The Tulane University School of Architecture has named designer, historian, and architect Edson Cabalfin, PhD as the new Director of the school's Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (SISE) program. Cabalfin is a licensed architect in the Philippines and runs the design consultancy Talyer... View full entry
Southwark council declared that its New Architect Design Services Framework was a “first-of-a-kind” attempt to engage with a new generation of diverse designers. As councillor Leo Pollak put it: “It is the framework some architects have been waiting for all their years.”
It turns out that black architects will have to wait even longer.
— The Guardian
Writing in The Guardian, architecture critic Oliver Wainwright highlights the long-standing barriers Black and other minority architects in the UK face with regards to attaining public building contracts. Wainwright finds that while the 2010 Equality Act compels localities to improve how... View full entry
Rather than fancy restaurants and gimmicky stores, lobbies could host outside organizations to convene and organize. The museum might act as a partner and participant, catalyst, and amplifier. Here, there are no bananas stuck to the wall, but ample meaningful information for an active audience. Guards would protect patrons over property. And during the next protest, lobbies could open up and transform into staging grounds, sanctuary spaces, and broadcasting stations for citizen journalists. — artnet
Architect Florian Idenburg offers alternative uses for boarded up museum fronts in New York City during the social uprising and protests and questions the corporate policies now running the museum's public interface on city's sidewalks. "Amid the stream of information about systemic racism... View full entry
Over the holiday weekend, President Donald Trump announced the creation of a new "National Garden of American Heroes" that will contain statues depicting "historically significant Americans" and other historical figures like Christopher Columbus. The order comes as protest movements and... View full entry
The ghost kitchen is an increasingly crowded space. In addition to Reef, there are Zuul and Kitchen United in the United States, Deliveroo in London and Paris, and Panda Selected in China. CloudKitchens, the new venture run by Travis Kalanick’s City Storage Systems, buys real estate, brings in kitchen facilities, and leases them to chefs and small-business owners, most of whom do not have other brick-and-mortar spaces. — The New Yorker
Anna Wiener, a contributing writer to The New Yorker, surveys the landscape of delivery- and takeout-only "ghost kitchens" that have taken root in American cities following the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing in on kitchen pod start up company Reef Technology. View full entry
The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) has published its latest monthly Interior Design Billings Index (IDBI) report, finding that the demand for interior design services is poised to grow considerably over coming months as businesses and institutions undertake additional interior... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!... View full entry
Even before the pandemic reconfigured every aspect of our daily lives, it was clear that the cash register — the kind with a drawer that pops out after your groceries are tallied — was headed for the dust heap of technology, joining fax machines and CD players. Many convenience stores, like CVS, Rite Aid and Target, started installing self-checkout stations a decade ago. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Architecture critic Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer examines the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has supercharged the automation of grocery stores and other spaces, finding that with the boom in grocery delivery services that has taken hold since the pandemic hit, some purveyors... View full entry
The United States House of Representatives has passed a substantial infrastructure bill that includes an addendum from New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez repealing the Faircloth Amendment, a 22-year-old regulation that caps the overall number of public housing units that can be built... View full entry
ODA Architecture designed a proposal to build a mixed-use district in Queens that would encompass five blocks. Dubbed “Innovation QNS,” the $2 billion project would bring 2,700 units of mixed-income housing, 250,000 square feet of creative office space, 200,000 square feet of retail, a new school, two acres of public open space, and new neighborhood amenities to Astoria. — 6sqft
Following a rare show of bipartisan support, the Bird-Safe Buildings Act of 2019 has passed the United States House of Representatives and is now headed for consideration by the Senate. The bill would require "each public building constructed, acquired, or of which more than 50% of the facade is... View full entry
Atlanta's State Farm Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team, is being converted into a massive polling site to help the state of Georgia make voting more accessible to its residents. CNN reports that the 17,000-seat arena will open as a polling center for the... View full entry
A newly unveiled $2 billion development proposal crafted by Foster + Partners, Gensler, and RIOS for developers Alagem Capital Group aims to bring a pair of verdant, balcony-wrapped towers to Beverly Hills. The project would be situated behind the Waldorf Astoria and Beverly Hilton... View full entry
Congratulations, we have reached this year's halfway mark! While 2020 hasn't always been smooth sailing for the architecture and design community so far, we'd still like to dare a quick look back at some of the brighter moments on Archinect's Instagram feed. Whether you're already one of... View full entry
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering, T.Y. Lin International, and Sam Schwartz Engineering have unveiled a proposal for a new bridge connecting Queens and Manhattan. The so-called "Queens Ribbon" proposal is part of a larger set of pedestrian and bicycle bridges proposed by the design... View full entry
