Aesthetics Alone Do Not Give Sacred Space Its Meaning
Oct 9, 2024 · In this light, it becomes clear that supplanting traditional forms of sacred space with architecture focused solely on aesthetics fails to fill the human need that calls for sacred space in the first place. The key to finding a new relevance for sacred space lies in architectural humility. Sacred space should not attempt to supplant ...
Maquettes in Architecture: The Forgotten Joys of Model-Making
Dec 22, 2020 · The instant physical exploration of ideas—with quick cutting and gluing of cardboard, paper, foamcore, and wood, spiced with plasticine clay, paint, or bits of clear plastic and metal—provided a primal joy that no screen can ever capture. Like a sculptor’s maquette, an architect’s model is simultaneously a search for and a test of ideas.
In Praise of 5-Over-1 Buildings - Common Edge
Mar 1, 2022 · Although it was originally published in 2019, this essay by Randy Nishimura, lightly updated, serves as a rebuttal of sorts to Duo Dickinson’s recent Common Edge piece,“ The Architectural Pandemic of the ‘Stick Frame Over Podium’ Building.”Dickinson likens the building type to a plague; Nishimura offers a contrarian’s perspective. A recent spate of …
Contemporary Architecture and the Modern City – Common Edge
Aug 27, 2024 · The idea was to provide ample light, air, and greenery for all residents. After World War II, much of the world embraced this idea of a “modern city” as a guide to transforming their urban landscapes. Urban renewal was to provide new housing, commercial spaces, and modern infrastructure—frequently meaning more and more space for cars.
Kate Wagner on McMansion Hell, Criticism, and Her Love of Cycling
Mar 8, 2021 · Such is the case for Kate Wagner, who broke the architectural internet in 2016 with the introduction of McMansion Hell, a sharp and hilarious skewering of the bloated American home, in all its garish and desperate striving. A year later, the real estate listing site Zillow served the then-23-year-old Wagner with a cease-and-desist letter ...
How Christopher Alexander Changed Architecture—and Much More
03.22.2022. By Duo Dickinson. Christopher Alexander, perhaps the single most effective polymath architect of his generation, has died at the age of 85. Through teaching, writing, building, inspiring technology, planning, and even delving into theology as well as pedagogy and aesthetic theory, Alexander created, over six decades of relentless ...
The Legacy of Christopher Alexander: Form Language, Pattern …
Jun 4, 2018 · A Form language consists of a set of definitions and vocabulary of building and design components that can be combined coherently. These comprise specific geometries, shape and size of pieces, particular materials, etc. To most people, this is what characterizes architectural “style.”. Evolved form languages always adapt to locality ...
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve: Burning Man “Changed Me Forever”
05.06.2020. By Trinity Simons. Hillary Schieve, the mayor of Reno, Nevada, often jokes that she went to her first Burning Man kicking and screaming. The event—which takes place in the Black Rock Desert, 100 miles north of the city—transformed her understanding of arts and culture, and of city-building, and she became a convert.
Juhani Pallasmaa: “Architecture is a Verb” - Common Edge
Jul 19, 2021 · Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa is the author of more than 300 essays in 30 languages as well as two dozen books. His landmark volume The Eyes of the Skin is one of the most-read texts in architecture schools worldwide. A former professor of architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology and former director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, his design work has received numerous ...
The Art of Architectural Storytelling, or How to Present a Building ...
Sep 5, 2017 · From day one in school, architect students are immersed in a patois of the Queen’s English, Latin tidbits, and made-up terms like “cinegrammatic,” “unsolid,” and “neo-ness.”. They learn to speak and write through osmosis. First-years emulate upperclassmen, who mimic faculty and invited speakers, who lecture, debate, and publish in ...