TUMBLR
A scrapbook of stuff I'm reading / looking at / listening to / thinking about...
Posts tagged "architecture"
The de Menil family’s private home
Man, forget the museum: I want to hang out at the de Menil’s joint and raid their liquor cabinet. (Then I’ll stumble over to the Twombly gallery.)
(Photos by Patrick Cline via Lonny Magazine, Jan/Feb 2013)
It seems Chinese copycat architects are pirating the design of Zaha Hadid’s latest project, the Wangjing SOHO, as the building comes to fruition. This isn’t the first time pirates have copied architectural plans on a massive scale — it’s just that now it’s happening in real time.
One of the major ways to tell whether something is a remix or a ripoff is whether the thief has transformed the stolen material into something new. One of the ways this transformation can happen is by simply appropriating material from one context and tweaking it just enough to make it work in another.
But when you consider how Hadid feels about context, things get a little interesting:
I don’t really believe in relating to the environment, per se. [It can be hard] to start afresh with something new if you’re always constantly relating to context. And I think what’s happened in the last, let’s say, twenty or thirty years is the whole idea of context has changed a lot.
Some would say this is exactly the trouble with architecture today: architects design buildings regardless of their context, in the hopes of making “something new,” something less like design and more like art. In some ways, it seems fitting that Hadid is having her design ripped off—if one designs without “relating to context,” then it makes sense that the design could be lifted and plopped right down in another context without any transformation.
The Bond Villain’s Lair: The Abandoned Island featured in Skyfall
Hashima is essentially a laboratory for showing what happens to man-made reinforced concrete left in a savage environment. Every year during typhoon season, rain and winds of up to 100 miles per hour eat away at the remnants of a community while huge ocean waves smash directly into buildings that stand like tombstones. Just as it began, a bare rock without any vegitation or human presence, Hashima has gone back to lifelessness.
This is a fascinating and touching glimpse into the ongoing art installation of Austin, Texas resident Vince Hannemann (aka the Junk King) who since 1989 has been collecting thousands of discarded objects and turning them into a giant cathedral of junk. In 2010 the city closed the structure claiming it was unsafe and demanded Hannemann obtain proper building permits for his “auxiliary structure”. He was then forced to remove nearly 60 tons of materials before finally obtaining the approval from an engineer. Over seven months hundreds of volunteers stopped by to lend a hand and the cathedral has begun expanding once again.
“Playing is like praying.”
Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing
Great essay by the architect Michael Graves, in which he argues for the value of drawing by hand:
For decades I have argued that architectural drawing can be divided into three types, which I call the “referential sketch,” the “preparatory study” and the “definitive drawing.” The definitive drawing, the final and most developed of the three, is almost universally produced on the computer nowadays, and that is appropriate. But what about the other two? What is their value in the creative process? What can they teach us?
The referential sketch serves as a visual diary, a record of an architect’s discovery. It can be as simple as a shorthand notation of a design concept or can describe details of a larger composition. It might not even be a drawing that relates to a building or any time in history. It’s not likely to represent “reality,” but rather to capture an idea.
These sketches are thus inherently fragmentary and selective. When I draw something, I remember it. The drawing is a reminder of the idea that caused me to record it in the first place. That visceral connection, that thought process, cannot be replicated by a computer.
The second type of drawing, the preparatory study, is typically part of a progression of drawings that elaborate a design. Like the referential sketch, it may not reflect a linear process. (I find computer-aided design much more linear.) I personally like to draw on translucent yellow tracing paper, which allows me to layer one drawing on top of another, building on what I’ve drawn before and, again, creating a personal, emotional connection with the work.
With both of these types of drawings, there is a certain joy in their creation, which comes from the interaction between the mind and the hand. Our physical and mental interactions with drawings are formative acts. In a handmade drawing, whether on an electronic tablet or on paper, there are intonations, traces of intentions and speculation. This is not unlike the way a musician might intone a note or how a riff in jazz would be understood subliminally and put a smile on your face.
Interesting to note: Graves mentions that while architectural circles often claim that drawing is dead, original architectural drawings are highly collectible. Yet another example of selling by-products of a process…
Filed under: drawing
They was doing mashups before mashups even existed. It’s not about the pieces, it’s how the pieces work together. You know, taking something that already exist and making it something special. You know, kinda like sampling.
Doodle of “Building a thinking room” by Jonah Lehrer:
Although we’re only starting to grasp how the insides of buildings influence the insides of the mind, it’s possible to begin prescribing different kinds of spaces for different tasks. If we’re performing a job that requires accuracy and focus (say, copy editing a manuscript), we should seek out confined spaces with a red color scheme. But for tasks that require a little bit of creativity, we seem to benefit from high ceilings, lots of windows and bright blue walls that match the sky.
Filed under: work spaces
Art Spiegelman on stories we tell vs. stories in a building, from the book, Art Spiegelman: Conversations:
“the roots of comics definitely travel through those church windows. So much so that, as far as I can figure out, the word for ‘story’ comes from — is connected to — church windows. You know, like the stories of a building…”
