Shanghai 2010 World Expo

I recently asked Ian Volner to comment on the purpose and implications of the upcoming Shanghai 2010 World Expo. Ian Volner is a writer, critic, and publicist living in Manhattan. A regular contributor to Architectural Record and Bookforum among other journals, he’s presently at work on a book about planning and public housing in 1960s […]

The Future of Architectural Criticism

Australian Design Review (ADR) recently asked me to comment on how the Internet has affected design journalism, and what the future might hold for architectural criticism. You can check out the full article here, or pick up the April/May issue of Architectural Review Australia.

Can blogs change the way we understand and produce Architecture?

Plan magazine is an architecture and interior design magazine straight out of Ireland and the UK.. In this month’s issue, they put a question out to design bloggers asking why they think blogs could change the way we understand and produce Architecture. The following design bloggers were featured in the article: ‘The Pro’ – John […]

Architecture’s Challenge

In a rapidly growing urban world, slums and informal settlements provide shelter for a sixth of the planet’s population and unless effective action is taken they are likely to become the most common form of dwelling on earth by 2030. Parallel to this lies another inconvenient truth that architecture as a profession is affecting no […]

‘Soundscrapers’ – Designing with Sound

This post was written by Nick Sowers. Nick is practicing the construction of space with sound and 2x4s in the SF Bay area. He is finishing an M.Arch at UC Berkeley this May after a year of traveling around the world studying militarized landscapes, bunkers, US bases, memorials, and more. Visit his blog I first […]

Architecture’s role in future lifestyles

indesignlive.com recently asked me in what way i thought Architecture can respond to future lifestyles? My response was underpinned by the concept that we need to support the profession as a broader and more experimental industry. If we do so, we can begin to define our understanding of Architecture not as an isolated building or […]

New Urban Economies: Architecture beyond buildings

For many decades entomologists studied insects in laboratories to understand everything about them. At some point over the course of the 20th Century, they reached a new level of understanding when they studied how individual species contributed towards a much larger eco system. Take ants for example. Ants not only grow and harvest their own food, they also safely handle material waste (including waste from other species), create their own medicines and disinfectants; in addition to constructing their own living environments from recycled material. They do all this, whilst maintaining soil and nurturing the eco system that they inhabit.

What If we could effectively design our own environments so that they matched the efficiency of the natural world? This arguably is the big challenge for design over the next fifty years.

Anarchy and the Use of Disorder: A Sydney Perspective

The music which resonates to my core is primarily based around ideals of anarchy. When i envisage the perfect city I imagine strong provisions for individuality, self discovery and social diversity. However in contrast, I typify the modern environment as one which provides comfortable, functional, unambiguous and un-challenging perceptions of self and society. It is upon […]