Today’s News - Wednesday, March 26, 2014
EDITOR'S NOTE: We're heading to Harvard tomorrow for the Journalists Forum on Land and the Built Environment (we're psyched!), and won't be posting again until Monday, March 31. (So you have lots of time to catch up on all the Pritzker prose we gathered yesterday and today.)
• Weinstein ponders a "new chapter" for public library design via Dawson's "meticulously executed" photo-essay, "The Public Library," and Ann Hamilton Studio's literally literary floor for the Seattle Public Library.
• More Pritzker prose: Goldberger's very thoughtful take is not all hearts and roses, but he cheers "a talented architect" and his "remarkable model of architectural practice that focuses on the intersection between aesthetics and social responsibility...the timing is exquisite, given the recent brouhaha over remarks" made by Hadid and Schumacher.
• Lange, Lamster, Hawthorne, and Miranda form a critics' roundtable: do they agree with Ban pick, and what of "perennial frontrunners" Holl and Chipperfield, and not forgetting the women's issue, Gang and Scott Brown?
• An interesting round-up of critics' and peers' comments on Ban's Pritzker Prize.
• Charlie Rose spends most of his show in conversation with Tom Pritzker and Shigeru Ban.
• Two Q&A's with Ban: Brake sits down with him in Metal Shutter Houses, and Makovsky & Medina at a Japanese hotel near Grand Central Station - not all the same questions and not all the same answers.
• How could we resist two round-ups of reactions by some very notable names in Twitter-world!
• Saltz continues to seethe re: MoMA/AFAM plan that "irretrievably dooms MoMA...If the wrecking ball swings in May, our beautiful garden of modernism will become another Penn Station."
• Wainwright wades into what's behind Koolhaas and de Graaf's design for denim brand G-Star Raw HQ in Amsterdam, "a building-as-billboard that revels in its crudeness" ("We have never been so vulgar," says Koolhaas).
• More criticism and rebuttals re: the Brady/RIBA Council Israeli motion.
• Weekend diversions:
• In honor of the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour on Saturday, some fab designers "created a series of whimsical, tongue-in-cheek posters nudging people to live more sustainable lives" and do "The Green Thing."
• "The Competition" documents five big-name firms vying for a museum commission that "offers a rare and comical look at their inner workings, and sheds light on the ways starchitects carefully curate their public images" (debuting at Copenhagen Architecture Festival x Film today).
• Zara offers an amusing take on MoMA's "A Collection of Ideas" (a "Lady Gaga of an exhibition"), and "Designing Modern Women" ("chided for being too bland, too predictable, and too conventional").
• Spens finds Maxwell's "Ancient Wisdom and Modern Knowhow" to be "a magisterial volume" - and "hopefully not a swansong" by "the current leading transatlantic architectural historian and critic."
• Q&A with Montgomery re: "Happy City": it's the result of his encounter with Peñalosa, "the charismatic, evangelical, ex-mayor of Bogotá, Colombia."
• Khorsandi finds a "genuinely inspiring" collection of projects and essays in "Modern American Housing: High-Rise, Reuse, Infill": "What many (honest) practitioners will admit is that the most effective means of altering the built environment is by engaging in politics."
• Goodyear's Q&A with Yanow re: "War of Streets and Houses," a new graphic memoir that, "with deft sketches and minimal text, shows how the streets of a city can simultaneously foster and crush social change."
| |
|
|
|
To subscribe to the free daily newsletter
click here
|
Opening a New Chapter on Designing Public Libraries: Why Robert Dawson's photographic essay on the public library plays it safe by looking back when architects need to scan an emerging horizon. By Norman Weinstein- ArchNewsNow |
Pritzker Prize for Shigeru Ban is Exquisitely Timed: ...a talented architect who has...created a remarkable model of architectural practice that focuses on the intersection between aesthetics and social responsibility...A lot of critics saw it as nothing less than a sea change...The age of the star architect is over; social responsibility is now what matters, or so the current line would have it...the timing of the award is exquisite, given the recent brouhaha over remarks made by Zaha Hadid [and] Patrik Schumacher... By Paul Goldberger- Vanity Fair |
Critics Roundtable: Pritzker Politics: In the run-up to Monday’s announcement...two names emerged as the candidates to beat: Steven Holl and David Chipperfield, both perennial frontrunners. Do you agree with the jury’s decision to go a different route with Shigeru Ban? It’s worth noting two names that also get mentioned ...Jeanne Gang and Denise Scott Brown...Alexandra Lange, Mark Lamster, Christopher Hawthorne, and Carolina A. Miranda discuss...- Architect Magazine |
Critics and Peers Comment on Shigeru Ban’s Pritzker Prize: Curators, architects, and writers praised Ban’s approach and conviction... -- Nanako Umemoto and Jesse Reiser/Reiser + Umemototo/RUR Architecture; Cameron Sinclair; Barry Bergdoll/Pedro Gadanho/MoMA; Mohsen Mostafavi/Harvard GSD; Nanne de Ru/Berlage; David Basulto/ArchDaily; Alexandra Lange; Gautam Bhatia; Alastair Townsend- ArchDaily |
Charlie Rose in coversation with Tom Pritzker, Chairman and CEO of the Pritzker Organization, and Shigeru Ban [starts at 12:17]- CharlieRose.com / PBS |
Q&A> Shigeru Ban, The 2014 Pritzker Prize Laureate: Alan G. Brake sat down with Ban at the Metal Shutter Houses...in Manhattan’s Chelsea gallery district. He discussed influences from California to Finland, the social role of architecture, and what the recognition means for his work..."First of all, I don’t know if I should be considered a Japanese architect..." [images]- The Architect's Newspaper |
Q&A: Shigeru Ban, 2014 Pritzker Laureate: ...spoke about his influences, his beginnings, and his social work with Voluntary Architects’ Network..."I had great professors, like John Hedjuk. I also had Ricardo Scofidio, Diana Agrest, Bernard Tschumi...I had a difficult time at Cooper Union...I had a big fight with Peter Eisenman and other professors. And they didn’t let me graduate..." By Paul Makovsky and Samuel Medina- Metropolis Magazine |
Twitter Reacts to #Pritzker2014: Opinions varied following announcement that Shigeru Ban won the 2014 Pritzker Prize: John King: "Best choice in years"; Ellis Woodman: "Unbelievable. I'm struggling to think of a single memorable project and the pompidou metz is actively bad"; .Justin McGuirk: "The British critics undermining the importance of the relief work and the American ones overlooking the thinness of his oeuvre overall"; etc.- Architect Magazine |
From #Baffled to #BanstheMan! Twitterverse Reacts to Shigeru Ban’s Pritzker Win: While the responses were generally positive, some were less so.- ArchDaily |
This Renovation Plan Will Ruin MoMA, and the Only People Who Can Stop It Aren’t Trying: We live in a time when power structures are impervious to and imperious about protest. Yet [the] plan so irretrievably dooms MoMA to being a business-driven carnival that it feels like something really worth fighting against...If the wrecking ball swings in May, our beautiful garden of modernism will become another Penn Station. By Jerry Saltz -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro- New York Magazine |
Rem Koolhaas's G-Star Raw HQ is like 'two brands having unprotected sex': 'We have never been so vulgar' says Koolhaas of his new Amsterdam headquarters for the Dutch denim brand, a building-as-billboard that revels in its crudeness..." crudeness is something that could be said to be very Dutch, but it is something we are not usually allowed to celebrate." By Oliver Wainwright -- Reinier de Graaf; Office for Metropolitan Architecture/OMA [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Angela Brady defends RIBA Council Israeli motion: ...rebuffed criticism that the motion was anti-semitic and said she had acted following the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) continued failure to punish architects flouting the UIA’s 2005 Resolution 13 condemning the building of settlements on occupied land...under intense pressure from those opposing the stance.- The Architects' Journal (UK) |
Top Designers Urge Doing "The Green Thing" With Witty Posters: For Earth Hour on March 29, a global event organized by the World Wildlife Fund that encourages people to turn their lights off, designers...created a series of whimsical, tongue-in-cheek posters nudging people to live more sustainable lives. [images]- Fast Company |
Starchitects Face Off in New Film: "The Competition"...follows five major firms as they fight to secure the commission for the National Museum of Art in Andorra...offers a rare and comical look at the inner workings of some of the most prestigious firms...and sheds light on the ways starchitects carefully curate their public images. -- Frank Gehry; Dominique Perrault; Zaha Hadid; Norman Foster; Jean Nouvel; Angel Borrego Cubero- Architectural Record |
In MoMA's Design Galleries, Nonsense Abounds: “A Collection of Ideas,” curated by Paola Antonelli and Kate Carmody...could be described as a Lady Gaga of an exhibition: At times it inspires, at times it reviles, and at all times, it...speaks to the masses through a veneer of false iconoclasm...“Designing Modern Women"...chided for being too bland, too predictable, and too conventional in its presentation of staid design classics... By Janelle Zara [images]- Artinfo |
"Ancient Wisdom And Modern Knowhow: Learning to Live With Uncertainty" by Robert Maxwell.: This is a magisterial volume by no less than the current leading transatlantic architectural historian and critic. Hopefully not a swansong, but the intellectual distillation of 60 years of thought on the development of architecture... By Michael Spens- Studio International |
Q&A: Charles Montgomery: How to make cities that make people happy: ...he encountered Enrique Peñalosa, the charismatic, evangelical, ex-mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who claimed to have made Bogatans happier by reinventing the cityscape...The result is "Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design."- Globe and Mail (Canada) |
Form Follows Politics: "Modern American Housing: High-Rise, Reuse, Infill" edited by Peggy Tully: ...focuses on the role of a research university in facilitating collaborations with architects and planners for public and private responses in redefining “weak-market cities"...the collection of projects is genuinely inspiring. By Sean Khorsandi -- Stanley Saitowitz; Gregg Pasquarelli; Vishaan Chakrabarti; Douglas Gauthier; Philip Nobel; Andrew Bernheimer; Julie Eizenberg; Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects- The Architect's Newspaper |
An Illustrated History of All the Ways Urban Environments Can Control Us: "War of Streets and Houses," a new graphic memoir from cartoonist and author Sophie Yanow, covers a lot of ground in just 70 pages...With deft sketches and minimal text, she shows how the streets of a city can simultaneously foster and crush social change. Q&A by Sarah Goodyear- The Atlantic Cities |
|
-- Chateau La Coste, Le Puy Ste Réparade, France: a place of wine, art and architecture that will continue to evolve as new projects and installations are developed. By Kirsten Kiser -- Tadao Ando; Jean Nouvel; Gehry Partners; Jean Prouvé; Sou Fujimoto
-- Q&A with Juergen Nogai, German architecture, art and documentary photographer: his decade long collaboration with Julius Shulman...and more |
|
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window.
External news links are not endorsed by ArchNewsNow.com.
Free registration may be required on some sites.
Some pages may expire after a few days.
© 2014 ArchNewsNow.com