Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

This week's dose features 3D Athletics Track in Alicante, Spain by Subarquitectura:


The featured past dose is Platypusary in Healesville Sanctuary, Australia by Cassandra Complex:


This week's book review is The Architectural Detail by Edward R. Ford:


american-architects.com Building of the Week:

School of Art & Design at New York State College of Ceramics in Alred, New York by ikon.5 architects:


Unrelated links will return next week.

Book Review: 100 Ideas that Changed Architecture

100 Ideas that Changed Architecture by Richard Weston
Laurence King Publishing, 2011
Paperback, 216 pages



Laurence King Publishing's 100 Ideas series has to date covered fashion and architecture, with soon-to-be-released titles tackling film and graphic design. It is a simple format: chronicle the most important influences on an art/design field with one idea per spread, 100 total. I'm surprised it hasn't been done before (I don't think it has). It serves to reflectively look at the state of contemporary architecture, in the case of Richard Weston's contribution to the series, and straddles the line between history and theory by tracing architecture in a roughly chronological order and by focusing on the ideas that have shaped it. Yet the book is more history than theory because, as the author asserts in his introduction, an "architectural idea" is not necessarily one that is philosophical or theoretical, since all creations exist as ideas before realization. Therefore the 100 ideas encompass building elements, materials, technologies, styles, as well as the occasional theoretical concept. 

With each idea given one spread, just under half is devoted to Weston's description,  the rest is taken over by illustrations -- photographs mainly -- and these dominate the book visually and in terms of how one understands the ideas. Weston is a capable architectural writer and historian -- evidenced by his monograph on Alvar Aalto -- but the size and quantity of the illustrations means the choice of subject works to influence one's consideration of an idea. For example, "Form Follows Function" discusses Pugin, Sullivan, Mies, Le Corbusier, and Aalto, but the illustrations are limited solely to the last; this might indicate a personal preference on the author's part but it also implies that the expression of function in form is strongest in Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium or a similar building. Regardless, this reliance on large illustrations (most ideas have one large photo or drawing with one or two smaller ones) works towards making the book accessible to a larger audience and offering the potential for multiple readings, be it the full text, illustrations and captions, or a combination thereof.

A minor quibble is the means of cross-referencing ideas, good in theory but not in practice: ideas found elsewhere are highlighted in bold text, but since they are in roughly chronological order, not alphabetical, and since the ideas in the index refer to various locations in the book, it's quite difficult to find another idea when it is referenced. An alphabetical list for reference would easily remedy this and offer yet another way of reading the book -- a "choose your own adventure" through the ideas based on relevance.

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Today's archidose #554

B.U.G.S, London Zoo by Wharmby & Cozens by Iqbal Aalam, originally uploaded by Iqbal Aalam.

B.U.G.S (Biodiversity Underpinning Global Survival), London Zoo's house for "creepy-crawlies" by Phil Wharmby and Mike Cozens, 1999.

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Kundig Mechanics

On Wednesday architect Tom Kundig -- of Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects -- spoke at the New York Public Library, conversing with Town & Country editor Mark Rozzo about Tom Kundig: Houses 2, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

In the lecture portion of the evening Kundig spoke about his inspirations, ranging from his architect-father to the landscape of eastern Washington state where he grew up and even hot rodding. In line with the DIY mechanics of the latter is Jean Tinguely's fountain in Basel, what Kundig described as straddling the "thin line between highbrow and lowbrow art." See for yourself:



The aspect of Kundig's architecture that these kinetic sculptures influence is obviously the moving walls and other elements found especially in his residences. One case in point is the Chicken Point Cabin in northern Idaho, found in the first monograph on his houses:



The project features a huge 7-ton window wall that is raised and lowered by a mechanism that even a child can operate:



Kundig acknowledge the important contribution of Phil Turner, whom he met while designing Chicken Point Cabin and whom developed the below gizmo -- a flyball governor, which safely regulates and maintains the speed of the gears when in motion (Phil now works in the office). It's like a house meets a hot rod*:



*Kundig designed a later house in Seattle that actually goes by the name Hot Rod House.

Dear Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz,

This is too funny -- to architects that read history and theory books, at least -- not to pass along. In an issue last September The Onion's advice column was Ask The Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz. I'll guess this elicits either a smile that something so architecturally esoteric would make it in The Onion, or a "huh?"


[Christian Norberg-Schulz | image source]

Here's a taste:

Dear Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz,
I'm as open-minded as the next person, but my neighbors regularly wander around their apartment in the nude and don't close the curtains. I guess they are "liberated," but I'm bothered by their, in my opinion, disrespectful disregard for basic boundaries (our backyard faces directly into their family-room picture window) and so is my wife. How do I get them to show some simple modesty without coming off like an old-fashioned stick in the mud?
—Peeved in Pensacola

Dear Peeved,
In examining the trinity of "places, paths, and domains," remember that whereas a place denotes the distinguishing of "inside and outside," a pathway between places can symbolize the full extent of man's existence as he moves from the known to the unknown through a succession of spaces. The rhetoric of residing is therefore distinguished from the rhetoric of movement through the phenomenological world. The distinction unfortunately continues to elude many modern theorists, who have unfortunately followed the dissolution of the once-vibrant early potentialities of so-called postmodern thinking into superficial playfulness.

Read more Ask The Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz at The Onion.

Bau des Jahres

The 2011 Bau des Jahres -- Building of the Year -- at Swiss-Architects.com is Janus, the redevelopment the City Museum in Rapperswil-Jona by Biel-based :mlzd. The selection is the result of readers choosing from the 50 projects featured in the Swiss-Architects.com eMagazine last year.

Today's archidose #553

Here are some photos of ROC Leiden Lammenschans Park in Leiden, The Netherlands by RAU, 2011. Photos are by Klaas Vermaas.









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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

This week's dose features Shou Sugi Ban in Maarn, Netherlands by BYTR Architects:


The featured past dose is Palmwood House in London, England by Undercurrent Architects:


This week's book review is Wonderland Manual for Emerging Architects edited by Wonderland - Platform for Architecture, Silvia Forlati, Anne Isopp:


american-architects.com Building of the Week:

Caterpillar House in Carmel, California by Feldman Architecture:


Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

The ArchHive
"Critical archive of architecture." (Added to sidebar under Architectural Links » Online Journals.)

Architect in Person
"Experiencing the field of architecture from the inside looking out." (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Architecture.)

53 Questions
"Between February and August of this year, Luca Farinelli met with some 20 architects, critics, and historians and presented them with an identical sequence of questions, recording each meeting on video." (via Arch Daily)

Spontaneous Interventions
"Spontaneous Interventions: design actions for the common good is the theme of the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale (Fall 2012)." Deadline to submit a project for consideration is February 6th.

Today's archidose #552

Here are a couple photos of Unipark Nonntal (University of Salzburg) in Salzburg, Austria by Storch Ehlers Partner, 2011. Photos are by M. Correia Campos.





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Wrapping a Diamond

The other day I was in Midtown and caught my first glimpse of the facade going up on the International Gem Tower, designed by SOM and developed by Extell. Unfortunately I only had my phone with me to snap a photo from the plaza on 46th Street east of Sixth Avenue:



Located on a stretch of West 47th Street that is home to the Diamond District, the building is appropriately billed as "New York's only 21st century commercial condo designed specifically for the diamond, gem and jewelry trade." And while SOM's web page does not have any mention of the project, it seems like a safe bet that diamonds and gems influenced the building's skin. Here's a close-up of the above photo.



The bulk of the facade is made of mirrored glass that is faceted along the spandrel and in verticals that alternate on every floor. These combine to give the whole wrapper a repeated stepping pattern. Renderings, like these and the one below, give the wall more transparency than the current reality. Eventually nighttime will reveal some of what is behind the faceted skin, but during the day it will be all mirrors and reflection. Granted it's appropriate for the Diamond District, but more in the vein of tacky than elegant jewelry.


[International Gem Tower exterior rendering | image source]

"Cityscape Census"

Today The Architect's Newspaper posted a review by Jan Lakin of my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture (W. W. Norton, 2012). Lakin's review is very thoughtful, picking up on my predilection for architecture at the level of the pedestrian rather than of the skyline. To wit: "Hill is focused on assembling contemporary designs that engage us in interesting ways at street level throughout New York’s neighborhoods. The result is a nuanced perspective of the city’s recent architecture."



I could easily pull more flattering quotes like the one above, but instead head over to Archpaper to read Lakin's review.

Charles Renfro, J.Crew-Wearing Architect

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed I have a thing for the intersection of architecture and advertising, be it iconic buildings used as a backdrop for a product, clothiers using the profession for style "cred," or an architect hawking merchandise. The last two converge in a J.Crew ad I noticed today on the inside cover of February's Fast Company:



Pushing the Ludlow Suit, the ad features six gents sporting six variations on the "bespoke-inspired" suit. Two are restauranteurs, one is a journalist/activist, one is a business analyst, one is a creative director, and one is an architect, Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Given the firm where he is partner, his name is fairly well known with architects, but not his mug. This ad will certainly change that, while also making people wonder what his sock drawer looks like.



Each of this six stylish professionals has their own idiosyncratic way of personalizing the J.Crew suit. Renfro has those socks; the creative director ditches socks altogether; one restauranteur shows off a wallet chain; you get the idea. Architecture, or any other profession, does not prevail over others. Instead five are used to cover a larger stylistic and professional spectrum, leaving out only jobs like caddy, dishwasher, and bookstore clerk (all hats I donned before architect), where bespoke-inspired fashion just isn't that important.

Today's archidose #551

A potpourri of buildings from the archidose flickr pool:


[Bilbao City Hall in Bilbao, Spain by IMB Arquitectos, 2011 | Photograph by Wojtek Gurak]


[House K 05 in Buggenhout, Belgium by Graux & Baeyens, 2012 | Photograph by Philippe Brysse]


[Menomonee Valley Community Park Pavilion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, designed and built as part of the SARUP Marcus Prize by students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning, taught by Barkow Leibinger Architects and Kyle Talbot, 2008 | Photograph by trevor.patt]


[Tenement House in Prague, Czech Republic by DaM spol. s r.o., 2011 | Photograph by M. Correia Campos]


[Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall in Bilbao, Spain by Federico Soriano & Dolores Palacios, 1999 | Photograph by Wojtek Gurak]

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

This week's dose features Pier 15 in New York City by SHoP Architects:


The featured past dose is Porter House Condominium in Manhattan, New York by SHoP Architects:


This week's book review is SHoP: Out of Practice by SHoP Architects:


Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Architects' Journal - Women in Practice
"From Alison Brooks to Zaha Hadid, the AJ profiles more than 60 female practice directors and partners."

The Architecture of Villains
Subtitled, "An Analysis of the Micro Empires within the James Bond Movie Series." (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Architecture.)

ArchitecTie
Yep, "architecturally inspired neckwear for everyone."

The Critical Architect
"The Critical Architect stands as a voice of reality – bringing serviceability and accountability to Architectural expression." (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Architecture.)

Okeanos Aquascaping Blog
Blog by an aquarium company that features posts on unique water spaces around the world. (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Landscape.)

Today's archidose #550

Here are a couple photos of the REM Island Restaurant in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Concrete, 2011. The restaurant occupies a re-purposed helicopter landing platform from "offshore broadcast platform [built] to circumvent Dutch licensing laws in the 1960s" that was moved to Minerva Harbor in Amsterdam. Photographs are by Klaas Vermaas.





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Half Dose #100: Frick Portico Gallery

[Looking northeast from the Fifth Avenue Garden.]

On December 13, 2011 The Frick Collection opened its doors with its first major addition in 35 years, The Portico Gallery for Decorative Arts and Sculpture. The small 815-sf spaces is a former outdoor loggia in the Carrère and Hastings original from 1914, then the Frick Mansion. Over time the elements, particularly the exhaust from Fifth Avenue traffic, did some damage to the loggia's limestone, pointing towards eventually enclosing the space as a gallery.


[Looking north from the Fifth Avenue Garden with the library's shuttered windows just visible at right.]

The opportunity to do such a thing came about when collector Henry H. Arnhold promised The Frick a gift of porcelains. With this gift and the institution's recent focus on sculpture it made sense to put the loggia to good use, taking advantage of the southern light the Fifth Avenue Garden affords, a situation that makes the space unsuitable for paintings. Not surprisingly the space's initial exhibition displays a selection of Meissan porcelain from Arnhold's gift.


[Detail of existing building and new glass wall.]

The Portico Gallery, designed by Davis Brody Bond (DBB), is accessed from inside the museum, from the library that is steps away from the covered central Garden Court. Therefore the public will not be granted the above views from the garden, which is closed to the public; these photos go to show how the new glass wall knits itself behind the loggia's three sets of paired columns. The addition required Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approval, so DBB's design lets the original Ionic columns take precedence from the exterior, and the glass wall works such that it can be removed without any physical damage to the existing building.


[Looking west along The Portico Gallery's new glass wall.]

Spanning from floor to ceiling -- but structurally cantilevered from the floor via a 16"-deep steel shoe -- are the 14'6" pieces of glass in bronze frames. As can be seen, from inside the glass prevails over the original columns, but reflections of the gallery on the surfaces bring the focus back to the artwork on display. The bronze finish, akin to Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, also sets up a nice contrast with the limestone in terms of dark and light, yet the two materials work well together, in that up close the bronze is as variable as the stone.


[Looking west down the gallery with new display cases mounted on the limestone walls on the right.]

Since the LPC's approval extended to interior surfaces of the loggia (given that it was an outdoor space), DBB, under the leadership of partner Carl F. Krebs, cleaned the limestone, replaced the paving with bluestone that matches the previous flooring's pattern and finish, and commissioned new lanterns that match the Garden Court's John Russell Pope-designed fixtures.


[Looking east from the Rotunda.]

At the western end of The Portico Gallery is the Rotunda, an elliptical space that is now permanently occupied by Jean-Antoine Houdon's sculpture Diana the Huntress; fittingly the sculpture overlooks Central Park. This sculpture is a strong anchor at the end of the long space, and its presence draws the eye and body towards it and a view of the park beyond. From within the Rotunda the new glass walls disappear (as in the photo above), but even within the gallery space they have a diminished presence that seems appropriate for The Frick and its architecture.

The bronze frames begin to recall Carlo Scarpa's interventions in historic buildings, but without the idiosyncratic ways of accommodating art that Scarpa incorporated. Here the new is paradoxically big in order to have minimum impact; large panes of glass and sizable mullions (scaled and detailed appropriately with the Ionic columns -- not too small, not too big) are used to make as large a visible opening as possible. The new recedes in one's mind as they take in the art and the garden views.

Book Review: ARCHIZINES

ARCHIZINES edited by Elias Redstone
Bedford Press/AA Publications, 2011
Paperback, 152 pages



Compared to market and professional publications, 'zines are more personal in nature, reflecting an individual or small group's passion for a particular topic. Driven by a love for a subject and the desire to explore it in ways not afforded by other publications, 'zines are as diverse as the people making them. In the realm of architecture these "little magazines" -- as they were called in the 2010 exhibition and book Clip, Stamp, Fold -- are going strong today, as is evidenced by the website, exhibition, and publication ARCHIZINES, curated and edited by London-based Jack-of-all-trades Elias Redstone.

The book is the third installment for ARCHIZINES, following on the heels of a recent exhibition at the Architectural Association and the website that has been online since early last year, and which continues to catalog the growing number of 'zines produced internationally since 2000. The website is the most comprehensive of the archives, presenting snapshots of some of the of spreads inside the various 'zines, not just their covers. The latter is how the various publications are illustrated in the slim book; each 'zine occupies one page, described through a short paragraph, the cover of a recent issue and its stats -- page size, number of pages, and print run.

Interspersed throughout the alphabetical catalog of 60 titles are essays by producers of 'zines: Pedro Gadanho (Beyond), Iker Gil (MAS Context), Adam Murray (Preston is my Paris), Rob Wilson (Block), Mimi Zeiger (Maximum Maxim MMX/loudpaper), and Matthew Clarke, Ang Li & Matthew Storrie (PIDGIN). These essays serve to make the book a unique piece of the ARCHIZINES triumvirate, and they are worth it. Each contribution gives a unique perspective on a different aspect of 'zines, while giving background on how they are made, obviously stemming from them all having done so.

As Redstone recounts in his introduction to the book, ARCHIZINES began as a personal interest, as he started collecting fanzines about architecture some five years before the website. I've had a fondness for 'zines, but never enough to amass more than a few, Evil People in Modernist Homes in Popular Films being the most recent. Nevertheless, being passionate for printed matter in various shapes and sizes (magazines, books, newsprints, maps), I am certainly sympathetic towards a desire to collect something like architectural fanzines. (It should be noted that many of the publications that Redstone catalogs are peer-reviewed academic titles and magazines with advertising, extending the reach of ARCHIZINES beyond 'zines in the limited sense of the term.) ARCHIZINES contributor Mimi Zeiger has opined about collecting collections in the digital realm, but bits and bytes are no replacement for actual 'zines. So Redstone's website and book only whets our appetite for getting our hands on the real things.

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Architecture Within Reach

Head over to ELLE DECOR for a feature on my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture. After a brief intro (screenshot below) comes a slideshow with excerpts from some buildings featured in the book.

Today's archidose #549

Here are some photos taken by ken mccown of the Agave Library in Phoenix, Arizona by Will Bruder + Partners, 2009. See also Today's archidose #304 from April 2009.











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