Architecture News

RECORD’s Innovation Conference and Inaugural Awards Program Close Out Archtober in New York

On October 30, design professionals braved torrential rain and biting wind to attend RECORD’s 23rd annual Innovation Conference, held for third consecutive year at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan. It was the perfect day not to be outside, as roughly 250 attendees—including practitioners from abroad and a contingent of out-of-state architecture students—hunkered down for a full-day program of featured talks, CEU sessions, and networking. The day was capped off by a cocktail reception and ceremony celebrating the winners of the inaugural Architectural Record Awards, including career achievement recipient, Thomas Phifer, and a diverse range of international projects—built and unbuilt—across 14 categories.

Staying true to its roots, the conference was a showcase for visionary built work, advances in material use, progressive approaches to practice, and as MALL founder Jennifer Bonner exemplified in her presentation, “Mixing Materiality: Fake, Structural & Ordinary,” research that extends outside of the box—and then some.

RECORD editor in chief Josephine Minutillo welcomes conference attendees. Photo © Laura Stiles

Peppered with eye-popping visuals and pop-culture references, Bonner’s talk delved into her admiration for the ersatz (“things that look like one thing but are meant to represent another thing”), the everyday (“like artificial grass and stucco”), and structural innovations such as cross-laminated timber, which she says has the “potential to reset the field of architecture.” One built project designed by Bonner that presents a trifecta of these interests is Haus Gables, a single-family house in Atlanta featuring a radical roofline, ample faux finishes, and the pioneering use of CLT. When completed in 2018, the 2,200-square-foot residence, which establishes a roof plan as a means of organizing architecture, was one of only three CLT houses in the United States.

Roughly 250 design professionals attended the full-day conference. Photo © Laura Stiles

Jennifer Bonner presents “Mixing Materiality: Fake, Structural & Ordinary.” Photo © Laura Stiles

Speaking directly before Bonner to kick off the conference was Amin Taha, chairperson of London-based practice Groupwork. While Bonner may have sung the praises of CLT, Taha championed another material for his talk, titled “The Measure of Architecture.” Groupwork’s typologically diverse forays—housing, college libraries, pedestrian bridges, and on—into structural masonry have earned Taha the reputation as “the stone guy” and rightfully so. (His built work has also landed the firm on RIBA’s Stirling Prize shortlist more than once.) As demonstrated in several projects presented at the conference, Taha and Groupwork continue to push the limits of what’s possible with natural stone, a low-carbon alternative to steel and reinforced concrete. “Remember, stone is not about some sort of sentimental fetish for this material,” said Taha. ‘It’s simply saying at the bottom [of the carbon chart] there is timber, and as we work our way up, stone is the next available material.”

Jenny and Anda French of French 2D present “Productive Frictions.” Photo © Laura Stiles

Massimo Alvisi of Alvisi Kirimoto presents “Origins.” Photo © Laura Stiles

Following a lunch break, next up on stage was French 2D, a two-person Boston practice—and 2019 Design Vanguard—comprising sisters Anda and Jenny French. For their presentation, “Productive Frictions,” Anda and Jenny discussed several completed projects and installations, including Bay State Cohousing in Malden, Massachusetts, and Outlier Lofts, the renovation and expansion of a 19th-century building with a fascinating past in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood. The duo also discussed, to the intrigue of conference attendees, the dynamics of operating a sibling-run architecture practice. (And yes, the sisters grew up with architect parents.) Next to present was Alvisi Kiromoto, a husband-and-wife-led studio based in Rome. Massimo Alvisi, joined by Junko Kiromoto in the audience, presented “Origins,” a survey of numerous built works. Among the projects discussed were a winery in Siena where “architecture becomes nature,” houses in Sardinia and Piedmont, a luminous music academy in the earthquake-ravaged town of Camerino, and the firm’s recent “tiptoe” intervention at Rome’s ancient Basilica of Maxentius.

SITU Fabrication partner Michael Brotherton. Photo © Laura Stiles

The final speaker was Michael Brotherton, partner at Brooklyn-based SITU Fabrication, who spoke about the firm’s unique organizational structure (in addition to fabrication, SITU also includes architecture and research divisions) and a handful of complex commissions, such as the cladding for the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge in Rhode Island. He also detailed the design and production of a special, smaller scale work: an aluminum trophy inspired by the very first issue of Architectural Record from 1891. Just a few minutes later, that trophy was presented to the magazine’s inaugural Architect of RECORD Award for lifetime achievement, Thomas Phifer.

Josephine Minutillo presents the Architect of RECORD Award to Thomas Phifer. Photo © Laura Stiles

After an introduction by RECORD editor in chief Josephine Minutillo detailing Phifer’s long history of published work in the magazine (it all started with a Record House in 2003), the New York–based architect took the stage and gave a heartfelt acceptance speech. In it, he mentioned how RECORD has been a constant throughout his education and career, dating back to high school when a teacher and early mentor would let him borrow issues of the magazine for the weekend. “I absolutely love being an architect. I love working with clients and consultants. And I love nothing more than working with my remarkable team—these are the folks that make it happen,” remarked Phifer. Coincidentally, his firm’s latest work, an arched red concrete pavilion, is located directly next to the Museum of Jewish Heritage at the redesigned Wagner Park.

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Architects and students with work recognized in the Architectural Record Awards program gather for a group photo. Photo © Laura Stiles

Although Phifer’s remarks officially concluded the conference, the celebration of his contributions to the profession continued at an Architectural Record Awards reception and ceremony held in the museum’s events hall. The recipients of the awards program’s two other individual honors, MIT associate professor Caitlin Mueller (Innovator of the Year) and KPF global director of sustainability Carlos Cerezo Davila (Rising Professional Award), also gave short speeches and the winners of the project-based awards—plus nine honorable mentions—were recognized. Winning architects traveled from near-ish (Boston) and far (Barcelona and Stockholm) to partake in the festivities.

Josephine Minutillo and RECORD senior editor Matthew Marani with Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga, whose Dynafit Headquarters in Germany was named as Building of the Year. Photo © Laura Stiles

“The world has so many incredible challenges right now that the discipline of architecture is really uniquely poised to take on given our wide range of expertise and our optimism for the future,” said Mueller. “I hope the spirit of innovation leads us in that direction—not to create novelty for its own sake but to solve the problems that we are obligated and empowered to solve.”

Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi accepted an honorable mention for their firm's Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus in Toronto in the Colleges & Universities category. Photo © Laura Stiles