Donna, Ken and Fred all converged in the meatspace that was the AIA National Convention last week in Philadelphia—to explore the massive Expo floor, visit local architecture, vote on resolutions and watch those keynotes (!) by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Neri Oxman and Rem Koolhaas. Spoiler alert: Rem's was the most boring.
For more information about the resolutions up for debate at the convention, check out our episode with Gregory Walker covering unpaid internships and WTC-truthers.
And don't forget to check out our ongoing coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale – we collaborated with the Taubman students setting up the US Pavilion, have a bunch of interviews with curators in the Features, and will soon be publishing dispatches from Venice to the News.
Listen to episode 65 of Archinect Sessions, "Valorizing the Normal":
Shownotes:
Fred Scharmen's work with outer space for The Working Group on Adaptive Systems
LMN Architects in Seattle named AIA's 2016 firm of the year
Ken handling Rem's forgotten glasses:
Architecture Lobby's collaboration with Slought on (Re)Working Architecture
Neri Oxman’s 'Qamar' wearable for extraterrestrial environments
The video honoring Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown on the awarding of their Gold Medal (only Denise was present at the actual ceremony).
16 Comments
i was totally expecting to see donna in her trusted flip flops.
This was a really great discussion, only thing missing? Alcohol.
oh, ken, there was alcohol, let me guarantee that!
ken robert - to answer the question you had on the podcast: all resolutions that pass at the convention have to be formally adopted by the Board at their next meeting. given that the Board unanimously backed it beforehand, it'll be adopted. it's kind of like a law being passed, but it still has to be signed by the president.
there is a very small chance that the language could be tweaked, but in the end since the legal group reviewed it all beforehand (for compliance), it's less likely.
My blood alcohol level is still recovering!
The above image is of the Emerging Professionals party, held at the Franklin Institute. That's Ben on the left, and somewhere in that crowd is me dancing (aka the white-guy overbite Elaine Benes move) to the ultimate Philly song and best song ever recorded, Love Train.
Also, Alex, Philly is where I STOPPED wearing flip flops, as the amount of dog shit, vomit, and dumpster juice on the sidewalks made the notion of open toes repulsive.
Hi!
Hi Fred!
As I just Tweeted, the people who complained that the first keynote wasn't *about architecture* remind me of this comic:
when will Indy host. It is a great convention town. bring your flip flops to Orlando. Woohoo!
Who will be posting the Venice dispatches, some of the Arch Sessions crew or perhaps Archinect's newish UK Operations Manager?
AIA convention was awesome but I'm getting so FOMO over the Biennale right now....there are just too many amazing fun things to do in the world!
vado, I proposed that Indy host and basically everyone on the local Board got a panicky look in their eyes and said "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK THAT WOULD BE?!?!"
But I agree. Indy is a great convention city.
Greg and Ken,
Regarding Resolutions. When a resolution is proposed and passed it is merely the beginning of the process. As I have been told, when a resolution is passed it means the Board officially has to open discussion about it. What the Board decides to do with it depends on how much teeth it has. Greg is right though, regarding the support of the Board and the strength of the resolution language. Thanks to Archinect and fellow EP's I made a new friend in Greg! Sorry about your office break in. That must suck to come back from convention to. :(
@Nam, Sessions won't be in Venice but we have a few writers on the ground there – we posted their first dispatch yesterday: http://archinect.com/news/article/149947716/dispatch-from-the-venice-biennale-a-call-for-architects-to-give-a-damn
Keep an eye on the News for more soon!
BTW - (selflink warning) I wrote about some of the same things raised here in an online article for Architect's Newspaper: http://archpaper.com/2016/05/retroactive-manifesto-aia-convention-philadephia/
Thanks again for a great conversation, y'all!
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