Today's archidose #291

Here's a couple of buildings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by Vann Molyvann. Photographs are by jiattison. See also New Khmer Architecture.


[Institute of Foreign Languages at the Royal University of Phnom Penh]


[Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium]

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Ecological Urbanism

This Harvard GSD conference in a little over a month is timely and packed with a strong list of speakers, most GSD faculty, naturally.

Ecological Urbanism: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future

The conference will bring together design practitioners and theorists, economists, engineers, environmental scientists, politicians and public health specialists, with the goal of reaching a more robust understanding of ecological urbanism and what it might be in the future.

April 3-5, 2009

Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Limited space—Register Now
Early Bird Registration (before March 10, 2009): $100
Standard Registration (after March 10, 2009): $125
Students: $20

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Rem Koolhaas
Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University GSD

Homi Bhabha
Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University

(via Dexigner)

Today's archidose #290

Louis Sullivan, Wainright Building, construction, originally uploaded by Remiss63.

Construction of the Wainright Building in St. Louis, Missouri by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, 1890-1891.

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Today's archidose #289

Alice Tully Hall, originally uploaded by archidose.

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 2009.

Check out the flickr set for 25 more photos of the exterior and lobby.

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Book Review: GSD 08 Platform

GSD 08 Platform: A Year of Research Through Studio Work, Theses, Exhibitions, and Conferences at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, edited by Lluís Ortega & Michael Kubo
Actar, 2008
Hardcover, 241 pages



In terms of books, the output of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) is more prolific than just about any school of architecture. In addition to Rem Koolhaas's Project on the City output and the CASE series, books stemming from studio work are numerous. On my weekly page I've reviewed Function of Ornament, Project Zagreb -- both beginning life as studios at GSD -- and a couple readers from the school's excellent Harvard Design Magazine. Their books are marked by a depth of research that is equaled by the quality of the graphic output, be it diagrams, architectural drawings or renderings. Where other schools would not even think of aiming for a book before a class starts, in many cases that is the goal of GSD studios, owing as much to the school's name and reputation as to the high-quality content.

GSD 08 Platform, like the school's Studio Works, gathers together a year's worth of select student projects. But where those publications clearly focused on the studio, this new book tries to capture the experience at the GSD in and beyond the studio. Alongside the typical imagery of student projects are the professor's project descriptions, excerpts from lectures, essays from students and professors, exhibit documentation, and interviews with architects. All of this fits into eight sections (Techniques, Nature, Non-Formal, Typology, Geographies, Technology, Material, Discipline) that are highlighted by colored pages. It is evident the book's design is carefully considered, be it the graphic design and even the bookbinding.

The sense that one gleans from the various contributions is of a school that embraces those from beyond its borders -- visiting professors and lecturers, especially -- but that is at the same time exclusionary, like an inaccessible castle in days of old. This is reinforced by the omission of bios for the major contributors, making the book geared to those "in the know" rather than to an audience who is not familiar with people the school calls guests, much less their own faculty. Other quibbles of the book are the lack of descriptions for student work (a couple thesis projects receive this treatment) and the lack of even snippets of syllabi or reading lists for classes beyond studios. Highlights include Sanford Kwinter's talk on chreods, Teddy Cruz's speculation on the future of first-ring suburbs, Jin Young Song's impressive thesis project in Korea's DMZ, Homi Bhabha's humble portrayal of the Aga Khan Award), some displays of manufacturing techniques on stone facing, and Shigeru Ban's retelling of how he became involved with disaster relief buildings.

or

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Marsupial Bridge, Urban Plaza and Bus Shelter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by La Dallman Architects.

This week's book review is The Public Chance: New Urban Landscapes by Aurora Fernandez Per & Javier Arpa.

**NOTE: My next weekly page update will be in two weeks.**

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

ArchitEXploitation
Humorous commentary on the portrayal of architects in film. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

U.S./Mexico Border Wall as Architecture
The blog's title says it all. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

jasonmcdermott
"A research blog by Jason McDermott, who is currently working on his Architecture Ph.D. thesis (Informal Dialogue) in the Interactivation Lab at UTS." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Urban China

The New Museum exhibition Urban China: Informal Cities is "a physical manifestation of the magazine Urban China which will explore notions of the informal (or vernacular) as they apply to the current urban situation in China and the United States." Located in the "fishtank" gallery at the rear of the museum's ground floor, the show is visible from the street, a reaching that is reinforced by the words that are duplicated on the glass in gray from the yellow words on the back wall.

The show is in effect a layering of two-dimensional content, from the words and images on the back walls to the words on the glass; in between are issues of Urban China and PCs with a wealth of images from the magazines. Even the three-dimensional objects that sit in the gallery spaces, such as a water bucket made from a basketball, are displayed in silhouette on the wall, as if the content of the object is flattened to the display of information in one less dimension.



The exhibit, by Jiang Jun with curator Benjamin Godsill, could best be described as cursory, as it tries to distill the roughly 30 issues of the Chinese magazine into a relatively small space. The layering of information is necessary, in this regards, so then the exhibit becomes the space and its virtual extension, including a bootlegged issue of Volume (review forthcoming).

Unfortunately the issues of Urban China are not bilingual, so one is reliant upon the decisions made by the artist and curator as to the appropriateness of the expression. I'm not sure if the mapping of towns named after the goods they create is the best use of wall space, but that gleaning that bit of information does help me understand on aspect of the urban condition in China a little better. Instead of yearning for more content in the exhibition, I yearn for more time, to pore over the imagery of the issues and the virtual database at the New Museum.

The exhibition is on display at the New Museum at 235 Bowery until March 29, after which it heads to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (April 26-July 19) and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (September 12-December 6).

Construction Progress

Here's some photos of a few buildings under construction in the West Village and Meatpacking District, taken while strolling around last week.


166 Perry Street by Asymptote Architecture


166 Perry Street by Asymptote Architecture


The Standard New York by Polshek Partnership Architects


The Standard New York by Polshek Partnership Architects
(Note the High Line in the lower left corner.)


One Jackson Square by KPF
(Previously)

Sliding House

Click the animation below for a video at Wallpaper* of dRMM Architects' Sliding House in Suffolk, England.

Today's archidose #288

New Documents House, originally uploaded by *Croz.

The Documentation and Information Center of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial in Lohheide, Germany by KSP Engel and Zimmermann, 2007.

For more information on the building see iconeye.

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Half Dose #61: Forestal

Browsing the web to find some south of the equator projects to make up for the admittedly north-centric buildings featured on this and my weekly page, I came across Forestal, an installation at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile by Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects.


[installation diagram | image source]

I could find very little information beyond the imagery, but I did discover (via eldivan) that 27,5000 sheets of office paper and 120,000 steel staples were used in the construction of the piece.


[installation diagram | image source]

At first I am reminded of Tadao Ando's Gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago, a small room he designed for the display of Japanese screens. The architect inserted partial-height square columns in the middle of the space, leaving the screens to be viewed behind glass at the perimeter. The columns imply the changing aspects of moving about the screens, as one is not permitted to see the latter in such a way.


[installation photo | image source]

I'm also reminded of Tod William and Billie Tsien's installation at the Liquid Stone exhbition at the National Building Museum a few years ago. Their "forest" of rebar affected not only how people viewed the exhibition, but also how people viewed concrete, acknowleding the dependence of one material on another (concrete on steel).


[installation photo | image source]

Of course these formal similarities do not extend to this installation's apparent raision d'etre: creating a symbolic forest from the material created from a real forest. The paper not only resembles bark in its texture, more immediately recalling what the installation refers to in name and form, it asks the visitor if one replaces the other. Does paper justify the destruction of trees? Do we see them as one and the same in our minds, just in different states, like water and ice? Surely more questions arise from these few images, testament to the power of an apprently simple idea layered with meaning.


[installation photo | image source]

Links:

:: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
:: Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects
:: archporn
:: eldivan

Quinze 360

On this page I've featured imagery of installations by Arne Quinze a couple times. Here's one more. Click the image below for a 360-degree panorama of the plaza at Oberpollinger Shopping Center in Munich, where Arne Quinze's piece "The Traveller" was displayed for the opening of a new Louis Vuitton store.



(Thans to Eladio for the heads up!)

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Addition and Refurbishment to a House in Glenageary, Co. Dublin, Ireland by CAST Architecture.

This week's book review is The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles, edited by Kazys Varnelis.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Pamphlet Architecture
Pamphet Architecture 30's call for entries is looking for "proposals aimed at inventive new infrastructure for the United States." Deadline is July 1, 2009.

Edificial
"A Brutal (but Constructive) Architecture & Design Tabloid." Reminds me of The Gutter. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Mockitecture
"Amusing musings for your perusing: architecture and life affirming energy." (via Life Without Buildings, added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Lisa Rochon citylab
"Lisa Rochon is the award-winning architecture critic of The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. citylab is her attempt at making sense of the city." (added to sidebar under architectural links::criticism)

Today's archidose #287

SLQ, Level 4, originally uploaded by Mnlth.

The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) in Brisbane, Australia by Donovan Hill / Peddle Thorp, 2006.

See also cityofsound's post on the library, plus notes on libraries in general.

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Half Dose #60: Long Island City Bakery

The following text and images are courtesy of New York's Office for Design & Architecture (ODA) for their adaptive reuse of a gas station into the Long Island City Bakery, a project "situated at the crossroads of the older commercial Long Island City and the newer residential Long Island City with housing developments near the East River."


[photograph of existing gas station courtesy of ODA | click image for larger view]


[rendering of Long Island City Bakery courtesy of ODA | click image for larger view]

"The design approach is twofold. The first process involves the conversion of a gas station mechanics garage into a warm, inviting and sustainable environment. The second challenge is to evoke the idea of bakery into an architectural expression that responded to the owner’s tight budget."


[rendering detail courtesy of ODA | click image for larger view]

"Introducing steel channels and wooden dough rollers into the skin of the building, the exterior is transformed from a decaying masonry façade into an innovative rain screen. To reduce the heat island effect caused by the existing asphalt parking area, concrete block and grass is introduced throughout the paving area. The vegetation continues up the building with Boston ivy that will provide a lively red composition to the wooden rainscreen."


[material board courtesy of ODA | click image for larger view]

"All the existing walls, garage doors, and skylights are refurbished and exposed. Working with the existing conditions creates an environment that recognizes the past use of the garage while integrating with the new ideas centered around baking and one of the bakers more important tools, the dough roller."


[interior sketch courtesy of ODA | click image for larger view]

Today's archidose #286

Here's a few photos of 102 Dwellings in Carabanchel for EMV in Madrid, Spain by Dosmasuno Arquitectos. Photographs are by z.z.

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TVCC Update

Movingcities.org posts photos of the TVCC building after yesterday's fire, showing a blackened but still standing survivor of the flames. Of course only investigation of the structure will determine if the building will remain standing, or if it must be torn down.


[TVCC still standing | image source]

(via dysturb.net's post that includes a timeline of the three or four hours when the building was ablaze.)

Foreclosed Homes

In the pages of Volume's Bootleg Edition for the Urban China: Informal Cities exhibition opening tomorrow at the New Museum (more on those two in a forthcoming post) are photos from photographer Todd Hido's foreclosed homes series (with accompanying text by Geoff Manaugh). Ever since seeing his photo gracing the cover of Oz Volume 25, I've been enamored with his moody imagery.


["1955" from foreclosed homes series | image source]

The foreclosed homes is a timely series that captures the insides of houses devoid of people and furniture, though the traces of habitation are evident. The blue carpeting above signals the presence of what I'm guessing was a bed located above the light blue rectangle against the wall at left.


["1934" from foreclosed homes series | image source]

As well, the above photo lets us know where the family watched TV, indicated in this case by the cable infrastructure poking through the floor.


["1952" from occupied homes series | image source]

Looking at a photo from the occupied homes series, the differences between the two are subtle. Sure, there's a TV, its omnipresent glow and trophies and other objects on the credenza, but the apparent lifelessness aligns this house with its potential state of foreclosure.

Book of the Moment

Today sees the release of T.C. Boyle's latest novel, The Women, where the author "turns his fictional sights on ... Frank Lloyd Wright."



The twist that sets Boyle's book apart from other books on Wright -- fiction and non-fiction -- is the telling of the story from the point of view of the four women who loved him. Check out Boyle's web page for an excerpt from the novel and Leonard Lopate's show from yesterday for an interview with the author.

TVCC Building on Fire

IHT reports, "A fierce fire engulfed a major new building in Beijing that houses a luxury hotel and cultural center Monday, the last day of celebrations for the lunar new year when the city was alight with fireworks." That major new building is the smaller of the two buildings Rem Koolhaas designed for CCTV (China Central Television). The Television Cultural Center (TVCC) was set to open in a few months.


[photo by Alfred Cheng/Reuters | image source]

IHT further states, "The fire was burning from the ground floor to the top floor, the flames reflecting in the glass facade of the main CCTV tower next to the hotel and cultural center. ... Flames were spotted around 9:30 p.m., and within 20 minutes the fire had spread throughout the building. ... The main CCTV tower appeared to be untouched by the fire."



(Thanks to Gareth for the heads up!)

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Two Projects by Leven Betts Studio Architects.

This week's book review is Pattern Recognition by David Leven and Stella Betts. (For those in New York City, a book launch will be held on Wednesday Friday evening at Parsons New School.)

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Postopolis! LA
"A live 5-day blogathon in Los Angeles with back-to-back discussions, interviews, panels, slideshows, films and parties designed to push the architecture and landscape conversation from virtual to reality."

A New Infrastructure
"SCIFI (Southern California Institute of Future Initiatives) program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and The Architect’s Newspaper are sponsoring an open ideas competition for architects, engineers, urban planners and students to propose new ideas for LA County’s transit infrastructure.

Channel Beta TV
"Information channel on contemporary architecture." (added to sidebar under architectural links::online journals)

Fantastic Journal
"Excitingly random words on architecture design and other things too." (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture)

Half Dose #59: Animal Refuge Center

Buildings devoted to animals are not where one expects to find architecture with a capital A. Sure, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a doghouse for one of his clients (The Bergers in San Anselmo, CA), but that was only one of hundreds of buildings. I've featured a couple buildings for Australia's anti-cruelty society, but I'll admit it's just hard to come across architecture with our four-legged friends as "clients."


[photo by Luuk Kramer | image source]

This Animal Refuge Center in Amsterdam's Osdrop district by Arons en Gelauff Architecten is a great find. Consolidating two centers into the largest pound in the Netherlands, the building includes 180 dog and 480 cat kennels, the former on the ground floor and the latter on the floor above.


[photo by Luuk Kramer | image source]

The sinuous plan follows the awkward site, maximizing the use of the triangular lot and creating two large courtyards, play areas for the dogs.


[images by arons en gelauff | image source]


[photo by Luuk Kramer | image source]

These outdoor areas allow the dogs to play and interact with each other. The curving paths likewise allow the staff and visitors to move through the yards and oversee the dogs from outside as well as inside. The architects stack the cats overhead to further isolate the noise from the dogs barking in these internal courtyards.


[photo by Bjorn Utpott | image source]

The multi-hued exterior cladding "is a pixel version of the grass on the old dike next to the location," according to the architects. It is reminiscent of just about any building by Sauerbruch Hutton Architects, who exploit the potential of color. Here it is justified, as dogs -- not colorblind as many people believe -- can see colors in the green-yellow spectrum, the colors that predominate in the surfaces on the perimeter and lining the courtyards.


[photo by Luuk Kramer | image source]

Links:

:: Arons en Gelauff Architecten
:: MIMOA

Today's archidose #285

Here's a couple photos of a house Addition + Refurbishment in Greythorn Park, Glenageary, Dublin County, Ireland by CAST architecture. Photographs are by cast architecture.

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Nice Desk

[Mass MOCA Reception Desk (Steel/Wood) | image source]

From the MASS MoCA Blog:

"Suspended from the ceiling by a spring at one end and balancing on the floor on a fulcrum at its midpoint, the box office desk is a unique reminder of MASS MoCA’s transformation from an industrial manufacturing mill to an art museum. Designed and constructed by Mike Green, the desk is composed of fabricated steel from I-beams, wooden columns, and the spring from an elevator shaft. Not only is the desk a functional sculpture and a document of MASS MoCA’s past, but it is a living, bouncing testament to change and resiliency."

Today's archidose #284

tegnestuen vandkunsten, dianas have housing, hørsholm 1991, originally uploaded by seier+seier+seier.

Diana Have Housing in Hørsholm, Denmark by Tegnestuen Vandkunsten, 1991. The firm was featured on my weekly page previously.

February 3, 2009 - The tenth Alvar Aalto Medal has been
awarded to the Danish architectural practice Tegnestuen
Vandkunsten. Representatives of the team received the award
today at the headquarters of the Social Insurance
Institution of Finland (KELA) designed by Alvar Aalto. This
is the first time that the Alvar Aalto Medal was awarded to
a team of architects instead of an individual.

Since its establishment in 1967, the Alvar Aalto Medal has
been awarded approximately every five years to persons with
significant achievements in creative architecture.

For almost forty years now, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten has
focused on residential architecture and housing
developments. In this field, the group has been a pioneer
and trend-setter with designs characterized by
convertibility, communality, residential involvement,
dense-low rise, and sustainable development – long before
they became buzzwords in residential architecture and
policies.

Working as a team and recognizing social dynamics have been
the necessary prerequisites and main source of inspiration
for the creative work produced by Vandkunsten’s 30
designers. For Vandkunsten, social awareness is also a
source of beauty which does not compromise their ability to
retain a firm grip over aesthetically perfected and
innovative spaces, forms and materials.

Vandkunsten is a link that combines the best traditions of
the Nordic welfare society with those of Nordic
architecture. Vandkunsten’s work is a modern interpretor
and elaborator of Alvar Aalto’s ideological heritage.

For more information.

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