Eventos: The Latest Architecture and News

The University of Toronto’s Responsive Architecture at Daniels (RAD) will showcase robots that build architecture May 27th thru 30th. The RAD Workshop: Archibots will investigate the potential for robots to build (or destroy) environments.

This coming Monday, April 25th the Urban Design Forum presents the opportunity to hear discussion about the stalled Civic Square development and other “interim use” sites in downtown Seattle. Sean Canady from GGLO, Robert Smith from Foster + Partners and City of Seattle representatives will be present. The Seattle Civic Square project, which completes the final phase of a ten-year civic masterplan, provides a vital new focus for Seattle’s civic life, reinvigorating the south downtown area for the whole city’s benefit.

The John Hancock Tower Boston, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects, will receive the AIA 2011 Twenty-five Year Award at the annual convention next month. To mark the occasion, Henry N. Cobb, FAIA, Founding Partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects, will discuss the history of the project and its influence on subsequent tall buildings designed by his firm. Organized by the Center for Architecture the discussion will be this coming Monday, April 25th and is free to AIA members.

The internationally touring exhibit ‘Struggling Cities’ focuses on the proposals of urbanization by Japanese architects in the 1960s including:

The Netherlands Architecture Institute recently shared their spring lecture series with us. The program will focus its events around one of its key themes, Time, and its interrelationship with architecture.

This year’s ACADIA 2011 Annual Conference, with the support of FLATCUT_, seeks proposals for innovative geometric forms that push the limits of design through the exploration of integrative material strategies for digitally fabricated assemblies. The competition hopes to address the questions that parametric design models are pose in terms of material practice: How does parametric design engage changes scale? How does the selection, tooling, and deployment of material shape the physical environment? How do inventive material pairings work positively and cohesively to produce new forms of assembly and environmental response? How do designers begin to embed parameters that engage concepts of sustainability, augmented performance and material flexibility?

Rem Koolhaas will provide the Keynote Address for the upcoming Festival of Ideas for a New City on Wednesday May 4th at 7:00pm held at the Rosenthal Pavilion at the Kimmel Center. Tickets are currently available for purchase.

Today is the start of National Architecture Week in the States. From coast to coast the week will be filled with a lot of exciting events for professionals, students and the the public. The AIA is utilizing Foursquare (you can even earn Foursquare points for visiting design projects in your community) along with Facebook and Twitter where daily prizes will be given away for tweeting about events.

Held in honor of Rosemarie Haag Bletter on the occasion of her retirement from the CUNY Graduate Center Ph.D. Program in Art History, the symposium will feature modern and contemporary architecture at the CUNY Graduat Center.

The symposium will be on April 29th from 12-4pm, speakers for this event include: Poyin AuYeung, Mary Beth Betts, Barry Bergdoll, Rosemarie Bletter, Larry Busbea, Noah Chasin, Gabrielle Esperdy, Deborah Lewittes, Kevin Murphy, Jeannette Redensek, Claire Zimmerman.  A reception will follow, and reservations are not necessary but space is limited. For more information email: rhb.symposium@gmail.com

Further outline of the days events and speaker topics following the break.

Studio Mode/modeLab is pleased to announce the upcoming Material Matters Workshop in New York City. During the weekend of May 14-16, 2011, the workshop will focus on parametric design to fabrication strategies and iterative development of prototypes on a 3-Axis CNC Mill.

This evening Northeastern University will be hosting Shohei Shigematsu of OMA New York. Shigematsu has acted as lead architect for many projects in various phases including the Whitney Museum Extension in New York. The lecture begins at 6pm and will focus on OMA’s recent work.

The conference is organized by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Building Process Management, Department for Industrial Building and Interdisciplinary Planning, of Prof. Christoph Achammer. 20 speakers will be presenting current topics on “Refurbished Future“ from diverse angles providing the participants an insight as well as mirroring the necessity of broad and interdisciplinary action in the field.

‘Detroit by Design’, a symposium and exhibition hosted by the AIA Detroit Urban Priorities Committee, will welcome the architecture and design community to study the unique and challenged urban infrastructure of Detroit through three key issues: urban centers, transportation, urban agriculture over the next three months. This month ‘Detroit by Design’ will address the topic of transportation with an exhibit on April 5th and discussions on April 13th. All exhibits and symposiums will be held at the Detroit Public Library and are free and open to public. Further details of ‘Detroit by Design’ following the break.

The recent building boom in New York City has radically altered the look and feel of the city and added considerably to the list of starchitects currently reshaping New York’s iconic skyline. It has also helped redefine boundaries of the eclectic pluralism of postmodern architecture.

This month the Pratt Institute spring lecture series will include Robert Sanna, Guy Nordensen, Jose Koechlin and Denise Koechlin, and Pualo Portoghesi with Catherine Ingraham, covering topics that range from environmental disaster engineering to eco-tourism in Peru’s Machu Picchu.

The New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects [NYCOBA]has planned a Portfolio + Resume review day for graduating college seniors and young professionals seeking feedback on their portfolio as well as some advice about the interview/job hunting process.

April at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design will feature lectures from Mohsen Mostafavi, Sarah Whiting and Robert Somol as well as a book launch of Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts featuring Tony Atkin. These events are free and open to the public and PennDesign is a registered provider of continuing education programming for the American Institute of Architects.

Upcoming April lectures at Kent State’s CAED will include Michael Meredith of MOS Architects, winners of MoMA’s P.S.1. 2009. Also featured will be University of Kentucky’s Dean of the College of Architecture Michael Speaks and Richard Jackson of the UCLA School of Public Health.