Redefining the purpose of architecture with Charles Renfro.

The Accutron Show

This episode of The Accutron Show features the multi-talented Charles Renfro, a Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), a design studio whose practice spans the fields of architecture, urban design, installation art, multi-media performance, digital media, and print. With a focus on cultural and civic projects, DS+R’s work includes the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the transformation of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts 16-acre campus in New York. Together with our hosts, Charles talks about some of the most incredible projects he has worked on, including the High Line in New York and Zaryadye Park in Moscow. Can good design save the world? What's the role of architecture in the metaverse? These are some of the topics discussed during this episode of The Accutron Show. Tune in!

Episode Highlights

14:38 We are asked to work on Brown University, which was the first university that allowed its students to pick their own major. So we wanted to make a building that suggested infinite spacial possibilities, that looked like infinite spatial possibilities, and that actually allowed infinite possibilities so that it could be an image as well as a facilitator, a tool.

21:00 I think good design, actually good public design can make us better human beings, more empathetic, more respectful. more caring, more communicative, and maybe more demonstrative. The Highline in NYC is an example of that.

25:00 I have been approached by several people, from several different angles, to build in the metaverse. I have spent my life working to defeat gravity. And doing so, architecture is magical. Because gravity is something we all understand, when you see something that defies it, you instinctively realize you are in front of something special. In the metaverse, the notion of gravity disappears, so for me, that throws the design challenge all up in the air.

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