Today’s News - Thursday, May 28, 2020
● ANN feature: FXCollaborative's Dan Kaplan offers a most eloquent "quarantine-induced assessment of downtown Manhattan - lingering on the rich detail, walking down streets that we neglected in busier times. Hopefully we'll emerge from our collective timeout recommitted to creating a more equitable and resilient city."
● Safi talks to an impressive range of pundits re: "what legacy Covid-19 will leave on urban life. Some of the changes already taking shape may make cities more pleasurable. That's the good news. The bad is that the pandemic is a catastrophe for many of the things that make cities worth living in."
● Hickman reports that 5 more cities have joined the Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative "to boost social, economic, goals through philanthropy-assisted investments in public spaces. As urban areas look toward a post-COVID-19 future, the need to provide residents with and fund safe, equitable, and accessible public spaces has become even more vital" (our only COVID-19 stories for the day!).
● Kiel Moe makes the "case for a more literal architecture," which, today, "seems to persist - even thrive - through its abstractions" leading to "many of architecture's current ecological, social, and political blind spots - very real places and people are too often marginalized, degraded, and damaged."
● The U.K. is contemplating reducing the maximum height of wood-framed buildings because of Grenfell fire-like fears - the timber trade claims "the government is over-reacting" - mass timber buildings "can be safe in a fire."
● Hickman: "U.S. architects add a chorus of new voices to Architects Declare movement - the diverse list of signatories" already numbers nearly 100.
● King paints an amusingly black picture of his "close encounters of the strolling kind. I can now state emphatically, without reservation, that the black house craze has gone too far. It's enough to make one long for sheepish beige" - though it "has led to bemused conversations with other socially distanced passers-by."
● Rita Lobo takes us on a fab tour of Brasília at 60: "Today, it looks as otherworldly as it did 60 years ago - heaving with symbolic value. It remains a reflection of the country - beautiful and aspirational, but ultimately dysfunctional and raging with inequality."
● Landscape architect Robert Wright selected as interim dean of Toronto's Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
● ICYMI: ANN feature: Katie Faulkner: The wickedly funny Michael Sorkin, known to many as Comrade, was a social justice warrior. He maintained perpetual outrage in the course of writing 20 books and hundreds of articles, honing his invectives for gentrification, Disneyfication, waste, and conspicuous consumption.
Deadlines + Winners all:
● Call for entries: Applications for the 2020 Arcus/Places Journal Prize "to support innovative public scholarship on the relationship between gender, sexuality, and the built environment."
● Call for entries: Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020 and Working Drawing Award (art, architecture, design) - open to international submissions for the first time.
● Great presentation of the 2020 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge winners in 6 categories and, for the first time, two Grand Winners.
Weekend diversions + Page-turners
● Philip Johnson's Glass House is offering virtual tours, and 100 videos from its archive that include conversations with Snøhetta's Dykers, Paul Goldberger, Alastair Gordon, and many more + a coloring project for kids!
● Now "we literally have time to stop and smell the flowers": Premiering Monday on PBS: "Beatrix Farrand's American Landscapes" follows Lynden B. Miller "as she sets off to explore the remarkable life and career of America's first female landscape architect."
● Keats cheers Sarkis, Salgueiro Barrio, and Kozlowski's "The World as an Architectural Project" featuring 50 of "the most provocative architectural visions from the 1880s to the present" - an "essential handbook" and "cognitive toolkit we all need for planning a post-pandemic civilization."
● Wainwright cheers "Soviet Signs and Street Relics," which French photographer Jason Guilbeau gleaned from Google Street View, resulting in "a haunting mix of forlorn military symbols, creaking monuments to agricultural prowess, and plenty of space-age swooshes, swirls, stars, and arrows pointing towards a bold utopian future that never quite arrived."
● Brussat makes peace with Steve Bass's "Beauty Memory Unity: A Theory of Proportion in Architecture" once he "decided to skip the challenging mathematical portions and read only the textual matter" that turned out "to be quite riveting - as hazy as proportion seems from my perspective, it definitely has a role in making architecture beautiful."
● Webb finds Bass's "Beauty Memory Unity" to be "a symbolic quest in search of beauty, an elevation of individual consciousness, a return to unity through remembrance. He challenges that the anxiety, chaos, and grim ugliness of architecture are not inevitable."
● An excerpt from "Studio Gang: Architecture": "We want to live in a world where humans actively support one another as part of our planet's greater network of living things. This calls on us to practice an architecture that fosters interaction and connection" - this "takes a relentless kind of optimism, determination, and even courage."
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ANN feature: Dan Kaplan, FAIA, LEED AP: Quiet and Disquiet Together: A Quarantine-Induced Assessment of Downtown Manhattan: We savor the city, lingering on the rich detail, walking down streets that we neglected in busier times. It does feel like the proverbial music has stopped. How could it not? Hopefully we'll emerge from our collective timeout recommitted to creating a more equitable and resilient city. -- FXCollaborative- ArchNewsNow.com |
Michael Safi: Coronavirus will reshape our cities - we just don't know how yet: ...what legacy will Covid-19 leave on urban life? Life in the megacities...will be less private than ever...Some of the changes already taking shape may make cities more pleasurable...That’s the good news. The bad is that the pandemic is a catastrophe for many of the things that make cities worth living in...the rebound might not be strongest in the cities that currently have superstar status...The solidarity being forged by communities banding together...could prove just as crucial in shaping the future of the world’s great cities as the forces of government policy... -- Michele Acuto; Roger Keil; Sanjoy Chakravorty; Joel Kotkin; Gautam Bhan; Mark Muro- Guardian (UK) |
Matt Hickman: Five new cities join Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative: The list of American cities seeking to boost social, economic, goals through strategic, philanthropy-assisted investments in public spaces - parks, trails, revitalized downtown cores, and on - just got a little bit longer...initiative kicked off four years ago with five demonstration cities...As urban areas...collectively look toward a post-COVID-19 future...the need for cities to provide residents with and fund safe, equitable, and accessible public spaces has become even more vital.- The Architect's Newspaper |
Kiel Moe: A Case for a More Literal Architecture: By moving away from processes of abstraction, we might arrive at a clearer picture of the terrestrial web of life that supports architecture: ...architecture seems to persist - even thrive - through its abstractions. Abstractions upon abstractions...this routine of abstraction has mainly begotten many of architecture’s current ecological, social, and political blind spots...When the world is abstracted in this glib way, very real places and people are too often marginalized, degraded, and damaged...novelty devoid of social and ecological hope signals only hollow, empty ambition...before any promising new architecture emerges...we will...first need promising new ways of describing architecture...in much more literal ways.- Metropolis Magazine |
Grenfell fears prevent mass timber building boom: The government is planning to reduce the maximum height of wood-framed buildings from six storeys to four: ...recommended by the emergency services in order to reduce fire risk...Members of the timber trade say the Government in England has misunderstood the science behind timber construction..."the government is over-reacting. Properly-constructed timber buildings can be safe in a fire"...A government spokesperson said the consultation responses would be studied before final decisions were made.- BBC News |
Matt Hickman: U.S. architects add a chorus of new voices to Architects Declare movement: ...was first initiated in the United Kingdom in May 2019...In the past year, architects hailing from more than 20 countries have joined the movement...Architectural League of New York, working in collaboration with a steering committee of practitioners, organized the formation of US Architects Declare...diverse list of signatories numbers nearly 100...- The Architect's Newspaper |
John King: Paint it black, architecturally speaking? Better yet, just make it stop: ...sheltering in place...has allowed us to get to know our neighborhoods...close encounters of the strolling kind...I can now state emphatically, without reservation, that the black house craze has gone too far...houses cloaked in dark gray or jet black have crossed the line from sexy and stylish to been there-done that...It’s enough to make one long for sheepish beige...if black houses make me roll my eyes while ambling...More than once, my intent gaze has led to bemused conversations with other socially distanced passers-by...And these days, every extra connection helps..- San Francisco Chronicle |
Rita Lobo: Brasília at 60: Behind one of the world’s most intriguing planned cities: The drive down the central axis of Plano Piloto is unlike any other. Vast, sometimes lush fields of grass are surrounded by some of Oscar Niemeyer’s finest works...Today, [it] looks as otherworldly as it did 60 years ago...it also became - and remains - a city of contrasts and disparities...heaving with symbolic value...The sparsity of vegetation...add to the sense of almost ethereal immensity...Steeped in contradictions...[it] remains a reflection of the country...beautiful and aspirational, but ultimately dysfunctional and raging with inequality. -- Lúcio Costa; Carlos Lemos; Roberto Burle Marx; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)- CityMetric (UK) |
Landscape architect Robert Wright selected as interim dean of Toronto's Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design: ... set to take over for Richard M. Sommer, the current dean who has held the position since 2009...tasked with leading the department through the coming school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic [and] facilitate the department's efforts restart the selection process for a replacement for Sommer...he also leads landscape practice IZ Design Studio...- Archinect |
Call for entries: Applications for the 2020 Arcus/Places Journal Prize to support innovative public scholarship on the relationship between gender, sexuality, and the built environment; open to mid-career or senior scholars; funded by UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design’s Arcus Endowment, deadline: August 15- Places Journal |
Call for entries: Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020 and Working Drawing Award (art, architecture, design): open to international submissions for the first time; cash prizes; deadline: June 24- Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize |
2020 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge Results: For the first time...recognized and awarded two Grand Winners - one from the residential division and one from the commercial building division [+winners in 6 other categories] -- University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon); Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)- U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon |
Glass House offers virtual tours, video series of programs from the past 10 years. ...and a coloring project for kids...Architectural photographer and filmmaker Michael Biondo and creative reality capture duo Michael Robison and Dallas Bennett (MYND Workshop) have collaborated to create an episodic series of short visual tours...archive features 100 videos...include a conversation with Craig Dykers of Snøhetta, architecture critic Paul Goldberger, and historian John Maciuika as well as an interview with cultural historian Robert Rubin and critic Alastair Gordon.- New Canaan Advertiser (Connecticut) |
Landscape Artists Beatrix Farrand and Lynden B. Miller: "Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes" premieres on THIRTEEN Monday, June 1: With most of our lives at a standstill, we literally have time to stop and smell the flowers...we can now learn about those who dedicated their careers to bringing nature to homes, campuses, and public spaces...Farrand (1872 – 1959)...was responsible for some of the most celebrated gardens in the United States...The film follows Miller as she sets off to explore the remarkable life and career of America’s first female landscape architect. -- American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA); The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)- PBS |
Jonathon Keats: As Cities Re-Open, These Visionary Architects Will Help Improve Supply Chains And Disease Prevention: Featuring spectacular (and spectacularly improbable) building schemes by architects ranging from Le Corbusier to Buckminster Fuller to Zaha Hadid, "The World as an Architectural Project" is an essential handbook for planning post-pandemic civilization: 50 projects in...an important new book by Hashim Sarkis, Roi Salgueiro Barrio, and Gabriel Kozlowski that surveys some of the most provocative architectural visions from the 1880s to the present, supported by stunning images that give the book the visual richness of a museum exhibition...As we begin the process of rebuilding, [this book] is a cognitive toolkit we all need. -- Bruno Taut; Constant Nieuwenhuys; Yona Friedman; Paolo Soleri; Sergio Bernardes- Forbes |
Oliver Wainwright: Wonders of the Soviet roadside revolution: From tractors on poles to a fighter jet taking off, Russia’s roadsides are still dotted with celebrations of Soviet vehicular prowess...a French photographer has captured their strange allure: "Soviet Signs and Street Relics"...a fitting travelogue for our constrained times...these have been collected via Google Street View...Jason Guilbeau spent months travelling thousands of miles...all from the comfort of his computer...The results are a haunting mix of forlorn military symbols, creaking monuments to agricultural prowess, and plenty of space-age swooshes, swirls, stars and arrows pointing towards a bold utopian future that never quite arrived. -- Clem Cecil- Guardian (UK) |
David Brussat: Steve Bass: "Beauty Memory Unity: A Theory of Proportion in Architecture": Proportion has long been a dodgy topic for me....I skimmed through its pages of diagrams, equations, graphs and charts...imagine my complete befuddlement...I decided to skip the challenging mathematical portions and read only the textual matter...the many passages without such impedimenta turn out to be quite riveting...as hazy as proportion seems from my perspective, it definitely has a role in making architecture beautiful. -- Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA)- Architecture Here and There |
Patrick Webb reviews "Beauty Memory Unity" by Steve Bass: ...architect, author, and sacred geometer invites us to accompany him upon a symbolic quest in search of beauty, an elevation of individual consciousness, a return to unity through remembrance...author does not leave us without hope. He challenges that the anxiety, chaos, and grim ugliness of architecture are not inevitable. He invites us to an examination of 5,000 years of beautiful architecture...The strong case is made that the path to unity through beauty remains...within us and only awaits inducement to remembrance.- Traditional Building magazine |
Jeanne Gang: “Actionable Idealism” and Architecture that Connects: In this excerpt from "Studio Gang: Architecture," [she] finds "aesthetic and formal affiliations" across 25 projects from the last two decades: ...we want to live in a world where humans...actively support one another as part of our planet’s greater network of living things. This calls on us as designers to practice an architecture that fosters interaction and connection rather than developing stand-alone objects...[this] takes a relentless kind of optimism, determination, and even courage.- Metropolis Magazine |
ANN feature: Katie Faulkner, FAIA: Remembering Michael Sorkin, Critic and Activist: The wickedly funny Sorkin, known to many as Comrade, was a social justice warrior. He maintained perpetual outrage in the course of writing 20 books and hundreds of articles, honing his invectives for gentrification, Disneyfication, waste, and conspicuous consumption.- ArchNewsNow.com |
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