On Holiday

Heading out of town for the Labor Day weekend.



Posts will resume Monday or Tuesday.

Today's archidose #130

Simmons Hall ball pit, originally uploaded by viggo.

A ball pit (?!) in MIT's Simmons Hall dormitory by Steven Holl.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Firm Faces #4

Wait five seconds and the faces below will change from serious to, well, something else. Wait five more seconds and they're back to serious and ready to get some work done. These are the employees of Gordon Kipping Architects, a New York-based office that focuses on the intersection of technology and architecture. Visit their site to see the faces larger and as intended, their changing demeanor enabled by a mouseover, rather than an animated gif.



These changing faces show the personalities of those involved, but more importantly they also show how the technology-minded work is created by and for people. It humanizes the firm's work in a way that hopefully comes across in their designs.

Running on All Cylinders

Steven Holl appeared on Charlie Rose last month, shortly after his addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City opened. Holl's design -- officially called the Bloch Building -- was given a fair share of coverage on this page, though none since it's opening, so I provide the interview below.



Also be sure to check out Tyler Green's seven-part coverage of the opening -- starting here and with links to all posts here. He calls it the best American museum since Piano's Menil.

Today's archidose #129

the shingle church of Kärsämäki, originally uploaded by jukkar.

Wooden church of Kärsämäki (2004) by Anssi Lassila, the winner of a student competition organized at the Department of Architecture of University of Oulu

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Literary Dose #12

"The causes of the malaise in the architectural profession may be traced back to education. Four weeks into first year and students are exposed to the barbarity of the review/crit/jury. Power, hormones, fear, vanity, genius, and individuality form a rich mix that sets the ethos for what is to come. Architectural education is still guided by the Victorian values of the (male) individual genius architect silently supplying aesthetic delights for rich patrons. The Rural Studio explicitly challenges these paradigms. It champions collaboration, communication, and process over product. It exposes students to a range of issues that they are sheltered from in normative architectural education -- group working, social responsibility, lateral thinking, building skills, new ways of building procurement, sustainability, contingent creativity. But at the same time one should not get too misty-eyed and see it as a completely non-authoritarian structure. Mockbee and his successors are far from shrinking violets; one needs this overarching vision (and it is vision, not mindless control) to avoid the work descending to a level of worthy mediocrity, as so easily could have happened."

- Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth, originally published in Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio: Community Architecture, edited by David Moos and Gail Treschel (2003) and reprinted in Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition, edited by Vincent B. Canizaro (2007).

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Russo Club in Talca, Chile by Felipe Assadi + Francisca Pulido Architects.

The updated book feature is Verb Natures, edited by Albert Ferré, Irene Hwang, Tomoko Sakamoto, Ramon Prat, Michael Kubo, Mario Ballesteros & Anna Tetas, and Desert America, edited by Ramon Prat, Jaime Salazar, Michael Kubo & Irene Hwang.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Architecture and the Urban Landscape
With the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Steven Litt. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Architecture Update
A page devoted to "keeping you up-to-date on architects that interest you." (added to sidebar under architectural links::online journals)

Walking is Transportation
A new blog about "walking as a means of personal mobility. The goal of this weblog is to get people to think of walking as more than exercise--as, in addition, an alternative form of transport, one that merits a place in any discussion of transportation policy and planning. Like bicycling." (added to sidebar under blogs::urban)

Back to the Drawing Board

The "Bluff the Listener Challenge" on this week's Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! -- the NPR quiz show -- is about an architectural design flaw recently in the news. In the challenge three stories are presented and only one is true. The potential design flaws are:

1. Visions of God created by optical effects at the Grand Canyon Skywalk
2. Upskirt glances afforded by glass stairs in Norman Foster's Hearst Tower
3. A recapitulation of Baby Jessica's ordeal at a fountain in her honor

Click here to listen to the clip and discover the the answer.

Today's archidose #128

Säynätsalo, originally uploaded by jmtp.

Säynätsalo Town Hall in Säynätsalo, Finland by Alvar Aalto, 1952. Compare the overgrown steps in this shot to this early photograph on the cover of Architectural Regionalism.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Time to Protect Your Nuts

The title of this blog post is a quote from Jean-Claude Van Damme's guide to Kowloon Walled City (KWC), as he preps the action star for entry into the dark corridors of the "run-down piece of no-man's land" in Bloodsport. This is a clip I'd seen years ago in the early days of my ongoing KWC obsession (something I won't go into here, though here's a web page I made on KWC for a friend), but found recently when the Walled City started to make its rounds on a few blogs. The clip is probably the best quality moving image of the place, capturing it in a way that books and web sites can't. Enjoy.

Today's archidose #127

L1030635, originally uploaded by fdo h.

Sea Ranch Condominiums in Sonoma County, California by Charles Moore, William Turnbull, Donlyn Lyndon and Richard Whitaker (MLTW Group), 1965.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Architecture Poster Exclusive

Wallpaper* has an exclusive, slide-show preview of the upcoming "Graphic Virtuosity" exhibition of architectural posters from the extensive collection of Canadian architect and architectural historian, Robert G. Hill.

"Hill’s collection was assembled over a 40-year period, between 1960 and 2000, and comprises almost 1,600 posters assembled from museums and institutions in 20 different countries spanning Europe, Asia and North America. The exhibition consequently charts the history of the discipline, taking in key developments over time and around the globe, such as the conceptual representation of architectural ideas and the use of models, drawings and typography, all of which are employed to simultaneously promote the architect and architect’s work."

The exhibition runs from 10th September to 8th December at the Erik Arthur Gallery, University of Toronto.

Office Blogs

With the recently-started Firm Faces series and my own personal job search, I came across the occasional office using the blog format in various ways, be it for promotion or to express ideas that don't have a home on the firm's proper web page. So I've decided to add this (now) short list to the sidebar (under blogs::offices).

:: Archimania
:: hanrahanMeyers Architects
:: Pentagram
:: rolu | dsgn

Please comment if you know of other offices that have their own blogs, and I will add them to the sidebar.

Ask the Hammetts

The New York Times' City Room this week is taking questions for the editors of The Suburbanization of New York, Jerilou and Kingsley Hammett.

Answers have already started to roll out. It appears that familiarity with the book helps, though is not necessary to understand the questions or the answers.



See my review of the book here.

(via Urban Planning Blog)

Bustler Competitions

To stay updated on competitions, this site now has its own Bustler.net page, accessed from the far right sidebar by clicking on the Bustler logo.



Bustler is "all about architecture and architecture-related competitions," and allows readers to comment on the various postings, as well as submitting competitions, need be.

Keeping with the theme of competition, be sure to also check out Death By Architecture, another great page with thorough listings of architecture competitions, as well as other goodies.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Nebesa Mountain Retreat in Livek, Slovenia by REAL Engineering.

The updated book feature is Materials for Design, by Victoria Ballard Bell with Patrick Rand.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Æsthe/tech:Tonik
Architecture/design/art blog that "fall[s] all over the map in relation to what it promotes or denounces." (thanks to Kevin for the head's up; added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

your abode....environmentally
"architecture, design and construction.....green and sustainable." (added to sidebar under blogs::sustainability)

MuralMania_arch'blog
Architecture blog in Hungarian. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Today's archidose #126

Überorgan, originally uploaded by !architect4!.

Tim Hawkinson's Überorgan installed at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

The State of Chicago Architecture

Chicago magazine announces that "the heydey of Chicago architecture is back," with a compilation of Ten Modern Masterpieces. Their list (below) includes a number of obvious buildings but also a few surprises, though perhaps they are surprises to me due to my one-year absence from the city.


Clockwise from top-left: GARY COMER YOUTH CENTER (2006) by John Ronan Architects, STATE STREET VILLAGE (2003) by Murphy/Jahn Architects, JAY PRITZKER MUSIC PAVILION (2004) by Frank Gehry, THE CONTEMPORAINE (2004) by Perkins + Will, SPERTUS INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES (late 2007) by Krueck & Sexton Architects, PRITZKER HOUSE (2007) by Wheeler Kearns Architects, REPUBLIC WINDOW & DOOR (1998) Booth Hansen Associates, SOFITEL CHICAGO WATER TOWER (2002) by Jean-Paul Viguier, UBS TOWER (2001) by Lohan Caprile Goettsch (now Goettsch Partners), and SHINGLE HOUSE (2006) by Cohen & Hacker Architects.

Being now an "outsider" to Chicago, it seems to appropriate to comment on the fact only two of the ten projects are by architects outside the city, Frank Gehry's bandshell and Jean-Paul Viguier's Sofitel. In the former, writer Jay Pridmore puts Gehry at odds with Mayor Daley who supposedly "complained of too many eccentricities" in the design, though I recall from an exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center that Gehry's initial proposal was a simple, arced canopy that the mayor requested to be "jazzed up" for the park, something at odds with this reporting. Of course, my memory does not have a fact checker, which I'm guessing Chicago magazine has a few of.

Regarding the Sofitel, both Pridmore and quotes from the architect assert the building is not a Chicago building. On my weekly page I argued the opposite, that the facade, massing, and plaza react to the city's architectural history, its grid, and its open spaces, further responding to its direct context in sensitive and creative ways. It may not resemble anything before it, but it's still born from the same ideas and restrictions that create a Chicago building, and therefore it's a building to be learned from, if local architects want to continue making "masterpieces."

(via Gapers Block)

Hadid or Linklater?

Zaha Hadid drawing or Richard Linklater film?



Here's a hint, as familiar things start to appear:



This should give it away:



Yep, it's a job site, part of Waking Life, Linklater's live-action/animated film on lucid dreams. The job site pan ties together two scenes, one in a bedroom with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, the other with a guy ranting behind prison bars. It's a great film with some astounding animation (drawn over the live, digital movie) appropriate to its subject matter.

180 Varick Street

Metropolis takes a look inside 180 Varick Street, a large building in Soho that's home to a number of New York's architecture and design offices. Those featured include 2x4, MASS.com, Michael Sorkin Studio/Terreform, Hargreaves Associates, MESH Architectures, and Thomas Phifer & Partners.