What is Hip Hop Architecture? UT Austin Platform Publication

November 28, 2017

PLATFORM is the annual magazine of The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. It serves as a “platform” for the school to investigate the intersection of its research, practice, and pedagogic interests with a broader audience.

Each issue of Platform features thought-provoking articles of topical interest in the disciplines of Architecture, Architectural History, Community and Regional Planning, Historic Preservation, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design, and Urban Design. Guest editors selected from the School of Architecture’s faculty develop a new theme or prompt for the publication each year and drive its conceptual direction.

This issue, titled Convergent Voices, is edited by Nichole Wiedemann and Charlton Lewis and centers on a conversation between contributors with expertise ranging from Architectural History and Landscape Architecture to Community and Regional Planning. It represents a dynamic collection of distinct voices and viewpoints brought together by a shared concern for the inequities in our cities and built environments and the urgent need to address these inequities.

The Beats And Rhymes Of Hip-Hop Are Changing How We Design Our Cities

August 6, 2017

"From Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five rapping in their 1982 classic “New York New York” about “Staring at a skyscraper reaching into heaven / When over in the ghetto I’m livin’ in hell,” to Jay Z rhyming on 2017’s “Marcy Me” that “I’m from Marcy Houses, where the boys die by the thousand,” hip-hop has always had an intimate relationship with the architecture of cities. But what if the low-income youth of color who live in the ghettos and housing projects of Gotham — or Los Angeles or Detroit — had the technical know-how to redesign their hometowns and create buildings that serve their communities?

The Hip Hop Architecture Camp

January 31, 2017

The Hip Hop Architecture Camp is a month long camp with a mission is to expose underrepresented middle and high school students to architecture, urban planning and economic development through the lens of hip hop culture. The camp sessions will take place every Saturday during the month of February at Madison's Central Library.

Hip Hop Architecture at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

September 18, 2015

The annual NOMAS Symposium is hosted by the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students. This year's theme: "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" is geared towards raising awareness to minorities who have been able to break barriers and overcome obstacles to become successful within the field of Architecture. It will feature a special lecture from the Hip Hop Architect Michael Ford and many more activities, such as mini-lectures and round table discussions--which will be led by some professional architects and some of the School of Architecture's very own faculty.

Hip Hop As Modernism's Post Occupancy Report:Part 2

June 28, 2015

Hip Hop has established itself as a gravitas culture that crosses borders of race, ethnicity, class, religion and professions. Members of the hip hop generation carry the residue of the culture into all spaces they inhabit and their individual works are seasoned with its’ flavor. As professionals continue to argue the academic validity of hip hop and disseminate the social significance of rap, it is time architectural professionals learn the benefit the culture provides to its’ practitioners.