Issue 85. We know you know, but it bears repeating: We’ve got a new issue out and it’s bigger—literally—and better—subjectively—than ever. You should check it out. Start a subscription today.
“What even is time?” We’ve all heard or said this Internet-inflected expression at one point or another. Often it’s used as a joking admission that, by being so laser-focused on the task(s) at hand, we’ve loosened our grip on one of the fundamental ways people keep track of self and sanity. Or we question time’s ontology because “everything happens so much,” another Very Online phrase that hints at the opposite problem: a feeling of bewilderment brought on by a seemingly unending barrage of world historical events, to which the vast majority of us are just a captive audience.
Humans have invented myriad systems and tools to keep track of time, including, I would argue, architecture. Buildings wear entropy well, the observation of which locates us both in our present moment and allows us to mentally travel to the past. We can also time travel into the future through architectural imagination, building new structures in our minds that solve for and evolve past our contemporary capabilities, challenges, and aesthetics.
In this week’s edition of Skyline, our writers look at the past and the future simultaneously. They’re imagining speculative futures utopian and bleak with architects like Winka Dubbeldam and Rania Ghosn. They’re interrogating the selective focus on the cold beauty of industry through photographs by Bernd and Hilla Becher, or are deconstructing set-in-stone narratives about the deep past with architects who pursue design through unconventional means, like Dima Srouji. If you’re looking for hard, contemporary facts about architecture, scroll down to our In The News section. Otherwise, enjoy the ride.
DISPATCHES
9/22: On the Whole
NEW HAVEN — “We love how time changes architecture,” said architect BRIGITTE SHIM during a lecture at the Yale School of Architecture, where she also teaches. Projected overhead were photos of the Garden Pavilion and Reflecting Pool in Toronto’s Don Valley she designed with her partner, A. HOWARD SUTCLIFFE. Since founding the small studio in the early 1990s, the pair has earned a well-deserved reputation for elaborating materials at a close range. Still, they aren’t aloof to the danger of fetishizing the detail: as Shim suggested, to focus on a particular moment, however beautiful, may lead one to miss the bigger picture. Keeping with the theme, she moved spritely from building to building, never lingering long on any one image. There were several private homes, as well as a residence for nuns, plus reflections on the “laneway” housing craze in Toronto, prompted, in part, by Shim and Sutcliffe’s own 1993 laneway dwelling. Their influence on Canadian design is as significant as it is easy to miss. Unless, of course, one pulls back to take a view of the whole. —Can Vu Bui
9/23: Competing Natures
CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE — “The idea behind making something super technologically smart is that it will become more human and organic,” said Archi-Tectonics founder WINKA DUBBELDAM at a lecture she gave as part of the Center for Architecture’s Cocktails and Conversations series. In detailing projects for breathing buildings, moving facades, and passive solar systems, Dubbeldam expounded on her theory for “another kind of nature.” Like the martini we had in hand—flavored with jenever and seaweed and punctuated by lotus root and olive—the talk was strong at the start before mellowing to a light finish. After finishing her slides, Dubbeldam was joined on stage by her friend, Morphosis founding partner THOM MAYNE, for some playful banter and constructive criticism. An audience question about wetlands, green cover, and the overall sustainability factor related to Archi-Tectonics’ Proto Park for this year’s Asian Games prompted an especially memorable exchange. “That two centimeters of earth,” she said, pointing to the roof garden of the park’s pedestrian mall, “is important for us.” Mayne agreed: “That chunk is the most interesting part.” —Ekam Singh
9/24: Clear as Glass
LONDON (via ZOOM) — “Archeology is the anchor for Zionist ideology,” Palestinian architect and Royal College of Art tutor DIMA SROUJI said in a talk for Loudreaders, a virtual platform hosted by WAI Think Tank. In addition to filmmaking and archeological research, Srouji has taken an avid interest in glassblowing, which is thought to have developed between 27 BC and 14 AD in historically Palestinian territory (though earlier examples have been found on the Indian subcontinent). “Revisiting Palestinian practices like glassblowing allows for a moment of return,” she said, while acknowledging its indeterminate status vis-à-vis architecture. “It’s very hard for me to articulate why this is architecture, but I’m very much convinced that’s what I do.” —Daniel-Jonas Roche
9/28: SOS Earth
HOUSTON (via ZOOM) — In case it was lost on anyone, the title of RANIA GHOSN’s talk at Rice University, “& Other Geostories,” was a play on the fast-fashion brand, & Other Stories. The pun also alluded to the speculative design manifesto that Ghosn and her partner, El Hadi Jazairy, developed as part of their practice, DESIGN EARTH. The third edition of Geostories adds new material about oil extraction, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification, waste management, and space debris. Across images and words, Ghosn and Jazairy elucidate the complexity and physical enormity of earth systems in which humans recklessly, yet also necessarily, intervene. One of the most poignant projects Ghosn shared was Cosmorama, a collection of fictional stories that she said interrogate the “technological triumphalism and frontier narratives of the Space Age.” For example, “Planetary Ark” tells of a vessel that would shepherd endangered species to the International Space station, where their evolution would be assisted by generations of scientists with the eventual goal to return them to an anthropogenically altered earth in one thousand years’ time. “Climate change lives beyond the shadow of the stories that our firm tells,” Ghosn said. “Stories and images matter for the Earth.” —Ronak Gandhi
9/29: More Space Than Form
NOMAD — On Thursday, MARLON BLACKWELL, MARY MISS, and GUY NORDENSON gathered at Rizzoli’s to celebrate Blackwell’s recently published monograph, Radical Practice. The 500-page tome is a dense collection of images and essays that reflect on an architectural career dedicated to making capital-A architecture in unlikely places or going about architecture in unlikely ways. There are projects like Saint Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Church, which is partially constructed from a used satellite dish, and the Shelby Farms Visitor Center, which deploys massive exterior fans to become equal parts porch and building. Blackwell’s design choices are not taken lightly, but also not taken too seriously either. The effect is a relationship to projects and their context that’s deeply reverent but also playful. Speaking to moderator MATT SHAW, Blackwell summed up his office’s relationship to uncanniness and architecture: “There’s more surreal in the real than there is real in the surreal.” Got it. —Charles Weak
NYRA AT THE MUSEUM
The Met has finally given renowned photographer-couple Bernd and Hilla Becher the fully researched and meticulously arranged posthumous exhibition they deserve (scheduled to close November 6). The Becherses’ iconic portraits of industrial structures are stunning in toned blacks, grays and whites, but any architect will see that the images read as layered compositions, almost like drawings. Hilla in particular used her Abwicklung technique of documenting a subject in six photos to better communicate its function.
While I was enthralled to see my favorite grid of gas holders, experiencing the Becherses’ site map-type landscape photographs was the most arresting moment in the show. It’s easy for architects and design lovers to fetishize form, but the landscape outlook reveals oppressive systems in all their sinister design and intricacy. For instance, the site photography discloses the astounding proximity of workers’ housing to chimneys and chemical labyrinths, and wall text alludes to the Becherses’ interviews with laborers, amounting to a truer nature of industrial work. At Zeche Concordia, a mine in Oberhausen, Germany, that gets a full section of the show, we’re told, that “during World War II, when staff were conscripted, the mine depended on the forced labor of Soviet prisoners.”
Laborers were simultaneously anonymous industrial machines, soldiers, and prisoners in the industrial complex that the Bechers were committed to documenting. Their photography is so much more than a collection of well-toned objects, if you keep this uncomfortable truth front of mind. —Emily Conklin
EYES ON SKYLINE
In SKYLINE 84, readers poured over Peggy Deamer’s astute diagnosis of architecture education’s fundamental flaws, as evidenced by three recent departures of prominent female deans.
IN THE NEWS
This week, some wrongs are righted in architectural education, but the overall situation remains precarious:
…five months after the fallout of SCI-Arc’s Basecamp, the school announces policy changes and the resignations of Tom Wiscombe and Marikka Trotter…
… an Architects’ Journal’s poll on the cost of architecture education reveals grim (but not unfamiliar) reality…
New York City continues to be the poster child of absurdity in the built environment:
…in the city’s out of control housing market, developers are building more luxury square footage while reducing the overall housing supply…
…meanwhile, the municipal government is contemplating a $52 billion proposal to build 12 sea barriers to protect residents who can’t flee to luxury safe-houses up in the sky…
While abroad, a triennial and a crisis both illustrate how complicated housing is worldwide:
…Justin Trudeau’s plan to solve Canada’s housing affordability crisis is a “drop in the bucket,” Jacobin writes…
…the recently opened 2022 Oslo Architecture Triennale centers on neighborhood-building, offers workshops. and community engagement…
Esteemed architects demand change:
…architect Norman Foster prepares to launch UN Sustainability Declaration, urges others in the field to sign…
…after inadequate response from the multinational software corporation, architecture practices renew a 2020 open letter to Autodesk…
And some others won awards:
…six winners were announced last week for the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
—Sebastián López Cardozo
DATELINE
With the concurrent launch of Archtober and the Architecture & Design Film Festival, on top of regular events, there is a lot going on next week. In an attempt to keep the following list short, we’re abbreviated film with multiple screening days at the A&DFF with an asterisk. And, as always, visit our Events page for the full rundown.
Friday, 9/30
Radical Pedagogies: Book Launch and Workshop
1:00 pm | Barnard College Center for Engaged Pedagogy
Helene Binet In Conversation with Space
5:00 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
AIAS Lecture Series with Mark Foster Gage
6:00 pm | AIAS Pratt
*Maija Isola — Master of Color and Form
6:15 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
*Robin Hood Gardens
6:30 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
*Builders, Housewives, and the Construction
6:45 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
*Grethe Meyer — The Danish Porcelain Queen
8:45 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
*Under Tomorrow’s Sky
9:00 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
*A World to Shape
9:15 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
Saturday, 10/1
Industrial Waterway Tour to Freshkill Ponds
9:45 am | Archtober
Building of the Day Tour: The Brooklyn Tower with SHoP
11:00 am | Archtober
Engage: Deep Listening for Artists and Architects with Jeff Kasper
1:00 pm | Archtober
Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey with Katie Yamasaki
1:00 pm | Archtober
Van Alen Block Party
1:00 pm | Val Alen Institute
*Alice Street
1:45 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
*Beyond the Life of Forms
2:15 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
Richard Henriquez: Building Stories & Vladimir Kagan: A Life of Design
2:45 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
Building of the Day: New York Public Library Van Cortlandt Branch with Andrew Berman Architect
3:00 pm | Archtober
*Committee of Six & Segregated by Design
4:30 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
*Building Bastille! The Tangled and Improbable Story of the Opera Bastille
7:00 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
GES-2
9:15 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
Sunday, 10/2
11:00 am | Archtober
Bawa’s Garden
2:00 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
Concrete Landscape
415 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
Fashion Reimagined
7:00 pm | Cinepolis Cinemas, Architecture & Design Film Festival New York 2022
Monday, 10/3
Building of the Day: Battery Maritime Building with Marvel Architects
12:00 pm | Archtober
Planning for Tomorrow with Bruno Moser
12:30 pm | MIT
Co-op Urbanism: A Co-operative Response to Common Myths of Housing Production with Sascha Delz
12:30 pm | Harvard GSD
Verify in Field with J. Meejin Yoon, Eric Höweler
6:00 pm | UT Austin School of Architecture
New Times, Better Places, Stronger Communities with Helle Søholt
6:30 pm | Columbia GSAPP
System of Novelties with Dawn Finley, Mark Wamble
6:30 pm | Rice University School of Architecture
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall with Alexandra Lange
6:30 pm | Archtober
Tuesday, 10/4
Building of the Day: SUMMIT One Vanderbilt with Snøhetta
11:00 am | Archtober
Figments of the Architectural Imagination with Todd Gannon, Lydia Kallipoliti, Michael Young
12:00 pm | Cooper Union School of Architecture
1:15 pm | Columbia GSAPP
Designing Schools in the Post-Covid World
6:00 pm | Archtober
Wednesday, 10/5
Adapting for Climate Change in Open Space Design with Gary Sorge
4:00 pm | Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Thursday, 10/6
12:00 pm | Archtober
Plaque Unveiling: Former East Village Residence of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs
5:30 pm | Archtober
The Natural and Built Environments of the US-Mexico Border with C.J. Alvarez
6:00 pm | City College of New York Spitzer School of Architecture
Ken Smith Workshop with Ken Smith, Sylvia Laudien-Meo
6:00 pm | Municipal Art Society of New York
Memory Foundations with Daniel Libeskind
6:30 pm | Yale University School of Architecture
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Have a take of global importance to share with NYRA? Write us a letter!
NYRA is a team effort. Our Editor is Samuel Medina, our Deputy Editor is Marianela D’Aprile, and our Editors-at-Large are Carolyn Bailey, Phillip Denny, and Alex Klimoski. Our Publisher is Nicolas Kemper.
To pitch us an article or ask us a question, write to us at: editor@nyra.nyc.
For their support, we would like to thank the Graham Foundation and our issue sponsors, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Thomas Phifer.
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