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The Committee on Design (COD) was founded to promote design excellence among members of the AIA, the broader design community, and the public at large, both nationally and internationally.

2024 COD Conferences

Arkansas

April 3-7 | 21c Hotel | Bentonville and Eureka Springs.

Connecting Cultures, Catalyzing Change: Northwest Arkansas in the Ozarks. View and download the conference materials: program guidebook, key takeaways and and video.

Brazil

Thu, Oct 17 - Sat, Oct 26, 2024
Sao Paulo > Brasilia > Rio de Janerio.  Registration will open in early May.

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Unfinished By Design - Embracing Non-Finito Architecture

  • 1.  Unfinished By Design - Embracing Non-Finito Architecture

    Posted yesterday

    Unfinished by Design - Embracing Open-Ended Architecture

    Notions of time and incompletion in architecture tap into two interrelated themes in which I am interested. The first is about designing for expansion, and the second is the idea of flexibility, something that was latent in historic typologies, but that was also expanded on in the 1960s in a more self-conscious way. (Nader Tehrani, architect, about the Spanish Venice Biennale pavilion titled "unfinished") 

    Lisa Oregioni - Non-Finito

    Recently I had the pleasure to discuss the "Architecture of the Unfinished" with the architect Lisa Oregioni who has made the unfinished, the non-finito a topic of her inquiry. Normally architects think of unfinished buildings as those in the stage before Substantial Completion or as abandoned projects where the money ran out or considered phased as in those concrete houses in the Global South where rebar sticking out of flat roofs indicates that the owner foresees an additional future floor.  Through Oregioni I realized.... READ FULL ARTICLE

    The article discusses the unfinished in the arts, "too big to finish", adaptability, sustainability, user agency, architecture without architects, biophilia and adaptive reuse.



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    [Klaus] Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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  • 2.  RE: Unfinished By Design - Embracing Non-Finito Architecture

    Posted 2 hours ago

    I don't think any architecture should ever be finished.  Architecture should always be amenable to change as its function and environment (physical, social and technological) changes.  That said, I am not in favor of a bland unspecific architecture that is always so loose a fit that it does not need to evolve.  Rather, I wish for an architecture that reflects history.  Some of my richest design resulted from converting existing work to new functions (or, for that matter, new circumstances of many sorts).

    This is another argument for adaptive reuse.  Adaptive reuse is an opportunity, not a burden.



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    Mike Mense FAIA
    Architect, Writer, Planner, Painter
    mmenseArchitect
    mensenyc on Instagram
    Hamilton Heights, NYC and Snohomish WA
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    Original Message