For his first feature, Antonio Pacheco (Archinect’s new Managing Editor) takes readers Inside the Plan to Save LA’s Southwest Museum, since a 2003 merger, known as the Autry Museum of the American West. Plus, Katherine Guimapang chatted with Jennifer Bonner about the power of alternative... View full entry
In 2011, the New York Public Library established an official unit for digital experimentation—NYPL Labs. Over the six years that followed, what began as a small research and development outfit for special digital projects grew into a visionary think-and-do tank for making the library’s two centuries of collections digital and usable for the years to come. A hybrid team of technologists, librarians, and designers would start to assemble the building blocks of an urban memory infrastructure. — Urban Omnibus
Shannon Mattern, associate professor of media studies at The New School, and Ben Vershbow, founder of NYPL Labs, discuss the recent digitalization efforts undertaken by the New York Public Library system as it works to turn the library's "vast collections into usable data, connecting maps... View full entry
In organizations in which a shorter workweek has been implemented, nearly two-thirds (64%) of leaders reported increases in staff productivity and work quality due to a reduction of sick days and overall increased well-being. Another benefit to well-being, respondents noted, was the reduction of commutes. One less day at work helps make the weekly commute more bearable. — Harvard Business Review
Alternative work schedules have been a topic of discussion for quite some time now, especially in European countries. Could this model work well in the architecture industry? Looking to other industries may provide some insights. "In organizations in which a shorter workweek has been implemented... View full entry
Lucy Jones, founder of FFORA, a company whose "mission statement is simple, the world made accessible to all." After embracing a challenge by one of her professors at Parsons to design something that could change the world, the young designer began to talk to one of her family members who... View full entry
That’s exactly what Avril Corroon, an art student at Goldsmiths, has done for her final project. Taking samples from the most cursed fungal growths she could find in rented accommodation around London, Avril made a selection of artisanal cheeses that look good enough to eat. Except, they’re not; they’re stinky reminders of just how terrible rented accommodation can be in one of the richest cities in the world. — VICE
Art student, Avril Corroon has decided to take an unfortunate situation and make a statement through art. "The idea is to juxtapose precarious living standards with that of wealth, gentrification and thinking about where money is invested and where it is disinvested, and how often products are all... View full entry
After a six-month closure, James Turrell's site specific installation Meeting (1980-86/2016) reopens at MoMA PS1! Captivating audiences with his mesmerizing light installations, Turrell's piece was previously closed in January due to an unwanted construction scaffolding seen through the... View full entry
A year ago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told Boise that it’s unconstitutional to stop the homeless from sleeping in public spaces if there’s not enough shelter available for them. Now Boise wants the U.S. Supreme Court to have a look at that decision. — The Los Angeles Times
A recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece takes a look at the ongoing legal battle regarding whether criminalizing homelessness constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" under the United States Constitution. Two constitutional lawyers, Theane Evangelis and Theodore B. Olson, discuss the... View full entry
What does an architect look like? How would this architect act or sound? Comedian Arturo Castro skillfully portrays a fictional "visionary architect" in his humorous sketch series, Alternatino. The new series airing on Comedy Central illustrates a self-absorbed, pretentious "genius."... View full entry
Architect Carlo Ratti's design studio has utilized drone technology to produce a crowdsourced work of art in Turin, Italy. Measuring in at 46 x 39 feet, the project was developed as part of UFO-Urban Flying Opera, a participatory technology and art project funded by Compagnia di San Paolo. Created... View full entry
For the sixth year in a row, the Pickathon Music Festival, which opens Friday, August 2 at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Ore., will feature a brand-new, temporary performance venue designed and built by Portland State University School of Architecture students from reused materials.
This year’s rendition of the Treeline Stage utilizes 160 wooden apple-harvesting bins to create an immersive environment suggesting an orchard of towering trees—reaching 40 feet high at the tallest point.
— Portland State University School of Architecture
Faculty members Travis Bell and Clive Knights have led a group of Portland State University Architecture students in the design and construction of an original, temporary Treeline Stage at Pickathon Music Festival. View full entry
Watching the way children used his equipment, often in ways he could never have anticipated, made him more and more certain: play wasn’t a frivolous distraction from learning, but something essential to childhood and indeed humanity. [...] According to his design philosophy, each park wasn’t just a place to jump on a shockingly large air mattress. It was “a place where a child can ask questions of what it means to be human.” — The Local
Journalist Nicholas Hune-Brown profiles Canadian designer Eric McMillan, who started out his career as an exhibition designer and was then thrown into the spotlight after he designed the Ontario Place Children's Village in Toronto. Suddenly becoming the expert on children's design, McMillan... View full entry
Fifty years since the first footsteps on the Moon, the exploration of the cosmos remains irresistible, and the ambition to establish commercial space travel and planetary settlements continues to capture the imagination. Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space celebrates the visionary ideas and ingenious solutions from architects, artists, and designers who dared to imagine life far out among the stars. — San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Entitled Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space, SFMOMA's exhibition celebrating the "booming space industry," will be open from July 20, 2019 to January 20, 2020. "Extraterrestrial conditions amplify the challenge to design for space travel, and new research and technologies are... View full entry
Global architecture firm Gensler has unveiled designs for a charred timber prayer pavilion to be used while the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is underway. The unsolicited proposal deploys Shou Sugi Ban-style charred timber structural trusses to shape a nave "replicated to the... View full entry
We want to create a resort where tourists can be entertained and enjoy sports and leisure as well as health care, by integrating innovatively the elements of leisure, recreation, stimulation, amusement and health care," said Pan Zhaofu, director of the Huangguoshu Scenic Area — CNN
According to CNN Travel, China's Guizhou Province will be home to a new walkway made of glass. Measured at 1,804 feet, the new bridge is considered to be the longest glass bridge in the world, breaking the record of another famous bridge, which is also located in China. Set to open sometime... View full entry
This week, Archinect has selected jobs with firms whose work focuses on creative and imaginative public installations and art exhibitions. Whether permanent or temporary, these spaces allow for experiences outside of people’s daily interactions through art and the built environment... View full entry