By the start of July most of the world was more than three months into the COVID-19 pandemic, far surpassing the original hopes that we would have had it contained enough to return back to schools and workplaces. New architecture graduates were a couple of months into a job search at a time when most firms couldn't even think of hiring new staff. Summer travels plans were abandoned or drastically altered in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, while many were throwing caution to the wind to regain their freedom. Little did we all know, we were still in the infancy of the pandemic. In the world of architecture, these were the stories that dominated the month of July...

This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land—COVID-19’s Impact on Indian Country

For July 4th this year we opted to publish an op-ed by Joseph Kunkel, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and Director of MASS Design Group’s Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab. Joseph addressed the history of stolen lands from the Indigenous peoples and the poor living conditions that exist in those communities that have dramatically increased the vulnerability to Covid.

The Architectural Association in London faces leadership crisis

In the beginning of July news spread about a lack of trust in the leadership at the AA, under the new director Eva Franch i Gilabert. 52% of the nearly 900 people surveyed at the AA indicated that they did not have confidence in the way she was leading the school. The result...

Architectural Association has fired Eva Franch i Gilabert

About a week later the AA announced that Eva Franch i Gilabert was terminated from her leadership role. The community at the school remained steadfast in the decision, while criticism flowed in from members of the architecture community unfamiliar with the details. Many questions were asked, but not all of them seemed to be answered. 

Someone just created a tool to browse all the architecture firms that received PPP loans

The US governments' attempt at a stimulus package, which many considered lackluster (to say the least) included a "payroll protection program" offered to small businesses to keep staff employed. While this program offered much-needed financing to keep small business alive, and workers employed, July saw many examples of abuse of the program.

2020 Architecture Graduates Share Their Thoughts on the Current Job Market

Students graduating in 2020 truly had the short end of the stick. In addition to spending the last few months studying and working from home, and missing traditional graduation ceremonies, these students graduated into one of the most challenging hiring environments imaginable. We checked in with a number of new graduates about their thoughts and experiences searching for their first professional architecture position post graduation. 

Archinect's Spotlight on 2020 Thesis Projects

In celebration of the hard work graduating students faced this year we chose to publish a series on Archinect highlighting some of the most interesting thesis projects from students around the country, with 18 student projects featured on Archinect in July.

Undoing Apartheid Architecture with Wandile Mthiyane

In July we connected with Wandile Mthiyane for an in-depth discussion about the work he is doing with Ubuntu Design Group and how he is fighting to undo the architectural effects of systemic racism in South Africa through community-led design. 

Proposed law would prevent President Trump from imposing classical architecture style for federal buildings

On July 15th, a bill titled the "Democracy in Design Act" was proposed as an effort to stop the implementation the "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" initiative proposed by President Donald Trump earlier this year. Unfortunately, it wasn't very effective. 

ZHA, Grimshaw, and other large firms pen open letter decrying issues with Revit

At the end of July an open letter was published from a number of high-profile architects/firms, speaking out against a variety of issues, both with Revit software itself as well as with Autodesk's business and licensing practices. The letter criticized the "increasing cost of ownership and the operation of Autodesk’s Revit software" as well as its fundamental "lack of development." As a result...

Autodesk responds to Revit criticism

Autodesk responded with an admission that efforts have been prioritized to their engineering and construction customers. In their response, they included, "We do recognize the need to balance and have recently increased our development on the architectural capabilities of Revit. Expect to see progress here in the future. Our current roadmap for Revit is publicly available at: www.autodesk.com/revitroadmap