1. On the Brink of Extinction
With the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (completed in 1982), Maya Lin transformed the way we think about grief and memory using two simple gabbro walls set into the earth. Her most recent project, “What Is Missing?”, is a Web-based register of extinct and endangered species across the globe. Transforming the memorial genre once again, Lin’s site moves toward what she calls “a work that can exist in multiple forms and in multiple sites, simultaneously.”
Learn more at whatismissing.net.
2. Now Boarding
Despite the hassles of air travel, airports are safer now than they were a decade ago. A number of new designs by Denver-based Fentress Architects balance the things we need an airport to do (protect us) with the things we want when we travel (efficiency, comfort, and maybe a little glamour). “Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + the Architecture of Flight” will chronicle these solutions at the Denver Art Museum from July 15 through Oct. 7, combining film, animation, models, and full-scale mock-ups.
Learn more at denverartmuseum.org.
3. Lecture Notes
Summer design studios have been a staple of architectural education for some time; this summer, two courses are taking on the city-as-subject in innovative ways. The Architectural Association's “Cyber GARDENing the City” (July 7 to 17) draws from a nascent network of biofarms in Milan to see if new models of community design are possible in other cities. More than 3.3 billion people now live in urban areas, and that number will swell to more than 6 billion in 2050, according to the United Nations. So it’s a good time to be thinking about the future of the city. The New York–based nonprofit ONELab will launch “Future Cities” (July 9 to Aug. 3) to examine “what is salubrious about the city in both its forms and its life” and its potential to be a self-sustaining place in the coming decades.
To learn more, visit aaschool.ac.uk/milan and onelab.org.
4. Charting the Course
Preservation wonks unite! The National Alliance of Preservation Commissions holds its biannual forum this month to focus on the needs and issues of preservation commissions and commission staff across the country. “Charting the Course” (July 18 to 22 in Norfolk, Va.) will cover building types, downtown revitalization, disaster mitigation, and historic districting through lectures, panels, mobile workshops, and tours. AIA continuing education credits will be offered.
Learn more at napc.uga.edu/forum2012.
5. And It Seemed About 100 Years Ago
Centennial celebrations this year include Jackson Pollack’s birth (Jan. 28), the Titanic’s end (April 15), and Albania’s declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire (Nov. 28). To round out the list, AIA Florida and AIA Maine also are in the middle of celebrating 100 years. Mainers were treated to a gala celebration in May, and Floridians have been enjoying the results of “Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.” (aiafltop100.org), which chronicles the state’s popular choices among architects and the public.
Learn more at aiamaine.org and www.aiafla.org.