Archinect Sessions: Recent Episodes
Paul Petrunia, Donna Sink and Ken Koense
A biweekly discussion of pressing architecture news and issues, hosted by Paul Petrunia, Donna Sink, and Ken Koense.
Archinect Sessions Next Up: Exhibit Columbus concludes today with our conversations with the recipients of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. Today's final episode is a conversation with Sam Jacob.
Sam Jacob Studio is a London-based practice that works at a variety of scales from urban planning to architecture, design objects, art, and curatorial work. Sam Jacob also currently works as a Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and as a columnist for Art Review. Sam's installation for Exhibit Columbus is located on Washington Street. He treats the six city blocks as a design object in his project titled "Alternative Instruments," telling a story of Utopia from the perspective of both history and fiction, referencing a 16th century novel by Thomas More through symbolism, mapping, and the typography of the Utopian alphabet.
Archinect Sessions Next Up: Exhibit Columbus continues with sharing conversations with the recipients of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. Today's episode is a conversation with Olalekan Jeyifous.
Olelakan, who also goes by LEk, as I refer to him in this conversation, is a Nigerian-born visual artist with an architecture degree from Cornell. His work has been widely exhibited at institutions including the Studio Museum in Harlem, MoMA, Vitra Design Museum and the Guggenheim Bilboa. His work ranges from large-scale art commissions in public spaces and festivals to commercial installations. His contribution to this year's Exhibit Columbus is a fascinating hybrid of physical and virtual space entitled Archival/Revival. The installation directly references exhibits at the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library, the site of the installation, from 1970, celebrating the Black and African arts.
Archinect Sessions Next Up: Exhibit Columbus continues with sharing conversations with the recipients of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. Today's episode is a conversation with Ann Lui and Craig Reschke of Future Firm.
Future Firm is a Chicago-based architecture and design research office founded in 2015. Their work spans a wide array of scales, framed by their tagline, "We design on behalf of the secret lives of cities." In the case of their installation for Exhibit Columbus, Midnight Palace, the secret lives represent the nocturnal community in Columbus, Indiana. The sidewalk installation will bring together people that work in manufacturing, one of the most common jobs in the regions, with restaurant workers, truckers on I65, parents of newborns, dedicated stargazers, students, and residents with families overseas.
Archinect Sessions Next Up: Exhibit Columbus continues with sharing conversations with the recipients of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. Today's episode is a conversation with Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo of Ecosistema Urbano.
Ecosistema Urbano is a design and consulting company operating within the fields of urbanism, architecture, engineering, and sociology, with offices in Madrid and Miami. Their work often addresses climate head-on, while incorporating strategies of working with micro-climates to educate communities through public spaces. This focus was applied to Cloudroom, their contribution to this year's Exhibit Columbus. Cloudroom consists of an inflatable "cloud," floating over a wooden structure, acting as a space for education, play, and interaction for middle school students.
Archinect Sessions Next Up: Exhibit Columbus continues this week as we introduce the winners of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. This series was introduced last week with Mimi Zeiger and Iker Gil, the curators of Exhibit Columbus. If you're not yet familiar with this year's Exhibit Columbus designers and programming, we encourage you to take a listen to last week's episode. To begin our first episode featuring the recipients of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize, we're sharing my conversation with Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers of Dream the Combine.
Partners in work and life, Jennifer and Tom's Minneapolis-based practice explores metaphor, imaginary environments, and perceptual uncertainties that cast doubt on our known understanding of the world. Their installation for Exhibit Columbus starts off with addressing the name Columbus, and the various associations with the controversial name. The project is aptly titled "Columbus Columbia Columbo Colón."
Today, in partnership with Exhibit Columbus, we're introducing Next Up: Exhibit Columbus, our 5-part series of conversations with the curators of Exhibit Columbus and the recipients of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. More: https://archinect.com/news/article/150274759/next-up-exhibit-columbus-part-1-a-conversation-with-the-curators
On our year-end show Donna, Ken and I are joined by Frances Anderton. For those listeners that are in LA, Frances's voice is probably very familiar to you. Frances is the host of DnA, the radio show the focuses on architecture and design on KCRW, the local favorite station among architects in the Southern California region.
A few weeks ago Frances broke the news that she would be leaving the beloved radio show at the end of the year, after an 18-year run. Today she joins us to tell us about work with DnA, the backstory behind her transition from architecture student to journalist to radio personality, and gives us a hint at what she'll be doing next.
Later in the episode, the four of us discuss some of the bigger news stories that helped define what 2020 meant for architects. We also share what we're each looking forward to as we enter into a new year.
On today’s episode of Archinect Sessions Donna and I are joined by Karen Compton, a Los Angeles-based business consultant, business owner and podcast host.
As the Principal at A3K Consulting, Karen oversees a team of professionals to help clients in the AEC industry grow and improve their businesses applying strategy, business planning, education, training and recruitment. Her vodcast, Breaking the Silence of Design, started just 2 months ago, with co-host Gabrielle Bullock, Director of Global Diversity at Perkins & Will Architects, as a platform to address the uncomfortable conversations around race and inequality in the AEC industry.
On today’s show Donna and I are joined by Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski of WAI Architecture Think Tank.
The last time we had Cruz and Nathalie on the podcast was for our Next Up series at the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. We’ve since also had Cruz on the podcast to discuss the unfortunate changes at Taliesin’s School of Architecture, where Cruz and Nathalie were both visiting teaching fellows. On each of these instances we had a limited time with them to discuss highly specific aspects of their work, so we wanted to have them back on to learn more about their backgrounds, how they met, and what drives their work.
If you’ve been following them, you’ll know that they recently published a book on their work entitled Narrative Architecture. They’ve also published a powerful anti-racist manifesto on un-making architecture, as the fight for equality pushes forward, propelled by the Black Lives Matter movement.
This is the final installment of Archinect Sessions' six-part series of conversations we've had with architects, designers, and others in the industry. The discussions address the challenges experienced navigating these uncertain times, from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, to the toll it's taken on jobs and the economy.
Today we share our conversations with Ilya Bourim, an architectural designer working for a developer in the Coachella Valley; Lauren Harris, a BIM Manager in Philadelphia; Dawn Zuber, an architect and small practice owner just outside of Detroit; and Carl Emberger, a Technical Director at a mid-size firm in Philadelphia.
This is the fifth installment of Archinect Sessions six-part series of conversations we've had with architects, designers, and others in the industry. The discussions address the challenges experienced navigating these uncertain times, from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, to the toll it's taken on jobs and the economy.
Conversations in this episode include Will Galloway, an architect/firm-owner and educator who has been stuck in Canada, his country of citizenship, while unable to return to Tokyo, his home of residence. We also speak with Sobia Sayeda, an architect in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Dillon Jones, a Portland-based architect who has been sheltering-in-place in California since getting furloughed.
This is the fourth part of Archinect Sessions six-part series of conversations we've had with architects, designers, and others in the industry. The discussions address the challenges experienced navigating these uncertain times, from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, to the toll it's taken on jobs and the economy.
Conversations in this episode include four architects and designers based in New York - Brandt Knapp & Jerome Haferd of Brandt : Haferd, Arielle Lapp, and Emma Greenberg.
Today we share the third part of Archinect Sessions six-part series of conversations we've had with architects, designers, and others in the industry. The discussions address the challenges experienced navigating these uncertain times, from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, to the toll it's taken on jobs and the economy.
Conversations in this episode include Nicolai Kruger, an architect and illustrator in Portland, Oregon; Charles Pifer, a practicing architect and teacher of architectural ethics, in Tucson, Arizona; and Michele Grace Hottel, an architect/sole-proprietor in La Mesa, California.
Today we share the second part of Archinect Sessions six-part series of conversations we've had with architects, designers, and others in the industry. The discussions address the challenges experienced navigating these uncertain times, from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, to the toll it's taken on jobs and the economy.
In this second part, we feature the perspectives of Autumn, a commercial interior designer in Chicago; Daniel, a project architect/project manager in Oakland; and Casey, an American architect working in Berlin.
Today's installment of Archinect Sessions introduces the first of six episodes sharing conversations we've had with architects, designers. and others in the industry. The discussions address the challenges experienced navigating these uncertain times, from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, to the toll it's taken on jobs and the economy.
In this first part, we feature the perspectives of Zachary, a recently laid-off unlicensed architectural designer in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Nancy, an architect-turned-architectural-consultant in New York; and an architect in Glasgow, Scotland, who wishes to remain unnamed because of the potentially-illegal layoffs he's been the victim of in recent months.
This episode of Archinect Sessions was intended to be a brief introduction to a number of conversations we've been recording with members of the architecture community from around the world, checking in to see how people are coping through the current COVID-19 crisis and related effects to the economy. Since it's been so long that the three of us recorded our last episode, we ended up spending a full hour catching up amongst ourselves, sharing stories and perspectives on what we're experiencing ourselves, and observing around us. Our conversations with the architects we've been talking to will follow in subsequent episodes, beginning next week. If you have stories to share, please reach out to us and tell us about it.
Today Donna, Ken and I are joined by Paulette Singley. Paulette is a respected architectural historian, educator and author. Her writing and editing expands beyond the world of architecture, looking at connections within the culinary arts and film. In today's conversation we’re focusing on her latest book "How to Read Architecture: An Introduction to Interpreting the Built Environment,” a must read for architecture students, architects, designers and admirers of the built world.
On this episode of Archinect Sessions we’re sharing a conversation I had with Alysa Nahmias, the director and producer of the documentary film “The New Bauhaus.” We recorded this conversation last month, poolside, a few hours before the film premiered to a packed house in the Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Alysa, a trained architect-turned-filmmaker, made her directorial debut in 2011 with Unfinished Spaces, a critically acclaimed documentary about the unfinished National Art School in Cuba.
While she has a number of producing credits under her belt, The New Bauhaus is the second documentary film project that she directed. The film focuses on the life and legacy of László Moholy-Nagy, the Hungarian artist and teacher most famously known through his work at the Bauhaus. It’s a beautifully told story, presented in a unique, non-linear fashion, narrated by Hans Ulrich Obrist who represent Maholy in a surprisingly effective way.
The film will be screened again at this year’s Modernism Week in Palm springs, tomorrow, February 14th, followed by screenings at Melbourne Design Week the Architecture & Design Film Festival in DC in March, and in Los Angeles, at SC-Arc, in April. Full details can be found at thenewbauhaus.com.
On this special (and very spontaneous) episode of Archinect Sessions we are joined with three members of the Taliesin community to help shed some light on the mysterious and disturbing sudden announcement of the closure of The School of Architecture at Taliesin. With us are Benjamin Aranda, partner at Aranda\Lasch with Chris Lasch, the Dean at The School of Architecture at Taliesin; Cruz Garcia co-director at WAI Architecture Think Tank and a previous visiting teaching fellow at The School of Architecture at Taliesin; and Ryan Scavnicky of Extra Office, and former visiting teaching fellow at The School of Architecture at Taliesin.
Our conversation shares our guest's experiences at the school, with insight into the questionable relationship between the foundation and the school. We talk about what happened this week, how these events conflict with Frank Lloyd Wright's wishes, as outlined in his will, about the direction of the foundation as an institution for learning, and the troubling lack of transparency from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation about the decisions that have been made.
On this installment of Archinect Sessions, we’re sharing a conversation I had a couple of months ago with Sofia Borges and R. Scott Mitchell, the leaders of a design-build studio at USC that addressed one of the most pressing issues in Los Angeles today - homelessness.
The MADWORKSHOP Homeless Studio set out with the goal of addressing this city-wide crisis by developing a real-world architectural response. The initial motivation for the studio came from the founders of MADWORKSHOP, Mary and David Martin, who reached out to USC School of Architecture with the hope that the students would be able to come up with some practical, creative and buildable solutions of homelessness in Los Angeles. You can learn more about the studio in this feature we have previously published. Since the completion of the studio they have produced a book documenting the process and results in "Give Me Shelter." The book is currently available for purchase from ORO, the publisher, or on Amazon.
Our conversation ranges from discussing both Sofia and Scott’s complementary backgrounds, considerations for approaching this difficult and delicate problem in an academic environment, to thoughts on how architects can actually make a positive difference to this growing problem.
On this episode of Archinect Sessions we’re sharing the recording of a panel discussion I moderated last weekend at the A+D Museum, as part of the current exhibition The Los Angeles Schools. The panel brought together five students and three faculty members representing student-led publications from LA’s architecture programs. Rayne Laborde and Phoebe Webster represented UCLA's POOL; Marcelyn Gow represented SCI-Arc’s Offramp; Richard Mapes, Corie Yaguchi and Irvin Shaifa represented SCI-Arc's Underscore; Alvin Huang represented USC’s Supertall; and Stephen Phillips, Cal Poly LA Metro’s Director, represented their program’s hardcover publication LA Ten.
Our talk covers a lot of ground, exposing the inner-workings of editing and producing publications in today’s unique and highly transformative media landscape. Our conversations cover issues of editorial decision-making, design, freedom of expression and thoughts on the future of student publishing in architecture school.
For Archinect Sessions episode #145 we are joined by Kimberly Dowdell, a principal at HOK in Chicago and the current President of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Our conversation covers Kimberly’s impressive path to success in architecture, and the leadership role she’s taking in NOMA. We’ll also discuss the upcoming NOMA conference taking place in Brooklyn in a few weeks from October 14th-20th.
On this episode, we're joined by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. A long-familiar name to most of our listeners, Aravena’s work gained significant media attention upon winning the Pritzker Prize in 2016, elevating his reputation for working to address some of today’s most difficult issues through participatory design, engaging users, groups, experts, and the public-at-large. His most notable projects are his “incremental housing” developments, a partially subsidized low-income solution for displaced families providing half-built homes for families to complete on their own, within their own budgets and tastes. Elemental has since released the plans for these projects for free, via download from their website.
This week Aravena was awarded another significant prize, the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. The award recognizes visionaries that are making significant contributions to international community building, with an emphasis on land use and development bettering society. Our conversation starts with him describing how this ULI prize is so important to him...
This week we’re joined by one of our favorite regulars, Fred Scharmen. Fred currently teaches architecture and urban design at Morgan State University's School of Architecture and Planning, and is the Principal and Co-Founder of The Working Group on Adaptive Systems. What brings him on today’s show is his just-released new book Space Settlements. The 400-page paperback contains a visually stunning collection of designs for space colonies from the mid-70’s, including iconic artwork and comparison studies of 20th and 21st century architecture projects. Our conversation talks about his research leading up to this book, the process of writing the book and the fascinating stories discovered along the way.
We have a very special July 4th episode for you today.
Today’s show offers a very American conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Goldberger. The discussion was recorded live at Archinect Outpost last month for the launch of his latest book Ballpark.
Ballpark takes a deep dive into the history of the ballpark, and the impact it’s had on the evolution of the American city. The book looks at a selection of case studies to arrive at a simple yet compelling thesis: “In the ballpark,” Goldberger writes, “the two sides of the American character - the Jeffersonian impulse toward open space and rural expanse, and the Hamiltonian belief in the city and in industrial infrastructure - are joined, and cannot be torn apart.
If you’re interested in a copy of the book, we have a few copies available at Archinect, both in our shop in downtown Los Angeles, and online at outpost.archinect.com.
Paul Goldberger began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism. From 1997 through 2011 he served as the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where he wrote the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He is currently a contributing editor for Vanity fair and holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City.
On this latest episode of the Archinect Sessions podcast we're joined by Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers of the Minneapolis-based practice Dream the Combine.
Jennifer and Tom are a husband and wife team that specialize in site-specific installations. Their work is deeply-collaborative, directly referenced in the name of their practice, and looks at the overlaps in art, architecture, and cultural theory, while manipulating the boundary between real and illusory space.
This week Ken and I are speaking with the leadership team responsible for the upcoming Brown University Performing Arts Center – Joshua Ramus of REX, Carl Giegold of Threshold Acoustics and David Rosenburg of Theatre Projects.
The Brown University Performing Arts Center is a formally stunning project designed by REX for the Brown University campus in the relatively small town of Providence, Rhode Island. The exterior of the almost 100,000 square foot building consists of a large monolithic mass clad in aluminum, with a cantilevered glass-encased 13-foot tall clearstory jutting out from the lobby level, covering a lower-level outdoor public space.
The interior of the Arts Center, however, is where the magic happens. To facilitate the university’s requirement to host performances for a variety of needs and audience sizes, REX and his team of theater and acoustics specialists designed a transformable concert hall that can accommodate five completely different configurations, from a small experimental sound cube for media performances, to a 625-seat symphony orchestra hall.
Our conversation starts with Joshua Ramus describing the conception of the project, starting with the client’s brief…
This week Ken and I are joined by Alan Maskin, partner and co-owner of Seattle-based Olson Kundig. Alan shares his story growing up on the East Coast, working as an artist and arts educator before moving onto architecture school in his 30s. He tells us about how he finally landed a job at Olson Kundig after 4 failed job applications, and then strategically moved his way out of his initial role of IT manager. He provides insight into what it took to move up in the firm, eventually becoming a partner and co-owner, and what kind of qualities Olson Kundig looks for when hiring new talent that fits well with time-crafted firm culture.
Of course, we also talk about his work, including the highly publicized renovation of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, and some recent projects he has designed for children and families. We even get his thoughts on two topics weighing heavily in the news these days - unpaid internships and the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
On this episode of Archinect Sessions we're joined by Eva Hagberg, a NY-based writer and architectural consultant. Our conversation covers Eva’s architectural studies at Princeton and Berkeley, and how that transitioned into a successful writing career spanning architecture criticism to writing about her own life in her recently published memoir How to Be Loved. We also talk about the unique personality traits of architects and her approach to helping architects communicate.
On this week's episode of Archinect Sessions we talk with Carlo Aiello, a Mexican-born, LA-based designer and founder of eVolo . Most of our readers are familiar with eVolo's (very) popular annual skyscraper competition and related series of books. Carlo, the founder of eVolo, is also the designer of the award-winning Parabola Chair and the designer of the Kickstarter-success ESCALA , a 2-in-1 drawing tool combining the scale-ruler with an insertable fountain pen . In our conversation we track his progress from his studies at Columbia's GSAPP , to working for SOM and Asymptote , to embarking as a self-made entrepreneur with a move west, to LA.
This week on Archinect Sessions we’re sharing our inspiring conversation with Theaster Gates. For those of you who aren’t already familiar with Theaster, you’re in for a treat. Theaster Gates often refers to himself as a potter, and while it’s true that he is, through years of training and practice, he’s also an extremely talented multidisciplinary artist, urban planner and community-focused social activist.
Theaster may be most well known for his non-profit Rebuild Foundation. The foundation purchases abandoned buildings in the south side of Chicago, the neighborhood Theaster grew up and still resides in, and transforms them into beautiful community hubs that connect and inspire the local residents through art, creativity, and professional skill training.
Gates work extends into academia as well. He is a full professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago, where he also the director of Arts and Public Life. It’s in this context that he is unveiling his latest project, part of an $80 million dollar renovation and restoration of the Edward Durell Stone-designed Keller Hall, home to the school’s Harris School of Public Policy. Theaster’s role involved designing a soaring communal atrium space, lined with wood from fallen ash trees, and milled by local residents.
Our conversation with Theaster Gates starts with his reuse of Chicago’s diseased ash trees into millwork and detailing for the new University of Chicago Keller Center, and quickly veers into topics of hand skills, black labor, neighborhood communities, and socio-cultural readings of beauty.
This week we are joined, in studio, by David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, the hosts of the Midnight Charette podcast. You may be already familiar with their podcast, or perhaps you’ve just heard about the podcast since they released their episode with me a couple days ago.
The Midnight Charette has been podcasting for a while now. They're quickly approaching their 100th episode. They describe their show as an explicit podcast about design, architecture and people. The format is casual, and unscripted, and tends to run on the long side, 2 hours being about average for an episode. While this is an architecture podcast, it’s often not addressing architecture directly, rather, David and Marina discuss non-architectural issues from the perspective of a couple of architecturally-minded professionals.
In today’s conversation we learn more about the host's backgrounds, and how they came together and conceived of the podcast. We also take a peek behind the curtain by talking about all of the little details that we use to make these podcasts.
On this week's episode of Archinect Sessions Ken, Donna, and I share our conversation with Rusty Long, an architect based in Cary, North Carolina. Rusty’s private practice focuses on sustainability and community engagement with a style that bridges modernism and the history of the the American South.
Rusty’s day job, however, is a State Architect for the USDA Rural Development office. As a federal employee, Rusty is one of approximately 800,000 individuals currently furloughed by the Government Shutdown. On this 34th day of the historic shutdown, as he and many others remain unpaid after two pay cycles, Rusty sits down with us to share his story. We talk about how and why he entered public service, the work he typically undertakes as a state architect, and the problems that this shutdown are causing for him, his colleague and the US taxpayers in general.
On this episode of Archinect Sessions we're joined with Alex Baca, a Washington DC-based journalist focused on smart cities, planning, bike advocacy and urban mobility devices. Recent news, and related controversy, surrounding Amazon’s newly announced move into New York City and Washington DC is what initially motivated us to bring Alex onto this show.
This week we’re sharing my conversation with Sou Fujimoto, recorded immediately before his new show opened to the press at Japan House in Hollywood last Friday. The show, titled “FUTURES OF THE FUTURE”, brings together large-scale renderings and photographs, along with over 100 models showcasing a selection of Fujimoto’s distinctive work and process.
Our conversation covers his upbringing in Hokkaido, his academic and personal studies in Tokyo, and how these experiences contributed to his highly unique approach to architecture; investigating primitive lifestyles, blurring boundaries and breaking down walls. If you’re in the LA area, the exhibition will remain until December 12th at Japan House, which is located on the 2nd floor of the bustling, tourist-filled Hollywood and Highland complex.
On this latest episode of Archinect Sessions we talk with Sekou Cooke, Syracuse-based architect, educator and curator of the upcoming exhibition at the Center for Architecture, "Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture", scheduled to open this Monday, October 1st in New York City.
This week's podcast episode is all about podcasting. So meta. We're joined by Sera Ghadaki, a recent graduate of Pratt M.Arch program, and a contributing editor of Tarp: Digital, Pratt’s podcast spinoff from their long-running student publication.
On this latest issue of the Archinect Sessions podcast Ken, Paul and Donna talk with Peggy Deamer and Shota Vashakmadze , from the Architecture Lobby . For those of you unfamiliar, the Architecture Lobby is a non-profit organization run by and for architectural workers that advocate for the value of architecture to the public, and for the value of architectural work within the industry. The Lobby is rooted in a 10-point manifesto:
- Enforce labor laws that prohibit unpaid internships, unpaid overtime; refuse unpaid competitions.
- Reject fees based on percentage of construction or hourly fees and instead calculate value based on the money we save our clients or gain them.
- Stop peddling a product–buildings–and focus on the unique value architects help realize through spatial services.
- Enforce wage transparency across the discipline.
- Establish a union for architects, designers, academics, and interns in architecture and design.
- Demystify the architect as solo creative genius; no honors for architects who don’t acknowledge their staff.
- Licensure upon completion of degree.
- Change professional architecture organizations to advocate for the living conditions of architects.
- Support research about labor rights in architecture.
- Implement democratic alternatives to the free market system of development.
One of the most recent initiatives by the Architecture Lobby is Just Design , recognizing firms exhibiting exemplary labor practices. Archinect is currently working in partnership with the Architecture Lobby to profile these firms, which we are excited to announce soon, so stay tuned. Until then, enjoy this conversation with Peggy and Shota...
Earlier this summer I sat down with Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee to discuss their practice, Johnston Marklee, in front of a live audience at this year's LA Design Festival. We discuss the origin of their practice, their relationship to LA, the eclectic group of collaborators they have worked with over the years, and their unique approach to telling the story of their work in their recently published monograph.
On this week's show, Archinect Sessions episode 124, Ken and Donna look back at this year's AIA National Convention in NYC.
The LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design has offered a critical look at the city of Los Angeles since the late 80's. The nonprofit has been providing public programming, exhibitions, and publications through its ever-shifting board of directors and volunteer contributors. To celebrate this 30-year milestone, the Forum has carefully selected a collection of pieces published from its origin to today, and has published these in a book under the themes of Experiments, Detours, Hunches, and Santa Anas.
Today, Los Angeles is a major architectural and urban player, but for decades the city was dismissed suburban and centerless. In republishing three decades of material on architecture and design in Los Angeles, the LA Forum Reader reclaims and reconsiders the city’s architectural and discursive histories. It establishes, or reestablishes, a textual context for critical experimentation and urban investigation. This anthological volume includes essays, interviews, and reproductions of publications that have long been out of print, including pamphlets by Craig Hodgetts and Margaret Crawford, as well as early writings by Aaron Betsky and John Chase.
In this week's show I invited editors Mimi Zeiger, Chava Danielson and Michael Sweeney to Archinect's recording studio to discuss the history of the Forum and the process of putting together this anthology.
Last Wednesday, on the eve of the AIA National Convention, I had the pleasure of talking with Miguel McKelvey, co-founder of WeWork.
The conversation was held in Midtown, in the Project 6 by AF showroom to an invited crowd of 75 architects. The event was co-hosted by Project 6 by AF and Designer Pages, and sponsored by Graff, Julien, Geberit, Kaldewei and Wetstyle.
For those of you unfamiliar, WeWork is a co-working startup currently valued at somewhere between $20B to $35B, with almost 400 locations scattered around the world in 69 cities. While WeWork wasn’t the first company to enter the coworking space, they approached it in a very different way, focusing on creating physical environments that connected with workers and business owners, while crafting a culture of super-dedicated members.
Miguel McKelvey, one of two co-founders, is an architect by education, with a brief work history in the field that includes an active role in the design and buildout of American Apparel's disruptive retail stores in the early 2000’s. As a personal friend that I first met while studying architecture together at the University of Oregon, I’ve followed Miguel’s entrepreneurial path for almost 20 years. In this conversation we’ll talk about that path, and how architecture has played a critical role in the success of WeWork, starting with his extremely untraditional, yet highly relevant, childhood.
This week we announced the release of our latest issue of our print journal, Ed, with the theme “Architecture of Disaster”. For today’s show I’m talking with Nicholas Korody, Ed’s editor-in-chief, to discuss this latest release. Nicholas talks about the conception of the theme and shares some of his favorite pieces. We finish the conversation with a hint at Nicholas’s forthcoming Venice Architecture Biennale coverage.
This week Ken, Donna and I are joined by architect and writer Esther Sperber to discuss the very real and serious issue of mental health in architecture. Esther owns Studio ST Architects, a small practice in New York City, and frequently writes about mental health, with a specific focus on psychoanalysis and it’s relationship to architecture.
Creative fields, especially those with long hours and high stress levels, are often rife with mental health issues. Anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, chemical abuse... these are just a few of the indicators common in architecture. If you’re not suffering from any of these, you’re likely working around people that are. On today’s show we barely scratch the surface of this extremely complex subject. Our conversation ranges from learning to listen and empathize, to simple daily strategies for coping with mental health issues of your own and those around you, to more addressing more serious problems including chemical imbalances and professional treatment.
This week Ken, Donna and I talk about some topics in recent architecture news, along with a little discussion about dealing with criticism.
This week we have Mike Eliason on the podcast, Seattle-based Project Manager at Patano Studio and proponent of Passivhaus, Baugruppen , and a car-free cycling life. Long-time Archinectors may recognize him by his username holzbox, OP to a forum favorite minimal details .
On this week's show we are trying out something new by inviting on guest hosts to take over the mics. Our guest hosts today, Mitch McEwen and Marc Miller, are familiar figures to regular listeners of this podcast and readers of Archinect.
Mitch is the principal of McEwen Studio, co-founder of the studio collective, A(n) Office, and an Assistant Professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture. Mitch's writing can be found on her Archinect blog Another Architecture. She has also been a guest on previous episodes of Archinect Sessions Equity, Secrets and Relevancy of AIA; 1 Year After #NotMyAIA, Twilight Zoning: What 100 years of zoning hath wrought, and Another year, Another Architecture.
Marc is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Penn State University, in addition to being a regular voice of reason and intelligence in our discussion forum and comments section. Marc previously joined us on the podcast to discuss HUD and Zaha Hadid Architects in HUD-winked: Ben Carson takes on housing for Trump and ZHA distances itself from Patrik Schumacher.
This week we release a relatively spontaneous , and completely silly, look at news and features recently published on Archinect. We also turn Ken's famous last 2 questions, "What are you reading and listening to" onto ourselves.
On this episode of Archinect Sessions, Paul travels to Minneapolis to join Ken in a conversation with Julie Snow and Matt Kreilich of Snow Kreilich Architects, winner of the 2018 AIA Architecture Firm Award.
This week, we are joined by Nicholas Korody, the Editor-in-Chief of Archinect's new print project Ed, and Ethel Baraona Pohl, co-founder of Barcelona-based architecture publisher dpr-barcelona. We discuss the increasingly-niche industry of architectural print publishing, and the evolving value it offers as digital media continues to thrive.
We also provide a little behind-the-scenes look at the conception and development of Ed. Interested in seeing your work in print? Ed is currently seeking submissions for our next issue on "Disaster". Bracket, a publication project Archinect co-publishes with Infranetlab, is seeking submissions for the upcoming release "On Sharing".
This week, for our last show of the year, Donna, Ken and Paul share highlights from their favorite episodes of the year. It wasn't an easy task, as the year was filled with some brilliant guests and engaging conversations. Let us know, in the comments, what your favorite moments were from this year. We're also looking for listener requests for upcoming shows... who do you want us to invite on the show as guests? What do you want us to talk about more? What do you want us to talk about less? Should we add music to the show?
This week, Donna and Ken are joined by Indianapolis Architect and ARE Sketches author, Lora Teagarden. Lora is an architect with RATIO Architects and L^2 Design. This week on the podcast, we'll be discussing three news items from the website. First up is the controversy around the proposal for the "Tallest Building in Portland" by the architecture firm William Kaven. Second, is the Op-Ed on "Boring Architecture" by LA Times Architecture Critic, Christopher Hawthorne. Last is a provocative interview with OMA partner, Reinier de Graaf, by the folks at Failed Architecture called, "Architecture is in a State of Denial".
Listen to episode 113 of Archinect Sessions, “Architecture - Tools of Capital: Iconic, Boring, and for the Happy Few”.
ARE Sketches
Blue Ocean Strategy
Book 1 - Outlander Series
Influential Mind - Tali Sharot
Song Exploder
No Is Not Enough
This week we're devoting our episode to the anniversary of the 2016 election of Donald J. Drumpf, the statement by the AIA CEO Robert Ivy, and the subsequent dissent born out of the hashtag #NotMyAIA. We look to what has changed, and what hasn't; as it relates to the profession, activism and education, and what does the future portend. Joining me today are Katherine Darnstadt, founder and principal at Chicago-based Latent Design, V. Mitch McEwen, founder and principal at Brooklyn-based A(n) Office, principal of McEwen Studio, and assistant professor at Princeton School of Architecture, and Rosa T. Sheng, AIA LEED AP BD C, principal at SmithGroupJJR, AIASF President Elect - 2018 Board. #NotMyAIA Equity by Design [EQxD] Archileaks
This week we're releasing a special, in-between, episode of Archinect Sessions. In this show we’re sharing some conversations recorded by Ken and Donna from Exhibit Columbus, while visiting a selection of installations and local architectural masterpieces. Exhibit Columbus describes itself as an “annual exploration of architecture, art, design, and community created to celebrate Columbus’ extraordinary design heritage.” This inaugural exhibition opened on August 26th, and will continue until November 26th. We’ve covered Exhibit Columbus many times on on Archinect, including episodes 83, 94 and 103 of Archinect Sessions.
To describe John Cary simply as an author would be a disservice. John is a unique individual in the world of architecture. For 20 years, since he was a student, he has been on a non-stop mission to make the world a more just place with the power of good architecture and design. On this week's show Ken and I talk to John about his career arc, thus far, from fighting for the rights of interns and architects as the Vice President of the AIAS, to his new book Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone, published by Island Press.
This week we talk with Jonathan Massey, the new Dean at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. We talk about his approach to architectural education and his previous roles at Syracuse and the California College of the Arts, where he finished his deanship this year. We also discuss the world of architectural publishing as it relates to his work with Aggregate.
On this week's show we talk to Kogonada, the writer and director of the critically-acclaimed film Columbus, and Kyle Bergman, founder of the Architecture & Design Film Festival.
Our conversation with Kogonada touches on his inspirations and video-essay work prior to this spectacular debut feature-length film (currently 98% on Rotten Tomatoes!), his experience growing up in an midwest immigrant household and his passion for bringing architecture to film.
Kyle Bergman, who is also a practicing architect, shares his backstory behind the Architecture & Design Film Festival, and tells us about some of the very exciting new films that will be screening at the upcoming festivals in Whitefish, Montana in September and NYC in November.
This week we're joined by Inga Saffron, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. If you haven't read her latest piece on Henry Wilcots, the relatively unknown architect responsible for finishing Louis Kahn's masterpiece in Dhaka, go read it now. We talk with Inga about her experience meeting with Wilcots, architecture criticism pre and post-internet, Philadelphia and more.
This week we're joined with Anthony Morey, LA-based theorist, designer, educator, writer, and curator. Readers of Archinect will probably recognize his name from his curatorial work with the exciting annual architecture show "One Night Stand", and his relatively new series on Archinect “Cross-Talk”.
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importance of architecture and urban issues, their interest in engaging the community, and inviting us to take part in this inaugural event.
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importance of architecture and urban issues, their interest in engaging the community, and inviting us to take part in this inaugural event.
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importance of architecture and urban issues, their interest in engaging the community, and inviting us to take part in this inaugural event.
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importance of architecture and urban issues, their interest in engaging the community, and inviting us to take part in this inaugural event.
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importance of architecture and urban issues, their interest in engaging the community, and inviting us to take part in this inaugural event.
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importance of architecture and urban issues, their interest in engaging the community, and inviting us to take part in this inaugural event.
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importan
Recently, Archinect teamed up with Bureau Spectacular for the Arroyo Seco Weekend festival. Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant designed a pavilion for the event, while Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody held a series of interviews within it. Conversations focused on temporary architecture, installations, festival design and planning, and the festival's host city of Pasadena, CA, the results of which can be listened to below.
We'd like to thank the Goldenvoice team, and in particular Raffi Lehrher, for recognizing the importance of architecture and urban issues, their interest in engaging the community, and inviting us to take part in this inaugural event.
On this week's episode we’re joined with Kate Wagner, the author of McMansion Hell, a blog that balances serious essays on architecture and urbanism, with brilliantly funny analysis of the absurd trends in American suburban architecture. Kate has recently emerged, triumphantly, from a widely publicized threat from Zillow to stop using their imagery. As reported on Archinect recently, Zillow withdrew their legal threats after the Electronic Frontier Foundation responded on behalf of Kate, and McMansion Hell is back in business, with a larger following than ever.
This week René Peralta and Orhan Ayyüce joins us to discuss Tijuana and the unique border condition the Mexican city shares with San Diego.
Today’s show follows up on Archinect Sessions episode 83, when we discussed this first year of Exhibit Columbus. The inaugural exhibition of Exhibit Columbus opens this summer, on August 26, and will include six built structures, designed by teams from six different Midwestern universities, investigating the built environment of Columbus. On today’s show, we will be discussing these projects along with Joshua Coggeshall and Janice Shimizu from the Ball State University team, and Martin Summers from the University of Kentucky.
We are joined this week by Scott Frank of Argo Communications. Scott was previously the Senior Director of Media Relations at AIA National, but resigned after the Robert Ivy letter/ #NotMyAIA controversy, as discussed in Episode 89 of Archinect Sessions. We invited Scott to the podcast to discuss his new architect-focused business and general communications strategies for architects, but couldn't resist the opportunity to delve into a behind-the-scenes viewpoint of the national fiasco. As we at Sessions continue to both criticize and actively engage with improving the National AIA's role, Scott offers the perspective of an aligned professional into how architects can direct the news media discussion to better represent ourselves to the public. Warning: This episode contains an even higher level of cuss words than a typical episode. Enjoy!
In this latest episode of Archinect Sessions, Ken and Donna share their experiences and thoughts on the 2017 AIA National Conference. We discuss the conversation with Michelle Obama and the keynotes by Francis Kéré (awesome), Michael Murphy (political), and Elizabeth Diller (meh). We also address the positive changes displayed by the AIA this year, along with signs of complete lack of evolution by the Institute. Ken and Donna also share their excellent run-in and conversation with Phil Freelon and his wife Nnenna.
This week, for our 100th episode of Archinect Sessions, we are excited to share our conversation with Archinect favorite Steven Holl. Our conversation spans a number of topics, including growing up in a small town in Washington state, his early career struggles, his inspirations, working in China, globalism, his friendship with Zaha, the Pritzker Prize, and the Steven Myron Holl Foundation.
“We’re interested in bodies and their implications in space, their political positions in space, and how materially and technologically they are constituted,” states the Feminist Architecture Collaborative, otherwise known as f-architecture, during an interview conducted as part of Archinect’s Next Up: Floating Worlds.
“The economy of the home becoming an investment culture instead of a savings culture disrupts the idea of very specific gendered roles in Japanese society,” states the Copenhagen-based architect Christine Bjerke during an interview conducted as part of Archinect’s Next Up: Floating Worlds. Bjerke’s project (On the Floating World of the) FX Beauties, which inspired the name of the event,derives from her research into the spatial implications of the work of the FX Beauties, a club of Japanese housewives who engage in day-trading on foreign exchange markets.
“Everything we think of as being normal in the home, everything we think of as being traditional—they’re all inventions,” states Jack Self, the London-based founder of the REAL Foundation, during an interview conducted as part of Archinect’s fourth live podcasting event, Next Up: Floating Worlds. “The corridor is an invention, the single bed is an invention, the kitchen is an invention. And they’re all constantly in a state of evolution. If we can view the house as a design object and as an artificial construct with social relations, then anyone can have power to change the way that they live. Go home and rearrange your living room. Put all the soft surfaces in one room and all the hard surfaces in another room. You’ll instantly see how much of a construct your home is.”
In this week's episode, we talk to Jenny Sabin—architect, artist, researcher, educator, and winner of the 2017 Young Architect's Program at MoMA PS1.
For this episode of Archinect Sessions, we're sharing our conversation with Phil Freelon, an architect that has dedicated his life to creating meaningful, thoughtful works of architecture that contribute to American culture and civil rights.
Recent notable projects lead by Mr. Freelon include the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Atlanta's National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco and Emancipation Park in Houston. We hope you enjoy our conversation with him discussing his work, growing up in a creative, activist household, his recent diagnosis with ALS, and his love of science fiction.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've already heard about Abstract, Netflix's incredible new documentary series on design. This week we're talking to Abstract's executive producer, Morgan Neville, who also directed the episodes featuring Bjarke Ingels and Christoph Niemann.
As one of the world's most groundbreaking and talented documentary filmmakers, there's a good chance you have already seen Morgan's work. If you haven't, a good place to start is "20 Feet from Stardom", his Academy Award-winning doc that takes a look at the fascinating lives of the often-overlooked backup singers. His documentary on Yo-Yo Ma, "The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble", will be premiering on HBO in March. I'm particularly looking forward to his upcoming Mr. Rogers documentary that he mentions in our conversation.
This week on the podcast we are joined by Emily Hunt Turner. Emily gives us an update on her restaurant/non-profit startup All Square, as we previously featured in her Working Out of the Box feature. We also talk about her time working as a lawyer for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as she detailed the challenges and struggles in the past, and concerns with the direction of the department moving forward.
This week on the podcast we are joined by Evan Chakroff. We discuss his latest piece on Cuba and Cuban architecture, travel, 360° photography, and more.
This week Donna, Ken, and Paul discuss Exhibit Columbus's Miller Prize announcement, gender equality in lecture school lineups, and the recent illumination of Detroit.
This episode was sponsored by PPI - use code ARC17 for 15% off your purchase.
It's that time of the year – for washing away the stench of the past and basking in the sweet, slightly terrifying promise of an uncertain future. This week on the podcast, we dish out our predictions for architecture in 2017, and try to digest the year that was 2016.
This is our final episode for the year – we'll be back in a few weeks with fresh discussions, but in the meantime, if you like the podcast, you can do us a huge solid by rating us on iTunes. Send us thoughts, comments, and suggestions through connect@archinect.com, or find us on Twitter, @archsessions.
On this episode, we discuss the biggest news items of the past week, covering: the political bent to the AIA's Gold Medal being awarded posthumously to Paul Revere Williams; Jean Nouvel's legal battle over his "defiled" Paris Philharmonie; and BIG's new proposal for a giant, riverside mixed-user in LA's Arts District.
Last Friday night, a fire broke out during a concert at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, California, killing (at present count) 36 people. While the precise cause of the fire is still unknown, the building was rife with code violations that accelerated the fire's damage, many related to its adapted use for living and work-spaces. While criminal investigations are just beginning, local artists worry that the city will use the tragedy to crack down on other adaptive and DIY venues in the Bay Area, restricting access even further to affordable spaces in an already tight housing market.
Within the architecture community, the tragedy has prompted discussions surrounding the safety and vitality of DIY venues, and the long-term effects of such building code violations for gentrification and zoning. To discuss on the podcast, we're joined by two guests who have personal and professional experience with forming community spaces: designer, curator and organizer S. Surface, and David Keenan, an organizer at Omni Commons, a collectively-run community venue in Oakland.
When president-elect Donald Trump nominated Ben Carson to lead the department of Housing and Urban Development, the response was resoundingly: huh?
The neurosurgeon came onto the national political scene in 2015, during his run for the Republican nomination, but after Trump took the presidency and started throwing around the idea of offering a Cabinet position to Carson, a spokesperson said "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency." Despite all that, Carson is now (almost definitely officially) secretary of HUD (which he knows just enough about to seriously backtrack the agency's work as pushed by Obama). So here we are.
Special guest Marc Miller joins us on the podcast to discuss the implications of Carson's inexperience for HUD, as well as chew on the latest Schumacher-induced controversy: when the architect promoted the privatization of public space and trashed social housing at a recent talk in Berlin, ZHA responded to his remarks in an open letter, distancing the firm from its principal's so-called 'urban policy manifesto'.
Miller has degrees in landscape architecture, architecture and fine arts, and has practiced as an architect, urban designer, campus planner, and architectural lighting designer. He currently teaches in the landscape architecture department at Pennsylvania State University, and previously at Cornell.
It's here: our final interview from 'Next Up: The LA River', featuring Mia Lehrer of Mia Lehrer + Associates. Lehrer was a major driving force in the 2007 Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, and has worked for nearly 20 years on projects related to the River—undeniably preceding any involvement from Frank Gehry.
Paul Petrunia sits down with Lehrer to speak about her history with the river and its redevelopment, as well as her thoughts for how the project must proceed.
Our penultimate Mini-Session interview from 'Next Up: The LA River' pairs Renee Dake Wilson with Alexander Robinson. Dake Wilson, principal at Dake Wilson Architects, was appointed by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve as Vice President on the city's volunteer-based Planning Commission—an array of professionals who make recommendations between communities and the city on planning projects. On the commission, she's worked particularly with proposals to change the height and density limits on development in Elysian Valley, aka Frogtown—the neighborhood along the LA River that has become a major node in the city's ongoing gentrification discussion.
Robinson, while teaching at USC as an assistant professor, runs the Office of Outdoor Research and just recently completed a term as a Rome Prize recipient, researching the Tiber River as it relates to LA's and other cities' river infrastructures. He has also previously worked with Mia Lehrer's office on LA River projects.
For this Mini-Session from our Next Up: The LA River event, Nicholas Korody spoke with Julia Meltzer, director and founder of non-profit arts organization, Clockshop, and Elizabeth Timme, co-director of the urban design and architecture non-profit LA-Más.
Both Clockshop and LA-Más are located within Elysian Valley, aka Frogtown—a sliver of a neighborhood bordered by the LA River, the 5 and the 2 freeways. In recent years, Frogtown (predominantly a low-density neighborhood of single-family homes) has become a major focus in LA conversations about gentrification and development, and both Timme's and Meltzer's work is heavily invested in their context. Clockshop (in collaboration with California State Parks) has its HQ in Frogtown and hosts art events in the Bowtie, an undeveloped plot of land along the river. In 2015, LA-Más led a community "co-visioning process" (the 'Futuro de Frogtown') to determine the kind of development decisions residents were concerned about.
Nicholas Korody spoke with both Timme and Meltzer about issues of equitable-design and place-making along the river, and the role of art within a master redevelopment plan.
Los Angeles' Metabolic Studio, run by architect and visual artist Lauren Bon, creates site-specific, temporary "devices of wonder" that interpret landscape in new ways, shifting public perception of land and waterways. One of their most recent projects, "Bending the River Back Into the City", is a three-part intervention that literally diverts water from the LA River back into LA, distributing it via "the city's first water commons, to allow the currency of water to create social capital."
Lou Pesce, an artist with Metabolic Studio, joined us at Next Up to discuss. As concerns about gentrification, public access and the drought raise issues of ownership and equity along the LA River, I wanted to ask about the economic ideas behind "Bending the River" and how the project relates to the river's specific role in LA history.
As Chief Architect and Chief Deputy City Engineer presiding over a group of 800+ architects and engineers, Deborah Weintraub has a big picture of LA infrastructure in mind when it comes to the river. She also has a fair amount of historical perspective, having overseen the implementation of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan after it first issued RFPs in December of 2004.
Additionally, she oversaw the design and construction of the river's new 6th Street Viaduct by Michael Maltzan's office, which recently broke ground.
Nicholas Korody spoke with Deborah about her role as the most senior architect in the Bureau of Engineering, the river's urbanistic potential (and pitfalls) as a gigantic piece of infrastructure, and Gehry's role beyond hydrology.
Steven Appleton and Catherine Gudis are some of Next Up's most active participants when it comes to physically being in the LA River. Appleton co-founded LA River Kayak Safari, which has lead over 6000 people on kayaking tours down the river. He's also a public artist, and has made work that engages with the river for more than 15 years—his "50 Clean Bottles of LA River Water" used a bespoke water wheel to pump the river's water into bottles, and clean it to potable levels.
Gudis, while her core role is directing UC Riverside's Public History Program, also co-founded Project 51's 'Play the LA River'—a game that invited Angelenos to explore different areas along the river's entire 51-mile stretch. While nearly 80% of the river is paved, there are stretches of soft-bottom, green wetlands that host their own diverse, unique ecology.
Paul Petrunia spoke with Appleton and Gudis for Next Up about reframing Angelenos' expectations of the river by helping them get their feet wet.
This week we're devoting our entire episode to the debacle that was AIA CEO Robert Ivy's statement in support of President-elect Donald Trump, and the ensuing fallout among AIA members and others within the architecture community. Joining us is Katherine Darnstadt, founder and principal at Chicago-based Latent Design, and the originator of the dissenting #NotMyAIA hashtag, tweeted in response to to Ivy's initial letter.
To get the full background to the whole controversy, read our feature: Architects Respond to the AIA’s Statement in Support of President-Elect Donald Trump
Our second conversation from 'Next Up: The LA River' is with Marissa Christiansen, Senior Policy Director of Friends of the Los Angeles River. FOLAR, as the non-profit is known, turned 30 this year, and was founded on the mission to "protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Los Angeles river and its riparian habitat through inclusive planning, education and wise stewardship." Its role in much of the river's discourse has often included reminding all parties involved that the river is indeed a natural river, and host to a diverse ecosystem—despite its characterization as the "world's largest storm drain" ever since the Army Corps of Engineers paved most of it for flood control in the 1930s.
Christiansen trained as an urban planner before joining FOLAR this year, and spoke with Archinect's Nicholas Korody about the organization's history within the river's redevelopment, its focus on reconnecting people with the river's immense natural resources, and the delicate balance between conservation, revitalization and gentrification.
When Frank Gehry's office was first attached to the L.A. River's master plan and redevelopment, the river began attracting fresh attention over a project that had already been evolving for decades. This October, in an attempt to do justice to the river's complexity and history (and the accompanying urbanist discourse), Archinect hosted 'Next Up: The LA River'—a live podcasting interview series with an array of architects, planners, artists, and journalists with varying perspectives on the subject.
We're now eager to share those conversations with everyone as eight Mini-Sessions, released as part of our Archinect Sessions podcast. Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Paul Petrunia and Nicholas Korody moderated the conversations, which took place at the Los Angeles Architecture + Design Museum on October 29, 2016. While we reached out to them, unfortunately no representatives from Gehry's office were able to take part.
Our first Mini-Session was moderated by myself, with Frances Anderton (host of KCRW's 'Design and Architecture'), and Christopher Hawthorne (architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times). We cover their journalistic approaches to the river, and their own personal take on its role in the city.
Recorded in the wake of Tuesday's election results, this episode got a bit emotional. Fred Scharmen—designer, researcher, and assistant professor at Morgan State University's School of Architecture and Planning in Baltimore—joins us to discuss the potentials and pitfalls of a technocratic urbanism, and whether the former king of cat memes can really offer anything to cities. Our conversation is largely in response to Fred's recent piece for Archinect, "Architects: If You Don't Start Disrupting Urbanism, Silicon Valley Will Do It for You.", with reflections on how technology and media are responsible for our current political climate.
Joining Miami's proud tradition of statement-parking projects by the likes of Herzog & de Meuron and Gehry Partners, Faulders Studio has a new garage-facade design set for Miami's formerly industrial Wynwood Arts District. Faulders joined us on the podcast to talk about the potentials of parking structures for local urbanism, the role of street art in the neighborhood, and how Miami is becoming a must-build place for globalized design.
The sudden death of Dame Zaha Hadid could not also mean the end of Zaha Hadid Architects. With major projects still ongoing all over the world, the firm had to keep things running strong, focusing on the future while managing grief. After working with Zaha for nearly thirty years, Patrik Schumacher has now taken over leadership at the firm, and joins us on the podcast to discuss what it was like collaborating with her "killer instinct", and how he can continue honoring the "DNA" of her.
This episode originally aired on April 21, 2016.
Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, has had a tempestuous relationship with Donald Trump for years. As a developer working in Chicago, Trump's buildings have been critiqued by Kamin, and as often happens when Trump is criticized, he does not shy away from firing back personal attacks—calling him "dopey" and "a lightweight" when Kamin decried the developer's decision to slap a 20-foot-tall "TRUMP" sign on his downtown Chicago hotel. But instances like the "sign feud" aside, Kamin has also experienced Trump's kinder side, and can attest to the complex (to say the least) personality of the business man both before and after his profoundly strange pivot onto the national political stage.
We invited Kamin on the podcast to discuss his relationship with the developer-candidate, how it's impacted his role as a critic, and how the 2016 campaign has invoked issues related to the built environment (or not).
We discuss the latest big news from the awards-world of architecture, as we saw Caruso St John take home the Stirling Prize for their Newport Street Gallery, and the Aga Khan Award recipients ranged from a female Muslim starchitect to lesser-known female Muslim architects. We also take a slanted look at the hilarious winners of the satirical "Good Walls Make Good Neighbors, Mr. Trump" ideas competition.
Architect Sean Lally of Weathers runs the podcast Night White Skies: "A podcast about architecture's future, as both Earth's environment and our human bodies are now open for design."
The podcast is in its infancy, but Lally has already logged some really fascinating interviews with the likes of Timothy Morton, architect Mitchell Joachim, and architects/authors Geoffrey Thün & Kathy Velikov. Lally joins us on this week's show to talk about the podcasting+architecture game, and the architect's collaborative role in science and technology.
Beginning today through October 1, Columbus, Indiana will celebrate its architectural history and identity with its very first Exhibit Columbus—an annual event alternating between a symposium and a design exhibition. Known for its rich architectural holdings of work by Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Kevin Roche, I.M. Pei, Deborah Berke, Richard Meier, Robert Venturi and others, Columbus has earned its "Athens of the prairie" tagline, and Exhibit Columbus hopes to honor that proud tradition into the future.
We're joined by key members of Exhibit Columbus, Richard McCoy (director of the symposium's parent company, Landmark Columbus) and Joshua Coggeshall (partner at Shimizu + Coggeshall and co-director of next year's Ball State University installations) to discuss the city's architectural heritage, and what's planned for this year's inaugural symposium.
Alvin Huang, founder and principal of Synthesis Design + Architecture in Los Angeles, joins us to talk about growing his practice into the award-winning firm it is today. Alvin dips back into his time in London, going to school at the AA and working with Zaha, and shares the terror and excitement that is starting your own firm. We also discuss taking criticism on social media, firm/teaching/life balance, and computation's role in design.
In a landmark decision last month, Columbia University graduate students won the right to unionize in a case filed against the National Labor Relations Board. As a result, graduate students in private universities across the U.S. now have the right to collectively bargain. What effect does this have on architecture student labor, and the valuation of architecture overall?
We're joined this week by special guest A.L. Hu, a third-year GSAPP MArch student and key organizer with Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC-UAW). Hu shared what's happening at the school after the landmark decision, and how these organizing efforts can affect the architecture profession overall.
We're joined this week by Devin Gharakhanian, co-founder and co-creative director of the online platform SuperArchitects, to discuss his work in architecture media and community-building, alongside issues troubling architecture education and the public's perception of the profession.
Gharakhanian was inspired to start SuperArchitects to share architecture theses globally, feeling they are under-appreciated and underexposed. Frustrated by the gap between education and practice he experienced after graduating from Woodbury, he left traditional architecture to focus on exposing architects and their work to as wide an audience as possible, mostly through social media platforms.
Closing out August's special theme of Games, we're joined this week by Quilian Riano to talk through all the ways games can help architects reimagine not only their designs and design processes, but also their own role in the system and structures of city building. We discuss Quilian's recent piece for Archinect on his own work with games in pedagogy, practice and protest, and share our other experiences at the intersection of games and architecture.
This week's show is dedicated to Louisville, and we're delighted to share the mic with longtime Archinect favorite Steven Ward. Steven is an architect and partner at Studio Kremer Architects, teacher and architecture critic/cheerleader for the local independent paper LEO Weekly. We discuss his recent writings, in particular his survey of the recently completed Speed Art Museum, and the differences between local architecture criticism vs national criticism. We also find our what's going on with OMA's Food Port project.
The term "zoning" recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary in the U.S.'s city planning parlance, and many of our News postings recently have had to do with its fraught, wonky legacy. From racial segregation to housing discrimination to Pokémon Go trespassers, we dip into the debate around zoning, with special guest Mitch McEwen.
Peter Zumthor released new renderings for his LACMA redesign last week, and boy are people not impressed! We talk about the "undercooked" look of Zumthor's snaking concrete inkblot plan for the museum, and experiment with a new segment devoted to ranting. You've been warned.
The last few weeks have been a bit of a downer—we had a big ol' roundtable on how Brexit is changing architecture practice and education, the Democratic and Republican National Conventions raged, and Rio is coping (somewhat) with its Olympic stress. Now, we're in need of some lighter fare. We wanted to take a moment in the summer heat to check-in with what Donna and Ken have been up to, and pass on some of our own recommendations for what to read and listen to this summer.
Also featuring: Ken dishing about Guy Fieri and vegan butchers, Donna giving us the latest on her husband's giant installation in Rancho Cucamonga, and "a really fun text book".
Shownotes:
Archinect's theme for August is Games – check out our open call.
The Olympics begin tomorrow! Get caught up with what's been happening in Rio
At home in a changing climate: strategies for adapating to sea level rise
Revok, the artist who painted Brian's "Native" palm tree installation.
Melania Trump's website disappears after architecture degree claim is debunked
Phoenix May become a Lot More Green (more info here from Donna)
UK architecture students seeking mental health care is on the rise, according to Architects' Journal survey (more info here from Ken)
New Sandy Hook elementary really looks like a church
Summer Recommendations:
What we're reading:
- Donna: Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler, and Underground Airlines, by Ben H. Winters
- Ken: Man, Play and Games, by Roger Caillois, Teach Your Chicken to Fly Training Manual, by Trevor Weekes
- Amelia: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, and You'll Grow Out of It, by Jessi Klein
What we're listening to: listen on our YouTube playlist.
We're now about a month past the UK's historic 'Brexit' vote to leave the European Union, and, well, lots has happened. David Cameron stepped down as Prime Minister, and was replaced two weeks ago by fellow Conservative, Theresa May. The economy has drastically slowed down as the value of the pound against the dollar dipped to historic lows, and while there's plenty of gloomy prospects, there are even more unknowns.
To check in on how UK architecture is getting on, and it's sights for a post-EU future, we are joined by architects Rob Hyde (principal lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture), Katy Marks (founder of Citizens Design Bureau), and Mark Middleton (partner at Grimshaw in London).
While the separation from the EU could be severe for UK architects—in particular its threat to the EU's "free movement" that entitles its members to live and work in any of its constituent countries—our guests were cautiously optimistic. Paraphrasing Katy Marks, architects are the ones who listen, respond to and ultimately shape the debate around the built environment, giving them a valuable spot in the fray.
If you're an architect in the UK, or have been affected by Brexit in any way, we want to hear from you! Take our anonymous survey; we'll publish a report on the results in the near future.
When Indianapolis began demolishing its RCA Dome in 2008, Michael Bricker saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To save the stadium's white, Teflon-coated fiberglass roof from the landfill, Bricker salvaged 13 acres of it, and turned it into shade structures for the city, as well as locally-designed accessories. With this project, People for Urban Progress was born.
Bricker is the Founder and Executive Director of People for Urban Progress, aka PUP, based in Indianapolis. The non-profit is focused on diverting building materials from wasting away in landfills, and repurposing it for local improvements. Trained as an architect and also working as a production designer, Bricker has gone on with PUP to turn old stadium seats into bus stops, and fabric from Superbowl XLVI into handbags. Sessions' own Donna Sink is a board member at PUP, and Bricker joined us on the podcast to discuss the organization's goals and design ethos.
As a bonus for Sessions listeners, get 15% off anything in PUP's store by entering "archinect" as the coupon code at checkout.
This week on the podcast, Julia Ingalls joins us to discuss the byzantine considerations behind how architects charge for work, and shares some helpful guidelines from her recent piece about how residential architecture fee rates are determined.
We also dip into the recent $3M lawsuit against Architecture for Humanity for allegedly misusing restricted funds. After suddenly going bankrupt last year, many of AFH's volunteer cells have continued operating, and an offshoot organization, Open Architecture Collaborative, officially launched this past March. The lawsuit against AFH's founders could shed light into why the lauded nonprofit seemed to shutter so suddenly.
This episode of Archinect Sessions is sponsored by AIA Advantage Partner, BQE Software, and the makers of ArchiOffice. ArchiOffice is the only Office and Project Management Software built with the needs of architects in mind. It will help you manage people and projects, while you focus on designing great architecture. Our podcast listeners can get a fully functional 15-day trial of ArchiOffice at www.bqe.com/Archinect.
Wrapping up our special editorial theme for June 2016, Privacy, Archinect writers Julia Ingalls and Nicholas Korody join us on the podcast this week to discuss two of their recent features—Julia's piece on banking security with input from a reformed robber, and Nicholas' interview with the architecture firm that moonlights as a government whistleblower, posting hundreds of secret documents online.
Last Thursday, Great Britain voted to leave the European Union, with a margin of 52% to 48%. The result was a huge surprise—especially for those in creative industries like architecture, many of whom publicly supported the Remain campaign. While no official exit strategy is yet in place, within hours of the 'Brexit' vote becoming clear, the British pound dropped 10% in value against the US dollar (the lowest it's been since the 1980s). Prime Minister David Cameron resigned shortly after, and many British architects are wondering what the hell will happen now.
Speaking from his position as Principal Lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture, Rob Hyde joined us on the podcast this week to talk about the mood in the UK post-Brexit, and how architects are carrying on.
In light of the recent killing of 49 people at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando known to many as a center for Queer and Latinx culture, our focus for this week’s podcast is the role and significance of queer spaces in creating community and culture.
We wanted to use this time to encourage constructive discussion of why recognizing, and preserving (in some way), these 'third spaces' is so important. Not just for those who identify as queer or the Latinx community, but for creating diverse, welcoming urban spaces for all.
We’re joined by two guests, Susan Surface: a queer designer, curator, organizer, and the program director at Design in Public in Seattle, and James Rojas: an urban planner trained at MIT and specializing in cultural landscapes, who has written extensively about Latino urbanism.
This week, we’re taking a moment to catch-up with what’s happened on Archinect lately, and share some endorsements—we discuss our latest interview with Snøhetta, our ongoing coverage of the Venice Biennale, student work on refugee camps, and more.
Next week, in light of the shooting death of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, we plan to discuss the significance of accessible queer spaces, for all members of a city community.
This year's winning Serpentine Pavilion, designed by BIG, came with an architectural posse—for the first time in the Serpentine Pavilion's history, the annual competition also featured four "Summer Houses" designed by other international architects. The pavilion and summer houses open to the public tomorrow on the Serpentine Galleries' lawn in London's Royal Kensington Gardens, and we discuss our initial take on their at once surprising and familiar elements.
Get briefed on the pavilion and the summer houses with Robert Urquhart's coverage here.
Andrea Dietz spent four days in Venice reporting on the Biennale's opening for us, and brought back her reflections on the hallowed event—in all its chaotic, problematic, inspiring, messy glory—to discuss with us on the podcast. Amidst the fray, one thing came out clearly: the map is not the territory.
Donna, Ken and Fred all converged in the meatspace that was the AIA National Convention last week in Philadelphia – to explore the massive Expo floor, visit local architecture, vote on resolutions and oh yes, those keynotes (!) from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Neri Oxman and Rem Koolhaas. Spoiler alert: Rem's was the most boring.
For more information about the resolutions up for debate at the convention, check out our episode with Gregory Walker covering unpaid internships and WTC-truthers.
And don't forget to check out our ongoing coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale – we collaborated with the Taubman students setting up the US Pavilion, have a bunch of interviews with curators in the Features, and will soon be publishing dispatches from Venice to the News.
Shownotes:
Fred Scharmen's work with outer space for The Working Group on Adaptive Systems
LMN Architects in Seattle named AIA's 2016 firm of the year
Architecture Lobby's collaboration with Slought on (Re)Working Architecture
Neri Oxman’s 'Qamar' wearable for extraterrestrial environments
Since North Carolina passed the controversial bill known as HB-2 at the end of March—requiring transgender people to use bathrooms that coincide with the sex listed on their birth certificate, and forbidding city or county legislatures from passing counter-measures that protect against LGBT discrimination—the state has lost an estimated $40 million in business investment, and researchers project that total annual costs due to the bill could tally $5 billion. On May 9, the US Department of Justice sued North Carolina, stating that the law violated the Civil Rights Act, among others. North Carolina filed two lawsuits the same day to defend the measure.
Among the many other performers and businesses that have divested from North Carolina in protest of the law, AIA's South Atlantic Region (including Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina) announced on April 25 that it would no longer hold its September conference in Wilmington. You can read their statement here.
Former AIA Georgia President Gregory Walker, a long-time 'Nector and principal at Houser Walker Architects, joins us to discuss his chapter's decision. And as AIA National is just around the corner, we also discuss AIA Georgia's resolution16-2 to quell unpaid internships.
This week on the podcast, Donna, Ken and Amelia discuss the uncertain future of downtown Atlanta's brutalist Public Library (the last building Marcel Breuer designed), how Shigeru Ban's relief efforts in Ecuador relate to his celebrity, and the emergence of a heavy-hitting lobbyist group for driverless cars in the US.
Shownotes:
News pieces discussed in this show:
- Google, Uber, Lyft, Ford and Volvo join forces to lobby for autonomous vehicles
- Shigeru Ban arrives in Ecuador to train locals in relief architecture
- Breuer's Brutalist library in downtown Atlanta faces demolition
The campaign to save Marcel Breuer's Grosse Central Pointe Library, started on Archinect
Venice Biennale director Alejandro Aravena: "Our challenge must be to go beyond architecture."
This week we’re joined by special guest co-host Aaron Betsky, author of Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire and Building Sex: Men, Women, Architecture & the Construction of Sexuality. As a strong presence in the architectural discourse of gender and sexuality since the 1990s, Betsky discusses with us a few of our recent Features published under April's special editorial theme, Sex, including:
- The enduring influence of "Playboy Architecture"
- Screen/Print #41: "Family Planning" from Harvard Design Magazine
- The gimp room, the padded cell, the medical office: inside the world of Kink.com
- Transparent Motives: the ins and outs of sex-specific architecture
- "The difference between porn and erotica is the lighting." – One-to-One #19 with Jake Jaxson, CEO and Creative Director at CockyBoys
Betsky was last on the podcast in his current professional capacity as the dean at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin, to talk about the school's then-uncertain future. You can listen to that episode here.
The sudden death of Dame Zaha Hadid could not also mean the end of Zaha Hadid Architects. With major projects still ongoing all over the world, the firm had to keep things running strong, focusing on the future while managing grief. After working with Zaha for nearly thirty years, Patrik Schumacher has now taken over leadership at the firm, and joins us on the podcast to discuss what it was like collaborating with her "killer instinct", and how he can continue honoring the "DNA" of her work.
We're joined by original 'Nector and senior editor Orhan Ayyüce to discuss Zaha Hadid's legacy and his recent piece on LA's industrial urbanism, part of our architectural travel guide through cities worldwide. As a student at SCI-Arc, Ayyüce was first taken aback by Hadid during a visiting lecture she gave in 1985, before she had completed any built work: "I was very impressed by her at that lecture and her strengths and vulnerabilities made a lasting place in my memory bank." We share the impressions she and her work had on us personally, as well as Archinect's memory bank.
Last week we witnessed the loss of Dame Zaha Hadid, one of architecture's most formidable and prolific talents. We'll be devoting a later podcast episode to remembering her and honoring her work. Until then, we'll continue catching you up with the most significant architecture news from the past week.
This episode we discuss Alejandro Aravena's Pritzker acceptance speech (and the designs he's giving away for free), how NASA is experimenting with inflatable space houses, how we "crave" public space, and Nicholas Korody joins us to discuss the cockroach of unpaid architecture internships (they just won't die).
Shownotes:
Zaha Hadid Dies at Age 65
The NASA-grade work of Garrett Finney
Quilian Riano's Who Owns Space project
Woman calls out Florida Governor Rick Scott in a Starbucks
Collecting the most important news of the past week – that is, from the recording date's perspective of March 30th, the day before Zaha Hadid's sudden death – this episode brings stories on: the winning below-grade skyscraper (sinkscrapers?) of eVolo's Skyscraper Competition; a long-lost Le Corbusier tapestry returning to the Sydney Opera House; another twist on co-habitation in the co-work startup, PodShare; Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects taking "revenge" on Charles Moore's Hood Museum; and our future of eating sandwiches while robots do our work.
We'll discuss the late Dame Zaha Hadid's legacy on next week's podcast.
This past week on Archinect, we heard Thom Mayne's story of "jazz, sex, and the alienation of singular genius" in Julia Ingalls' interview with the Morphosis lead, and hypothesized on the future of architectural work in a world of full automation and universal basic income, based onNicholas Korody's interview with the co-authors behind Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World without Work. Both Ingalls and Korody join us on the podcast to delve deeper into these pieces, and share some juicy tidbits that couldn't make the cut to print.
While Amelia is away this week, Alexander Walter fills in and joins Ken, Donna and me for a conversation about competitions, in a celebration of the re-launch of our sister site Bustler. In addition to discussing the new website and its new features, we also talk about the controversial new "Border Wall" competition and look at some current competitions worth checking out.
Spring is just around the corner, and in the interest of new beginnings and rebirth, Archinect Sessions is taking this week off to get some much needed rest. The market is hot right now, and we're running on all cylinders just to keep up.
We'll be back next week with a brand new episode, devoted specifically to competitions in honor of Bustler's new redesign, and until then, we've got a special half-episode to tide you over. Paul and I run through the recent news and recommend a few episodes to get caught up with to while we're on break (links to all in the shownotes below).
A new Texas state law going into effect on August 1 will allow concealed handguns to be brought into public university campus buildings. This isn't sitting well with many members of the public university system, as educators and administrators are now tasked with regulating the presence of guns inside studios and classrooms, and fear that such a law will scare people away from the school (not to mention the obvious safety concerns). Dean of the architecture school, Frederick "Fritz" Steiner, has been critical of the law from its inception, and faced with having to enforce it as campus policy, was prompted to leave UT-Austin for the deanship at PennDesign.
While not the sole reason for his resignation, Steiner is adamant that such a law is simply not good for architecture education and studio culture, and joins us on the podcast to discuss.
The tragedy of Flint, Michigan's water crisis seems to worsen with every newly uncovered detail. As a manmade public health crisis provoked by willful denial and compromised safety standards, the entirely preventable poisoning of Flint's water supply with lead stands not only as a failure to care for the citizens of one city, but as a dreadful harbinger for the U.S.'s deteriorating infrastructure networks.
Like any concerned citizen, Filnt-based architect Kurt Neiswender sees this as a call to action to help any way he can. Kurt joins us on the podcast this week to discuss how architects might apply their skills to improve such a monstrous situation, and address the real limitations the profession has when it comes to these scenarios.
We swear, no BIG or Trump on this episode. We discuss the donation of Lautner's breathtaking Sheats-Goldstein house, complete with jungle, nightclub and infinity tennis court, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to become the museum's first acquired piece of architecture (along with a sizable endowment for maintenance). The U.S. saw a major step forward into the realm of driverless cars, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Google that its computers in autonomous vehicles could legally be counted as drivers, while the internet ogled Nissan's self-parking office chairs.
It's also that time of year again, when the AIA announces the keynote speakers for its National Convention (check out our podcast on last year's convention in Atlanta), and this year's threw us for a loop – first, actor Kevin Spacey was named as Day 1 speaker, and praised for his "disruption" of "appointment television". Neri Oxman will give the Day 2 keynote, a very solid choice if not somewhat experimental for the AIA crowd. Then, a big kahuna – Rem Koolhaas was named Day 3 speaker, with a talk titled "Delirious Philadelphia" (where the Convention will take place this year). We mull over the rationale behind such a smattering of keynotes, and take a look back at prior keynotes.
Lastly, we tackle a brazen piece by architect Duo Dickinson, that claims contemporary architecture has changed from a respectable, pragmatic profession into a lifestyle choice.
Long-time Archinector and reliably sane commentator Will Galloway joins us from his base in Tokyo to discuss the weekly news, including his interview with Assemble, crucially taking place mere weeks before they won the Turner Prize. Otherwise, while news from Bjarke Ingels Group commanded the feistiest comment threads – with renderings of BIG's spiraling Hudson Yards tower provoking debate over craft in skyscrapers, and the firm being selected to design the Serpentine Pavilion for 2016 in their last last eligible year – the last week included big news for firms both star-studded and unknown. MoMA PS1 named Escobedo Solíz Studio as the 2016 winner of its Young Architects Program, for their "Weaving the Courtyard" submission, while Dame Zaha Hadid received her RIBA Gold Medal (the first woman to win solo). And for you planning wonks, we throw in a brief discussion of a controversial proposed ballot measure to halt big developments in Los Angeles.
Virtual Reality is very much here, in all its messy, beautiful, uncanny glory. The gee-whiz factor notwithstanding, the technology holds a bevy of architectural applications and implications, and manages to hold a mirror up to the built environment to show us things that we couldn't understand before.
This episode, we discuss a host of recent VR stories, from the narrative VR journalism of Emblematic Group to Thorsten Wiedemann's VR performance art, an AR helmet that streamlines the construction site and VR-value-added rendering services for firms.
Joining us on this VR-trip is Rebecca Howard, freshly returned from New York where she developed video content for the Times, and helped them launch their entry into VR content.
Back in December of last year, the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture launched in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, featuring an exhibition curated by Los Angeles-based critic Mimi Zeiger and designer Tim Durfee. Their show, “Now, There: Scenes from the Post-Geographic City,” winner of the Biennale’s Bronze Dragon, reconsiders what makes up today’s idea of a “city”, specifically regarding our digital and virtual presences, as well as contemporary issues of globalized economies.
Mimi and Tim joined Paul and I in Archinect’s podcasting studio to talk about the exhibition, and introduce a discussion recorded in Shenzhen among the participants of “Now, There" and one of the Biennale’s curators, Aaron Betsky. Their conversation, “Where is now; When is then” makes up the meat of this Bonus Session.
The exhibition features work by Besler & Sons, Walton Chiu, Tim Durfee and Ben Hooker (with Jenny Rodenhouse), John Szot Studio, m-a-u-s-e-r, and Metahaven, as well as texts by Joanne McNeil, Enrique Ramirez, and Therese Tierney.
For our 50th (!!!) episode, we discuss the biggest news items from the last week – everything from the latest BIG and DS+R shake-ups to a surprisingly controversial Seattle homeless shelter – and it's been a doozy. We take a look at:
The "sphincter from which digital art issues" (according to one Archinect commenter), aka DS+R's new Berkeley Art Museum; the controversy surrounding BIG's latest client (referred to here as the Washington "Pigskins"); recent discussions of diversity issues that have arisen on the site; the 25-year old who won a big World War I memorial design contest; MoMA's updated expansion plans; Architecture for Humanity's potential second life; and more.
As last week's episode was taken up by Pritzker-hooplah, this episode takes a look back at the major news items of the last week(ish) and gets you caught up with what's been happening on Archinect.
We discuss: the recent photo exhibition on homelessness at USC (which closes tomorrow!); the Treasury Department's controversial new practice of tracking and identifying secret buyers of luxury housing; how BIG's 2 World Trade Center is now in limbo after "anchor tenant" Rupert Murdoch has pulled out; the demolition of yet another not-beloved-enough Brutalist building; the big ol' chunk of cash the U.S. now has to prepare for driverless cars; and the ongoing debacle over the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, as Zaha Hadid Architects accuses Kengo Kuma Associates of copying their design, while Japan won't pay ZHA until they hand over the design copyrights.
When news broke yesterday that Alejandro Aravena was the winner of this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize, reactions were generally positive, but a bit conflicted. Aravena's most known, and cited by the Pritzker, for his work on social housing projects in his home base of Santiago de Chile, where he operates as the executive director of the "do tank", ELEMENTAL. And few would contest that his work is worthy of the prize, despite the fact that he's only 48.
But Aravena was also a Pritzker juror from 2009 - 2015, serving alongside jurors who ultimately chose to cite him, and he isn't the first winner to have previously served on the jury. This makes it impossible to ignore criticism that the award tends to stay within a pretty tight-knit circle of practitioners. Often described as the most prestigious architecture award out there, what is the point of the prize nowadays, and is its significance justified?
We wanted to know more about how the Pritzker is awarded, and its self-awareness in the eye of architects as well as the greater public. On the day the Pritzker was announced, Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Prize, generously gave us insight into "the room where it happens" – how the jury's deliberation work, and why Aravena's work is deserving of the prize.
Architect, artist, and experimental preservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos has created scents for Philip Johnson's Glass House, removed centuries of dust from the inside of Trajan's Column with latex, and is the newly appointed director of the Historic Preservation program at Columbia University's GSAPP, where he also began the "Future Anterior" journal. And this week, he joins us on the podcast to discuss ideas that he mulls over constantly in his work – what role should originality play in architecture? What's at stake when discourse and criticism come to rely more on representations than the in situ structure? And what role do media and virtual realities play in all of this?
This episode is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice. Check out their offer for Archinect Sessions listeners at bqe.com/startups.
For our final Mini-Session from the Next Up series, Nicholas Korody interviews TOMA, a Santiago-based collective. TOMA build politically-charged social spaces, using design as a strategy for bringing people together rather than as an end in itself. With their installation for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Escuelopolis, the Chilean architects catalogued and mapped the connections between their home-base and the Midwestern metropolis, honing in on the exportation of neoliberalism to South America by the University of Chicago-trained “Chicago Boys.”
Regularly printing newspapers to document their research as it occurred, TOMA invited visitors and participants to the Biennial to actively participate in their architectural research, gathering people together to consider the processes that keep us apart.
'Tis the time of year for reflections and speculations – and 2015 was a big one for Archinect Sessions. We launched our first ever live podcasting series, Next Up, at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles and at the first Chicago Architecture Biennial; we started a brand new interviews-only show, One-to-One; and we spoke with some of the biggest names and most compelling up-and-comers in the profession.
On this episode, we revisit our predictions from last year's final episode, reflect on the past year in podcasting news, and share theories for what may come in 2016.
Over Skype from their homebase in Beijing, WAI Architecture Think Tank partners Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski spoke with Paul Petrunia, on our latest Mini-Session for the Next Up series. Their contribution to the Chicago Architecture Biennial, a rumination on manifestos, looks to the potential forms of architectural persuasion in any medium.
On the happy and historic occasion of Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi being jointly awarded the 2016 AIA Gold Medal, we speak with Brown about whether this truly is a watershed moment for architecture, and the long road that she and Robert took to arriving here. We last spoke with Brown on episode #39, when the Vanna Venturi house hit the market.
If we accept that accolades like the Gold Medal have the influence to (potentially) nudge the profession in certain directions, then this time – the first the award has been given jointly, and to a living woman – could signal a movement towards increased inclusivity, and reevaluations of collaborative agency.
Nicholas Korody interviews architect Andreas Angelidakis for our next Mini-Session, originally part of our Next Up event at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Trained at SCI-Arc, Angelidakis is perhaps better known in contemporary art circles than architecture's (as pointed out by Nicholas in a previous feature here on Archinect), but as proved in his contribution to the Biennial, the context and concerns of his ideas rely on, and contribute to, architectural discourse.
At least once in their professional life, every architect is likely to ask themselves, "Should I start my own practice?" From there, there are countless aspects to weigh against one another, but it begins as a very personal question – what do I want to create, and where?
Longtime Archinector (and tiki-drink enthusiast) David Cole began a discussion in the forum to mull over such questions for himself, as he considers whether to start a firm in his hometown of Cincinnati, or brave new territory in Seattle. We invited him onto the podcast to talk about the process behind such a momentous decision, and swap personal stories from Donna and Ken's experiences working in new cities and running their own practices.
Architect and experimental preservationist Bryony Roberts joins us for our next Mini-Session, a continuation of our Next Up event staged at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. While Roberts' interview at the Chicago Cultural Center unfortunately didn't make it to tape, I called her up for a do-over interview in Rome, where she is currently residing as a winner of 2015-2016's Rome Prize.
Roberts' contribution to the Biennial – a drill team performance entitled "We Know How to Order," staged in downtown Chicago's Mies van der Rohe-designed federal center plaza – was performed for a limited run during the Biennial's opening weekend. Check out a video of the performance here.
For our final live Mini-Session, recorded during our Next Up event at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we present a festival of Pauls. Archinect founder/publisher Paul Petrunia interviews Paul Andersen (Independent Architecture) and Paul Preissner (Paul Preissner Architects), who designed the University of Illinois at Chicago's kiosk in the Biennial's Lakefront Kiosk competition. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
Our latest installment of Mini-Sessions, recorded live at the Chicago Architecture Biennial's opening weekend as part of our Next Up event series, features John Lin of Rural Urban Framework. This year's winner of the Curry Stone Design Prize, Rural Urban Framework has distinguished itself for work involving China's rapidly urbanizing rural landscapes. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial is nearing the middle of its run, and we've got more live Mini-Sessions up our sleeve, recorded as part of our Next Up event held during the Biennial's opening weekend. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
Our fourth Mini-Session from Chicago features Biennial participants Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss of Pedro y Juana, based in Mexico City. You can learn more about their contribution to the Biennial (which happened to be the venue for Next Up) here.
The Architecture + Design Museum hosted two panels to close out its "Shelter" exhibition, focusing on local architects visions for future residential architectures in a changing Los Angeles.
The first panel, moderated by Mimi Zeiger (west coast editor of the Architect's Newspaper), focused on the LA River's impact, and featured exhibiting architects Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular), Elizabeth Timme (LA Más), and Lorcan O'Herlihy (of Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects). The second panel, moderated by Amelia Taylor-Hochberg (editorial manager for Archinect), focused on the influence of the Metro expansion in front of LACMA, and featured exhibiting architects Jennifer Marmon (PAR), Bob Dornberger (WHY), and senior architect at LACMA, Priscilla Fraser.
Both panels were recorded live for this special Bonus content on November 6, 2015. In between the panels, you'll hear a special performance by local poet-urbanist, Mike the Poet.
Special thanks to Danielle Rago and Sam Lubell for curating the exhibition and putting the panels together, as well as B&O in Pasadena for their help recording the event.
Long-time Archinector and BLDGBLOG-runner Geoff Manaugh joins us on the podcast this week to discuss his piece on "The Dream Life of Driverless Cars" for the New York Times Magazine. Referencing work like that of London-based design studio, ScanLAB Projects, who use lidar (light + radar) technology to map how autonomous vehicles see and understand the built environment, Manaugh spoke with us about how these vehicles could potentially change the structures and sensations of our cities – and all the unknowns that accompany such speculation.
We also briefly touch on the recent news of Philadelphia becoming an UNESCO World Heritage site; the first city in the U.S. to receive such status. This episode is sponsored by BQE's ArchiOffice.
In celebration of Archinect Sessions' second season, we're posting the "Next Up" live-interviews we did at the Chicago Architecture Biennial as Mini-Sessions, continuing from the interviews done at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
Our third Mini-Session recorded during the Biennial's opening weekend features François Roche and Camille Lacadée who work together as New-Territories / M4, sometimes known as R&Sie. Check out their contribution to the Biennial here.
Special guest Susan Surface, former Archinect editor now at Design in Public, joins us on Archinect Sessions to talk about recent developments in the dialogue around gender inclusive design – particularly, in public restrooms.
As the binary model of gender begins to slowly dissolve in popular consciousness, in favor of a spectrum of different identifications, international building codes still often mandate restrooms (even single-occupancy ones) as strictly for either male or female. Those who do not identify as either face a difficult choice at best, and often harassment or exclusion. Various institutions are experimenting with more gender-inclusive designs and designations, but not without controversy. Advocates liken the advent of all-gender inclusive bathrooms to a civil right, akin to policies that guarantee equal access regardless of ethnicity or physical ability.
In other news, this past Monday we launched Archinect Sessions One-to-One, a brand new podcast focusing exclusively interviews. The premiere episode features Neil Denari. You can keep up-to-date on all our podcasting news by following us on Twitter, @archsessions, and let us know what you think by rating us on iTunes.
Continuing our "Next Up" series, recorded at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles and during the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we've been posting the live-interviews as podcast Mini-Sessions. Due to a technical error at the Biennial, the second half of live Chicago interviews were lost – so some were recorded on another date. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
Our second Mini-Session recorded during the Biennial's opening weekend features Thomas Kelley and Carrie Norman of Norman Kelley.
Season two of Archinect Sessions premiered last week – featuring a discussion on the Chicago Architecture Biennial with Log director (and co-curator of the US Pavilion for the 2016 Venice Biennale) Cynthia Davidson – and to finish out our coverage of CAB, we're posting the "Next Up" live-interviews we did in Chicago as Mini-Sessions, continuing from the interviews done at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles. Due to a most unfortunate technical glitch in Chicago, the second half of live interviews were lost – so some Chicago interviews were recorded on another date. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
For our first Mini-Session recorded during the Biennial's opening weekend, we spoke with Urtzi Grau and Cristina Goberna Pesudo of Fake Industries Architectural Agonism.
Our new podcast, Archinect Sessions: One-to-One is an interview show, straight-up. Each episode features a single interview with a notable figure in contemporary architecture – it's that simple. Usually, One-to-One will be led by me or Paul Petrunia, while occasionally others will serve as guide. The conversation will be casual and spontaneous, touching on the interviewee's role in the expanding range of architectural practice, and will serve (we hope) a valuable archival role in future discourse.
For our very first episode, I spoke with Neil Denari of Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA). Aside from his firm's work, Denari is a tenured professor at UCLA, and was the director of SCI-Arc from 1997 - 2001. We spoke about the shifting focus of architecture education, multitasking, Los Angeles and the recession's impact on architecture.
It's great to be back. Our second season of Archinect Sessions premieres today in a new, shorter format, with an episode devoted to the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and featuring special guest Cynthia Davidson, director of Log and co-curator of the US Pavilion for the 2016 Venice Biennale. Keep a look out as well for more Mini-Sessions, featuring interviews from the Biennial.
In other podcasting news, we're going to be launching a brand new podcast early next week, focusing exclusively on interviews. You can keep up-to-date on all our podcasting news by following us on Twitter, @archsessions, and let us know what you think by rating us on iTunes.
Tomorrow (!!!) we'll premiere season two of Archinect Sessions, and in anticipation of the launch, we've been posting Mini-Sessions interviews, recorded during our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here. We'll also be launching a brand new podcast soon.
For our last Mini-Session recorded at Jai & Jai, we spoke with a panel of jurors from Archinect'sDry Futures competition, featuring: Charles Anderson of werk, Hadley Arnold of the Arid Lands Institute, Ian Quate and Colleen Tuite of GRNASFCK (who joined us via Skype), andPeter Zellner of Zellner Naecker Architects LLP. The winners had been announced just a few days prior.
Leading up to (and continuing after) the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on November 5, we're posting individual interviews as Mini-Sessions from our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here. We'll also be launching another brand new podcast soon.
Here you can listen to our fifth Next Up Mini-Session with Marcelo Spina of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S. More Mini-Sessions will be released in the coming days, and remember to subscribe to Archinect Sessions to not miss an episode!
If you couldn't join us during our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, then good news – you can still listen to the over four hours of live interviews we recorded. Leading up to the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on Thursday, November 5, we'll be releasing them as individual "Mini-Sessions". We'll also be launching another brand new podcast soon. You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
So please enjoy our fourth Next Up Mini-Session, an interview with Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood of First Office. M
After accumulating over four hours of live interviews from our first-ever live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we're now letting them go, one by one. Leading up to the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on Thursday, November 5, we'll be releasing them as "Mini-Sessions". We'll also be launching another brand new podcast soon.
Without further ado, please enjoy our third Next Up Mini-Session, a panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai. We'll be sharing more Mini-Sessions in the coming days, and remember to subscribe to Archinect Sessions to not miss an episode! You can listen to past Mini-Sessions here.
Listen to our "Next Up" panel discussion with Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Kovacs and Jimenez Lai.
After we wrapped our first live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we had over four hours of live interviews to release. Now, we're letting them loose as "Mini-Sessions", leading up to the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on Thursday, November 5. We'll also be launching a brand new podcast soon, so keep your eyes and ears open.
Archinect recently wrapped its first live-podcasting series, "Next Up", held at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown and at the opening weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Now, we're releasing those 4+ hours of "Next Up" interviews as "Mini-Sessions", leading up to the premiere of Archinect Sessions' second season on Thursday, November 5. We'll also be launching a brand new podcast soon, so keep your eyes and ears open.
Without further ado, please enjoy our first Next Up Mini-Session, an interview with John Southern of Urban Operations. We'll be sharing more Mini-Sessions in the coming days, and remember to subscribe to Archinect Sessions to not miss an episode!
Thom Mayne and Eui-Sung Yi join us to discuss their recently published book, Haiti Now – a herculean resource on post-disaster urbanism in Haiti, published by their urban think tank, the NOW Institute.
The rest of this episode takes a look back at the first forty episodes of Archinect Sessions, as we wrap up season one. Each new episode has expanded, and sharpened, our idea of what the podcast can and should be. We've spoken with some pretty heavy hitters, including Denise Scott Brown, Kevin Roche, Patrik Schumacher, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Heatherwick, Christopher Hawthorne and Michael Rotondi, as well as some up and comers, like Andrés Jaque (winner of MoMA's 2015 YAP), Jimenez Lai, and Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki (winners of the Guggenheim Helsinki competition).
It's been a blast, but moving forward, we want to tighten up, dig deeper and move the proverbial furniture around. We'll start up season two in the coming weeks, but while we're on hiatus, we'd love to get your feedback – tell us what you think of the podcast by taking this short survey, or rating us on iTunes. Your thoughts will help us shape Sessions' next season.
We're very excited to have Denise Scott Brown on this episode, to share some family history behind the Vanna Venturi house – the house that her husband and collaborator, Robert Venturi, built for his mother in 1965, and helped set a new tone for 20th century architectural history. The house is now for sale, listed at $1.75M.
Also joining us on this week's episode is Katherine Darnstadt of Latent Design in Chicago. A native Chicagoan who trained and practices as an architect there, Katherine shares her reflections on building a practice and connecting to a city. We met Katherine back in May at the AIA National Convention, and have been itching to have her on the podcast since.
We also touch on the bonkers news item that is Japan canceling the Zaha Hadid designs for its Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, citing overwhelming construction costs.
And finally, we're nearing the end – of Archinect Sessions' first season. This episode is our second to last, and after #40 we'll be taking a short break, then returning with a revamped new season. Send us your feedback: what you loved, hated, and want to see in Season 2! Reach out through connect@archinect.com or on Twitter, with #archinectsessions.
Also, keep your eye out for Archinect's "Dry Futures" competition, seeking design solutions to California's historic drought. The competition launches July 27.
This week on the podcast: Gehry's design for the Eisenhower memorial is finally approved, Zaha Hadid's Olympic Stadium in Tokyo gets cut-and-pasted into some very Japanese situations, and Peter Zellner, Principal and Design Lead of AECOM's architecture division, and founder of Zellnerplus, sits down for a chat.
Our episode this week revolves around Paris – city of lights, riots, artists and cheese-shaped skyscrapers (or at least, those are the bits were talking about). As part of a nationwide strike against UberPop, the cheapest Uber-affiliate in France, taxi drivers in Paris launched a riotous protest on June 25, terrorizing Uber drivers and generally disrupting Parisians in transit (and Courtney Love).
Contention (albeit the nonviolent kind) also arose in response to Herzog & de Meuron's new Tour Triangle skyscraper, which Paris officials approved on June 30. It will be the city's first skyscraper since the much-maligned Tour Montparnasse was built in 1973, precipitating a height limit on new buildings (that has since been relaxed). Critics are unhappy about the Triangle's intrusion onto the Parisian skyline, and its inhospitable-looking atmosphere on the street level.
Paul also shares his conversation with Guggenheim Helsinki winners Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, following up on our discussion of their winning proposal on Episode #35. For a refresher on Moreau Kusunoki's work, check out our piece, Who are Helsinki Guggenheim winners Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki?
We're also pleased to share Paul's interview with Paris-based artist Xavier Veilhan, whose series of interventions into some of the world's most famous modernist landmarks have culminated with his book, Architectones. Paul spoke with Veilhan, along with his Los Angeles-collaborator, François Perrin, at the book's launch at MOCA a few weeks ago.
This week, we dip into the swamp of whether so-called "poor doors" (separate entrances for affordable and market-rate housing tenants) are discriminatory, highlighting discussion points made in the wake of New York's decision to make them illegal. We also follow up on the investigation into a balcony collapse in Berkeley, California that led to six deaths, and ask Brian Newman, Archinect Sessions' Legal Correspondent, what legal recourse is possible for everyone involved.
Virtual built environment wizards Thomas Hirschmann and Anthony Murray, founders of documentation and preservation firm The Third Fate, also join us for an interview. Their work seeks to document, preserve and activate the built environment through virtual realities.
Lots of summer blockbuster news to discuss on this week's podcast. The winner of the Helsinki Guggenheim competition was announced (a young husband-wife firm from Paris took the cake), SelgasCano's "psychedelic chrysalis" Serpentine Pavilion opened, and Andres Jaque's COSMO for MoMA PS1's "Warm Up" began its water cycle. And while not quite blockbusting, in what could easily be the premise for a Vincent Price flick, residents of the blighted Robin Hood Gardens dared Lord Rogers to spend a night in their quarters.
Special guests Quilian Riano and Peggy Deamer of The Architecture Lobby join our news discussion this week, dropping their excellent and incisive commentary on ethical practice into every topic. We are collaborating with the Lobby to measure satisfaction with work-life balance in architecture – take the 3-question survey here.
Easily the biggest news of last week, and probably of this year, was the unveiling of BIG's design for 2WTC. For a project of such status, on such a highly charged site, representation must be handled with expert care – so to dig a bit deeper into the splashy video introducing 2WTC, we spoke with Nick Taylor, co-founder of Squint/Opera and director of the BIG video. We cover Squint/Opera's historied relationship with architects and how creative vision is managed across many powerful stakeholders.
Paul and Amelia also sat down with McShane Murnane, architecture director and co-founder of Project M Plus, a husband-wife creative studio out of Los Angeles' Silver Lake. Often viewed as a case-study for gentrification in LA, Silver Lake has established a highly specific aesthetic within the Californian sensibility, that has its pros and cons – we speak with Murnane about how he's dealt with issues of developmental displacement head-on.
And in the news, we discuss how Tadao Ando is faring amidst serious health concerns, speculate on what fantastical designs might come out of SpaceX's newly announced competition for Hyperloop pods, and take a moment to recognize the death of Charles Correa, who passed away Tuesday at 84 years old.
This week, we devote the majority of our show to a discussion with Patrik Schumacher, about celebrity and the insularity of critical discourse in architecture. The idea of the "starchitect" is onerous to pretty much everybody in architecture, but that hasn't stopped us from using it. It's a popular media fabrication that, by becoming a potent cultural meme in its own right (thanks, Gehry), has derailed significant portions of architecture discourse into the murky realm of identity politics – the aesthetics and politics of a built object becoming an inextricable part of their designer's character. Schumacher's Parametricism may be an antidote to that. We discuss Schumacher's recent op-ed on these subjects, in the hope that keeping the discussion going will flush out something useful (or even flush away the "starchitect" concept entirely).
In the news, we touch on BIG's design for Two World Trade Center displacing Foster's, the resignation of five Cooper Union trustees (including Daniel Libeskind), and the scandal of Red Cross's contested use of earthquake-relief funds in Haiti. Our take on news is a bit different this episode; let us know what you think of it!
Dead malls and ghost boxes haunt this week's episode, featuring special guest and longtime 'Nector, Nam Henderson. Whether you're mourning or reveling in the dwindling population of the American mall, their lifeless carcasses on the economic and urban landscape are starting to stink, and we have to deal with them somehow. With Nam as our spirit guide through the lost souls of dead malls, we discuss their future potentials within the suburban/urban environment, and grapple with their (perhaps bygone) social significance.
Nam also joins us for our discussion of very much alive-and-kicking news, including BIG taking over from Norman Foster as the designer for Two World Trade Center, and the ongoing student protests at Cooper Union. We also touch on the controversy surrounding CoContest, an Italian website for crowdsourcing design work, and its potentials for new models of architectural employment.
Inadvertently, this episode is all about food – where it comes from, where we eat it, and how it shapes national identity. Our discussion on food and design starts in Los Angeles, where Norm's Restaurant recently received "historic and cultural" landmark status, and a tamale-shaped building strives for the same (just one of LA's many proud programmatic architectures). Shifting east, we extol the multi-uses and virtues of Waffle House, and praise the Waffle House index. This dovetailed across the Atlantic into our interview with James Biber of Biber Architects about his design for the US Pavilion at the Milan EXPO, entitled "American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet". We ask him about balancing corporate and national identities in food, and what it's like having the US State Department as a client.
The Sessions co-hosts met all together for the first time in the meatspace last week, making the pilgrimage to Atlanta, Georgia for the AIA National Convention. Immersed in the tens of thousands of attendees for three days, we met an impressive array of professionals across the architectural board, and dove deep into how the AIA sees itself and architecture today. This week's episode is entirely devoted to happenings at the Convention, including NCARB's resolution of the intern-titling debate, Bill Clinton's keynote speech, Donna's talk on nontraditional practice, the debut of the second video in AIA's Look Up campaign (featuring blind architect Chris Downey), and Ken's role as a delegate voting in the AIA's Business Session.
Prior to his artist talk at the Hammer Museum last week, nearing the culmination of his massively successful "Provocations" show, Thomas Heatherwick spoke with Paul and Amelia about his firm's personality and design approach. We discuss his interview on this week's single-focus episode, touching on his diverse project list, his "doubting Thomas" identity, and his attitudes towards "franchised" architecture.
If you're in Los Angeles, "Provocations" will be at the Hammer Museum through May 24. To hear more about the exhibition, listen to our conversation with curator Brooke Hodge, featured on "Three Funerals and a Curator".
When he was a kid, Ned Cramer, editor in chief of Architect, wanted to be the first architect-pope. After enrolling in architecture school and weighing his papal options, he decided to do neither, focusing instead on writing and publishing for the profession. He's now the brains behind media firm Hanley Wood's Architect Group, serving as group editorial director for Architect, Architectural Lighting, Residential Architect, EcoStructure, EcoHome, EcoBuilding Pulse and MetalMag.
We spoke with Cramer about his career path and the state of architecture media, and the role of Architect as the AIA's official publication. Cramer and the whole Sessions' crew will be at the AIA National Convention next week; keep an eye (and ear) out for us if you'll be there!
Last Saturday, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kathmandu, precipitating catastrophic destruction throughout Nepal and a death toll currently marked at more than 5,000. Reports have been very bleak, with citizens taking to living outside in public spaces, fearful of more damage from aftershocks. Aid and relief efforts are slowly beginning to appear, but basic necessities such as food, water and shelter are still desperately needed.
In the face of such large-scale damage to buildings and infrastructure, architects have a professional imperative to consider their role (from near or far) in reconstruction and relief efforts. At the same time, assistance must take the long-view – for survivors, the worst part of such disasters may not have the immediate event, but the trauma and tedium of the long return to normal.
On this episode, Rajan Karmachaya, a Nepalese architect in Kathmandu, spoke with us about what it's like in Kathmandu now, and what architects can (or shouldn't) do to help. Rajan has been active in the ongoing forum discussion about what architects can do after the earthquake; please contribute to the thread or reach out to us to continue the conversation.
This week on the podcast, Paul shares an interview he did in Lima with Sebastián Bravo, a local architect and maker of award-winning pisco. Studying and practicing architecture in a city with a very fresh history of terrorism and ongoing political corruption is no easy feat, and the rapidly urbanized/urbanizing city makes practicing all the more challenging, but Bravo is up to the challenge.
We also briefly discuss a recent workshop Paul attended with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, which took a close look at why enrollment rates at architecture schools are falling, and the stereotypical misunderstandings of what skills high schoolers need to study architecture. In the news, we consider what it means for George Lucas to be building affordable housing in Marin County, whether metal really can move by itself, and briefly look to the deluge of Whitney Museum reviews.
Thanks to Patrik Schumacher, this week's episode is mostly about criticism. We respond to a polemic/rant left by Schumacher on his Facebook page, "In Defense of Stars and Icons", and consider not simply his argument, but its presentation – how publishing these ideas on a personal Facebook page ultimately says more about celebrity and criticism than Schumacher's exorbitant word count can. In the end, we applaud Schumacher – not for his argument necessarily, but for the act of posting such. Now, more than ever in the saturated critical sphere of new media, the medium is the message.
We also finish up the interview Amelia did with Pritzker Prize winner Kevin Roche, and hear his thoughts on sprawl and the undeniable human instinct to gather. Roche is a quiet heavyweight in architecture, amassing an incredible extent of work across multiple eras of architectural history, all without paying any heed to "starchitecture", in any form. If you haven't heard part one of the interview, get caught up in Episode #24.
And special thanks to our podcast sponsor, BQE, and architect Ralph Fey for his thoughts on their service!
Whatever becomes of Facebook’s corporate future – and therefore the consequential Internet – will play out in the world of Frank Gehry. The architect’s new HQ for Facebook in Menlo Park, MPK20, opened earlier this week with plentiful Instagrammed fanfare, and Facebook recently submitted plans to build two more Gehry buildings in the area. As we discuss on this week’s podcast, MPK20 is refreshingly old-school FOG, designed to embrace Facebook's “work in progress” feel that Gehry’s rougher materiality embraces. It’s Facebook’s and FOG’s world; we’re just living in it.
This episode, we also discuss the arrival of Airbnb in Cuba – whether this style of tourism could encourage architectural preservation, and what the company’s disruptive cachet means when there’s no status quo to disrupt. We’re also featuring part 1 of an interview I did with Kevin Roche, the Pritzker Prize winning architect who got his start over sixty years ago, working with Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen. The 92-year old Roche, now at Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates outside of New Haven, Connecticut, shares his thoughts on the media’s role in architecture, the ideal client, and 21st century workplaces.
It’s been a strange week, especially in Indiana. On this episode, before getting to the RFRA-ff, we hit on a neat architectural inversion: LA-heavyweight Morphosis designs a "middle-finger" luxury tower in the quaint mountain town of Vals, Switzerland, while the subtly grand Swiss museum-master Peter Zumthor pushes a calligraphic inkblot for LACMA on LA's Miracle Mile. Vals is already home to Zumthor's Therme Spa. It’s like Trading Spaces, but with starchitects!
On the latter-half of our show, Amelia, Donna and Ken talk with Brian Newman, Archinect Sessions’ legal correspondent, about Indiana’s controversial revisions to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – with our own Donna Sink on the ground in Indianapolis, we dig into how this national and local issue would affect architects and the profession.
Paul is away this week, on vacation in the outer reaches of Peru, blissfully out of Skype's reach. He'll be back as soon as he re-enters the connected world.
We are delighted to devote the entirety of this episode to an interview with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Our discussion spanned their nearly 30 years (and counting) working together, focusing not on individual projects but their architectural philosophy, their material explorations, and their work with landscape. The rising cream throughout was the way Williams and Tsien talk with one another, each pulling on their side of the rowboat to craft a truly collaborative response.
Last week, Michael Graves passed away at the age of 80. In the aftermath, much attention has been paid to his most eye-catching work, but as often occurs when someone of great influence passes away, focusing on the person's products comes at the expense of honoring their humanity – simply, who they were as a person. In this light, this episode we hear from Patrick Burke, principal and studio head at Michael Graves Architecture & Design (where Burke got his start in 1982), reflect on Graves’ life of hard work, perseverance, and empathy.
Paul and Amelia also paid a visit to the UCLA IDEAS campus in Playa Vista, to speak with Craig Hodgetts about his rapidly accelerating Hyperloop Studio, where students are bringing Elon Musk’s transit technology into the near-future. Donna also reflects on Thom Mayne’s marathon visit through Indiana, and Ken shares some finer points of career politics.
Ten minutes before we sat down to record this week's episode, the Pritzker Prize Laureate was announced – posthumously. The winner, Frei Otto (1925 - 2015), was a German architect whose impressive work and research with lightweight and sustainable structures influenced countless architects through the 20th century to today. Otto was informed of the prize before his death in Germany this past Monday, March 9, prompting the Pritzker committee to make the formal announcement the day after.
This episode, we reflect on Otto's remarkable life and the Prize's announcement in the midst of his passing. We also examine the uncertain fate (and value) of Frank Gehry's Winton Guest House, which will be up for sale on May 19, and consider whether architects should shoulder the cultural and emotional weight of deciding how we bury our dead.
And on the heels of Google's announcement that BIG will collaborate with Heatherwick Studios on their campus expansion, Amelia spoke with curator Brooke Hodge in her office at the Cooper Hewitt, about bringing Heatherwick to an American audience with her "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio" exhibition, currently on view at the Hammer Museum through May 24.
This week Amelia, Paul, Donna and Ken discuss the somewhat controversial Google Headquarters design by BIG and Heatherwick. On a completely different note, we also discuss the new, and the nation's first, slavery museum, Whitney Plantation, in Louisiana.
Winner of this year's MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program, Andrés Jaque of the Office for Political Innovation, joins us on the podcast this week to discuss his winning design, COSMO. In a continued thread from last year's YAP, The Living's "Hy-Fi", Jaque's COSMO focuses on issues of sustainability and ecology – its main element is a series of pipes that will purify water with biological treatments.
Before winning the YAP, Jaque's office already had a piece in MoMA's permanent collection, IKEA Disobedients (2011), the museum's first "architectural performance" acquisition. COSMO will be installed from June 23 through September 7.
Far away from the snowscapes peppering the rest of the country, the salt flats and dry martinis of Palm Springs exists in a time and place apart. An original enclave of midcentury modernism, Palm Springs has been able to preserve that heritage thanks in large part to Palm Springs Modernism Week, a series of events, lectures and tours whose proceeds go straight back into architectural preservation and advocacy. On this episode, we discuss Palm Springs' modernism in the midst of the city's generational transition, and feature a conversation Paul and Amelia had with PSMOD board member, Mark Davis. We also check in on another (contested) southern Californian icon – the Broad Museum, which opened for a one-day public sneak peek last Sunday.
As always, you can send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.
What do Robert Ivy FAIA, EVP/CEO of the AIA, and Jimenez Lai, of Bureau Spectacular, have in common? Other than they're both architects, not so much! What better way to celebrate a profession at the crossroads than featuring interviews with both in our latest podcast episode. Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken spoke with Ivy about the AIA's newly launched "I Look Up" (#ilookup) public awareness campaign for architects, and Jimenez Lai joined us in studio to discuss his latest Graham Foundation-funded collaboration, Treatise.
As always, you can send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.
It seems as if the tumult and intrigue that ran through Frank Lloyd Wright's life has lived on at Taliesin. After being embroiled in accreditation issues, suspending Fall 2013 enrollment, and working through rocky fundraising plans, Taliesin recently appointed Aaron Betsky to lead the school and help it regain solid footing. Betsky was previously the Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and has quite the art/architecture pedigree: he's served as the Director of the 2008 International Architecture Biennale in Venice, SFMOMA's Curator of Architecture and Design, and the Director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam.
Betsky joined Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken on the podcast to talk about his plans to make the school the "best experimental and its role in the changing world of architecture education. It also turns out that Betsky is quite the DJ.
News this week was also rather Wright-ous, with the nomination of 10 FLW structures to the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the Hollyhock House's reopening in Los Angeles.
We also take some time this episode to gaze inward on the podcast, and frankly consider our "intro" segments, where each hosts shares what's going on in their lives. What do you think of our introductions? We hunger for feedback.
Send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.
This episode is a doozy. Paul and Amelia left the temperate sunshine of Los Angeles for Washington, DC's frigid monumentality, to interview Bjarke Ingels on the eve of his "Hot to Cold" exhibition at the National Building Museum. The 40-year old architect shared some quick-won wisdom about scaling a business, the Danish condition, and the indispensability of humor and play in architecture.
Donna and Ken joined Paul and Amelia to speak with Lian Chang about her recently published visualizations of the Archinect Salary Poll for the ACSA, in charming emoji-based data sets. The Sessions co-hosts also discuss Aaron Betsky's new appointment as the head of the deeply troubled Taliesin West, and what Thom Mayne's demolition of Ray Bradbury's house means for architecture preservation and sentimentality.
And for another climatological analogy, Paul and Brian Newman, Archinect Sessions's legal correspondent, poke at the tip of the iceberg concerning issues of copyright in architecture.
A reminder: send us your architectural legal issues, comments or questions about the podcast, via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.
At first we thought we could cram all of this week's amazing podcast content in under one hour. That dream was not to be, but we decided to give no fcks, in honor of our guest Elizabeth Timme. The tenacious and game-changing Timme spoke with Donna and Amelia (with the appropriate amount of fcks) about her work with LA Más, a non-profit design studio aimed at social justice issues in Los Angeles.
In other matters of justice, Paul sat down with Archinect Sessions's legal correspondent, Brian Newman, about a recent lawsuit against SOM that went all the way up to California's Supreme Court, and the far-reaching implications for architects.
We also talk with Aaron Willette about the Bigger Than A Breadbox / Smaller Than A Building competition, aimed at revitalizing the pavilion's role in architectural research (deadline is February 15!). Willette runs the FABLab at Taubman, and is a long-time Archinector.
Finally, we let out a collective sad sigh for Architecture for Humanity's closure.
And a reminder: send us your client horror stories! Also welcome are your architectural legal issues, comments or questions about the podcast, via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.
In celebration of Ehrlich Architects winning the 2015 AIA Architecture Firm Award, we had Steven Ehrlich and Takashi Yanai in-studio to reflect back on the firm's history and their work with "multicultural modernism". We also discuss the feelings around Boston's US Olympic bid nomination, and former president Bill Clinton's appointment as keynote speaker to AIA's 2015 National Convention. We also dump a fair amount of schadenfreude on Karim Rashid.
This episode also features the voice of reason, aka our legal correspondent Brian Newman, talking with Paul about the importance of contracts.
And, partly inspired by this thread, we'd like to open the call for your architecture horror stories. Send them to us, along with your architectural legal questions, comments or questions about the podcast, via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.
Happy new year! We're happy to announce Archinect Session's inaugural 2015 episode features a conversation with urban planner, architect, artist, programmer, educator, and of course, beloved Archinect blogger, Mitch McEwen. Principal at firms McEwen Studio and A(n) Office, Mitch has also written the Archinect blog Another Architecture since 2012. Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken talk with Mitch about living and working in Detroit, her collaborative pursuits, and the profession's impending new wave of interdisciplinary practice.
And in the spirit of resolutions for the new year, Paul spoke with Archinect's lawyer-correspondent, Brian Newman at Dykema Gossett PLLC, about the many forms of arbitration – how to resolve legal disputes, from straight-up talking it out out, to taking it to the Supreme Court.
As always, you can send your architectural legal questions, comments or questions about the podcast to us, on twitter #archinectsessions or call us at: (213) 784-7421.
This week, with the encroaching holiday craziness picking up steam, we're releasing a mini-version of Archinect Sessions to cap off the 2014 podcasting season. For this special XS session, Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken make predictions for the world of architecture in 2015, and discuss our plans for the year's end. We'll return from the hiatus with a new episode airing on January 8th.
How far we've come: this week, we're thrilled to have Christopher Hawthorne on the podcast, architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times. Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken talk with Christopher about his recent 3-part series on architecture and immigration in southern California, the role of the architecture critic at a major national newspaper, and his take on new media journalism.
We're also proud to introduce our inaugural bit with Archinect's lawyer-correspondent, Brian Newman at Dykema Gossett PLLC, where we submit our architectural legal queries to an actual lawyer. And per usual, we check in on recent news, discussing the stormy marketing campaign for a Steampunk luxury condo building.
And has it really already been ten episodes? To celebrate Archinect Sessions' rite-of-passage into double digits, we reflect on how it's been going so far – what we'd like to change, criticism we've received, and our favorite episodes.
Send your architectural legal questions, comments or questions about the podcast to us, on twitter #archinectsessions or call us at: (213) 784-7421.
This week, architect-turned-coffee entrepreneur Yeekai Lim of Cognoscenti Coffee joins us in-studio, to talk pop-up shops and hospitality architecture. Afterward, Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken hash out the recently announced finalists for the Guggenheim Helsinki competition.
Michael Rotondi joins us in-studio this week, for a special conversation with Orhan Ayyüce about architecture education and Rotondi's Los Angeles roots. Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken also discuss ol' fashioned southern contextualism in Charleston, South Carolina, in response to Clemson University's scrapped modern building plans.
This week on the podcast: continuing our earlier discussion on student debt, special guest (and fellow Archinector) Quilian Riano joins Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken to discuss the Architecture Lobby's advocacy for increasing the value of architecture, both monetarily and in the public eye. We also cover Karim Rashid's recent inflammatory New York Times interview.
This week on the podcast: student debt, Chicago's "State of the Art of Architecture", and our new series, Archinect's Lexicon. Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken are joined by architecture students Jarrod and Elliott to discuss how student debt is changing their lives and careers. We also consider what Chicago has in store for its inaugural architectural biennial next year, and how architectural language (and English in general) is changing with the internet.
As always, you can tweet questions/comments about podcast topics to #archinectsessions, or leave a message for us at (213) 784-7421. You could hear your voice on the next episode.
For this week's podcast, Paul and Amelia spoke with architect Barbara Bestor, of Bestor Architecture, about growing her firm and Los Angeles' design influence, prompted by one of her recently acquired projects, a renovation of Lautner's Silvertop house. Next up, something's rotten in the state of New Jersey: Donna and Ken join in to discuss the local-beefs surrounding the new Michael Graves School of Architecture, whose prioritization of hand-drawing is inciting criticism from the neighboring New Jersey Institute of Technology.
We also consider Julia Ingalls' Material Witness series, and how cinematography and set design can drive narrative (and architectural) themes. To conclude, we briefly touch on the recently revealed renderings of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts in Chicago, designed by MAD Architects.
This week, Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken speak with Greg Henderson, architect and co-founder of Arx Pax, the company that is bringing the long-fantisized hoverboard to the market. We also discuss the hoverboard's technology and its potential applications in architecture. Greg holds an M.Arch from UC Berkeley, leading to our discussion on the history behind Working Out of the Box, and what may come next for the series, now that employers have more jobs than there are architects to fill them.
We also discuss the problematics of the Helsinki Guggenheim's Stage One entries, and whether Gehry's bird flipping makes him into a crotchety old man or defiant punk.
This week, Paul and Amelia talk with co-hosts Donna and Ken about the fickle pomo debate that is Michael Graves' Portland Building. We're joined by special guest Brian Libby, a freelance architecture journalist based in Portland, who's spent his fair share of time writing, reporting on, and inside the Portland Building.
We also hash out the Guardian's boondoggle on Obama's Presidential Library, and introduce our upcoming coverage on the ACADIA Conference, taking place October 23-25 in Los Angeles, including a conversation with co-chair Alvin Huang.
Co-hosts Donna Sink and Ken Koense join us for our second episode, to discuss licensing and IDP issues at NCARB, the value of mentorship in the profession, and the latest news on the Moriyama RAIC International Prize.
"Archinect Sessions" is a weekly podcast discussing recent news items and happenings on the website. Hosted by Archinect's founder and publisher, Paul Petrunia, alongside Editorial Manager Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, the podcast pulls on the expertise of special weekly co-hosts, whether other Archinectors or players within the architecture community at large.
A podcast is born! "Archinect Sessions" is a weekly podcast discussing recent news items and happenings on the site. Hosted by Archinect's founder and publisher, Paul Petrunia, along with Editorial Manager Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, the podcast also pulls on the expertise of special weekly co-hosts, whether other Archinectors or players within the architecture community at large.
Our first episode focuses on the issue of gender in the architecture world, prompted by the recent news post from ACSA, "Where are the women? Measuring progress on gender in architecture". We're joined by co-hosts Donna Sink and Ken Koense, and special guest Lian Chikako Chang!
Our aim is to expand perspectives on important news topics and highlight the site's major going-ons. You'll hear from a diversity of voices, and can share your own thoughts about the topics we're covering by dropping us a line.
Show Notes from Ep. 1 of "Archinect Sessions":
Archinect news items covered:
- Where are the women? Measuring progress on gender in architecture
- Sugar Hill: Building Hope and Nurturing Into Housing
- CityLab coverage: Neighbor, can you spare a dime? CityLab conference considers sharing economy's urban impact
ACSA Atlas project
Unconscious bias
Aptitude differences between men and women
Nathan Ensmenger: Researcher reveals how “Computer Geeks” replaced “Computer Girls”
Michael Porter quote: architecture as a "gentleman's profession"
Donna's Mentorship Challenge forum discussion
Archinect forum discussion on phenomenology
Sheryl Sandberg's Lean-In movement
Cosmo's "The Computer Girls" 1976 article
For this, and lots more, go to this link, incuding Ken's pictures from Turkey in the gallery! Bonus: Archinectors' dog pics.