Two Magazines

Recently I received a couple magazines that are both fairly new, albeit completely new to me. Based out of Italy, Boundaries: International Architectural Magazine is "a quarterly international journal on contemporary architecture, with texts in English and Italian, that offers a critical view over the architectures that today deal, in many different ways, with the challenges of the contemporariness and of sustainability intended as a balance between cultural, environmental, economic and social matters." And then there is the Chicago-based Design Bureau (published by ALARM Press), which "delivers an honest and inspirational global dialogue on design from diverse disciplines and points of view. ...[towards] discovering great design and the people who make it happen." Below are some thoughts on a recent issue of each magazine.



Boundaries:
Unlike many architecture publications put out a few or more times a year, Boundaries gives each issue a theme and strictly makes the content fit the topic. The first issue (July-September 2011), for example, is called "Contemporary Architecture in Africa" and does an excellent in job in presenting buildings, projects, books, and histories on the continent. Each issue is structured into sections: News, Perspective, Architecture, Ideas, That Was the Year..., and Book Reviews. The Architecture section makes up the bulk of each issue and highlights particular types of buildings or related strands within the theme. In this regard, issue 2 -- "Architecture for Emergencies" -- collects buildings but also monuments, theories/research, and reporting around the timely and complex theme. That Was the Year is a great part of the magazine, as it features flashbacks usually decades back (a reprinted article or some such piece) that of course fit the issue's theme: Aldo van Eyck's 1959 essay on the Dogon is one found in the first issue, and Jean Prouve's 1956 "House Built in Less Than Seven Hours" is one of the old projects highlighted in the second issue.

These first two themes make it clear that Boundaries is not concerned with the same issues as other architecture magazines; the editors prefer to focus on the under-served and the places of crisis today. This is evident not only in the themes but in the projects included in each issue (only the ultra-modern houses in "Contemporary Architecture in Africa" stand out...as designs that would probably be in other magazines but don't really belong in this one) and the position that "Boundaries receives no public funding, and has no advertising." The only "ads" to be found are for the Italian Red Cross and other emergency organizations. This makes me hope the magazine gains enough following to continue its exploration of architecture that is timely and relevant but often overshadowed by the usual big names and commissions that value form over social concerns. Boundaries may not be as photogenic as other magazines, owing to its dealing with the "social awareness of the profession," but it makes up for that small defect (for lack of a better word) in its thorough coverage on a topic, varied viewpoints on the same, and a strong sense of history that makes one realize our problems are not new and neither may be the solutions.

Design Bureau:
Before moving to New York City from Chicago I was a contributing editor to TENbyTEN, a now defunct magazine on art, fashion, design, and architecture. I was sad to see it go some years ago, but when I recently heard about Design Bureau (DB) that frown was turned upside down, as now the Windy City has a magazine on design (in its varied facets) to call its own. (MAS Context is another Chicago publication that I'm glad exists, but it is print-on-demand where DB is available on newsstands.) Issue 08 (November/December 2011) features "Renegade Architecture" on the cover, but that is an anchor to the magazine not a theme, a long piece on architectural designers, those that can't legally call themselves architects but nevertheless shape spaces and cities. The rest of the issue is thick on architecture -- be it Austin, Seattle, New York City, DC, Kentucky, Mexico, California -- but other types of design make it into the magazine's tripartite sections: Informer (brief coverage), Design Thinking (Q&A with a designer), and Features (pretty self explanatory).

DB should be commended for a sharp curatorial eye that highlights a wide range of designs and designers. As well their choices of buildings and architects show that they are not concerned with the latest and greatest; it is more about quality and insight rather than the same projects and personalities covered ad nauseum elsewhere. DB should also be praised for the sharp layout of the magazine and the eye towards the illustrations that make up the pages. It seems that even the advertisements, like Wallpaper*, are selected for their attention to graphic detail. Speaking of advertisements, one curious aspect of DB is the way ads for players within an article are found alongside it, such as one for a home builder at the end of a piece on houses in Austin, Texas. Not only is the company mentioned in the article, but they also have ad space on half a page. Did their ad pay for the article? Did their ad drive the content? Or did DB find the right advertiser for the right spot? I'm not sure, but in some cases the relationship between ad and editorial content was a little too close for comfort.

Today's archidose #556

Here are some photos of the Riggio-Lynch Interfaith Chapel at CDF Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee by Maya Lin Studio with Bialosky + Partners, 2004. Photographs are by ken mccown.











To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

It's Groundhog Day!

This year my Groundhog Day post is for all the Ned Ryerson fans out there.



(If you're not a fan of Ned click "7" on your keyboard to skip to the best part.)

Today's archidose #555

A couple colorful residential projects for today's archidose.

Affordable Artist Housing in Hamden, Connecticut by Ben Ledbetter Architect in association with Graftworks Design and Research, 2011 (photos by David Joseph Photography):






Reversibe Destiny Lofts in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan by Arakawa + Gins, 2005 (photos by Ken Lee 2010):





To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Fully Retractable Living Room Facade/Wall

Looking to buy a distinctive home in New York City? Perhaps one featured in my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture? Or one with a "fully retractable living room facade/wall"? If so, then you're in luck: The garden apartment at 226 East 14th Street, designed by Bill Peterson Architect, is on the market at Corcoran for just under $2.5 million. Look very closely at the bottom three images below to see the second-floor facade retract into the unit; the result is the photo at top left.


[224 East 14th Street - Apt: GRDN 1 | image source]

The description from my book:

"Among the bars and cheap food catering to students and East Village hipsters on a stretch of 14th Street sits a brownstone with a perforated metal storefront, also brown, that exudes a certain Zen-like calm. This CNC-milled screen is a treat in and of itself, but it is even subtler than the surprise (barely) visible one floor above. The seven-story building is basically a formal reconstruction of the 19th-century brownstone that formerly occupied the site, but the gap around the two second-floor windows reveals that the 16x12-foot area actually retracts into the residence like a garage door. At the click of a button, the living space opens to the street and its trees (and traffic and bugs and other elements kept at bay via an air curtain), a contemporary device layered over the historical exterior. That the façade actually opens points to another contemporary maneuver: the brownstone is actually a thin veneer to reduce the weight of the wall."

And the description from Corcoran:

"Featured on the cover of New York Magazine as a 'State of the Art Model for the New Brownstone', and included in Elle Decoration UK's 'Pick of the World's Most Beautiful Homes', this East Village Condominium Triplex, a townhouse within a townhouse, is the signature residence in a four-unit 19th Century Brownstone, a classic New York City icon re-imagined and rebuilt for 21st Century Living. The home's most distinctive feature is its fully-retractable second floor façade/wall that opens like a garage door, transforming the Living Room into what Elle Decoration UK described as 'the Ultimate Indoor/Outdoor Living Space'. A glass garage door in the Kitchen/Dining area also retracts, opening an entire wall to a private, South-facing garden and outdoor cabana. The Kitchen features Viking and Subzero appliances and custom lacquered cabinetry. The Bathrooms' appointments include custom porcelain enamel panels, deep soaking tubs, Lefroy Brooks sinks and Arne Jacobsen-designed hardware. Other amenities include 12 foot ceilings, polished concrete floors, exposed brick, central heat and air, high speed wiring, keyless building entry, and keyed elevator access. The building's award-winning architecture has earned it a place in both the prestigious American Institute of Architects' 'AIA Guide to New York City' and the 'Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture'."

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

This week's dose features 3D Athletics Track in Alicante, Spain by Subarquitectura:


The featured past dose is Platypusary in Healesville Sanctuary, Australia by Cassandra Complex:


This week's book review is The Architectural Detail by Edward R. Ford:


american-architects.com Building of the Week:

School of Art & Design at New York State College of Ceramics in Alred, New York by ikon.5 architects:


Unrelated links will return next week.

Book Review: 100 Ideas that Changed Architecture

100 Ideas that Changed Architecture by Richard Weston
Laurence King Publishing, 2011
Paperback, 216 pages



Laurence King Publishing's 100 Ideas series has to date covered fashion and architecture, with soon-to-be-released titles tackling film and graphic design. It is a simple format: chronicle the most important influences on an art/design field with one idea per spread, 100 total. I'm surprised it hasn't been done before (I don't think it has). It serves to reflectively look at the state of contemporary architecture, in the case of Richard Weston's contribution to the series, and straddles the line between history and theory by tracing architecture in a roughly chronological order and by focusing on the ideas that have shaped it. Yet the book is more history than theory because, as the author asserts in his introduction, an "architectural idea" is not necessarily one that is philosophical or theoretical, since all creations exist as ideas before realization. Therefore the 100 ideas encompass building elements, materials, technologies, styles, as well as the occasional theoretical concept. 

With each idea given one spread, just under half is devoted to Weston's description,  the rest is taken over by illustrations -- photographs mainly -- and these dominate the book visually and in terms of how one understands the ideas. Weston is a capable architectural writer and historian -- evidenced by his monograph on Alvar Aalto -- but the size and quantity of the illustrations means the choice of subject works to influence one's consideration of an idea. For example, "Form Follows Function" discusses Pugin, Sullivan, Mies, Le Corbusier, and Aalto, but the illustrations are limited solely to the last; this might indicate a personal preference on the author's part but it also implies that the expression of function in form is strongest in Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium or a similar building. Regardless, this reliance on large illustrations (most ideas have one large photo or drawing with one or two smaller ones) works towards making the book accessible to a larger audience and offering the potential for multiple readings, be it the full text, illustrations and captions, or a combination thereof.

A minor quibble is the means of cross-referencing ideas, good in theory but not in practice: ideas found elsewhere are highlighted in bold text, but since they are in roughly chronological order, not alphabetical, and since the ideas in the index refer to various locations in the book, it's quite difficult to find another idea when it is referenced. An alphabetical list for reference would easily remedy this and offer yet another way of reading the book -- a "choose your own adventure" through the ideas based on relevance.

US: CA: UK:

Today's archidose #554

B.U.G.S, London Zoo by Wharmby & Cozens by Iqbal Aalam, originally uploaded by Iqbal Aalam.

B.U.G.S (Biodiversity Underpinning Global Survival), London Zoo's house for "creepy-crawlies" by Phil Wharmby and Mike Cozens, 1999.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Kundig Mechanics

On Wednesday architect Tom Kundig -- of Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects -- spoke at the New York Public Library, conversing with Town & Country editor Mark Rozzo about Tom Kundig: Houses 2, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

In the lecture portion of the evening Kundig spoke about his inspirations, ranging from his architect-father to the landscape of eastern Washington state where he grew up and even hot rodding. In line with the DIY mechanics of the latter is Jean Tinguely's fountain in Basel, what Kundig described as straddling the "thin line between highbrow and lowbrow art." See for yourself:



The aspect of Kundig's architecture that these kinetic sculptures influence is obviously the moving walls and other elements found especially in his residences. One case in point is the Chicken Point Cabin in northern Idaho, found in the first monograph on his houses:



The project features a huge 7-ton window wall that is raised and lowered by a mechanism that even a child can operate:



Kundig acknowledge the important contribution of Phil Turner, whom he met while designing Chicken Point Cabin and whom developed the below gizmo -- a flyball governor, which safely regulates and maintains the speed of the gears when in motion (Phil now works in the office). It's like a house meets a hot rod*:



*Kundig designed a later house in Seattle that actually goes by the name Hot Rod House.

Dear Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz,

This is too funny -- to architects that read history and theory books, at least -- not to pass along. In an issue last September The Onion's advice column was Ask The Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz. I'll guess this elicits either a smile that something so architecturally esoteric would make it in The Onion, or a "huh?"


[Christian Norberg-Schulz | image source]

Here's a taste:

Dear Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz,
I'm as open-minded as the next person, but my neighbors regularly wander around their apartment in the nude and don't close the curtains. I guess they are "liberated," but I'm bothered by their, in my opinion, disrespectful disregard for basic boundaries (our backyard faces directly into their family-room picture window) and so is my wife. How do I get them to show some simple modesty without coming off like an old-fashioned stick in the mud?
—Peeved in Pensacola

Dear Peeved,
In examining the trinity of "places, paths, and domains," remember that whereas a place denotes the distinguishing of "inside and outside," a pathway between places can symbolize the full extent of man's existence as he moves from the known to the unknown through a succession of spaces. The rhetoric of residing is therefore distinguished from the rhetoric of movement through the phenomenological world. The distinction unfortunately continues to elude many modern theorists, who have unfortunately followed the dissolution of the once-vibrant early potentialities of so-called postmodern thinking into superficial playfulness.

Read more Ask The Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz at The Onion.

Bau des Jahres

The 2011 Bau des Jahres -- Building of the Year -- at Swiss-Architects.com is Janus, the redevelopment the City Museum in Rapperswil-Jona by Biel-based :mlzd. The selection is the result of readers choosing from the 50 projects featured in the Swiss-Architects.com eMagazine last year.