Director Liam Young explains why "we must all actively shape and define" the future with architecture and film-making in this video of his keynote at Dezeen Day.
Young, a film director who calls himself a "speculative architect", was one of three keynote speakers at Dezeen's inaugural conference on 30 October.
At the event he explained his use of film-making techniques to visualise the impact of emerging technologies on the future of the planet.
During his lecture, Young explained that prototyping "the subcultural implications of all possible futures" in this way is a one of the key roles of a designer, as it can "help us understand our own world in new ways" and prepare for coming times.
"I don't design buildings, but rather instead I tell stories and employ the techniques of popular media to explore ideas about the architectural, urban and cultural implications of new technologies," he explained.
"I hope that by understanding these technologies, and all the various futures that they set in motion, that we may become more critical consumers and producers of our own kinds of futures."
To introduce his ideas, Young began by showing the audience a number of snippets of "other worlds" in the science fiction films that he has directed.
As the films rolled, Young explained that "these types of stories can start helping us ask more questions of the technologies that are going to define our lives, our spaces and our cities".
"The future is not something that rushes over us like water. It's something we all must actively shape and define," Young added, before asking the audience "are we a customer or a citizen in the futures that were designing?".
Speaking to Dezeen's founder Marcus Fairs after his presentation, Young explained that his unconventional approach as a designer was the result of an interest in "architecture that had the capacity to effect change".
"What I was trying to do here and what we try and do a lot with our work is explore ways that as designers, we can use the tools of fiction and speculation to try and preempt what might come so that we're not just kind of waiting in line for the next iPhone to be released," said Young.
"We can actually start to scaffold ways to think about how we might get the technologies that we want, as opposed to the technologies that can potentially be sold," he concluded.
The other keynote speakers at during Dezeen Day, which was sponsored by Grohe and took place at at BFI Southbank, were Paola Antonelli and artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.
There were also five panel talks at the inaugural Dezeen Day event. During the discussion about post-plastic materials, designers Arthur Mamou-Mani and Nienke Hoogvliet disagreed over whether or not we can live without plastic.
The American Institute of Architects has called on members to sign an open letter to the Trump Administration after a plan to introduce an order that all federal buildings should be built in the "classical architectural style" was discovered.
The AIA said that it "strongly and unequivocally" opposed the change, which would also affect federal public buildings costing over $50 million (£38 million).
"A top-down directive on architectural style"
"The AIA strongly condemns the move to enforce a top-down directive on architectural style," the organisation wrote in the open letter.
"Design decisions should be left to the designer and the community, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC," it added. "All architectural styles have value and all communities have the right to weigh in on the government buildings meant to serve them."
According to the AIA, "classical architecture" as defined by the White House is derived from classical Greek and Roman architecture. There are some "allowances for 'traditional architectural style'", which include Gothic, Romanesque, and Spanish colonial.
Any references to Brutalism, the controversial style that only dates back to the 1950s, would be banned entirely.
"High bar" of new order would limit exceptions
While the guidelines for Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again allow for the inclusion of some other architectural styles, the AIA said that the rules are so stringent they would limit creativity.
"The high bar required to satisfy the process described within the executive order would all but restrict the ability to design the federal buildings under this order in anything but the preferred style," the added AIA.
The new order – which is named after Trump's campaign slogan Make America Great Again – comes in contrast to Moynihan's guidelines, which call for the "finest contemporary American architectural thought".
"Design must flow from the architectural profession to the Government"
"The development of an official style must be avoided," the guidelines read. "Design must flow from the architectural profession to the Government and not vice versa."
The order is among a number of political issues that the AIA and the Trump Administration have locked heads over, including the climate treaty withdrawal and his immigration policies.
Late last year, it called for Trump to reverse his "shortsighted decision" to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement amid the global climate crisis.
Read the full statement from the AIA below:
The AIA learned several months ago that there is a draft executive order being circulated by the Trump Administration for consideration by agency officials that would officially designate "classical" architecture as the preferred style of all U.S. federal courthouses.
We have voiced our fervent opposition directly to the White House and officials in the relevant agencies. Additionally, all federal public buildings in the Capital region would be required to adhere to the same "classical" style (and all other federal public buildings whose costs exceed $50 million in modern dollars). The AIA strongly and unequivocally opposes this change in policy to promote any one style of architecture over another for federal buildings across the country.
The draft executive order defines "classical architectural style" to mean architectural features derived from classical Greek and Roman architecture. There are some allowances for "traditional architectural style" which is defined to mean classical architecture along with Gothic, Romanesque, and Spanish colonial. The draft executive order specifically prohibits the use of Brutalist architecture, or its derivatives, in any circumstance.
Except for Brutalism, there is some language in the draft executive order that would allow for other architectural styles to be used. However, the high bar required to satisfy the process described within the executive order would all but restrict the ability to design the federal buildings under this order in anything but the preferred style.
The AIA strongly condemns the move to enforce a top-down directive on architectural style. Design decisions should be left to the designer and the community, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC. All architectural styles have value and all communities have the right to weigh in on the government buildings meant to serve them.
On 28 January, we were called to an all-school meeting in the Atrium on the grounds of Taliesin West, our campus, with dean Aaron Betsky. He didn't initially tell us why. This was following both a formal evening, which is a Wright established tradition, on 25 January, and a School of Architecture at Taliesin board of governors meeting that same morning.
With students and faculty present, we heard Aaron Betsky announce that the school is closing following the end of this semester, and arrangements will be made for students to transfer into Arizona State University to complete their degree if desired. The upperclassmen will finish up their degrees at the end of this semester and will be the last architects trained at the Taliesin School of Architecture.
I am a first-year student just beginning a form of learning that is unique in itself
The school board seems to be between a rock and a hard place, as they are very passionate about this type of learning. They even explored making a new "Taliesin School of Architecture" at another site. But through this process, the school board found it beyond their means to fulfill this option.
The cause of our closure is due to a financial condition that we are unable to sustain, basically our rent is too high. The school is separate from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the entity that owns and controls both of our "campus" sites at Taliesin and Taliesin West.
I am a first-year student just beginning to form a strong bond with my fellow classmates, engaging in a form of learning that is unique in itself. The times here are uncertain for many of us as we now find ourselves contemplating where to go; maybe to another school, maybe to another job, or maybe to our parents' basement.
What is certain is it will not be here, not learning in the ways established by Frank Lloyd Wright and his apprentices, not exploring some uncertain place in the study of architecture.
The greatness of this place exists not in the physical embodiment of the buildings themselves, but in the profound ideas that created them
The problem to me seems to be one of place, initially for us. But the problem is much greater than this singular event, which has not fully revealed itself. To me, and maybe others, the greatness of this place exists not in the physical embodiment of the buildings themselves, but in the profound ideas that created them.
These ideas have the power to resound through time, influencing many people of all ages, all over the world. The buildings themselves will eventually fade, deteriorate, and become lost to time, but the idea remains.
More simply put is the question, is it a greater offense to destroy all of the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, or all of the ideas that he established? In my view, the idea is the object of value. The school is the last remaining purveyor of that idea, and the vehicle that pursues it. Signifying the closing of the School of Architecture at Taliesin also signifies the closing of ideals of learning established by Wright.
I imagine the way Taliesin will look in our absence, the studios vacant of students once in desk crits or working on a Rhino model, pursuing the conceptual future of architecture. These places will be empty and silent, properly curated with period-correct artefacts, stuffed manikins made to look like the apprentices who studied under Wright. But not us, we will not be here.
Without the continuation of this tradition, the work of Wright, at its principle and ideal level, will cease to exist
Recently, my fellow students and I tried to determine what commonly connects us all as students at Taliesin. I believe it is the greatness of the statement that Wright made that reached us all in this generation. We were drawn to the power of his idea and way of learning.
In asking all of the other current students, they were more directly drawn here by a similar figure that stands for this idea, Aaron Betsky. These people and ideas still exist here and are self-sustaining. But without the continuation of this tradition, through these people and the pursuit of architecture, the work of Wright, at its principle and ideal level, will cease to exist.
But is this the way it should be? At the time of his passing Wright was concerned with this now-reality; the focus on the physical and not the core ideal. This concern was to the degree that Wright contemplated the destruction of Taliesin to prevent it from becoming a museum, stuck in time. The focus being on the physical and not the nature of the place, one that is of constant change, experimentation, and a far reach into the conceptual future.
Maybe it is time that Taliesin changes again, and in true experimental fashion, we move from this place that has become more museum than laboratory. We fully embody the nature of this place and start somewhere else. This may be the only way to preserve and continue the great ideas that have inspired many of us to be where we are today. If there is anyone with great means and fortitude that can fully envision this reality, we have a just cause and a great passion to continue now and for the generations to come. But the time is now, otherwise this is the end of Frank Lloyd Wright's way of learning architecture.
Statement from the author: these are my personal views as I experienced them as a human being, not a student of The School of Architecture at Taliesin, or any other student, or in any association with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Photograph is courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Dezeen promotion: École des Ponts ParisTech has launched Build'in, a platform that reflects the university's move towards digital technologies, as the construction industry changes.
Five years of research on digital construction by the Navier Laboratory – one of 12 labs at École des Ponts ParisTech – lead to the launch of the Build'in technological platform.
The platform was developed to tackle the challenges of digitalising construction through open innovation and an interdisciplinary research approach. The aim is to address the changing needs of the industry and the necessary qualifications for those seeking employment.
Researchers at Build'in are therefore able to collaborate with other parts of the school, and benefit from its industrial equipment, such as six-axis robots and a concrete extruder.
The research topics undertaken include new construction materials, 3D-printing processes, timber construction and environmentally-compatible structural design.
The Design by Data masters course, which was launched in 2016, takes advantage of the Build'in platform, and is one of the university's most recent programmes in innovative professional education.
The course has responded to a shift in the architecture and construction industry that has seen digital construction methods become increasingly more prominent.
"In the last five years, École des Ponts ParisTech dramatically shifted its approach to research and education to keep up with the most recent disruptions in digital technologies for architecture and construction," said the university.
"This led to the set up in 2016 of the first Executive Master in Computational Design Design by Data."
The 16-month-long programme takes place in a number of locations in Paris. It is an "executive" part-time course requiring participants to undertake one week of training per month over the course of 11 months, before completing a thesis at the end of the course.
The professional thesis can address one of three types of subjects, including a business subject, an entrepreneurship or startup project, or a research subject.
Design by Data sets out to train students in advanced design tools such as coding, algorithmic approach and artificial intelligence. Digital manufacturing and design processes like robotics, 3D printing, electronics and mechatronics, as applied to architectural and construction projects, are also included.
Students also have the opportunity to develop their knowledge of digital culture, advanced mathematics, computational strategies and modelling and managing complex geometries.
The course encourages a process-oriented approach to design, based on theory of genetic optimisation and the use of environmental data in architecture.
In addition to the core curriculum, attendees take part in two week-long seminars on parametric design. The first week focuses on imagined and artificial intelligence, while the second looks at an agent-based design approach.
They also attend a research studio class once per month, which is intended to give them time to define and develop their research project.
The next round of applications for the Design by Data masters programme for the academic year 2020/2021 close on 18 February 2020. Next year's courses will begin in September 2020 and finish in July 2021.
Candidates must hold a four/five-year higher education qualification: Bac + 5, or Bac + 4 with professional experience, and a good knowledge of 3D modeling is required.
The Design by Data programme boasts a strong international dimension, with more than 15 nationalities represented.
While the majority of the students have architectural or engineering backgrounds, the school's academic board also pays attention to selecting "atypical" candidates such as artists, designers and real-estate professionals.
Founded in 1747, École des Ponts ParisTech is a higher education establishment that trains engineers to a high level of scientific, technical and general competency.
Its Graduate School department also offers various Masters and PhD programs in mechanical and civil engineering, materials sciences, nuclear engineering, mathematics, information technology, environmental sciences, urban planning, transportation, economics, and sociology.
When Karen Jerzyk (previously) decided to photograph people donning ghost costumes, she was well aware of the outfit’s reputation in mainstream culture. “I know the sheet-ghost image has been used a million times before, in countless applications,” she tells Colossal, “but it was October and the timing was perfect and I always loved the simplicity and character of sheet-ghosts.”
At the time, the Boston-based artist was making a quick stop between trips to Florida and California at Yellow Dog Village, an abandoned neighborhood in Pennsylvania. Enthralled with its dilapidated homes and gravel roads, Jerzyk posed her sheet-covered model in the village, starting a new trend in her own uncanny work.
It instantly makes me think of my childhood, and there’s something magical about it—if you were a kid growing up with no resources to get or make a halloween costume (I was never that kid, but always had friends that were, and helped many make their costumes over the years), there was ALWAYS a way to be a ghost.
Since Yellow Dog, Jerzyk has brought her simple costume to rural areas around the northeast United States, creating unsettling images of a single figure posed against a gloomy, neglected backdrop. This specter-centered project is easier to create when traveling than her previous work, Jerzyk says, because anyone can become the haunting figure, including herself, although she hasn’t done that yet. “It’s a character someone can instantly be anywhere,” she says.
The artist has photographed multiple friends, who are all masked by the white sheet with cut-out eye holes. She even convinced her mother to pose in front of an abandoned home in New Hampshire in the midst of Christmas preparations. To keep up with Jerzyk’s haunting adventures, follow her on Instagram and take a look at more of her work on Behance.
Jerzyk’s friend Deana in front of Haunted Overload in New Hampshire
Jerzyk’s mother in front of an abandoned house in New Hampshire
Jerzyk’s boyfriend Brian the night after a huge 24-hour snowstorm
Jerzyk’s friend Michelle in front of an abandoned house in a small town
Jerzyk’s friend Kyle on a foggy day along the coast of northeastern Massachusetts
Jerzyk’s friend Kyle in northeastern Massachusetts
Jerzyk’s friend Deana in a motel bathroom in northern New Hampshire
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