Archinect - News

Renée Gailhoustet takes home the 2022 Royal Academy Architecture Prize

2022-05-31T12:42:00-04:00

Renée Gailhoustet has been named the winner of this year’s Royal Academy of Arts Architecture Prize in recognition of her work surrounding urban planning and social housing in her native country of France.

The jury commended Gailhoustet for her “strong social commitment that brings together generosity, beauty, ecology, and inclusivity.” The 92-year-old’s breadth of significant works spans from early projects such as the master plan of Ivry-sur-Seine, which includes the Cité Spinoza housing complex completed in 1972, to the La Maladrerie development in Aubervilliers, and, finally, the Le Liégat, where the architect has resided since its completion in 1977.

Ivry-sur-Seine. Image: © Marc Pataut

“By using innovative geometries and mixing uses in her buildings, Gailhoustet has created a compelling argument for blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior, and, collective and individual,” part of the jury statement explains.

Within the long and storied history of social housing i...

A look at visionary architect Georgia Louise Harris Brown, the first female African-American architecture graduate

2018-02-07T20:50:00-05:00

Pioneering African-American architect Georgia Louise Harris Brown had a knack for seeking out the most fertile architecture scenes in the world during her long career. She practiced in Chicago during Mies van der Rohe’s prime and, from there, moved to Brazil, where a singular modernist language was being created for Brasilia, the most ambitious planned capital of the 20th century.

Georgia Louise Harris Brown has been featured as part of Redshift's Respect series, focusing on architect visionaries. Brown was the first African-American women to graduate with an architecture degree, and the second professionally licensed African-American female architect in the nation. Beverly Loraine Greene was the first, and a role model to Brown.

She studied under Mies at his Illinois Institute of Technology and was heavily influenced by his modernist style. Her first job in Chicago was with Kenneth Roderick O'Neal, an African-American architect and structural engineer who also studied with Mies.

Working with Frank J. Kornacker Associates by 1949, Brown worked on several key projects such as 860–880 Lake Shore Drive. This high-rise was influential in its minimalist grid of steel and glass and constructed with Brown's structural calculations.

Eventually moving to Brazil, Brown became professionally licensed in 1970 leading many firms for over the next twenty years. Read mor...

Josef Frank’s Modernist Vision: "Accidentism"

2018-02-06T18:50:00-05:00

“Away with universal styles,” wrote Josef Frank. “Away with the idea of equating art and industry, away with the whole system that has become popular under the name of functionalism. Modernism," he was fond of saying, "is that which gives us complete freedom."

More than an architect and designer, Josef Frank was an “intellectual, who built ideas.” Christopher Long introduces Frank's 1958 essay, "Accidentism" — a humanist manifesto denouncing the banality of orthodox modernism and calling for a new pluralism in design. As Long explains, "the essay reads as a bracing critique of modern architecture, all the more notable for having been written by a prominent modernist" — the ultimate statement of his long-standing disquiet with the tenets of the mainstream movement.

The article is the latest installment of our Future Archive series, which republishes significant 20th-century writings on design, selected and introduced by leading scholars.

Win a copy of "Archibet" by Federico Babina!

2014-12-26T13:00:00-05:00

Architect and graphic designer Federico Babina has become popular for his whimsical illustration series that fuse together his love for architecture and drawing. This includes his "Archibet" series, where famous modernist and contemporary architects like Alvar Aalto, Luis Barragán, Herzog de Meuron, Quincy Jones, Mies van der Rohe, and Zaha Hadid are rendered as each letter of the alphabet in their signature architectural styles. Starting on January 20, Archibet will be widely available as a binded collection of postcards through Laurence King Publishing.

But guess what, five Archinectors can get their hands on a copy of Archibet before it's out in stores.

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY: First, have a look at the entire Archibet series here. Then in the comment section below, say which architect and for what letter that you would include in the Archibet.

Giveaway ends January 2, 2015. Five winners will be selected at random. Good luck!

Massimo Vignelli, acclaimed modernist architect and graphic designer, dies at 83

2014-05-27T14:14:00-04:00

Massimo Vignelli, the award-winning designer whose influential signature minimalist style balanced architecture and graphic design in the later half of the 20th century, has died at the age of 83 after a long-term illness.

Born in Milan on Jan. 10, 1931 and inspired by Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, Vignelli began his career in architecture working as a draftsman when he was 16. He went on to study art and architecture in Milan and Venice, and came to the U.S. through academic fellowships between 1957-1960. He met his wife Lella Vignelli while studying in Venice and in 1960, they established the Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan.

After Vignelli formed renowned design firm Unimark International with six other designers in Chicago, where they created New York's subway signs and helped shape corporate identities through graphic design, he and Lella co-founded Vignelli Associates -- their own architecture firm -- in 1971.

Massimo Vignelli communicated architectu...