Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

House on 21st Street in Lubbock, Texas by Urs Peter Flueckiger.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The 2008 Priztker Prize
Goes to Jean Nouvel.

City Bites
"Manhattan-based reporter Alec Appelbaum explores the details, context and personalities transforming New York's architecture." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

e-architect
"World Architecture - News + Buildings + Architects + Photos." (added to sidebar under architectural links::online journals)

W(e are ) here: Mapping the Human Experience
"Intermedia Arts and Solutions Twin Cities team up to creatively explore the intersections of communication, technology, and aesthetics. This unique multi-media exhibit invites you to explore and interact with the information around you through data visualization, artistic expression, and interactive installations." Running from March 31 - May 9.

Book Review: Corrugated Iron

Corrugated Iron: Building on the Frontier (2007) by Adam Mornement and Simon Halloway
W. W. Norton
Hardcover, 224 pages



When one hears the term corrugated iron (or the more contemporary corrugated metal or corrugated aluminum) a few conflicting images pop to mind: large industrial buildings, third-world shanty towns, Quonset huts, and the houses of Glenn Murcutt. Ranging from small to large, quick to labored, amateur to professional, and embracing other apparent opposites, the authors in this history/contemporary presentation of the material determine that what these applications have in common is the frontier. Since its invention in the early 19th century, and its use in London's docks and train stations, the material has always found itself on the margins, seen by people then and now as lacking dignity, expressing poverty, and looking just plain ugly. While this book presents a number of contemporary beauties by the likes of Murcutt, it does not try to convince the reader of corrugated iron's merits. Rather the book traces the material's somewhat troubled history and outlines ways in which it can continue to be used in architecture and other building.

The heavily-illustrated, large-format book chronologically presents the story of corrugated iron from its 1829 patent, through its boom after the original patent expired, its varied application on America's so-called frontier, its wartime use, to informal settlements and contemporary architecture. Each chapter focusing on one of these themes presents "case studies" alongside the historical text, giving the book an alternative read for those not interested in a thorough history of the material.

For this reviewer, the two most interesting parts of the book are the last two: corrugated iron's use in informal communities and in contemporary architecture. These two polarities of the contemporary condition -- one out of necessity, one out of alternative expression or budget-consciousness -- are certainly two different types of frontiers, with the acceptance of the latter not being shared by one of the former...though it depends who you talk to. The apparently ugly or destitute nature of shantytowns is a view shared by those who are closer to living in a Glenn Murcutt house than living in the slums of Brazil or Nigeria, a similar alignment of corrugated iron's critics in the 19th century. Has anything been learned in the last 175 years? Has the intelligent use of the material in disaster housing and even museums altered the course of thought towards corrugated iron? The contemporary examples here show an unabated use of the material in a variety of ways, embodying one aspect of the frontier that silences those critics: a lack of concern in what others think.

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Today's archidose #192

Copenhagen . Ørestad, originally uploaded by stadtbild.

230 Dwellings in Ørestad, Copenhagen, Denmark by PLOT = BIG + JDS, 2005.

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CUNY Lectures

Here's two lectures next week at CUNY schools worth noting:

:: Bubbles in Beijing: Architecture, Physics, and the Olympics
Tuesday, April 1, 6:30pm
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
(at 34th Street)

"The Olympic aquatics pavilion in Beijing resembles a box of bubbles. This extraordinary structure and the feat of engineering required to build it will be discussed by Denis Weaire, physics professor at Trinity College Dublin, who first observed the efficiency of bubble structures. He'll be joined by Daniel Brodkin, a principal in the New York office of the engineering firm Arup."

The lecture is free. Visit the The Science & The Arts Program site to reserve a seat.

:: David Harvey: The Right to the City
The Fifth Annual Lewis Mumford Lecture on Urbanism
Thursday, April 3, 6:30pm
The Great Hall, Shepard Hall
City College of New York
160 Convent Avenue

"Professor Harvey’s lecture, titled 'The Right to the City,' will examine who gets to exercise this precious right and how. Under capitalism, there has been a long-standing conflict between a view of cities as centers for profit making and capital accumulation and another that sees them as utopian spaces of human interaction. While the former has prevailed, Professor Harvey will ask how the right to the city can be restored to the people. Such questions need to be addressed by all who seek a more humane and ecologically sensitive urbanism for the 21st Century, he contends."

The event is organized by the Graduate Program in Urban Design of the CCNY School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. It is free and open to the public. No reservations are necessary.

Today's archidose #191

Robin Hood Gardens, London, originally uploaded by Iqbal Aalam.

Robin Hood Gardens in London, England by Alison and Peter Smithson, nearing its 1972 completion.

There's a good deal of controversy swirling around this housing block, as cries for demolition are met with resistance by many in the British architecture community, particularly bdonline and their campaign to Rescue Robin Hood Gardens.

See also:
:: City of Sound
:: Continuity in Architecture
:: Google News
:: Kosmograd
:: PartIV

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Firm Faces #8

Dale Jones-Evans Pty Ltd Architecture (dje) is an Australian office established in 1984, "a studio-based design practice committed to the art of urban, architecture and interior design," with an "approach [that] is personal, pro-active and professional."

This may sound like the same interchangeable description from any other office of the same size (I often wonder if a potential client could really tell the difference between offices based on their firm descriptions), but dje does a couple things interesting in aligning these words with the firm's faces: they are situated in the work space and they are seen "working."



This first image is the office's splash page. In a way it resembles a band photo, the majority of the "players" occupying themselves in some manner that clearly indicates who's the lead singer, or in this case the dj-e of dje. His eyes take aim at the camera and at the web surfer, as his employees talk, look at a magazine, and talk on the phone. It's humorous, yet surely unique, with their presence fading as one mouses over the image.



Clicking on the profile page, one is confronted by a quicktime movie that takes place in the same corner as the first image. The careful (nighttime?) lighting of the first image makes the jalousie wall read as part of the space, but here that detail is washed out by sunlight. These four "stills" from the looping movie show dj-e again as the center of attention, with all eyes on his centered, at-camera location in the top left; when he takes a phone call (top right) people take the opportunity to goof off; and when he walks about eyes and heads follow.

More than the first image, this movie illustrates the studio aspect of the firm, with dj-e the head and the rest his collaborators. The consistent location of these two pieces of imagery illustrates how the various designers come together, even though both are, naturally, staged. Overall it's a unique way of presenting the office that is, in my opinion, effective, more effective than the "same 'ol" text that tries to differentiate the office but ends up doing the opposite.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

UIC Student Recreational Facility in Chicago, Illinois by Moody•Nolan & PSA-Dewberry.

The updated book feature is Far from Equilibrium: Essays on Technology and Design Culture by Sanford Kwinter, edited by Cynthia Davidson.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The Skyline
Looks like Blair Kamin's got one of them blogs. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

the way of peace
The blog of "an architectural student studying in limkokwing university of creative technology, pursuing his degree in architectural science." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

The Museum Brand Footprint (PDF download)
A white paper on "the role of architecture in defining the museum's image," as part of DMD New York's original research.

Mi Moleskine Arquitectónico
"Note on architecture...and much more. (in Spanish; added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Semiramis Hotel by Karim Rashid
Why Rashid should stick to trash cans.

Book Review: Renzo Piano Museums

Renzo Piano Museums (2007) by Renzo Piano, with an essay by Victoria Newhouse
Monacelli Press
Hardcover, 214 pages



In a piece in Bloomberg News last month, critic James S. Russell laments Italian architect Renzo Piano's dominance of museum commissions in the United States. Citing timid museum trustees and an embrace of "architecture serving art" as reasons for this phenomenon, over the quality of Piano's output, which he sees as lacking in recent projects like the Morgan Library and LACMA, Piano nevertheless has a number of museum designs for the US either on the boards or underway. While I would agree that some of his recent designs do lack the clarity or quality of the Menil Collection or the Nasher Sculpture Center, they are still highly-skilled buildings that are better than the majority of what passes for architecture these days. While Russell's argument is pretty weak (are Piano's projects really so repetitive that one loses track of one's locale, be it Bonn or Boston?), his call for variety in museum architecture is warranted as is his plea for "museums [to] undertake a deep inquiry that combines an insightful designer with [the] museum."

If this phenomenon, the "Piano effect" if you will, is such a thing, then this is the textbook for it. Renzo Piano Museums collects 18 of these buildings, all but five of them complete as of the book's publication. This large number, spanning from the Centre Georges Pompidou (with Richard Rogers) in 1977 to this year's LACMA (and beyond) does not include the California Academy of Sciences in San Fransisco's Golden Gate Park, an important work now under construction that strays from the homogeneity that Russell admonishes. But this begs the question of how this book defines museum; if a natural history museum doesn't make the cut but a cultural center in New Caledonia or an art gallery appended to a conference center does, then arguments about quantity become less, well, quantifiable.

Which brings us back to quality. And the quality of the projects in these pages is undeniable, as is their variety. I've always taken the stance that Piano is one of the best architects practicing today because of this variety, because consistencies happen at the level of detail, not form or space or site. This makes for well-built but varied experiences for, in these cases, museum-goers. So it is the act of going to a museum and seeing what's on display, interacting with the objects contained within, that's the focus in these projects. While any book can only convey a small fraction of that experience, one understands this focus via Piano's treatment of the horizontal surface, the barrier between art (or whatever else is on display) and sky. More specifically it is the interaction between the sun outside and the space inside that concerns Piano.

Russell takes exception to this focus on light, something that recalls both Le Corbusier and Richard Meier, architects with careers alternately eclectic and consistent. Piano would appear to fall almost exactly halfway between these two, with his varied responses to site and program and his almost pathological desire to achieve that same even overhead light without repeating a skylight design twice. This last gives his museum projects a consistency that borders on the repetitive, both in form (the repeated scallops of the High Museum extension) and between buildings (the Art Institute addition in Chicago seems like a rehash of the Beyeler Museum that graces this book's cover). Which brings me back, lastly, to the unfortunate omission of the California Academy of Sciences, an important building, in this case, because it gives a portion of the typically-skylight-covered roof space over to vegetation and solar panels. In turn, the space and the experience changes, as it should, for the science museum, illustrating how Piano responds to program and location to create insightful and quality architecture.

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Koolhaas Houselife

The first time I saw, in Abitare, the story of Guadalupe Acedo, the housekeeper of OMA's House in Bordeaux, France designed for a wheelchair-bound client, I was intrigued by the focus on the housekeeper and the chores she must do to keep the house and its well-known mechanisms in a reasonable state after the occupant's death.

Koolhaas Houselife, the film by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine that presents the story of Guadalupe is part of an upcoming exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, On Mock-ups, Home Videos and Housekeeping: a video exhibition in 3 parts, running from March 25 to May 3 (the Guadalupe portion will run from April 3 to the exhibition's close).

Here's a couple trailers from the filmmaker's blog.

Today's archidose #190

west windows, originally uploaded by monkeyridingdog.

New College Residence at the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, 2003.

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Building Bits

Here's a couple buildings, old and new, in the news this week.

Louis I. Kahn's Esherick House (1961) in Philadelphia hits the auction block.


[photograph by Ezra Stoller/Esto | image source]

Large for a single-person house (as it was designed), but small by today's standards, this dignified piece of architecture is supposed to fetch between $2-3 million. While this supposedly happened yesterday in an auction by Wright in Chicago yesterday, I've yet to hear or see any news on the sale; I'll post an update when known. The auction is actually May 18, not March 18. Me bad.


[photograph by Todd Eberle | image source]

Wright commissioned Todd Eberle to shoot photographs for a catalog that also features an essay by Julie V. Iovine. This aspect of the auction reminds me of the catalog I saw at the Maison Tropicale when I visited it on the Queens side of the East River, where a nearly $100 catalog was for sale. Looks like pricey, museum-quality books to accompany the big show aren't just for museums.

The Ascent at Roebling Ridge by Studio Daniel Libeskind opens on March 26.


[photographer unknown | image source]

Covington, Kentucky's attempt to upstage its neighbor across the Ohio River, Cincinnati, is a building that looks more suited to Las Vegas than a Midwestern city of roughly 50,000. This trait owes not only to its swooping form but its skin, its solid/void patterning and the mirrored glass.


[photographer unknown | image source]

Libeskind justifies the design as one that "echoes the colors of the [Covington-Cincinnati] Suspension Bridge...[and] mimics the Bridge's cables...curving to maximize the views of both the river and the surrounding hillsides." Okay, but that still doesn't distract me enough from that exterior wall -- flat as a curving pancake -- with balconies, for the most part, carelessly inserted into it. I just can't shake that Vegas feeling.


[photographer unknown | image source]

Literary Dose #25

"Architecture used to be about beauty. Now it's just about money. What has changed? Well, everything, really, in three revolutions: social, theoretical, cultural. The social revolution occurred when democratic capitalism took money from the hands of a cultivated aristocracy and gave it first to the mercantile classes and then to the plebs (us). This fitted architecture with an entirely new client-class, which is really two classes -- the developers who build, and the people who buy. Neither of them is especially interested in architecture, urbanism or the making of place. [...]

The second revolution was, if not theory-led, at least theory-coated. In the mid-twentieth century, design-meisters Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius jointly marched architecture towards an engineering aesthetic of bare functionalism. That they did not practice their creed made their preachings no less effective, and led, inevitably, to a wholesale burning of the books. Which was the third revolution. The people are not the only ones who know what they like but can't get there. In schools and academies across the planet, ignorance of the ancient (or indeed, modern) canons of beauty is profound. Which is not to argue that beauty as a rule thing. It's more that old tenet that knowing the rules is especially essential for those who would break them.

The problem, therefore, is not just a lack of clients-with-taste-and-money, though that is real enough. It's that the knowledge itself is no longer architecture's dilly-bag. Beauty has become an embarrassment never to be discussed outside those inner-sanctum slide-nights when architects warm their hands against the tiny flame that flickers now at the profession's core, blowing protectively on the coals lest the chill winds of commerce extinguish the flame forever."

- Elizabeth Farrelly in Blubberland (MIT Press, 2008).

Today's archidose #189

escala, originally uploaded by yellow.kiddo.

Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK) in Vienna, Austria by Ortner & Ortner, 2001.

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Book Review: Cost-Effective Buildings

Cost-Effective Building: Economic concepts and constructions (2007) edited by Christian Schittich
Birkhauser
Hardcover, 176 pages



The latest in Detail Magazine's in DETAIL series presents what could be called "un-Bilbao" buildings; those commissions not blessed with the almost limitless budgets that allow for expensive materials, formal invention, and a HUGE scale. Where previous books in the series looked at building types (single-family housing) or architectural elements (building skins), this one focuses on the less-thrilling aspect of architectural production: the budget. Building types in these pages range from single- and multi-family houses to schools and factories, with the book loosely arranged where essays and interviews partition the various projects into types. In this manner the book moves from small scale to large, from timber and masonry structure to concrete and steel, from private to (quasi-)public, from individual to collective. The essays and interviews act as markers, orienting the reader to the general goal at hand: expressing ways of creating unique architectural solutions with small budgets.

This goal being said, these projects exhibit a lack of formal variety; the orthogonal prevails here. Perhaps this is due to the small budgets, though the general attitude that can be inferred by the designs is that a simplified structure and volume affords more money on the exterior wall, and therefore greater architectural expression. Given Detail Magazine's consistent format for each project that focuses its details on exterior walls -- in addition to the requisite plans, building sections, and photographs -- this skin emphasis, if you will, should come as no surprise.

A good example of this is Foreign Office Architects' Hotel in Groningen, Netherlands, a tiny building with the massing of two stacked cubes. A steel structure achieves minimal sizing via cladding the building in a lightweight, corrugated aluminum skin, perforated to allow light to leak in either direction. While corrugated aluminum is surely a low-budget material, here it allows the architects to use the small plaza the building fronts to its advantage, allowing the skin to open and close via a facade covered in operable shutters and doors. Even without a novel form (definitely not a prerequisite for successful architecture in this reviewer's opinion) the project elevates itself above its small budget, not only architecturally but in terms of place-making, with its strong relationship to its small yet important open space. While the conceptually clarity and success of FOA's project is not shared by every project in these pages, there are enough variations on the orthogonal box theme to make the book a good resource for tackling the low-budget commissions that most architects face.

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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Bridging Tea House in Jinhua, China by LAR / Fernando Romero.

The updated book feature is Hyperborder: The Contemporary U.S.–Mexico Border and Its Future by Fernando Romero/LAR.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

materialicious
A "weblog featuring residential architecture, design, craftsmanship, materials and products." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Notes on Becoming a Famous Architect
"Liberating minds since August 2007." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

World Architecture Community
"WA is an independent global forum and extensive database targeting to become the 'Home Page' of architects from ALL countries of the world." (added to sidebar under architectural links::forums)

Japan-Photo-Archiv
The architecture section of the agency's large archive of images. (added to sidebar under architectural links::photography)

Today's archidose #188

P1030193.JPG, originally uploaded by jgeis.

1532 House in San Fransisco, California by Fougeron Architecture, 2006.

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