"...the coming virtual city..."

Alexander "Pruned" Trevi has tagged me on a meme with the following rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The nearest book when I'm sitting at the computer isn't the book I'm reading (coincidentally, one of the books I'm reading -- the first work of fiction I've read in ages -- features a character who knows a book and author's worth by flipping to page 67 and reading paragraph 3) but the book I just finished, in a pile with a bunch of other books I've finished but have yet to review in my weekly page (more on that glut of back-reviews in a forthcoming post here).



The top of the pile is Sanford Kwinter's Far from Equilibrium: Essays on Technology and Design Culture. He seems to have inadvertently foreshadowed this meme rather nicely.

The forces behind the coming virtual city are driven by savage economic imperatives, not delirious new possibilities for freedom, and we will need, at great challenge to the imagination, to find effective new ways of refusing them. We will need to create strong alternative cultures resistant to the sleazy short-term seductions of gadgetry, in the hopes of maintaining any semblance of longterm autonomy over our fates. "Jacking in" to a cyberspatial matrix, as the characters in William Gibson's foundational novel Neuromancer put it, is, after all, hardly a convincing idea of life reinvented beyond the tyranny of productivist ethics nor the most promising erotic vision of a world where the body's energies are partially freed to create new modalities of pleasure.

Four down, one to go. I hereby tag:
Brand Avenue
Kosmograd
lewism
no2self
The Sesquipedalist

Firm Faces #7

STL Architects is "a collaborative group of design professionals with a common vision and a passion for architecture, planning, and design...led by Luis Collado, Jose Luis de la Fuente and Tracy Susanne Salvia" with 15 professionals. They "believe that good architecture evolves through humble, team-based efforts."



Their studio shot is a collage of black and white shots from the knees up on a bright orange background. Clicking on each person's name, one sees torso shots of each removed from the pack. I'm guessing the consistent treatment of their photos and the background conveys the humble, team-based nature of the studio.

What I like most about the studio page is not necessarily the clever composition -- something that enables them to add and subtract people, as necessary -- but the fact that each person has a page with a description. While this may seem to be in conflict with the team-based nature that the studio wishes to convey to potential clients, it is an unavoidable part of any professional office: it is composed of people and those individuals are important.

On a side note, that the contact information for each person is a phone extension instead of an e-mail address seems anachronistic at first, but ultimately it reinforces the importance of human contact

Today's archidose #182

Hamburg . BRT, originally uploaded by stadtbild.

Dockland Office Building in Hamburg, Germany by BRT Architekten (Bothe Richter Teherani), 2005.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

My weekly page update:

Chapel of Our Lady of the Conception in Recife, Brazil by Paulo Mendes da Rocha.

The updated book feature is Paulo Mendes da Rocha, by Paulo Mendes da Rocha & Rosa Artegis.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The Urban Commons
"The politics and culture of city life." (added to sidebar under blogs::urban)

Iwan Baan
Photographer of the Bird's Nest and much more. (added to sidebar under architectural links::photography)

re:ACT | reallyarchitecture
The blog of "a visionary youth group investigating architecture in Singapore, Asia and beyond." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Weekly Archive Beta Test

Michiel at Eikongraphis's feeling that archives are a challenge is something I definitely share. And while the daily page you are viewing has its problems -- owing mainly to my use an old modified blogger template with the "new" blogger -- I'm first tackling the task of improving the archives of my weekly doses, as I control the code of that page and am not at the mercy of blogger.

So what I've done on my weekly page is upload a beta version of the archive I've been working on, to ask readers for comments before I put in even more hours (notice the lack of "quality" posts in the last week or so) to include every dose back to week one in 1999. The idea is to consolidate four archives (by architect, by building, by date, by building type) into one sortable archive. The by location archive will stay, as one can browse geographically, with doses keyed to maps.

Here's what it looks like right now:



Here's a breakdown of the changes, from most important to least, keyed to the image above:

1. Sortable Headings: One click on a heading sorts the column ascending; a second click on the same heading sorts it descending, with ascending by architect as default. This is a java-based feature, so I'm not sure how it works on browsers without java compatability.

2. Highlighted Table Rows: Given the sheer number of archived doses (over 425 as of today), I was afraid the large table would be discouraging. Highlighting the individual rows as one moves the mouse up and down the page seems to help. Ditto on the java.

3. Flexible Table Cells This and #4 are part of a larger plan to subtly redesign the whole weekly dose site, starting with a move away from fixed table cells to flexible table cells. Flexible cells work better with the various text sizes that people control with their browser. One downside is for the expanding width for those with low-resolution monitors.

4. Fixed Logo: Given the length of the archive I thought it would help to have the name of the page be anchored, so where one is is never in doubt. Unfortunately, given that it's part of the background (a CSS feature), it's not interactive; it will not take one home. To do that, one must scroll to the very top or bottom for a navigation bar (not pictured).

That's about it. If you have any suggestions, criticisms, or notice anything funny going on, please comment below. This beta's been tested on IE6 and Firefox2, so if you use another browser, like Safari, please me know how it works.

Update 03.02: I've uploaded a revised version that incorporates most of the comments, including a normal cursor over headings, sorting by date for the default order, linking the whole highlighted row, and a consistent left justification. The only one I've yet to deal with is the background link, as most of the information I've found is conflicting and/or discourages one from doing what I'd like to do with that.

To me this latest version is an improvement, but the cursor in the highlighted rows does not change in Mozilla, only in IE. (I'm still not certain about Safari, so please comment if you're a Safaris user to let me know if everything works or not.) Otherwise all's well and I'll start to add the years before 2007 and start to phase out the other archives.

Please comment if you have any more suggestions.

Update 05.17: Well, three months later and the archive is done. It's now the main archive page, with a couple additions from the version presented here. Thanks to everybody again for all their help.

In Queens...

...A Garden Blooms. Last summer I visited the Queens Botanical Garden for a sneak peak of its Visitors Center designed by BKSK Architects, featuring it as a half dose. Now this month's Metropolis Magazine gives the building some well-deserved treatment, with Fred A. Bernstein giving some in-depth reporting on the process of creating a LEED-platinum building in the multi-cultural borough I call home.



Be sure to check out the slide show.

Today's archidose #181

Model., originally uploaded by Iqbal Aalam.

A model of the Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank in Klagenfurt, Austria by Morphosis (2002). Be sure to check out the rest of Iqbal Aalam's Flickr set of architectural models.

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:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
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AE1: Residential Rooftop Sun Filter

Being back in the world of architectural practice after the brief graduate school respite, I find myself spending more and more time looking for and at materials and products and their applications. For me the last is the most important, as context is an overriding consideration for how certain pieces come together into a design. So when it came time to find a way to bridge this time spent into material for this blog, I decided to present certain findings as "architectural elements;" by which I don't mean the usual (columns, porticoes, canopies, balconies, etc.) but the atypical, the apparent threads I see across designs responding to new urban, social, environmental and other conditions. The idea is that other designers can find inspiration in the work of others, but also that the definition of architectural element can embrace the contemporary as well as the traditional.

To begin this new series that will present two or three projects per post (read: not exhaustive) expressing a particular architectural element, here are two residential designs -- one built, one in project form -- that treat the usable rooftop space via elements filtering sunlight.


[Remsenburg Residence by Kiss + Zwigard Architects | image source]

The residence in Remsenberg, New York by Kiss + Zwigard Architects uses thin bamboo stalks on wood structure to shade both a seating area by the pool and a rooftop seating area. This appealing rooftop integrates a wood bench into a battered wall topped by what looks like native grasses. The sun filter wraps up the adjacent wall (to filter low sunlight) and is built around and upon a concrete-clad chimney that further anchors the small seating area underneath.


[Remsenburg Residence by Kiss + Zwigard Architects | image source]

The tightly-spaced bamboo appears to filter overhead sunlight better than a typical trellis made from 1x4 lumber, which works well for low sun but not particularly well for high sun. The bamboo also provides an interesting overhead surface, where the the reduced sunlight is balanced by a lightness of construction.


[Roof Progresso by Fernando Menis | image source]

In this 2007 project for the rooftop of an existing house in Santa Cruz de Tenerife architect Fernando Menis, like Kiss + Zwigard shades both the sides and the overhead planes, though Menis opts to integrate the two constructions in a way that breaks down the difference between the two.


[Roof Progresso by Fernando Menis | image source]

The construction is a bit more substantial than the New York residence -- even though the scale of the space and existing residence is much smaller -- but Menis is able to achieve a dramatic cantilever with the larger pieces of lumber. The cantilever seems to reach out to people entering the rooftop and beckon them to sit underneath and enjoy the filtered sunlight.

Today's archidose #180

pasillo entre luces, originally uploaded by atwose.

Inside the Nazarí Wall Intervention in Granada, Spain by Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas (2004), featured about a year ago on my weekly page.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

34 Apartments in 34 Apartments in Cambrils, Spain by Guallart Architects.

The updated book feature is Patent Constructions: New Architecture Made in Catalonia, edited by Albert Ferré, Ricardo Devesa & Jaime Salazar.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Reading for CNY 3
Several Archinect editors share their favorite book titles from the year of the PIG, as well as picks for the year of the RAT. Don't miss part II.

Five Foot Way
"An online platform focused on exploring Asian Architecture." (added to sidebar under architectural links::online journals)

Anamorphosis
"Learn design create." (added to sidebar under blogs::design+technology)

Today's archidose #179

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, originally uploaded by fabian-f.

Inside the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Designed by Roy Grounds and opened in 1967, the museum underwent restoration by Mario Bellini with Metier 3 and reopened in 2003.

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 #178

Tel Aviv, originally uploaded by jmtp.

The Wolfson Center in Tel Aviv by Louis I. Kahn (ca. 1975). FYI: According to Brownlee and De Long's book on Kahn, "part of the Wolfson Center was completed after Kahn's death, without supervision from America."

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 #177

Berlin, originally uploaded by jmtp.

The AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin, Germany by Peter Behrens (1908). I couldn't resist posting this photo, considering the book I'm reading.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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

Hold on to those drawings

They might be worth something.



This is an aerial view from the 1970s, showing the land around Orlando, Florida owned by Disney. An architect working at the firm that used the aerial as a design tool (as in the close-up below) snagged the large, mixed-media architectural drawing when the firm was going to ditch it. From free to $2,500 in 30 years, according to the Antiques Roadshow appraisal; not bad.



The appraiser noted a couple things worth passing along here. First, given the copyright of the drawing (by Disney, if I recall correctly), the current "owner" could sell it or have it insured for something like the above dollar amount, but he could not duplicate it and make many more dollars. Disney could do that...if they found a market willing to pay for such a thing.

Second, he pointed out the yellowing of the photo at the top of the page from sunlight, recommending that the owner keep it out of sunlight to reduce further damage. While I wouldn't argue with that recommendation, I'd say the yellowing makes it a bit more interesting. It almost looks intentional, like a Morphosis drawing before its time:

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

House for a Musician in Scharans, Switzerland by Valerio Olgiati.

The updated book feature is Designs on the Public: The Private Lives of New York's Public Spaces, by Kristine F. Miller.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The Urban Reinventors
Issue #2 is out of the "online urban journal whose aim is to analyze political strategies of urban redevelopment implemented by entrepreneurial administrations of western countries within the growth-oriented and competition-driven framework of urban governance of the contemporary city." (added to sidebar under architectural links::planning/urban)

myarchN
"Your friendly network about ARCHITECTURE". (added to sidebar under architectural links::forums)

Spacing
"A magazine that focuses on the joys, obstacles, and politics of Toronto’s urban landscape," with a blog on Toronto and Montreal. (added to sidebar under architectural links::publications)

40 Bond Rumination #3

My lapse in the as-promised series of posts on Herzog & de Meuron's 40 Bond has not gone unnoticed by yours truly. So to wrap this thing up (hopefully with something of substance), this is the first of two more posts to end the series. Here, I'll look at the "function of graffiti," and the last will try to sum up my thoughts on the Ian Schrager condo.

When I say "function of graffiti," what I mean is the purpose of the curvy, cast-aluminum screens/gates that demarcate public from private, sidewalk from townhouse, us from them, the screens whose patterns were "derived from contemporary graffiti tags, hybridized by computer."



These screens veer strongly from the simple curved-glass profiles that cover the concrete frame above. While the textured metal walls tucked behind these screens strive to balance these two architectural statements, the graffiti design is so strong in its own right to make that balance next to impossible. But why is such as strong artistic statement made with the ground-floor screen?


[Note the gate "cut" into the graffiti.]

My answer to that question is "to improve the relatively undesirable location of living at sidewalk level in Manhattan." Sure, New York has plenty of "life on the street," but most people don't want that life in their apartment, much less right out in front of it. One need only walk about the island to try and even find an apartment so vertically tight with the sidewalk to see what people want. It's simple to find units a half level above or below this level, but it is very hard to discover something like this, where a wheelchair -- though in more likelihood a stroller -- can roll into the apartment.



When I did come across a ca. 1960-70s building in a similar vein to 40 Bond, the prison bar-like gate was so unfriendly that the prospect of living behind it seemed, well, like being a prisoner behind bars, or like an animal in a zoo. So when the Swiss duo of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were faced with making these units desirable, or even tolerable enough for their asking prices, they went all out and created something as far removed from prison bars as possible. (One interpretation might see the screen as resembling bones, and equate their roles as structure and barrier as a parallel to prison bars.)


[Hinge side left; lock side right]

To me the most interesting moments of the screens that cover most of the street level elevation (minus the main entry) are where the functional gates occur. Given that the townhouses stretch the full depth of the building, entry from the sidewalk is necessary. The in-and-out and straight cuts of the hinge and lock sides respectively indicate these openings were either an afterthought or not worth influencing the design. I'm guessing that a sense of entry was not desired, as the owner knows where the entry is and others should not, lest they try to gain access.