Video: OMA Show & Tell at the Barbican
Yesterday, the Barbican Gallery in London hosted an interesting event with OMA.
“OMA Show & Tell” features all the of the firm’s partners: Rem Koolhaas, Victor van der Chijs, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu (watch our interview with Shohei), Iyad Alsaka and David Gianotten.
The discussion was chaired by Chris Dercon, director of the Tate Modern, who makes a very good intro to this “historic evening“, in which the partners for the first time will discuss together how the creative practice has worked in the past and how it will work in the future. It includes questions from the 300 members of OMA.
It is interesting to see how the partnership works, and Dercon encourages the young architects in the audience to learn from it and speak to their CEOs to run their firms according to their views after this lecture.
A tribute to Steve Jobs, by Lord Norman Foster
Today Lord Norman Foster issued a tribute to Steve Jobs (1955-2011), who passed away yesterday at the age of 56. Foster + Partners is working on the new Apple Campus in Cupertino, scheduled to be completed in 2015.
With my colleagues I would like to pay tribute to Steve Jobs. Like so many millions our lives have been profoundly and positively influenced by the innovations pioneered by Steve and Apple, names which are inseparable.
We were greatly privileged to know Steve as a person, as a friend and in every way so much more than a client. Steve was an inspiration and a role model. He encouraged us to develop new ways of looking at design to reflect his unique ability to weave backwards and forwards between grand strategy and the minutiae of the tiniest of internal fittings. For him no detail was small in its significance and he would be simultaneously questioning the headlines of our project together whilst he delved into its fine print.
He was the ultimate perfectionist and demanded of himself as he demanded of others. We are better as individuals and certainly wiser as architects through the experience of the last two years and more of working for him. His participation was so intense and creative that our memory will be that of working with one of the truly great designers and mentors.
- Norman Foster Architect Chairman + Founder of Foster + Partners
Video: “Cities of Opportunity” Interview with Rem Koolhaas
In this video from Cities of Opportunity 2011, architectural superstar and OMA founder Rem Koolhaas shares his views on the contemporary evolution of the city and his vision for the future of urban centers. Produced by accounting giant PwC (a.k.a PricewaterhouseCoopers before their 2010 re-branding) and the Partnership for New York City, Cities of Opportunity 2011 “analyzes the trajectory of 26 cities, all capitals of finance, commerce, and culture and through their performance, seeks to open a window on what makes cities function best.”
Le Corbusier meets Albert Einstein
Two of the brightest minds from the past century.
Back in 1946, Le Corbusier meet Albert Einstein at Princeton after traveling to New York to present at the United Nations his project for the UN Headquarters.
I had the pleasure of discussing the “Modulor” at some length with Professor Albert Einstein at Princeton. I was then passing through a period of great uncertainty and stress; I expressed myself badly, I explained the “Modulor” badly, I got bogged down in the morass of “cause and effect”… At one point, Einstein took a pencil and began to calculate. Stupidly, I interrupted him, the conversation turned to other things, the calculation remained unfinished. The friend who had brought me was in the depths of despair. In a letter written to me the same evening, Einstein had the kindness to say this of the “Modulor”: “It is a scale of proportions which makes the bad difficult and the good easy.” There are some who think this judgement is unscientific. For my part, I think it is extraordinarily clear-sighted. It is a gesture of friendship made by a great scientist towards us who are not scientists but soldiers on the field of battle. The scientist tells us: “This weapon shoots straight: in the matter of dimensioning, i.e. of proportions, it makes tour task more certain.”
- Le Corbusier, The Modulor (1954)
Infographic: Architects on Twitter
Architects on Twitter?
With more than 40,000 followers, our Twitter account @ArchDaily has become a great channel to connect with our readers. Through this channel we’ve been able to see the progress of your buildings, know about the competitions/awards you win, share links, ideas, knowledge, and much more. And Architects on Twitter are constantly finding new creative ways to use the platform, as a collaboration and marketing tool.
UK digital marketing agency Pauley Creative conducted a survey among british architects using Twitter, and put all the info together on this nice infographic. Some of their findings:
- 65% of Architects surveyed had been using Twitter for over a year
- The majority of Architects use Twitter to keep up with the latest industry news (86%) and network with industry peers (79%)
- When asked ‘Who do you follow?’ most selected Other Architects (82%), Practices (77%) and Publications (75%)
- 95% of Architects do find Twitter useful, primarily for the reason that it’s quick and easy to share information and keep up with the latest news
- 99% of Architects surveyed stated that they would provide a recommendation if asked
Are you using Twitter? Are you following @ArchDaily? How are you using Twitter? Who do you recommend to follow?
Share your experience on the comments below, or Tweet it with hashtag #ArchOnTwitter.
See the full infographic below:
The Business of Architecture: Panel recap
Why do architects choose architecture? Typical reasons include a deep passion for form and a desire to leave meaningful, functional design as a legacy. Rarely do you hear that an architect held a burning desire to do business and THIS was their chosen means to that end. Rather, doing business is necessary to follow their pull toward architecture. And so the industry is filled with capable architects who know little about the mechanics of running a firm. Payroll, HR, marketing, sales and public relations are foreign topics. They want the jobs, but they don’t know how to get them. They need employees, but lack management skills or knowledge of how to team build, recruit or downsize during a recession.
In the coming months, I’ll be writing various articles to address these topics that impact architects running their own business – large or small. We’ll also consider marketing ideas that have a proven track record of helping companies differentiate from the competition.
As part of the 2×8: Source student exhibit at the Architecture and Design (A+D) Museum in Los Angeles, we recently assembled a diverse panel to discuss the business of architecture from the student’s perspective. To a crowd of 60 plus, we covered topics that ranged from getting noticed by employers and taking risks, to applying past experiences and methods of differentiation from the competition. I facilitated our panel, which included: Steven Ehrlich, FAIA; Barton Myers, FAIA; Kat Fern, ASID, IDEC and Nancy Horne, architecture and design recruiter.
The theme that consistently surfaced was the importance of relationship building and the ability to communicate. Those skills set apart those who have excelled. Some highlights from each panelist are below.
Gerrit Rietveld: Born June 24, 1888
A day like today, 123 years ago, Dutch designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld was born. One of the principal members of the artistic movement “De Stijl” (Dutch for “The Style), Rietveld became famous for his Red and Blue Chair, designed un 1917 (part of the MoMA collection) and for the Rietveld Schröder House.
Designed in 1924 in collaboration with the house owner Truus Schröder-Schräder, the Rietveld Schröder House continues to impress architects and interior designers with its innovative solutions to prominent design questions of its time (see our AD Classics about it).
What is the importance of Rietveld’s work for modern architecture? We invite you to celebrate Rietveld’s birthday by sharing your comments with us!
Top Architecture Offices Facebook Fan Pages
Here’s a ranking of architectural offices and their fans on facebook. What do you think are the factors for this popularity?
Do you think maybe it’s people that respect and admire these architects, and it’s reflected on their fan pages?
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer tops the list. Do you think that at 103 years he knows he is the world leader in architects facebook fans?
Complete ranking and their fans:
1. Oscar Niemeyer / 228,850
2. Zaha Hadid / 216,231
3. Renzo Piano / 145,662
4. Santiago Calatrava / 143,821
5. Tadao Ando / 56,584
6. Peter Zumthor / 50,660
7. Herzog & de Meuron / 34,949
8. Jean Nouvel / 33,728
9. ALT arquitectura + obra / 29,381
10. OMA – Rem Koolhaas / 27,561
11. Bunker Arquitectura / 20,512
12. SANAA – Sejima & Nishizawa / 17,681
13. A-cero (Joaquín Torres) / 16,392
14. Toyo Ito / 15,500
15. Norman Foster / 13,012
16. Alvaro Siza / 11,431
17. BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group / 9,360
18. Daniel Libeskind / 8,762
19. Peter Eisenman / 7,743
20. Richard Rogers / 7,703
How much do architects earn per hour?
I was asking myself this question a few minutes ago, so went online to do some quick research and Googled “How much do architects earn per hour?”.
The first search result was Answers.com (pictured above) and the answer caught my attention.
Based on these points, How much do you earn? (1) How good do you think you are, (2) How many people demand your services, and (3) how much you feel you can charge. Feel free to answer in the comment section below.
Frank Gehry interview on Playboy
“Ninety-eight percent of buildings are boxes, which tells me that a lot of people are in denial. We live and work in boxes. People don’t even notice that. Most of what’s around us is banal. We live with it. We accept it as inevitable. People say, ‘This is the world the way it is, and don’t bother me.’ Then when somebody does something different, real architecture, the push-back is amazing. People resist it. At first it’s new and scary.”
“The thing is, I hate the celebrity architect thing. I just do my work. The press comes up with this stuff and it sticks. I hate the word starchitect. Stuff like that comes from mean-spirited, untalented journalists. It’s demeaning. It’s derisive, and once it’s said, it sticks. I get introduced all the time, ‘Here’s starchitect Frank Gehry…’ My reaction: ‘What the fuck are you talking about?‘”
Don´t miss Frank Ghery’s epic interview on the January issue of Playboy.
More snippets of the interview after the break:
ArchDaily Architect’s Holiday Gift Guide 2010
We, the architects, are a special breed. We have very particular tastes, dress in very particular ways and we even invented our own language. For us, a pen can be even more meaningful than our computers, and you might find yourself looking all around town for that perfect standard notebook that you have used for ages. So we decided to compile this special gift guide with things that we use, we like, and that we would love to find below our christmas tree.
Hope you like it! Feel free to share your gift ideas for architects on the comments below. (more…)
Architects in Movies
From the mid 1900′s to the beginning of the 2000′s, being an architect as a profession has made its way into key roles on the big screen for many big shot celebrities. Whether the roles they play in the movies are similar to the reality of the profession or not, I’m sure many architects that have watched some of these movies feel honored that their profession is one that deserves to be highlighted in ways that are not not just in architectural publications, but in the cinema world as well. More images after the break. (more…)
The Indicator: Photographing the Architect, Part 1: The Social Mask
A passage from Susan Sontag’s groundbreaking book, On Photography
A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence. Like a wood fire in a room, photographs—especially those of people, of distant landscapes and faraway cities, of the vanished past—are incitements to reverie (p. 16).
This comes close to explaining my fascination with portraits. It is not necessarily the subject’s fame that draws me to these images. In fact, the portraits selected for this essay were chosen because they did not immediately communicate the aura of fame. They weren’t distorted by fame’s messy narrative.
Portraits of contemporary architects are so self-consciously calculated. Like cover art, they are created to communicate certain attitudes, like confidence, knowledge, and power, toward an audience. Both photographer and image-savvy architect-subject are aware of how to manipulate photography to greatest effect.
Portraiture in architecture has thus become celebrity photography. Everyone knows how to behave now, have for decades. When a superficial marketing intent tries to communicate the depth of a person it becomes difficult to trust the resulting image. There is a giant yawn between this premeditated intent and the clichéd pose that obscures the person in the frame.
Office dA coming to an end?
Office disputes happen all the time, it’s in our architect’s DNA.
You might have heard about office dA’s ongoing dispute. Sad, as office dA has done such great buildings, such as the awarded Macallan Building, the BanQ restaurant and Helios House, among a long list of projects of which innovation in terms of materials and fabrication are a common thread. I won’t get into much detail, as it’s all covered in the Boston Globe (and Monica Ponce de Leon´s reply on Archinect), and this is not a gossip blog. However, I wanted to share this quote from Nader Tehrani, which highlights the collaboration and fluidity a practice can have:
“Monica and I made presentations to the public that were like Sonny and Cher. When you are able to finish each other’s sentences, there is clearly a collaborative spirit there.”
I recommend you to watch our interview with Nader Tehrani (now head of the architecture department at MIT) to know more about the (soon to disappear?) firm.
Iakov Chernikhovs Architecture Prize 2010 Top Ten Finalists
The Iakov Chernikhov International Prize for Young Architects recently announced its 2010 laureate, Fantastic Norway, recently featured here on ArchDaily and now we have the complete Top Ten nominee list to share with our readers. Among this group of young and promising architects you will find some outstanding works that will hopefully go a long way to shaping the future of the profession. The complete Top Ten and links to their work after the break.
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Iakov Chernikovs Architecture Prize 2010 / Fantastic Norway
On November 17th Fantastic Norway was awarded the 2010 Iakov Chernikovs Architecture Prize by the ICIF. We here at ArchDaily have previously featured the work of Fantastic Norway and wish to congratulate them on their accolades and share with our readers some examples of their work.
More after the break.
Dear Other Architects
Charles Holland, director at UK based firm FAT Architecture (see their public bathroom proposal for London) runs Fantastic Journal, an interesting blog on which he recently published the following open letter to us, the other architects:
Please stop entering design competitions. It’s sheer folly. Here’s why:
1. It’s massively wasteful of your time and resources. Can you think of another comparable industry, or, more pertinently, profession, that spends so much time and money on bidding for work? Do doctors undertake a number of unpaid, speculative operations in order to convince people that they really need a hip replacement? No.
2. It gives away your main asset – your ideas – for free. After that, the rest is routine.
3. You are highly unlikely to win. This is just a fact. Some are better at them than others but no one wins them all and most lose often.
4. Even if you do win, it’s still unlikely that the building will be built. Most competitions are speculative, not in the sense that the client is looking for experimental architecture, but in the sense that there is little or no funding in place and they have not informed you of all the impediments still in the way of the project.
5. Therefore, there is often only one thing more disappointing than losing a competition and that’s winning one (in the long run).
6. They are a pretty terrible way of procuring a building. Imagine a system where you want something but you’re not sure exactly what it is. So you make a list of things you think you want and invite everyone in the world to send you their ideas for what it looks like. You have no other interaction with them, communicate – if at all – by email and, in the end, hope for the best and pick the one you fancy. This is the architectural competition process. It’s similar to internet dating, but less fun.
7. Competitions momentarily flatter you into thinking that you are designing, say,Oslo Opera House or a New Town outside Madrid but, in reality, you’re not. Until you get the commission it’s just pretend.
8. No one else in the world understands why you’re doing it. They just get used to you not coming out or refusing to take a holiday or forgetting to wash for five days. But they still think you’re mad.
9. You could do without the stress. All that time. All that effort. The all-nighters and the break-neck journey to the printers to get the boards made up! The intern dispatched to Inverness to hand them in because you’ve missed the courier’s deadline! The anxious wait for the results that sometimes never come! Honestly, you could do without it.
10. Remember: it’s not the failure that will kill you. It’s the hope.
So, if you’re thinking of entering a competition, don’t! Take your office down the pub instead. It will be more fun and cost a lot less. You might even meet someone down there who wants to give you a job. Remember: if you stop, I can too.
A look into the life and work of Harry Weese
When the Chicago Magazine shared Robert Sharoff’s piece on the late Harry Weese with us, it piqued our interest and we began to took a closer look at the life and work of this talented architect. As Sharoff notes, at Weese’s prime, he was the leading architect of Chicago – a man focused on historic preservation and focused on manifesting Miesian principles in a new light. Sharoff’s and our deeper look into Weese’s work is an attempt to infuse the architect’s reputation with positivity, not letting his architectural achievements become clouded by his later struggle with alcohol.
More about Weese’s life and projects after the break. (more…)
Top 250 US Architectural Firms
It’s that time of the year. Architectural Record has published their list of Top 250 architecture firms. The companies are ranked according to revenue for architectural services performed in 2009 in $ millions.
The list is compiled from a survey conducted for Engineering News-Record’s annual Top 500 Design Firms Sourcebook. As last year, number 1 was for AECOM Technology Corporation, an engineer-architect firm from Los Angeles, California.
The firms classify themselves by:
A = Architect
AE = Architect-Engineer
AP = Architect Planner
EA = Engineer-Architect
AEC = Architect-Engineer-Contractor
See the top 25 after the break. (more…)
Wallpaper* Magazine Architects Directory 2010
As every year, Wallpaper* Magazine have chosen their list of 30 emerging architects throughout the world, and 13 of them gathered for above’s picture at the Centre Pompidou Metz. The complete list is as follows:
sporaarchitects / Marchal Fürstenburger / Carson & Crushell / Rocha Tombal / Walker Architects / Ramdam / NArchitekTURA / Edgley Design / Suárez Santas / Scenario Architecture / Frei + Saarinen / Hein-Troy / OnOffice / 2-B-2 Architecture / Aas/Thaulow / Axelrod Architects / Claudio Vilarinho / Dieter Janssen / Johan Sundberg / Moto Designshop / Najjar & Najjar / Obra Architects / Owen and Vokes / Rory Hyde Projects / Takao Akiyama / Tennent + Brown Architects / X -Arquitectos / Zoka Zola Architects / Jose Ulloa Davet & Delphine Ding / Skourtis-Stavropoulou Architects
For more information click here.
After Strong Spring, Drop in Architecture Billings Index
Just over a month ago, we were happy to report that our field seemed to be through the toughest time, as the Architecture Billings Index had increased for the third straight month showing a sustained economic improvement. Now, we are definitely not so happy to share some information that a lot of architects assumed would happen. Following our strong spring, the AIA billings index dropped quite precipitously from 48.5 to 45.8 and every region declined. The rough month suggests that our recovery will continue to be long and frustrating, a worrisome reality that some professionals may have been anticipating. “I was a bit surprised by it, particularly the magnitude,” AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker said. “It’s been jumping around for the past six to nine months, but this is a big drop after some pretty steady gains.”
We know these times are extremely difficult but we are still keeping our optimism and hoping for the best.
As seen on the Architect’s Newspaper
