Today’s News - Tuesday, February 13, 2018
● AJ's 2018 Women in Architecture survey "has prompted calls for urgent action to combat discrimination in the profession" (worth reading comments: "while acknowledging that there are many exceptionally talented female architects/designers, in general the men are better at it" - we hope he's joking).
● Booth parses AJ's survey that "has exposed the abiding inequalities that dog the profession - time's up - an important remedy is voice. Naming. Showing. Calling it out - until there is lasting change for the better we can't - and we mustn't - rest."
● Speaking of women in architecture, Wainwright has high hopes for this year's Serpentine Pavilion by Frida Escobedo that will be "a cross-cultural combination of Mexican domestic architecture with a distinctly British twist."
● Stott brings us lots of images of Escobedo's 2018 Serpentine Pavilion: "known for her work in activating public spaces, she will be the youngest architect" to win the commission.
● Barcelona-based Carme Pinós tapped to design this year's MPavilion in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens - no images yet, but "her design, "a transparent origami-like structure," promises to be very different" from OMA's 2017 pavilion.
● K. Jacobs gets to visit Anne Tyng's recently sold "remarkable house" in Philly, and considers what her "only surviving solo project says about her career" - she "could have been a major midcentury figure, who arguably should have been one, except that she was a woman."
● Sisson parses Kats and Glassbrook's report "Delivering Urban Resilience," the first integrated cost-benefit analysis that shows "U.S. cities can save billions with green, resilient design."
● Researchers in Munich parse three projects by Cook/Fournier, Nouvel, and Hadid to chart the impact exceptional architecture by starchitects has on cities.
● Cohen reports that Seattle DOT will "remove hostile architecture" - bike racks installed "not to encourage people to lock up their bikes, but to prevent the occupants of a recently cleared homeless encampment from returning - public outcry followed."
● Slessor explains why KieranTimberlake's London Embassy "was a good deal," and "why Trump was wrong to slam the project" that is "the eye in a hurricane of urban transformation" as a "manicured Arcadia" that "bristles with deterrents."
● Gompertz (mostly) cheers Fobert's Kettle's Yard in Cambridge: "The new galleries are fine, and they have some nice touches," but "such spaces are two-a-penny nowadays - chilly corporate spaces - though "done lovingly and thoughtfully by a team who care passionately about it - and us."
● Kamin bemoans so many newspapers "severing their ties with buildings that endowed them with a civic identity" and explains why it matters - "the exit from structures that long symbolized their watchdog role hurts."
● Arango & Nagourney explain why the "turmoil at The Los Angeles Times is the latest setback for a region that has long suffered from a lack of civic institutions," and "a reminder of the slow decline of a newspaper that had long been a cohesive force in L.A.'s civic life."
● Hawthorne hits back, though it's more than just a take-down of the NYT story - it's about "the legibility (and illegibility) of Los Angeles and Houston: what unites them "is a certain elusiveness as urban object. Both cities are opaque and hard to read."
● Tu tackles the NYT's "double diss of Los Angeles": the reporters "misunderstand what ails the L.A. Times - and what that has to do with the city's civic fabric" (at least they "found one way Angelenos come together: by hating articles like this one").
● Saudi Arabia's "creative community of artists, architects, and designers seem poised to experience a wave of change" with a new organization and plans for the New Misk Art Institute, a new ground-up HQ in Riyadh.
● AIA 2018 Young Architects Awards go to 18 recipients "who have shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their careers."
● The AA's Porter paints an eloquent portrait of his partner Neave Brown, "the antithesis of the starchitect" - he "was not unhappy to be considered an ''old-fashioned modernist.'"
● Bernstein's Immigrant Stories series continues with a profile of Nader Tehrani: "When revolution broke out at home in Iran, the architect stayed in the U.S. and built a thriving career."
● Lemmin-Woolfrey profiles Le Corbusier, "the 20th Century's most influential architect" whose "concrete monoliths still divide opinion today" - though an overnight in Unité d'Habitation makes it "clear he hit the bull's eye."
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Richard Waite & Bruce Tether: AJ survey reveals 1 in 7 women architects have experienced sexual harassment: This year’s Women in Architecture survey has prompted calls for urgent action to combat discrimination in the profession.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Emily Booth: Women have come far in 100 years, but the job isn’t nearly finished: The AJ’s Women in Architecture survey has exposed the abiding inequalities that dog the profession - time’s up: This year, there is a sharper cultural context...A loud voice of social protest has been growing: beyond architecture...If the status quo relies on silence, an important remedy for that power imbalance is voice. Naming. Showing. Calling it out...Still, the status quo is hard to shift. Cultural norms find ways of persisting...until there is lasting change for the better we can’t - and we mustn’t - rest.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Oliver Wainwright: Serpentine summer pavilion: a Mexican shadow clock built for the British breeze: With its perforated walls, mirrored canopy and reflecting pool, Frida Escobedo’s enclosed courtyard - made of British roof tiles - will be a vast translucent timepiece powered by light and shadow: ...a cross-cultural combination of Mexican domestic architecture with a distinctly British twist...she is the youngest architect to have been selected for the Serpentine’s annual commission...- Guardian (UK) |
Rory Stott: Mexican Architect Frida Escobedo Selected to Design 2018 Serpentine Pavilion: ...known for her work in activating public spaces, will be the youngest architect to have participated in the Serpentine Pavilion program since it began in 2000..."a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London...the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms." [images]- ArchDaily |
Next MPavilion architect Carme Pinós had to dump her plans when she visited Melbourne: ...the fifth of the seasonal pop-up structures in the Queen Victoria Gardens that aim to get Melburnians talking about the future of their city...her design promises to be very different to the current MPavilion by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA...will be a transparent origami-like structure...It will be an immersion in nature. -- Naomi Milgrom; Estudio Carme Pinós- Domain (Australia) |
Karrie Jacobs: Anne Tyng and Her Remarkable House: She was known as Louis Kahn's muse but never really escaped his shadow. What Tyng's only surviving solo project says about her career: ...the Trenton Bath House was largely Tyng’s work...Which is how [she], belatedly, posthumously, found her way into my personal architectural pantheon...[she] could have been a major midcentury figure, who arguably should have been one, except that she was a woman...living in the house felt like “walking in music"...house is irreplaceable. For an architect who never had the opportunity to create one on a grander scale, it is her magnum opus. [images]- Architect Magazine |
Patrick Sisson: U.S. cities can save billions with green, resilient design, says report: A financial case for green roofs, solar panels, and permeable pavement: Co-authored by Greg Kats and Keith Glassbrook, "Delivering Urban Resilience" looked at the ecological and financial advantages that would come from promoting co-called “smart surfaces"...For the first time, researchers assembled an integrated cost-benefit analysis for these strategies using insight from city partners, epidemiologists, and tech and energy experts.- Curbed |
Exceptional architecture and its impact on cities: Researchers...have studied three projects...Can star architecture have a positive impact on the future of a city? ...team examined three case studies...."The desire on the part of urban planners and politicians to achieve certain impacts by means of star architecture must not overlook the contribution made by the architecture itself. In addition to economic and socio-cultural effects, the influence of star architecture on the city is spatial as well." -- Technical University of Munich (TUM); Frank Gehry; Peter Cook/Colin Fournier; Jean Nouvel; Zaha Hadid Architects- Phys.org |
Josh Cohen: Seattle DOT Plans to Remove Hostile Architecture: ...installed 18 bike racks...not actually to encourage people to lock up their bikes, but to prevent the occupants of a recently cleared homeless encampment from returning...public outcry followed...SDOT announced they would relocate the bike racks...Using bike racks to discourage street camping is a textbook example of hostile architecture...Other classic examples are spikes or bumps installed on ledges and windowsills...and armrests in the middle of benches...“The most important feature...is to function without being detected" -- Selena Savic/"Unpleasant Design"; Sara Rankin/Homeless Rights Advocacy Project [images]- Next City (formerly Next American City) |
Catherine Slessor: KieranTimberlake's London Embassy Was a Good Deal: ...why Trump was wrong to slam the project, and how a difficult commission got overshadowed in the process: ...this latest “Little America” replaces Eero Saarinen’s elegant exercise in midcentury Modernism...officials settled on the industrial boondocks of Nine Elms...[it] has been a crucial catalyst and anchor project, the eye in a hurricane of urban transformation...Fortress America...a free-floating object in landscape...In reality, the manicured Arcadia bristles with deterrents...At its most basic, [it] is essentially an office block...the shadow Trump has cast over the project has been toxically pervasive...He won’t be missed at the dedication. -- Eero Saarinen (1960); Gensler- Architect Magazine |
Will Gompertz: Kettle's Yard in Cambridge: Since 1973, [it] has continued to develop in a slightly haphazard fashion...The new galleries are fine, and they have some nice touches...But I have to admit to being just a little bit disappointed...Such spaces are two-a-penny nowadays. They are like Prada stores and Range Rovers, classy but now irritatingly ubiquitous; chilly corporate spaces...The updating...was necessary and it has been done lovingly and thoughtfully by a team who care passionately about it - and us. It's probably my fault for being a hopeless romantic... -- Jim Ede ; Leslie Martin/David Owers (1970); Jamie Fobert- BBC (UK) |
Blair Kamin: More newspapers are departing their landmark homes, and why that matters: ...more news organizations are severing their ties with buildings that endowed them with a civic identity...Their diminished architectural stature comes at an especially bad time...it makes them seem less visible and more remote...the digital age has disrupted the design identity of newspapers, not just their business model...the exit from structures that long symbolized their watchdog role hurts... -- Raymond Hood; John Mead Howells; Albert Kahn Associates; Naess & Murphy; Renzo Piano- Chicago Tribune |
Tim Arango & Adam Nagourney: A Paper Tears Apart in a City That Never Quite Came Together: The turmoil at The Los Angeles Times is the latest setback for Los Angeles, a region that has long suffered from a lack of civic institutions: The turmoil at The Times...is a reminder of the slow decline of a newspaper that had long been a cohesive force in Los Angeles civic life.- New York Times |
Christopher Hawthorne: Los Angeles, Houston and the appeal of the hard-to-read city:.This is not going to be a column about all the things the New York Times got wrong...the legibility (and illegibility) of cities...how we react...when we're confronted with a city that doesn't make sense to us right away...As is the case in Los Angeles, the greatest thing and the worst thing about Houston are one and the same: Nobody cares what anybody else is doing. Freedom in both places sometimes trumps community...what unites Houston and Los Angeles...is a certain elusiveness as urban object. Both cities are opaque and hard to read. -- Lars Lerup/"The Continuous City"- Los Angeles Times |
Chau Tu: The New York Times’ Double Diss of Los Angeles: Its reporters misunderstand what ails the L.A. Times - and what that has to do with the city’s civic fabric: ...article is an unusually contradictory and unconvincing attempt to connect Los Angeles’ vast geography and what it describes as a lack of civic institutions to the travails of its newspaper...At least the New York Times found one way Angelenos come together: by hating articles like this one.- Slate |
Architects of New Misk Art Institute in Saudi Arabia Discuss Design Vision: Saudi Arabia’s creative community of artists, architects, and designers seem poised to experience a wave of change...new organization...announced its inaugural year of international programming, which will include the country’s first national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale and the start of designs for a new ground-up headquarters building in Riyadh. -- Ahmed Mater; Michele De Lucchi/aMDL; Skene Catling de la Peña; Adam Lowe/Factum Arte- Architectural Record |
AIA 2018 Young Architects Awards: 18 recipients... professionals who have been licensed 10 years or fewer regardless of their age...who have shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their careers.- American Institute of Architects (AIA) |
David Porter/Architectural Association: Remembering Neave Brown, a champion of smart public housing: ...the antithesis of the starchitect...RIBA’s Royal Gold Medal came as a result of a reappraisal of his contribution to the architecture of housing and citymaking against the contemporary backdrop of a housing crisis, an expanding city, and the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire...was not unhappy to be considered an ‘’old-fashioned modernist’’ remaining intellectually engaged with the formal language of architecture and its relevance to an inclusive society. -- Neave Brown David Porter Architects- The Architect's Newspaper |
Fred A. Bernstein: Immigrant Stories: For Nader Tehrani, Architecture Is a Universal Language: When revolution broke out at home in Iran, the architect stayed in the U.S. and built a thriving career. -- Cooper Union; MIT; Office dA; NADAAA- Architectural Digest |
Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey: Le Corbusier, the 20th Century’s Most Influential Architect: His concrete monoliths still divide opinion today: Whether or not you agree with his aesthetic, his pioneering concepts influenced generations of architects and visionaries and continue to inspire many today...many of his early schemes were rather ambitious. We can only be grateful that his ‘Plan Voisin’...never came to fruition....Staying overnight in...Unité d'Habitation...it’s clear [he] hit the bull’s eye...one of his most unique, if sadly neglected, ‘sites’ is undoubtedly his barge conversion or “floating shelter” along the Quai d’Austerlitz. Yes, it is made from concrete. And yes, it does float. [images]- France Today |
ANN feature: Simon Perkowitz, AIA: INSIGHT: Thinking Outside the Big Box: Gone are the days when the question was: What retailer can take this large space? The question now is: How can the box be reinvented to create experience and community?- ArchNewsNow.com |
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