Common Edge

1 week ago | commonedge.org | Martin C. Pedersen |Duo Dickinson

When architects talk about AI, it triggers me into a Groundhog Day–like reliving of the dire warnings against computer-aided design (CAD) in the 1980s: The field would be decimated, rendered obsolete. But just as CAD was not design, artificial intelligence is not intelligence. Some architects decry the darkness of impending technology to explain the bland buildings that are carpet-bombing our landscape. This design malaise is not due to how these buildings were drawn.

1 month ago | commonedge.org | Duo Dickinson

When you design homes, those who live in them are your circumstantial intimates. And, sometimes, far more. After about 700 residential projects—some new, others recreated—many of my “clients” became people I love, and who in turn love me and my family. If we’re lucky enough to live long enough, both the clients and the designer change. There is nothing magic about aging.

1 month ago | commonedge.org | Duo Dickinson |Martin C. Pedersen

Welcome to Our Buildings, Our Selves: Humanity in Architecture, a monthly podcast produced by Common Edge, the Connecticut Architecture Foundation, the Connecticut AIA, and Bridgeport public radio station WPKN.    In many ways, design journalism in the 21st century is in uncharted territory. Digital technology has changed everything, eroding the business models of the previous century and catapulting everyone onto the infinitely fractured world of the internet.

2 months ago | commonedge.org | Boyce Thompson

Casco Viejo, Panama City’s elegantly restored Old Town, needs to be viewed on foot. On most days, walking is the only way to navigate it. Impossibly narrow streets—designed for horses, not cars—choke traffic. Cabbies deliver tourists to renovated five-star hotels, then wait in near-standstill traffic to return to arterial roads. Pedestrians jostle for precious sidewalk space, playing an unspoken game of chicken; someone must enter the street to pass.

2 months ago | commonedge.org | Duo Dickinson

The Residential Industry Complex is a vast marketing machine, and within it, architects and designers are either a sales tool or an unnecessary cost. In fashion, “hot” styles have a burst of popularity: Nehru jackets, shoulder pads, wide lapels and ties, large-plaid patterns, miniskirts, maxi skirts—all sold copiously and then faded away, essentially never to be seen again (except in nostalgic memes and at Halloween parties).