Today's archidose #157

California Academy of Sciences* / de Young Museum**, originally uploaded by fdo h.

The California Academy of Sciences (under construction) by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, as seen from the M.H. de Young Museum by Herzog & de Meuron. Both are situated in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

Photo is best viewed SUPER LARGE to see the detail of the Academy of Sciences in the distance.

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Literary Dose #20

"It is here [Baja California], in the Bay of Loreto, where developers are building a 5,000-unit resort designed by Andreas Duany, who is selling it to the world as 'the first ecologically friendly subdivision.' In a typical New Urbanist appeal, this mega development (PDF link) is customized by an authentic Mexican Village, completing the invasion of Loreto Bay by no only mono culture of upper-middle-class North American land owners who can afford this island of pleasure, but by 'Seaside' and 'Celebration' type of planning, making this the official arrival of New Urbanism in grand scale to the Mexican West Coast. Beyond issues of architectural style, however, it is tragic that these mega developments, as ecologically responsible and manicured as they can be, are indifferent to the social and economic inequalities they will engender, as these 'all inclusive' and gated environments might be eventually surrounded by the shanty towns built by their own service providers. This phenomenon will add to the strange asymmetry at the border and along the political equator's trajectory, as this will become another instance of the kind of neoliberalist urbanites worldwide that continue to be supported by cheap labor (service sector), on one end, and the emergence of expensive real estate (enclaves of wealth), on the other."

- Teddy Cruz, "Border Tours: Strategies of Surveillance, Tactics of Encroachment," from Indefensible Space: The Architecture of the National Insecurity State (2008), edited by Michael Sorkin.

A Suburban Future?

Much of my time over the Thanksgiving break was spent helping my parents pack their belongings to move out of the home in which they raised me and my sister. Located about 20 miles north of Chicago, the house is in what could be called an old suburb, with a gridded street pattern, small lots, and walking distance to shops, library, and a train station to Chicago.

Regardless of this condition, the McMansion phenomenon is still to be found in the area, though more likely on the large blocks of adjacent streets with larger lots than this street and its smaller lots, where new houses -- between the size of the old ranches or colonials and the trendy McMansions -- crowd their lots and leave very little yard space. Well, looking out the back of my parent's house I noticed one possible scenario for achieving large houses on small lots:



Buy the next-door neighbor's lot, tear down the house, and plant grass! Yes, that open space directly behind my parent's yard used to be a house, a split-level 70s-era number, from what I recall. The orange-brick house on the right is a recent addition to the block (built after tearing down a one-story house about the size of my parent's house) that did this duty.

While the newfound airspace and light seems refreshing (though late, considering the move) it also strikes me as a cautious scenario for transforming "old" suburbs into "new" suburbs. Where critics of suburbia offer future scenarios that call for adding density to suburbs old and new, in effect filling in further the existing voids, this gesture, if writ large, would make the transformation of the suburbs into a more sustainable use of land close to impossible. Not only would it push houses even further out across the landscape, it would make the place affordable to only those that can afford two houses and pay property taxes on a relatively unused lot.

I can see my parent's suburb -- Northbrook, the home of Ferris Bueller and other John Hughes teen flicks -- as being desirable for the qualities I mentioned earlier, though the hypothetical application of this two-lot apparatus to the area would be similar to what's happening in Manhattan: the desirability of the place drives the price beyond the reach of the lower and middle classes (minus irregular, crowded situations). This isn't to say Northbrook is as desirable as Manhattan, but I do think that these and other old suburbs will become more desirable as people see the inferior nature of the new suburbs and attempt a scenario that tries to meld the two (walkability and other qualities of the old with the giant size of the new houses and lots) before other alternatives are tried and the tide turns.

Today's archidose #156

Spertus, originally uploaded by archidose.

The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, Illinois by Krueck + Sexton Architects. The building opens officially on November 30.

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Gobble, Gobble

Another year, another Thanksgiving break. Posts will resume on Monday or Tuesday next week.


Image found here

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

The Boxwood Winery in Middleburg, Virginia by Hugh Newell Jacobsen.

The updated book feature is Crabgrass Frontier, by Kenneth T. Jackson and Redesigning the American Dream, by Dolores Hayden.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Art is Everywhere
A blog about making art and seeking the beautiful in our surroundings. (added to sidebar under blogs::art)

Normal Room
A "home for global homes, wonderful lifestyles and fabulous interior design."

The Think Tank
that has yet to be named.

New York's Green Future

By my count about 100 people gathered yesterday in Cooper Union's column-filled Great Hall to attend New York 2030: New York's Green Future, a public discussion among the authors of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC and a panel of urban design experts, organized by the Institute for Urban Design.

The morning was reserved for the "authors" of the plan, who gave Power Point presentations on the goals of PlaNYC, its various elements (parks, transportation, water, housing), and some inspirations for moving forward with the plan. What came across as the strongest point to me was that the plan is predicated on growth, specifically the addition of one million more people by 2030. While this point has been apparent since day one, a questioning of that growth -- and the basing of a sustainable plan around growth, as opposed to sustainability for its own sake and for quality of life -- was what I took from the discussion. Given the short time left in the current administration, and the longterm nature of PlaNYC, one must wonder what will be its future if it is seen that the population does not grow by one million, or in fact shrinks over that same projected time?

The explicit statement that all the elements of the plan follow from the growth premise is equally unsettling, as if to say that parks and housing cannot follow from anything but growth and that current residents aren't considerations. To think that approximately 85% of the context for the plan currently exists, what happens to this physical and social context is not clear. It's as if adding parks and housing will solve the problem, which the mayor is defining as dealing with an influx of one million people, a population yet to be defined in any way.



The afternoon session was a response to the morning presentation, comprised of academics and leaders of community organizations. The short talks were primarily critical of the plan, from its ignorance of the city's typical democratic, decision-making process to its lack of creativity, and learning from other cities, in dealing with transportation issues. The only non-New Yorker of the bunch, sociologist Richard Sennett, questioned the ability of a sustainable plan towards problems of social inequality and isolation, two traits he finds in global cities today.

Unfortunately members of the audience did not follow Michael Sorkin's plea for succinct questions directed at particular members of the panel; instead individuals used the opportunity as a platform for their own ramblings on issues sometimes only marginally related to the topic at hand, or even to hurl insults. It was unfortunate, as the preceding presentations -- both by city officials and "rebukers" -- were informative and varied in their points of view, enabling those in audience to come away with not only a new way of thinking about things, but a sense of how to deal with what the future brings as the plan is adopted and implemented.

Literary Dose #19

"At American's outposts, with places like Chili's pumping out its exhaust in one area and Burger King belching its tallow-scented smoke down the street, the place certainly does smell like America. I was struck by how both men [at Camp Carroll in South Korea] referred to the idea of Westerners, as people, standing out, but were not too concerned about the bases standing out, as they do when someone flies over them or walks by them and peers in the chain link fence. When I mentioned this, [civilian Dean] Jackson said, 'But sometimes we build with a local influence.' Colonel [Wayne] Kennedy reacted strongly to this suggestion, stating forcefully, 'But it's absolutely just a façade -- the inside is still American.' Here is a senior Army officer, trained as a logistician, who sees through the veneers of compatibility. Whether in Italy, Japan, or South Korea, planning that stops with sloped tile roofs and stucco walls does not make a place compatible. But the American style seems to be spreading to the local area. Jackson commented that he has noticed more Western-style housing going up: single-family homes with big yards and two-car garages. It seems local residents are learning from the planning patterns of the military."

- Mark L. Gillem, from America Town (2007).

Nouvel Note

Just a quick note on Jean Nouvel's latest design for Manhattan, a new 75-story tower for a site next to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Midtown. Nicolai Ouroussoff asks, "How did a profit-driven developer become more adventurous architecturally than MoMA, which has tended to make cautious choices in recent years?"



He answers his own question in with:

Hines [who MoMA sold the site to] asked Mr. Nouvel to come up with two possible designs for the site. A decade ago anyone who was about to invest hundreds of millions on a building would inevitably have chosen the more conservative of the two. But times have changed. Architecture is a form of marketing now, and Hines made the bolder choice.

(via Archinect)

Today's archidose #155

IIT Entry Across, originally uploaded by ken mccown.

The McCormick Tribune Campus Center at the Illinois Institute (IIT) of Technology by Rem Koolhaas/OMA. Be sure to check out Ken McCown's flickr set for more quality pics of the IIT building.

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Literary Dose #18

"Reduction is always risky, but [Alvaro] Siza's observations [on his working process] could be simplified in this manner:

place: origin of all architecture."

"distance: provided by the fact that it's others who build."

"discussion: pay attention to those who will be using the building."

"contingency: the solutions to the specific problems of each job are to be found in the conflicts that accompany the reality of the context of the work."

"uncertainty: thanks to the vagueness of the goal being pursued at the start of the job. The reaction is not resignation. On the contrary, that all well-done jobs end in surprise is a source of satisfaction."

"mediation: architecture as something that calls for group work, accepting one's limitations (constructive, functional, legal, etc.), sacrificing direct personal expression."

"nonsatisfaction: every architectural work is, in the eyes of its architect, unfinished; the architect necessarily feels that his solution failed to resolve all the conflicts inherent in the surrounding reality."

"evidence: architecture as the opportunity to test the uniqueness of things, the uniqueness that in their evidence allows us to discern their very essence."

Rafael Moneo, from Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects (2004)

Photos, from top to bottom (all projects in Portugal, unless noted otherwise):
:: Swimming Pool in Leça da Palmeira (1966) by z.z.
:: Llobregat Sports Complex in Barcelona, Spain (2006) by tiagotchi
:: Social Housing in Saal da Bouça (1977) by z.z.
:: Boa Nova Restaurant in Leça da Palmeira (1963) by andrewpaulcarr
:: School of Architecture in Porto (1996) by z.z.
:: Swimming Pool in Leça da Palmeira (1966) by olotini
:: "Bonjour Tristesse" in Berlin, Germany (1984) by dianavieira

All photos grabbed from the archidose Flickr pool.

Today's archidose #154

Villa Bio, originally uploaded by jmtp.

Villa Bio in Llers, Spain by Enric Ruiz Geli.

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Half Dose #39: Rolling Huts

One of the recipients of this year's AIA Seattle Honor Awards is the aptly-named Rolling Huts by the critic's darlings, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects.



The firm's embrace and occasional forays into the industrial is clearly evident here, with their steel wheels, frame and less-than-polished surfaces.



The architects responded to local restrictions that restricted cabins (a building "type" this office appears to produce almost constantly), "hit[ting] upon the idea of placing the structures on wheels, effectively making the huts into RVs."



AIA Seattle praised the project for its playfulness, "a willingness to question local idiomatic practice, [and being] raw, edgy, unafraid of the challenging aspects of nature." The local organization hits on the idea that "the user cannot escape the fact that the buildings impose on the landscape, with their steel wheels and tentative siting. These simple structures engage the spiritual question of our place in the landscape."



Nevertheless the interiors are finished in an apparently minimal, clean, and well-appointed manner that makes the experience less than "roughing it," as one might expect from the notion of a hard-edged, industrial-like cabin on steel wheels.



Links:

:: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects
:: AIA Seattle Honor Awards (Rolling Huts image gallery)

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Park East Synagogue in Pepper Pike, Ohio by Centerbrook Architects and Planners.

The updated book feature is The Production of Space, by Henri Lefebvre, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Human-Assisted Design
A blog "related to the following areas: algorithm-generated design, generative design, evolutionary design, genetic algorithms, sustainable building construction." (added to sidebar under blogs::design+technology)

Architecture: the good the bad and the ugly
A "community of architectural critiques...a virtual roundtable where everyone, around the world interested in architecture, can express there opinion." (added to sidebar under architectural links::forums)

World Planning Day
Oops. Missed it.

M.I.T. Sues Architect Frank Gehry
Missed this one, too.

Today's archidose #153

New Museum, originally uploaded by archidose.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art by SANAA in New York City, opening on the first of December.

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Urban Lobby

It's been a while since I've posted about something blobby -- for lack of a better term -- so when this "design research project on generative, computational form finding" by MRGD (pronounced emerged) landed in my inbox I couldn't resist.



Urban Lobby is the 2006 Architectural Association thesis project of Melike Altinisik (Turkey), Samer Chamoun (Lebanon) and Daniel Widrig (Germany). In it they investigate "the potential of fuzzy logic as a loose-fit organizational technique for developing intelligent, flexible and adaptive environments."



The project looks at the urban lobby as a contested and negotiated transient space, between public and private, work and home, transit and statis, etc. Interestingly, the team approaches their design by using an existing 1970s office tower (Centre Point) in London as the starting point for the new lobby, an apparent appendage that links the building to its context while infiltrating the existing at levels higher than the typical lobby's reach.



This sort of project is more about its process than its result. While images of the latter tend to be the focus in both print and online publications, the former should be stressed, as the form emerges from the process. While the description of the process on MRGD's web site is rather complex, the image below helps to explain one aspect of it: an investigation of the "self organizing behavior of the hair system." A number of variables were manipulated with a computer (of course) to derive images that could then be analyzed as potential formal processes for the lobby design.



It's well worth visiting the project web page to see the various animations and still images of the design's process and "final" form. It's a very thorough documentation of the project, aided in part by the computer's ability to generate images, but more so the team's drive towards generating "innovative works of architecture with an important urban, social and cultural effects."



While the project aims to break ground via the use of the computer in the design process, the team concludes by discussing beauty, specifically beauty vs. elegance. They say, "Both are quite different concepts. One is either beautiful or not. Technique comes to play its major role to transform what is considered not beautiful to beautiful similar to plastic surgery. It allows us to push towards beauty by producing elegance. Elegance is therefore achieved as kind of problem solving process, an ability to articulate complexity, and multiple agendas into a resolution."



Thanks to Daniel for bringing the project to my attention and supplying some images for this post.