Today’s News - Thursday, October 10, 2019
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, October 15.
It's a MoMA makeover/sterling Stirling/Chicago Biennial kind of day - and more!
● Kimmelman says DS+R/Gensler's "MoMA is bigger. Is that better? It's smart, surgical, sprawling and slightly soulless. What the architects have done is refined and tactical" - the museum is "always going to be a work in progress."
● Davidson says the makeover "might have been either a mess or a compromise; instead, it's a work of confident and self-effacing elegance - every facet is sharp, thin, smooth, and glossy, like Nicole Kidman on Oscar night."
● Heathcote says MoMA's makeover "solves a lot of problems - but falls back on a version of architecture that now feels a little too smooth, too friction free - offering no resistance, no grain, no attitude, just endless white walls and tasteful space - even so, it looks better than I ever remember it."
● S. Stephens previews the Architecture and Design galleries: "Does dispersing the A&D galleries throughout the immense museum create an overall understanding of history? Not likely. Let's see how the community of architects and the public respond."
● O'Sullivan parses Goldsmith Street taking home the Stirling: "So many people remember a time when living in well-built but cheap housing was something normal for those on lower incomes. That memory helps explain why a likable but unremarkable-looking project could win the country's top architectural accolade."
● Invisible Studio's Piers Taylor re: Goldsmith Street: "At a time when everything looks bleak, an environmentally conscious social housing scheme winning the Stirling Prize is a rare moment of hope."
● A round-up of what architects, critics, and politicians are saying about the Stirling in the twitter-sphere - "not all reactions were as positive."
In other news:
● Saffron champions the preservation of a "whimsical stone pavilion" in Philly's Columbus Square whose "fate now seems to come down to the gender of the person who designed it. 'There's a big question about the significance of this building if it's not tied to the first female architect,'" sayeth an official.
● Budds delves into how the Hurricane Sandy recovery program Rebuild by Design "changed the way New York thinks about public works" - and what it can teach other cities about resiliency.
● Planners of West Sydney's "new airport city won't include sustainability targets" - they "know they have to contend with a warming climate, but they don't believe sustainability targets are the way to go" (huh?!!?).
● On a greener note: Shigeru Ban completes a "sprawling," 500,000-square-foot campus for Swatch in Biel, Switzerland, considered "one of the largest hybrid mass timber structures in the world."
● Pskowski parses Mexico's Apan Housing Laboratory's 32 low-cost prototypes for social housing: "Developers have been slow to adopt the ideas," but the "center's work is seeing results, as Mexican architects focus more energy on designing housing."
● NYC's Architecture and Design Film Festival's Kyle Bergman picks five flicks not to miss at ADFF next week.
● A good reason to head to Palm Springs next week: Modernism Week Fall Preview with more than 50 events.
● ICYMI: ANN feature: In Lesson Plan #4, Sussman and Woodworth, two instructors at the Boston Architectural College, respond to the student open letter for curriculum change, calling for a new, biological approach to architecture.
Three takes on the Chicago Architecture Biennial:
● Mortice cheers: The biennial "has some very simple advice for architects: Use your skills to start solving the problems that need to be solved. That might not even call for a building."
● Baldwin dives into "some of the exhibitions and emerging stories" to be found at the biennial.
● Betsky picks his biennial faves - five of the "most compelling installations from this year's exhibition."
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Michael Kimmelman: With a $450 Million Expansion, MoMA Is Bigger. Is That Better? It’s smart, surgical, sprawling and slightly soulless: The story of the Modern...is one of those classic, ruthless New York real estate tales...has gobbled up properties, conspired with developers, erected skyscrapers, torn down buildings in its way, built new ones and then sometimes torn those down to make room for another reboot...What the architects have done is refined and tactical...Glenn D. Lowry: “It’s always going to be a work in progress"...A work in progress like [its] architecture and the idea of modernism itself. -- Philip L. Goodwin; Edward Durell Stone; Philip Johnson; Cesar Pelli; Yoshio Taniguchi; Jean Nouvel; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Gensler; Tod Williams Billie Tsien- New York Times |
Justin Davidson: The New MoMA Tries to Get Out of Its Own Way. We’ll See If It Can: An attempt to manage the crush of visitors that’s made the museum hard to love: ...reopening with a total transformation that tries to leave nothing behind...result might have been either a mess or a compromise; instead, it’s a work of confident and self-effacing elegance. Whether it will make a great museum...may take time to resolve...All these moving parts are united by an aesthetic in which every facet is sharp, thin, smooth, and glossy, like Nicole Kidman on Oscar night...The new architecture expresses the logic of perpetual growth...I wonder how soon this latest giant will feel cramped, too... -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Gensler; Jean Nouvel- New York Magazine |
Edwin Heathcote: MoMA rebuild creates a sleek new showcase for big art: ...updated $450m incarnation solves a lot of problems - but could do with a little more attitude: ...every reimagining of MoMA is an attempt to address the problems caused by the last reimagining...existing galleries have been rationalised and made more accessible...but it also falls back on a version of architecture that now feels a little too smooth, too friction free...offering no resistance, no grain, no attitude, just endless white walls and tasteful space...A part of me wishes that a little more of the architects’ earlier spikiness had survived to inform this latest instalment in a long and, surely ongoing, history of repairs - yet even so, [it] looks better than I ever remember it. -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Edward Durrell Stone; Philip Goodwin; Philip Johnson; César Pelli; Yoshio Taniguchi- Financial Times (UK) |
Suzanne Stephens: Architecture and Design Galleries Reopen at MoMA in New York: MoMA is one big momma...a mini-tempest erupted when [it] announced...the [A&D] collections would no longer occupy their own discrete enclave, but would be integrated with other media...A test case...from 2016 to 2017...did not please the design community...MoMA rethought its initial plan and adopted what...Martino Stierli describes as a Venturi-esque “both/and” approach...does dispersing the architecture and design galleries throughout the immense museum create an overall understanding of history? Not likely...Let’s see how the community of architects and the public respond. -- Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Gensler; Barry Bergdoll; Sean Anderson; Juliet Kinchin; Paola Antonelli- Architectural Record |
Feargus O'Sullivan: A 'Modest Masterpiece' of Public Housing Wins Top Design Prize [RIBA Stirling Prize]: Goldsmith Street, a 105-home development [in] Norwich ...first time that public housing has won...project’s success makes perfect sense...in their matching of affordability with extreme energy efficiency - provide a standard model for developments all across Britain...despite the recent recognition for public housing...it would be a mistake to assume that the country is going through a golden age in this area...So many people remember a time when living in well-built but cheap housing was something normal for those on lower incomes. That memory...helps explain why a likable but unremarkable-looking project...could win the country’s top architectural accolade. -- Mikhail Riches- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Piers Taylor/Invisible Studio: Goldsmith Street offers a roadmap for precisely the type of housing the UK needs: At a time when everything...looks bleak, an environmentally conscious social housing scheme winning the Stirling Prize is a rare moment of hope: The difference between income and housing costs is the greatest it has ever been, and housing design quality and provision are in crisis...it is fitting that this year's winner isn't an architectural trinket by a starchitect, but instead, good, ordinary, decent, resilient, low-energy housing that we can imagine much more of. -- Mikhail Riches; Cathy Hawley- Dezeen |
Architects celebrate Goldsmith Street's Stirling Prize win as a "game changer": Architects, critics and politicians are taking to twitter to celebrate...becoming the first ever social housing scheme to win...However, not all reactions were as positive... -- Mikhail Riches; Cathy Hawly- Dezeen |
Inga Saffron: Whoever designed Columbus Square’s ‘Roundhouse,’ the modernist pavilion deserves to be saved: Even though it’s late in the game, it’s worth fighting for this small, difficult building...[its] fate now seems to come down to the gender of the person who designed it...“There’s a big question about the significance of this building if it’s not tied to the first female architect"...There’s a long history of women and minorities...not getting credit for their architectural work...parks department officials have considered the little pavilion a problem...In their view, the easiest way to deal with the problem is to remove it, rather than figure out a new use...finding a new use will be a challenge. But not an impossible one. -- Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher/Gabriel Roth/Roth & Fleisher- Philadelphia Inquirer |
Diana Budds: What a Hurricane Sandy recovery program can teach cities about resiliency: Rebuild by Design changed the way New York thinks about public works: Living Breakwaters...shows how rewriting the rules of infrastructure projects can lead to creative ideas that provide ecological, social, economic, and protective benefits. Here’s how. Think outside of “problem-solution framing.” View designers as facilitators, not masterminds of a finished product...etc. -- Shaun Donovan; Kate Orff/SCAPE; Billion Oyster Project- Curbed New York |
Planning for Sydney’s new airport city won’t include sustainability targets: Planners...know they have to contend with a warming climate but they don’t believe sustainability targets are the way to go: Acutely aware of the heat island impact in Western Sydney, Aerotropolis planners are investigating the role parkland and trees might have in cooling the developments around the airport. The authority...remains “technology agnostic” about the solutions that might be deployed to cope with Western Sydney’s heating climate...hopes the aerotropolis will become a thriving economic hub delivering new jobs, homes, infrastructure and services...- The Fifth Estate (Australia) |
Shigeru Ban Architects completes a sprawling mass timber campus for Swatch: ...celebrated the completion of one of the largest hybrid mass timber structures in the world. The 500,000-square-foot Swatch and Omega Campus in Biel, Switzerland took 8.5 years to build...represents a major achievement in sustainable design...composed of three new buildings...While the buildings share commonalities in their function and composition, each carries its own distinct qualities.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Martha Pskowski: Mexico's Housing Laboratory shows off 32 low-cost prototypes: ...homes that explore new typologies for social housing to meet the needs of Mexico’s diverse cultures and climates...Apan Housing Laboratory shows how developers could build high-quality housing within the tight budgets of Infonavit credits...extra effort was necessary to convince [them] that the models are feasible...[they] have been slow to adopt the ideas...floor plans are available online under open access...The research center’s work is seeing results, as Mexican architects focus more energy on designing housing. -- Carlos Zedillo; Julia Gómez Candela; Michael Meredith/Hilary Sample/MOS; Enrique Norten; Tatiana Bilbao; Fernanda Canales- The Architect's Newspaper |
Eleanor Gibson: Five movies not to miss at New York's Architecture and Design Film Festival: ADFF founder and director Kyle Bergman has picked out five screenings...including movies that explore the lives and works of Denise Scott Brown, Bauhaus educator László Moholy-Nagy and 20th-century architect Bruce Goff...Forming part of month-long event Archtober, the 11th edition of ADFF New York takes place October 16-20...Making it's world premiere..."The New Bauhaus," directed by Alysa Nahmias- Dezeen |
Modernism Week Fall Preview at various locations in the Palm Springs/Coachella Valley, California, October 17-20; more than 50 events, including tours, talks, and parties in unique locations not regularly open to the public [and the] Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale Fall Edition- Modernism Week (Palm Springs, California) |
Zach Mortice: An Activist Architecture Stirs in Chicago: Chicago Architecture Biennial participants are focused less on physical buildings than on laying the foundations of an overtly political approach to design: "...And Other Such Stories"...recognizes that...architecture can no longer serve the traditional development apparatus...with its lack of purely architectural representation, there’s the sense that architecture has perhaps failed as a discipline...biennial has some very simple advice for architects: Use your skills to start solving the problems that need to be solved...That might not even call for a building. -- Eyal Weizman/Forensic Architecture; Paola Aguirre- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Eric Baldwin: Critics and Community: Reviewing the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial: ..."..And other such stories"...showcases the work of over 80 contributors, including MASS Design Group, Forensic Architecture, Theaster Gates...we’re diving into some of the exhibitions and emerging stories. -- ConstructLab; MSTC (Movimento Sem Teto do Centro/City Center Homeless Movement); Alejandra Celedón/Nicolás Stutzin/ Javier Correa; Somatic Collaborative; Ana María León/Andrew Herscher- ArchDaily |
Aaron Betsky: Notes from the Chicago Architecture Biennial: ...his five most compelling installations from this year's exhibition: "The Plot: Miracle and Mirage" by Alejandra Celedon, Nicolas Stutzin & Javier Correa; Do Ho Suh’s video of Peter and Alison Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens...being torn down; The Museum of Oil, by Territorial Agency/Ann-Sofi Rönnskog/John Palmesino; Chicago Cultural Center/Forensic Architecture/Invisible Institute; Settler Colonial City Project’s naming project in collaboration with the American Indian Center- Architect Magazine |
ANN feature: Ann Sussman, RA, and A. Vernon Woodworth, FAIA: Lesson Plan #4: Response to Open Letter for Curriculum Change: A New, Biological Approach to Architecture: This response, in two parts, is from two instructors at the Boston Architectural College.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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