Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
Texture is the condition of possibility through which our bodies meet environments; like gender in its relationality, texture is palpable only in becoming. So did the blue carpet in my childhood bedroom enmesh gender between my toes? And if we alter texture — including how we talk about it — might we transform gender in both minute and brash ways? — Places Journal
Whether or not they realize it, architecture critics generally build a body into their writings. And we must allow ourselves, and others, to write bodies other than cis, straight, white, able ones into the affect of our analyses. Changing words — say, crafting new architectural... View full entry
Brian Orter has always understood the importance of setting the mood and the power of lighting to transform a space or a moment. [...]
Today, Mr. Orter runs Bold LLC, a company that provides architectural lighting design for private homes, restaurants, bars and hotels. With a team of 30 people split between New York City and Los Angeles, Mr. Orter has worked with architecture and design firms [...].
— The New York Times
The New York Times in conversation with Brian Orter of NYC/LA-based architectural lighting design firm BOLD. The short interview covers the many ways to do it wrong (and the few to do it right) and how hotels are slowly ditching masculine and feminine design for a less binary experience. View full entry
It is built into the value system of architecture – the ways in which it is taught, published, recognised and awarded – that the most desirable possible outcome of a career is to be a celebrated maker of singular objects, of buildings that can be admired as you would a painting or a symphony. [...]
It’s a start that the prize is to Grafton Architects – that is to say, a whole practice – rather than its two principals alone.
— The Guardian
Rowan Moore, the Observer’s architecture correspondent, applauds in his recent commentary the decision to award the next RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture to Irish practice Grafton Architects, a deserving team with female principals at the helm, rather than further perpetuating the... View full entry
The city of Berkeley will no longer allow natural gas pipes in many new buildings starting Jan. 1, 2020. It’s the first city in California to pass such a law, officials said. [...]
Public support was also unanimous during 45 minutes of comment from community members and representatives of the University of California’s Office of the President (UCOP), energy giant PG&E and the Sierra Club, among others who spoke.
— Berkeleyside
According to the council report on the ordinance, "the effect of this legislation will be that builders will be prohibited from applying for entitlements that include gas infrastructure — gas piping to heat water, space, food, etc. — except for specific building systems that have not... View full entry
But instead of shying away from some of the challenges this type of work poses, the students decided to publish the results of the survey as-is, and highlight its flaws. They decided not to draw any particular conclusions from the data, and instead hope to use the exhibit as a conversation starter. “A large part of the exhibit was trying to get a more nuanced idea of sexism. Not just sexual harassment, but other sorts of derailing that occurs within architecture schools.” — Curbed
For too long, the issues of gender, disability, and user-centeredness have been relegated to the far margins of architectural history. — Places Journal
Places columnist Barbara Penner uncovers a parallel narrative to the rise of flexible home design — often attributed to a handful of progressive postwar designers — in the history of home economics. She explores the flexible domestic spaces created by designers such as Lillian Moller... View full entry
As designers and urbanists engage with LGBTQ+ identity, what role do gender and sexuality play in the preservation, design, and management of urban space today? [...]
Marginalization means invisibility, both in history and space. New efforts seek to reclaim and preserve queer histories inscribed in sites across the city.
— Urban Omnibus
Urban Omnibus, a publication of the Architectural League of New York, recently launched its new series Intersections: Surfacing (guest-edited by Jacob R. Moore), allowing a more informed look at issues of gender and sexuality in the context of design & urban history. View full entry
In this interview with PSMag, ArchiteXX co-founder and Syracuse University School of Architecture professor Lori Brown talks about the difficulties and rewards of attempting to design while female. She's specifically asked about how an architect attempts to integrate feminist notions of design... View full entry
Elizabeth Diller, the founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will now deliver a keynote address at this year’s AIA Conference on Architecture. The announcement follows intense criticism lodged at the AIA last month following an initial announcement of a lineup without any women. Many... View full entry
We don’t draft designs in a void and cities don’t spring straight from our imaginations. Architecture is itself a designed object, circumscribed and delimited by the social, political, and economic conditions of the era. But, likewise, these conditions aren’t exactly natural—they’re... View full entry
Jeanne Gang completed three exceptional projects, including the dramatic Writers Theatre in Glencoe, and saw construction begin on her 98-story Vista Tower [...]
Carol Ross Barney finished the latest extension of Chicago's downtown Riverwalk [...]
Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, led the successful fight against George Lucas' planned narrative art museum [...]
What unites these achievements? Probably the fact that gender, in the end, had little to do with them.
— chicagotribune.com
More on gender in architecture:Struggles persist for women in the architectural workforceUT Austin's architecture school begins new initiative focused on "race, gender, and the American built environment"North Carolina loses AIA conference due to anti-LGBT HB2 bill passageWhy Zaha Hadid's gender... View full entry
The undergraduate major at Yale is made up of 28 students, just 12 of whom are male. The Yale School of Architecture, with over 200 graduate students, is 42 percent female [...]
But despite the near gender parity in the classroom, discrepancies persist in the professional field, with very few women serving as partners or leaders of firms. According to a 2012 American Institute of Architects survey of 2,805 member firms, only 17 percent of firm partners and principals are women.
— Yale Daily News
Related:More women joined the profession in 2015 than ever beforeHow sexist is architecture? Female architects share their experiencesWhy International Women's Day matters (for architects)"Women in architecture" vs. "now in architecture": Mimi Zeiger on gender and... View full entry
The effort aims to facilitate diversity among design and planning professionals and students, and foster innovation in teaching and research on race, gender and inequality in American cities.
Partially funded by the university’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, the initiative will ensure that the School of Architecture is on the leading edge of scholarship and practice regarding these important issues.
— news.utexas.edu
More on race and gender in architecture: Gentrification and the Persistence of Poor Minority NeighborhoodsA profession almost as white as the walls.Separate and unequal: The neighborhood gap for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians in metropolitan AmericaMore women joined the profession in 2015 than ever... View full entry
The moment a space like [a gay bar] disappears, a sense of identity goes with it. “When you don’t have those spaces, you lose the ability to see yourself," [...]
"...we also need to continue to modify it in a way so everybody has access, so we’re not doing the same thing that the mainstream population is doing to us and isolating ourselves in certain spaces due to access.”
— attn.com
Related on Archinect:Obama administration to designate Stonewall as America's first LGBT memorialAs "gayborhoods" gentrify, LGBTQ people move into conservative AmericaThe future of gay neighborhoodsHow LGBT Acceptance Is Redefining Urban AmericaU.S. LGBTQ preservation group pushes to preserve more... View full entry
Julia Ingalls wrote about architectural solutions, four major U.S. cities have used, to address homelessness. no_form quipped "Giving homeless people housing solves homelessness. Wow, fucking brilliant. Took long enough to recognize the obvious." Plus, Nicholas Korody previewed Anupama... View full entry
