Today’s News - Thursday, January 10, 2019
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days - we'll be back Tuesday, January 15.
● A rare ANN feature double-header: Plaut pens Part 2 of our "Building Abundance" series, offering 3 keys to abundant design: "Hint: Designing for less bad won't get us there. Aiming for abundant design requires seeing and working in new ways that are largely unfamiliar, challenging - but oh so worth it!"
● Hall Kaplan cheers the 6th edition of "An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles: Fully Revised 6th Edition" by Gebhard & Winter (despite its "gloomy" cover).
● L.A. is a city of concrete - "from FLW's modernist mansions to Schindler's tilted houses" - here's an eyeful of "some lesser-known structures are just as striking" from a new map by Blue Crow Media.
● Saffron offers (mostly) high praise for Foster's "dynamic, elegant" Comcast tower in Philly: "The skyline view is probably the least newsworthy thing about it" - it's "the rare corporate behemoth that speaks directly to its hometown, intimately, with affection." - Welton looks forward to February 3, when Foster's "efforts to untie the Norton Museum's Gordian knot will be unveiled - a 1941 Beaux Arts plan restored by a modern master."
● Agbo offers a thoughtful reflection "on reading Adolf Loos's controversial essay ["Ornament and Crime" 1908] as a young African design student in Europe: If Loos were alive today, he would certainly be mortified by current aesthetic trends. Today, erasing history, denying our collective identities, and rejecting the deeper pleasures of acknowledging the past, are the real crimes."
● Betsky parses a new shelter design at Taliesin West that "questions what it means to be organic - the whole point of the structure is to question what the very notion of 'organic,' 'authentic,' or 'real' means."
● Farago offers a fab take on Rudolph the "mischief maker" at 100: "His name has been synonymous for so long with Brutalism's solidity that we forget how camp his architecture was - behind closed doors it winked and ogled" (and don't miss "Paul Rudolph: The Hong Kong Journey" at NYC's Center for Architecture!).
● Madsen's Q&A with Richard Rogers, "who has a wardrobe as colorful as his personality"; they tackle sustainability, climate change, urban growth and density, "and the architect's role as problem-solver."
Deadlines:
● Call for entries: Architectural League Prize 2019 (formerly Young Architects' Forum): "Just" - explore "the implicit tensions between architecture's affinity for the just so in materials, tectonics, and organization, and a call to act justly."
● Call for entries: Utzon UNBUILT international competition: "interpret a selected Utzon project by merging Utzon's own project description with something you see in the project" (open to anyone under 40).
● Call for entries: Azure magazine's 2019 AZ Awards for Design Excellence.
● Call for entries: ADC 98th Annual Awards: Spatial Design "celebrates all forms of craft, design and innovation."
● Call for conference sessions & workshops: 2019 North American Passive House Network Conference and Expo in NYC next June.
Weekend diversions:
● Walker is wowed by "Paris to Pittsburgh" documentary (now free online) that "portrays a U.S. economy fueled by renewable energy jobs - its message is far more powerful now. When Trump's speechwriters picked Pittsburgh to play against Paris as a simple alliterative device, they clearly chose the wrong city."
● Lutyens cheers "Tutto Ponti: Gio Ponti, Archi-Designer," a major retrospective of "the cult designer who shaped a nation" at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (great pix!).
● Niemeyer mock-ups and engravings signed by the architect can be seen on the streets of Rio de Janeiro through January.
● We would love to chill out at the "world's largest ice and snow festival" - the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in China (fab photos convinced us!).
Page-turners:
● Goldberger cheers Lamster's "The Man in the Glass House," a "stimulating and lively new biography" of "one of the most compelling architects who has ever lived, which is not the same as being one of the best architects" - and a story "for the age of Donald Trump" showing us "that, however electrifying the ability to command the spotlight may be, it does not confer the lasting qualities of greatness."
● Design leaders from Pentagram's Bierut to MIT SENSEable City Lab's Ratti pick the "9 books designers should read in 2019."
● Walker, Sisson & Polsky pick 101 books "about making cities, but also books about how cities have made us."
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Building Abundance #2 by Josie Plaut: Three Keys to Abundant Design: Hint: Designing for less bad won't get us there. Aiming for abundant design requires seeing and working in new ways that are largely unfamiliar, challenging - but oh so worth it!- ArchNewsNow.com |
Sam Hall Kaplan: "An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles: Fully Revised 6th Edition" by David Gebhard & Robert Winter: Whether Los Angeles is more urbane, or simply more urban, the revised edition contains a new generation of public architecture, as well as the past editions' wealth of historic landmarks and buildings of cultural interest, or just curiosity.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Concrete city: the beauty of Los Angeles' most popular material - in pictures: LA is a city of concrete. From Frank Lloyd Wright’s modernist mansions to Rudolph Schindler’s tilted houses, architects working there have embraced the material. A new map by Blue Crow Media shows some lesser-known structures are just as striking.- Guardian (UK) |
Inga Saffron: In sync with Philly: While Comcast Technology Center is the city’s tallest skyscraper, where it soars is on the ground. The public is invited to step inside for food, art, and entertainment: What I see...is a dynamic, elegant building...a slim, almost Gothic, profile...The thing is, the skyline view is probably the least newsworthy thing about [it]...the rare, globally produced, corporate behemoth that speaks directly to its hometown, intimately, with affection...offers the most fully realized aesthetic vision for a skyscraper since the PSFS tower was completed in 1932. -- Foster + Partners; Gensler; Daroff Design; Kendall Heaton Associates [images]- Philadelphia Inquirer |
J. Michael Welton: The New Norton by Foster + Partners: Art Deco in origin...the Norton Gallery and School of Design opened in 1941...in West Palm Beach. Over the years, it was added onto until its original concept was obscured. That is, until Feb. 3 - when Foster + Partner’s efforts to untie its Gordian knot will be unveiled...Outside...a sumptuous sculpture garden designed by Foster, his first effort at landscape architecture...So here we have it all: A 1941 Beaux Arts plan restored by a modern master - and an integration of indoors and out... [images]- Architects and Artisans |
Mathias Agbo, Jr.: African Architecture: Ornaments, Crime & Prejudice: On reading Adolf Loos’s controversial essay ["Ornament and Crime" 1908] as a young African design student in Europe: If Loos were alive today, he would certainly be mortified by current aesthetic trends...today’s modernists are increasingly embracing color, pattern and ornamentation...African ornamentation is today finding its way into other spheres of contemporary design...As it turns out, Loos had it wrong, not just by a little, but by an epic chasm...Today erasing history, denying our collective identities, and rejecting the deeper pleasures of acknowledging the past, are the real crimes.- Common Edge |
Aaron Betsky: This Is Not My Beautiful Tent: A new shelter design at Taliesin West questions what it means to be organic: ...the whole point of the structure, designed by graduating student Richard Quittenton (who starts working at Herzog & de Meuron this January), is to question what the very notion of “organic,” “authentic,” or “real” means...the discrepancy between reality and representation is deliberate and magnified. [images]- Architect Magazine |
Jason Farago: Paul Rudolph at 100: The Mischief Maker in a New Light: He was one of the most acclaimed - and confounding - architects of the 1960s; then his reputation tanked. But his concrete and Plexiglas buildings are winning new love: Brutalism is back...and Rudolph...is back in the matte Lucite frame...His name has been synonymous for so long with Brutalism’s solidity that we forget how camp his architecture was...solid and monumental on the outside, but behind closed doors it winked and ogled. He would surely be gratified by his return to prominence at age 100, but I suspect he would wonder at some of today’s Brutalist fanboys. “Paul Rudolph: The Hong Kong Journey,” Center for Architecture, NYC, thru March 9- New York Times |
Deane Madsen: Interview with Richard Rogers: “There are other colors than black,” says Rogers, who has a wardrobe as colorful as his personality: ...in 2007...he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize...has accumulated an impressive array of awards, including RIBA Stirling Prizes in 2006...To these awards and hues, he now adds the AIA Gold Medal...sustainability and climate change, the growth and density of cities, and the architect’s role as problem-solver. -- Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners- Architectural Record |
Call for entries: Architectural League Prize 2019: "Just": ...explores the implicit tensions between architecture’s affinity for the just so in materials, tectonics, and organization, and a call to act justly; open to current full-time residents, who need not be citizens, of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; entrants must be 10 years or less out of a bachelor or masters program; cash prizes; deadline: February 11- Architectural League of New York / Young Architects + Designers Committee |
Call for entries: Utzon UNBUILT international competition: interpret a selected Utzon project by merging Utzon’s own project description with something you see in the project; open to anyone under the age of 40, whether a student or a professional; no fee; registration deadline: February 14 (submission deadline: March 22)- Utzon Center |
Call for entries: 2019 AZ Awards for Design Excellence: 9th edition celebrates the best design and architecture around the world; earlybird submission deadline (save money!): February 1; regular submission deadline: February 19- Azure magazine (Canada) |
Call for entries: ADC 98th Annual Awards: Spatial Design (international): to celebrate all forms of craft, design and innovation; deadline: February 24- Art Directors Club / The One Club for Creativity |
Call for conference sessions & workshops: North American Passive House Network/NAPHN19 Conference and Expo, New York City, June 27-28; deadlines: Sessions Proposals: February 1; Workshop Proposals: March 7- North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) / New York Passive House (NYPH) |
Alissa Walker: "Paris to Pittsburgh" documentary shows what dramatic climate action might look like: ...portrays a U.S. economy fueled by renewable energy jobs: ...now free to watch online - but after the events of the last few weeks, I realized the documentary’s message is far more powerful now...shows what the country might look like under the Green New Deal...provides a more hopeful outlook...When Trump’s speechwriters picked Pittsburgh to play against Paris as a simple alliterative device, they clearly chose the wrong city.- Curbed |
Dominic Lutyens: The cult designer who shaped a nation: Work by the mid-century Italian master Gio Ponti is increasingly sought after - and his designs are being recreated for a new generation: ...a major retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris...Ponti eludes easy classification...[He] was curious, open-minded and public-spirited...retrospective of this polymath’s work, entitled "Tutto Ponti: Gio Ponti, Archi-Designer," is the first to be held in France. thru May 5 -- Domus; Giuseppe Pagano; Gio Ponti x Molteni&C; Emilio Lancia; Mino Fiocchi [images]- BBC Designed |
Oscar Niemeyer Featured on the Streets of Rio de Janeiro: ...mock-ups and engravings signed by the architect can be seen in Barra da Tijuca, in the city’s West Side. thru January 31- ArchDaily |
World's largest ice and snow festival kicks off in China: ...the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival...features plenty of spectacular installations and activities...In addition to walking up the gigantic illuminated ice castles, other highlights include an exquisite snow Buddha statue...a 3D light show and the 340-meter-long Northern Lights-themed ice slides...works by sculptors from 12 different countries; thru February 5 [images]- CNN Travel |
Paul Goldberger: "The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century" by Mark Lamster: ...stimulating and lively new biography [of] one of the most compelling architects who has ever lived, which is not the same as being one of the best architects...The qualities that make him, and this book, fascinating are his nimble intelligence, his restlessness, his energy, his anxieties, his ambitions and his passions...channeled into the making of a few pieces of architecture that will stand the test of time, and many others that will not. Lamster’s timing is excellent: He has written the story of Johnson for the age of Donald Trump...Lamster’s most important contribution may be to show us that, however electrifying the ability to command the spotlight may be, it does not confer the lasting qualities of greatness.- New York Times |
Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan: 9 books designers should read in 2019: ...everything from computer history to animal evolution, chosen by design leaders. Mark Lamster: The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century; Karen Kubey: Housing as Intervention: Architecture Towards Social Equity; Kat Holmes: Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design; Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen: Exhibit A: Exhibitions That Transformed Architecture, 1948-2000; Butler, & Lubarsky: On Beauty: Douglas R. Tompkins - Aesthetics and Activism; Menno Schilthuizen: Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution; etc.- Fast Company |
Alissa Walker, Patrick Sisson & Sara Polsky: 101 books about where and how we live: These are books about making cities, but also books about how cities have made us. ..Urban Classics; Why We Build; Cities We Love; Changing Places; Planning the Future; Understanding People; How We Live Today- Curbed |
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