Architecture

What Happened to the 21st-Century City?

What Happened to the 21st-Century City? What Happened to the 21st-Century City?

And how we can save it.

Mar 12, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wagner

Urban Surveillance Is More Menacing Than Ever

Urban Surveillance Is More Menacing Than Ever Urban Surveillance Is More Menacing Than Ever

Cameras aren’t just monitoring us in public—now they’re actually yelling at us.

Feb 16, 2024 / Column / Kate Wagner

An illustration of interior design, 1951.

The Bad Politics of Good Taste The Bad Politics of Good Taste

Nathalie Olah’s exploration of the ethics of tastefulness dissects the class-bounded nature of most social and cultural mores.

Feb 15, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lauren Kelly

A drone view of the former stage at People's Park in Berkeley, California.

Should People’s Park Be Consigned to the Ash Heap of History? Should People’s Park Be Consigned to the Ash Heap of History?

Many argue that after five decades of resisting the University of California’s repeated attempts to reclaim the park, it’s time to let go of the past and move on. We disagree.

Jan 31, 2024 / Steve Wasserman, Paul Glusman, Judy Gumbo Albert, and Tom Dalzell

Left: Gaza City’s Omari Mosque after Israeli bombardment. Right: A Palestinian man reading in the courtyard of the same mosque last spring.

What Israel’s Destruction of the Great Omari Mosque Means What Israel’s Destruction of the Great Omari Mosque Means

Yes, it’s a crime against cultural heritage. But more importantly, it’s part of a campaign of total annihilation.

Jan 24, 2024 / Column / Kate Wagner

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

There’s something very feudal about his massive doomsday bunker.

Dec 22, 2023 / Kate Wagner

The author’s mother, 1927.

Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life

In Ordinary Notes, Sharpe considers Black culture “in all of its shade and depth and glow.”

Dec 13, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Omari Weekes

“Untitled (Strike),” Dox Thrash, c. 1940.

The Radical Art of the Depression Years The Radical Art of the Depression Years

By working within the constraints of the WPA, artists like Philip Guston discovered new modes of representation and irony.

Nov 27, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Rachel Hunter Himes

A boy searches through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air raids in the southern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Architects Must Refuse to Profit From the Ruins of Palestine Architects Must Refuse to Profit From the Ruins of Palestine

Gaza is a site of human tragedy, not a prize of war.

Nov 14, 2023 / Column / Kate Wagner

A person pushes a barricade floating on a flooded street amid a coastal storm on September 29, 2023, in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y..

What Good Is Architecture on a Drowning Planet? What Good Is Architecture on a Drowning Planet?

We need political solutions to climate emergencies, not design solutions.

Oct 6, 2023 / Kate Wagner

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