Commentary

• Comments on Naha City Gallery & Apartment house / 1100 Architect | Arch Daily

  Naha City Gallery & Apartment house / 1100 Architect | Arch Daily – Though very simple, the Naha City Gallery & Apartments by 1100 Architect is an excellent example of an architecture of the ordinary that doesn't compromise becoming the banal. Made of common materials, concrete, aluminum and glass, the building still spatially engages its surroundings. The gallery on the main floor juts out from the rest of the building, pulling in

  03.16.09 | no comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on Planned Spontaneity

  Planned Spontaneity – Bojana Vuksanovic argues for new approaches to design and planning that allow for more spontaneity and change rather than the rigid, preconceived approaches that are favored in current architectural practice. While her arguments are strong, I take issue with her unqualified use of the terms organic and complexity.

  The organic is not truly opposed to the orderly. Her use of the organic is in line with its commonly conceived usage, but

  03.12.09 | 1 comment | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on WORLDS APART « LEBBEUS WOODS

  WORLDS APART « LEBBEUS WOODS – Lebbeus Woods argues for the need of the next generation of architect's to take up the cause against the strict orders of design of past generations. He feels that fragmentation, chaos, randomness and complex systems of order can lead architect's to new ways of designing and opening up a new way of living for the inhabitants. Though I agree with him in principal, I can't help

  03.12.09 | no comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on Mathematica Founder Developing Search Engine – PC Magazine

  Mathematica Founder Developing Search Engine – PC Magazine – Steven Wolfram is developing a search engine that is attempting to make knowledge computable. That is to say, Wolfram is attempting to make a search engine that can understand the relationships between different pieces of knowledge and then can respond to queries against that knowledge. At the moment there is only a place holder for the site at http://www.wolframalpha.com/ but the initial site

  03.12.09 | no comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on Ai Weiwei: Surgeon of Space, by Geoff Manaugh

  Ai Weiwei: Surgeon of Space, by Geoff Manaugh – Ai Weiwei's show of four collections of furniture at Phillips de Pury & Company in London is accompanied by this essay by Geoff Manaugh. Manaugh's discussion of Ai Weiwei's work is interesting in its ability to imagine new worlds projected out from Ai Weiwei's distortions on furniture. Like Manaugh's essay on his own blog, BLDGBLOG, Manaugh's writing takes a fresh, nuanced look at

  03.12.09 | no comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on RATP Bus Center in Thiais / ECDM | Arch Daily

  RATP Bus Center in Thiais / ECDM | Arch Daily – The RATP Bus Center in Thiais, Frnace by ECDM Architects is a deceptively simple building. Covered in precast concrete panels with the "non slip" domes common to pedestrian paving, the building feels like it is drawn from the surrounding pavement of the bus control center. Its careful choice of materiality is both contextual and abstract, giving the building a very clear

  03.12.09 | no comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on MANUEL DELANDA: Opportunities and Risks « LEBBEUS WOODS

  MANUEL DELANDA: Opportunities and Risks « LEBBEUS WOODS – Manuel De Landa takes on perception from a materialist point of view. De Landa views perception as the ability of an animal to assess and take advantage of opportunities and risks in its environment. He defines this ability as the capacity of an animal to affect and be affected by its environment. Though he never explicitly addresses it, in many ways this

  03.01.09 | 2 comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on James Howard Kunstler dissects suburbia | Video on TED.com

  James Howard Kunstler dissects suburbia | Video on TED.com – James Howard Kunstler discusses the failures of suburban public spaces with polemics and humor. His very serious critique of the faults of contemporary architectural design are stinging in their validity but his advocacy of New Urbanism caries with it the same nostalgic problems as post-modern historicism. When will there by a theory of urbanism and architecture that will address our very real

  02.28.09 | no comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on Building on Canvas: Sarah McKenzie and the New American Landscape | Arch Daily

  Building on Canvas: Sarah McKenzie and the New American Landscape | Arch Daily – An interview with Sarah McKenzie, who is a painter that has taken to painting images of the modern landscape, specifically buildings. She started painting aerial perspectives of suburban subdivisions but has since moved on to buildings under construction. Her painters are an interesting twist on abstraction and still life. Their rich, creamy colors confront the viewer with

  02.28.09 | no comments | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster

• Comments on Ningbo Historic Museum / Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio-Arch Daily

  Ningbo Historic Museum / Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio-Arch Daily – The Ningbo Historic Museum is a strange combination of local Chinese construction methods and contemporary formal logic. Made of board formed concrete, stone masonry and clay tiles mixed into patches, the walls of the building splay and tilt as they rise form the ground. Like a material collage, the building challenges one’s understanding of design as the hands of the workers

  02.23.09 | 1 comment | Filed Under: Commentary | Webmaster