Work-life balance is always a question within our building, and within the industry at large. In a lot of ways, [architecture] really favors the young and childless. I'm recently married, and I don't have any kids yet. It’s really interesting to see people who eat, sleep, and breathe their work, but who then have kids (or something else about their life changes), and they have to draw back a little bit. — – architectural designer Julie Engstrom – theatlantic.com
More on work-life balance:Archinect & The Architecture Lobby wants to know how satisfied you are with your jobStruggles persist for women in the architectural workforceWork-life balance: how one architect collaborates with his teenage son View full entry
The clocks have gone back, we’ve had Halloween, it is well and truly ‘coat weather’, and Bonfire Night is coming fast; it’s time to start enjoying winter traditions! This week, go for a first skate in the middle of Canary Wharf on a glowing rink, or watch fireworks over some of the most... View full entry
The L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is hosting a silent online auction as part of their Fall Benefit starting now until November 13. When architecture is involved, the items up for bidding are bound to be an interesting mix — and the more than 80 items in this particular auction... View full entry
YCombinator, the Silicon Vallley start-up accelerator and investment firm behind Airbnb and Dropbox, announced its entrepreneurial reach into city-building this past summer, with the goal to develop "a city for humans" with reduced housing expenses and a simplified planning code.Some SV... View full entry
Fittingly, Zaha Hadid Architects' 15-storey, 15,000 square meter Jockey Club International Tower has raced ahead of all other structural competition, winning RIBA's award for International Excellence. Here, the ever observant Iwan Baan shows us why:And for good measure, here's a video tour: View full entry
After a long and obstructive political process (and some sad looking pics of Rahm Emanuel) George Lucas' Museum of Narrative Art decided to abandon its attempt to build in Chicago and now is looking toward the Golden State: specifically, Treasure Island in San Francisco and Exposition Park in Los... View full entry
He calls critics “dismissive” and “disdainful.” He accuses architects of “misguided political correctness,” and says they are guilty of “confusing architecture and art.”
Schumacher has turned his criticism on his own practice, rolling out plans for what he calls “Parametricism 2.0,” to better address the human factors like productivity, social interaction, culture, and well-being that detractors used to say Hadid ignored. “I have to step up,” Schumacher says. “I will build my own star power.”
— wired.com
More from Schumacher the Parametricist:Patrik Schumacher on the parametric future he plans for ZHAZHA after Zaha: Patrik Schumacher on Zaha and what's next for the firm, on Archinect Sessions #61Brexit: a chance to roll back the interventionist state and unleash entrepreneurial creativity –... View full entry
Oh, functionalism: enough already with the developer-driven efficiency that puts dollars ahead of human livability. Or so goes the critique that underlies the sculpture by NEON known as "Skin," a six-sided grid strung with 1800 pairs of skin-colored tights.Inadvertently reminiscent of films like... View full entry
Who would have thought that emoji would be revered within the same museum walls that display the paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso? [MoMA] recently added NTT DoCoMo's original set of 176 emoji to their permanent collection as a gift...In early December, MoMA will debut an installation detailing the evolution of emoji and “will present them in a new light (and no doubt inspire a few selfies)”, says Paul Galloway, MoMA Collection Specialist in the Department of Architecture and Design. — Bustler
Thanks to a licensing agreement between MoMA and NTT DoCoMo, the museum's permanent collection now includes the original 176 emoji that altered digital communication as we know it today. Read more on Bustler.More on Archinect:"Never Built New York" catalogues alternative visions of the CityShow... View full entry
They were living in San Francisco, but they wanted to move out of the city to a playborhood — a version of American kid life featured in shows like “The Little Rascals” and “Leave It to Beaver,” in which kids build forts and ride bikes outside, unsupervised — free, skirting danger, but ultimately always lucky. [...]
Dangerous play is how kids learn how to titrate fear. [...] “If the instinct wasn’t of evolutionary benefit, the behavior would have been rooted out.”
— nytimes.com
This piece is ostensibly about parenting, and one Silicon Valley-dad who is trying to teach (and trust) his kids to take physical risks. But in defiance of the "helicopter parent" method, Mark Laska, the piece's subject dad, elects to modify his own environment rather than coaching his individual... View full entry
After being criticized for helping to displace renters by inadvertently motivating landlords to turn long-term rentals into short-term hotel-like quarters, Airbnb is getting political and donating $100,000 to Los Angeles' Proposition HHH, which would require city officials to raise tax dollars to... View full entry
Spend this week exploring exhibitions; whether the work is that of an artist at their prime, a concept drawing from a student, or appreciating the forgotten modern dwellings in historical Highgate, this week is a celebration of hard work and creative pursuits. And, as we move into the end of... View full entry
Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment as Projection of a Metropolis is the first full-length critical study of the dingbat apartment, the stucco-clad boxy “building code creature” that is the Southland's most ubiquitous and mundane vernacular typology. Co-edited by Radical Craft... View full entry
This narrow, nondescript passage — known as the Impasse Ronsin — was once an artery of aesthetic energy that, in no small fashion, defined French postwar art in all its insanity. First the site of the sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s studio, Ronsin was later where the likes of Max Ernst, Yves Klein, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely all lived or worked for much of the 1950s and early 1960s. — NYT
James McAuley previews 'L’Impasse Ronsin' an exhibit at Paul Kasmin Gallery, from Oct. 27, 2016, to Jan. 18, 2017. View full entry
“She’s somebody who has a clear vision of respect for historical buildings but at the same time has a clean, elegant, modernist aesthetic that is very much about welcoming visitors today,” said Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s director.
In coming up with a new design, Ms. Selldorf has been charged with improving circulation in the Frick’s galleries, library and public spaces, while maintaining the museum’s existing footprint and preserving its jewel-box character.
— nytimes.com
Prior plans for the museum's addition (designed by Davis Brody Bond) were dropped by the Frick in June of last year, partially due to a letter of protest written on behalf of 51 artists and architects. This past March, the Frick put forward an RFQ for a new revision plan, and now that Selldorf has... View full entry
