Paulo Mendes da Rocha is attracting international recognition once again as he continues to rack up top-tier lifetime achievement awards this year. [...]
Awarded since 1848 and approved by the Queen of England, the Gold Medal is awarded to an individual or a group of people who have significantly influenced “the advancement of architecture either directly or indirectly”. da Rocha is the second Brazilian architect to win the accolade, joining Oscar Niemeyer who won it in 1998.
— bustler.net
Paulo Mendes da Rocha is most known for his work establishing what would become Brazilian Brutalism. From Bustler:Spearheading the Brutalist movement in his native Sao Paulo, da Rocha is credited for transforming the city with his numerous cultural buildings, which are typically designed... View full entry
[Ralph Simons'] portrait is the earliest known example of what became the conventional manner of depicting an architect by having him holding one of these instruments of his profession. [...]
Needless to say, this tradition is dying – and not just because architects don’t use compasses, or draw, any more (how do you represent computer-aided design software in a painting?).
— apollo-magazine.com
More on the architect's image:“sensitive, but not girly” – pinning down the typical Hollywood architectWatch the official trailer for Tomas Koolhaas' upcoming documentary, 'REM'"Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect" documentary announced for 2016 View full entry
It’s going to be “yuge”. It’s an inflated descriptor thrown around a lot these days, but architects have always been trained to think big, whether laying out bathroom plumbing or master planning cities. Sometimes those ideas get built; sometimes others build on those ideas. This October on... View full entry
Tomas Koolhaas is a filmmaker in Los Angeles, whose most recent project, a documentary about his father Rem, recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival. REM follows its titular architect around the world, visiting his projects and investigating their human impact. Aware of his special... View full entry
The glistening Port House in Antwerp is Zaha Hadid's latest project to be completed posthumously. But the glass building isn't mere folly. Built atop a disused historic fire station, the striking landmark operates as the new headquarters for the Port of Antwerp, Europe's second largest port.ZHA... View full entry
Now in its tenth year, the prize celebrates ‘the achievements of designers who are making or who have made a significant difference to our lives through innovation, originality and imagination’, with past winners including Zaha Hadid, Marc Newson and Dieter Rams. — wallpaper.com
David Adjaye received the Panerai London Design Medal for "consistent design excellence", while Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde (Studio Roosegaarde) took home the Airbnb Design Innovation Medal, for his work designing building (and jewelry)-sized smog filters.Other winners of this year's prizes... View full entry
Just nine months after a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of people, a cholera epidemic broke out. While it became clear shortly after that the epidemic began with U.N. peacekeepers, who had been active in Haiti since 2004 and brought the disease from Nepal... View full entry
Martino Stierli took over as MoMA's chief curator of architecture and design in 2015, when the museum was already undergoing major changes. Diller Scofidio + Renfro's redesign was underway, and the architecture and design galleries faced something of an uncertain future in the expanded museum... View full entry
"Humanity went through stone age, went through ice age, and today, going through plastic age. We need to find solution,” explains Robert Bezeau, the man intent on amending the global reach of plastic waste by building houses out of it. A transplant to Panama from Montreal, he has started... View full entry
Sydney architect Robert Harwood is apparently fed up with being compared on price point and capability to building practitioners who aren’t registered architects.
The director of Harwood Architects and founder of My Architect is petitioning the Australian Institute of Architects CEO Jennifer Cunich to do more to protect the architecture profession from non-architects passing off their work and capability as that of an architect.
— architectureanddesign.com.au
"Harwood is particularly concerned with non-architects using the title ‘architect’ in their name or the words ‘architectural services’ in advertising."Related stories in the Archinect news:New York man tries to weasel out of architectural malpractice suit with "I'm not an architect"... View full entry
Following the Olympics’ closing ceremony, and as September’s Paralympic Games continue, international attention has begun to shift to the future of Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic sites. These buildings must be built to evolve to accommodate Paralympic and future athletes, and the success of this... View full entry
According to estimates by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, up to 60,000 people will seek asylum in Norway this year alone, most of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these newly-arrived people have little knowledge of where to go to find basic resources, not to mention where... View full entry
Airports can be hell, as any traveler knows. From endless check-in lines to depersonalized security checkpoints to the dull monotony of waiting rooms and transit halls, the experience of traveling has become something of a 21st century ritual. You’ll (probably) get to your destination, but first... View full entry
OMA teamed up with the digital consultancy and product development studio Bengler—who also converted the firm’s massive data set into a website—to put together an installation-cum-digital platform for the 2016 Oslo Triennale. Dubbed PANDA, the “counter-organizational platform” both... View full entry
Many films ― even great ones ― have used occupations as shorthand for personalities or ‘types.’ [...]
male movie-architects are assumed to personify the perfect romantic lead: they are “creative, but not as grubby as musicians; fiscally sturdy, but not as stodgy as bankers; dreamers with briefcases; visionaries of the tangible.” [...]
Narrative tensions emerge in the perceived misfit between the image — or stereotype — of a profession and the celluloid figure who embodies it.
— placesjournal.org
This hearty round-up sifts through the stereotypes and expectations of how Hollywood portrays our on-screen architects, against the backdrop of #OscarsSoWhite and a male (overwhelming) majority. Less about professional accuracy and more about personality types, the piece focuses on how these... View full entry
