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An urban design debate and a book launch will take place next monday November 9 at 6:30PM at the Wood Auditorium in Columbia Unviersity. “After BIGness” is the debate in which Alan Berger, Associate Professor at MIT, Kenneth Frampton, Professor at GSAPP, and Mahadev Raman, Principal at ARUP will discuse the designing for post crisis cities.

After the debate, at 8:30PM, the book “Emerging Urban Futures in Land Water Infrastructure” will be launched. The book documents the partnership between Columbia University and the University of Queensland that produced four years of student work in architecture, urban design, and urban planning in Brisbane and the surrounding areas.

This book is an archive of the resulting site research, design proposals, and relevant case studies, which is designed to serve as a comparative study of different teaching methods for post-professional studies in architecture and urban design.

For more information, click here.

The Architecture Society at the University of Cambridge (ArcSoc) will host several talk series starting November 11th till February 16th. All talks will be held at 7pm in Lecture Room 1, Architecture Dept., 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, UK. The schedule is:

November 11th – Sam McElhinney
November 17th – Tarek Merlin
November 24th – Richard Roberts and Ruairi Glynn

January 27th – Janek Schaefer
February 9th – Adrian Forty
February 16th – Alex de Rijke

When we interviewed Jeffrey Inaba at the C-Lab last year, he told us about his research on altruism, which was the base for his new book “World of Giving”.

In place of the pursuit of personal wealth, World of Giving presents a mindset revolving around generosity. It paints a picture in which giving animates all levels of human interaction, acknowledging that each and every one of us gives. From helping out an acquaintance to donating to a valued cause, we all provide in acts big and small that benefit the immediate recipient and often others as well. In this important exploration of the sentiments of our time, the authors describe the basic motivations for why we give in reference to examples such as local volunteering, philanthropy and the flow of aid through foundations, governments, multinationals and NGOs. The book details the process of working toward a greater good and shows that a gift transforms at numerous junctures as it circulates from giver to receiver. Articulating these intricate relationships, World of Giving offers an understanding of the actions that build bridges between goodwill and need, intention and realization.

World of Giving is by Jeffrey Inaba and C-Lab in collaboration with Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, New Museum and Lars Müller Publishers.

The book will be launched in a party at the New Museum on November 12th, from 630-830p, with Richard Flood (Chief Curator, New Museum), Mark Wigley (Dean, Columbia GSAPP), Lars Müller (Founder, Lars Müller Publishers) and Jeffrey Inaba ( author of World of Giving and Director of C-Lab).

The Parametric Design Workshop will take place in New York on December 5. This workshop will focus on the conceptual context and technical understanding of parametric design through a carefully constructed 2-day curriculum.

Participants will learn to engage the parametric modeling plug-in Grasshopper in a meaningful and productive way that draws upon the collective sensibility present in the group.

Emphasis will be placed on strategies for deploying constraint-based design, associative modeling techniques, and environmental influencers for parametric geometry creation, analysis, and documentation.

Attendance will be capped at 15 to provide each participant maximum one-on-one time with instructors. For more information click here.

Svalbard Science Centre / JVA, photo by Nils Petter Dale

While looking for works to feature on ArchDaily like a year and a half ago, I was going through a norwegian magazine I found at a friend’s house and saw an enigmatic copper building sitting in the snow: the Svalbard Science Centre (pictured above). Since it was in norwegian, all I could figure out was the name of the practice: JVA.

So I googled it and immediately got in touch with Einar Jarmund, one of the partners of JVA, and was able to see the high level of architectural production being done by this office, which you can see on the 11 works we have featured so far at ArchDaily. Since then, they became one of my favorite practices.

During this year the exhibition about their Work, “Lost in Nature”, has been on display in several cities and for the first time in North America. The exhibition is currently at the Washington University in St. Louis in the Steinberg Hall Architecture Gallery. It will be opened with a lecture by Einar Jarmund yesterday today, and it will be on display until November 29. If you are around, I highly recommend you to visit it.

During 2010 the exhibit will be at the State University of New York (Buffalo, NY, USA), the Museum of Nordic Heritage (Seattle, WA, USA), the Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) and in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

The Barcelona Institute of Architecture (BIArch) is an international institution set up to further interaction between academic research, specialized practice and the cultural dissemination of contemporary architecture. Occupying a space midway between schools of architecture and professional praxis, BIArch is an open laboratory for professionals and researchers that aims to promote new ways of thinking and acting for a technological, energy and economic reality in permanent flux.

Their next seminar is “Energy”, and it will be held next October 30-31, at BIArch (La Pedrera, Passeig de Gracia 92, Barcelona, Spain). All sessions will be in English. Access is free but limited. Registration is is required for attendance at info@biarch.eu. The seminar is directed by Agustí Obiol.

What is the future for cities? Are they expanding at an ever-increasing rate or are they being abandoned and shrinking into oblivion? Are cities polluted, overcrowded and anonymous, or are they dynamic centres of innovation and culture? Are they sociable or anti-social? Well, it depends who you read because each description reflects the confusion about the state of the world’s cities. Anxieties over urban space within western cities, and fears over the dynamic growth of megacities in the developing world have altered the way that we see the benefits and drawbacks of urbanisation. It has been said that a culture of shrinkage is set to develop; or alternatively, that the city will have finally swallowed the world.

From transport systems to energy grids, from social networks to economic activity, this is the forum in which to debate the implications of min/max alternatives. And given the often fraught debates over lifestyles, liberties, aesthetic values and technologies, to clarify the architectural and cultural attributes that can best help address the urban future.

The event will take place in the University of Cambridge, UK, on November 26, 2009. More information on programme, speakers and registration, click here.

This Monday, October 19th, young architects working and living in France will present their recent projects in a debate taking place at Columbia University (Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, 6:30pm). Architects participating will be:

Dan Dorell + Lina Ghotmeh, DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE / ARCHITECTS
Adelaide Marchi + Nicola Marchi, Marchi Architectes
Pascal Riffaud + Denis Brillet, BLOCK Architectes

Moderated by Rafael Magrou, Curator, Paris.

For the past month, Boston’s experimental design exhibition space Pinkcomma Gallery has hosted Publishing Practices, an exploration of architectural publishing throughout the last century. Designed by architect and editor Michael Kubo in conjunction with gallery directors (and fellow architects) Mark Pasnik and Chris Grimley, the exhibit provides an in-depth look into the relationship between reading, writing, and design.

I spoke with Michael Kubo about the exhibit and its history.

read more »

Rebuilding national infrastructure will drive U.S. economic recovery, and architects are critical to the effort to build and modernize our most basic source of future intellectual capital: our schools. “Designing Learning Environments to Rebuild Urban America” will explore the best opportunity in generations to strengthen educational facilities—with architects at the forefront.

New York City schools will be our living laboratory to examine history, trends, and innovations—both in construction and in educational theory and practice. Design professionals and educators will explore common ground and emerge with strategies to create learning environments that are both practical and inspiring. School tours will further inform our findings and help to foster a continuing dialogue.

Seen at Bustler. For more information, click here.

On october 9, Iñaki Abalos and Renata Sentkiewicz will give the lecture ‘Landform Buildings’ at Roma Tre Universitá (Aula Urbano VIII, Via della Madonna dei Monti 40, Rome). The lecture will take place at 4:30pm.

After the lecture, an exhibition of Abalos+Sentkiewicz arquitectos will be opened including projects as Taipei Perfoming Art Center, Seville’s Caixaforum, Valdebebas Park, Tour Port de La Chapelle, Elche viewpoint and Orange County Museum of Art amog others.

The exhibition will take place at the same Campus.

The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) presents “Marcelo Spina: Wholes, Holes, and All the Other Stuff in Between”, part of their lecture series, this Wednesday, October 7 at 7pm in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall.

Marcelo Spina is the founder and co-principal, along with Georgina Huljich, of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, a design research architectural practice based in Los Angeles. His work has gained international recognition for its innovative approach to design and architecture that fuses advanced computation techniques with an extensive understanding of form, tectonics and materials. Since 2001, Spina has been on the Design Faculty at SCI-Arc, where he is also the coordinator of the Applied Studies program.

SCI-Arc is open to the public daily from 10am–6pm. Parking and admission are free. No reservations are required. Lectures, talks, and discussions are broadcast live online at www.sciarc.edu/live.

On September 29, Storefront for Art and Architecture will inaugurate a new exhibition showcasing research conducted over the past 3 years at ETH Zurich by Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler into full-scale digital fabrication in architecture using industrial robots. At the same time, construction work will begin on Pike Loop, the first architectural project to be built on site by an industrial robot in the US.

Located on Pike Street, the robot, R-O-B, will work for up to four weeks—in full view of the public— to construct a brick wall, a highly sculptural response to the specific identity of the site. The same robot unit recently built the award-winning installation, Structural Oscillations, at the 2008 architectural biennial in Venice. For the Pike Loop installation, more than seven thousand bricks aggregate to form an infinite loop that weaves along the pedestrian island. In changing rhythms the loop lifts off the ground and intersects itself at its peaks. The installation was coordinated through the New York City Department of Transportation’s Urban Art Program.

More images and a video after the break. read more »

In the post-parametric era, one key challenge for architectural design is the acquisition, processing, and integration of data. Designers already have an enormous amount of computable data from building simulations, physical sensing, geometric form, construction techniques, cost and location of materials—and the mountain of numbers shows every sign of rapid expansion.

This debate will explore what might be done with all of this data, and more broadly, how we might be designing architecture ten years from now. Post Parametric 1 is the first in a series of discussions that aim to question, broaden, and re-frame the way we think about computation and design.

The debate will take place tomorrow Monday at 6:30 PM, in the Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, Columbia Unviersity. For more information, visit the official website.

Architecture/Landscape/Interiors presents the 2009 Donghia Designer-in-Residence Lecture by David J. Lewis and Marc Tsurumaki, Principals of Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis (LTL). LTL is an innovative, award-winning architecture partnership founded in 1997 by Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki and David J. Lewis, located in New York City.

LTL actively pursues a diverse range of work, from large-scale academic and cultural buildings to interior architecture to competitions. LTL’s approach is to realize inventive solutions that turn the very constraints of each project into the design trajectory, exploring overlaps between space, program, form, budget and materials.

Founding partners Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki and David J. Lewis are also widely respected for their contributions to design education. Paul Lewis is an Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Princeton University School of Architecture. Marc Tsurumaki is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Columbia University. David J. Lewis is an Associate Professor at Parsons The New School for Design, where he directed the Master of Architecture Program from 2002-2007.

The lecture and reception will take place next 24 September and are free and open to the public, at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) 250 S.Grand Ave, L.A 90012. From 7:00pm till 9:30om. Seating is first-come, first-served. Please call (310) 665-6867 for more information on the lecture, or Architecture/Landscape/Interiors Department.

With the exhibition “COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: Beyond the Blue” being recently closed at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio, USA another single exhibition will be opened on September 18, 2009 at NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] in Tokyo, Japan.

“COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: Future Revisited” is presenting two of the studio’s latest architectural experiments “Astro Balloon 1969 Revisited – Feedback Space” and “Brain City Lab”.

Date: September 19 – December 23, 2009
Venue: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] Gallery A, Tokyo Opera City Tower 4F, 3-20-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-1404 Japan

The Fall 2009 lecture series of the Rice Design Alliance will present architects involved with tower design and building. The speakers will discuss the trend in architecture to build up, the slow-down in the industry with regards to many of these large scale projects, and what all of this means for the future skylines of the world.

Getting High: Towers in Architecture begins today September 16th with a presentation by Peter Buchanan from London. The series will continue on consecutive Wednesdays until October 7th. All lectures will be held at 7:00 p.m. in Brown Auditorium, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, located at 1001 Bissonnet (enter via the Main Street door.) Pre-lecture wine receptions begin at 6:00 p.m. in the MFAH Foyer at 1001 Bissonnet. For more information click here. Complete lecture lineup after the break. read more »

Speed Limits is currently on exhibition in the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), till November 9 in the main galleries. Speed Limits addresses the pivotal role played by speed in modern life: from art to architecture and urbanism to graphics and design to economics to the material culture of the eras of industry and information. It marks the centenary of the foundation of the Italian Futurist movement, whose inaugural manifesto famously proclaimed “that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed.”

The exhibition explores five key domains of the powers and limits of the modern era’s cult of speed, beginning in 1900: circulation and transit, construction and the built environment, efficiency, the measurement and representation of rapid motion, and the mind/body relationship. Critical rather than commemorative in spirit, it explores a single Futurist theme from the standpoint of its contemporary legacies. Speed Limits is an exhibition about complex choices and complex consequences, about polarities but also about intertwinings between the fast and the slow.

More information on the exhibition, on the official website.

The first film festival celebrating the creative spirit of architecture and design will be held in Waitsfield, Vermont during the height of fall colors. An exciting selection of films, including feature-length films, documentaries and shorts will engage the audience with how architects and designers think, work and create. The films profile visionary architects, the creative design process, environmental issues and the brilliant designs that we see and use every day. The program includes conversations with filmmakers, architects and designers.

The Architecture & Design Film Festival will benefit the Yestermorrow Design/Build School. Yestermorrow inspires students to create a better and more sustainable world by providing an architectural education that integrates design and building into one continuous process.

More information and the complete list of films on the festival on the official website.

The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), the downtown Los Angeles-based architecture school known for its progressive thinking and innovative design, is pleased to announce the fall 2009 schedule for lectures, talks and exhibitions. SCI-Arc hosts renowned architects and other practitioners in the fields of Architecture and Design from around the globe to discuss current theory and practice.

Guests include architects Toshiko Mori, Preston Scott Cohen, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo, landscape architect Laurie Olin, graphic designer April Greiman, and writer and theorist Eugene Thacker, among other notable figures. Exhibitions include deegan day design: Blow x Blow, investigating cinematic projection and architecture as installation, and Jean-Pierre Hébert: Drawings as Thoughts, conceptual digital drawings based on computer-driven language.

See the complete list of lectures and exhibitions, after the break. read more »