Today's archidose #65

Ethical Society by Remiss63.
The Ethical Society of St. Louis by Harris Armstrong. Much more information on Harris Armstrong can be found at Remiss63's own Architectural Ruminations.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Half Dose #32: Hybrid Urban Sutures

One of this year's P/A Awards (now administered by the twice-removed-from-Progressive-Architecture Architect Magazine) is Aziza Chaouni's Hybrid Urban Sutures: Filling in the Gaps in the Medina of Fez, Morocco. Started as a graduate thesis and furthered via independent study, the project that "analyzes the urban, architectural, and social issues affecting Middle Eastern historic districts" is an amazing piece of urban design. The project's main component is her proposal to return Al-Qarawiyin University to the medina from its current suburban location, adding public space and cultural facilities to the dense area.


Chaouni picked three sites as University research centers, each acting as an anchor along the Fez River, the medina's urban spine.


The analysis and proposed interventions are helped by the clarity of the graphics, here showing the three anchors, their relationships to the existing context, and their functions.


One intervention is a theology library inserted into an existing plaza. The new buildings would work with the current flow of pedestrians through the site, bringing a certain level of order to the historically unplanned "chaos."


Stacked circulation and stepped massing gesture to the local circumstances, though the patterned punctures in the exterior walls seem to relate to a larger, Middle-Eastern context.


Another anchor is the economics research center, a conglomeration of buildings that incorporates public spaces while also acting as circulation to connect multiple levels.


In addition to the research clusters, classrooms (in pink) are scattered throughout the medina, an admirable decision that creates improvement in places beyond the spine.


Chaouni also tackles the existing leather tanneries, proposing to use the pits as reclaimed green space. This decision is questionable as it replaces a piece of economic infrastructure with something that doesn't apparently offer economic potential. Perhaps flowers and vegetable can be grown within and then sold in the medina.


Regardless of the above criticism, the imagined end result is very appealing.

Chaouni's study is "slated for publication by Paris' Editions Le Fennec." I can't wait.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Tietgen Residence Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark by Lundgaard & Tranberg.

The updated book feature is Architecture of the Air: The Sound and Light Environments of Christopher Janney, by Beth Dunlop.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The Architecture of Fear
"An Independent Study by George Agnew at Columbia University...[that] will attempt to pull together multiple fields, whether architecture, philosophy, psychology, history or science as well as multiple topics such as war, science fiction, art, terror, media, communication, design and destruction to create a relevant architectural theory on how we live our lives under the unconscious umbrella of fear and danger." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Polis
"New York City, Ground Up: The Built, The Virtual, The Bizarre, The Wonderful." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Built Environment Blog
"Thoughts on places." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Driving is Murder

On my articles page I added one of my papers from last semester, Driving is Murder: The Automobile, Violence, and the City in Film Noir, for the class Reading the City: Film Noir.



Basically the paper is a response to a consistent theme or trait I saw in the films we watched in class, such as Kiss Me Deadly (above): violence with automobiles. Given that the class was geared towards seeing the city through the lens of film noir and critical responses to that genre, my paper tries to analyze this trait in relation to the car's effect on the city and the American landscape, definitely something taking place during the years of these films. But as I analyzed these films I realized that seeing them in relation to contemporary films or neo-noirs was necessary, to see how attitudes towards violence and the automobile changed as the car became ingrained in the American way of life and urban fabric. Hopefully these things come across in the paper; it's hard to say from my position. So if you are able to wade through the roughly 3,300 words, come back to this post and let me know what you think.

Today's archidose #64

At The Yale Center for British Art by thbonamici.
The Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, CT by Louis I. Kahn.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Graffitecture

A comment by shannon in my last post provided a link to Graffitecture, a book and exhibition with a release party/opening today in Chicago at Hejfina. Forty Chicago-based Graffiti artists were asked to "draw directly on photographic prints of architectural spaces." The online, Flash version of the show is a well-done virtual book that gives a taste of some of the artists' responses, like this modification of the Pfanner House by Zoka Zola.

Today's archidose #63

Reddish Brown Canal by Quod Libertarius [Zakka].
Tietgenkollegiet (student housing) in Ørestad, Denmark, a suburb of Copenhagen, by Lundgaard & Tranberg. More information here.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Update 02.25: This project is also featured on my weekly page.

New Year Reading

So far this year Archinect has posted nine features on its page, a staggering number when one also realizes that only two were posted last year by this time. Of course quantity doesn't mean much if quality is lacking, something the editors don't have to worry about, with a wide-range of what are mostly very thoughtful interviews with upstarts and lesser-known individuals, as well as one catching the Second Life bandwagon.

Naturally, for a voracious reader like me the two-part feature Reading the CNY (Chinese New Year) is the best of the bunch. As much as I'd love to put together my own list here, my schedule just won't allow that sort of free time, so below I've extracted my favorite reads and ones I'd love to read, with quotes from the editor that chose it, a link to their list, and a brief comment of my own; I tried to grab one book from each editor's list but that might not have worked in all cases.



In no particular order:

Bow-wow from Post Bubble City
"Atelier Bow-Wow. INAX Publishing, 2006.
On the heels of the genius of Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture, the Bow-wowers this time offer a monograph of their own work demonstrating what they have learned from Tokyo. The book is divided into twelve sections with brief self-interviews serving as thematic introductions to each. The work is thoughtful and restrained, making this Bow-wow book wow yippy yo yippy yeah." [ed. - I loved the two previous Bow-wowers, too, and even though a friend gave me this a gift I've yet to read it; looks great, though.]

Landscape Urbanism Reader
Charles Waldheim, Princeton Architectural Press, 2006
"Circulating between high lines, fresh kills, and waterfronts is an emergent collective of designers and thinkers chronicling a landscape revolution. Landscape Architecture has joined forces with its former nemesis, Urbanism, to generate a seductive elixir for the city’s eager desire for reclamation, brownfielding, and landscape tourism. This Reader compiles 14 authors in search of an emerging choreographed urban field." [ed. - Another book I own but have yet to read, minus Graham Shane's essay for his class.]

Mediterranean In The Ancient World
Fernand Braudel. Penguin Books, 2002.
"A great history book I read on and off." [ed. - I found both volumes used in a bookstore, though I've yet to crack them. Perhaps on and off should be my strategy for tackling Braudel's weighty history.]

Land Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook
Max Andrews. The RSA and Arts Council England, 2006.
"A book that launched with the RSA's No Way Back? conference, this book reaches 'beyond environmentalism,' to take a critical approach to the ways that art can operate in relation to the global debates of ecology, geography, economics and globalization. The most compelling essay examines contemporary projects, including those of The Center for Land Use Interpretation, in relation to the dialogue opened by Robert Smithson in terms of site, non-site and territory. Related: a new publication from The Cape Farewell Project, a series of expeditions that bring artists, scientists and educators to the Arctic to raise awareness of climate change." [ed. - This looks like a great companion to Landscape Urbanism, above.]

Earth: An Intimate History
Richard Fortey. Vintage, 2005.
"For some reason I wasn’t interested in reading this book at all – but then I couldn’t put it down. It’s a geological tour of the earth’s surface, including those strange and unimaginable subterranean pressures that torque, fold, mutate, bend, and shatter the ground we stand on. The American paperback edition is terrifically designed & printed. Really great, frankly, if you have even the slightest interest in geology or landscape." [ed. - Sounds like BLDGBLOG in print form.]

Future Anterior, Journal of Historic Preservation
Jorge Otero-Pailos, Founder and Director. GSAPP, Columbia University.
"Great time every few months when I get my copy of Future Anterior in the post, which is at the forefront of theory on preservation, but most of the issues are also up on on the web as PDF's for y'all. Simply, where else would I have learned about prophylactic preservation?" [ed. - In another life, I'm a historic preservationist.]

Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney's Book of Lists
McSweeney's. Vintage, 2006.
"Unleash the urban planner within by reading "Things This City Was Built On, Besides Rock 'n' Roll" or spice up your next crit with some fodder from "Adjectives Rarely Used by Wine Tasters." In typical McSweeney's fashion, this book presents a completely random assortment of lists which will almost certainly provide no practical benefit whatsoever (except a lot of laughter)." [ed. - These things crack me up when I look them over a couple times a year.]

Guide To Contemporary Architecture In America: Vol. 1 Western U.S.A.
Masayuki Fuchigami. Toto, 2005.
"Please, please, please before you spend your money on a trip to some far-flung country, get in your car and drive (or take a train or bus)! If you live in the US drive to the Grand Canyon, to Toledo, to Denver, anywhere! If you live elsewhere, drive to the interesting, out-of-the-way places that your own home turf provides. It's easy to see the greener grass elsewhere, but America does have some pretty fantastic things to see between NY and LA, and this guide book is a great way to see them." [ed. - I'm really looking forward to volume 2.]

A+U No. 428: Implementing Architecture
Moshen Mostafavi and Mason White. A+U Publishing, 2006.
"Edited and assembled by Archinect’s own Mason White, an in-depth exploration of the realities of architectural practice. By focusing on project architects, this volume is a refreshingly honest dissertation on how buildings get built and how field decisions get made - minus the clutter of theory. Taken together, the essays can be seen as one complete narrative, culminating in a revealing essay by Prince-Ramus on the Seattle Public Library where he sidesteps the question of his role as project architect altogether by espousing the death of authorship. Also included are essays on the history of architectural education at Cornell. This volume should be required reading."

Variations on a Theme Park
Michael Sorkin. The Noonday Press, 1992.
"I picked this up for $7.50 at a used bookstore in Wicker Park (Chicago) over the holiday break. Although 15 years old, many of these essays (by the likes of Margaret Crawford, Mike Davis, and others) still apply, perhaps now more than when they were initially published." [ed. - I've read about half of these essays and definitely agree that they're relevant today.]

Thinking Architecture
Peter Zumthor. Birkhäuser, 2006.
"Here's an excerpt from my favorite portion of the book, perhaps the most telling of his thoughts on architecture, as compared to the thoughts and preoccupations of many others:
'The world is full of signs and information, which stand for things that no one fully understands...Yet the real thing remains hidden...Nevertheless, I am convinced that real things do exist, however endangered they may be...objects, made by man...which are what they are, which are not mere vehicles for an artistic message, and whose presence is self-evident.'" [ed. - I've been known to excerpt myself, but only from the best.]

Gravity's Rainbow Illustrated
Zak Smith. Tin House Books, 2006.
"Weird, difficult, challenging … yet absolutely ravishing in scope." [ed. - Isn't the original weird, difficult, and challenging? Maybe these illustrations make it less so.]

Heidegger's Hut
Adam Sharr. MIT Press, 2006.
"An interesting and detailed analysis on the philosopher and his place. Chalk full of images concerning the man and his hut. Sharr even went as far to produce models and architectural drawings. Can seem overly technical at times, but for me definitely shed a new light on what building, dwelling, and thinking was all about."[ed. - Anything that helps explain Heidegger's ideas is good in my book.]

Flatland

In my inbox today landed a link to a page called The World as Flatland, with the brief description that it is the "first project of the multi-part series 'Visualizing Feedback' on the design and interpretation of statistics."



Upon visiting the page it appears to show a snapshot of those viewing the page at that moment. Each time I visited there were very few visitors, as can be seen in the latest view below, a far cry from the e-mail image above. So I'm sharing the page here to spread the word and aid the flatlanders in their project. Additionally, a pull-down menu on the flatland page illustrates some statistics, such as longevity, Nobel Prize winners, and happiness.



Update 02.25: Less than a week since this post, it looks like the world is filling out:

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Scheepvaart Workshop in Schoten, Belgium by Loos Architects.

The updated book feature is GA Houses 90, by Global Architecture.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Arch | Diaries
A new architecture blog, from Brazil (in Portugese). (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

The ARCH
"Exploring the convergence of the metaverse with the real life practice of architecture," or , in other words, a blog about Second Life. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Food for Design
A "delectable meal for the mind." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Today's archidose #62

Villa La Roche-Jeanneret by Le Corbusier by fotofacade.
Villas La Roche-Jeanneret (1925) in Paris by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, now housing the Foundation Le Corbusier.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Skywalk Update

About a year and a half ago I posted about a horseshoe-shaped, glass-bottom walkway that would jut into the Grand Canyon, sitting nearly a mile above the Colorado River. It was optimistically planned to open on the first day of 2006, but that obviously did not happen. An LA Times article, though, indicates that construction is underway on the Grand Canyon Skywalk, and it is set to open soon.


Photo by Mark Boster / LAT

The article also indicates that the Skywalk "will be the catalyst for a 9,000-acre development [on the Hualapai Indian Reservation], known as Grand Canyon West, that will open up a long-inaccessible 100-mile stretch of countryside along the canyon's South Rim. [The development] may eventually include hotels, restaurants and a golf course."



The Hualapai are using the Skywalk and future developments as a means to address social problems within the group, including poverty and alcoholism. People outside the tribe are arguing that the plans will deface the Grand Canyon and turn it into a "tacky commercial playground." These appear to be the two sides of the argument, though the former is the one grounded in law, as the tribe owns the land and any rights to develop it. The latter could perhaps try to steer people away from visiting the Skywalk and paying its $25 admission, towards more sustainable ways of enjoying the canyon.



To me the Skywalk in and of itself is not a bad thing (or not as bad as the rest). It's quite an engineering feat and surely gimmicky, but without the development it's not as harmful to its context; road access, a place to eat, a gift shop, some toilets. But the irony is that Skywalk cannot exist alone. It's a piece meant to generate the other parts of the development. The Skywalk is meant to bring people to a side of the canyon more remote than the usual tourist spots, while the rest of the development is meant to keep them there much longer. It's unfortunate that the Skywalk will be linked to a golf course and other "non-native" amenities, but at this point it's well on its way to fruition.

(via Core77 & The Green Head)

Today's archidose #61

Bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong by loan Sameli.
"Bamboo scaffolding around skyscrapers in construction in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong."

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Today's archidose #60

Caplutta Sogn Benedetg by photograph er?.
A chapel in Sumvitg, Switzerland by Peter Zumthor, completed in 1988.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Waldspirale

I've never been a fan of the Friedensreich Hundertwasser's buildings. They're a bit too goofy and definitely the product of a painter rather than an architect (which in itself isn't a problem, but the surface treatment of the exteriors I think stems from this). His most well-known building is easily the eponymous apartment complex in Vienna he "completed" in 1986; I put quotes around completed because his buildings are never really finished. They evolve over time not only via the growth of trees and other vegetation integral with his buildings but by the occupants as well, who are allowed to paint the wall outside their unit in the Hundertwasser Haus, for example. This "strident philosophy of ecology and personal freedom," said about the late artist in a New York Times article yesterday on a posthumous winery opening in California, is something I definitely appreciate, though the execution still troubles me.


Image by Alexander Deppert

In a slide show accompanying the Times article, I was struck by the Waldspirale development in Darmstadt, Germany, shown above and below. While the striped exterior and onion domes leave much to be desired aesthetically, the ramping green roof is just amazing. It extends the green courtyard across the whole development, giving residents easy access to this area. It also helps the project relate to its context, by giving the mass a low scale inside the block but giving the public face a larger, more appropriate scale on the adjacent streets.



This is the kind of architecture that is in vogue now (witness Aaron Betsky's book Landscrapers from 2002), though in a more tame and less artistic manner. It's an appropriate strategy for a world that needs to get a lot greener.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Hotel Seeburg in Lucerne, Switzerland by Scheitlin_Syfrig + Partner.

The updated book feature is Savages, by Joe Kane.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

adaptivereuse.net
A blog about "a new world and a new culture for ourselves using the only raw material available, our old world." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Adaptive Landscapes
A great series that examines urban connections, borders, and fragments by Christian Marc Schmidt.

Continuity in Architecture
A blog composed of academics and architects in Manchester and Preston, England who prefer a reading of history that stresses the permanence of tradition as the subject of architecture. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Can you hear me now?

Late last year Pruned shared a news report (well worth watching) on "cell phone towers in elaborate disguises," such as trees, cacti, water towers, and flag poles. That report came to mind the other day when I noticed from afar some bumps on a church bell tower near my apartment, bumps with the distinct size and shape of cell phone towers. Getting closer my suspicion was confirmed, though it also became apparent why I'd never noticed them before: they're treated with a brick patterning.



This visual slight-of-hand, though, is just one element in the bell tower's transformation since its completion in 1950. The red lights atop the cross, due to its location near Laguardia Airport, is one example. As are the computer-generated tunes that the tower emits every so often, a modern-day replacement for those archaic bells and the hunchback who rang them.

Today's archidose #59

Skyward by Quod Libertarius [Zakka].
A mysterious detail of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in Copenhagen, Denmark. I'm guessing it's a curtain wall/mullion detail.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Today's archidose #58

parlamento alemám, Berlín by atwose.
Reichstag, New German Parliament in Berlin, Germany by Norman Foster.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

AIA:150

To commemorate the 150-year anniversary of the American Institute of Architects, the organization polled "1,800 Americans naming their 150 favorite structures across the nation based on nominations from AIA member architects." At first glance the results are an odd bunch, ranging from obvious choices like the first place Empire State Building to perhaps the least obvious choice, the Apple Store in SoHo.

To approach the list from a unique perspective, I decided to break out the buildings built post-1984, an arbitrary dividing line between Modern and contemporary, encapsulating some -- but not all -- of Postmodernism.

022: Bellagio Hotel and Casino (1998)
033: Rose Center for Earth and Space (2000)
053: Apple Store Fifth Avenue (2006)
057: Denver International Airport (1995)
059: Milwaukee Art Museum, Quadracci Pavilion (2001)
068: New York Times Building (2006)
069: Salt Lake City Public Library (2003)
070: Dolphin and Swan Hotels, Walt Disney World (1990)
071: Hearst Tower (1927 - 2006)
079: Reagan Building and Int'l Trade Center (1998)
082: Sofitel Chicago Water Tower (2002)
085: Harold Washington Library Center (1991)
095: J. Paul Getty Center for the Arts (1997)
097: Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse (2000)
098: Humana Building (1986)
099: Walt Disney Concert Hall (2003)
101: Paul Brown Stadium (2000)
102: United Airlines Terminal, O'Hare (1988)
104: AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants Stadium) (2000)
105: Time Warner Center (2003)
108: Seattle Public Library (2004)
109: Museum of Modern Art (1995)
117: Walker Art Center (2005)
118: American Airlines Center (2001)
121: San Francisco International Terminal (2000)
122: Oriole Park at Camden Yards (1992)
124: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1993)
129: Weisman Art Museum (1990)
133: Royalton Hotel (1988)
135: Safeco Field (1999)
141: Apple SoHo (2002)

Rather than trying to tackle the qualitative aspects of this 31-member list, which is all over the place, I'll let you draw your own conclusions from this quantitative breakdown:

Ranking:

1-25: 1
26-50: 1
51-75: 7
76-100: 7
101-125: 11
126-150: 4

Location:

East Coast: 11
West Coast: 9
In-between: 11

Use:

Civic/Institutional: 5
Commercial: 7
Cultural: 8
Hotel: 3
Sports: 5
Transport: 3

Architects (origin):

Africa: 0
Asia: 0
Australia: 0
Europe: 8
Latin America: 0
North America: 23

Architects (repeats):

2 - Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
2 - Frank Gehry
2 - Michael Graves
2 - Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum
2 - Richard Meier
2 - NBBJ
2 - Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
2 - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Architects (Pritzkers, in order of winning*):

Ieoh Ming Pei (079 & 124)
Richard Meier (095 & 097)
Frank Gehry (099 & 129)
Renzo Piano (068)
Norman Foster (071)
Rem Koolhaas (108)
Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (117)
*22 Pritzker winners are not represented in the AIA list.

Update 02/09: I modified the list above after realizing that some of the dates on the AIA list main page are incorrect; two Meier buildings have been added.

Here's some commentaries on the AIA:150 list:

Chicago Tribune (Blair Kamin)
Wall Street Journal, including a great sortable table view of the list (Alex Frangos)
Time Magazine (Richard Lacayo)
Archinect

Today's archidose #57