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A Green New Deal means designers can live up to their potential to address the wicked problems of our time. Landscape architects, planners, and architects may be familiar with the Green New Deal Superstudio, which was a call for designers to spatially manifest the Green New Deal, or to imagine projects centering jobs, justice and decarbonization.

The Superstudio marks an inflection point for landscape architecture. Grounded in policy and the context of climate change and social unrest, the Superstudio is the landscape architecture communitys public acknowledgement that our work is deeply intertwined with politics.

As a collective of young practitioners, we understand the significance of the Green New Deal conversation happening within and outside of our profession. ASLA and the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) have embraced the Green New Deal, and organized students and practitioners to imagine its tangible implications within the built environment. These steps represent real action towards the shift in practice that Billy Fleming, ASLA, the Wilks Family Director at the McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania, called for in his 2019 article, Design and the Green New Deal. Like Fleming and the professions organizations, we recognize a shift that needs to happen if landscape architecture is to stand a chance.

It is crucial for landscape architecture to change if we are to have a meaningful contribution toward a habitable future. As Superstudio participants, Wkshp, a team of emerging professionals, viewed the Superstudio as a way to imagine both future projects and adapted practice.

For us, the Superstudio was fulfilling in several ways. With limited experience in professional practice, we found a shared sentiment that our professional experiences were not in complete alignment with what we were sold in school a sometimes romanticized version of our personal career paths and the impact they will have. After a couple of years in practice, we have maintained faith in the potential of landscape architecture to make large-scale change. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the Superstudio was that it prompted us to make space to rekindle our passions and sense of purpose, in ways that often dont fit into typical modes of practice.

What exactly doesnt fit into existing practice and why? While developing our Superstudio submission, our time was dedicated to identifying barriers to implementation and asking questions. Repeatedly, we were brought back to the same power dilemmas, which are beyond the scope of the typical landscape architecture project, but were centered in our Superstudio work: structural racism, a patriarchal society, colonialism, severe economic inequity, and environmental injustice, among others.

Working under the framework of the Green New Deal was liberating it meant that we could transcend the constraints of the current market, and a model of practice formulated to serve it. It allowed us to imagine design processes and projects to serve geographies and communities that have been economically, socially, and environmentally abandoned, while considering how we can work differently.

We imagine a culture that has moved beyond megalomania, utopianism, and individualism. In the Superstudio, we find the seeds of a collaborative realism and inclusive organizing that we are now working to scale and ground. So, a Green New Deal project is not necessarily a new project in its built form, but the where, how, and for whom represent a practice transformed. The Green New Deal creates living infrastructure in places that need it but cant afford it, repairing landscapes that have been endlessly extracted from, preparing underserved communities for unpredictable futures, with an emphasis that it will all be co-designed. This is a new means and mode of practice one of which does not yet exist, but desperately needs to.

The Superstudio was an experiment in process, just as much as it was a design project. Wkshp/bluemarble, a non-hierarchical collective with collaborators from multiple firms working together across three time zones, embodied this ethos throughout. We understand that ethics of flexible leadership and constant growth are critical for facing the challenges of our generation.

The Modernist approach exemplified by architects Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright is a deeply flawed, failed model. We cannot rely on individuals to save the planet. In the same vein, we must stop placing individuals on a pedestal within design culture as a whole. Almost nothing in our field is created or even conceived by a single individual, and its time to acknowledge the power of a team as well as elevate the power of the ideas, rather than praise a single person. On this note, we reject destructive criticism by those in power within our tiny profession. Young designers need support, especially those willing to dedicate a career (or even one year as a thought experiment) to re-conceiving our collective future.

With this transformational spirit, the Superstudio summit, Grounding the Green New Deal, was an opportunity to begin imagining next steps with fellow Superstudio participants and leaders. The summit organized by LAF, with the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, ASLA, and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., featured a curated selection of projects and speakers from practice, policy, and advocacy. The summit which was thought-provoking, informative, and beautifully executed, igniting a series of deep reflections.

Both the immediate and more distant futures of the profession were on display at the summit. For those seeking spark notes on advancing jobs justice and decarbonization, here are some general themes we came away with:

We were especially inspired by the work and vision of organizers such as Colette Pichon Battle, Esq., the executive director of Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, an organization that is actively bringing justice to front line communities in the Gulf Coast Region, and represents the type of organization that designers could support in projects akin to the Green New Deal. The voices of those with public sector experience stood out as well, such as Mitchell Silver, Hon. ASLA, former Commissioner of New York City Parks & Recreation department. These panelists shared their strategies of working within existing institutions to produce projects embodying the pace, scale, and justice-orientation of the Green New Deal in the now.

Kate Orff, FASLA, founder of SCAPE, and Fleming, both key figures in the Superstudio and the profession at large, provided essential framing through presentations that served as a prompt for advocacy and guide for implementation.

We felt that the lack of organized dialogue among the mass of Superstudio participants was a missed opportunity, and that the format of the summit, while inspiring, felt devoid of the popular, inclusive spirit of the Superstudio. Some challenges mostly of the how do I start doing this right now? variety still need further testing in the real world. For example, once we connect with community organizers, are we prepared to work differently from our normal practice? Can this work happen at scale outside of academic spaces? How does this work get done where there isnt an existing implementation structure, or the structure cannot transcend existing forms of development? How do we scale up this transformative practice outside of the most populous, resource-rich regions of the country?

Urgency is in the air. The summit must be the beginning of a conversation, yes, but most importantly must further contribute to radical action both within and beyond the field locally and globally. Now is the time for landscape architecture to evolve.

Here are our next steps: capacity building, organizing, and, most critically, doubling down on the collective imagination that the Superstudio so radically and meaningfully engaged.

Wkshp/bluemarble is a team of emerging professionals working for transformations within practice and the world at large.

Adriana Hernndez Aguirre, Associate ASLA, Coleman & AssociatesMaddie Clark, Design WorkshopOlivia Pinner, Associate ASLA, SWAAdam Scott, PLA, Associate ASLA, SWANicholas Zurlini, Associate ASLA, GGLO

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Whats Next for the Green New Deal in Landscape Architecture? - American Society of Landscape Architects

ORIGINALLY BUILT IN 1958, THE ARCHITECTS RETREAT IS FULLY UPDATED AND READY FOR ITS NEXT CUSTODIAN

Located in Vancouver, Canada, the Architects Retreat is a residential structure previously occupied by three generation of architects and designers. Originally built in 1958, the house has gone through dedicated renovations directed by the different owners, fully updating it to fulfill contemporary necessities.

Listed by West Coast Modern, this cabin in the woods recently sold for nearly $2.4 million 10% above its asking price.

images by Jesse Laver + Yan Timo, courtesy of West Coast Modern

Built and owned by Henry Yorke Mann a contemporary of Ron Thom and Arthur Erickson the Architects Retreat is located on Clements Avenue in North Vancouver. The original cedar box structure was built at a cost of $8,000 and encompassed only 700 square feet and one bedroom. Made with double tongue-and-groove cedar, the walls were not insulated.

For Mann, the place of the architect is alongside great composers, musicians, painters and poets who aspire to fully express the beauty, depth and mystery of humanity. Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC)

Thirty years later, the house changed owners when architect Perter Buchanan bought it. He began his own renovations, which included the addition of two stories. The resulting 1,910-square-foot plan contains the main bedroom and a den, and a two-bedroom basement suite below. Building on Manns design, Buchanan tested out experimental ideas that would lead to some of Vancouvers most iconic buildings.

It was in fact Buchanan who gave the Architects Retreat its current form, drawing inspirations from aerial and nautical designs.

The new structure was built by repurposing old building materials, Buchanan told West Coast Modern. In fact, all of the fir needed was supplied by one single old growth blown down fir tree taken from Sea Schelt. It was a model and experiment for sustainable environmental design. Anne and I lived in the home for 26 years and raised our two kids Nevada and Max in the home and neighborhood until we sold it and moved to Whistler in 2015.

Finding the right buyer was not easy as its effectively a one-bedroom house on a small lot. Buyers kept telling us they could get double the house for the same price, said Trent Rodney from West Coast Modern.

The current owners the Noel family local designers themselves, completely restored the house maintaining the original feel of the home, while improving its livability. The project earned them North Vancouvers 2018 Heritage Award.

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architect's retreat, a home intervened by three generations of architects + designers - Designboom

A fresh cohort of 38 American creatives have been bestowed with the gift of time and space to think and work and will be headed to the Eternal City this September as recipients of the American Academy in Rome (AAR)s 20222023 Rome Prize.

Awarded annually to fellows working across a range of 11 different disciplines including architecture, landscape architecture, design, and historic preservation and conservation, the Rome Prize that includes a stipend, workspace, and room-and-board at the Academys historic 11-acre campus on the Gianicolo. The Academy, a prestigious research and arts institutiondomestically headquartered in New York City, was first established in 1894 under the leadership of architect Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White.

RomePrizewinners are selected by independent juries of distinguished artists and scholars through a national competition.

Among the just-announced 20222023 fellows are Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers, founding principals of Minneapolis- and Ithaca, New Yorkbased creative practice Dream The Combine (Newsom and Carruthers are also on the curatorial team of the 2023 Counterpublic Triennial in St. Louis); Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, principals and founders of New York City-based MOS Architects; Monica Rhodes, Loeb Fellow at Harvard Universitys Graduate School of Design; Los Angeles-based landscape designer and accessibility specialist Alexa Vaughn; Katherine Jenkins and Parker Sutton, co-funding principals of Columbus, Ohiobased landscape architecture studio Present Practice; and Preeti Chopra, a professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, whose research is focused on South Asian architecture and urbanism.

In addition to the 20222023 Rome Prizes, the Academy has also announced the four recipients of the Italian Fellows, a complementary program in which Italian scholars and artists are invited to live and work at the Academy alongside their American counterparts. As detailed by the Academy, this cycle of the Rome Prize competition received 909 applications, with applicants representing 47 states. Like last year, this cycle marks one of the most diverse groups of fellows in the Prizes history, with approximately 46 percent of the winners identifying as people of color. (In 20212022, the figure was 44 percent). Twenty-four percent of the Rome Prize winners were born outside the United States, and the average age of the incoming cohort is 43.

This yearsRomePrizewinners and Italian Fellows represents the diversity of the United States, and their projects build on the Academys commitment to the global impact of the arts and humanities,said Mark Robbins, president and CEO of the AAR in a statement. These fellowships are transformative, and we look forward to seeing the ways this experience is translated in the work to come.

Below is the full list of Rome Prize winners organized by discipline along with the 20222023 Italian Fellows. Following that is a list of jurors for each respective discipline. An in-person prize ceremony, the annual Arthur and Janet C. RossRomePrizeCeremony, was held yesterday the Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York City.

Now, without further adohere are this years class of Rome Prize fellows and Italian Fellows:

Andrew Heiskell Rome Prize:Sarah BeckmannAssistant Professor, Department of Classics, University of California, Los AngelesThe Villa in Late Antiquity: Roman Ideals and Local Identities

Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Rome Prize:Emily L. HurtPhD Candidate, Department of History, Yale UniversityPalimpsest Cities of the Roman Empire

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize:Evan JewellAssistant Professor, Department of History, Rutgers University, CamdenYouth and Power: Acting Your Age in the Roman Empire (149 BCE68 CE)

Arthur Ross Rome Prize:Andrew R. LundPhD Candidate, Department of Classics, University of CincinnatiSeneca Comicus: Comic Enrichment and the Reception of the seruus callidus in Senecan Tragedy

Samuel H. Kress Foundation/Emeline Hill Richardson Rome Prize:Lillian Clare SellatiPhD Candidate, Department of the History of Art, Yale UniversityWhen Is Herakles Not Himself? Intentional Iconographic Slippage in Greater Central Asia, 330 BCE to 230 CE

Arnold W. Brunner/Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize:Michael Meredith and Hilary SamplePrincipals and Founders, MOS Architects, New YorkCorviale: One-Kilometer-Long Social Housing

Rome Prize in Architecture:Jennifer Newsom and Tom CarruthersFounding Principals, Dream The Combine, Minneapolis; Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of the Practice, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Cornell UniversityWandering Stars, Vanishing Points: Overwriting Spatial Imaginaries of Rome

Rolland Rome Prize:John DavisPianist, BrooklynKeys to the Highway: Nineteenth-Century African American Pianists on the Road to Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, and Rock n Roll

Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize:Jasmine Hearn and Athena KokoronisDesigners, BrooklynAn introduction TOWARDS A REPERTORY CLOSET

Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize:Preeti ChopraProfessor, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin, MadisonHistoric Preservation, British Monuments, and the Legacy of Ancient Rome in Modern India

Adele Chatfield-Taylor Rome Prize:Monica RhodesLoeb Fellow, Graduate School of Design, Harvard UniversityPreservation and Public Engagement

Gilmore D. Clark and Michael I. Rapuano/Kate Lancaster Brewster Rome Prize:Katherine Jenkins and Parker SuttonPrincipals, Present Practice, Columbus, Ohio; and Assistant Professors of Landscape Architecture, Knowlton School, Ohio State UniversityRoman Aesthetics of Care

Garden Club of America/Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize:Alexa Vaughn, ASLALandscape Designer and Accessibility Specialist, Los AngelesSorda Nella Citt Eterna | Deaf in the Eternal City: Deaf and Disabled Storytelling and Creative Investigations in the Aesthetic Intersections of Accessibility and Historic Preservation in Roman Landscapes

John Guare Writers Fund Rome Prize, a gift of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman:Gina ApostolTeacher, Department of English, Ethical Culture Fieldston SchoolThe Treatment of Paz (novel)

Rome Prize in Literature:Jamel BrinkleyAssistant Professor, Fiction, Program in Creative Writing, Iowa Writers Workshop, University of IowaAnother Life: A Novel

Rome Prize in Literature:Tung-Hui HuAssociate Professor, Department of English, University of MichiganPunishment, an Index

Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, a gift of the Drue Heinz Trust:Robyn SchiffProfessor, Department of English, Emory UniversityInformation Desk: An Epic

Donald and Maria Cox/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/National Endowment for the Humanities Rome Prize:Lamia BalafrejAssociate Professor, Department of Art History, University of California, Los AngelesCorporeal Instruments: Art, Technology, and Slavery in the Medieval Mediterranean

Samuel H. Kress Foundation Rome Prize:Denva E. GallantAssistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of DelawareIllustrating the Vitae Patrum: The Rise of the Eremitic Ideal in Fourteenth-Century Italy

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize:Carolyn J. QuijanoPhD Candidate, Department of History, Columbia UniversityForeign Magistracies and Accountability in the Medieval Italian Communes, c. 12001400

Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize:Saskia K. VerlaanPhD Candidate, Department of Art History, Graduate Center, City University of New YorkBetween Drawing and Script: Asemic Writing by Feminist Artists in Italy 19681980

Millicent Mercer Johnsen/National Endowment for the Humanities Rome Prize:Konstantina ZanouAssistant Professor, Department of Italian, Columbia UniversitySoldiers of Fortune: Two Brothers and the Adventures of Antiquities from the Ottoman Mediterranean to Gilded Age New York

Luciano Berio Rome Prize:Miya MasaokaAssociate Professor and Director, Sound Art, School of the Arts, Columbia UniversityThe Horizon Leans Forward for the International Contemporary Ensemble

Elliott Carter Rome Prize:Christopher StarkAssociate Professor, Department of Music, Washington University in St. LouisPiano Trio

Paul Mellon Rome Prize:Elizabeth G. ElmiVisiting Assistant Professor, Department of Musicology, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillInscribing the Self in Occupied Southern Italy: Culture, Politics, and Identity in Lyric Song Practices of the Aragonese-Ruled Kingdom of Naples

Marian and Andrew Heiskell Rome Prize:Stephanie LeitzelPhD Candidate, Department of History, Harvard UniversityEconomies of Color: Italian Capitalists, Dye Commerce, and the Making of a Global Economy (14501650)

National Endowment for the Humanities Rome Prize:S. Elizabeth PenryAssociate Professor, Department of History, Fordham UniversityThe Italian Renaissance in Diaspora: Jesuit Education and Indigenous Modernities

Rome Prize in Visual Arts:Tony CokesProfessor, Department of Modern Culture and Media, Brown UniversityThe Daily Practice of Representation: The Artist and the Studio

Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize:Todd GrayArtist, Los Angeles and Akwidaa, Ghanathe hidden order of the whole

Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize:Ester PartegsArtist, New YorkBreathing Structures

Abigail Cohen Rome Prize:Elle PerezAssistant Professor, Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Harvard UniversitySurrender

Philip Guston Rome Prize:Ioana M. UricaruAssociate Professor, Department of Film and Media Culture, Middlebury CollegeURSA MAJOR

Philip Guston Rome Prize:Bradford M. YoungOwner and Cinematographer, Bradford Young DP, BaltimoreUntitled GYMR

Franco Zeffirelli Italian Fellow:Edward LossJean Franois Malle Fellow, I Tatti, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance StudiesThe Pope as a Spymaster: Papacy, Espionage, and Institutions of Information Gathering of Late Medieval Italy (Late Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries)

Marcello Lotti Italian Fellow in Music:Marco MomiMusic Composer, PerugiaCommunity Concerto

Enel Foundation Italian Fellow in Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture:Alessandro MulazzaniLandscape Architect, VeniceThe Sea of Rome: A Quest for a Coastal Sustainable Landscape

Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT Italian Fellow in Visual Arts:Alice VisentinVisual Artist, TurinMalefate

Anna E. Arabindan-KessonAssistant Professor, Departments of African American Studies and Art and Archaeology, Princeton UniversityA Dream of Italy: Black Geographies and the Grand Tour

Emily Greenwood, Jury ChairLaurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Classics and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton UniversitySeth Bernard(2011 Fellow)Associate Professor, Department of Classics, University of TorontoJane D. ChaplinJames I. Armstrong Professor of Classics, Eve Adler Department of Classics, Middlebury CollegeAllison L. C. Emmerson(2019 Fellow)Associate Professor, Department of Classical Studies, Tulane UniversityJinyu LiuProfessor, Department of Classical Studies, DePauw University

Michael Bierut, Jury Chair (2016 Resident)Partner, Pentagram, New YorkJ. Yolande Daniels(2004 Fellow)Principal, studioSUMO; and Associate Professor, Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyFelecia DavisPrincipal, Felecia Davis Studio; and Associate Professor of Architecture, College of Arts and Architecture, Pennsylvania State UniversityGary Hilderbrand(1995 Fellow, 2018 Resident)Principal, Reed-Hilderbrand, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard UniversityWalter J. Hood(1997 Fellow, 2014 Resident)Creative Director, Hood Design Studio, Berkeley; and Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design, University of California, BerkeleyCalvin Tsao(2010 Resident)Principal, Tsao & McKown Architects, New York

Thompson M. Mayes, Jury Chair (2014 Fellow)Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, DCAmy FreitagExecutive Director, J. M. Kaplan Fund, New YorkStella Nair(2017 Fellow)Associate Professor, Indigenous Arts of the Americas, Department of Art History, University of California, Los AngelesCristina PuglisiConservator and Senior Project Manager, Integrated Conservation Resources and Integrated Conservation Contracting (ICR-ICC), New York

Bruce Smith,Jury Chair (2016 Resident)Professor, Department of English, Syracuse UniversityAlexandra Kleeman(2021 Fellow)Assistant Professor of Writing, Creative Writing Program, New SchoolYiyun LiProfessor of Creative Writing, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton UniversityMary Jo SalterKrieger-Eisenhower Professor, Writing Seminars, Johns Hopkins University

William Connell, Jury ChairProfessor of History and La Motta Endowed Chair in Italian Studies, Department of History, Seton Hall UniversitySusan Boynton(1999 Fellow)Professor of Music (Historical Musicology), Department of Music, Columbia UniversityJoshua ODriscollAssistant Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Morgan Library and MuseumJolle Rollo-KosterProfessor of Medieval History, Department of History, University of Rhode IslandTeofilo F. Ruiz(2020 Resident)Distinguished Research Professor (emeritus), Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles

Silvana Patriarca, Jury ChairProfessor of History, Department of History, Fordham UniversitySean S. Anderson(2005 Fellow)Director, Undergraduate BArch Program and Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell UniversityLeslie Cozzi(2018 Fellow)Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Baltimore Museum of ArtShelleen GreeneAssociate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media, University of California, Los AngelesGaoheng ZhangAssociate Professor, Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, University of British Columbia

Andrew Norman, Jury Chair (2007 Fellow)Professor of Composition, Juilliard SchoolChen YiLorena Searcy Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor of Composition, Conservatory, University of Missouri, Kansas CityVittorio Montalti(2014 Italian Fellow)Professor of Composition, Potenza ConservatoryAugusta Read ThomasUniversity Professor of Composition, Department of Music, University of ChicagoBarbara WhiteProfessor, Department of Music, Princeton University

Estelle Lingo, Jury ChairProfessor of Art History and Floyd and Delores Jones Endowed Chair in the Arts, School of Art, Art History, and Design, University of Washington, SeattleSusanna BergerAssociate Professor of Art History and Philosophy, University of Southern CaliforniaMargaret Meserve(2007 Fellow)Glynn Family Honors Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Notre DameJessie Ann OwensDistinguished Professor Emeritus, Music, University of California, DavisNicholas Terpstra(2019 Affiliated Fellow)Professor, Department of History, University of Toronto

Kate Fowle, Jury ChairDirector, MoMA PS1E. V. Day(2017 Fellow)Artist, New YorkAllen Frame(2018 Fellow)Artist and Adjunct Professor, Photography MFA, Pratt InstituteRashid JohnsonArtist, New YorkCarrie Mae Weems(2006 Fellow)Artist and University Artist in Residence, Syracuse University

John Davis Jury ChairPresident, Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, MassachusettsDiana GreenwoldLunder Curator of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian InstitutionMargaretta LovellProfessor, Jay D. McEvoy Jr. Professor of American Art and Architecture, Department of Art History, University of California, Berkeley

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Dream the Combine, MOS Architects among 202223 Rome Prize winners - The Architect's Newspaper

Technology has always played a role in our work as architects and designers, but its effect has been more exponential the past few years.

We now have BIM modeling, data-driven design, iterative design tools along with cloud-based collaboration software that help us create more robust, meticulous buildings and components. For the past two years, many of us have worked from our homes, but these programs, virtual meeting software, and the cloud have kept us connected to our work and each other.

As we continue to lean into learning and mastering the latest technologiesas we shouldwe must not forget the foundational, fundamental skills that are still expected from us by our clients. These low-techand even no-techhallmarks, when used in conjunction with the latest tech, can help us design better projects and better communicate them with the outside world.

There are different demands on us as designers from our communities and the public realm down to architecture review boards. The public realm requires the ability to express yourself in a setting other than the office, sometimes a charged public environment, which can be challenging especially when not everyone wants to hear what you have to say.

We have an obligation to say the things that need to be said to benefit society. Oftentimes, finding that courage can be difficult. Were not trained to participate in such an environment, but there are ways we can step into those conversationswith respect and dignityand then own that moment.

The projects we work on are often complicated and may have a lot of stakeholders at the table. Many of these stakeholders may not see the whole purpose, best use or the full nature of what a building owes the end user and community around it. When their decisions start to turn in a tragic direction based on their rationale, sometimes we only have a few seconds of a gap in between to step in and communicate that full picture to get a project back on track.

For instance, when it comes to sustainability, we can talk about energy savings but some struggle to talk about the social responsibility we have. Those conversations need to happen as often as we talk about savings. Those conversations can change where investments are made in the building and remind people of their obligations.

After all, we have an obligation ourselves to speak on the behalf of the 98 percent of people who dont work with architects but are subject to our decisions in the built environment.

That obligation carries into our design workshops and charrettes. These environments present a melee of activity, and oftentimes the most knowledgeable people in the room can be the quietest. We have to lift these voices up. By the same token, sometimes the loudest voices are the least knowledgeable, so they have to be managed.

We must pursue a just-in-time delivery of intellectual content. There is a perfect time for that interjection in these complicated projects. If you are directing the conversation, you may as well be a conductor of an orchestra. You must know when to bring these voices in and amplify them. You have to be able to harmonize the group. That harmonic convergence of these different voices is when miracles occur.

When the project enters the construction phase, we must continue to be vigilant. While construction can be difficult and lead to overwhelming situations, we have to return to the documents, remain open to what the situation is and have those difficult conversations with contractors and designers and ownersagain, doing so with respect and dignity.

How are these interpersonal skills developed? It goes back to training.

When new designers join our group at RS&H, I start with them in a safe environment to get their ideas acrossjust them and me. From there, we can bring their voice into our internal meetings in a group environment, which is not as safe as a one-on-one environment.

I make sure they are knowledgeable about the subject matter and that they are expected to deliver, knowing I will call on them. They prepare and prepare over and over and over again, and I get to watch them rise up in our meetings. At that point, they are ready to have a meaningful role in our client meetings. I let them know whats expected and what the design workflow is and when they will be expected to engage the team.

Time and time again, these new voices hit their marks and deliver. They rise to the occasion.

There are low-tech skills our clients and the public at large still expect from us. They expect us to be able to draweven right in front of themto communicate a project. They think of architects and their drafting abilities, which are still honorable skills, but so are low-tech skills like drawing and painting, using chalk and oils. These skills release a creativity that is different depending on the medium.

When you paint a watercolor, its unforgiving. Anything that goes down on the paper cant be erased. It requires flawless deliveryof course, if you think about it like that, youre bound to make a mistake. On the other hand, using oil pastels over a photograph creates a gooey blending that matures in different ways. The same goes for Gouache or graphite and turpentine on mylar.

Look at some of the old masters and their half-painted pieces, and youll see something like a profile of angels wings shifting down until they finally get into that perfect state. What is intriguing to me are all the states before that built up to the perfect state. All these lines are going to be painted over, which means all these drafts will be lost, but for a moment you can see the movement of it.

You dont get that experience with some of the new technologies. The big advantage of computer programs is in their definitive properties. There are thousands of options for doors, windows, flooring and everything else you need to create the most specific of building projects. But sometimes youre just not ready for that. Access to so many options can cause you to lose track of your big idea.

The pencil process is different. If you draw a line wrong, its OK to get it wrong and get it wrong and get it wrong again. These imperfect lines can ultimately settle themselves into the perfect place.

Sketching, drawing and painting can release the mind in different ways. You may get hints of a big idea in your mind, but these moments can be fleeting and often disappear before you can fire up your computer. Thats why its important to keep that sketchbook close by. Once you draw something, you capture an idea that you can now develop.

Put another way, when we wake up in the morning from a dream, the dream slowly begins to slip away. By the end of the day, its gone. The reverse of that is true for the creative process. Its elusive and undefined, and as the day goes on, it gains clarity. As time goes on, it becomes real. You just have to let that creative state go from an unbridled suggestion to concrete form.

As I sit in my studio there is a marker board behind me. Even in zoom meetings, when I illustrate the non-physical aspects of a building, it is captured most clearly with diagrams that can be non-form generating. Clients get it when you say it and diagram it, and the idea gets embedded with them. Our thoughts, words and simple sketches have power.

Another way to embed the project idea with them? Build a physical model. When I build one, I know every piece of it, the back, side, top and bottom along with proportions. Having something in your hand and moving it around is different than spinning a computer model.

I can walk into a room and hand the model to a client. Weve used models not only to win work, but to mature different aspects of a project. When a client holds a model or looks at a sketch right in front of them, they understand their project in a new way.

What does an architects office look like now? In mine, I have three monitors, a camera and light for virtual meetings, VR goggles next to a drafting elbow, a markerboard and a curtain to sit in front of for conversations.

The modern architects office should support the high-tech, low-tech and no-tech tactics we must use. Moving effortlessly between these three levels of technology is the talent of the modern designer.

As design charrettes have gone digital, there are new tools we use that we could never have brought to a physical charrette.

We can provide environmental modeling through open-source software like Ladybug, Honeybee and Dragonfly along with Insight and Safaira. Iterative design is achieved through the dynamic scripting in Grasshopper, which allows us to on the fly explore the many possibilities. Real time, anonymous surveys and polls allow us to rapidly advance the design and get accurate data on consensus. Cloud based collaboration tools like Mural become digital sketchbooks capturing everybody's contributions.

This allows for a dynamic design process, where we can watch our project morph and change.

We can even bring watercolors into digital models with programs like Enscape, do real-time flythroughs and then share with a client via a QR code that they can view on their phone. As we focus more and more on sustainability in every project, we use the concepts of biophilia and biomimicry to develop a more meaningful connection with the world around us.

Im a firm believer in all these tools. Time and time again, the best designers I have been around can model on multiple platforms, and they can draw.

By having access to all of these tools we must, through practice and learning, know when to sketch and when to go to our computers. With a balanced toolkit, we can create beautiful, insightful projects and buildings that reflect our emerging face of humanity.

ABOUT THE AUTHORPhilip Robbie, AIA OAA, is the National Design Director for RS&H. He has more than 30 years of international experience in all areas of architectural practice, including master planning, programming, space planning, interior design and architectural design. He has specialized in the collaborative process and is a graphics facilitator. He can be reached atphilip.robbie@rsandh.com.

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Low-tech skills architects need to keep in a high-tech world - Building Design + Construction

If a flat, empty plot of land is an architects blank canvas, designing a building around Boston is more like sketching in the margins of a tattered paperback while someone is turning the pages.

There are few blank-slate construction sites left in the Boston area, so architects routinely find themselves working around obstacles like steep grade changes, rocky ledges, tight confines, and overlapping layers of zoning and other restrictions some of which can even change midway through a project. But for many of them, the challenge is half the fun.

Having really unique or difficult circumstances can very often lead to really interesting design, said Colin Booth, managing director at Placetailor, a sustainable design-and-development firm that builds to Passivhaus standards.

Indeed, celebrated architectural triumphs are often partly a product of their challenging settings. Frank Lloyd Wrights famous Fallingwater house, for example, built atop a waterfall in Mill Run, Pa., is what it is because of the site, said Beth Lundell Garver, dean of practice at Boston Architectural College. There wasnt one good boulder to put a single foundation on, and so theres sort of broken up plates of concrete foundations that are attached to the rocks like diving boards, and that is what makes Fallingwater Fallingwater a really difficult site.

Likewise, the place makes the space when looking at the Regeneration Medicine Building at the University of California San Francisco, impossibly perched on a mountainous slopeside at the edge of a eucalyptus forest in a region known for earthquakes. Its a long, narrow sliver of a site that was essentially the last piece of vacant land on the campus, said Garver, who worked on the project when she was at Rafael Violy Architects. Space trusses allow the building to hover horizontally over the forested hillside, and the team developed seismic base isolators kind of like ball joints in the ground, she explained to accommodate seismic movements.

Back in Boston, Placetailor completed a pair of projects on similarly challenging terrain in Roxbury scraps of leftover land that, until recently, may not have made financial sense for developers to build on, Booth said.

Fort House is a series of five town houses built on a narrow ledge that slopes dramatically down and ends at a century-old, 30-foot-high stone retaining wall. The structure is nestled into the hill, with the foundation pinned into the ledge at various points not an overly complicated solution for the foundation, Booth said, but certainly a precarious construction site. It was really a bit of a nightmare to build on.

Residents enter the building from Fort Avenue, up on the hill, into the middle of three floors. And each living area is on the top floor so it has views, but also so its adjacent to the roof decks above that, Booth said. In that sense, the site forced a different layout that results in beautiful, grand views.

The firm also designed and built a single-family house on nearby Highland Avenue, again on a steep slope with an upper-level entry. But this time, the structure extends out from the ledge on steel supports, thrusting the living area into the treetops. Having that slope, being able to enter, and then immediately be very high up amongst the trees, is kind of a unique thing in the city limits, to feel like youre in a forest, Booth said. Because all the foliage limits the amount of heat that can be harvested from sunlight, the windows are strategically placed to maximize views.

Land shape is, like, the least of our worries

Difficult lots are the norm in the Boston area, said Dan Skolski, owner of DMS Design. Its rare these days to find an easy site. They all have their challenges zoning, wetlands, brownfields, current buildings to remove, remnants of former buildings, waterfront regulations such as Chapter 91, ledge, he said.

One of Skolskis recent projects had a trifecta of issues: Not only did the site have steep grade changes, it also had a ridiculously large gas pipeline running beneath it. And to complicate matters further, the lot straddled city lines, with one side in Lynn and the other in Saugus.

Skolskis team split the project into two buildings, one on each side of the pipeline, and then decided to fit the entire project on the Lynn side of the lot, because to build in two towns means two sets of regulations and two sets of towns to deal with, he said. Then we had some clever grading and retaining walls to help with the topographical change and kind of use the elevation to our advantage, he said, allowing cars to enter the garage at the lower level while placing the pedestrian entrance higher up.

Oftentimes, its not natural obstacles architects are trying to overcome its the labyrinth of zoning, historical, and environmental restrictions that can vary from site to site. The land shape is, like, the least of our worries, said Marilyn Moedinger, founder of Runcible Studios.

She recently completed a project in Cambridge that required keeping the shell of an existing house just for zoning purposes. It was in the worst shape, Moedinger said of the house. But because its footprint was grandfathered in whats called a preexisting nonconforming lot any new construction would have had to be much smaller to conform to current zoning rules, building codes, and setback requirements (or how far a structure is from the property line).

Working with the gutted shell, Moedinger maximized the amount of square footage they could gain on each level by right that is, without applying for special zoning variances. The result is kind of this funky box with all these sorts of bumps and carve-outs, and each carve-out is literally the exact mathematical restriction derived from zoning, she said, adhering to both setback rules and height restrictions.

Moedinger also lifted the house off its foundation, raising the first floor by a couple of feet and deepening the shallow, dirt basement to create about 900 square feet of new living space below grade. It was a difficult and expensive job, she said, but with real estate averaging $870 per square foot in Cambridge, according to Redfin, such extreme interventions are financially viable.

Butz + Klug partner Jeffrey Klug also finds himself trying to overcome the man-made obstacles related to zoning, working on lots that are the precise size and shape of a historic brownstone. On a recent South End project, he was tasked with squeezing modern, suburban-style comforts into a 16-foot-wide shell. On one floor, we had to have two kids bedrooms, a guest bedroom, a bathroom, a laundry room, he said. How do you get all this stuff into sixteen feet by thirty-five feet?

Klug tucked two small childrens bedrooms side by side along one wall, so each has a window, and installed a big sliding door between them. That allows for a more spacious feeling when its open, he said, but if someone wants privacy, they can pull it closed. The laundry room is a long closet in the hallway, and features a clothes-drying rod that can be hoisted upward and out of the way. Some of the hardware just comes from boat catalogs, Klug said, since theyre so good at fitting more function into less space. Theres a lot of furniture that does double duty.

On a different project, a waterfront home in Gloucester, Klug had what should have been an easier lot to work with but the owner really wanted an infinity pool. Where it made sense to put the pool was inside the 100-foot buffer to the ocean, and there was no way the Conservation Commission would allow anyone to put a swimming pool in that area, and rightly so, Klug said. But he noticed there were naturally occurring vernal pools on the lot, which reminded him of something hed seen in Europe an idea of which the Conservation Commission approved: naturally filtered swimming ponds, which mimic the biological balance of alpine lakes.

In an alpine lake above the treeline, there isnt much organic matter such as falling leaves decomposing in the water, and that limits the production of phosphates. That allows tiny zooplankton to kind of take over and keep everything clear, Klug explained. To mimic that delicate ecological balance, a natural swimming pond demands more space than a normal pool: half of the area is devoted to plant- and gravel-lined filtration beds.

The plants help to draw the phosphates out of the water, too, so its quite beautiful in the right hands, Klug said. The result was breathtaking: While the homeowner was intent on having an infinity pool, he wasnt sure he would like the view in the off-season. The natural pool, however, can simply freeze over like a pond. He loves the aesthetic component of it being beautiful in all seasons.

Catherine Truman, founder of Catherine Truman Architects, is designing a home for a large, flat lot in Lincoln but the seemingly inviting lot hid some challenges, she said. Sometimes a lot that might look super, super easy may actually be more complicated, but not because of anything that you can see, Truman said. What made it super tricky is that the zoning requirements and a conservation requirement overlapped in such a way that meant you could basically, by right, only build like a ten-by-sixty-foot bowling alley.

Honoring the intent of both the zoning and environmental restrictions required a very delicate dance that proved every bit as difficult as building around a ledge, Truman said. The permitted home will be more narrow than square, if not quite the dimensions of a candlepin bowling lane. We used kind of a simple barn inspiration, so aesthetically, it was appropriate to the context and appropriate to the site and the dimensions that we were navigating, she said.

But Truman enjoys the challenges and problem-solving that comes with a tricky site. When you see these things as limitations and problems, they become problems. And if you see them as just this is what Im dealing with, they become part of the solution.

What lies beneath

In addition to zoning or environmental restrictions, many other hidden problems can plague a building site, from clay soil to excessive ground water. So Garver said anyone buying land to build on should invest in a geotechnical report even if its not something on the mind of most residential homeowners.

Theyre looking for views and proximities, and theyre not necessarily thinking, OK, let me get a geotechnical engineer on the phone so that I can run an in-depth analysis on the rock strata and the bearing capacities and slip stabilities and ground surface water, she said. But that really is kind of the best bet, is at least knowing what it is that youre getting yourself into.

That way, your architects will know what theyre dealing with, too. Designing around obstacles is all part of the job, architects said, and can sometimes result in even better work.

When we have constraints, then were sort of forced to take a closer look at everything, and then you sort of naturally iterate more, and the end result ends up being better, Moedinger said. So working within constraints is fun and challenging, and I actually really love that.

Jon Gorey blogs about homes atHouseandHammer.com. Send comments to[emailprotected]. Follow him on Twitter at@jongorey. Subscribe to our free real estate newsletter atpages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp.

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In fighting shape: Architects get creative with unlovable lots - Boston.com

In the most absolute sense, battle royale is the survival of the fittest. Not only for the players who fight so fiercely over contested territory in constricting battlegrounds, but for the developers responsible for building those spaces too. When PUBG entered Early Access in 2017, it changed the composition of modern shooters forever. In the aftermath, industry leaders like Activision, EA, and Epic have invested heavily, propelling the genre to impossible heights and have left little breathing room for others to enter the fray.

It's this hyper-competitive environment which Sharkmob will enter on April 27 with the release of its debut game for PC and PS5, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt. Carving out a space between Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Warzone won't be easy something the studio is acutely aware of. But as IP director Martin Hultberg tells it, Sharkmob is ready to bare its fangs and show the world what it can do. "Anything in life worth doing, is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards."

Moderation is for cowards. That's a massive statement of intent which could easily masquerade as the studio's mission statement. Sharkmob was formed in 2017, founded by five of the principal architects behind Tom Clancy's The Division. The studio was supposed to be an independent outfit that would release experimental action-packed, online experiences. Fast-forward five years, and Sharkmob's ambitions have outgrown its humble origins; it was acquired by Tencent in 2019, has studios located in Malmo and London, and has over 200 developers working across three projects Bloodhunt, and two unannounced new IPs being built using Unreal Engine 5. Studio co-founder Anders Holmquist tells me that his fellow founders joke that Sharkmob was "the world's worst indie studio."

That attitude informed by a confluence of ambitious AAA standards and practices is pervasive throughout the Malmo HQ, staffed by industry veterans and developers fresh out of local universities. I visited the studio anticipating carnage, just six days out from the launch of Sharkmob's free-to-play, third-person battle royale set in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. Instead, I found teams calmly working through final preparations checking systems and servers ahead of an anticipated swarm of day one players, all while other groups of developers sequestered themselves to lock down content for upcoming battle pass seasons.

"I'm a little nervous," admits Holmquist, Sharkmob's chief technical officer and the former technical director of The Division. "There's always something, that one last thing that breaks everything. But," he pauses, leaning forwards to knock his fist against the base of a wooden desk, "it's looking okay. We just got the submission pass from Sony on the day one patch, so that was quite nice."

I can understand why the Bloodhunt leadership would be a little nervous. Not only is launching a live service shooter an inherently stressful activity, but Sharkmob is about to learn whether it was right to strive for such an ambitious design with a new, untested team. "It's been quite a ride," says CEO Fredrik Rundqvist, who previously served as the executive producer on The Division and COO of Massive Entertainment. "We're in our fifth year as a company. The first two were us assembling IKEA desks, downloading Unreal for the first time, and then just trying things out. But the last three years have been very intense, and I'm super proud of what the team has accomplished."

"In six days, Bloodhunt is going to be out there," Hultberg adds, "and there's no turning back now." As you're reading this, those six days have turned into just 24 hours. Bloodhunt has gone gold, and it won't be long before you can try it yourself. It won't be long before you're sinking your teeth into Bloodhunt's unrestricted movement mechanics and deep character creation. Before you're getting a handle on Bloodhunt's combat, which walks a tightrope to find a balance between ranged engagements, melee action, and dazzling supernatural abilities. Before you drop into Bloodhunt's hyper-detailed urban playground, which Sharkmob believes may be the "most detailed PvP map ever created."

It's a bold claim that is impossible to fact check, but it feels as if it could be grounded in some type of reality. Bloodhunt is launching with one sprawling map, set in a faithful recreation of the Old Town district of Prague, and an adjacent social space dubbed the Elysium a neutral ground (and social space, which will evolve between battle pass seasons) where vampires can gather between games without fear of harm, located in a chamber beneath Prague Castle.

As fantastic as Bloodhunt is to play, and for all of the playstyle variations on offer between its seven customizable 'Archetype' classes, the game's ambition and achievement really shine through in its stunning depiction of Prague. Should you visit the city in real life, it transforms into a gothic fairytale come nightfall, making it the perfect hunting ground for a vampiric battle royale. Now that's a discovery Sharkmob probably wishes it could forget. "It was a nightmare," says Hultberg. "Like, coders and artists were fighting in the streets of Malmo about how to build this city."

It's easy to see how philosophical fights could have spilled outside the studio's doors. There's a palpable sense of tension between the artistic and programming divisions, with the former striving for a cityscape with a density of detail that can rival The Division's New York and the latter desperately trying to deliver a stable 60fps experience. "We're nerdy about fidelity. We want to make the game as beautiful as we can but obviously, it also needs to run. It's the tech people's nightmare," says one Sharkmob designer with a smile, "they love Rodrigo!"

"Nobody loves Rodrigo," retorts Rodrigo Cortes, laughing alongside his fellow founders. Cortes is Sharkmob's art director, previously working as the brand art director for The Division and the Snowdrop Engine. "We had a lot of knowledge on how to build big open-world cities and that helped us a lot in creating Bloodhunt But creating Prague was a huge undertaking. We had a small team with huge ambitions; Prague is a really cool city but very difficult to create."

Where New York is structured as blocks of buildings separated by straight roads, Prague is a different beast entirely. "There are basically no straight lines anywhere, the streets bend and twist, there are a lot of detailed and ornate buildings, and they all have different heights and unique looks," says Cortes, although this wasn't the only complication. "Another big difference was that The Division was mostly a street-level game while the Vampires of Bloodhunt can move everywhere: every roof, every terrace."

Holmquist says that being able to scale any structure was a part of the earliest proof-of-concept demos for Bloodhunt, back when he was the only programmer on the project. "You could only climb where there were drain pipes. That was where we started and we kind of built from there," he says. "Frederick usually jokes that I said, 'No, it's impossible to climb everywhere; it's going to be way too much work to make sure that it works.' And then he says that Anders came a week later, and it was working."

That's an exaggeration which speaks to the spirit behind the project. If there were problems in those early years, small teams were working to find big, transformative solutions. "I think that was one of the things that made Sharkmob work from the start. We were five people with very different areas that we were responsible for, sometimes disagreeing quite harshly. But we could always reach a consensus. And I think that the ability to find the way forward has really shaped the company," says Holmquist.

"The end result speaks for itself, I think. Prague has to be one of the most detailed multiplayer maps ever made"

With Cortes pushing to create "the most visually stunning F2P multiplayer game out there", with what he believes is "one of the most detailed multiplayer maps ever made", Sharkmob had to get creative. The studio took two trips to Prague, using photogrammetry to scan the city's statues and architecture into Unreal Engine 4 to better assist in their recreation in-game. The capacity to climb every building at any time better supported the vampire fantasy at the core of Bloodhunt, but it came at the cost of Sharkmob being able to load the map all at once, forcing the team to find creative ways to stream parts of the city in and out as you move through it at dizzying speeds.

Where battle royale maps are traditionally a balance between open terrain and contained settlements, rather than fully-rendered cityscapes, Sharkmob has had to use stark color-grading (inspired by the artistic direction of John Wick) to help players discern their locations and communicate with one another. These are just a selection of the stories I heard about the Prague map, but I think you get the idea by now. "We could have made a simpler game, but rich visuals and a stunning presentation is what Sharkmob stands for, and what we want our consumers to know us for," says Cortes.

The truth is, the Prague map is likely to be the element which helps set Bloodhunt apart from the pack in its earliest days as Sharkmob solidifies its live service and begins working with the community forming around the game following a successful Early Access period. You've never played in a battle royale space quite like it; the design of the city naturally fosters faster engagements and quicker cycles of life and death. It looks absolutely stunning on PC and PS5 too, and it's easy to lose yourself in the density of its scale and detail the sound of distant gunfire echoing through the streets is a constant reminder that death awaits at every turn.

"That's one of the reasons we decided to support Dolby Atmos and Tempest 3D audio on PS5," says audio director Simon Holm List. "Bloodhunt is all about the verticality of the city. So you need to be able to pinpoint whether someone is shooting beside you, or if a player is actually on the rooftops or beneath you."

I ask Holmquist about the push and pull between the art and technical sides of Sharkmob, ambition versus reality, and he says something that I think is telling about the studio's approach and what it is up against: "You're trying to explain that maybe we're a bit smaller right now, and we maybe don't have the resources but the ambition is still there. I think it's very hard for us to say 'stop, this is good enough', so we just keep pushing. I'm not sure how, to be honest, but we know we have to be this good, so it's a question of 'how do we get there?'"

Sharkmob knows it has to be "this good" because the battle royale market is immensely competitive. When work began on Bloodhunt, the future of the genre wasn't so certain. Sharkmob has seen it grow from an ARMA II mod to a domineering presence in the shooter scene to an honest-to-god cultural phenomenon. That success generates pressure.

"To be honest, we didn't think the battle royale could be as big as it is today," says Rundqvist, who explains that the team picked the genre for Bloodhunt because it had ignited their imaginations back in 2017. "Obviously, it's very difficult to compete with the top-line games in terms of the number of players and such. What I do think we can offer here is something that's quite different. In style, tone, maturity, and in slightly more advanced characters. So hopefully, if you're a battle royale fan, and you've been playing one or two games for a very long time, maybe you want to try something new."

Hultberg puts a point on this pressure. Every time a battle royale evolves, he explains, player expectations evolve in tandem. "You're basically going from 'look, there's a rising potential we could jump on', to 'oh shit, we missed the train.' Now it's the biggest genre on the market we went through that journey, and it's pretty awesome to see. But when you release a game, you are never compared to the original games in that genre, you're always compared to what's there right now. So we have a bunch of competitor games that have gone through multiple seasons, multiple cycles they've learned a lot, and they have a lot of content, so we're competing with that. We're not competing with what they were when they were released. We are competing with what they are now. So that's like the scariest thing with it."

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt doesn't have the vast foundation of content and iteration that titles like Apex Legends, Fortnite, PUBG, and Warzone have after years of investment, but maybe that isn't the worst thing in the world. The battle royale genre has spent five years evolving and domineering, but there is definitely space for something new. For something that brings the focus back onto combat and movement, and away from crossover events and live service spectacle that typically grabs headlines. With Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt launching on April 27, we won't have to wait long to see whether Sharkmob is fit enough to survive this battle.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt launches April 27, 2020, on PC and PS5 with cross-play support between the two platforms.

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Inside Bloodhunt: How the architects of The Division are building a better battle royale - Gamesradar

a house of undivided, wide open areas

When designing its newly completed house in Yokohama, Japanese practice Nao Iwanari Architects takes inspiration from the inside of an aquarium. The team notes that the aquarium necessarily reproduces the atmosphere of the ocean through its wide-open areas, cavernous holes, and the shady spaces beneath rocks and plants the place is defined by a range of spatial properties all combined within a continuous, unseparated area. The inward-looking world of the aquarium opens only towards the luminous surface of the water overhead.

This urban dwelling, dubbed the Aquarium House, translates the imagined experience of the occupants of an aquarium into a work of residential architecture.

images Satoshi Shigeta | @sgt_74

The team at Nao Iwanari Architects (see more here) describes the spirit of its Aquarium House: An urban dwelling that requires multiple layers to be established. If we can develop such a space as underwater, I thought it would be possible to create a spacious place to live without feeling cramped.

When you put yourself inside the actual building, it looks like underwater Spaces in each layer with different properties are connected without breaks, when I was invited by the light that shines from the top to the bottom and went up, it reaches a semi-external space surrounded by walls on all four sides and only the upper part is open.

The upper end of the wall opened above it is like the surface of the water looking up from the water. Feel like you are in the most open zone. It is a residential building that gets closer to the outside as it gets farther from the ground.

the dwelling opens overhead with a luminous zone

the spaces of the house are connected without breaks

occupants move fluidly through the dwelling

some areas recreate the shady zone beneath plants or rocks

Originally posted here:
nao iwanari translates the fluidity of an aquarium into this house in japan - Designboom

Before architect William Fletcher was celebrated as one of Portlands most influential midcentury modern designers, he and his then wife, Joyce, moved into Fletchers first creation: A revolutionary looking, almost transparent dwelling built in 1954 on two forested acres near the Willamette River.

After 68 years, the family home is for sale for the first time: 10803 S. Riverside Drive in Riverdale, between Portland and Lake Oswego, was listed on April 25 at $1,250,000 by Lance George Marrs of Portland Modern Real Estate.

Marrs rightfully refers to the residence as an architectural gem.

Fletcher family members say Joyce, a photographer and painter, selected the location and William (Bill) designed the open floor plan with floor-to-ceiling windows that dissolve the boundaries between inside and out.

Soon, the avant-garde two-story with cork floors and planked ceilings was showcased in The Oregonian and national publications as well as the 1959 book, The Second Treasury of Contemporary Houses.

Midcentury modern enthusiasts will be attracted to this home and acreage, says Marrs, which he adds is on a short list of properties genuinely coveted in the Northwest modernism designed by William Fletcher.

Bill Fletcher, a second-generation Oregonian influenced by modernist trailblazer, German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and the spare International Style movement, designed a limited number of houses.

But architectural experts say his work is timeless due to its graceful geometric forms, highly livable layouts and carefully positioned windows and skylights that draw in natural light.

Here, clerestory windows add to the sense of lightness, as if elements are floating. The house with 2,298 square feet of living space also has a long, concrete fireplace hearth in the living room and three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

With a degree from the University of Oregons School of Architecture, Fletcher first set up shop in the basement of his home in 1955.

A year later, he shared a downtown studio at Southwest 14th Avenue and Columbia Street with architects Donald Blair and Saul Zaik as well as other members of the fabled 14th Street Gang of outliers designing intentionally pared-down buildings in the Pacific Northwest.

In the 1960s, Fletcher partnered with architect Curt Finch, and a decade later, with Dale Farr and Hal Ayotte at a Portland-based firm now known as FFA Architecture and Interiors, Inc., which continues to design sustainable residential and commercial projects.

Early commercial projects include Black Butte Ranch residential resort near Sisters and Rex Hill winery in Newberg, where Fletcher famously dedicated a space for a steel sculpture by Lee Kelly.

Aidy Bryant as "Annie Easton" (center) talks to Lolly Adefope ("Fran") and Luka Jones ("Ryan") inside Portland's 1959 Wedgwood Home of Tomorrow in a scene in Shrill. Hulu

The 1959 Wedgwood Home of Tomorrow that Fletcher conceived with Blair in Northeast Portlands Hazelwood neighborhood was used as a film location for Shrill, a comedy series starring Aidy Bryant and streaming on Hulu.

The experimental model home, with an incredibly lightweight folded-plate roof, prefabricated panels and suspended fireplace, earned a merit award from the American Institute of Architects during the halcyon days of midcentury architecture.

The house, often misspelled Wedgewood, was listed for sale at $639,000 on Jan. 12, 2021, and sold a month later for $77,000 over the asking price.

In 2017, the statewide historic preservation organization Restore Oregon dedicated its annual Mid-Century Modern Tour to Fletchers attractive, ground-breaking structures.

Restore Oregons first book, Oregon Made, A Tour of Regional Mid-Century Modern Architecture ($35 at restoreoregon.org), includes a chapter on Fletchers talent at balancing the allure of transparent walls with the need for privacy.

Bill, whose friends said was a detailed-oriented, jazz drumming rebel, died in 1998. Joyce, a graduate of Cornell University in New York who traveled throughout her life to understand world cultures, died in January 2022.

Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

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Three levels, big views, seven offers in a week: Portland architects house for sale for the first time

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Two Pearl District townhouses in former train station are for sale, starting at $1,575,000

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Midcentury modern architect William Fletchers first Portland house is for sale for the first time - OregonLive

Brian Libby: Given that Death by Design at Alcatraz is a mystery, did you know who the killer was before you started?

Anthony Poon: No. I had no arc. At first, I was writing about a character. Then I decided to kill this person off. I was probably a good halfway through writing the novel, and I still didnt know what the ending was.

Youve probably heard the phrase that writers often fall into two categories: the planner or pantser. A planner would be someone like J.K. Rowling, having the entire seven-book Harry Potter series arced out and the characters outlined before she started writing. Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants and include people like Stephen King. In interviews, King just says, Look, if you need to plan your book, then youre not a writer. Some of his books are better than others, but he just writes and sees where it takes him. I feel the same way.

The question of rigid composition versus improvising also relates to being a pianist. Could you talk about that?

Growing up, my training was classical music. Its this process of aiming for perfection, a flawless performance. Playing a piano sonata, there are a hundred thousand notes and youve got to hit them all right. If I would get one note off, my piano teacher would say, That whole performance is ruined. But what I really got interested in was something beyond technical proficiency. Youve got to be able to add a voice, a story, some kind of narrative to what youre performing. Thats what I eventually learned about jazz. It blew my mind that these pianists would just sit at the keyboard and start making things up. I was at a performance called The Jazz Bakery, where the pianist asked the audience to throw out numbers between one and eight. Then he associated those with notes on the keyboard because there are eight notes in an octave. Through that, he started to improvise and build a song, and his ensemble jumped in. It was incredible.

Your thesis at Harvard was about how jazz improvisation informs the architecture process. What did you learn?

Architecture is very methodical. It takes a long time to produce a building. There are a lot of practical considerationscode, budget, square footage. You cant just whip out a building the way a jazz musician would whip out a piece. But in the creative process, I always ask: Why cant we just grab colors and make an idea? Why cant we just have this sort of jazz-like conversation of bouncing ideas and just grab something from that, and make that the basis of an entire building design, whether its a library or museum or a house?

Lets go back to this question of architecture and narrative. Could you talk about the importance of storytelling in design?

Its all about communication. Everything that I do creativelypainting, music, writing, architectureis all a form of language. In architecture, we look to our clientswho they are and what they areto craft a story. If its a family, we want to know how they celebrate the holidays, if the in-laws stay with them, whether they have dogs. And thats the story we tell when we design a house. For designing a school, we ask: whats the educational methodology? How do the teachers teach? How do the students learn? Same thing when we do an office: whats the corporate culture, whats the mission statement? And obviously, when we do a religious project, there is an entire set of beliefs that need to be somehow expressed in architecture. Whats exciting about music and architecture, and what makes them different from writing, is that they are abstract. Its kind of open-ended communication.

Besides being a mystery, Death by Design at Alcatraz reads like a satire of architects and their clients. Did you enjoy puncturing egos a little bit? After all, in your memoir, Sticks & Stones | Steel & Glass, you write about realizing you didnt want to design big arenas and corporate projectsyou wanted to design more intimate spaces for people.

Well, its funny the timing of your question. I just came back from Modernism Week in Palm Springs, where I did a presentation on ego and arrogance. The lecture was saying that society has granted us architects a tremendous amount of influence and power. And the question is what have we done with it? Whats also interesting about your question, though, is I didnt think of Death by Design at Alcatraz as a satire. Maybe the developer is an amalgam of two or three actual clients blended together. But these architects, theyre all people I know.

What we talk about at my firm is that good design belongs to everyone. It could be a restaurant where everyone can go and eat. It could be a design of a bench. It could be a corporate headquarters or a public school. There isnt any specific kind of project that I seek. Its more about harnessing the talents that my team brings, and then reaching as many people as possible.

Where do you stand on the introvert-extrovert scale? Because architecture, especially when you get to a certain scale, is teamwork. Painting, which youre also acclaimed for, is a more solitary activity.

Im probably somewhere in the middle but skewing a little towards the extrovert side. Some of these art forms are solo explorations, but I dont see the art being complete until it reaches the audience. The enjoyment for me comes from people engaging the art, or better yet, if its going to hang in their living room or their conference room. Thats the completion of the artistic arc.

With any kind of artist, both introversion and extroversion are tapped. In architecture, for example, the introverted, introspective, self-examining qualities usually launch the design process, and the extroverted side leads a team, sells the idea to a client, and supports the creative ego.

In Sticks & Stones | Steel & Glass, you described how San Franciscos Portsmouth Square in Chinatown inspired you to become a designer. The park dates to 1833, but its 1963 redesign was derided at the time for raising the park to fit a parking garage underneath. What made it special to you, and the community?

I would answer that question with a question: Isnt it incredible that it is a parking structure and an extraordinary park? A structure like this would often be an eyesore. But they found a way to maintain an active plaza on top. It acts like a blank canvas, and you watch the community paint their life onto this canvas, whether its old men gathering together to play chess or children playing on the play equipment. It was across the street from the church that I went to as a kid. Its just that kind of wonderful, idyllic place that you dont imagine would be in such a dense area. Im looking at Portsmouth Square, not as an architect fetishizing its design, but as what it offers to the community: to have a Tai Chi class at 5:00 in the morning, a wedding there at noon, and kids running around in between. Thats the power of architecture.

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Whether it's Music, Painting, or Writing, Architect Anthony Poon Has a Story to Tell - Metropolis Magazine

The week moves on here as FC Dallas begins to put the Texas Derby behind them and begins to prepare for another rival in Kansas City this weekend.

// FC Dallas //

Catch out the latest Big D After Dark podcast show here:

FC Dallas Announces Official Watch Party Series Presented by Heineken | FC DallasWatch parties are back for another year when FCD is on the road, starting this weekend.

// MLS //

Chance creators: Who are the architects of MLS's most dangerous moments? | MLSSoccer.comEven though FCD is scoring goals at a good rate so far this season, they don't have one of those architects like this list shows.

Mixed results so far in 2022 for Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto | US Soccer PlayersMontreal and Toronto are improving in the Eastern Conference, but the Vancouver Whitecaps are already running into trouble in the West.

Loss was reminder to Sounders to never let their guard down - Sounder At HeartSounders had never before lost a game they led by two goals until this past weekend, which could be a good wake-up call for them as they head into the CCL finals.

LAFC sign Nathan Ordaz to homegrown contract - Angels on ParadeI keep having to remind myself that teams like LAFC are still fairly new here and that their academies are also pretty new too. Just the fourth HGP signing by them.

Major League Soccer has to hold its TV partners to a higher standard - Dynamo TheoryHouston fans are still feeling the sting from the Memo Rodriguez free kick that looked like a goal on some angles. I do agree though with this that TV partners need to all be using the same stuff, so if one has a goal-line camera, they all should.

Columbus Crew tactical review: Black & Gold ends losing streak at Sporting Kansas City - Massive ReportAfter being beaten in their last four games, the Crew secured a positive result using tactics that were out of character for the team.

Revs desperately searching for consistency in 2022 - The Bent MusketThe Revs haven't been themselves this season, or at least a version of themselves that earned a Supporters' Shield trophy last year.

Link:
Tuesday Links: FC Dallas notes, who are the best architects in MLS - Big D Soccer