Tag: denise-scott-brown | ArchDaily

Playful and Ironic: The Legacy of Postmodernist Architecture in the United States

Olivia Poston — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Postmodernism in the United States turned architecture into a stage for cultural memory, irony, and heritage at a moment when the built environment was becoming less civic and more commercial and curated. By the late twentieth century, architectural investment no longer centered on monumental public institutions or shared federal commitment to civic space. Private development, corporate expansion, and consumer environments increasingly shaped cities across the country. Buildings took on a new role as cultural images, expected to communicate identity and meaning as much as they provided function.

Staging Culture: The Architect as Curator

Diogo Borges Ferreira — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Architecture has never been confined to the act of building. It constantly negotiates between material practice and intellectual reflection, yet throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, many architects felt that the built project alone was insufficient to address the full range of questions facing the discipline. Economic pressures, political contexts, and programmatic demands often narrowed the scope of practice.

Cover Me Softly: Beta 2024 Explores Architecture as an Act of Copying, Imitating, or Stealing

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 04:00:00 +0000

The 2024 Beta Architecture Biennial, in Timișoara, Romania, marks the tenth anniversary of this influential event. Curated by Oana Stănescu, this year's biennial, titled "cover me softly," explores the nuanced relationship between originality and influence, challenging conventional notions of copying, imitation, and appropriation. In addition to the Beta Awards, aiming to highlight significant contributions to architecture from across Romania, Hungary, and Serbia, the main exhibition offers a distinctive interpretation of recurring themes of the architectural field.

The 126 Best Architecture Books

ArchDaily Team — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 07:30:00 +0000

Architecture has deep wells of research, thought, and theory that are unseen on the surface of a structure. For practitioners, citizens interested, and students alike, books on architecture offer invaluable context to the profession, be it practical, inspirational, academic, or otherwise. So, for those of you looking to expand your bookshelf (or confirm your own tastes), ArchDaily has gathered a broad list of architectural books that we consider of interest to those in the field.

The Second Studio Podcast: Interview with Denise Scott Brown

The Second Studio Podcast — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 03:30:00 +0000

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

Learning from Las Vegas: Revisited

Kaley Overstreet — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 06:30:00 +0000

Las Vegas, sometimes known as Sin City, is perhaps the most famous desert metropolis where people gamble, and indulge in entertainment, and other vices. Each year, the city is visited by hundreds of millions of tourists who come to see its flashing lights and round-the-clock nightlife. Las Vegas has garnered so much attention that even Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown sought to study its urbanism, concluding with their theories on duck and decorated shed buildings in the early 1970s. But 50 years later, Vegas is still a city that constantly reinvents its architectural identity.

Plans to Renovate the Sainsbury Wing and National Gallery in London Receive Approval by the City Council

Maria-Cristina Florian — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 06:30:00 +0000

The Westminister City Council adopted a resolution to grant planning permission to the National Gallery for a series of adaptations, including Selldorf Architects’ restoration proposal for the Sainsbury Wing, originally designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. The plans to remodel were revealed earlier this year as part of the NG200 Project to celebrate the National Gallery’s bicentennial in 2024. The first intervention proposal for the Sainsbury Wing was met with widespread criticism, which led to a revision of the plans, released in October this year.

Renovation Plans for Venturi Scott Brown’s National Gallery Wing Are Revised After Widespread Criticism

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 05:30:00 +0000

Selldorf Architects have released a revised version of the plans to remodel the National Gallery and the Sainsbury Wing, both classified as Grade-I-listed monuments. Sainsbury Wing is also the recipient of the 2019 AIA Twenty-five Year Award. The plans for the Sainsbury Wing, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and opened in 1991, have faced intense criticism, with former RIBA Journal editor Hugh Pearman calling the remodeling plans “unnecessarily destructive”. The plans to remodel were first revealed earlier this year as part of the NG200 Project to celebrate the National Gallery’s bicentennial in 2024. The project proposes the remodeling of the Sainsbury Wing’s front gates, ground-floor entrance sequence, lobby, and first-floor spaces.

The Architectural Legacy of Queen Elizabeth’s 70 Year Reign

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 07:30:00 +0000

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch, has passed away at Balmoral Castle, aged 96. Earlier this year, Her Majesty became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years since her ascension to the throne. During her coronation, the first ceremony of this type to be televised, newspapers and tv broadcasters talked about a “New Elizabethan Age” that would revive Britain from postwar gloom. Now, seven decades later, as the longest reign in British history has come to an end, people come together to honor The Queen and reflect upon her legacy in terms of culture, technology, and architecture.

When Novelty Follows Function: The Kitschy Designs of Duck Architecture

Kaley Overstreet — Fri, 21 May 2021 07:30:00 +0000

Design can sometimes be mundane- except when it’s novelty architecture. These buildings uniquely and identifiably break away from the abstract, metaphorical, and often monotonous buildings that have classified modern-day design. Instead of favoring the steel and glass skyscrapers that serve as landmarks in cities around the world, they aim to poke fun at architecture in a way that’s jovial, commercial, and perhaps slightly more functional and expressive. Unlike other buildings, they are the literal embodiment of a thing itself, putting its function widely on display instead of hiding it within four austere walls.

How the Star System and Sexism Have Erased the Contribution of Women Architects in Intimate-Creative Partnerships

Susanna Moreira — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 05:00:00 +0000

While women in architecture already face more obstacles than men in their careers, as proven by studies and research from across the globe, the disparities become even more obvious when it comes to partnerships involving both genders. In the history of the profession, there are many examples of office partnerships or collaborations that reveal the discrepancies in terms of recognition achieved by the work, reflected in awards, honors, citations, and salaries.

City Dreamers Documentary Highlights Four Women Architects Who Rethought the City

Christele Harrouk — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 07:30:00 +0000

City Dreamers is a documentary by filmmaker Joseph Hillel that underlines the ever-changing city of tomorrow and the life and work of 4 women architects who reconsidered the urban environment. Phyllis Lambert, Denise Scott Brown, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and Blanche Lemco van Ginkel are inspiring pioneers that observed and shaped the city of today and tomorrow.

The 10 Most Overlooked Women in Architecture History

Nicky Rackard — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 07:35:00 +0000

Looking back on architectural history, you could be forgiven for thinking that women were an invention of the 1950s, alongside spandex and power steering - but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Big names like Le Corbusier, Mies, Wright, and Kahn often had equally inspired female peers, but the rigid structure of society meant that their contributions tended to be overlooked.

Denise Scott Brown Receives the Lisbon Triennial-Millennium BCP-Award

Pedro Vada — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 07:30:00 +0000

Just over two months after the start of the 2019 edition of "The Poetics of Reason", the Lisbon Architecture Triennale and the Millennium BCP Foundation are pleased to announce the winner of the 5th edition of the Lisbon Triennial Millennium BCP Award.

Spotlight: Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown

Rory Stott — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Through their pioneering theory and provocative built work, husband and wife duo Robert Venturi (born June 25, 1925) and Denise Scott Brown (born October 3, 1931) were at the forefront of the postmodern movement, leading the charge in one of the most significant shifts in architecture of the 20th century by publishing seminal books such as Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (authored by Robert Venturi alone) and Learning from Las Vegas (co-authored by Venturi, Scott Brown and Steven Izenour).

Venturi Scott Brown's Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery London Receives AIA 25 Year Award

Katherine Allen — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 11:00:00 +0000

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected Venturi Scott Brown's Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery of London as the recipient of the 2019 AIA Twenty-five Year Award. Designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in an international competition, AIA commended the project for its ability to “...make its context better than it found it” - a citation borrowed from Venturi himself.

Denise Scott Brown's Photography from the 1950s and 60s Unveiled in New York and London Galleries

Niall Patrick Walsh — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 10:00:00 +0000

An exhibition has opened at New York’s Carriage Trade Gallery celebrating the photography of Denise Scott Brown, highlighting the significance of pop art in the American vernacular. The project was initiated by Scott Brown, and first exhibited in Venice in 2016, with the latest events in London and New York initiated by PLANE-SITE.

Robert Venturi and the Difficult Whole: How Architecture's Enfant Terrible Changed Design Forever

Mark Alan Hewitt — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 09:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on CommonEdge as "Robert Venturi and the Difficult Whole."