Archinect Sessions (architecture)
Make it Rain

This week on the podcast, Julia Ingalls joins us to discuss the byzantine considerations behind how architects charge for work, and shares some helpful guidelines from her recent piece about how residential architecture fee rates are determined.

We also dip into the recent $3M lawsuit against Architecture for Humanity for allegedly misusing restricted funds. After suddenly going bankrupt last year, many of AFH's volunteer cells have continued operating, and an offshoot organization, Open Architecture Collaborative, officially launched this past March. The lawsuit against AFH's founders could shed light into why the lauded nonprofit seemed to shutter so suddenly.

This episode of Archinect Sessions is sponsored by AIA Advantage Partner, BQE Software, and the makers of ArchiOffice. ArchiOffice is the only Office and Project Management Software built with the needs of architects in mind. It will help you manage people and projects, while you focus on designing great architecture. Our podcast listeners can get a fully functional 15-day trial of ArchiOffice at www.bqe.com/Archinect.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-72.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 12:48pm PDT

Private Session

Wrapping up our special editorial theme for June 2016, Privacy, Archinect writers Julia Ingalls and Nicholas Korody join us on the podcast this week to discuss two of their recent features—Julia's piece on banking security with input from a reformed robber, and Nicholas' interview with the architecture firm that moonlights as a government whistleblower, posting hundreds of secret documents online.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-71.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 10:51am PDT

A Bit of Nervousness

Last Thursday, Great Britain voted to leave the European Union, with a margin of 52% to 48%. The result was a huge surprise—especially for those in creative industries like architecture, many of whom publicly supported the Remain campaign. While no official exit strategy is yet in place, within hours of the 'Brexit' vote becoming clear, the British pound dropped 10% in value against the US dollar (the lowest it's been since the 1980s). Prime Minister David Cameron resigned shortly after, and many British architects are wondering what the hell will happen now.

Speaking from his position as Principal Lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture, Rob Hyde joined us on the podcast this week to talk about the mood in the UK post-Brexit, and how architects are carrying on.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-70.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 10:44am PDT

Queer Space, After Pulse

In light of the recent killing of 49 people at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando known to many as a center for Queer and Latinx culture, our focus for this week’s podcast is the role and significance of queer spaces in creating community and culture.

We wanted to use this time to encourage constructive discussion of why recognizing, and preserving (in some way), these 'third spaces' is so important. Not just for those who identify as queer or the Latinx community, but for creating diverse, welcoming urban spaces for all.

We’re joined by two guests, Susan Surface: a queer designer, curator, organizer, and the program director at Design in Public in Seattle, and James Rojas: an urban planner trained at MIT and specializing in cultural landscapes, who has written extensively about Latino urbanism.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-69.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 11:43am PDT

Stepping Back

This week, we’re taking a moment to catch-up with what’s happened on Archinect lately, and share some endorsements—we discuss our latest interview with Snøhetta, our ongoing coverage of the Venice Biennale, student work on refugee camps, and more.

Next week, in light of the shooting death of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, we plan to discuss the significance of accessible queer spaces, for all members of a city community.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-68.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 12:42pm PDT

Twists and Turns

This year's winning Serpentine Pavilion, designed by BIG, came with an architectural posse—for the first time in the Serpentine Pavilion's history, the annual competition also featured four "Summer Houses" designed by other international architects. The pavilion and summer houses open to the public tomorrow on the Serpentine Galleries' lawn in London's Royal Kensington Gardens, and we discuss our initial take on their at once surprising and familiar elements.

Get briefed on the pavilion and the summer houses with Robert Urquhart's coverage here.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-67.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 12:50pm PDT

Reporting from the Front of 'Reporting from the Front'

Andrea Dietz spent four days in Venice reporting on the Biennale's opening for us, and brought back her reflections on the hallowed event—in all its chaotic, problematic, inspiring, messy glory—to discuss with us on the podcast. Amidst the fray, one thing came out clearly: the map is not the territory.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-66.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 12:48pm PDT

Valorizing the Normal

Donna, Ken and Fred all converged in the meatspace that was the AIA National Convention last week in Philadelphia – to explore the massive Expo floor, visit local architecture, vote on resolutions and oh yes, those keynotes (!) from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Neri Oxman and Rem Koolhaas. Spoiler alert: Rem's was the most boring.

For more information about the resolutions up for debate at the convention, check out our episode with Gregory Walker covering unpaid internships and WTC-truthers.

And don't forget to check out our ongoing coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale – we collaborated with the Taubman students setting up the US Pavilion, have a bunch of interviews with curators in the Features, and will soon be publishing dispatches from Venice to the News.

Shownotes:

Fred Scharmen's work with outer space for The Working Group on Adaptive Systems

LMN Architects in Seattle named AIA's 2016 firm of the year

Architecture Lobby's collaboration with Slought on (Re)Working Architecture

Neri Oxman’s 'Qamar' wearable for extraterrestrial environments

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-65.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 3:15pm PDT

Due Protest

Since North Carolina passed the controversial bill known as HB-2 at the end of March—requiring transgender people to use bathrooms that coincide with the sex listed on their birth certificate, and forbidding city or county legislatures from passing counter-measures that protect against LGBT discrimination—the state has lost an estimated $40 million in business investment, and researchers project that total annual costs due to the bill could tally $5 billion. On May 9, the US Department of Justice sued North Carolina, stating that the law violated the Civil Rights Act, among others. North Carolina filed two lawsuits the same day to defend the measure.

Among the many other performers and businesses that have divested from North Carolina in protest of the law, AIA's South Atlantic Region (including Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina) announced on April 25 that it would no longer hold its September conference in Wilmington. You can read their statement here.

Former AIA Georgia President Gregory Walker, a long-time 'Nector and principal at Houser Walker Architects, joins us to discuss his chapter's decision. And as AIA National is just around the corner, we also discuss AIA Georgia's resolution16-2 to quell unpaid internships.

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-64.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 12:32pm PDT

Brute Force

This week on the podcast, Donna, Ken and Amelia discuss the uncertain future of downtown Atlanta's brutalist Public Library (the last building Marcel Breuer designed), how Shigeru Ban's relief efforts in Ecuador relate to his celebrity, and the emergence of a heavy-hitting lobbyist group for driverless cars in the US.

 

Shownotes:

News pieces discussed in this show:

The campaign to save Marcel Breuer's Grosse Central Pointe Library, started on Archinect

Venice Biennale director Alejandro Aravena: "Our challenge must be to go beyond architecture."

Direct download: Archinect-Sessions-63.mp3
Category:architecture -- posted at: 11:25am PDT