They submitted an entry for the "Architecture is" competition... The call for entries asked young architects to fill in the following sentence, "Architecture is ___." For Rudolph and Johnson, the answer to the question was a no-brainer. "Architecture is design, bitches."
They earned an honorable mention, and although it was never intended as a name, Design, Bitches stuck. It has turned out to be a mission statement in two words.
— laweekly.com
46 Comments
"It drives me crazy, the tediousness of most conversations on architecture," Rudolph bristles. "Architecture should be fun, and can have some play in it. That tone hasn't shown up in architecture for a while — maybe not since the '80s."
BARF
Is it now acceptable to refer to the women on this forum as bitches?
No, that all-important comma is an ever-so-tiny escape hatch (supposedly) allowing these two dolts to use an offensive word, but still give them room to cry foul if others try to.
Oh, I get it. It's like who can use the N word.
I think the name is absolutely hilarious.
Little known fact, Frank Lloyd Wright got his start by entering a mad libs competition.
Either that or working under Sullivan, mastering building principles, starting his own practice, synthesizing modernism with arts and crafts, oriental art and prairie styles, building small houses to museums, crafting beautiful details, etc.
I can't remember.
I understand the anonymous internet we post idiot things idea. I really do. It's fun - It changes our brain waves. They're women who seem to have fun with what they do and like playful feminist art. Perfect material for the anonymous post by all the great Archinect guys out there. You know the guys - The guys who hold up Frank Lloyd Wright examples.
Great Stuff! - Except for one thing
There is one person who actually has his office information attached to his racist and sexist comments.
Miles Jaffe! The amazing Miles Jaffe. I think it's appropriate to call him an extreme Archinect poster. He kills it on the boards
So Miles Jaffe (the name is amazing too) - I'll help you out on some of your questions and statements. Lets call it a extrapolation
1) "Is it now acceptable to refer to women on this form as bitches?"
Not unless you are a 12 year old boy who also uses gay slurs. But lets pretend you are a 12 year gay slur hurler. It might go like this:
"Jeanne Gang was chosen to design a new high rise in......" -Miles Jaffe -"She's a bitch"
2) "Oh, I get it. It's like who can use the N word"
Exactly Miles Jaffe - Pinned it on the head
I'll quote it again for emphasis- "like who can use the N word." Spot on - I wonder how much contact Mile Jaffe has with those "who can use the N word." Does Miles Jaffe use the N word?
Advice / time for Miles Jaffe
It's time to lay off the Achinect boards a bit. You keep posting useless comments on basically every topic. I actually scanned through and looked it up (almost as weak as pulling a Jaffe). Your opinions are not useful or interesting in any manner. Why are you so invested in posting so much? Actually I don't want to know. I'm pretty sure it would be a creepy and sad (imagine a sad little emoticon next to this).
I believe the name carries an implied It's, as in: [It's] Design, Bitches. As in, we are all the bitches.
Anyway, props to them, they are making it happen and the work rocks. You can disagree with the last part, but the first part still stands.
Who is it being racist and sexist?
Is it those that celebrate an offensive, sexist duo merely for playing to stereotypes, over real, proven female architects?
Political correctness has become so convoluted I can't understand it, least of all put my real name next to internet comments that may come back to haunt me.
being politically correct does not demonstrate good character, being politically incorrect also does not demonstrate bad character. The true sign of a racist is the jumbling before referring to a black person and then settling on African American after an awkward moment. I swear I saw a guy at dunkin donuts jumble because he didn't want to say black coffee to the black guy working there....He said can you give me a blllaa...coffee with no milk or sugar.." I giggled and then asked the guy for a black coffee without the honky ass milk. He cracked up and said...."psss you noticed that too haha". I personally distrust anyone who is always politically correct. Id rather know whos who.
jwl, as evidenced by your post here, and in others on this forum, I humbly suggest it is time to broaden your horizon with some advanced concepts.
Now don't be afraid, while at first they will no doubt appear completely alien to you, they are really not that difficult to understand. These are valuable and powerful concepts, that when used properly make blatant stupidity and ignorance readily apparent to all - except of course to the blatantly stupid.
These new concepts are called irony and sarcasm. You should research them well and study them carefully.
What gives you the right to decide who is a "real proven female architect?" Why do you have any right to set any standards in this field for anyone?
As young Architects these two have carved out a place for themselves in the field for both their Architecture and their ideas. Not easy at all.
This has nothing to do with political correctness on my end. You are offended by a name and your made up idea of what you think this firm stands for. It obviously conflicts with what you deem is the appropriate way to practice Architecture. I'm not 7 years old, don't really advocate for Frank Lloyd Wright model of learning in 2014, and I know that architecture is very diverse so I'm not offended by the name Design, Bitches or what they work on. Looked it up - Pretty cool and diverse.
A Miles Jaffe post- The best
A couple of things first. Just because it's sarcastic doesn't mean you weren't attempting to be demeaning, sexist, and for some reason racist.
Thanks for humbly suggesting I look up the concepts called sarcasm and irony though. I humbly will. Can you do me a big favor too?
Can you find someone who you think might "use the N-word" and ask them if they are "one of those who 'can' use the N word?"
Just to emphasis - the quotes around "one of those who can use the N word" are meant to reference to your post from above. Remember when you wrote that?
loosen up this buttoned-down profession, beeches!
Yes, loosen it up! With a craaaaaazy name!
I didn't know it was so easy! All this time working on craft, and all i had to do was come up with a semi-offensive name to get the boards talking! (Until of course, they talk about something else).
And where are the pictures of the work? Guess it's not so crazy after all. It's just PR, jack. And bad PR at that, zany names have a shelf live of about a week. Then you have to deliver something more than that.
firstly, from the pictures, i do not see buttoned-down. i see image-consciousness (which is fine, its a personal proclivity but lets not bs). So i doubt that the term correlates to any 'buttoning-down' but on the contrary, the term is so contrived that, tightened-uppedly, it speaks 'look at me'. there is no reason to associate mimicking pop-culture with loosening up.
secondly, there is no reason anyway to 'button down' the profession. the profession has always included people who were quite relaxed, working in small teams (or why not, in larger firms), within their milieu, not uptight, comfortable in their professional skin.
thirdly, do I believe its sexist? No. But I do think that its in the vein of an unimaginative, inelegant, snazy culture...like coming up with a very expensive perfume that smells like garbage.
fourthly, I just think that it kind of makes you discuss the name of their office much more so than their projects...as evidenced herein. plus its just ugly sounding, aside from all meaning.
but thank you Design, Bitches for this opportunity. i don't know if you are a 'found object' fished out of culture's garbage can or whether you are the nomenclature equivalent of Merda d'artista.
jwl....damn Miles can't help it he is from Lung Island..... you know the same place the Piano Man is from. Give him a break. As far as his work is concerned I wouldn't call him a crumb catcher by any means.
It's amazing how people can act behind their fake names.
Not sure if it's jealously or lack accomplishments that drives some of these posts. I find it depressing.
Peyton - Keeps reminding us that "his" craft is the most important thing in the world of Architecture. The word 'Bitches' offends him. His puritan craft heart is sad. He thinks it's just PR. Peyton thinks he has the right define Architecture again and again in every one of his posts.
By the way - It actually looks like they are delivering. Multiple projects - AIA award. Actually the whole article is about them delivering. Come on - Are you really that pathetic you have to jump in and attack others doing well?
Wrote a whole response to tammuz but then realized this person is nuts. Can't deal with crazy. My bad crazy tammuz. Stay crazy
jwl - "It's amazing how people can act behind their fake names"
LOL - I almost fell off the couch laughing.
good, now we resolved that the name is more of a Merda d'Artista since its calculated to attract flies, some buzzing in excitement and others with criticism. but jwl is one piece of turd I'm not ready to buzz for.
jesse
pinkman,
bitch
(links nsfw)
this discussion is depressing.
for what it's worth, rudolph used to be a regular here, was always a smart communicator, ran a design/build firm for a while, has now had some success in this new venture.
this partnership seems to do a few things, prioritized in this order: a) make good projects that help their clients be successful, b) do things they think are fun and interesting, and c) gain attention to their firm through provocation. and not just through their name, but also through more art-like projects, installations, and their clever send-ups of architecture's cult of celebrity.
seems like a great partnership!
as long as they keep doing a, why should anyone take exception to b or c? because your biases/habits/traditions keep you from doing what they're doing?
one really effective thing the name does: it assures that we won't think of them as just any other architecture firm going through the motions. for those who believe, like i do, that the traditional architecture practice is an endangered species, the approaches to design work and culture that these architects are exploring is not only smart but possibly necessary.
from the article:
"I'm actually thinking of having them do my house."
maybe should be double-posted to the 'shit clients say' thread....
You don't need a lid on a bucket of crabs, they'll claw and scratch to keep each other down just fine. I'd rather be a bitch than a crab.
(I also remember when R Rudolph was on archinect, one of the most reasonable and helpful people that ever graced these pages.)
Steven's right, this is a depressing discussion-- only one of more and more here on Archinect.
For me, the complaint has nothing to do with architecture and everything to do with branding and the larger culture. After spending the last week reading and hearing from vapid, wealthy women celebrities how we're now supposed to banish the word "bossy" from our vocabularies forever because it supposedly hurts the feelings of little girls, we now get "Design, Bitches." Regardless of any design talent this duo has, their marketing ploy is calculated to draw attention, which is fine. My strong hunch, however, is that they might be the first out there with torches and pitchforks if anyone dared to use the key word in any way offensive to their sensibilities.
In other words, I'd be fine with the name if I didn't already have the word police breathing down my neck more and more each day. (So, let's do a rundown. "Bossy"? No way! "Bitch"? Absolutely not. Unless it's set off with a comma, and invoked with a satiric *wink* by the privileged set.)
I'm going to change the name of my firm to Design, Muthafucka.
jwl, you really hate fake names, i get it! except when it comes to "design, bitches" of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't necessarily blame the duo themselves for their PR move--more of these discussions have to do with problems in the current media. With a lack of rigorous critique, the falling standards of Architectural Record, Dwell, Arch. Paper into PR drivel, and blogs like Gizmodo trying to jump in with their own brand of B.S. "Gerhry sucks, Calatrava sucks, repeat," this is the kind of thing that makes headlines. "Design, Bitches," is shaking up the profession. How exactly is that? If they are I'd love to see the work or some discussion of that. But the problem is that content is never the issue in a digital media that sucks all of the life out of the content. I miss magazines with well-written and researched content.
The only one that shook up the profession in the last 20 years was OMA, with its truly banal name.
not sure if your comment was directed at mine, peyton, but i didn't suggest they were shaking up the profession. only that they were - in their small way - shaking up how they approach the profession. which is basically not to let other people's assumptions or expectations shackle them.
their work may not change the world. but it will get them more work. with luck, their approach will help them develop a business model that doesn't look like the norm, because the norm is broken.
no one actor is going to remake how we do things. and those who choose different paths may not get even as much notice as rudolph and johnson. lots of us, each doing things a little different than before, however, will eventually help the profession to evolve and survive.
I think it is possible to be clever and evolving and all of that and still also be professional, but a silly name will limit your growth potential. They really should consider changing the name if they are ambitious. Who's going to want to work for/with Design, Bitches? That one would be hard to explain on your resume.
There's an art to having a name, one that encapsulates what they are going after. Their name invites this kind of 'is it sexist?" criticism. At the end of the day it will overshadow any work they do. There are a lot of graphic design firms with creative names that are also serious people.
Steven, I agree. I think the name is nothing more than PR, but who gives a shit anyway. That's the culture we live in. Some choose to play with that reality and others choose to drop out of it. Imo both are ok. Its also ok to do neither and just do good work. As Ive said before, the goal of the 21st century in my opinion should be "towards a new architect" instead of "towards a new architecture." The problem to me seems to be the ridgid paradigm of architecture practice and not the architecture. There is plenty of talent out there and plenty of knowledge, what lacks is the ability to mobilize/implement ideas. For that, we need to explore new ways of approaching the business/practice of architecture. Not saying that everyone should take a similar approach as these two, but I do appreciate their ability to diversify themselves from more traditional practices. A name says a lot. Like it or not, the way we present ourselves to society creates a certain perception about architecture. I for one cant stand the culture of branding, but if that's their approach, who cares... Diversity is always a good thing imo... Its clear that they are at least attempting to approach things in a diverse novel way. I would however like to see more people diving deeper into this and not just presenting new perceptions but instead new realities. In that, they fall short of reaching anywhere near they kind of "change" we need to see, but an attempt to do things different regardless of how minimal it may be is worth something.
It's all entertainment now. Controversy gets you a soundbite and a spot in the media food chain. Substance - who needs it? Aside from the fact that it isn't profitable.
Take an antidepressant pill if it depresses you. What should be more depressing is basing your comprehension on unjustified clichés and murky rationale. No, it doesn't show a different approach to architecture (necessitating the same effort, attitude, professionalism and so on as it would if the firm called itself another name) but a different approach to firm naming and publicity. And again, its part of a now snazy and vapid culture -that has commercialism as an end and sell-yourself ethic- that formulaically elevates the pop and vernacular to the status of civil representation. In reality, the act that strikes Steven Ward as necessary for change is nothing but the penetration of commercialism and PR into the little typically unexciting world of firm names...nothing more. By assuming the contrary Steven Ward reminds me of honest revolutionaries being puppet-controlled by outside intelligence agencies. Its a sign of...no offenseintended....unintelligent desperation, being gullible and prone to wishful thinkng. Again, empirically speaking, irrespective of opinion, we're still swarming around the name and not work...ergo, whether they intended it or not (I suggest that they did), the effect has been our being engaged by such a trivial subject as their name as opposed to their content.
Sam Mockebee is probably one of the only people I can think of that actually broke free from the traditional system of architecture practice and the overall system of American wealth based design...He did it without any provocative names too. So yeah weighing them against truly revolutionary people is a bit silly, but at least they are trying to provoke something different than the stiff ones.
And again, what an ugly sounding name. Compare it with Snøhetta for instance. What a crude rough-sex-grunt female-mutt of a name it is (DB). They definitely are dead to the beauty of words.
if they called their firm Rudolph+Johnson they'd be confused with Paul and Phillip, bitches.
Tammuz, I agree with the commercialism/"selling yourself" critique, but are they knowingly playing with that given cultural reality, or just falling into it? Warhol, NWA, etc... played with it and exploited it knowingly. Is this the kind of mindset they are coming from? Who knows. Most likely they just fell into the system of bullshit but give them the benefit of doubt.
Are the FATs and BIGs of world any better or worse? Seriously, everyone, get the sticks out of your collective arses. I think the name is smart, deliberate, and effective, probably more than you can say for most of the firms y'all work for.
It's fine if you want to model your firm after Warhol, NWA and pleasing a few hipsters, but make sure you don't expect any large scale projects as such.
Bjarke Ingels Group, Diller Scofidio, Frank Gehry, HOK, SOM are boring sounding but they do major work. Building a reputation from years of hard work beats a gimmick anyday.
Peyton's last post was so dumb there's no place to even attack it. The whole post is absolutely moronic.
Your architectural goal is to start the next SOM? They have been around since the 30's. Every firm you listed has a competently different back story of how they started.
You also assume these two don't work hard but I guarantee they don't have 40 hours a week to troll Archinect dropping moronic gems like your last post.
Some quotes from the anonymous poster known as 'jwl':
LOL! But wait, there's more delicious ironic goodness:
I'm thinking enfant provocateur, weenie or maybe just jerk.
Whats in a name?
DEAD KENNEDY'S
THE GERMS
SEX PISTOLS
X
DESIGN BITCHES
a band? a movie? a book?
next week..GANGSTA ARCHITECTS ROUND-UP
How about,.. Fuckyoupayme llc.
Jerk for sure (by the way - best thing you have posted)
Read an interesting article about two young architects making a name for themselves in a unique way (in the LA Weekly at that). Thought people would be into it. Was wrong about that.
Looked down to see degrading humor and point blank rude comments. Multiple people telling them how they need to change their name, philosophy, and approach to the World of Architecture. These two are bring the profession down and you're offended. Right? Tell them what to do guys because you produce amazing architecture with (buzz word is coming next) substance.
But then again I can't complain because we get did some gems like this:
Payton said they need to change their name to something like SOM so they can get more prestigious jobs in the future.
Miles Jaffe thinks it ok to compare their firms name to people who are allowed to use the N-word in a racist attempt at humor.
You tell me - Do you think you sound like morons?
If you read past the headline....
In the last 18 months, Johnson and Rudolph have completed two buildings; won the American Institute of Architects' 2013 restaurant design award for Superba Snack Bar in Venice (tied with Belcampo Meat Co. by BCV Architects, and Nobu Malibu by Studio PCH and Montalba Architects); launched two restaurant construction projects; exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, and at the Miracle Mile's A+D Museum; and began designing a vegan lifestyle center in the Arts District downtown, a bakery in Venice and an arcade bar in Echo Park.
Mitch McEwen. Funnily enough, after reading their name - let alone the title- it stopped me, and it seems many others, from progressing to the content.
Again, proof is in the pudding. They kind of placed a bump on the way - very noticeably and attention grabbing, but nonetheless a bump that drives you to stop in front of it for too long a period. And anyway, its much more interesting that they call themselves what they called themselves than winning the whatever restaurant prize or whatnot that many other offices with more demure names have previously win or will win. That part sort of became the banality - this is the direct consequence of having a name like DB. You render everything else less attention-grabbing than your name.
You can't blame us really. Its psychology. Or, if in their terms: Its Psychology, Bitches.
It's no big deal if you categorize them as a interior/design firm, not an architecture; as most/all of their work is design (interior, graphics, etc). and not buildings.
Paulina Rudolph and Phyllis Johnson
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