GSAPP Conversations

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with Mimi Hoang and Eric Bunge, founding partners of nARCHITECTS. Hoang and Bunge are Adjunct Assistant Professors at Columbia GSAPP, where they teach Core Architecture Studios. In this episode, they discuss the need to rethink a building’s interaction with the city and its occupants, teaching students to consider typological, social, and economic units in new ways, and finding an alternative way of presenting their office in print – as a project in itself, rather than a through a series of projects – with their forthcoming book “Buildings and Almost Buildings”. 

“Carmel Place is trying to reflect and respond to how we have changed — how the family structure has changed, how the demographics of cities have changed. All of that is pushing against our known assumptions of how we live. It was an extremely inspiring act to inset architecture into these much larger discussions about housing policy, zoning codes, etc., and to really insert architecture as a necessary act to respond to change.”

—Mimi Hoang on nARCHITECT's modular housing project for Kips Bay, New York.

nARCHITECTS: http://narchitects.com/

Carmel Place: https://www.aia.org/showcases/25486-carmel-place

James Brillon, third-year M.Arch student at Columbia GSAPP, speaks with Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa of Ensamble Studio on the occasion of their lecture at the school on September 25, 2017.

They discuss the firm’s recent participation in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the need for embedding localized notions of prefabrication in the design process, and the beneficial ways in which simultaneously working in rural and urban contexts can inform and influence the other.

Ensamble describe their Chicago Tribune Tower project for the biennial – the Big Bang Tower – as an opportunity to challenge the relationship between a tower’s core and shell in order to create a new typology with a permeable structural perimeter expressing urbanity: “a column of columns”. They also describe the experience of working in the expansive western landscape of Montana for the Tippet Rise Art Center, where the perception and role of the building continually changes with the light, season, and climate.

Ensamble has offices in Madrid, Spain, and Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to their architectural practice, Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa lead the POPlab (Prototypes of Prefabrication Research Laboratory) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).

The full lecture can be viewed at: www.arch.columbia.edu/events/724-ensamble

Ensamble Studio information: https://www.ensamble.info

James Brillon, third-year M.Arch student at Columbia GSAPP, speaks with Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa of Ensamble Studio on the occasion of their lecture at the school on September 25, 2017.

They discuss the firm’s recent participation in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the need for embedding localized notions of prefabrication in the design process, and the beneficial ways in which simultaneously working in rural and urban contexts can inform and influence the other.

Ensamble describe their Chicago Tribune Tower project for the biennial – the Big Bang Tower – as an opportunity to challenge the relationship between a tower’s core and shell in order to create a new typology with a permeable structural perimeter expressing urbanity: “a column of columns”. They also describe the experience of working in the expansive western landscape of Montana for the Tippet Rise Art Center, where the perception and role of the building continually changes with the light, season, and climate.

Ensamble has offices in Madrid, Spain, and Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to their architectural practice, Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa lead the POPlab (Prototypes of Prefabrication Research Laboratory) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).

The full lecture can be viewed at: www.arch.columbia.edu/events/724-ensamble (http://www.arch.columbia.edu/events/724-ensamble)

Ensamble Studio information: https://www.ensamble.info

Justin Romeo, a second year Urban Planning student at Columbia GSAPP, speaks with Meng Yan of Urbanus on the occasion of his lecture at the school on September 18, 2017.

They discuss the relationship between research and design in the Urbanus office, and Meng Yan's plans for the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, which he is co-curating in Shenzhen in December 2017.

URBANUS was founded in 1999 by partners Liu Xiaodu, Wang Hui and Meng Yan, and is recognized as one of the most influential architecture practices in China. The firm focuses on urban realities in their research and built projects, seeking architectural solutions to emerging urban problems.

Watch the full lecture at: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/events/723-urbanus

Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture: http://en.szhkbiennale.org

URBANUS information: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/

Justin Romeo, a second year Urban Planning student at Columbia GSAPP, speaks with Meng Yan of Urbanus on the occasion of his lecture at the school on September 18, 2017.

They discuss the relationship between research and design in the Urbanus office, and Meng Yan's plans for the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, which he is co-curating in Shenzhen in December 2017.

URBANUS was founded in 1999 by partners Liu Xiaodu, Wang Hui and Meng Yan, and is recognized as one of the most influential architecture practices in China. The firm focuses on urban realities in their research and built projects, seeking architectural solutions to emerging urban problems.

Watch the full lecture at: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/events/723-urbanus

Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture: http://en.szhkbiennale.org

URBANUS information: http://www.urbanus.com.cn/

Paul Makovsky of Metropolis Magazine speaks with four recent members of the GSAPP Incubator: Michelle Young, Untapped Cities; Bika Rebek, SibilaSoon; Lauren Johnson, QSPACE; and Chris Barley, Consortia. They discuss their respective projects, how these were developed during their time at the Incubator, and what is coming up next in their work.

Paul Makovsky of Metropolis Magazine speaks with four recent members of the GSAPP Incubator: Michelle Young, Untapped Cities; Bika Rebek, SibilaSoon; Lauren Johnson, QSPACE; and Chris Barley, Consortia. They discuss their respective projects, how these were developed during their time at the Incubator, and what is coming up next in their work.

ArchDaily's Editor-at-Large James Taylor-Foster speaks with Tomas Koolhaas prior to his screening of the film REM at Columbia GSAPP on September 7, 2017. Tomas Koolhaas, the LA-based son of Rem Koolhaas, speaks about the process of conceiving, producing, and directing the film over the course of four years.

ArchDaily's Editor-at-Large James Taylor-Foster speaks with Tomas Koolhaas prior to his screening of the film REM at Columbia GSAPP on September 7, 2017. Tomas Koolhaas, the LA-based son of Rem Koolhaas, speaks about the process of conceiving, producing, and directing the film over the course of four years.

Dean Amale Andraos speaks with GSAPP Associate Professor Laura Kurgan, who directs the school's Visual Studies curriculum and the Center for Spatial Research. Her work explores subjects ranging from digital mapping technologies to the ethics and politics of mapping, and the art, science and visualization of data. They discuss the Center for Spatial Research's recently completed Brain Index, a large-scale interactive installation for Columbia University's Mind, Brain, Behavioral Institute, as well as Kurgan's ongoing research project Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo.