Archinect - Features

The Cooper Union Promotes Russian Architecture. Why?

2023-01-21T08:00:00-05:00

This month, the School of Architecture at The Cooper Union in New York City is scheduled to open an extensive exhibition on Russian architecture. Vkhutemas: Laboratory of the Avant-Garde, 1920–1930 is the title of a show presenting what is loosely known as the "Soviet Bauhaus." Undoubtedly, it's an essential part of the Russian architectural legacy worthy of attention. But not now. I would have been first in line ten years ago to see the exhibit, but not today. To support Russian architecture now is simply tone-deaf. I believe the Cooper Union should terminate this exhibition and put a pause on its courses on Soviet and Russian architecture. Here is why.

The Conflict Between Nature and Architecture: an Interview with Diana Agrest

2019-09-06T10:50:00-04:00

How should an architect situate their work against the natural environment? This has been a central question posed to those in the profession since its principles were first established in Vitruvius’ Ten Books of Architecture; The question has gained a unique urgency in the 21st century. Diana Agrest, a highly influential theorist and long-time professor at The Cooper Union school of architecture, is the latest to challenge common attitudes towards the built and natural environments by considering their interchangeability.

Agrest’s newest book, Architecture of Nature/Nature of Architecture, collects the student work of Agrest’s eponymous studio at The Cooper Union over the last eight years. Asked to represent geologic forces with the same attention to detail and use of tools they had otherwise ascribed to architecture, Agrest’s students have expanded the limits of architectural representation by including scales of time and space too vast to be comprehended in human lifetimes. I in...

Nader Tehrani on Thesis and Its History at Cooper Union

2018-11-18T09:56:00-05:00

On Tuesday, October 23 2018, The Cooper Union opened a new exhibition entitled Archive and Artifact: The Virtual and the Physical, presenting 50 years of undergraduate architectural thesis projects by students of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Immediately before the opening, Donna Sink and I spoke with Dean Nader Tehrani about his perspective on the tradition of thesis, and how the new show reflects Cooper Union's 50-year history of undergraduate thesis under the direction of Hejduk, Vidler, and himself.

This story was originally published last year. We're re-featuring it today in light of Cooper Union's recent unveiling of The Student Work Collection.

The Proust Questionnaire: Diana Agrest

2017-09-28T09:29:00-04:00

Diana Agrest is a practicing architect, urban designer, and theorist known for her unique and pioneering approach. She has been teaching since 1972—at Cooper Union, where she currently is, since 1977—and has been profiled as one of 50 Great Teachers by NPR.

Read her answers to our Proust Questionnaire below to find out her favorite architect, both living and dead, her favorite type of project, her greatest indulgence and more!

Frank Gehry, Steven Holl, Liz Diller, Rem Koolhaas and Others Share Crucial Moments in Their Education

2016-09-30T12:19:00-04:00

What is the role of education in shaping a visionary architect? Several contemporary architects reflect on how the environment, curriculum, and tangential opportunities of their formal learning influenced and shaped their design sensibility.

“An absolutely insanely private, esoteric conversation”: Thom Mayne on ‘M’

2016-03-21T13:49:00-04:00

How does an architect tell his story? Thom Mayne, who spent decades struggling to put the idiosyncratic visual terrain of his imagination into relatable speech, has chosen to tell his story with ‘M.’ Ostensibly the latest monograph by Morphosis, ‘M’ is also in Mayne’s view a comprehensive tour of his sensibility.

Deans List Special: Nader Tehrani shares his thoughts as he transitions to his new appointment at Cooper Union

2015-09-25T13:38:00-04:00

On September 2, students at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art returned to a school in rocky flux. Faltering under the weight of a $12 million deficit, the New York institution defaulted on its more than 150-year founding tradition, and began charging undergraduate tuition for the first time in the fall of 2014. The decision was a messy one, carrying the baggage of both a financial and identity crisis for the school.