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Comments on TITUS IN PRINCIPLE « LEBBEUS WOODS

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TITUS IN PRINCIPLE « LEBBEUS WOODS – In his discussion of Anthony Titus’s recent work, Lebbeus Woods argues that an architecture of expression stemming from a “personal creative ethos” is what is needed in contemporary architecture. It certainly isn’t a surprise that Wood’s values such an enterprise as his own career can be seen as a manifesto for exactly that theory of practice.

Titus’s work itself are constructive pieces of canvas, wood and paint. Something akin to a painting, but showing also an idea of the process of construction and a situation of site.

While certainly not innovative, like Woods, I admire the complexity and affectation that they invoke with their simple methods. There is a certain ambiguity of purpose that much like Woods work, creates an uncertainty in the viewer.

While I disagree with Woods that personal expressive vision is what the field Architecture needs today, it is hard to deny that such methods hold something worth exploring by at least some of the field.

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Comments on TN House / Miyahara Architect Office | ArchDaily

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TN House / Miyahara Architect Office | ArchDaily –

A house designed for two sisters and their families with busy thoroughfare in the front and overlooking the Tama River. The house is built as two separate dwelling units in the single building, yet a few spaces between can be jointed when the occasion fits. The exterior matches the mostly industrial nature of the surrounding area by using zinc siding and perforated steel sheets.

The project seems to do a good job of addressing the contextual problems of the area as well as the programmatic challenge of separate but connected dwelling units for this extended family.

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Comments on Footbridge in Maribor / Ja Studio + Tadj-Farzin Studio | ArchDaily

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Footbridge in Maribor / Ja Studio + Tadj-Farzin Studio | ArchDaily –

This bridge finally convinces me that variation can actually produce an interesting variation of program. This project works because of the context in which it is put. Too often projects like this are too isolated from the context, giving them a superficial feeling despite the convoluted plastic form.

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Comments on Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building

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Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building – An amazing video projection on the surface of a building that challenges one’s perception of the building’s form and architectural intention. The projection entitled “How it would be, if a house was dreaming” dissolves the very architecture that it is projected on, creating new architectures that shift and change as the video progresses.

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Comments on Estação Ciência Cafe / Una Arquitetos | ArchDaily

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Estação Ciência Cafe / Una Arquitetos | ArchDaily – This cafe on the Sao Paulo University campus abuts a veranda of a former textile plant that now serves as an exhibition space.

The simple, rectangular steel and glass structures floats above the ground and seems almost parked next to the veranda rather grounded like most buildings. This strong relationship activates the space of the veranda by creating a destination and way station for the busy student.

The cafe itself is glazed on all four sides with a clear glass. The three outside facing sides are shaded with a bris-soleil set between the panes of glass. The interior is organized by a long bar with a few small tables at either end.

The project is amazingly straight forward and simple yet seems create a dynamic and usable space for the everyday needs of the students and faculty of the university. Few buildings can successful address an everyday need without falling into the trappings of overly architectural expression or banal practicality. This cafe avoids both.

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Comments on Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes – New Scientist

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Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes – New Scientist – The physics behind optical invisibility cloaks that have been gaining so much attention have other possibilities. Scientists at the Fresnel Institute have worked out a potential technology for cloaking buildings from surface waves caused by Earthquakes and Tsunami. The technology uses tuned rings that might end up being installed in the foundations of a building to propagate a wave around the building, leaving the wave virtually untouched. Such a technique might also work for vibration isolators for equipment. The physics can be applied to all sorts of wave phenomenon and are filled with possibilities.

Yet what might this hold for the design of Architecture. Surely the practical implications are big enough but the conceptual ones are interesting too. Too often Architecture is thought to be an expression of some conceptual intent, but what might a building that cloaks intentions, expressions and movement be like. What can the idea of an architecture of the invisible teach us.

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Comments on JAPAN – MY TRIP TO BATTLESHIP ISLAND | Vice Magazine

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JAPAN – MY TRIP TO BATTLESHIP ISLAND | Vice Magazine – The story of two friends exploring an old coal mining facility on Hashima Island, which is close to the port of Nagaski. The facility was abandoned in the 1970’s and the crumbling buildings are an incredible site. Unlike many other modern ruins, Battleship Island wasn’t devastated by war but only by neglect. The island was once the most densely populated area on earth, but is now only a shell. It is an amazing site.

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Comments on Pachacamac House / Longhi Architects | Arch Daily

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Pachacamac House / Longhi Architects | Arch Daily – Architecture of the Earth is such a rare thing in our contemporary times. Too often building try to float free of the constraints of gravity in an attempt to challenge our perceptions. However the Pachacamac House in Peru by Longhi Architects, which is intimately tied to the Earth seems more foreign and challenging to our modern eyes. To be from and of the Earth is no small feat and the Pachacamac House seems to flow and sculpt the ground into a terraced construct that both blends with and contrast with the barren hills rising from a lush valley.

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Comments on Sand/Stone | BLDGBLOG

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Sand/Stone | BLDGBLOG – A student, Magnus Larsson, at the Architectural Association, has proposed a landscape project that will solidify desert sand into sandstone, thus creating a new material for habitation within a harsh desert. The idea is to use injection piles to 3D print sandstone out of sand by injecting a microbial solution that will solidify the sand into sandstone. These structures can create internal micro-climates more favorable to habitation and the sustaining of life, condensation of water and the locking of the sand dunes which could potentially halt the progression of the desert.

It is a fascinating idea and sees well thought through. The very idea of a architecture grown from the earth is fascinating and Larsson seems to have thought it through.

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Comments on Frances Anderton: “Excess” Versus “Relevance” Is an Irrelevant Debate

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Frances Anderton: “Excess” Versus “Relevance” Is an Irrelevant Debate – I can not agree with Frances Anderton more when she says that by framing a dichotomy of excess versus relevance in architecture, those mourning the loss of grand projects and those cheering that loss due to the current economic circumstances, are failing to appreciate the full scope of architecture. Certainly, architectural journalism favors the spectacular projects of excess but even still most architecture fails to meet either standards.

Architecture encompasses all of the built environment, from the ordinary to the singular, and both aspects are important. By framing the debate not in a dichotomy but instead as qualities of the larger field we call our culture and environment,, an architecture for the here and now can be more easily balanced between social responsibility and artistic ambitions. Both are needed and in different mixes for different projects.