Tag: Why aren’t good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

Death of an Architect

January 30, 2022

how is architectural media complicit?, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

I’m glad I’m not a journalist expected to, at a moment’s notice, rush out an obituary summarizing and making sense of an architect and his/her career while often simultaneously introducing them to the general public. The architectural historians and bloggers of yesterday weren’t without their biases but the only responsibility of contemporary architectural journalism is […]

COMMENT

Art Vacuum

January 16, 2022

Graham McKay

what is the relationship between art and architecture?, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

In the 1980s when video was beginning to become popular, there was a Korean American video artist called Nam June Paik. He was one of the first to see artistic potential in this new medium that wasn’t film. Once, when asked about the difference between film and video, he was quoted as saying “Film is […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #35: Edwin Lutyens

March 10, 2019

Graham McKay

Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

2019 is one hundred years since the idea of designing for machines and industrial production replaced designing for local traditions, local materials and local craftsmanship as the dominant paradigm of architecture. The circumstances of the past will probably never be replicated, let alone for all, but it's more important than ever to remember what has been lost.

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #33: Josef Frank

August 26, 2018

Graham McKay

Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

Josef Frank July 15, 1885 – January 8, 1967 Josef Frank was there at the first CIAM and was invited by Mies van der Rohe to exhibit at the Weissenhof Exhibition in Stuttgart so, in 1927, he was up there with the best of them. A quick scan of the following quotes shows why he’s not […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #32: Kazuhiko Namba

July 22, 2018

Graham McKay

low-cost housing, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

I remember this building from when it was published in Japan Architect in 1975. It was called something like House with 54 Windows. I didn’t remember the name of its architect, Kazuhiko Namba, or that it was a combined clinic and house but I did like its controlled craziness. Like many other buildings of the time, it […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #31: Kenji Hirose

January 5, 2018

Graham McKay

low-cost housing, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

Kenji Hirose (広瀬鎌二, 1922–2012) graduated in 1942 from Musashi Engineering School and, after the war ended, shifted to architecture in a few simple moves. 1945: Naval Facilities Engineering Division1946-51: Tokyo Mokko (Timber Structures)1949-51: Masachika Architects1952: Founded Kenji Hirose Architect & Associates1966: Professor at Musashi Technical College Department of Architecture He designed this house in 1949 […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #30: Robert Mallet-Stevens

July 23, 2017

Graham McKay

Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

Robert Mallet-Stevens was born in 1886 a year before Le Corbiusier and died in 1945 twenty years earlier. In the 1920s, they both published their own journals and founded their own associations. By the end of the 1920s, they were the two foremost architects in Paris, with largely seperate spheres of interest and influence. Mallet-Stevens […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #29: Fernand Pouillon

May 14, 2017

Graham McKay

low-cost housing, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

Fernand Pouillon1912 – 1986 1912Born May 14, in Cancon, France. 1934Palais Albert 1er, (30 apartments, 2 commercial units), avenue Albert 1er, Aix-en-Provence, France, in collaboration with Henri Enjouvin. Pouillon was 22. 1935Palais Victor Hugo (28 apartments), avenue Victor Hugo, Aix-en-Provence, France 1936Groupe Corderie 25 (40 apartments), 27 avenue de la Corse, Marseille, France The fernandpouillon.com website lists the creation […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #28: Harold Krantz

February 13, 2017

Graham McKay

low-cost housing, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

Abraham Harold Krantz [1906 – 1999] 1906: Born in Adelaide, Australia, to Russian Jewish parents 1926: Qualified as an architect and worked for Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne-Smith 1927: Moved to Perth to work for Oldham, Boas & Ednie-Brown 1929: Registered as an architect 1929 was not a great year to start a career. It was the beginning of […]

EDUCATION, MISFITS

Architecture Misfits #27: The Analog Student

January 24, 2017

Graham McKay

what do we want from architecture education?, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

If Architecture itself is a myth then what are architecture students supposed to believe in? Architectural education is often thought to be reactionary and unresponsive to market forces but my perception is that it’s attuned all too well. There’s no shortage of digital students who’ve picked up on image and perception management being everything. For them, architecture is an endless learning curve […]

MISFITS

Architcture Misfits #26: Asnago Vender

October 6, 2016

Graham McKay

Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

That’s Claudio Vender [1904–1986] on the left and Mario Asnago [1896–1981] on the right. We can tell from the photograph that these two gentlement are stylish but haven’t been contemporary for quite some time. Their buildings however, remain both. You won’t find much information on them or their buildings. Here’s a bit from the NY site of furniture company Flexform. Both […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #25: Ernst May

September 20, 2016

Graham McKay

low-cost housing, performance as an aesthetic, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

Ernst May [July 1886 — September 1970] New Frankfurt [in German, Neues Frankfurt] was an affordable public housing program in Frankfurt started in 1925 and completed in 1930. The mayor of Frankfurt hired Ernst May as general manager of the project to bring together architects to work on it. The goal was housing that could be rented for no more than 25% of a person’s […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfits #24: Rural Studio

August 31, 2016

Graham McKay

Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

A 308 sq.ft Katrina Cottage can be delivered for $70,000 including construction. That works out at $227/sq.ft. The affordable IVRV House designed by SCI-ARC students for a low-income Los Angeles neighbourhood was constructed for $200,000 ÷ 1,185 sq.ft = US$165/sq.ft. The 2015 house designed by Yale architecture students as part of the Jim Vlock Building Project was 1,000 sq.ft […]

MISFITS

Architecture Misfit #23: André Lurçat

July 7, 2016

Graham McKay

low-cost housing, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

André Lurçat was born three years after Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris and died five years after Le Corbusier’s final swim. Lurçat was not only a French modernist architect active over the same period, but also a landscape architect, furniture designer, urban planner and founding member of CIAM. His and Le Corbusier’s careers were mostly parallel until the late 1920s when they diverged as much as it is […]