Today’s News - Thursday, March 26, 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, March 31. Please stay safe, wherever you are…
● Charlesworth profiles The Anganwadi Project, an Australian NGO working in India that has skilled architects "lining up to volunteer - their low-budget, joyous designs are having an impact on preschool children that goes far beyond day-to-day educational needs."
● Rockett's Q&A with 5 Chicago-based women architects who are leaving "their mark on city landscapes and communities" re: "what the new decade holds: The future is female."
● French architects Lacaton and Vassal have been appointed to the inaugural Garry and Susan Rothwell Chair in Architectural Design Leadership at the University of Sydney.
● Bruhn parses Cox Architecture's National Maritime Museum of China in Binhai New Area Tianjin that "reflects contemporary globalism, the marine history of the local area, and a profoundly Australian style of architecture rooted in landscape metaphors - there is deference and ingenuity at play."
● Brazilian architect Pedro Vannucchi brings us eyefuls of Niemeyer's 1957 apartment building in a Berlin district that was part of a social housing initiative involving 48 notable architects - it's "like being inside an open-air museum of modern architecture."
Deadlines:
● Call for entries (deadline looms!): Dubai's Global Grad Show "invites graduates, undergraduates, and professors from all disciplines, academic institutions, and countries to submit solutions to the collateral issues of COVID-19" (scholarship and/or grants awarded).
● Call for entries: Cool Abu Dhabi Challenge: international creative ideas competition to improve outdoor thermal comfort in public spaces by mitigating the impact of the Urban Heat Island Effect in the city" ($100,000 in prizes).
● Call for entries: Frate Sole Foundation's 7th International Prize for Sacred Architecture, open to architects "who have designed churches for any Christian denomination" in the last 10 years (prize(s) total: €30,000).
Weekend diversions you can enjoy from your sofa:
● Another great round-up of "virtual concerts, plays, museums, and other culture at your fingertips to make your time indoors more artful and imaginative" (check out The Social Distancing Festival - very cool!).
● Bittle cheers Ken Burns' PBS documentary "East Lake Meadows" that "offers a complex, compassionate look at the former Atlanta projects," and "shows how opinions on public housing are changing - and may help eat away at the enduring stigma around public housing."
● Jordahn put together a binge list of architecture and design documentaries "to stave off isolation boredom" (most are rental, but check comments - some include links to free access).
COVID-19 news continues - and, again, we lead with items that lifted our spirits:
● Watch Ben Gibbard sing "Life in Quarantine": "Over gentle acoustic guitar, he sings about empty streets, bars, and cafes, and streetlights that change for no reason" (photos are breathtaking!).
● On another musical note, eyefuls of L.A.-based creative agency Activista's "6 Feet Covers" that reimagines iconic album covers - "using pop culture as the delivery mechanism is a more positive way to communicate the importance of social distancing."
● More than 50 families in a California neighborhood have "created a community art museum" in chalk on their driveways and sidewalks as a way for neighbors to interact while meeting the requirements of social distancing.
● Bliss's (hopeful) Q&A with urban resilience expert Michael Berkowitz (formerly of 100 Resilient Cities, and founder of Resilient Cities Catalyst) who "shares ideas about how cities can come back stronger from the social and economic disruption of coronavirus."
● Healthcare design experts Hercules, Anderson (also an MD) & Sansom pen a detailed open letter to policy makers: "Architects are ready and positioned to emphasize the impact that the built space has on health outcomes and how care is delivered. We recommend engaging qualified board-certified healthcare architects to act as advisors," and to be "engaged at the table developing future-state solutions."
● Nadine Post talks to health care designers and A/E/C industry organizations re: how they're educating and advising - and "warning officials that haste in creating temporary treatment facilities can create unintended negative consequences."
● Joyner talks to architects who "share their biggest challenges transitioning to Work From Home" and finds out "how things have been going."
● Tigar: "We're in the midst of a massive work-from-home experiment. I've found a silver thread of hope" from entrepreneurs successful with remote workforces who "share the value they've found in a scattered, diverse workforce" (they can "afford to pay more"!).
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Esther Charlesworth: The Anganwadi Project: From little things, big things grow: Skilled architects are lining up to volunteer for...an Australian NGO working in India. Their low-budget, joyous designs are having an impact on preschool children that goes far beyond day-to-day educational needs...TAP resulted from a chance meeting in 2006 by then Architects Without Frontiers director Jane Rothschild and Jodie Fried, a designer who had established the textile company Bholu...Robin Hood style of practising architecture...is not a platform for design experiments or students. -- Leeanne Marshall; Sarah Schoffel; Caroline Kite; Jane Johnson- ArchitectureAU (Australia) |
Darcel Rockett: In the world of Chicago architecture and design, the future is female: Chicago is an architect’s town...women are at the table, designing buildings that will leave their mark on city landscapes and communities...as we wrap up a tumultuous Women’s History Month, we spoke with women in the profession - who have helped shape the city through work on everything from the Old Main Post Office to the Chicago Riverwalk to O’Hare International Airport - about what the new decade holds... -- Chheng Lim/Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects; Kimberly Dowdell/HOK Chicago; Carol Ross Barney; Heidi Wang/Worn Jerabek Wiltse Architects; Kristen Conry/Gensler Chicago- Chicago Tribune |
French architects appointed to lead University of Sydney design program: Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal, of Lacaton and Vassal Architects, have been appointed to share the inaugural Garry and Susan Rothwell Chair in Architectural Design Leadership...Over a three-year period, [they] will deliver a program of design studios and public events...“dealing with contemporary urban conditions"...program is intended to foster architectural innovation and experimentation and support early-career architects through the university’s design PhD program.- ArchitectureAU (Australia) |
Cameron Bruhn: Shells, sails and upturned hulls: National Maritime Museum of China: ...reflects contemporary globalism, the marine history of the local area and a profoundly Australian style of architecture rooted in landscape metaphors: ...The museum and a cultural park have been built in the Binhai New Area on land reclaimed from Bohai Bay...both public infrastructure and a symbol of Binhai’s efforts to promote environmental protection and awareness...five-fingered plan...maximizes effect and minimizes heft. The white shells are a remarkable technical achievement and a metaphor-rich image that invites interpretation...there is deference and ingenuity at play. -- Cox Architecture; Tianjin Architecture Design Institute- ArchitectureAU (Australia) |
Oscar Niemeyer apartment building in Berlin captured by Pedro Vannucchi: ...Brazilian architect...captures an experimental apartment building: ...completed in 1957 for Interbau, a social housing initiative...among 48 architects including Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier and Sep Ruf tasked to design projects for the...Hansaviertel district. He was the only non-European architect...it is similar to the structures that made up the superquadras, or super blocks in Brasília..."like being inside an open-air museum of modern architecture." -- Lucio Costa- Dezeen |
Call for entries: Global Grad Show invites graduates, undergraduates and professors from all disciplines, academic institutions and countries to submit solutions to the collateral issues of COVID-19; Prize: scholarship covering the annual tuition fee for the selected student or establishing a research scholarship of equivalent value for the department of the selected professor; deadline: April 2- Global Grad Show (Dubai) |
Call for entries: Cool Abu Dhabi Challenge: international creative ideas competition to improve outdoor thermal comfort in public spaces by mitigating the impact of the Urban Heat Island Effect in the city; $100,000 USD will be distributed to up to 10 winning entries; deadline: May 12- Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport, UAE |
Call for entries: 7th International Prize for Sacred Architecture, sponsored by the Frate Sole Foundation: open to architects who, in the last decade, have projected churches for any Christian denomination; Prize total: €30,000; deadline: May 8- Frate Sole Foundation (Pavia, Italy) |
All the virtual concerts, plays, museums and other culture you can enjoy from home: ...countless cultural experiences at your fingertips to make your time indoors more artful and imaginative...But first, some tips on enjoying them:- CNN Style |
Jake Bittle: A new documentary shows how opinions on public housing are changing: “East Lake Meadows” on PBS offers a complex, compassionate look at the former Atlanta projects: Executive produced by Ken Burns and directed by...Sarah Burns and David McMahon, the film gives viewers a level-headed and compassionate look at the east Atlanta low-rise housing project...highlights how our attitudes about public housing have changed since the projects came down...arrives at a moment when social housing proposals are beginning to reenter the political discourse, and its balanced portrait...may help eat away at the enduring stigma around public housing and the people who lived in it...doesn’t shy away from the contradictions of the public housing narrative...- Curbed |
Architecture and design documentaries to binge while in self-isolation: With millions of people across the world in self-isolation or quarantine to slow the spread of coronavirus, content producer Sebastian Jordahn has put together a list of documentaries...to stave off isolation boredom.- Dezeen |
Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard Addresses COVID-19 on New Song "Life in Quarantine": Over gentle acoustic guitar, he sings about empty streets, bars, and cafes, and streetlights that change for no reason.- Rolling Stone |
Lily Smith: Iconic album covers redesigned to showcase social distancing: Two designers help rock stars exhibit model behavior for once: Beto Fernandez and Paco Conde, founders of Los Angeles-based agency Activista, found themselves with some time on their hands ..started working on a personal project called “6 Feet Covers"...using pop culture as the delivery mechanism is a more positive way to communicate the importance of social distancing...- Fast Company / Co.Design |
These families created a community art museum on the sidewalks of their California neighborhood while sheltering in place: Playgrounds are out of the picture. So are play dates. The Mountain View, California, mother of two [said] "But we can go on walks and ride our bikes"...asking her neighbors to use chalk to draw pictures on their sidewalks or driveway...intended to not only meet the requirements of social distancing, but also to be a way for neighbors to interact...More than 50 homes...came together to create a community art museum.- CNN |
Laura Bliss: What a Coronavirus Recovery Could Look Like: Urban resilience expert Michael Berkowitz shares ideas about how U.S. cities can come back stronger from the social and economic disruption of coronavirus: As the former executive director of...100 Resilient Cities, and now as founding principal at the similar Resilient Cities Catalyst, he has worked with dozens of local governments around the world...He’s looking for signs of how communities will survive the aftermath, as well as for opportunities to strengthen resilience now in the face of social and economic disruption.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
William J. Hercules, FAIA, FACHA, Diana Anderson, MD, ACHA & Marc Sansom: Open Letter to Policy Makers: Architecture - A Critical Ingredient of Pandemic Medicine: ...environments of care DO matter. Architects are ready and positioned to emphasize the impact that the built space has on health outcomes and how care is delivered... We recommend engaging qualified board-certified healthcare architects...to act as advisors...Practical and rapid solutions are available based on current and emerging design and construction technologies...we call for urban design and architecture to be leveraged and engaged at the table developing future-state solutions.- Canadian Architect |
Nadine M. Post: Health Care Designers Educate, Advise, Warn During COVID-19 Crisis: ...warning officials that haste in creating temporary treatment facilities can create unintended negative consequences...designers are brainstorming...American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE)...presentation includes guidance on how to create additional observation/segregation rooms...ASHRAE...assembling a high-level group of experts...Illya Azaroff, AIANYS disaster coordinator and founding co-chair of AIANY Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee, is working on initiatives at both AIA national, state and local levels.- Engineering News-Record (ENR) |
Sean Joyner: Architects share their biggest challenges transitioning to WFH: The recent move to Work From Home has been a radical change for many professionals. Archinect reached...to learn how things have been going...the main challenges appear to be: Impacts on culture, collaboration, and feelings of loneliness; Guiding younger staff and mentorship; Leadership providing clear direction to staff; Technological limitations; Environmental conditions, distractions, and impact on focus/productivity.- Archinect |
Lindsay Tigar: We’re in the midst of a massive work-from-home experiment. What if it works? While much of the news is scary, I’ve found a silver thread of hope in this pandemic: What if this is our chance to prove remote work, well, works? Many entrepreneurs...founded their companies with remote work practices in mind. Allowing employees to pick their location fundamentally impacted their bottom line, culture, and ability to scale...several...share the value they’ve found in a scattered, diverse workforce: Businesses can afford to pay more, etc.- Fast Company |
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