Today’s News - Thursday, March 12, 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow and Monday will be no-newsletter days. We'll be back Tuesday, March 17 (and hoping Friday the 13th might bring the world some good news!).
● ANN feature: Weinstein uses a new British Museum exhibition catalogue as the starting point to delve into Piranesi's architectural imagination and why his architectural art matters today more than ever.
● Davidson parses NYC's Sunnyside Yard master plan: A "pleasant hilltop village will materialize" on a "massive platform over 180 acres of working rail yards. It's a thrilling prospect," but "isn't a plan so much as a wish list" - though the "fantasy drawings rest on a scaffolding of concrete research."
● In Austin, Texas, "a small neighborhood of six 3D printed homes" (the first in the country) "are now a part of a 51-acre master-planned community for the city's former homeless community" (with link to news of a similar 40 tiny-house community in San Jose, California).
● Eyefuls of Canada's first zero-carbon, mass timber higher-education building, by DIALOG and Smoke Architecture, that "will embody Centennial College's commitment to Truth and Reconciliation" with a design that "brings together Indigenous and Western cultures in both the form and function."
● Izon's Q&A with Pharrell Williams re: "plans to convert a song into architecture" with his Untitled residential development in Toronto, his favorite elements, and some personal discoveries: "I've always admired architecture. I didn't know that I would get the developer itch."
COVID-19 and urban issues:
● Walker considers what some cities are attempting to do for their extremely vulnerable homeless populations who can't really follow coronavirus advice like washing hands and stocking up on food when they don't have a permanent address.
● Klaus's Q&A with Michele Acuto of the Connected Cities Lab re: "why COVID-19 could change how we study cities, how we live in them, and the urban planning dimensions of pandemic preparation." ("Digital infrastructure might be the sanitation of our time.")
● Bollen pens a "love letter" to Venice - "a city that has already survived two millennia of invasions and plagues, and will continue to if we remember to protect its treasures - it has become increasingly clear that Venice is on the cusp of vanishing."
● A 74-year-old culture and arts publicist in Rome pens "a firsthand account of what life has been like, as she tries to find a rational path between cavalier disregard and outright panic": "Everything's quiet, except for the parks."
● "There is nothing funny about a global pandemic, but people are expressing their feelings about not commuting to the office in creative, witty ways on workfromhomeaggedon" (memes for a much-needed giggle - cats - and a few dogs - rule!).
Weekend diversions (check that venues are open):
● Wainwright x 2: "Formafantasma: Cambio" at the Serpentine Gallery is "a research-driven show" that raises "some provocative ideas" using "creative ways to expose myths about wood's sustainability," but it "can't escape an overall sense of preciousness."
● He tours "New Stone Age" at London's Building Centre with curator Amin Taha, who "is on a mission to reveal how this primal material has the potential to revolutionize contemporary construction as we know it. Brace yourselves."
● Ravenscroft talks to Taha about the show and his proposed 30-story stone skyscraper that he hopes will "demonstrate to commercial clients that stone is cheaper and enables a 90% reduction of embodied CO2" - a stone frame with CLT floors "could create carbon negative buildings."
● Osman is quite taken with Jean-Louis Cohen's "Building a New New World: Americanizm in Russian Architecture" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture: "The experience is hugely rich - it traces a dialectic between Russians attracted to American modernity and those who found it repellant."
● Marani finds "Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect" at NYC's classical Morgan Library to be "a fantastical retrospective of expert draftsmanship - a succinct and, truth be told, sublime survey" in "a fitting curatorial space for the show."
Page-turners:
● Tarmy offers a fab photo essay re: Hopkins' "Postmodern Architecture: Less Is a Bore" that argues "postmodernism, long derided as ugly and garish, is on its way back. But is the world ready? Many people considered it one of the ugliest, most garish building trends in the history of Western civilization."
● Waldek brings us luscious eyefuls from Zerbst's "Gaudí. The Complete Works" that "surveys his oeuvre, and the many inspirations that went into creating his defining aesthetic."
● Riechers cheers Osterwalder's "Olympic Games - The Design" that "encapsulates global politics and culture; in doing so, it serves as a de facto history of 20th-century graphic design" - to call the 14-pound, 1,552-page pair of books "an exhaustive publication is like saying that the Queen of England owns some jewelry."
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ANN feature: Norman Weinstein: Piranesi Drawings: Why his architectural art matters more than ever: The exhibition catalogue for a new British Museum exhibition provokes questions about neglected levels of classical heritage.- ArchNewsNow.com |
Justin Davidson: The Sunnyside Yard Master Plan Is a Mirage of a Better City: New York City's plan...is the best of all worlds. Whether it can actually exist in ours is another question: ...a green and pleasant hilltop village will materialize...Laying a massive platform over 180 acres of working railyards...Where else could you pack 12,000 affordable apartments, plus an abundance of offices, stores, parks, and services...It’s a thrilling prospect...isn’t a plan so much as a wish list...I almost scanned the renderings for a storefront cooper and a saddlery...it revives old ambitions...fantasy drawings rest on a scaffolding of concrete research... -- Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU)- New York Magazine |
3D-printed houses completed for Austin’s homeless population: ... a small neighborhood of six 3D printed homes...The 400-square-foot dwellings, the first full 3D-printed homes in the country, are now a part of Community First Village, a 51-acre master-planned community...providing affordable, permanent housing and social services for the city’s former homeless community. -- ICON; Logan Architecture; Franklin Alan- The Architect's Newspaper |
Canada’s first zero-carbon, mass timber higher-education building: Centennial College is collaborating with EllisDon, DIALOG and Smoke Architecture to construct a mass timber higher-education building based on the Indigenous concept of “two-eyed seeing": ...will embody the College’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation and sustainable design...resulting design brings together Indigenous and Western cultures in both the form and function.- Canadian Architect |
Juliet Izon: How Pharrell Williams Plans to Convert a Song Into Architecture: The singer and music producer tells AD about collaborating on an upcoming residential development in Toronto: In Untitled, [concept of a jugalbandi, a type of Indian music performance] will be manifested in the building’s balconies, which will follow the wave pattern of one of his songs...Q&A re: his favorite elements of the project [and] some personal discoveries he made during the design process. "I’ve always admired architecture...I didn’t know that I would get the developer itch...I’m most proud of the third tower, which is the rental tower" [with 200 affordable housing units]. -- Mansoor Kazerouni/IBI Group; U31- Architectural Digest |
Alissa Walker: ‘Stay home?’ 500,000 homeless Americans can’t follow coronavirus advice: Washing your hands and stocking up on food isn’t easy to do if you don’t have a permanent address: ...many public health officials...are trying to mitigate the risk to vulnerable populations who are most likely to get very sick or die...Technically, that defines much of the homeless population in the U.S...Theo Henderson, who lives in a park in LA’s Chinatown...wasn’t worried about being infected - “It’s not spread by people who are unhoused, it’s spread by people with houses and passports" - but he was concerned about ongoing ignorance from housed people...- Curbed |
Ian Klaus: Pandemics Are Also an Urban Planning Problem: Will COVID-19 change how cities are designed? Michele Acuto of the Connected Cities Lab talks about density, urbanization and pandemic preparation: While the University of Melbourne scrambles to accelerate a coronavirus vaccine, the Lab is working to understand the urban planning dimensions of pandemic preparedness. Q&A re: why COVID-19 could change how we study cities - and how we live in them..."Digital infrastructure might be the sanitation of our time.”- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities) |
Christopher Bollen: Why Venice Will Endure No Matter What: A love letter to a city that has already survived two millennia of invasions and plagues, and will continue to if we remember to protect its treasures: I sometimes think this romantic idea of Venice accounts for why we seem incapable of saving it. Fantasies don’t actually perish...The opposite notion, that Venice is a mere stage set for mass tourism, hasn’t helped its chances of survival either...it has become increasingly clear that Venice is on the cusp of vanishing...How You Can Help Save Its Treasures- Town & Country |
A Roman’s Account of Life Under Coronavirus Lockdown: Flavia, a 74-year-old culture and arts publicist in Rome, gave...a firsthand account of what life has been like in the Eternal City, as she tries to find a rational path between cavalier disregard and outright panic: "Everything’s quiet, except for the parks, which are full."- New York Magazine |
Here are the funniest memes about working from home during the coronavirus outbreak: There is nothing funny about...a global pandemic, but people are expressing their feelings about not commuting to the office in creative, witty ways...on workfromhomeaggedon, posted, of course, on Twitter.- Fast Company |
Oliver Wainwright: "Formafantasma: Cambio" - how good is wood? The Amsterdam design studio finds creative ways to expose myths about wood’s sustainability: What's not to like about wood? It is nature's wonder material, produced in an endlessly renewable, reusable and recyclable stream of green goodness. Right? Not so fast, say the designers behind the Serpentine Gallery's new exhibition...In the ethical maze of responsibly sourced materials…[an] aesthetically pleasing spotlight on the global dynamics of the timber industry...a research-driven show. The results are mixed, with some provocative ideas emerging...can't escape an overall sense of preciousness... thru May 17 -- Andrea Trimarchi; Simone Farresin- Guardian (UK) |
Oliver Wainwright: The miracle new sustainable product that's revolutionising architecture - stone! It’s cheap, light, quick, fireproof and has a tiny carbon footprint compared to concrete. No wonder the ‘great forgotten material of our time’ is staging a comeback: Amin Taha is on a mission...with stonemason Pierre Bidaud and engineer Steve Webb, he has curated an exhibition at the Building Centre that aims to reveal how this primal material...has the potential to revolutionise contemporary construction as we know it. Brace yourselves for the dawn of the "New Stone Age." thru May 15- Guardian (UK) |
Tom Ravenscroft: Groupwork designs 30-storey stone skyscraper: Amin Taha's architecture studio has collaborated with structural engineer Webb Yates to design a conceptual...stone office block that would be cheaper and more sustainable than concrete or steel equivalents..."It's research to investigate how tall you can go in stone...[To] demonstrate to commercial clients...that [stone] is cheaper and enables a 90% reduction of embodied CO2"...part of..."New Stone Age" at the Building Centre in London...based on...RIBA Award-winning 15 Clerkenwell Close project, but at a much larger scale...Combining a stone frame with cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors would further reduce levels of embodied carbon and could create carbon negative buildings... -- Eight Associates- Dezeen |
Michael Osman: Russia and America cross-pollinate at the Canadian Centre for Architecture: "Building a New New World: Americanizm in Russian Architecture" collects an enormous array of architectural objects and documents...the Russian relationship to America, or more precisely Russians’ views of Americanism...is Jean-Louis Cohen’s curatorial theme...He is personally involved in these geopolitics as well...composition feels like inhabiting a three-dimensional book; galleries are the chapters and the cases are subchapters within...The experience is hugely rich...traces a dialectic between Russians attracted to American modernity and those who found it repellant. Often times, these oppositions are enacted simultaneously. thru April 5 -- MG&Co; Studio Folder- The Architect's Newspaper |
Matthew Marani: "Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect" is a fantastical retrospective of expert draftsmanship: ...a succinct and, truth be told, sublime survey...drawings ranging from self-portraits to invented landscapes populated by renderings of imagined buildings and monuments...“He never gave up his idiosyncratic vision"...Morgan Libary & Museum, with its flamboyant marble flooring and intricate classical detailing, is a fitting curatorial space for the show. New York City, thru May 10 -- Bibliothèque Nationale de France- The Architect's Newspaper |
James Tarmy: Vibrant, Fun, or Hideous? Postmodern Architecture Gets a Fresh Look: "Postmodern Architecture: Less Is a Bore" by Owen Hopkins argues that postmodernism, long derided as ugly and garish, is on its way back. But is the world ready? ...many people considered [it] one of the ugliest, most garish building trends in the history of Western civilization. Buildings, covered in a pastiche of useless ornament, pastel colors...“suddenly people were seeing these buildings that were kind of fun and friendly and full of joy"...Now, readers will be able to see about 200 of the most extreme examples...aims to articulate a defense of the movement, which began to experience a backlash as it proliferated.- Bloomberg News |
Stefanie Waldek: A Look at the Complete Works of Antoni Gaudí: A new book surveys the Catalan architect’s oeuvre, and the many inspirations that went into creating his defining aesthetic: "Gaudí. The Complete Works" by Rainer Zerbst dives into not only his famous buildings but also his forays into furniture and interior design, as well as his unfinished projects. Here, we take a peek inside its pages.- Architectural Digest |
Angela Riechers: "Olympic Games - The Design" Documents Over a Century of Olympic Visual Identities: The book shows how Olympic design encapsulates global politics and culture; in doing so, it serves as a de facto history of 20th-century graphic design: ...graphic designer Markus Osterwalder began documenting, collecting, and studying Olympic design artifacts as an eight-year-old...[The book] is the triumphant result of his 30 years of preparation...This 14-pound, 1,552-page...pair of books is the first comprehensive volume documenting the visual identities of the Olympic Games from Athens 1896 to Tokyo 2020...To call [it] an exhaustive publication is like saying that the Queen of England owns some jewelry...an artistic version of the Oxford English Dictionary about the Olympics.- Metropolis Magazine / Business Interiors by Staples |
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