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Architecture and Communication: Dissemination, Curators and Architecture News

In 1999, Birgit Lohmann and Massimo Mini co-founded designboom, self-proclaimed as the "first online architecture and design magazine." Seven years later, Facebook transitioned from Ivy League universities to massive audiences, while the first tweet was posted on formerly-known Twitter. Sixteen years have passed since these milestones.

While 16 years may be a short period in architecture, digital media and social networks are far from being considered emergent in the history of the internet. In fact, they form the core of the current Web 2.0 model, characterized by a dual interaction between content producers and consumers: sharing, liking, remixing, and reposting.

Indeed, the speed and magnitude of the transformations that digital media have undergone, and in turn, driven, provide the opportunity to begin documenting the history of the digital era and its impact on architecture.

7 Alternative, Interdisciplinary Graduate Courses for Architects

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The Harvard Graduate School of Design offers a "Master in Design Engineering (MDE)" in conjunction with the university's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Image © Flickr user peterhess licensed under CC BY 2.0

As final juries draw to a close, graduating architecture students are left with a crucial decision to make. While some might take a plunge into the scary real world looking to gain professional experience, others might choose to further reinforce their architecture education and skill set. Of the latter, most enroll in an MArch program, or take well-trodden paths into urban design and planning, landscape architecture, historic preservation, or theory and criticism. But in an increasingly complex world faced with myriad problems, what about those graduate architects looking to bolster their education in other related disciplines that will give them a more unique perspective on design problems? Here, we shortlist seven alternative, interdisciplinary graduate programs offered by architecture schools worldwide.

How to Get a Job in Architecture Without Any Experience

I believe one of the biggest problems recently graduated architects are encountering is their lack of professional experience. That’s totally normal. Without knowing what to do, finding employment in architecture can be very costly, both financially and time wise.  

Personally, I started my professional career with some internships where I saw how an architecture project in the street worked: the paperwork that’s involved, the invoices, the budgets, the smell of the ink from the plans in the office, how the models feel under your fingers.

Honestly, you have no idea how open other architects are to sharing their knowledge and making room for the new generations that come after. It makes sense because in a way they see themselves in the new generation, as they were a few years ago. 

6 Reasons Cities Are Located Where They Are

Frank Lloyd Wright once described cities as both ‘our glory and our menace’. With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, architects are becoming increasingly interested in their origins. Many fields of historical, geographical, and spatial research are devoted to exploring the evolution of cities, revealing a set of similarities across the globe. In a recent video, Wendover Productions described a common set of characteristics linking some of our largest cities, six of which we have outlined below.

Taking the six factors below into account, where is the perfect ‘world city’? Watch the video after the break:

Call for Entries: COCA.17 MediActions (Deadline Extended)

Architecture is no longer just a product of design and construction but also a vehicle of a social action. Communication and mediation are key to this process. The role of architects has to do more with interdisciplinary teamwork than with authorship.

Being an Architect: Then Versus Now

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© Sharon Lam

Architecture, as a profession and discipline, has come a long way since Vitruvius. It continues to evolve alongside culture and technology, reflecting new developments and shifting values in society. Some changes are conscious and originate within the field of architecture itself, made as acts of disciplinary or professional progress; others changes are uncontrollable, arising from architecture's role in the wider world that is also changing. Below are just some of the changes that have taken place in recent decades:

The Blog As A Museum: Meganom Makes its Online Exhibition Debut with Thngs

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Courtesy of Thngs Co.

Our experience of information is changing. We now consume more and more information digitally, with much of this being non-textual. Videos, photos and GIFs have become commonplace, with technology allowing these mediums to be as easily shareable as text. This gives way to another trend: the increase in the number and accessibility of online platforms. Not only is more information being digitized, but more dynamic ways of digitization are being developed; multimedia articles and online exhibitions, for example, hope to provide a more engaging way of sharing information.

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#donotsettle Shows Us 6 Ways Visiting Buildings is Different to Viewing Them in the Media

New from the Belgian-Indonesian vlogging architect duo #donotsettle comes “6 Things You Don't See From Architecture Media (Until You Visit Them).” Known for their user-oriented architecture videos, in this video they present something slightly different to the usual, using a quick tour across several international cities to visit buildings by the likes of Herzog & de Meuron, Unstudio and OMA to demonstrate to viewers all of the experiential aspects of architecture that are often lacking in architecture media.

Ulterior Motives: OMA/AMO's Reinier de Graaf on "Research," Europe and the 2014 Venice Biennale

The following interview with Reinier De Graaf was first published by Volume Magazine in their 48th issue, The Research Turn. You can read the Editorial of this issue, Research Horizons, here.

Architectural practice requires a degree of intimacy and insight into complex sets of forces. While building is architecture’s bread and butter, it’s not always the best format to make a statement. It’s sometimes not even the most appropriate language to respond to a brief. Volume spoke with Reinier de Graaf of OMA/AMO about how research and media can become a vessel for political agendas.

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P.O.P. [Published on Paper] A Talk of Slow Architecture Media

why?
Today we are in the midst of a paradox: although fast, web-based media seems to threaten the very existence of slow architecture media, the amount of p.o.p. magazines has increased in the last few years. Furthermore, and discarding arguments about fast consumption of information, some editorial projects aimed at a slow and attentive audience have managed to succeed in the middle of a huge flow of information. It seems that once the novelty of fast media has decreased, p.o.p. architecture magazines have regained the space they once had. However, are they the same kind of magazines we once knew? How can we explain the fact that an old format may stay alive against all odds? Is it stubbornness, nostalgia, or is it something else? The reasons behind this paradox are what we would like to discuss and explore in this session.

Monocle 24 Investigate What it Takes to Cover Architecture and Design

This edition of Section D, Monocle 24's weekly review of design, architecture and craft turns its editorial gaze back to their "own turf" to consider ways in which publications cover design and architecture, both in print and online. The episode asks whether "traditional magazines are as influential as they used to be," and whether or not "clicks and online-only articles can actually pay the bills?" In search of answers, Monocle's Henry-Rees Sheridan talks to ArchDaily's co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, David Basulto, along with European Editor-at-Large James Taylor-Foster, about the origins of the platform – and more.

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