and not "stricter". In 2008, when the Global Cities Indicators Facility at the University of Toronto compared ranking metrics for seven world...

The Forgotten Space

2012-02-14T21:42:00-05:00

to Rule the Sea is to Ruin the World

A film by Allan Sekula & Noël Burch, the Forgotten Space explores the global movement of trade and labor. All the while mapping the shape of things to come in this age of no boundaries for the anything exploitative.

"The factory system is no longer concentrated in the developed world but has become mobile and dispersed. As ships become more like buildings, the giant floating warehouses of the “just-in-time” system of distribution, factories begin to resemble ships, stealing away stealthily in the night, restlessly searching for ever cheaper labor. A garment factory in Los Angeles or Hong Kong closes, the work benches and sewing machines reappear in the suburbs of Guangzhou or Dacca. In the automobile industry, for example, the function of the ship is akin to that of conveyor systems within the old integrated car factory: parts span the world on their journey to the final assembly line."

Also in Artforum, "Seafarers All" a review of the film by Benjamin Young.

"Through visits...