Architecture

Illustrated talks by architects and related designers. This continuing archive, to which new talks are being added regularly, is a unique library of contemporary attitudes.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has long been at the forefront of design. The interdisciplinary design firm, founded in 1979, first stirred interest with its provocative exhibitions of theoretically based projects that blurred the boundaries between art and architecture. In 1999, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, the firm's founding principals, were awarded the prestigious "genius" grant by the MacArthur Foundation, in recognition of their commitment to integrating architecture with issues of contemporary culture.

Generally acknowledged as one of the most artistically-minded architects practicing today, Steven Holl completed, in 2007, a museum considered the apex of his 33-year career: the Bloch Building for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

The film not only examines the thinking behind Aqua which makes the building's presence against the skyline so striking, but takes visitors to the award-winning "Brick Weave House" (2009) in a Chicago residential neighborhood, where brick walls form a large open-air "screened porch" at the house's front.

The Design of the James B. Hunt Jr. Library, South Mountain Community Library, & Seattle Central Library

The Design of the Health Sciences Education Building in Phoenix, AZ, Yale Health Center, & Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health

Phyllis Lambert, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Denise Scott Brown - four trailblazers who became accustomed to being the only woman in the room. Each has an extensive list of accomplishments in architecture, planning and landscape architecture dating back 60+ years and has taught, mentored and inspired generations of professionals. Since the 1950's, they have worked for and collaborated with some of the leading figures in architecture, from Le Corbusier to Louis Kahn and Mies van der Rohe, while finding their own voices in the male-dominated world of architecture. How have they envisioned our cities?

As an architect, educator, and philosopher, Louis Kahn played a prominent role in the history of 20th century architecture. An examination of six of his most significant buildings gives insight to his unique vision: The Salk Institute in La Jolla; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth; the Center for British Art in New Haven; the library at Philips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire; the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the Parliament Buildings of Bangladesh in Dhaka.

Arata Isozaki is one of the most innovative and influential architects working today. In this video, released in 1985, he visits his most significant early buildings in Japan from the period 1960-1983. The extraordinary series of architectural breakthroughs made during this time contributed significantly to the evolution of contemporary architecture worldwide, and eventually gained him his first foreign commission: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.