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- Peter Cook is Concerned By Contemporary Drawing Culture, And Here's Why
- Anne Lacaton: LIVE KEYNOTE from the 7th VELUX Daylight Symposium
- Hemishofen House / Dost
- House among the Olive Grove / Henkin Irit & Shavit Zohar
- Stone Matters / AAU ANASTAS
- House along Saigoku Highway / Koyori + DATT
- Open Call: Imagine London as a National Park City
- A House / Chang Kyu Lee [GEBDESIGN.]
- Center for the National Property Heritage / Victor Marquez
- 6 Young Firms Selected as Winners of the 2017 Architectural League Prize
- Courtyards House / HK Associates Inc
- Obama Foundation Unveils TWBTA-Designed Obama Presidential Center
- Tower-house I / SOUTH
- The Complex Construction of Zaha Hadid's One Thousand Museum Tower to be Featured in New Documentary
- Stapleton Library / Andrew Berman Architect
- We Are Approaching "The End of Work." How Will This Change Our Housing?
- Apple Dubai Mall / Foster + Partners
- Omar Gandhi: LIVE KEYNOTE from the 7th VELUX Daylight Symposium
- 14 Chrome Extensions to Make Your Architecture Browsing More Efficient
- Spotlight: Aldo Rossi
| Peter Cook is Concerned By Contemporary Drawing Culture, And Here's Why Posted: 03 May 2017 09:00 PM PDT  In the sixth episode of GSAPP Conversations, Jarrett Ley (a current GSAPP student) speaks with Sir Peter Cook. They discuss architecture as a tool for shaping radical thought, the relationship of the current political climate in Britain, Europe, and the United States on architectural education and practice, and how the most interesting contemporary architectural projects appear to stem from "unknown architects in smaller countries."  GSAPP Conversations is a podcast series designed to offer a window onto the expanding field of contemporary architectural practice. Each episode pivots around discussions on current projects, research, and obsessions of a diverse group of invited guests at Columbia, from both emerging and well-established practices. Usually hosted by the Dean of the GSAPP, Amale Andraos, the conversations also feature the school's influential faculty and alumni and give students the opportunity to engage architects on issues of concern to the next generation. GSAPP Conversations #6: Sir Peter Cook with Jarrett LeyJarrett Lay: I'm Jarrett Ley, a dual-degree graduate student in the Architecture and Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices (CCCP) programs here at GSAPP, speaking today with Sir Peter Cook, one of the founders of the radical experimentalist group, Archigram. Cook is currently building with Gavin Robotham the studio Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau, or CRAB. Welcome, Sir Peter Cook. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today. LEY: My first question is regarding your career, which has been uniquely structured in relation to academic institutions - first in its dramatic departure from the teachings of the AA, then as a professor and a juror, and eventually Chair of Architecture at the Bartlett until 2006. How has your history of disrupting norms of the academy informed your role in leading them? Sir Peter Cook: I'm not sure that I've been disruptive. I think one of the useful things is if you are visibly doing a lot of things outside, it makes you a stronger academic. I have strong feelings about this. For a long, long, long, long time I said, "Oh, I'm just a joke academic." Then when I started to accumulate several professorships, I had to admit that probably ... and you know, my payroll was mostly from academe. But I really do feel that. I think that in recent years, there's been a tendency - particularly in the UK, but also elsewhere - for a kind of disengagement between academe on the one hand and offices on the other hand. And I have noticed that a lot of very clever people in schools of architecture, you know, they have become experts on Foucault, but then they have to go into an office where they just have not done a lot of architectural observation, and then they just do what the office does. So I rather crave for a lost period when the professors in architecture were building. The discussion was mostly about the history of made objects, and the offices were therefore more easily threatened by people with ideas – because the ideas were about what they were actually doing. I say this particularly in an American context because I think it's been very noticeable over the many years I've been coming here. On the other hand, there are a few oases here and there that I tend to gravitate towards, where there are still people designing things and talking about them in school. LEY: Which is to develop a set of potentially transformative ideas that actually have traction in the production of architecture professionally? COOK: Yes. And my own work has been for want of a better word experimental or disruptive or concerned sometimes with even anti-building buildings - nonetheless it has been concerned with the business of architecture rather than the business of abstract culture. LEY: Then within that spectrum of theoretical considerations on the spectrum of Foucault and then all the way into the basis in building construction and the production of architecture more broadly, - among these various sites of, say, discourse in production, may that be design schools, biennials, exhibitions, professional practice, and competitions - where do you see the most disciplinary revolution coming from today? COOK: I think the most considerable revolution is going to come in the means of production. I mean, I'm not the first person to say this, but it's clear that suddenly there will be a kind of collapse of the old relationship of the guy at the desk - whether the desk is inhabited by a laptop or whatever it is or a robot or whatever - there will be a collapse between the guy at the desk and the manner in which the building can happen. And I think that I would like to see a new kind of architect develop who would be more or less like a kind of extremely developed, sophisticated version of an airline pilot who actually is in a sense driving the control, under certain spheres of control, but nonetheless driving the thing that's doing the thing rather than detachment. Now, what that would do to the profession I don't know. I think there's also the corollary of that is that perhaps following that up could be a new kind of architect which I would think of rather like the village postman or the village policeman who'd be like a kind of craft helpful person, like the village doctor. The village - and maybe they're a lost tribe also - where in smaller communities you have a local guy. There's always somebody up the street who is some sort of architect, a kind of agent for dealing with whatever you may need in terms of sticking a kitchen on or building an apartment block. And then that is handed over at a certain scale to a completely different kind of thing. Whereas at the moment, the threatened species is the middle, the sort of person who says, "Well, I'm sort of doing the building." But actually already now the tendency for a lot of offices is to insist on a certain kind of procedure - a certain computer procedure so that all the services and everything goes together in one drawing - which means that there's already a kind of standardized response and that a few sort of art buildings are allowed on the fringe. But what really strikes me in London and obviously elsewhere is that there are almost now standard responses. You can almost predict what the building is going to do without even seeing the building. And we've returned to a kind of, you know - the architect is involved in pissantism, if at all. But the most interesting people in the field are really, really involved in that wing of the digital world which is concerned with actually how stuff is grown - the morphology of it and the process of it. I haven't done very much building. Okay - later in life I have started doing buildings and one is still struck by how primitive the process still is. You know, it's still blokes on the scaffolding and people botching - even in quite sophisticated countries - still botching corners and covering up things and so on. But the basic formulae are there. And I think it's a curious moment where there has to be a rethink of the whole thing. Not of the tradition of architecture - I still think it's very useful to see how buildings in the past responded to their culture and how interesting (I won't say good architecture, but interesting) architecture was always a kind of compromise between common sense logic and imagination and symbolism. I think the symbolic aspect becomes very, very interesting because symbolism is wrapped up in all sorts of kinds of territorial jargon. I mean, I'm a victim of it, too. You know, when I do make buildings, I make them do certain things which in a way they don't have to, or they don't have to do them like that. They could do them in other ways, and I'm conscious that I prefer them to do them in a certain sort of way because it sends out signals, because it makes references, and it subscribes to a kind of statement of a moment in time or a position or an attitude towards objects again. You know, in a way we all tend to make symbolic objects. You only have to drive down the street outside and you can see the generic blocks are the same and the elevator positions are probably exactly the same because there's a logic to that. And then people massage the thing in the same way that you decide to grow a beard, but maybe next year you'll decide not to grow a beard and wear a hat, you know? You're still there inside it. So this kind of territory interests me. But I mean we don't spend enough time talking about that. My most respected younger friends - and being of a certain age, nearly all my friends are younger than myself - are in this slip-stream territory. They were trained and are probably, the ones I'm thinking of, quite knowledgeable about historical architecture, they're quite knowledgeable maybe about certain philosophical ideas. They can certainly understand a Corbusian building. They can certainly understand why Herzog & de Meuron are doing something this year that they weren't doing last year. But they themselves are off into a territory which is almost scary. LEY: Why scary? COOK: Because its implications are that you will be able to grow buildings, that you will be able to manipulate space - you know, you don't need drawings. You can bypass the drawing process virtually.
And the curious thing is that it's probably coming via societies that don't necessarily understand it any more than I do, but are willing to see what happens if it happens. So that some of these things happen somewhere like China, but the equivalent of the chattering classes that you would get in the States or in England or France or somewhere don't have the mandate to respond in quite the same way. Somebody people with power and influence says, "All right, do it," and it's done and it's there, and it's sort of shocking and surprising and intriguing. But there's not a lot of chatter down the line. But there will be. And I think that's interesting in a university such as this, which probably - as all the places that I know - has a high proportion of Asian students who will sooner or later go back and set up their own good architecture schools. It's happening already. They won't have to come to Columbia or places in London or whatever. They'll have their own. And maybe the smarter ones are already thinking, "We don't have to do the old Western method." I don't know. I'm just speculating. I'm just using your interview as a sort of thinking aloud actually. I hadn't had this conversation before, but I've had it with a few cronies, or bits of it. LEY: You mentioned earlier these sort of buildings that transcend in a sense the need for drawings in the manner that you favor in your own production. Do you weight or see these sort of algorithms and computational methods that drive that production as of equal weight in these new regimes of architecture? COOK: They might be. I mean I don't understand them. I can't do them. We still make cardboard models and, you know, scribbles. Then the computer takes over. But it takes over after the cardboard models and scribbles have made the investigation. LEY: So what does it look like in your office within CRAB? COOK: Yeah, cardboard models and people at small computers. LEY: And eventually is there a moment of translation in your office where it goes from ... COOK: No, it goes backwards and forwards I think. And Gavin, my working partner, when he was a Bartlett student of mine, he interestingly never admitted to being computer literate at all. And he does beautiful drawings. He's very known for doing beautiful, beautiful sketch drawings, not the kind I do, but sketch drawing. And then when he went to the GSD, he was actually a TA in computing. And then when he came back, as soon as he was in a position to delegate, I rarely see him on the actual computer. He carries one of these, like I do. But he can do it. But now he's in his late forties and he argues that the kids can do it faster, better, and they're up to new programs and stuff.
But those same close friends, as I said earlier, actually can discuss Corbusier with you if you happen to want to or something that's going up on the corner or the difference between the baroque and the rococo or whatever it might be. It's interesting. So they are even themselves an intermediate generation. The danger becomes I think if the people developing those techniques – what do you call them in the States? We call them boffins or anoraks. They're the kind of guys that sit in a corner and never come out, only sit on the computer. But if they become detached from the tradition of architecture. So in a funny way I'm a traditionalist. I think that there has to be a sort of carryover, even if it's only conversational, even if it's only in discussion, there has to be at least a psychological carryover that what you are still producing in the end is some kind of building in that it is an enclosure or whatever. But that, even then, in my early Archigram days, one would have blown it open and said, "Well, you know, after all a Wellington boot is part of architecture and so is an umbrella." And where do you draw the line? So is a pullover. Where do you draw the line? LEY: Or the canopy or the … SPC: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. LEY: To shift gears a little bit – I'm curious: So here at Columbia GSAPP a great deal of energy has recently materialized around architecture's capacity to engage in political resistance and radical communication. I'm curious if the story of Archigram holds any lessons for the abilities of students today to engage in transformative architectural communication? COOK: I don't know. We were curious in that we were not particularly political. In fact, I think of some of the Archigram members that are now dead, and I would be hard put to tell you what they voted. I would guess that they voted left, but the odd one might have voted right without it affecting the conversation. I've just been discussing with your Dean the whole predicament that we're in now post-Brexit, post-Trump, post-governors, Marine Le Pen, the Mexican government - where to go?
But it is a scary period, and I would expect the educated - I mean, I think the real schism is between the relatively educated and the uneducated because I think it's a proportional difference now. I think in the generation before mine the educated were a relatively small minority that had the power, money and influence. But they had to go and liberalize their ideas. Now the balance is somehow different. It's all very weird. LEY: Do you think that architectural representation has the capacity to sustain a new public imaginary that could begin to open up a more inclusive and democratic discourse? COOK: In theory. But I don't know whether many of the people in architecture have the balls to do it or have the talent to really make it. I mean, I think somebody like Lebbeus Woods, for example, to take a particular case, was a brilliant example of somebody who was extremely moral, was extremely articulate, and could draw anything and convince you through drawing that the impossible was possible. And he was highly political in fact. You know, he was extremely so, much more than myself. I don't think there are many of those sort of people around. I think it's interesting, though, to look back at the role of the sort of agitprop trains and so on, the Russian period, except that when you read and dig around and get people who know about that period of history, it was still in fact the cultured elite who were using the rhetoric in order to usefully apply their aesthetic wishes. I don't mind that. I mean, I do it myself. But to what extent architecture can affect the populist world is a very tricky thing. It's difficult to discuss here, you know, in what is already an elite institution, and difficult for me to discuss because I've grown up most of my life in London. I am a sort of elitist. I'm a tubist elitist. And I live in the London bubble just as you live in the New York bubble. But we're not the majority. There's something going on out there that we probably don't even - can't quite understand because it seems to us unreasonable and stupid. LEY: Yeah. Just as the reverse does to our reciprocal. COOK: Yeah, yeah. LEY: As you mentioned, there wasn't necessarily as much political intention behind Archigram? COOK: No, there was not. LEY: That being said, though, certainly at least in the way in which it figures in the imaginary of architects today do see it for its ability to present these alternative realities. Which is in a sense to ask, does an architect need to intend to be political to have a political effect? COOK: I think architects ought to yell out more. I mean in the sense that we were not afraid to postulate certain ideas that were not fashionable, that were not discussed very much. They tended not to be political, though they had a few, from time to time certain political implications. But again, they were more to do with product, you know. We felt that architecture was a hide-bound activity, that it was producing and living in this kind of straitjacket, a kind of gentlemanly straitjacket, a kind of comfortable, pleasant straitjacket. And we found that irritating. The other thing you have to bear in mind, that Archigram was quite an interesting coalition of people. The age difference was 10 years between the oldest and the youngest. No two people in Archigram had come from the same school of architecture, nor had the same taste in women, music, food, clothing. You know, they varied. And the two oldest ones had experienced the tail-end of the period just after the war, whereas we were the young end, we were kids. We were another generation that hadn't had to go into the army or anything like that. And that gives it all sorts of perspectives and influences. There was once a page or some pages in Archigram 6 done by Warren Chalk, who was the oldest. And it documented the achievements of the 1940s, which is a period that - you know, for me, I was a tiny tot - it didn't exist hardly, and he documented all sorts of really intriguing things going on as a byproduct of the Second World War which have affected architecture.
LEY: Absolutely, yeah. And I think wartime is always a generator of new architectural invention. And it's interesting, too. I was reminded in particular to our current political condition and the question of being an architect in a Trump era is having a real estate developer as a president and one who envisions the role of infrastructure, envisions the role, of course, of a wall, which presents a certain technological condition that is so immediate to his politics and so immediate to the public claims that there seems to be a particular ripeness to that potential for architecture to act. COOK: And yet if you were in my generation, you remember the Berlin Wall - and at a certain moment it just crumbled, it crumbled almost by the public will. The fact that concrete was there, but suddenly it had no relevance anymore. I think there are break points. Even if he built his wall, I can't imagine why the Mexicans wouldn't rise up and, you know, just break it. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, that at a certain point it doesn't work. But maybe he doesn't care because that point would be decades down the line maybe. LEY: Absolutely. And it would indeed necessitate an equal resistance from the United States for any sort of disapproval. COOK: You know, I am not surprised that the applicants for Canadian nationality are soaring up. You know, we'll all probably be heading over there. I think if I was American, I'd head for Canada - apart from the climate. It is quite funny because as an English person, when I come in via Canada, which I have done a few times, it's like a soft landing. And it's very interesting to compare Canada to the United States. They're incredibly more civilized. LEY: Does Canada figure more liberally now in your mind? COOK: Oh, much. Yeah, yeah. No question. A year or so back I traveled up the Northwest, and I went in a car over the border into Canada and then had to take a plane. And what was interesting was the procedure of the usual security stuff at the airport. It was exactly the same, technically the same: the same bin, the same procedure, the same thing, you have to take the same things off. But the way in which you were treated was totally different. It was civilized and gentle, instead of the typical American airport thing where you're barked at as if you're some kind of idiot.
So it's interesting now; I think on the part of European liberals, who we all may be, there will be a disinclination to come to the States. There will be just a gradual disinclination to bother if it's going to be like that. We'll just say, "Oh, we don't need it." LEY: It's interesting, you're pointing to the airport once again as a critical architectural site. And we spoke earlier about sort of a transaction knowledge across generations both of concerns and history. And I think figuring right now is an emergence and awareness of these explicit sites of political conflict that are emerging and how architecture can rethink them if not in a sort of covert capacity, right - to design one thing, then as a symbol of our operations. COOK: But then if you extrapolate further, you could imagine the Trump kind of guys will hire a certain kind of architect who will make sure the corridors do a certain thing and the entrances do a certain kind of thing. You know, if you think it through you could very rapidly ... Hitler must have used architects to make the concentration camps. And those guys would find a certain type of architect who would be perfectly willing to make a kind of vicious controlling type of architecture I would have thought. LEY: Do you have any thoughts on the sort of responsible, ethical response from architects on that end within the United States? COOK: No, I don't. I think one of my observations of architects in America, and it's getting to be much the same in our country, is that the majority of architects do come out of a place like this and have to get a job. And you know, a lot of them end up in Skidmore's or whoever it might be, and the corporate thing. It really interested me, I was doing some consultancy a few years ago for Frasier King – actually in their UK office, in their London office – and there were kids coming out of the AA, which was my old school. Now, in my period, the '60s and older, an AA graduate was a radical. They were the troublemaker in there. They were the guy who came lippy, full of ideas, got whacked on the head, and then ended up usually pursuing the ideas and keeping the office afloat. The new kids coming out of the AA are all ready to be corporate. They're almost being trained to be corporate, and they fit terribly comfortably into that sort of office. I was scared by that. And when I was teaching at Harvard a couple years ago, I found a lot of the conversations I had with my own students, they were talking about a lot of their friends who were gearing themselves ready to go into the big corporate offices. Now, the ones that I made friends with particularly tended to be sort of saying, you know, "That's not going to be me." Well, I don't know. But this was a discussion that so many people coming out of particularly Ivy League schools, but virtually anywhere, are already playing the game to be office-acceptable. I find that very, very scary.
LEY: It's a very tricky game for a young architect to balance the needs of student debt at a university, an Ivy League university … COOK: Yeah. I mean, we have that. We have that in London. You know, somebody comes out of college and if they stay in London, it's a very expensive city. And yeah, maybe they like eating out. You know, they can't afford a car, but they certainly can - you know, they eat out and it costs a certain amount of money. And they can't do that existing on one small conversion from their uncle – so they gravitate to the offices, the big offices that can carry them. And then, you know, five years, ten years down the line they're lost anyhow. But they're already being made an associate or vice… – you know, all these titles that you get in big offices. And it's too late. LEY: If radical work is being constrained within this new connection to more corporate firms, do you think that it migrates to new sites of production? COOK: Yeah, I think it does. We did one building in Australia, which I see you've used as your [lecture] poster, and I was intrigued. In Australia there seem to be quite a lot of relatively small firms that are doing interesting stuff. But the thing that really surprised me was that the building technology there, the actual way in which buildings get made, is actually quite sophisticated. We were concurrently doing a building in Austria - which you'd think has a longer tradition, sophisticated country, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah - but it's relatively full of art by comparison with Australia. And in countries like that, I think there are some interesting young architects that you meet, and places like Taiwan I think are interesting. You know, here and there, in small places. Portugal produces some amazing ones. Chile, which I visited a couple years ago. Those are the places where I think the radical architecture will happen actually. Not in the USA and Germany and whatever. You track it and look - I sit sometimes on juries run by Architectural Review or WAF [World Architecture Festival] and all these things. And the really interesting stuff comes often from somewhere, where I didn't even know there were people doing stuff. You can get something funny from Winnipeg or something funny from - well, Mumbai, okay, is a big town - but you get funny things from funny places. New Zealand produces amazing houses and so on. I mean, places that almost weren't on the radar 20 years ago. And I think that gives one hope that it will come from odd places. And then if that connects through… It depends what happens in China also, to what extent they will ever develop a middle scale of architectural operations. At the moment it's still controlled by these big agencies. But maybe, I don't know. But I think the pattern - and I'm an optimist fundamentally - but I just don't think it'll happen here. I don't think it'll happen in London. I don't think it'll happen in Düsseldorf. I don't think it will happen in Paris. I think it will happen in small places. LEY: Well, it's hard to find a difficult place to end this conversation, but I think fundamental optimism is a good one. COOK: Yeah. Because it will happen somewhere and then eventually trickle back. You can listen to every episode of GSAPP Conversations, here. This particular episode is available to listen to directly on Soundcloud and through the iTunes store and iOS Podcasts app, where you can also Subscribe. GSAPP Conversations is a podcast produced by Columbia GSAPP's Office of Communications and Events in collaboration with ArchDaily. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Anne Lacaton: LIVE KEYNOTE from the 7th VELUX Daylight Symposium Posted: 03 May 2017 08:31 PM PDT Anne Lacaton (France) is an award-winning architect and part of the duo Lacaton & Vassal, having made reuse of existing materials and integration of daylighting in standard construction their signature architecture and adding a social dimension to architectural design. She is one of four keynote presentations by critically acclaimed architects that will be live-streamed from the international forum for daylight and architecture, the VELUX Daylight Symposium, to be held for the 7th time, 3-4 May 2017.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 03 May 2017 08:00 PM PDT  © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau
 © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau From the architect. A young family's dream of living by the river comes true in this house's unique location: the bank of the river Rhine.  © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau The Hemishofen House is a compact volume with a clear and modern organization. The boundaries between interior and exterior are cleverly dissolved ensuring a strong connection with the surrounding nature.  © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau The house has 151 m2 and its 5 rooms are distributed over two floors. The ground floor is mainly composed by the living area, which is completely open towards the river; while the first floor is dedicated to the bedrooms. The top floor is therefore conceived as a closed volume with a few incisions which ensure the user's privacy while providing light and views.  © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau  Floor Plan  © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau The façade is mostly built in wood and incorporates characteristic elements from the traditional houses in the neighbourhood. The timber frame construction in the ground floor's façade appears to be strikingly modern yet clearly refers to its context.  © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau Built in an historical setting, the Hemishofen House reinterprets the traditional architecture in its surroundings through a powerful, daring and innovative design.  © Andrin Winteler - bürobureau This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House among the Olive Grove / Henkin Irit & Shavit Zohar Posted: 03 May 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © Asaf Pinchuk
 © Asaf Pinchuk From the architect. Kidron village consists of large agricultural estates, is situated on a plain turf in which the size of the plots dictates large distances between the various residential houses. Olive vineyards are the main component on the land on which the Aloni family house was designed and built. The idea was to design a "connector" between the front and the back vineyards. In order to do so, the house was placed in morphological correspondence to the olive trees, with the olive rows parallel and perpendicular to the front of the house together.  © Asaf Pinchuk  Ground plan  © Asaf Pinchuk The house is a composition of space in which volume takes a central role – this system has allowed to create a gateway which is the passage axis between the front and back lot. In the corner of the main space, there is a case-study of an Art Installation, in corporation with the students Elior ben Shitrit & Inabar Avramov from the "The College of Management – Innovation Design School".  © Asaf Pinchuk The house which consists of one story 200sqm area contains public situations in a space that functions as a passage between the two plots. Two bodies that contain the private functions, where attached to the public space from both its sides.  © Asaf Pinchuk The house was designed in a modern manner that combines white plaster with black aluminum profiles and a smooth concrete floor. At night the mass and space relationships are strengthened, the space functions as a light cage that is used as lighting body to the scale of the street / adjacent road. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 03 May 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © Mikaela Burstow
 © Mikaela Burstow From the architect. Palestine suffers of a misuse of stone as a structural material: while it was an abundant material used for structural purposes in the past, it is now used as a cladding material only and the know-how of stone building is disappearing. The research aims at including stone stereotomy – the processes of cutting stones – construction processes in contemporary architecture. It relies on novel computational simulation and fabrication techniques in order to present a modern stone construction technique as part of a local and global architectural language.  © Mikaela Burstow Our research department – SCALES – and GSA (Geometrie Structure Architecture) lab are leading this research on stone construction techniques. The results of the research will be used to build the el-Atlal artists and writers residency in Jericho. As such, Stonematters is the first module of the residency and the first built vault of our research. Stone matters is built on an innovative construction principle allowing for unprecedented forms for such structures. The architectural innovation is born from structural morphology and stereotomy. The vault covers a surface of 60 m2 and spans 7 meters with a constant depth of 12 cm. The geometry follows the shape of a minimal surface on which geodesic lines are drawn and set the pattern of the interlocking stones. The whole structure is made of 300 mutually supported unique stone pieces.  © Mikaela Burstow Beyond the scientific and technical issues that make Stonematters a unique object, the project represents as well a cultural challenge: it has been entirely built with available know-hows in a peripheral zone of the culturally marginal city of Jericho. Processes of several factories have been combined in order to use existing known techniques for new uses. The polystyrene blocks, for example, have been roughly cut in a factory and transported to another for a robotic carving process. Right after its completion Stonematters attracted curious inhabitants of Jericho and elsewhere in Palestine, putting together the seeds of the future el-atlal artists' and writers' residency. Through the understanding of our historical cities the research tries to link techniques of constructions to urban morphologies. It puts a non-hierarchical hypothetical link between the scale of stereotomy and the scale of urban fabric. In that context, the idea is to suggest new urban morphologies linked to the scientific use of a largely available material in Palestine.  © Mikaela Burstow Stone in Palestine In Palestine, the most common construction material is stone. Stone is abundant, widely available and – foremost – an urban law imposed by the Ottomans requires stone construction in order to unify the built landscapes. This law underlines the shift from a self- managed urbanism to an authority urbanism.  © Mikaela Burstow Not only is the stone a marker of the transition in the urban and social structures, but it shows the evolution of the Palestinian city's morphology. The construction techniques' evolution, from fabrication to implementation, has an effect on the entirety of the Palestinian city. The church of Sainte Anne is one of Jerusalem old city's most valuable witness of crusaders' architecture. The church has been built in the 12th century by the Crusaders. The church of Saint Anne offers a complete example of what was the architecture of the Crusaders in Palestine; a combination of different architectural elements that they brought from abroad and indigenous elements that they found in situ.  © Mikaela Burstow Stone Matters The vault covers a surface of 60 m2 and spans 7 meters with a constant depth of 12 cm. The geometry follows the shape of a minimal surface on which geodesic lines are drawn and set the pattern of the interlocking stones. The whole structure is made of 300 mutually supported unique stone pieces.  Axonometric  © Mikaela Burstow  Plan Stone Cutting The geometry of the vault follows the shape of a minimal surface on which geodesic lines are drawn and set the pattern of the interlocking stones. The whole structure is made of 300 mutually supported unique stone pieces. Each stone has 4 incliced interfaces, that allow the assembly of the different stone voussoirs.  © Mikaela Burstow Based on geometrical parameters as the overall shape, the density of the paving, the inclination of contact surfaces, the size of the voussoirs, and number of voussoirs types, a specific structural criteria can be improved.  Stone Geometry  © Mikaela Burstow  Stone Assembly Formwork Carving The formwork of the vault is made out of blocks of polystyrene of variable heights, carved with the shape of each stone. When arranged together they form a continuous counter-form of the entire structure. On each block, stones are referenced and placed at their exact position.  © Mikaela Burstow  Formwork Diagram  © Mikaela Burstow Formwork While the polystyrene blocks were digitally cut using robots, the main formwork was created by the local artisans using usual wooden formworks. Different altimetries were defined, generating a stepped formwork that receives the carved polystyrene blocks.  © Mikaela Burstow Stone Mounting Stone voussoirs are assembled on the mounted polystyrene blocks. Each stone's location is defined on the formwork. The mounting started from the upper center of the vault progressively advanced towards the edges in a concentric process. The inclined interfaces between the stone voussoirs generate the interlocking system of the structure.  © Mikaela Burstow  © Mikaela Burstow  © Mikaela Burstow Displacement Spanning 7m, the vertical displacement of the vault has been delicately controlled. The initial shape has been adjusted several times, adding a counter jib in the center of the gyroid form, increasing the curvature thus reducing the displacement.  © Mikaela Burstow Dismantling of the Scaffolding The dismantling of the scaffolding was sequenced by different steps. Laboratory glass plates were first installed at few locations of the structure, allowing the measuring of the movements of the structure during the un-mounting of scaffolding. The formwork jacks were then taken down of a few centimeters, letting the whole structure hold by itself. After a few hours, the glass plates were inspected, and no brakes were visible. The scaffolding was gradually taken off.  © Mikaela Burstow  © Mikaela Burstow Opening The el-Atlal project is meant to be a model of construction techniques. It allows to envision new possible cities' morphologies, new construction techniques and a sophisticated use of stone. The project has the ambition of creating a mode of urbanism, and as the harat succeeded in building a city that fits their needs through stone construction techniques, el-Atlal expects to be a breeding ground of inclusive approaches to Palestinian urbanism. An urbanism whose scales are profoundly associated. A technical and durable urbanism leaving a trace on the city's evolution and on the Palestinian landscape.  © Mikaela Burstow Stereotomy Until the beginning of the previous century stereotomy, or the art of cutting and assembling stones, played an important role in the esthetics as well as in the structural construction principles. Today's stone factories only produce standardized blocks of few cm, used as cladding of a reinforced concrete structure. The techniques used for building with stone have an effect on the speed of construction, the urban spread of territorial boundaries, and the morphology of all buildings. In other words, stereotomy and the construction methods leave a trace on the palestinian landscape.  © Mikaela Burstow  © Mikaela Burstow Reinvigorating stereotomy as a way of optimizing structural performance using advanced design simulations is the founding principle of stone matters. Based on geometrical parameters as the overall shape, the density of the paving, the inclination of contact surfaces, the size of the voussoirs, and number of voussoirs types, a specific structural criteria can be improved. The whole process is an in-progress workflow which will aim at using computational design and advanced fabrication techniques in order to present a modern stone construction technique as part of a local and global architectural language.  © Mikaela Burstow This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House along Saigoku Highway / Koyori + DATT Posted: 03 May 2017 01:00 PM PDT  © Shohei Yoshida
 © Shohei Yoshida From the architect. The "House along Saigoku highway" is a renovation project of an over-100-year-old wooden house located aside the Saigoku highway in the city of Muko at Kyoto Prefecture. Due to artistic activity made by the owner; it is a living and atelier space for a 3 member's family; the 60-years-old parents and their high school teenager son.  © Shohei Yoshida  Floor Plan  © Shohei Yoshida The house has several problems that have been a concern for their residents, due to the constant changes and renovations.  © Shohei Yoshida  Section  © Shohei Yoshida The main idea is to keep enough space for three people, making structural reinforcement and making necessary changes to the current architecture.  © Shohei Yoshida This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Open Call: Imagine London as a National Park City Posted: 03 May 2017 12:30 PM PDT  Imagine London as a National Park City Imagine that London becomes the world's first National Park City. This large-scale and long-term vision has the potential to transform how Londoners live and how the city works. But what would London look like? In partnership with Time Out London, we're calling for artists, designers, illustrators, cartographers, urbanists, filmmakers, developers, architects and landscape architects to help Londoners visualize the capital's future as a National Park City. You should dream the possible knowing that your ideas may transform how Londoners live, work and play! We are running this competition because we want to attract the best ideas for achieving the aims of making London a National Park City. We are keen to not just see ideas for future urban developments, but re-imaginations of London's current cityscape. Your ideas could be small scale and design in small changes into Londoners' lives that have a big impact. Or they could be transformative on a large scale. You can imagine London at any scale:
Download the information related to this competition here.
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| A House / Chang Kyu Lee [GEBDESIGN.] Posted: 03 May 2017 12:00 PM PDT  © Pace Studio - Suman Chun
 © Pace Studio - Suman Chun 'A House' is located in a typical urban area named 'Yong-In' in Korea where recently developing rapidly. The site surrounded by low mountains that facing to the South and sitting on a sloping plot which is adjacent to neighbors. In this village, 'Treefull Hills', each house unit has two level of boundaries: public boundary at the street level and individual boundary at the living level.  © Pace Studio - Suman Chun The 'A House' celebrates interaction between families and neighbors while maintaining a strong sense of privacy and of ownership. Therefore the 'A House' is a place where degree of privacy is maintained with openings and spaces are merged in continuous spaces redefined by 'A-shaped' natural light which starts from one light at the top then spread out as it goes through two bottom openings under the 'A-shaped' roof also.  Drawing Set The adjacency of the houses surrounding boundary and facing south lead to development of opening and massing that communicates maximum size and location of openings in the consideration of the light exposure and privacy from the public. The simple volume and a gable roof came from the strict application of local urban regulations and result reflected the client request: 1. Complying with prevailing site regulations; project should have sloping roof at least 70% of the floor area. Therefore, client want to have a typical 'gable' roof shape rather than having a portion of angled roof. 2. Client desire that all rooms able to meet the maximized light exposure orient to South. 3. While project has three separate floors, client asked to keep the connectivity between family members in terms of visual, sound and light.  © Pace Studio - Suman Chun The main space in 'A House' is an triple height openings which connecting the diverse spaces by light and sensual connection. When light comes in, some spaces gets directly and other spaces get light through filtering which is light that comes into one space spread into another space. Also, other architectural components such as walls, doors, stairs and window frames are customized on site and designed to be harmonized with color white.  © Pace Studio - Suman Chun Simple south facing volume layout not only maximizes surface area touching the given natural environment, but also reflects and communicates with surrounding urban settings and site regulations while having different architectural languages and maintaining a degree of privacy from the public.  © Pace Studio - Suman Chun This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Center for the National Property Heritage / Victor Marquez Posted: 03 May 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Jaime Navarro
 © Jaime Navarro  Sketch  © Jaime Navarro From the architect. The old colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan comprises some of the more notable cultural institutions of Mexico and the new national Center for Patrimonial Heritage is added to the list. The center´s main concept spins around the need to turn a private complex into a public space; thus, the programmatic idea of breaking the parts in order to organize them in smaller low-rise buildings that could eventually display certain design personality and preserve the existent trees and vegetation, made sense.Therefore the center will be displayed in four different buildings: the museum and workshops, the preservation and office building, the auditorium, and the café / library structure. Once we secured the existent trees and plants, we proceeded to establish the project zoning and arrangement. Within the concept of dispersion, we decided to hinge and organize buildings around the open spaces. Therefore, we aimed that visitors would navigate through a number of interlocked gardens, plazas, paths, patios, etc. that will eventually unfold and reveal a number of architectural elements and gestures. From the overall aesthetic composition, some buildings have been thought as solid and massive creating a deliberate contrast to others that are conceived as translucent or transparent. Decisions made in this sense respond mostly to dealing with finding the right balance between energy savings, aesthetics and human activity.  © Jaime Navarro  Ground Floor  © Jaime Navarro According to the architects, although some compositions are directly or indirectly referenced to some architectural ideas from Emilio Ambaz and Francisco Machado, from a design standpoint, the assumed influences come from University City, that spectacular array of pioneering modern architecture in the late 40's and early 50's. Among the principles that may be found in relationship to CU are a severe axial composition, that is often manipulated by the use of ramps, canopies or pergolas; the traditional use of black volcanic rock indigenous from this zone of the valley to build walls and contentions, and finally the use of simple volumes that acknowledge the relevance of classical elements of architecture such as the colonnade or the promenade. In counterpoint, the project's central and stronger idea is best described by the design of the museum's overhanging gallery. By imagining this volume as an art piece itself, we laid out it in a way it becomes the central exhibit of the complex. It can be particularly enjoyed from the café's patio. The gallery's dichroic-skin will break the spectrum of color depending on light temperature and intensity (outdoor and indoor) creating a organic and ever changing, kaleidoscopic effect, that incidentally references the chromatic stridence of Mexican folk Art. The authors have yet added another layer to the glass, a large-scale graphic pattern resembling a diffusing lattice that gives the impression of tattooing the building. The overlaid system distorts the relationship between the exterior and the interior, and also the connections between light and space, pushing the visitor towards the experience of a psychotropic trip.  © Jorge Rodriguez Almanza This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 6 Young Firms Selected as Winners of the 2017 Architectural League Prize Posted: 03 May 2017 09:00 AM PDT  Big Will and Friends; Syracuse, New York and Eindhoven, Netherlands; 2016 / Architecture Office. Image © Ioana Turcan The Architectural League of New York has announced the winners of the 2017 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Established in 1981, the prize has grown to become one of North America's most prestigious awards recognizing young architects (ten or fewer years removed from a bachelor's or master's degree program) for their talent and forward-thinking ideas.  Courtesy of The Architectural League of New York This year's theme, Support, sought to identify "a present situation in which precarious forms and precarious social arrangements exist side by side," asking architects: "How does one clarify the modes of support in architecture today when the discipline's role is obscured by a tangled network in which exchanges between built form and various systems of framing, assistance, and reinforcement are constantly in flux?" The program theme is developed each year by a group selected from past winners of the League Prize. The 2016-2017 committee consisted of Erin Besler, Aaron Forrest, and Sung Goo Yang. This year's competition jury included Sylvia Lavin, Guy Nordenson, Mark Robbins, and Shohei Shigematsu. WinnersJonathan Louie and Nicole McIntosh / Architecture Office  House in House; Lake Walker, Washington; 2017 / Architecture Office. Image Courtesy of Architecture Office Jonathan Louie and Nicole McIntosh founded Architecture Office in 2015. "Part practice and part observation," the firm's projects attempt to "support architecture's unique capacity to not be static and singular, but, to simultaneously engage and refresh the real-time value of the things around it."  Big Will and Friends; Syracuse, New York and Eindhoven, Netherlands; 2016 / Architecture Office. Image Courtesy of Architecture Office Michelle JaJa Chang  House A,B; San Francisco, CA; 2014 / Michelle JaJa Chang. Image © Michelle JaJa Chang Michelle JaJa Chang formed her practice in 2014. Based in Houston, she is motivated by "the coincidences between shifts in architectural conventions and political and philosophical movements to understand how form can engage social, cultural, and physical contexts." Through this formalist optic, Chang shifts the assumptions of prevailing representational modes to "engage architecture on new terms."  Triptych; Houston, TX; 2016 / Michelle JaJa Chang. Image © Nash Baker Kevin Hirth / KEVIN HIRTH Co.  Campground; Gunnison, CO; 2012-2013 / KEVIN HIRTH Co.. Image © KEVIN HIRTH Co. Kevin Hirth founded KEVIN HIRTH Co. in 2009. The firm's work has recently focused on the rural and urban condition of the American West including "single family homes down unnamed roads in the mountain wilds and mixed-use towers pushing up against the edge of the Midwestern plains."  Mother-In-Law's House; Denver, CO; 2015-present / KEVIN HIRTH Co.. Image © KEVIN HIRTH Co. Mustafa Faruki / theLab-lab for architecture  Intake Facility, Arrivals Concourse A (at Castle Williams); Governors Island, NY / theLab-lab for architecture. Image © Mustafa Faruki, theLab-lab for architecture Mustafa Faruki is the founding partner and creative director of theLab-lab for architecture, a New York-based practice founded in 2010 "dedicated to completely re-inventing the potential outputs of architectural design." theLab-lab for architecture believes that "architecture, by definition is the creation of imaginary worlds."  Desert of Alone-ness; Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale, Norway; 2012 / theLab-lab for architecture. Image © Mustafa Faruki, theLab-lab for architecture Isabel Martínez Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo / LANZA Atelier  Public kiosks and toilets; Ecatepec, State of Mexico; 2015 / LANZA Atelier. Image © Camila Cossio For LANZA Atelier, exhibitions "become moments of possibility and study." Founded in 2015 by Isabel Martínez Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, the Mexico City-based practice insists on calling exhibition design "exhibition architecture," and approaches its residential and public projects with the same risk-taking approach that they foster with their work in the realm of the gallery and museum.  Passersby 02: Esther McCoy exhibition design; Jumex Museum, Mexico City; 2016 / LANZA Atelier. Image © Laura Cohen. Courtesy of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo Greg Corso and Molly Hunker / SPORTS  Runaway; Santa Barbara, CA; 2017 / SPORTS. Image © Elliot Lowndes SPORTS was founded by Greg Corso and Molly Hunker in 2010. The studio "approaches architecture in a playful way by balancing rigor and research with amusement and curiosity." As a result, SPORTS trades on the familiarity of built environment only to destabilize and reimagine its "latent assets" of space, material, and site.  Rounds; Lake Forest, IL; 2016 / SPORTS. Image © Nick Zukauskas  Runaway; Santa Barbara, CA; 2017 / SPORTS. Image © Omar Garza Prize winners will be given the opportunity to lecture at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York in late June. An exhibition of their work will be on display from June 28 - August 1, 2017. For more information, visit archleague.org/LP17.  Courtesy of The Architectural League of New York The Architectural League of New York has also announced the release of the new publication, Young Architects 17: Authenticity, which catalogues the work of 2015 League Prize winners. That year's competition theme, "Authenticity," questioned "how recent advances in computation, visualization, material intelligence, and fabrication technologies have begun to alter design principles and also the architect's role and their approach to architecture and research." Learn more about the book at archleague.org/YA17. News and firm descriptions via The Architectural League of New York.
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| Courtyards House / HK Associates Inc Posted: 03 May 2017 08:00 AM PDT  © Timmerman Photography / Bill Timmerman
 © Timmerman Photography / Bill Timmerman From the architect. Situated in a nondescript subdivision in Tucson, Arizona, the Courtyards House is a desert minimalist reinvention of residential suburban inhabitation.  © Timmerman Photography / Bill Timmerman Conceived as a series of interlocking interior and exterior volumes, the living spaces of the home contain, or are contained by six individual courtyards. Spatial boundaries are defined, yet fluid, with light, views and access flowing from one part of the home to the next. Each courtyard is distinctly xeriscaped with southern Arizona specimens, providing moments of focus and release – foreground and middle ground lend themselves to background and the distant mountain views beyond.  © Timmerman Photography / Bill Timmerman  Plan  © Timmerman Photography / Bill Timmerman The courtyards, and the boundaries they define, also serve a programmatic role: to "zone" the house for the clients' eleven rescue cats. Feline accommodation extends to the design of cabinetry, which incorporates a variety of hiding and play spaces.  © Timmerman Photography / Bill Timmerman The Courtyards House also serves as a gallery for the clients' collection of paintings and photographs by Tucson artists. In many cases, the colors and compositions of the individual art pieces are complimented by the adjacent xeriscapes, or through the home's architectural play of light-and- shadow. The white interior and exterior walls act as a canvas for registering temporal atmospheres – the subtleties and contrasts imbued by the desert sky throughout the day and night.  © Timmerman Photography / Bill Timmerman This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Obama Foundation Unveils TWBTA-Designed Obama Presidential Center Posted: 03 May 2017 06:50 AM PDT  View of the Obama Presidential Center plaza. Image Courtesy of Obama Foundation The Obama Foundation today unveiled the design of former President Barack Obama's Presidential Center, reports The Chicago Tribune. Designed by Todd Williams Billie Tsien Architects, the center's design comprises three buildings. At the north of the site, the tallest building will contain the center's museum, while buildings to the south will house a library, auditorium, and restaurant, arranged around a public garden.  Conceptual Site Model. Image Courtesy of Obama Foundation "The design approach for the Center is guided by the goal of creating a true community asset that seeks to inspire and empower the public to take on the greatest challenges of our time," said Tod Williams, Billie Tsien and Dina Griffin of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners and Interactive Design Architects. "The Obamas were clear that they wanted the Center to seamlessly integrate into the Park and the community, and include diverse public spaces. Our hope is that this design for the Center interspersed with Jackson Park honors the legacy of Olmsted and Vaux and unlocks potential and opportunity for Jackson Park, the South Side, and the City of Chicago."  Conceptual Site Plan. Image Courtesy of Obama Foundation All three buildings will be clad in light stone with substantial areas of glass. The model displayed at the South Shore Cultural Center also suggests that while the two lower buildings will be both be one story tall—with accessible garden roofs—they will also contain a significant amount of space below-ground, bringing the total area of the project to between 200,000 – 225,000 square feet (18,500 – 21,000 square meters). Located in Chicago's Jackson Park, the Tribune notes that the design appears to call for the closure of Cornell Drive, a thoroughfare that currently runs through the park. News via The Chicago Tribune, Obama Foundation  Aerial Shot of the Existing Site. Image Courtesy of Obama Foundation
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| Posted: 03 May 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © Erieta Attali
 © Erieta Attali From the architect. Tower-house I interprets the form of dwelling, widely found throughout the outer Mani, southern Greece; a combination of defense tower and farmhouse. This was articulated by a monolithic, stone structure with few openings, so as to protect dwellers from extensive heat as well as piracy. The surrounding landscape is characterized by dry stone retaining walls transforming a steep topography into a series of arable plateaus; these long walls were the most prominent man-made intervention in this harsh landscape for centuries.  © Erieta Attali The new Tower-house I contemplates exactly this; a mass among existing preserved retaining walls and a few new concrete ones. There are no seams at the white, stucco facades, only the dark frames of the apertures. No elements project from the main volume, except a steel frame in front of the main view, accommodating temporary screens.  © Erieta Attali The interior of the box, articulated by the double-height living room and the shallow dining room emphasizes the idea of Mani topography; infinite view of the sea at living area and close vicinity of the olive orchard at dining area and the kitchen. The interior embraces a protected and quiet-zone area at the second floor, the very core of the dwelling.  Section The program also addresses a typical, Greek, cultural issue; the need for flexibility of space due to future family growth. Thus, the house is designed to potentially become a double-dwelling in the future.  © Erieta Attali This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Complex Construction of Zaha Hadid's One Thousand Museum Tower to be Featured in New Documentary Posted: 03 May 2017 05:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects With construction now well underway on One Thousand Museum in Miami, one of Zaha Hadid's largest projects to be completed posthumously, Curbed has reported that the 62-story tower will be the subject of an upcoming Discovery/PBS documentary covering the creation of complex structures from around the world. Titled "Impossible Builds," the program will highlight the building's unique glass fiber reinforced concrete exoskeleton. "It is an honor for the project to be spotlighted in this important documentary film," said Louis Birdman, one of the co-developers for One Thousand Museum by Zaha Hadid Architects. "We could not think of a better way to immortalize the forward-thinking project to a global audience across continents through this important documentary." The show will profile five different groundbreaking projects from across the globe, including the "Heart of Europe" villa resort in Dubai, and reportedly, one of New York City's superthin skyscrapers. One Thousand Museum is expected to top off by the end of the year, with a grand opening anticipated in late 2018. News via Curbed.
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| Stapleton Library / Andrew Berman Architect Posted: 03 May 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Naho Kubota
.jpg?1493336925 "© Naho Kubota") © Naho Kubota  Floor Plan From the architect. The New York Public Library commissioned this branch library of 12,000 square feet. We restored the existing 1907 Carrere and Hastings Carnegie Library and designed a new 7,000 square foot building to be located alongside. The library is conceived as a modern public institution that will contribute to the revitalization of the Stapleton neighborhood.  © Naho Kubota The facility is an assemblage of old and new. The existing Carnegie Library was converted into the Childrens' Reading Room. The new building, constructed of glue laminated Douglas fir posts, beams, joists and roof decking, houses books and media. The structurally glazed facade invites the public and supplies natural light. The exposed wood structure provides a sense of rhythm, scale and material richness unexpected in contemporary public buildings. A radiant heating system efficiently warms the polished concrete floors.  © Naho Kubota  Section The new library was intended above all to be an inviting, open, and accessible public space for the community. The new library had to be on a single level, stitch new building to old, and be handicapped accessible. An open plan, easily monitored by staff, that provided strategic spatial separations between children's areas, teen area, and adult area was desired.  © Naho Kubota Working with the sloping grade of the land, we sited the new building such that a new street entrance could be accessed from grade, without steps. Teen and adult reading and research areas are located in the new building, separated by a transparent community room. The original Carnegie Library, which is immediately accessed off the new entry, was restored true to its original design, and is now the children's reading room.  © Naho Kubota The library is the digital hub and resource for the neighborhood, providing Wi-Fi and computer terminals for students and residents. While information is increasingly available and distributed in a digital format, we sought in this building to assert the enduring relevance and primacy of the book. As such all walls are lined with bookshelves, putting the entire collection of the library within view, and within reach, of all its patrons.  © Naho Kubota This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| We Are Approaching "The End of Work." How Will This Change Our Housing? Posted: 03 May 2017 02:30 AM PDT  As the American Dream dies, we must rethink our suburbs, homes, and communities. Seen here: ,L'Abri de la Bourgeoisie, after L'Abri du Pauvre, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, 1804, from Atlas of Another America, Park Books, 2016. Image Courtesy of Keith Krumwiede This article was originally published by The Architect's Newspaper in their April 2017 issue and on their website titled "As the American Dream dies, we must rethink our suburbs, homes, and communities." It is part of a series of articles that mark the AIA National Convention in Orlando that took place at the end of April. Americans define themselves through work; it builds character, or so we believe. The American Dream is premised on individual achievement, with the promise that our labor will be rewarded and measured by the things we collect and consume. For many, the sine qua non of the dream, our greatest collectible, is the single-family house. Of all our products, it is the one we most rely upon to represent our aspirations and achievements.
Throughout the history of our republic, the idea—promoted from the beginning by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, heir to Palladio and father of the American suburban ideal—of living in a freestanding house in the middle of one's own personal Eden has been the dream of generation after generation of Americans. So while it was possible for Le Corbusier to say, in Paris near the beginning of the last century, that "A house is a machine for living," from our perspective, on this side of the Atlantic and on this side of the 20th century, it would be better to append that famous maxim: "A house is a machine for living the American Dream." At this point in history, this statement seems entirely self-evident but still we are reminded by our leaders to get our piece of the dream. In promoting his vision of an "ownership society" in a speech at the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Atlanta in 2002, President George W. Bush said, "I do believe in the American Dream… Owning a home is a part of that dream; it just is. Right here in America, if you own your own home, you're realizing the American Dream." And during the early years of the new century, the economy soared as millions of wood-framed dreams sprang up across the country, enabled by an elaborate new financial calculus cooked up by Wall Street.  Alison's Acres, Study for a mat subdivision—composed exclusively with houses sampled from the plan catalogs of some of America's largest commercial homebuilders—in which the hidden and generally unacknowledged interdependencies that bind American houses together are manifest in the overall arrangement. From Atlas of Another America, Park Books, 2016. Image Courtesy of Keith Krumwiede But then the magic formulas—which scripted the construction and consumption of ever-larger houses in ever increasing numbers by bundling our dreams together into tradeable units—began to fail. The dream quickly became a nightmare. As the legitimating environmental, economic, and socio-political narratives that for so long sustained the endless reproduction of suburbia began to collapse, it became clear that the suburban house, rather than the manifesting of our achievements, masked our delusions. According to the historian John Archer, "the romanticized isolation of the individual (or nuclear family unit) in a manufactured Arcadian preserve is an increasingly untenable fiction." The myth that we all stand alone, propelled by our own initiative and hard work is part of that fiction. Suburbs, and the detached single-family houses of which they are comprised, reinforce it. They work to isolate and separate us, to dislocate us as individuals, detached from any larger heterogeneous collective body. The common cul-de-sac is, both literally and symbolically, the end of the road, a terminus in a system. Safely sequestered within its four (or eight, or sixteen, or thirty-two) walls, we stand apart from the crowd, reaching out through an array of devices to make contact with those who are, more or less, just like us. Space becomes less a medium in which we mix and more a barrier that insulates us from those unlike ourselves. And as houses balloon in size, this sense of disconnection is amplified within the walls of the house itself, with each inhabitant withdrawing to ever more far-flung and insular domestic realms. The social and political consequences of this withdrawal are increasingly obvious in the deterioration of a civil society and the erosion of civil discourse. The further we live from each other, the less we are capable of seeing each other as people with shared dreams and struggles and the more likely we are to see an other, unlike us, whom we fear and demonize. The evidence of this is clear in the last election, in which President Donald Trump's campaign of xenophobia claimed the most votes, according to the Washington Post, in our suburbs, small cities, and rural areas. As our houses spread out—as the distance between us increases—we vote more myopically to protect our own perceived interests (and the interests of those we see as like us) at the expense of what is arguably the greater collective good. But is the detached house, with its resulting social detachment, a prerequisite of the American Dream? Is it possible to imagine other futures for the dream and, consequently, other futures for dwelling? What would happen if personal happiness were no longer so closely tied to economic success derived from the fruits of one's labor? These are questions we would do well to consider. Jobs are disappearing. And while presently most of us still need—and may even want—to sell our labor, it is becoming clearer that with each passing day there will only be fewer buyers. Our relationship to work, and therefore to the American Dream, and therefore to our manner of dwelling, and therefore to politics, is changing. According to the network theorist Geert Lovink and the political activist Franco Berardi, the capitalist promise of "full employment turned out to be a dystopia: there is simply not enough work for everyone... Zero work is the tendency, and we should get prepared for it, which is not so bad if social expectations change, and if we accept the prospect that we'll work less and we'll have time to think about life, art, education, pleasure, love, and what have you rather than solely about profit and growth." Our current world is built on a foundation of profit and growth. Our urbanism—and the infrastructure and architecture with which it is constructed, including the tens of millions of homes spread thin across the landscape—is the result of a centuries-old economic system. And that system has consistently sought to segregate sites of labor and production from sites of dwelling. The single-family house in a suburban bedroom community along a congested commuter route is the product of a capitalist system in which we head out each day to sell our labor in an indifferent market, returning as night falls to replenish our energies and reclaim our identity.  Plan, The Ledoux, after Toll Bros.' Magnolia model, from Atlas of Another America, Park Books, 2016. Image Courtesy of Keith Krumwiede As the market for labor decreases in an increasingly automated world, we need to begin thinking about the consequences and benefits of a future without work, or, more accurately, with far less wage-earning work. Even now we can see that a shift is occurring. The recent collapse of the distinction between places of work and living is both a symptom of the underlying economic and technological transformations that are reshaping work as we know it and a sign that points toward other ways of dwelling. Out of necessity, and, in many cases, desire, people are beginning to experiment with other ways of living, coming together to form new (or new again) types of shared live-work households. And as the tendency toward zero work increases, we will all need to rethink the way we live. Because if we take the classical definition of work out of the equation, the whole structure of our cities, as well as our manner of living, makes a lot less sense. Already, this probability is leading economists, technologists, and political scientists—but sadly few politicians on either the left or the right—to speculate on the structure of society in the future. A key question is how people will sustain themselves without jobs. There are renewed calls for a universal basic income by tech leaders like Elon Musk (or a universal basic dividend suggested by Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis); Bill Gates has even suggested that we have an income tax on robots. In any case, a new economic model—which will, necessarily, be accompanied by a new political order—in which we are freed from the obligation to sell our labor in order to survive will require that we consider other conceptions of human productivity, other forms of human association, and of course other ways of living. In such a future, the American Dream, as it is currently defined, would have no utility. But how would we organize our lives in a world where we work less? What would we do? How would we live? In his essay "Fuck Work," the historian James Livingston points toward an answer when he asks, "How would human nature change as the aristocratic privilege of leisure becomes the birthright of all?" As architects, seeking a way forward, we might ask a different version of Livingston's question: How would human habitats change, as the privilege of leisure becomes the birthright of all?  The Architect, after The Misanthrope, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568, from Atlas of Another America, Park Books, 2016. Image Courtesy of Keith Krumwiede Liberated from the idea that our dwellings must be understood as freestanding castles, as isolated retreats from society through which we represent our individualism and secure our market share, we could instead conceive of assemblages of dwellings that collectively define a domain of mutual cooperation, interaction and civil discourse. We have counter-histories of dwelling that offer us guidance in thinking about other possible domestic orders. In 1886, Jean-Baptiste Godin, the French industrialist who built the Social Palace at Guise, wrote that when "constructed with a view to unity of purpose and interests, the homes, like the people, approach each other, stand solidly together, and form a vast pile in which all the resources of the builder's art contribute to best answer the needs of families and individuals." And following this, we might allow ourselves to imagine—as a way of shaking off the dust of the 20th century—living in what the social reformer Robert Owen described as a "magnificent palace, containing within itself the advantages of a metropolis, a university, and a country residence, without any of their disadvantages, …placing within the reach of its inhabitants… arrangements far superior to any now known … [nor] yet possessed by the most favored individuals in any age or country." Of course, the American Dream can't be transformed overnight. There are aspects of it that are deeply embedded in our collective consciousness. At its core, the dream is about security, comfort, and familiarity, as much as it is about aspiration, accomplishment, and status. Any new ideas about the way we live, if they are to dislodge us from our long-habituated connection to the single-family detached house, must be accompanied by new architectural models and delivered through compelling new narratives that situate the needs and desires currently manifest in the house within new patterns that make collective life more desirable. This may seem to be yet another call for a utopia, and therefore criticized as being divorced from the pressing concerns of the real world. It is not. For as Lewis Mumford said, "the prospects of architecture are not divorced from the prospects of the community. If man is created, as the legends say, in the image of the gods, his buildings are done in the image of his own mind and institutions." The real world is changing rapidly all around us; meanwhile we cling to increasingly outmoded dreams. In the future, if we hope not only to survive but also to thrive, we'll need to change our minds and rethink our institutions. We'll have to prioritize community as much as we currently prioritize individuality. We'll have to decide to live together. We'll need new dreams. Keith Krumwiede is the author of "Atlas of Another America: An Architectural Fiction" (Park Books, 2017). This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Apple Dubai Mall / Foster + Partners Posted: 03 May 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Nigel Young
 © Nigel Young From the architect. Apple Dubai Mall is reinventing the traditional introverted idea of mall-based retail as a more outward looking experience that engages with the spectacle of urban life. Its design is a highly innovative response to the culture and climate of the Emirates, while also demonstrating Apple's pioneering ambition to create inspirational civic spaces for all.  © Nigel Young Located in Dubai Mall – one of the most visited urban centres in the world, attracting over 80 million visitors every year since 2014 – the new Apple Dubai Mall occupies the most pivotal position in the city, alongside the iconic Burj Khalifa and overlooking the famous Dubai Fountains. Spanning over two floors, it embraces the theatre of the fountains with a sweeping 186-foot (56.6 metre) wide and 18- foot (5.5 metre) deep terrace – a first for any Apple Store – with unparalleled views of the spectacular setting and the incredible choreographed display.  © Nigel Young The design of Apple Dubai Mall is a celebration of the sun, using the abundant daylight to create a special ambience within. Reinterpreting the traditional Arabic Mashrabiya, innovative, 'Solar Wings' gently shade the outside terrace during the day and open majestically during the evening to reveal the 'best seat in the house' with a breath-taking view of the waterside promenade and fountains. With their movement path inspired by a falcon spreading its wings, the 'Solar Wings' are in itself a theatrical experience – an integrated vision of kinetic art and engineering. The wings have been carefully crafted to inspire delight, a delicate combination of form and function.  Section Made entirely of lightweight carbon fibre, each wing has multiple layers of tubes forming a dense net. Following an in-depth study of sun angles, the rods have been distributed in higher concentration where the solar radiation is the most intense over the year. The unique pattern allows clear views out for people standing on both levels of the store, and the sunlight streaming through the wings casts dappled shadows deep into the interior.  © Nigel Young Access to the store is through full height, glazed pivoting doors on both levels, directly from Dubai Mall. The Avenue, a specially designed area for accessories display, on the lower level along with Apple's signature display tables sits in the midst of a grove of trees, creating a calm environment to experience Apple's latest products. Apple Dubai Mall will also launch Apple's new global in-store experience, 'Today at Apple' – where New Creative Pros, the liberal arts counterpart of Apple's technical Geniuses, will offer individual advice and training on photography, filmmaking, art and design and more.  © Nigel Young The new shaded terrace features nine substantial trees within large planters incorporating seating for visitors to sit, relax and enjoy the view. The planters will rotate mechanically to ensure that the trees receive even sunlight. The terrace will offer the communities of Dubai a new vantage point – furthering Apple's commitment to the communities they are part of.  © Nigel Young This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Omar Gandhi: LIVE KEYNOTE from the 7th VELUX Daylight Symposium Posted: 03 May 2017 01:15 AM PDT Omar Gandhi (Canada) from Omar Gandhi Architect is recognized as one of the world's top 20 young architects by Wallpaper* Magazine and as one of 2016's 'Emerging Voices' by The Architectural League of New York will be one of four keynote presentations by critically acclaimed architects that will be live-streamed from the international forum for daylight and architecture, the VELUX Daylight Symposium, to be held for the 7th time, 3-4 May 2017. This year, the Daylight Symposium features leading international architects who will share ideas, experiences and viewpoints on how daylight matters in architecture. See the full programme here.
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| 14 Chrome Extensions to Make Your Architecture Browsing More Efficient Posted: 03 May 2017 01:00 AM PDT
Architecture can be demanding. As designers, we perform enough roles to fill a Shakespearean drama - from artist, scientist, and mathematician, to economist, cartographer, and writer. Fortunately, one trait many of us share is curiosity - a willingness to embrace new ideas, continually asking how we can improve ourselves and the world around us. The internet, therefore, is somewhat of an architect's playground - a labyrinth of inspiration, ideas, and hacks. As the internet continues to respond to societal needs, browsers such as Google Chrome are hosting an array of clever gadgets to enhance productivity, many of which you may not be aware of. From page rulers and palette generators to screen recorders and time trackers, designers can equip their browser with an arsenal of icons to rival a CAD toolbar. Below, we've listed 14, just to get you started! Page Ruler Page Ruler Chrome Extension. Image The days of gently placing a steel ruler against your pristine computer screen are over. This simple extension allows you to measure the dimensions and positioning of elements on any web page, providing a quick, useful tool for compiling visual or online presentations. ArchDaily ArchDaily Chrome Extension. Image You knew this already of course, but ArchDaily has its very own Google Chrome extension, optimizing your search through our extensive library of architects, buildings, and materials. ColorPick Eyedropper ColorPick Eyedropper Chrome Extension. Image For visual renderings, architects can obsess for hours over details such as what color of sky they want. Luckily, this Chrome extension will instantly give you the color value for any web page, without the need to fire up Photoshop. Palette Creator Palette Creator Chrome Extension. Image Another rendering aid, this clever extension will create palettes for any image you click on, giving a coherent, relatable, satisfying blend of color to your renders or presentations. WhatFont WhatFont Chrome Extension. Image Many architects change their favorite font with the seasons. With that in mind, the WhatFont Chrome extension will recognize the font and size for text on any website, giving your portfolio, website, and presentation booklets a refreshing upgrade. Power Thesaurus Power Thesaurus Chrome Extension. Image With so much attention given to imagery, architects can be forgiven for letting their writing skills slide. Fortunately, with this simple thesaurus extension, your project descriptions can add depth to a presentation, rather than protract from it. Screen Shader Screen Shader Chrome Extension. Image Designers can sometimes work long nights, particularly when approaching deadlines. When there aren't enough hours in the day, the glare of a computer screen can be a struggle to work with. The Screen Shader extension can at least provide some respite for your eyes. Take care not to use it when rendering however, or your informed, sensitive choice of colors may be hampered. Nimbus Screenshot + Screen Video Recorder Nimbus Chrome Extension. Image If you're the resident BIM expert of the office or want to showcase your clever modeling techniques, use this Chrome extension to record your computer interface, and share your tutorials with the world. File Converter Convert PDF Chrome Extension. Image The internet is loaded with websites offering file conversion, to the extent that choosing one can be frustrating. This extension aims to cut out the middleman, converting your PDFs into JPEG, PNG or DOC files with ease. Lazarus Form Recovery Lazarus Form Recovery Chrome Extension. Image We've all had the soul-destroying moment when a Revit file crashes, taking that carefully-drafted email you'd prepared with it. Fortunately, this Chrome extension will autosave everything you type, so as to avoid form-killing timeouts and crashes. Needless to say, we recommend disabling it when inputting sensitive personal details. StayFocusd StayFocusd Chrome Extension. Image With the power of the internet comes the responsibility to avoid procrastination. With deadlines looming, and client meetings imminent, this extension will block all unwanted distractions and help you stay focused on the job at hand. After all, cat videos will still exist when your presentation is over. Tracking Time Tracking Time Chrome Extension. Image Time management can be a struggle for architects, given the unpredictable nature of the design process. The Tracking Time extension can connect with popular organizers such as Google Calendar and Outlook, with a 'start-stop' feature to take note of how long you've spent on project tasks. RSS Feed Reader RSS Feed Reader Chrome Extension. Image With such a busy schedule, it can be hard for designers to keep up to date with the latest trends and stories. The RSS Feed Reader extension therefore represents a useful, accessible source of news from the design world and beyond. Audio Books Audio Books Chrome Extension. Image All designers are faced with draining tasks which require patience, time, and a welcome distraction. This audiobook extension can keep your mind busy while your CAD masterpiece slowly takes shape.
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| Posted: 02 May 2017 11:00 PM PDT .jpg?1462182949 "San Cataldo Cemetery. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu") San Cataldo Cemetery. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu Ada Louise Huxtable once described him as "a poet who happens to be an architect." Italian architect Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was known for his drawings, urban theory, and for winning the Pritzker Prize in 1990. Rossi also directed the Venice Biennale in 1985 and 1986—one of only two people to have served as director twice.  Image <a href='https://www.quodlibet.it/catalogo/autore/265/aldo-rossi'>via quodlibet.it</a>  Mojiko Hotel. Image © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMojiko_Hotel.jpg'>Wikimedia user Wiiii</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en'>CC BY-SA 3.0</a> Rossi is most appreciated for his contributions to architectural theory, which evolved from a wide range of influences: from architect and theorist Adolf Loos, to early Italian modernism, to surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico. He rose to prominence in the mid-1950s through his contributions to the highly-respected Italian architecture magazine Casabella. He later became the magazine's editor from 1959-1964.  Gallaratese Quarter / Aldo Rossi & Carlo Aymonino. Image © Gili Merin .jpg?1462182961 "San Cataldo Cemetery. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu") San Cataldo Cemetery. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu His book, L'architettura della città (The Architecture of the City), is to this day considered a pioneering work in urban theory. The book argues that architects should be sensitive to urban/cultural context, making use of historical design precedent rather than trying to reinvent typologies. In practice, Rossi was unquestionably the master of his own theoretical approach, as evidenced by one of his most famous works, the San Cataldo Cemetery in Modena.  Quartier Schützenstrasse. Image © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABerlin%2C_Mitte%2C_Zimmerstrasse_68-69%2C_Quartier_Schuetzenstrasse.jpg'>Wikimedia user Jörg Zägel</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en'>CC BY-SA 3.0</a> His legacy is still alive in Italy and around the world. In fact, Italian firm San Rocco, which in 2013 was named Icon Magazine's Emerging Architecture Firm of the Year, is named after an unbuilt housing project by Rossi.  Bonnefantenmuseum. Image © James Taylor-Foster  Bonnefantenmuseum. Image © James Taylor-Foster Find out more about Rossi's works featured on ArchDaily via the thumbnails below: This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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