A few articles this week took note of the struggles to get potential host cities to commit to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The investment in infrastructure and event facilities often fall into disuse and disrepair soon after the games end. I visited Montreal a few years back and enjoyed the site of Buckminster Fuller's... Continue Reading →
Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a Federal holiday dedicated to the memory of armed forces who lost their lives while serving the country. The holiday started out as Decoration Day, to celebrate soldiers killed during the Civil War (both Union and Confederate soldiers). Veterans' Day, November 11th, began as Armistice day to... Continue Reading →
In 1930 the French government celebrated the French Algerian Centennial, marking 100 years of colonial occupation. As part of the event, architect Leon Claro designed the Indigenous House of the Centennial based on a standardized version of the courtyard house found in the Casbah of Algiers. This description is from Dr. Zeynep Celik from her... Continue Reading →
This is the last of three posts of a review of the book After Amnesia: Learning from the Islamic Mediterranean Urban Fabric Colonial interventions receive surprisingly abbreviated attention in After Amnesia's analysis. This is not to say that the role of colonization had been marginalized, nor is it to say the costs of such... Continue Reading →
Petruccioli outlines a number of definitions in an effort to further frame his argument. He differentiates between the linguistic terms langue and parole (the former being all the collective rules of language codified, while the latter is one individual's use of language) to explain the evolution of building types. “A [building] type may be a... Continue Reading →
Part one of a book review of Attilio Petruccioli's book After Amnesia: Learning from the Islamic Mediterranean Urban Fabric. After Amnesia: Learning from the Islamic Mediterranean Urban Fabric (2007) is the culmination of decades of research, interest and teaching of Islamic Mediterranean cities. The author, Attilio Petruccioli, serves as Dean at the School of Architecture... Continue Reading →
I almost stumbled over these rubber tubes strewn across a major arterial road, which are attached to unmarked boxes locked to trees along the median. These are most likely means of tracking and quantifying traffic and car counts. I used to think they could track speed and thus were part of police surveillance. At this... Continue Reading →
Two years ago I had the privilege of working with my father on a project to build a table on his deck. I used both the Pentagon Memorial and the High Line as inspiration and designed a picnic table using dimensional lumber oriented to match the deck. The staggering of pieces allows for easier circulation around... Continue Reading →
Today I graduated from PennDesign with a Masters of Architecture. My sister was kind enough to give me a copy of The Architecture of Happiness as a graduation gift. I hope to enjoy a bit more balanced life and get a chance to read the book soon. A few weeks ago, while reading The Bully... Continue Reading →
Continuing from yesterday, the stool was fabricated in a mad dash after hours during the last week of school last spring. We had access to a CNC milling machine at a local fabrication shop and hired the help of a fabricator. My favorite memory involved catching a bus from the fabrication shop at midnight with a... Continue Reading →
Adam Achrati 