Today’s News - Thursday, April 23, 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, April 28. 'Til then, stay well. Stay safe. Stay in!
● DeWolf takes a deep, deep dive into future-proofing Asian cities facing climate change and contagions, and talks to architects and urban planners re: what they're doing to "help save us from the worst - they are key players."
● Waite reports on the London borough of Croydon's "plans to ramp up infill housing with 374 homes over 24 sites" via its Brick By Brick housing development arm, and designed to the 10 One Planet Living principles by a goodly number of 'up-and-coming and established' practices.
● Welton talks to Turan Duda of Duda/Paine re: his firm's holistic community center in Winter Park, Florida, "the first of its kind that transforms the meaning of wellness" by merging alternative and traditional medicines.
● The American Academy of Arts and Letters' 2020 architecture award winners: Nader Tehrani/Cooper Union/NADAAA; Bade Stageberg Cox; Jonathan Tate/OJT (Office of Jonathan Tate); Kevin Lippert/Princeton Architectural Press; and John Ochsendorf/MIT.
● Next Wednesday, the American Planning Association launches NPC20 @ Home, a 3-day "digital conference that brings the spirit of the annual APA National Planning Conference directly to you."
Weekend diversions
● Because there's now a microsite for the show: Allen cheers "Eileen Gray" at the Bard Graduate Center in NYC that "reveals there's much still left to be said about the notoriously closed-off matron saint of Modernism, whose full breadth of practice we are just beginning to understand."
● How could we resist: Every Friday, locked-down museums "hold a Twitter showdown to find the world's creepiest exhibit" in weekly a weekly #curatorbattle (images not for queasy stomachs).
The show isn't online, but a number of thoughtful voices have weighed in on Koolhaas's "Countryside, The Future" at the Guggenheim - almost as good as being there:
● Karrie Jacobs thought it would be a show she "would love," but "a show that tackles this most fraught relationship should be a powerhouse: exhilarating and jaw-dropping. It offers little that is moving or visually satisfying" (the catalog is "much more satisfying").
● Zacks says that, while it may not be "wholly satisfying," it is "engaging enough to make the visitor want to keep going - the kind of show we should wish architects engaged in and museums sponsored constantly."
● Tarmy, on the other hand: "Anyone looking for profundity will likely come away disappointed" - it often takes "a bemused, wide-eyed approach to rural life that presupposes its audience is as ignorant as the urbane Koolhaas" (that's just for starters).
● Brown's Q&A with Koolhaas and AMO's Samir Bantal re: "why rural communities need investment, and why Trump is on the wrong side of history when it comes to climate change."
● A few minutes of Koolhaas showing CBS Sunday Morning around the show as he "contemplates the future of cities - and the countryside."
COVID-19 news continues (we just couldn't resist the last story!):
● BSA's Peterson delves into the Make/Shift collective in Boston that "exemplifies how architects can aid with civic mobilization during crises" and "demonstrates the latent potential of architects and allied professions to labor in the pursuit of a public good."
● Waite parses AJ's latest coronavirus survey of British architects that "paints a bleak picture. While architects are finding innovative ways to adapt to the 'new norm,' there are fears some firms may not outlive the crisis."
● David Thorpe takes a detailed dive into how "building a better world will also speed economic recovery. As we emerge from this global crisis we have an unprecedented opportunity to create a healthier world, a happier and fairer world, and a low carbon world. Here's why."
● The University of Melbourne's Laura Schuijers sees COVID-19 as "an opportunity to reset our environmental future - much will depend on what happens next - whether we choose to harness critical opportunities to promote individual and collective behavior change, and to foster rather than sideline the clean energy transition."
● Committee for Sydney CEO Metcalf: "Kimmelman described pandemics as 'anti-urban.' So should we all flee from our urban nests in a moment of global panic? Let me argue the case against. One reason to be skeptical about the death of the city is that it's been predicted for more than 100 years. Cities are here to stay. Urban living just changed."
● Merlan's text about and Seelie's photos of "the eerie silence of the Las Vegas Strip show the striking toll the coronavirus crisis has taken on fun and leisure" (and "a lone goose waddled down the street").
● Speaking of a goose: "12 photos of animals taking over towns and cities on lockdown: Ever seen ducks crossing a road in Paris? Or peacocks browsing the shops in Dubai?"
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Christopher DeWolf: Future Proof: Envisioning Asian Cities In A Climate Change-Impacted World: Soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, and contagions are three of the many threats facing Asia’s cities in the coming years - can architects and urban planners help save us from the worst? ...most places in Asia aren’t doing much to prepare for whatever calamity happens next...Here’s what’s happening - and could happen - around the region to get Asia ready for an unpredictable and increasingly hostile future...urban planning and architecture are key players... -- Ren Chao; Carol Marra/Ken Yeh/Marra + Yeh Architects; Kotchakorn Voraakhom/Landprocess; Nicholas Ho/HPA/Ho & Partners Architects; Wai Wing-yun/Spark Architects- Tatler Hong Kong |
Richard Waite: Exclusive: Croydon plans to ramp up infill housing with 374 homes over 24 sites: Brick By Brick, Croydon Council’s arm’s length housing development vehicle, has released details of the second wave of its Small Sites Programme of housing on infill sites across the borough...Designed by a mix of ‘up-and-coming and established’ practices...Brick By Brick has pledged that...about half the homes delivered will be ‘affordable’...has also committed to the 10 One Planet Living principles... -- Hayhurst & Co; Gort Scott; Sarah Wigglesworth Architects,;Mary Duggan Architects; Archio; Denizen Works; RUFFarchitects; Threefold Architects; Pitman Tozer; Stitch Architects; Mae; Common Ground Architecture- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
J. Michael Welton: A Holistic Community Center by Duda/Paine: Created for the community of Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando, it also merges alternative and traditional medicines - so pills and prescriptions may be part of the process, but so is looking at the human condition holistically...a facility that’s the first of its kind - a community center that transforms the meaning of wellness...The idea is to empower the people in the community about their choices - and present them with a menu of options.- Architects + Artisans |
American Academy of Arts and Letters announces 2020 architecture award winners -- Nader Tehrani/Cooper Union/NADAAA ($20,000 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize); Bade Stageberg Cox; Jonathan Tate/OJT (Office of Jonathan Tate); Kevin Lippert/Princeton Architectural Press; John Ochsendorf/MIT ($10,000 each)- The Architect's Newspaper |
American Planning Association Launches NPC20 @ Home: ...a digital conference that brings the spirit of the annual APA National Planning Conference directly to you, April 29 - May 1...Watch sessions live and catch the recordings of any you miss the following day in APA Learn! You'll have access to the recordings for a full year.- American Planning Association (APA) |
Lila Allen: "Eileen Gray" at the Bard Graduate Center reveals there’s much still left to be said about the mother of Modernism: ...features freshly conserved furniture, never-before-exhibited photographs, and unpublished plans and drawings of her famous E-1027 villa...Together, they paint a portrait of the notoriously closed-off matron saint of Modernism, whose full breadth of practice we are just beginning to understand. thru July 12 -- Cloé Pitiot [Because the gallery is closed, BGC has launched a microsite dedicated to the exhibition.]- Metropolis Magazine |
Museums hold Twitter showdown to find world's creepiest exhibit: Locked-down institutions go online for Yorkshire Museum’s weekly ‘curator battles’: ...a weekly #curatorbattle...with museums from Germany, France, Canada and the USA responding.- Guardian (UK) |
Karrie Jacobs: When Reality Upstages a Provocateur: "Countryside, The Future" at the Guggenheim, curated by Rem Koolhaas and AMO, may raise some timely questions, but it fails to live up to the moment: While it is encyclopedic in its aspirations, it is Wikipedic in its execution...a show that tackles this most fraught relationship should be a powerhouse: exhilarating and jaw-dropping...It offers little that is moving, or visually satisfying...The saving grace...the catalog is delightfully undersized [and] much more satisfying...[museum is] closed because of...COVID-19...[It] has been thoroughly upstaged by reality. Even a seasoned provocateur like Koolhaas can’t compete. -- Troy Conrad Therrien; Irma Boom- Architect Magazine |
Stephen Zacks: Countryside, unnatural nature: At the Guggenheim in New York...we are posed some unsettling questions: "Countryside, The Future," a near full-museum inquiry into everything that constitutes the non-city...a methodology of “big curiosity” in lieu of “big data.” The results, if not wholly satisfying, are engaging enough to make the visitor want to keep going...the kind of show we should wish architects engaged in and museums sponsored constantly, asking big questions that go far beyond the scope of the building project...speaks to how we make the world, for whom, and what are its consequences. An unfair gloss...might be that it fetishizes the non-urban...Rem Koolhaas's hypothesis: the disruptive effects of modernity on country life are every bit as radical as they are on the city.- Abitare |
James Tarmy: Rem Koolhaas Makes the Case for Leaving Cities Behind: “Countryside, the Future” at the Guggenheim Museum discovers the joys of rural life - and that was before our current age of coronavirus: Anyone looking for profundity, or anything they can’t find on Wikipedia, will likely come away disappointed. [It] often takes a bemused, wide-eyed approach to rural life that presupposes its audience is as ignorant as the urbane Koolhaas...The format might work in a management consultant’s strategy deck, but a museum...should aim higher. And yet it’s notable that [it] exists at the Guggenheim at all...If the countryside is our future, what’s it doing in a museum?- Bloomberg News |
Evan Nicole Brown: How Rem Koolhaas imagines a future beyond cities: Q&A with Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, the director of AMO re: "Countryside, the Future," why rural communities need investment, and why Trump is on the wrong side of history when it comes to climate change: "This is a significant moment for architects because it could be the first moment that clients can be convinced to allow architects to build much more intelligent architecture." -- Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)- Fast Company / Co.Design |
Rem Koolhaas contemplates the future of cities - and the countryside: The star-studded opening at New York's Guggenheim Museum...was a glitzy kickoff for a thought-provoking exhibition ["Countryside, The Future"], one with a few twists. It's a show at an art museum, with virtually no art, its subject - the countryside – being presented in the middle of a city...Koolhaas showed "Sunday Morning" around. -- OMA- CBS Sunday Morning |
Ben Peterson: Health, safety, and provision: An inventory of adaptable spaces and sites, Make/Shift exemplifies how architects can aid with civic mobilization during crises: This working collective has been an opportunity for design professionals to offer and apply their knowledge in response to a crisis that just two months ago seemed distant...demonstrates the latent potential of architects and allied professions to labor in the pursuit of a public good...solutions are typically quick fixes...that respond to immediate challenges, often working with what exists or what is on hand. -- Dan Arons/Perkins Eastman; Mark Reed/Lab Architect Group; Jeff Galvin/Danielle Santos/Lavallee Brensinger Architects; Susan Blomquist/Payette; Nate Peters/Autodesk; John Swift/Buro Happold; Kristi Dowd/Stantec- ArchitectureBoston magazine (Boston Society of Architects/BSA) |
Richard Waite: Tough decisions: AJ survey reveals further cuts as Coronavirus lockdown extended: ...second coronavirus survey shows the abrupt fall-off in work is biting hard. One in 10 of the anonymous respondents thinks their practice might not survive: ...results...paint a bleak picture...AJ’s data echoes the findings from the RIBA’s monthly Future Trends Survey...While architects are finding innovative ways to adapt to the ‘new norm’, there are fears some firms may not outlive the crisis.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
David Thorpe: Guess what? Building a better world will also speed economic recovery: As we emerge from this global crisis we have an unprecedented opportunity to create a better world, a healthier world, a happier and fairer world, and a low carbon world. It turns out this also represents better value for money than not doing so: The International Energy Agency (IEA) is saying that the top three categories of investments for governments to consider in their economic stimulus packages are energy and resource efficiency, upgrading technology, and infrastructure. Here’s why:- The Fifth Estate (Australia) |
Laura Schuijers, University of Melbourne: COVID-19 is an opportunity to reset our environmental future: ...there have already been short-term benefits...But we need to be careful about...claiming an environmental win...much will depend on what happens next...Rather than looking at 2020 as the manifestation of two separate crises, we can look at it [as] experiencing interconnected events...the simple answer to whether the pandemic will have long-term positive effects depends on whether we choose to harness critical opportunities to promote individual and collective behaviour change, and to foster rather than sideline the clean energy transition.- The Fifth Estate (Australia) |
Gabriel Metcalf/Committee for Sydney: Coronavirus NSW: How we can still live in cities after social distancing: Michael Kimmelman described pandemics as “anti-urban”...So should we all flee from our urban nests in a moment of global panic? Let me argue the case against...people living in lowdensity environments are also vulnerable...However, our psychological approach to cities is likely to change...The very framework of our cities may have to change in an era of pandemic. One reason to be sceptical about the death of the city is that it’s been predicted for more than 100 years...Cities are here to stay, although we will never quite view them quite the same. Urban living just changed.- Daily Telegraph (Australia) |
Anna Merlan. Photographs by Tod Seelie: After the end of the world: the eerie silence of the Las Vegas Strip: The empty strip, shut down for the first time since the JFK assassination, shows the striking toll the coronavirus crisis has taken on fun and leisure: A stone-faced Caesar gestured from a pedestal as a lone goose waddled down the street...When the awful silence from the strip faded away, it was replaced with the hum of life in any major city right now: people riding bikes, walking dogs, cautiously getting groceries.- Guardian (UK) |
12 photos of animals taking over towns and cities on lockdown: Ever seen ducks crossing a road in Paris? Or peacocks browsing the shops in Dubai? Wildlife, in some of the world's most human-populated places, is taking advantage of the empty streets by running... wild.- Country Living UK |
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