Archinect - @davefromhialeah

Digital Marketing in Arhchitecture: 8 Takeaways

2015-04-06T09:50:26-04:00

This week’s Built-In: Architecture & Entrepreneurship Meetup on Digital Marketing in Architecture in NYC brought a few major epiphanies that were definitely worth elaborating on.

I left Architecture late last year for a number of reasons, but mainly to seek out projects where design was one of many components in building great things, products, services, or experiences.

The latest event from Built-In brought together a wildly-engaging collection of professionals with unique connections to AEC [architecture, engineering, and construction] industries. Moderated by @georgevaldes, the conversation highlighted some tangible marketing strategies used outside traditional practice. The discussion made clear there are many young designers on the same boat I was in a year ago.

Built-In — a Meetup group coordinated by George Valdes, Adrian von der Osten, and a team of passionate young architects — have held similar events over the past several months, all of which have raised fundamental question...

Thoughts on the Miami Beach Convention Center

2014-08-13T19:37:00-04:00

For a long time (three years to be precise), I considered Miami Beach to be the South Florida node of progressive architecture, a design-oriented community, in stark contrast to the ‘mainland’ of Miami-Dade. South Beach brought Hargreaves & Associates to South Pointe Park – a one of a kind public strip with views to the ocean and cruise ships exiting the port. The New World Symphony Orchestra brought Gehry Partners’ curvaceous interior and Art Deco box-inspired exterior to 17th Street. Upcoming projects by Zaha Hadid, TEN Arquitectos, are in full swing. And of course, 1111 Lincoln Road, orchestrated by Robert Wennett and designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Raymond Jungles Inc., created an architectural mecca for the parking garage’s tropical brutalism. If you go far back enough, the transformation of Lincoln Road into a pedestrian-only street designed by Morris Lapidus could be considered revolutionary, considering the mid-century dominance – especially in Miami – of the automobile. ...

Dresses, Cameras, and Lots of Robots. A Look at "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" Exhibition at the Met

2014-08-06T17:03:00-04:00

Architects have had a long history of idolizing fashion – it’s fabrics, geometries, material performance – and the Charles James exhibition at the Met portrays the fashion designers work in a way that all but forces you to hold the work in equally high regard. Perhaps a little late to the game, I finally got around to seeing the work of the fashion designer who infamously obsessed over his methodology toward the end of his career. It was great to see the dresses in person - far more spatial, tectonic, and architectural than I imagined. The exhibition, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, goes to great lengths to augment the exhibition’s pieces through various technological means. With screens tilting up from pedestals, robotic arms rotating, and blown-out projections shooting towards walls and dresses, the exhibition is certainly tech-heavy without overshadowing the amazing work of Charles James.

The Robotic Arm

In the first floor gallery space, each dress hovers over an elliptical p...

no. 2 On Atmosphere

2012-11-11T15:07:00-05:00

When the question, "what's your thesis?" comes up, elaborating on the topic of atmosphere usually results in an obscure conversation about what atmosphere is exactly. How do you develop an architectural provocation based on something apparently immaterial, and for the most part, invisible? As a parallel point of departure, architecture as a discipline is struggling, and little of it, in my opinion, is due to the state of the economy. The service-oriented practice has been perpetually whittled away through value engineering, cost-cutting, and hyper-quantification of objective aspects of design. Perhaps, this is the idealist graduate student perspective coming out, but what are we studying for if not to disrupt status quo operations of the discipline?

Which brings us to atmosphere. As a clarification, 'atmosphere' and its use throughout this research is focused on architecture's responsibility for articulating the interior through moderation of temperature, humidity, and ventilati...

no. 1 The Premiss of Middle-Urbanism

2012-11-10T01:00:00-05:00

"The Middle" [an impromptu name for my research] takes up the question of middle-urbanism, i.e., contexts which can neither be described as urban, suburban, or rural, or the endless classifications to prop up over the last several years. As the urbanization of the world become more prominent in architectural discourse and beyond, the middle-urban sites pose somewhat of a conundrum. Rather than hold the metropolis as the holy grail for urbanism, The Middle highlights cities whose positions are integral to local economies, yet have no particular impetus to grow, densify, or urbanize.

Quad Cities envelopes the Mississippi River, comprised of Davenport and Bettendorf West of the River in Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island on the East side in Illinois. And it just so happens that Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing site in the country, sits squarely in the middle of the mighty Mississippi. Although the arsenal is quite a lot to wrap one's head aro...

Project:Territory, A Thesis at Taubman College

2012-11-10T00:39:49-05:00

It's been a while since I've blogged, or written anything substantial for that matter, but as we approach the midway point of thesis at Taubman College, I thought I'd share the experience, as well as the particular trajectory of "Project: Territory."

Perhaps Taubman College's biggest asset is its size. There is far too much going on in the school to fully absorb everything; students learn early on that their particular trajectories are self-inflicted, and seeking out mentors is paramount in avoiding a generalized body of work and research. Project:Territory, with Rania Ghosn at the helm, situates architectural investigation in the Corn Belt, a territorial definition used to define the productive agricultural landscape of the Midwest. The studio has been hard at work creating "The Corn Belt Atlas," a combination of production, exchange, and consumption analysis, with the studio's individual spatial narratives as a secondary phase of research.

In October, the corn belt crew ...

"Drawings & Pictures" Easter Sunday at Taubman College with Andrew Zago

2012-04-08T16:51:00-04:00

I must say, it was a bit disconcerting getting an impromptu announcement from John McMurrough that Andrew Zago was in the East Review space, ready to give a talk on Drawings. Sure, we have tons of work due this week for just about every class, but the work made for engaging conversation nonetheless!

"Drawings and Pictures"

Set up a couple distinctions

Building on some thoughts from lecture in the fall

Discussing drawings is sort of an anachronism

With a few marginal endeavors in architecture, we don't just build buildings; we set up certain directions for others to build buildings

Talking about the working space of architecture is by no means a one-to-one relationship with drawing

You produce drawings, drawings become buildings

Discuss the former, to dismiss the latter [ref. drawing & pictures]

Produce things that allow for non-architects to have a clear conception of the building

[Showing Pianesi drawings]

People would see the work of Piranesi and probab...

Advertisement and/in Architecture: Two Polarities

2012-04-05T15:44:00-04:00

In a class entitled "Urbanism After Mass Media" at Taubman College, a conversation arose about the overlap between architecture, advertisement, icon, logo, and capitalism [in a nutshell]. Primarily, the discourse was based on several readings; using texts from Bob Somol, Sylvia Lavin, Peter Eisenman, and our professor McLain Clutter, set up a pretty productive argument on whether the "Blue Whale" is completely valid or a prime example of architects "selling out" so to speak [the Blue Whale refers to Cesar Pelli's Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, for the record]. For a seminar of twelve or so, there was quite the spectrum of positions on the topic, so it got me thinking a bit further.

If we were to look at the academicians as characters, Eisenman can be abstracted to the stern, hardline intellectual that demands a level of purity in architecture, untainted by the various cultural conditions that shift the public's actions, perceptions, and desires. Somol on the other hand, p...

Let's Get RISKY, live blogging University of Michigan's RISK Conference

2012-03-30T16:32:00-04:00

Introduction by Anya Sirota to topic of "Objective Uncertainty"

This panel will consider transformative design procedures

Introduction of Giuseppe Lignano & Ada Tolia [Co-Founders of LOT-EK],

[Lignano & Tolia]

Objects & Operations

Stack & Shift

We believe in design that is unregional and cheap

What does it mean for buildings to be efficient and effective?

We focus on man-made objects not made for architectural use

Lift & Incline

We don't look for a false cleanlieness, nor do we promise a future technology to solve all of archietcture's problems

We look for the dirt, the objects, artifacts, that call for architecture to exist

Operations transform objects

[Carroll House]

Stack of 21 containers, cut diagonally, creating a monolithic presence on the street

Allocation of outdoor space at every level

Tilt & Lean

What do we do with all this stuff? First, we love it

We try to understand objects not as autonomous, but as part of a global economy/ec...

Reflecting on Benedetta Tagliabue and the Recent Work of EMBT

2012-03-27T01:07:00-04:00

As an addendum to the previous post's attempt to transcribe Tagliabue's lecture earlier this evening at Taubman College, a more personal, subjective reflection is warranted.

It is quite difficult to speak of EMBT without immediately thinking of Enric Miralles as an architectural figure difficult to classify. Tagliabue however, at least in the circles of graduate architecture programs, seems more of a mysterious figure. Speculation meanders across social circles as to what role Miralles' counterpoint played in the design of the later seminole projects such as Santa Caterina and Scottish Parliament.

About a minute or two into the lecture, and Tagliabue expresses her position quite clearly as one both reflective to the special work completed by the couple and their practice, as well as the ease in which she prevails in the profession, embedding her vivacious personality into every project, regardless of scale, whether it be an art installation or high rise office building.

Pe...

Lecture: Benedetta Tagliabue 03.26.2012

2012-03-26T18:07:00-04:00

Live Blogging #2

Before we get the show on the road, I'm pretty excited to see the recent work of Benedetta Tagliabue. I must say, probably similar to most architecture students, I am most familiar with the work of EMBT, an office which greatly effected us as students [at Florida International University at the time]. Should be great!

Monica Ponce de Leon introducing Tagliabue as Dinkeloo lecturer

Focus on the Italian, Spanish, Catalan cultures

Her work shows special dedication to context.

::introduction::

Tonight, we're taking you around a little tour of buildings most significant to us, with a focus on how we do them.

Office is a playful place where we try to involve the creativity of everybody

::plays video of Disney project with scenes from EMBT studio::

Trying to get the situation, the material [characters, cartoons], and transform it, to get an answer

Wish to make a space joyous

[Santa Caterina Market]

We did this because we were very egoistic

Mak...

Lecture: Alejandro Zaera Polo 03.23.2012

2012-03-23T18:39:00-04:00

Live tweeting [tumbling?] from Stamps Auditorium, University of Michigan...let's do this!

Monica Ponce de Leon's introduction

John McMurrough asks to notify the audience that this lecture counts for AIA Continuing Education credits [super important!]

Monica referencing establishment of Raoul Wallenberg Lecture Series, his work under Rem Koolhass, and later OMA

AZP explaining the title of lecture [envelopes]

Points to Yokohama as the point of departure for directed study of "the envelope"

Study of envelopes develops as a revision

Two mechanisms on which capitalism is placed [temporal and spatial]

What is late capitalism? [the ability to] extend time and place at will

Reality without borders, conducting business across the world with no barriers

Attempting to crystallize this fluid/liquid reality that we are just becoming aware of [referencing Yokohama]

The things we thought were gone...borders, barriers, were appearing with a violence, force

We are reali...