The start of October means that the annual architecture and design festival is kicking off in New York again. Now in its fourth year, the aim of the festival is to raise awareness about the importance of design in the city. Organized by the Center for Architecture and the New York chapter of the AIA, Archtober includes 120 scheduled events—tours, exhibits, panels, and exhibitions—over the course of a month.
Here are the five Archtober events you shouldn't miss:
Oct.1
The month starts off with the opening of “New Practices New York 2014,” an exhibition of work by up-and-coming firms in the region, who are chosen by a jury through a biennial competition organized by the AIANY New Practices New York Committee. The exhibition kicks off with a roundtable discussion with the winners, moderated by Beatrice Galilee, curator of architecture and design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This year’s winners are Bittertang, Dlandstudio Architecture + Landscape Architecture, Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, Forma-ula, Nameless Architecture, and Para-Project.
Oct. 7
A panel held at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will feature some of the museum’s National Design Award winners discussing what drives and inspires them as designers. Panelists include John Edson, president of LUNAR (Product Design Award); Aaron Koblin (Interaction Design Award); Narciso Rodriguez (Fashion Design Award); and Robin Standefer, principal at Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors (Interior Design Award). You could also attend the gala on Oct. 9 recognizing all the winners (including ARCHITECT contributor Witold Rybczynski, Hon. FAIA), but that event isn’t exactly cheap—tickets start at $1,500 and tables at $15,000. The panel, however, is free and open to the public.
Oct. 15
A preview of the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition, an international architectural contest to design a new museum in Finland’s capital, will announce the launch of the online gallery of submissions. Joel Sanders, AIA, will moderate the discussion, which includes speakers Cara Cragan; Jeanne Gang, FAIA; Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, and Nancy Spector. The conversation will revolve around reshaping the future of the contemporary art museum and the discipline of architecture.
Oct. 15–19
The Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) at Tribeca Cinemas, the nation’s largest such film festival, features 25 films, panel discussions, book signings, and Q&A's with designers and filmmakers. The festival will premiere new 3D films by Robert Redford and Wim Wenders, and Gray Matters, a documentary about architect Eileen Gray. This year, a “Short Films Walk” will wander through the Soho neighborhood with stops at 10 design showrooms, each of which will be screening a loop of film shorts from ADFF's archive collection.
Oct. 23–24
The themes of The Municipal Art Society Summit for New York City focus on equity, place, and opportunity. The two-day event will include more than 100 speakers talking about the future of New York, planning, design, infrastructure, preservation, culture, and development. Speakers include Darren Walker, Alicia Glen, and The New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman.
Click here for the full Archtober schedule.
