Today’s News - Tuesday, June 7, 2016
• We are among the many who mourn the loss of Walter Hunt; Suckle pays tribute.
• Ulam reports from the Biennale and Aravena's brief for "architecture to do something about the metastasizing 'mediocrity' infecting the built environment today. This is not a Biennale for the next Bilbao Museum."
• Cocotas pens a scathing takedown of today's architecture "peopled with 'starchitects' who specialize in mega projects for the global elite" (with some exceptions, like Aravena), though "architects are not entirely to blame" - fix the education system, for starters.
• Brady offers a "radical solution" for fixing the "broken" architectural education system that could make it "more efficient and help the profession become more economically, socially, and culturally balanced."
• Speaking of starchitects, The King of Sweden adds his voice to the many critics of Chipperfield's Nobel Centre in Stockholm (it doesn't have to be that big).
• OMA is tapped to design Buffalo, NY's Albright-Knox Art Gallery expansion, beating out impressive competitors (starchitects included) by "minuscule differences."
• Eyefuls of H&deM's new building for the Vitra Design Museum.
• Bevan parses BIG's Serpentine Pavillion: "Ingels promised architectural bigamy. And he's delivered."
• An impressive international shortlist vies to design the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art (starchitects included).
• Perhaps less glitter, but perhaps more important: Theaster Gates has a plan for a new arts center in an impoverished South Side Chicago neighborhood designed by Johnston Marklee.
• The Detroit Creative Corridor Center is about to launch a 10-year city design initiative now that it's part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
• Kolson Hurley reports on MIT's "Future of Suburbia" symposium: "The Center for Advanced Urbanism's new research initiative is long overdue but doesn't yet strike the right note" ("Reformers" and "Validators" need to get on the same page).
• Ljubanovic explores why "Brutalist structures are suddenly in vogue," and how "many contemporary architects are adapting and updating some of Brutalism's core ideas."
• Celada eloquently delves into how Havana's Instituto Superior de Arte by Porro, Garatti, and Gottardi "stands as a monument to the revolution's triumph of imagination and the failures of its promise."
• Some of our favorite writers explain why 8 projects won Arch Record's 2016 Good Design is Good Business Awards.
• Six take home a 2016 Palladio Award for outstanding achievement in traditional design.
• Brussat cheers the Palladios and the growing number of awards for traditional design: "Pritzker laureates may well laugh all the way to the bank," but they "will be whistling past the graveyard if Truth, Justice and the Palladian Way have any say in the matter."
• Chipperfield chooses Swiss architect Kretz as his protégé for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
• Call for entries World Architecture Festival 2016 Awards (deadline reminder - it's Friday!) + Baldwin Bold Design Award Competition.
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Obituary: Walter Hunt, driving force in Gensler and AIANY: ...instrumental in transforming Gensler from a small interiors practice into one of the leading and largest architectural firms in the world...Without Walter, there would probably be no Center for Architecture...helped conceive of a storefront to promote design and architecture in New York. By Abby Suckle [images]- The Architects' Journal |
The architects who want to build housing for the millions: Other issues in Alejandro Aravena’s brief for this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale...he wants architecture to do something about the metastasizing “mediocrity” infecting the built environment today...This is not a Biennale for the next Bilbao Museum...The new faces and ideas are intended to serve as a corrective...the profession has been in mea culpa mode for the past few years. By Alex Ulam [images]- Maclean’s (Canada) |
Design for the One Percent: Contemporary architecture is more interested in mega projects for elites than improving ordinary people’s lives: Not so long ago, the world’s leading architects debated how architecture could be used to transform society...Today, global architecture is peopled with “starchitects” who specialize in mega projects for the global elite...Architects are not entirely to blame... By Alex Cocotas -- Zaha Hadid; Santiago Calatrava; Rafael Viñoly; Frank Gehry; Rem Koolhaas; Bernard Tschumi; Alejandro Aravena; Patrick Schumacher- Jacobin magazine |
Revolution: A New Proposal to Reform Our Broken Architectural Education System: The current system is woefully out of step with the profession it serves...radical solutions are needed. This is one proposal that could make the current system more efficient and help the profession become more economically, socially and culturally balanced. By Ross Brady- Architizer |
King of Sweden criticises 'gigantic' Nobel Centre plan: Carl XVI Gustav says British-designed project in Stockholm ‘does not have to be of this huge volume’...adding his voice to...the project’s many critics...have lodged multiple appeals, angry that the centre...will replace a 140-year-old customs house and other historic harbourside buildings..."I disagree with the criticism, but I respect that it is part of the dialogue." By Jon Henley -- David Chipperfield- Guardian (UK) |
OMA selected to design Albright-Knox Art Gallery expansion: But don’t expect the monumental scale or stylistic brashness of the serpentine CCTV Headquarters in Beijing...competition among...OMA, BIG, wHY, Allied Works and Snohetta was tight, and that the decision came down to minuscule differences. -- Shohei Shigematsu- Buffalo News |
Vitra Design Museum Puts Classics in New Herzog & de Meuron Building: Some 7,000 pieces of furniture, more than 1,000 lighting objects and numerous archives have found their home...The Schaudepot and the nearby Fire Station by Zaha Hadid form a second public area of the Campus... [images]- Artinfo |
First look at new Serpentine pavillion + A chapel made to marry many forms: Ingels promised architectural bigamy...And he’s delivered. It’s a meeting of garden walls whose bulging lines have been taken for a walk. By Robert Bevan -- BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; Yona Friedman; Kunle Adeyemi; Barklow Leibinger [images]- Evening Standard (UK) |
Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Reveals Shortlisted Designs: ...will be located in a new business and leisure center of Riga known as New Hanza City. -- Adjaye Associates/AB3D; Caruso St John Architects/Arhitektu birojs Jaunromans un Abele; Henning Larsen Architects/MARK arhitekti; Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects/MADE arhitekti; Neutelings Riedijk Architects/Brigita Bula arhitekte; Sauerbruch Hutton/Arhitekts Ingurds Lazdinš; wHY/OUTOFBOX Architecture/ALPS [images]- ArchDaily |
University of Chicago to further sculpt Arts Block on Garfield Boulevard: ...in an impoverished South Side neighborhood...Plans to raise an estimated $10 million in private funding for a Green Line Arts Center and an adjacent outdoor gathering space... -- Theaster Gates; Johnston Marklee- Chicago Tribune |
Detroit Creative Corridor Center to start 10-year city design initiative: ...June 28 launch event...one of 22 cities selected...to be a City of Design in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. It is the only American city...DC3 was started in 2010 by the College for Creative Studies...- Crain's Detroit Business |
The “Future of Suburbia,” according to MIT: The Center for Advanced Urbanism's new research initiative is long overdue but doesn't yet strike the right note: CAU’s vision involves enhancing the productivity of the suburban fabric we have rather than replacing it with one we don’t...we can...be honest about the challenges they face without writing them off as either cultural backwaters or “the next slums.” By Amanda Kolson Hurley- Architect Magazine |
Concrete Examples: Once reviled by design critics and the public for their hard edges and unwelcoming facades, brutalist structures are suddenly in vogue...many contemporary architects are adapting and updating some of brutalism’s core ideas. By Kristina Ljubanovic -- Marcel Breuer; Beyer Blinder Bell; Bjarke Ingel; Moshe Safdie; Alejandro Aravena/Elemental; Dattner Architects; David Adjaye; Alison and Peter Smithson; Le Corbusier; Chris Grimley; Peter Chadwick; Zaha Hadid; Graeme Stewart/ERA Architects [images]- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Cracks in Cuba’s revolution revealed through a languishing art school campus: ...stands as a monument to the revolution’s triumph of imagination and the failures of its promise...arguably one of the most significant places in modern Cuban and world architecture...remarkable buildings left in semi-constructed limbo...talk has resumed about the possible completion and restoration of the buildings... By Luca Celada -- John Loomis; Ricardo Porro; Vittorio Garatti; Roberto Gottardi [images]- il manifesto global (Italy) |
Good Design is Good Business Awards: In its 19th year...recognizes exemplary architectural solutions that were instrumental in the growth and success of a range of businesses. By Alex Bozikovic, Suzanne Stephens, Leslie Jen, David Sokol, Laura Raskin -- Quadrangle Architects; A+I/Architecture Plus Information; Perkins+Will Canada; Lehman Smith McLeish; Snow Kreilich Architects/AECOM/Ryan A+E; KPMB Architects/Diamond Schmitt Architects/HDR Architecture/Stantec Architecture; BNIM; Gensler [images]- Architectural Record |
2016 Palladio Awards: ...honor outstanding achievement in traditional design. -- HBRA Architects; Schooley Caldwell Associates; Glave & Holmes Architecture; Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Architectural Resources Group; Historic Doors [images]- Traditional Building Magazine / Period Homes |
The Palladio Awards of 2016: Pritzker laureates may well laugh all the way to the bank, but on their way, as the number of awards programs for traditional work expands, those “winners” will be whistling past the graveyard if Truth, Justice and the Palladian Way have any say in the matter. By David Brussat- Architecture Here and There |
David Chipperfield Selects Swiss Architect Simon Kretz as his Protégé: ...as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative for 2016-2017. -- Christian Salewski & Simon Kretz Architekten- ArchDaily |
Call for entries (deadline reminder!): World Architecture Festival 2016 Awards; deadline: June 10(!)- World Architecture Festival (WAF) |
Call for entries: Baldwin Bold Design Award Competition: illustrate the next bold hardware design; open to professionals and students; cash and travel prizes; deadline: September 19- Baldwin Hardware |
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