Today’s News - Friday, January 21, 2011
• Childress offers The Ten Commandments of Architecture (#11 is our fave...hey - it's the end of a longggg week... how could we resist?).
• Lubell talks to some California architects about new governor's budget-cutting plan to eliminate over 400 redevelopment agencies: "the move would be a disaster...like pulling out the rug just as a modest recovery was starting to take hold."
• Developer ditches Rogers Stirk Harbour's winning scheme in U.K.'s £60k house competition for something more traditional (not all are pleased).
• Kennicott on Gehry's continuing refinement of his Eisenhower Memorial and its tapestries: "for me, they're not good enough yet," says the master (Rybczynski worries that they might feel like advertising, or a billboard).
• Hatherley minces no words about what he thinks of the upcoming celebration of 1951's Festival of Britain: it will be "an exercise in nostalgia" (especially if the Skylon is rebuilt) "at a time when we desperately need an infusion of the original festival's socialist, futuristic spirit."
• An eyeful of an architect's own home in the Berkshires where nothing distracts from "the power of the view."
• Sudjic offers an insightful and lengthy take on architecture in films: "the way films portray buildings and architects has nothing to do with reality, right? You'd be surprised" (we learned a lot in this one!).
• A filmmaker finds "a quick flick made all the difference" in convincing "clueless UAE youth" to care for their environment.
• Weekend diversions:
• Lewis finds the NBM's "Palladio and His Legacy" answers many questions, including why so many Modernists architects "rebel against classicism's aesthetic dominance and stylistic constraints."
• In Islamabad, two artists present "the architectural façades of the Pakistani society...placed in a post-apocalyptic scenario."
• In London, "The Witching Hour: Darkness and the Architectural Uncanny" has artists take on the power of buildings (and some creepy places) "to intimidate and unsettle" (great slide show!).
• The "hidden language of a building" revealed at the Reading Museum in a celebration of Soane, the town's most famous architect.
• Friedman's "American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture" offers "some of the finest writing about architecture the field has yet produced" (sounds like a must-read!).
• In the "extraordinary" book "When a Billion Chinese Jump," Watts warns of an impending eco-disaster: "The planet's problems were not made in China, but they are sliding past the point of no return there."
• Architectural, historical, and scandalous excerpts from "Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White" - a "brick of a book."
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The Ten Commandments of Architecture: Students' questions were astute and concise, including: What makes a good architect? How do I go about getting hired? I went straight to the yellowing Word document... By Jim Childress, FAIA- ArchNewsNow |
Architects Without Redevelopment Agencies: Designers will be badly hurt by California governor's budget proposal...eliminating the state’s over 400 redevelopment agencies...the design community the consensus is pretty straightforward: the move would be a disaster...would be like pulling out the rug just as a modest recovery was starting to take hold. By Sam Lubell -- John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects; Vrilakas Architects; Roger Sherman Architecture [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Rogers Stirk Harbour ditched from Milton Keynes housing scheme: Developer abandons RSHP factory-built housing for ’traditional’ design...for the Design for Manufacture initiative – better known as the £60k house competition...tasked with building 145 homes...at Oxley Woods...CMYK to finish off the remaining 29 homes... [images]- BD/Building Design (UK) |
Frank Gehry refines his Eisenhower Memorial design: "I'm really not sure about the tapestries," said commissioner Witold Rybczynski...worried that they might feel like advertising, or a billboard...Gehry is clearly deeply committed to the tapestry idea, which he said was still a work in progress...stressed, "for me, they're not good enough yet." By Philip Kennicott [links to images]- Washington Post |
A flat festival tonic for Britain: The celebration of 1951's Festival of Britain this year won't revive the original's uplifting socialist spirit...an austerity nostalgia has been rife...At the Festival Hall's shop, it can sometimes seem like you're in a 1940s theme park...The new festival – especially if it gives in and rebuilds the Skylon – will be an exercise in...morbid and wildly inaccurate historical analogy... By Owen Hatherley- Guardian (UK) |
A Living Room Ready for Liftoff: A Berkshires home on a hill juts 14 feet off the ground..."Nothing was supposed to distract from the essence of the house and the power of the view"... -- Warren Schwartz/Schwartz/Silver Architects [slide show, video]- Wall Street Journal |
Building an audience for architecture: From The Fountainhead to Blade Runner, the way films portray buildings and architects has nothing to do with reality, right? You'd be surprised. By Deyan Sudjic- Guardian (UK) |
How Quick Eco Flicks Transform Clueless UAE Youth: ...convincing Dubai’s youth to care for their environment might seem like a colossal challenge. Not so, according to filmmaker Areeba Hanif...While she found that most of the emirate’s young people were spectacularly unaware of environmental issues, a quick flick made all the difference.- Green Prophet (Middle East) |
Rejected by modernists, Palladio's classicism has universal aesthetics at core: ...why...did many European and American architects rebel against classicism's aesthetic dominance and stylistic constraints? In the rejection of classicism, has something been lost? Some answers to these questions can be found at the National Building Museum's "Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey." By Roger K. Lewis- Washington Post |
"Concrete Constellations": Rohtas Gallery, Islamabad, exhibits Zeeshan Javed and Unum Babar in a two-person show...depicting the architectural façades of the Pakistani society...placed in a post-apocalyptic scenario...through January 24 [images]- Express Tribune (Pakistan) |
"The Witching Hour: Darkness and the Architectural Uncanny": Empty car parks, unlit alleyways and deserted graveyards are among architectural situations which have been examined by artists...about the power of buildings to intimidate and unsettle...at London’s PM Gallery from 21 January... [slide show]- Independent (UK) |
Exhibition reveals how to sex a building: The hidden language of a building will be revealed [at] Reading Museum...in an exhibition celebrating the town’s most famous architect. "Order: Myth, Meaning & Beauty in Architecture" shows off rarely displayed objects from the remarkable collections of Sir John Soane’s Museum in London- Reading Post (UK) |
American Glamour: In Alice Friedman's "American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture"...she explains how it was that glamour so saturated some of the best-known designs of that period’s leading architects — while at the same time it was so anathema to them...in some of the finest writing about architecture the field has yet produced. -- Philip Johnson; Richard Neutra; Eero Saarinen; Morris Lapidus; Frank Lloyd Wright [images]- Places Journal |
The Chinese Eco-Disaster: Why the green revolution in China has barely begun...In his extraordinary book "When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind—or Destroy It," Jonathan Watts warns: "The planet's problems were not made in China, but they are sliding past the point of no return there."- Slate |
The Scandalous Men Who Built New York: A Digest of "Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White: Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age" by Mosette Broderick...this dense tome is not for the faint of heart...extracts — architectural, historical, and scandalous — from this brick of a book.- Artinfo |
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-- Diller Scofidio + Renfro: The Broad, Los Angeles
-- Travel: New Orleans: Soniat House, The French Quarter + "Architecture in Times of Need: Make it Right - Rebuilding the New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward" |
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