Center for Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

In this webinar, Eric Salitsky will present his 2018 Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant research, Exploring the Global Phenomenon of Multifaith Spaces. Most commonly found in airports, hospitals, and university campuses, multifaith spaces also exist in military bases, prisons, malls, stadiums, museums, and as stand-alone institutions. Salitsky traveled to over 50 of these spaces in New York, Boston, London, Manchester, Zurich, and Berlin to document the various ways that both architects and laypeople have attempted to solve the inherent issues involved in accommodating the prayer needs of various religions at once.

In this webinar, Amanda Aman, AIA, LEED AP BD+C will present her 2018 Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant research, Fragile Fields of the Arctic Circle Periphery. The perpetual global climate shift materializes within the Arctic Circle as a reaction to the pressures of petrochemical industrial output and unsustainable human practice. Arctic environments are among the first to experience the manifestations of this shift as the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the globe. As a result, natural systems, wildlife migrations, and patterns of habitation will be severely altered, in addition to the dependence of indigenous people groups on these for cultural preservation and physical survival.

The Center for Architecture is now accepting applications for the 2020 Arnold W. Brunner Grant. This grant is awarded to mid-career architects for advanced study in any area of architectural investigation that will contribute to the knowledge, teaching, or practice of the art and science of architecture. The proposed investigation is to result in a publicly available written work, design project, research paper, or other form of presentation to be offered at the Center for Architecture. Previous topics of research have ranged from the impact of American architects on Cuba’s historic built environment to the importance of public restrooms in creating greater social equity. Projects are judged based on their engagement with contemporary local and global architectural issues and the usefulness of the research’s product.

The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and the Center for Architecture have announced new and expanded programs for the ninth annual edition of Archtober, the official New York City Architecture and Design Month. The festival, now in its ninth year, brings together more than 80 partners throughout the city’s five boroughs to celebrate the importance of design and the built environment.

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AIA New York and the Center for Architecture have announced five practices as winners of the 2018 New Practices New York awards, founded to identify and promote the city’s emerging young architects. Established in 2006, the awards are given biennially to practices headquartered in New York and in operation for 10 or fewer years.

Under this year’s theme of Consequences, firms were asked to submit portfolios containing design ideas that promoted “the capacity of architectural practice to offer transformative value within the broader context of the city.”

Following the resignation of Rick Bell earlier this year, AIANY and The Center for Architecture have appointed Benjamin Prosky as Executive Director. Prosky will assume his new position in early 2016, after stepping down as Assistant Dean for Communications at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD).

“Ben brings a unique energy, intelligence, and experience to the executive director position,” said Carol Loewenson, incoming president of AIA New York and partner at Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, in a statement. “AIANY is poised for great change: more outreach, greater membership value, deeper connections to the academy, and a stronger role in actively impacting the design of our city. Ben is the right person to imagine the AIANY of the future. We are thrilled to have him on board to lead our organization.”

Learn how to create your own eye-catching photographs of the city’s built environment in this hands-on workshop with architectural photographer Matthew Carbone. An introductory discussion about techniques, relevant mobile phone apps and considerations of lighting and composition particular to on-site architectural photography will be followed by an outdoor shooting session in the iconic South Street Seaport neighborhood. Class size limited to allow for individual feedback and instruction.

Un/fair Use is an exhibition of research and proposals related to copying and copyright in architecture.

Appropriation is as much a part of architecture as the expectation of novelty, and so it is at the very core of the discipline. Architecture advances via comment, criticism, parody, and innovation, forms of appropriation that fall under the umbrella of fair use. But what about when appropriation is deemed unfair? Where and how are the lines drawn around permissible use? Un/fair Use probes that legal boundary.

How are contemporary architectural narratives created? And what are the various tools / media used to ‘tell the story’?

How is the said story tailored to a varying audience?

What story do journalists/editors/filmmakers like to tell about the architect? And the architecture? How does that profile shape our work, reach and influence?

What is architectural journalism for architects? What is it for the general public?

Are we in a crisis of architectural representation? What is the future of the publication and representation of architecture across various platforms?

Rafiq Azam is the principal of SHATOTTO architecture for green living, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He will introduce us to his work and city, which is also home to works by Louis Kahn. Azam’s “green” is not about global ratings or the current sustainability trend. It is his response to the sky, water, and vegetation that surround him and his city. There is an apparent simplicity in Azam’s work that disguises and belies a complex fabric revealing the wonders of the cosmos.

Opened to a full house, last year, at the Design Exchange in downtown Toronto, Considering the Quake: Seismic Design on the Edge, explores the elegant, and oftentimes, elusive intersection between the aesthetics of architectural form and the technicality of structural design, through the lens of earthquake engineering. Curated by Professor Ghyslaine McClure, P.Eng and founded/curated by Dr. Effie Bouras, of the McGill University Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, this exhibit emerged from their research on the resiliency of emergency shelters and civil protection buildings, such as schools and hospitals, in earthquake zones throughout the world.

Envisioned as a "science center" for design, the exhibition, which is tailored not only for the architecture and engineering communities, but an invested public as well, will feature full-sized seismic technology utilized in buildings, architectural and structural models, seismic testing videos, including clips from Tomas Koolhaas’ new documentary titled REM, and a 500N shake table from North American Wave Spectrum Science and Trade Inc.

Where does architecture and the automobile industry meet? Many architects, including Le Corbusier, have tried to understand how building construction can be more like car manufacturing, with mass-produced parts that can be easily assembled on site. Ford recently explored the idea at their Design with a Purpose: Built Tough panel discussion held at New York's Center for Architecture. Click here to read The New York Times' coverage of the discussion, and check out ArchDaily editor-in-chief's thoughts on cars and architecture here.

The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and the Center for Architecture have announced new and expanded programs for the third annual edition of Archtober, the official New York City Architecture and Design Month.

More than 50 participating groups, from the Guggenheim to the Museum of Modern Art have curated more than 150 programs, including exhibits, movies, talks, and walking tours. As Rick Bell, Executive Director of the AIA New York said today during the press preview: "There is something for everyone".

More information, including some highlights for the festival after the break.

The Center for Architecture + Design and the Seed Fund announced the winners of the Reimagine. Reconnect. Restore What if 280 came down?, a competition that explored the idea of removing San Francisco's 280 Freeway, north of 16th Street, in an effort to pedestrianize that portion of the city while generating funds for several regionally important transit projects. The open competition, which encouraged designers to submit urban design interventions, from public art to infrastructure, awarded $10,000 in prizes.

This is not the first time that San Francisco has demolished a freeway to successfully revitalize a neighborhood (remember the Embarcadero and the Hayes Valley?) and it certainly isn't a first for other American cities, either. In fact, demolishing old, ineffective and/or obstructive freeways has become a powerful vehicle for urban change in this country and the 280 Freeway Competition is just one example of that trend.

From Brooklyn to the Bronx, from San Antonio to Cincinnati, communities and organizations across the United States are tackling heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases with a dose of powerful medicine: active design. Organized by AIA New York, with the Center for Architecture, their groundbreaking 'FitNation' exhibition. brings together for the first time 33 projects in 15 states and the District of Columbia that showcase the ways design, policy, and grassroots strategies are promoting physical activity as part of daily life. The event began this week and concludes on August 8. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.

Last year, we spoke at a packed lecture at the Center for Architecture, along with Bjarke Ingels, the Morpholio team and moderator Ned Cramer; we were discussing the impact social media and technology have on our profession and the way in which we design.

And now, thanks to the AIANY Global Dialogues Committee, we are happy to invite you to a new event taking place at the Center for Architecture on May 2nd, 2013 at 6:30PM, where together with Mark Wigley (Dean Columbia GSAPP) we will address the present and future of architecture education. The lecture will be followed by a panel with our friends Carlo Aiello (eVolo), David Fano (CASE), Jill Fehrenbacher (Inhabitat), Toru Hasegawa (Morpholio), Tim Maly (Wired Magazine ) and Cliff Kuang (Fast Company / Co.Design).

More details and RSVP form here, more information after the break. See you on Thursday!

Opening today at the Center for Architecture in New York, the 'Low Rise High Density' exhibition examines a housing type celebrated in the 1960s and ‘70s, and what it means in the United States today. Co-sponsored by the Institute for Public Architecture with AIA New York, architectural drawings, photographs, and oral histories will be presented with project architects, tracing the typology over the last 50 years. The exhibition will be on view until June 29. More information after the break.