On Friday, February 13, 2015 I will team with Eryk "The Arch-E-Tect" Christian to deliver a lecture at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning titled, "LeCorbusier, The Forefather of Hip Hop?". The lecture focuses on the subconscious contributions of famed architects and urban planners to the environments which necessitated the birth of hip hop culture. This lecture will culminate with urban culture’s influence on the architectural profession through three interconnected realms: academic research, professional practice and media, ultimately introducing a new architectural style, one inspired by hip hop culture.
Read MoreSalt-N-Pepa + Architecture = Berlin's nhow Music Hotel
Europe’s first music hotel is here - in the heart of Berlin. Located directly on the banks of the river Spree, and at the epicentre of the music, fashion and creative scene, a new lifestyle hotel that has yet to meet its match in Europe: the nhow Berlin. The nhow Berlin is located right next to Universal Music and MTV Europe.
Read MoreEnd to End Office Building - ITN Architects
Big thanks to my big homie, Zvi Belling of ITN Architects in Melbourne for sharing project imagery of his End to End Project which the second of three architectural projects based on hip hop culture. The first in the series, The Hive, has received acclaim around the world as Zvi used graffiti as a permanent, structural element as opposed to a temporal, surface application serving aesthetic purposes.
Read MoreThe Hive Apartments
Big thanks to my homie Zvi Belling at ITN Architects in Melbourne for providing me with images of The Hive. I applaud Zvi for using graffiti as a structural element within the facade transitioning it from a temporal, surface application typically serving aesthetic purposes only.
Read MoreHip Hop at 2014 Detroit Design Festival
On September 24, 2014 as part of the 2014 Detroit Design Festival I will give a lecture at titled "Hip Hop Inspired Architecture" at the University of Detroit's School of Architecture.
Date: September 24, 2014
Reception: 5:00pm
Lecture: 6:00pm
See Detroit Design Festival's full lineup here.
The main goals of the lecture are to:
1. Increase the awareness of the social responsibilities of architects and urban planners.
2. Encourage individuals of the profession's underrepresented groups to pursue a career in architecture.
3. Provide tools to increase the recruitment and retention rates of minorities in schools of architecture across the country.
4. Blast some hip hop in the middle of an architecture school!
Quote of The Day - Kanye West
Architecture + Robots + Music = My Days as an Adjunct Professor at University of Detroit
My passion for merging music and architecture has followed me throughout my professional career and I have shared that passion with everyone that I have come across. The project below is the work of one of my former students, who was visiting America as a Polish Exchange Student, Monika Michalik. During my time as an adjunct professor at The University of Detroit's School of Architecture I taught two undergraduate architectural graphics courses each semester which focused on Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit and Autodesk 3ds Max. For a well rounded experience in architectural graphics, I also incorporated various components from the Adobe Creative Suite, with an emphasis on Adobe Premier to assist students in the editing and production of architectural videos and animations created during the course.
Read MoreGetty Works with Ice Cube To Celebrate Eames
I've blogged on several occasions about Ice Cube receiving a degree in architectural drafting prior to NWA's success. He has continued to show his love and affection for the profession in a variety of ways, including his involvement Getty, as they released a celebration of Charles and Ray Eames. Below is the recreation of the Classic Eames shot in the extremely rare DAT-1 chair created by Eames in 1953. See my previous post "Ice Cube Celebrates the Eames" for a video tour of South Central LA and Ice Cube's reflection on Eames in a style that only Cube can pull off!
Read MoreFreelon Group Purchased by Perkins + Wil?
As I scrolled through my work emails today in an effort to find some contact information, I came across an email from a few weeks ago titled, "Did Perkins + Wil Just Freelon Group?" I remember reading this email from a friend and the flurry of emails which came immediately after from individuals included on the message. Some individuals collectively responding with a resounding NOOOOOOOOO! Just a few days later this official press release was posted to Phil Freelon's website by Sarah Sheehey, Perkins + Wil's public relations manager.
I have no idea what the ramifications of such an acquisition will be on other minority practitioners in the long term only time will tell. We should not view this as a bad thing, I am extremely happy that Phil Freelon was able to amass a practice so remarkable that a firm such as Perkins + Wil sought after a merger. That is an impressive feat. Hats off!
Read MorePharrell Williams is Keynote Speaker at 2014 AIA Convention in Chicago.
I just heard that Pharrell will be one of the keynote speakers at the 2014 AIA National Convention in Chicago. Until now, I must admit, I have never had any interest in attending an AIA National Convention but I am going to register for this one immediately. The stage is now being set for a cultural innovation a "Hip Hop Inspired Architecture" which was the title of my graduate thesis at The University of Detroit Mercy, and has been the primary focused of both my academic and professional careers.
Read MoreHow Architects and Urban Planners Played a Role In Trayvon Martin's Death
"Walk at Your Own Risk" published in Architect Magazine, is very interesting to me, because I constantly speak about architects and planners developing more than the simple physical environments people attribute to our profession. As a whole, we unintentionally shape the subconsciousness and cultural incubators of the inhibitors of our spaces. I challenge all designers, planners, architects etc to make conscious strides towards considering the social implications of their architectural designs and plans on the intended users.
Read MoreSpike Lee rips NYC Gentrification - It's Happening Now, in Detroit.
"I grew up here in New York. It's changed," Lee said at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, an art, design, and architecture school. "And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the South Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better? The garbage wasn't picked up every motherfucking day when I was living in 165 Washington Park. ... The police weren't around. When you see white mothers pushing their babies in strollers, three o'clock in the morning on 125th Street, that must tell you something."
Read MoreBall State University - Architectural Competition meets Hip Hop
Chris Baker, a student at Ball State University and fellow member of NOMA, National Organization of Minority Architects teamed with Kyle Edwards and received an honorable mention in the Queens Way Connection: Elevating the Public Realm Competition. His inspiration for the design concept and programming organizing principles was hip hop, more specifically Nas' song "One Mic". The program was organized based on the a sonic investigation of "One Mic", and the lyrical content, which preaches positive rebellion against suppressive systems, rather cultural, social or economical. In Chris' case the limiting system was the physical site for the architectural competition. He describes it as rigid, nauseatingly rhythmic, and linear.
Read MoreToni Griffin: A new vision for rebuilding Detroit
Once the powerhouse of America's industrial might, Detroit is more recently known in the popular imagination as a fabulous ruin, crumbling and bankrupt. But city planner Toni Griffin asks us to look again -- and to imagine an entrepreneurial future for the city's 700,000 residents.
Griffin recently served as director of the Detroit Works Project, and in 2012 completed and released Detroit Future City, a comprehensive citywide framework plan for urban transformation
Read MoreWhy Hollywood Needs to Change its Conception of “The Architect”
Writers, directors, producers, and actors in the Hollywood film industry play major roles in shaping how millions around the world perceive architects and the architectural profession. Television shows, too, create stereotypes of professions that are repeatedly drummed into the brain with each successive episode. Both make long-lasting impacts that may encourage or dissuade young people from pursuing architecture as a career
Read MoreRolling Stone - Kanye West Talks Design at Harvard
With his Yeezus tour all fine-tuned, Kanye West took a moment yesterday to stop by Harvard's Graduate School of Design and talk about one of his favorite subjects besides himself: creating. The surprise mini-lecture found Kanye sharing his thoughts on a few different subjects, with a persistent theme emerging that he sees everything as "architected."
"I really do believe the world can be saved by design," he said. "If I sit down and talk to Oprah for two hours, the conversation is about realization, self-realization and seeing your creativity happen in front of you." He then spoke about office jobs, politicians, creativity, and how he appreciated that his audience, the Harvard students, are not lazy.
Everyone in the room was offered free tickets to that evening's show – but West preempted their judgments with just a bit of soul baring. "I'm a bit self-concious because I'm showing it to architects," he said. "It's an expression of emotion."
Originally posted here on Rolling Stone.
Le Corbusier - The Forefather of Hip Hop?
This blog is about my first publication related to Hip Hop Inspired Architecture and Design, outside of my thesis at University of Detroit Mercy. The article details how LeCorbusier and his grand architectural visions inadvertently contributed to the creation of the environments which birthed Hip Hop. Thus deeming him, the first hip hop architect.
Disco + Architecture = Discotecture
"Discotecture is an original series by VICE featuring David Byrne, Andre Balazs, Peter Gatien, Kenny Scharf, Eric Goode, Michael Musto, Amy Sacco, Steve Lewis, and other icons of New York nightlife. The series follows five young designers from different disciplines as they come together to create their vision of the nightclub of the future. "
For more information visit Vice.com
THE CHIEF ARCHITECT OF GANGSTA RAP
Its always been rumored that Dr. Dre studied architecture, I wish I knew if this rumor was true or not. Dr. Dre has taken over the music industry yet again with the design of Beats by Dre, which has redefined the way that music is to be heard. Check out the video below which ties Dr Dre's music career to architecture.
Ilja Karilampi’s video The Chief Architect of Gangsta Rap (2009) makes the conjecture that Andre Young, better known as Dr. Dre (b. 1965), studied architecture before becoming famous as a hip-hop producer and rapper. The Berlin-based artist describes Dre’s rise in the music industry, from his early techno-influenced records, to his role in the controversial group N.W.A., and finally to Dre’s solo albums and major collaborations with fellow rappers.Throughout the video, the artist proposes Dre’s connections to and opinions of the work of Modernist architects like Le Corbusier (1887–1965). Karilampi also incorporates his own biography into the video, speaking about how his life has intersected with Dre’s music. Though Karilampi offers no proof to his assertions, the video presents its own, nearly convincing logic. Although imagining of the types of buildings the music producer would design may seem far reaching, Karilampi’s suggestion that urban planning—in this particular case, it is that of Los Angeles’s Compton neighborhood—significantly helps in shaping the culture of a region contains more fact than fiction.
Pharrell to Collaborate with Zaha Hadid
Two of my favorites are going to collaborate on a project. I wish I had the chance to contact Pharrell and introduce myself to him, to tell him about my passion for both design and Hip Hop, and collaborate on some of his design idea. Until then, I'll enjoy him and Hadid, one of my favorite architects, working together. Check out my blog post on Pharell's perspective furniture. See the original blog below:
Hip-Hop artist Pharrell is used to collaborating with big names – Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and now? Zaha Hadid.
According to an interview with Hypebeast, the artist has decided to continue his dabble into the design world (he’s written a book and designed chairs in the past) by working on a pre-fab home with the Pritzker Prize-winning architect:
Pharrell: “There’s a collaboration I’m working with Zaha Hadid, we’re touring around with the idea of a prefab for a house.
Hypebeast: Is that still at the planning stages or are you guys looking to erect something soon?
Pharell, enigmatically: “Well, we’re going to see something through.”
Via GreatSpaces and Hypebeast and ArchDaily.