Architecturewriter

Critical Void encapsulates everything the Nexialist Organization set out to do: create projects at the intersection of architecture, music, and visual design through shared creative methods and theoretical inquiry.  A site-specific audio analysis and performance, Critical Void examined the planning crisis of Munich’s MaximiliansForum through sound, dialogue, and documentation. Critical Void performance, MaximiliansForum München. Photos: Andreas Graf  Critical Void is an analytical audio work based on an urban study of Munich’s MaximiliansForum and its complex planning history. Developed by Z’EV and Mark Kammerbauer, the project combined interviews, archival research, and live performance into a sonic investigation of urban transformation. The MaximiliansForum, located beneath the intersection of Maximilianstraße and Altstadtring, was originally conceived as a traffic tunnel but repurposed as a pedestrian underpass and later as an art space. Its ambiguous spat...

Katrina at 20: In 2009 I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans for the second time. The hurricane had hit the city four years earlier. In the Lower Ninth Ward, rebuilding initiatives supported residents in their recovery efforts. I interviewed individuals active in institutions or civil society organizations who played roles in the citywide post-disaster recovery process. One interview I remember in particular took place in a Bywater café with Rick Prose and Laura Paul, representatives from lowernine.org – and the organization is still active today. They still conduct rehabilitation work with volunteers. In fact, they repaired a house built by another initiative, Make It Right. In the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, they provided food security to residents. 20 years after landfall of Hurricane Katrina, the work of lowernine.org takes place in the broader context of community development. Here's a shoutout to the nonprofit organizations that helped New Orleanians return and r...