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A Daily Dose of Architecture (Almost) daily architectural musings and imagery from New York City Wednesday, January 26, 2011 Half Dose #82: Slipstream Public Exchange The following text and images are courtesy Höweler + Yoon Architecture for their competition-winning design -- Splipstream Public Exchange -- of the Boston Society of Architects Headquarters. The 154-year-old organization will move from 52 Broad Street to Atlantic Wharf . SLIPSTREAM maximizes the BSA’s engagement with a larger public by creating a series of interfaces, both physical and informational. The physical design of the new headquarters introduces a "cloud" ceiling that capitalizes on the viewing angles between the sidewalk and the second floor, to create a highly visible signature feature that doubles as gallery ceiling and supergraphic signage. The information interface utilizes wireless technologies to deliver site specific content to visitors, while also creating a BSA application for smart phones and location-aware hand held devices. BROADCAST Drawing the public up to the second floor, a grand stair drops down from the ceiling above, and provides a fluid transition between floors with a single gesture. The stair and ceiling form the primary figure of the physical interface. Information technologies are also embedded in the "cloud" ceiling, allowing its edge to broadcast messages through an LED sign band, while projectors display a digital wayfinding entrance mat, and wireless transmitters stream video feeds. "Public Exchange" consoles are located throughout the space, allowing the public to access curated information about the built environment, construction billings index figures, and databases of designers, products, and services. PERIMETER The contoured media surface wraps around the perimeter of the space, creating a continuous gallery and event circuit. Program areas are held back from the edge, allowing the public circulation to flow along the perimeter. The gallery program is conceived as a series of fluid paths and not as a discrete room. The content of the exhibitions produce the programmatic "current" to the flow of the gallery. Placing the gallery along the edge reinforces the cognitive parallax between the contents of the exhibitions in the foreground and the city in the background. This is consistent with the BSA’s core mission to support the active engagement between the process of design and the resulting product of the built environment. PODS Conference rooms are distributed within the free-flowing gallery zone. The conference rooms form an archipelago of program distributed within the flows of public gallery, maximizing the contact between the BSA members, visitors, stakeholders, and members of the general public. SLIPSTREAM The new BSA produces "Public Exchange" through its organizational and material logics, as well as through its network and media strategies. The fluid spaces of the linear gallery parallel the constant streams of broadcast information. The archipelago of programs and exhibitions will create a smooth mixture of audiences and content within the flows and eddies of the BSA's slipstream configuration, resulting in the productive discourse that is BSA's mission. Design Team: Höweler + Yoon Architecture: J. Meejin Yoon, Eric Höweler (Principals in Charge), Ryan Murphy, Parker Lee, Liu Xi, Thena Tak, Cyrus Dochow. Structural Engineer: ARUP MEP Engineer: AHA Consultants Share Posted by John at 12:00 AM 1 comments Labels: half dose Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Today's archidose #469 2 - 4 - 6 - 8 , originally uploaded by ken mccown . An oldie but goodie: The 2-4-6-8 House in Venice, California by Morphosis , 1978. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose Share Posted by John at 11:11 PM 0 comments Labels: today's archidose Monday, January 24, 2011 Monday, Monday My weekly page update: This week's dose features Building of Control CCS in Ferrol, Spain by Diaz and Diaz Architects: The featured past dose is Lisbon Harbor Control Tower in Lisbon, Portugal by Gonçalo Sousa Byrne: This week's book review is eVolo Issue 03: Cities of Tomorrow edited by Carlo Aiello: american-architects.com Building of the Week : J-Tea in Eugene, Oregon by Atelier Waechter: Some unrelated links for your enjoyment: Architerials "Investigating architectural materials since 2010." (added to sidebar under architectural links::new york city) Land Reader "A news website that gives summaries of the recent news and topics of interest for built environment professionals and students." (added to sidebar under architectural links::news) One Prize "An Annual Design and Science Award to Promote Green Design in Cities." Deadline is April 30. The nest and the spider web "Difficult architecture," a blog. (added to sidebar under blogs::architecture) Zapp Urbanism "A little independent magazine founded in 2001 [that] is like a mosquito buzzing in the ear." (added to sidebar under architectural links::online journals) Share Posted by John at 11:00 PM 1 comments Friday, January 21, 2011 Today's archidose #468 Here are two photographs of MBO Gildeopleiding in Venray, Netherlands by BRTA , 2010. Photos are by Klaas Vermaas . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose Share Posted by John at 12:00 PM 2 comments Labels: today's archidose Thursday, January 20, 2011 Book Review: Four Monographs A Landscape Manifesto by Diana Balmori Yale University Press, 2010 Hardcover, 272 pages Agenda: Can We Sustain Our Ability to Crisis? by JDS Architects Actar, 2010 Paperback, 544 pages small projects by Kevin Mark Low ORO Editions, 2010 Hardcover, 398 pages Thomas Phifer and Partners by Stephen Fox and Sarah Amelar Skira Rizzoli, 2010 Hardcover, 350 pages So in 2011, with Kindle, the iPad, and architecture blogs, among other game-changing pieces of computer technology spreading information, what is the state of the architectural monograph? Are they evolving in response to new ways of reading? Are they scaling down as people learn about architecture online? Are they providing content different from the traditional monograph? These four books from 2010 embody the diversity of the genre, featuring architects and landscape architects from the United States, Europe, and Asia. They also map different approaches to monographs, ones which are dependent upon the format being in print to varying degrees. The Manifesto . Instead of a formal presentation of built and unrealized projects, as most architectural monographs are wont to do, Diana Balmori opts for a manifesto, 25 points toward "a new definition of landscape, bringing together ideas from biology, evolutionary theory, and ecology." These 25 statements veer from observations ("Emerging landscapes are becoming brand-new actors on the political stage.") to suggestions ("We must put the twenty-first-century city in nature rather than put nature in the city."). Some points are fairly obvious, and others don't seem to take a strong enough stance, but their sum total is what is important; they encapsulate a direction that thinking about landscape and the city needs to take in order to make attempts at sustainability more beneficial. How we relate to nature is at the core of the manifesto, and how that point of view affects the design of landscapes is the focus of Balmori's projects that are interspersed amongst the explications of the 25 points. In design the book does not veer greatly from traditional monographs, except it is structured around the 25 points, rendered in large type on a gray background, like signposts along the journey through the book. The project illustrations basically float on the pages in between, making the captions extremely important, since ideas and themes set up the format, not the projects themselves. Balmori : US: CA: UK: The Diary . Dane Julian de Smedt was one half of PLOT, with Bjarke Ingels, who went on to form BIG and presented his work in the form of an archicomic . This monograph on JDS Architects similarly veers from conventional monographs, but it is more in line with OMA/AMO's Content from 2004: both use lightweight, magazine-quality paper, are interspersed with the occasional advertisement bringing the cover price down a bit, and a bold graphic design that layers information. In this case a timeline -- the year in the life of JDS that starts with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and structures the book -- runs along the top of most pages, intersecting with projects, interviews, essays, critiques, and other content below. As the book's title suggests, and the start of the timeline reiterates, responses to crisis permeate the book. Occasionally JDS asserts that the economic crisis passed without any structural change or taking advantage of the opportunity, but two years later, regardless of optimistic assertions, the crisis has hardly passed. And the potential for change arising from these difficulties has not passed. A project that occupies the greatest real estate on these pages is the Holmenkollen Ski Jump, which recently opened in Oslo, Norway for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championship. (There is even an app for the ski jump !) It is one of the few post-PLOT projects to be realized, and its scale and design are impressive. It's one of those projects that has the potential to make the designer known, just like his old partner at PLOT. JDS Architects : US: CA: UK: The Sole Practitioner . Kevin Mark Low's smallprojects was featured on this blog back in 2008, showing Low's adeptness at tackling everything from a house to the kitchen sink...or at least the dish rack above the sink. Needless to say the Malaysia-based architect's rigor and sense of craft are impressive, making for a consistent body of work, even as he makes the jump in scale to office buildings. Low is reminiscent of Australia's Glenn Murcutt, who works alone yet has built on a larger scale with an associate architect, and Kansas' Dan Rockhill , another sole practitioner who actually does fabricate the kitchen sink , as well as the gutters and just about everything else on his residential commissions. Low's sense of craft and control extends to this monograph, which he also designed and set, dealing with everything from fonts to page size and layout. Additionally the majority of the photographs are by the architect. It is an extension of a sole practitioner, an expression of his design sense, not just a presentation of his architecture. In addition to the extremely thorough documentation of 25 projects, a few essays by Low are included and appendices with academic and professional work before starting smallprojects. The text accompanying the projects is as thorough as the photos, drawings, and sketches, including the captions, which tell a story in and of themselves. The tactile quality of this monograph should be noted. From its gray linen cover to the matte, lightly texture pages, the experience of moving from page to page is well considered. The paper type does mean that the images have strong blacks and whites with a fairly flat zone in between, but this hardly detracts from the photos; instead it fits with Low's designs that embrace the myriad textures of life. small projects : US: CA: UK: The Art Book . Equally well considered and crafted as smallprojects, this monograph on New York City-based Thomas Phifer and Partners is also the opposite in many ways: glossy instead of matte, minimal in layout, reduced in terms of information given. After a title page and photo of the office, the projects start; no introduction, no filler. This minimalism extends to the rest of the book: no captions, no page numbers, a couple essays interspersed among the projects and photos. Flipping through the pages is like looking at an art book, where each photograph (most by Scott Frances, never more than one per page, and in a couple instances actually stretching over three pages in pullouts) becomes the focus, in some cases over the architecture. This is no more true than in the photos of the recently completed North Carolina Museum of Art, because the people in some of Frances' photos look Photoshopped. While they're probably not post-production effects, while their saturation and blend of crisp and blurry figures is most likely a technical feat worth appreciating, and while I've lamented the lack of people in architectural photography in the past (please take my word on that, as I can't find that blog post right now), the surreal, rendering-like quality detracts from the architectural design. To aid in understanding the buildings and projects (most are completed, but a few in-progress designs are included) some plans and sections are included in the rear of the book, equally minimal (no labels, no scale, etc.) and at a safe remove from the photos that make up the bulk of the book. But like Low's monograph, the presentation suits Phifer's buildings to a T. His light and crisp Modernism requires an ascetic life as much a presentation (photos, book, even his web page ) free of clutter. Maybe this is why the people in the North Carolina Museum of Art photos are so unsettling. Thomas Phifer : US: CA: UK: Share Posted by John at 12:00 AM 1 comments Labels: book-review Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Taschen NY Warehouse Sale Had your eye on one of Taschen 's giant books but didn't want to pay full price? This weekend is your chance to snag a display copy of possibly Coop Himmelb(l)au or a slightly damaged copy of Ando's Complete Works or some slightly burnt Sears activewear (oops! wrong sale!). Details are below. Friday, January 21 to Sunday, January 23, 2011. Taschen Store New York 107 Greene Street Share Posted by John at 3:00 PM 0 comments Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Today's archidose #467 Today's archidose is a special Carport Edition. In a time of eight-car garages, it's great to see carports making a comeback of sorts. [Autohaus in Chicago, Illinois by Brandon Pass Architect , 2010. Be sure to check out the time-lapse video of the architect building the project, complete with Benny Hill soundtrack.] [Solar Array Carport in Tucson, Arizona by Tectonicus Constructs .] To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose Share Posted by John at 2:00 PM 0 comments Labels: today's archidose Monday, January 17, 2011 Monday, Monday My weekly page update: This week's dose features Steigereiland Kavel 114 in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Architoop: The featured past dose is Wall House 2 in Groningen, Netherlands by John Hejduk: This week's book review is The Liberal Monument: Urban Design and the Late Modern Project by Alexander D'Hooghe: american-architects.com Building of the Week: The East Village in Austin, Texas by Bercy Chen Studio: Some unrelated links for your enjoyment: The Launch Box "Building the 2nd Avenue Subway in New York City." (added to sidebar under architectural links::new york city) Design Revolution Australia "All kinds & types of creative work, activities, competitions and urban trends coming from Down Under." (added to sidebar under blogs::design) Architects USA "Connecting architects and clients since 1997..." (added to sidebar under architectural links::architect profiles) Co.Design Fast Company's web page that tries to "bridge the fuzzy border between design and business." (added to sidebar under blogs::design) Urbanized A documentary film by Gary Hustwit, maker of Helvetica and Objectified . Share Posted by John at 10:45 AM 0 comments Saturday, January 15, 2011 Today's archidose #466 Here are three views of Operation Co-Ordination Center of Brisa in Carcavelos, Portugal by JLCG Arquitectos (Joao Luis Carriho da Graca), 2004. Photographs are by TheManWhoPlantedTrees . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose Share Posted by John at 9:15 PM 0 comments Labels: today's archidose Thursday, January 13, 2011 Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image reopens on Saturday, January 15, after doubling its space in an expansion by Leeser Architecture . For some background on the design, check out my weekly dose on the project and a blog post on its exterior addition . Much attention on the design, here and elsewhere, has focused on the triangular metal panels of the rear addition, but it's clear from a visit on the occasion of a press preview that it's all about the interior. Below is a photo tour of the addition/renovation, mostly of the inside, since the rear addition and courtyard won't be complete until the Spring. The museum is located on 35th Avenue, spanning from 36th Street to 37th Street, with the main entrance halfway down the block on 35th. Since the existing building is a protected landmark, the entry design is minimal, three bays of storefront in the old facade with small triangles of mirrored glass and the museum's name written in clear glass outlined with bright pink lines. In reality the glass is all the same, but a film applied to it creates the various effects of translucency and transparency. (The top photo is actually from inside the lobby, flipped so the name of the museum can be read.) This first interaction with the building may seem like applique, yet it fits in with the rest of the design, not just because it is composed of triangles but because it is one of a number of ways the architecture tries to relate to film, one of the media that is the museum's focus. Here notions of sight and reality are brought to the fore, a complex plane of glass the visitor breaks through by entering the museum. As the second email illustrates, just steps within the front door, angles predominate. The walls angle back in section and in plan, the ceiling follows roughly perpendicular, slipping past a ceiling sloping another direction. A video installation is projected on the long wall opposite the gift shop and ticketing; the wall's subtle angle seems to highlight it as something special, something to be looked at (a long canvas) not just stood in front of. This wall leads back to the cafe that overlooks the courtyard (still under construction) and access to the main areas of the building: the galleries (up the stair above), the main theater (behind the photo), and the education area (down the corridor in the middle of the photo). In effect the building on the first floor is a double-loaded corridor, extending from the front door to the rear courtyard with the program spaces flanking on both sides. It is a simple parti activated spatially by the angled walls. Access to the galleries is via the centrally located stair with a gentle rise that brings visitors to a gallery/screening area with a ramp that zigzags between benches (left in below photo). This is a stopover between the lobby and the two types of galleries: permanent and temporary; the former occupies two floors in the existing building and the latter is on the third floor, up the stairs in the below photo. At the moment this second floor space is home to a film and installation by artist Martha Colburn, occupying the opposite walls of the long space. There is great potential in this space, and future commissions will no doubt exploit this. Like the main entrance, the stair from the second floor to the third floor is articulated like a portal, with the walls apparently cut from a solid container. The contrast when entering the dark space upstairs is jarring. The first exhibition in the museum's gallery for changing exhibitions is Real Virtuality , six installations that "create simulated worlds that extend, augment, or disrupt the physical environment of the museum space." One of the six installations (below) is RealTime Unreal by Belgium's Workspace Unlimited . Visitors don 3-d goggles and immerse themselves, visually and physically, in a virtual model of the museum that turns, breaks, and reconfigures itself in relation to the visitor's movement around the screen. The planes of the digital environment overlap with the surrounding reality as live video is fed into the model. More than one person can occupy the space around the screen, but only one person at a time "drives" the interaction with the virtual model, something that needs to be experienced to be appreciated. Back downstairs in the lobby, opposite the stair to the galleries is a blue portal that leads to the main theater, below. Both the floor and ceiling in this area slope, the latter as the underside of the theater.This ramp gives the impression that the space is cutout from the white container, so inside is blue; it also looks very sci-fi, as if it is an entrance to a spaceship. The first impression though is fairly accurate, since the inside of the theater is lined with the same "Yves Klein blue." Of the new spaces the main theater is easily the highlight. Over 1,000 triangular panels cover the walls and ceiling. They are composed like the exterior addition (last two photos) into larger triangular areas. Here they curve to follow the space but also peel away for lighting and other fixtures, since the theater is set up for performances as well as film screenings. The curtain by Cindy Sirko is a perfect foil to the blue panels. Color seems to leap from the fabric towards the audience, radiating from the center. Below, architect Thomas Leeser gave a few words to the press, though he admitted that with the building (basically) done he didn't have to say much, the architecture could speak for itself. Just as entry into the theater is like entering some unique sort of world, leaving it is a slow acclimation in reverse, back to the museum's white walls. Yet these spaces with video projections, splashes of color, and angled walls aren't completely overwhelming. It as if a visit to the museum is an adventure, a respite from "reality," an immersion into the world of film and other moving images. So once inside the spaces are varying degrees of reality, immateriality, image, and so forth. It's a carefully controlled series of spaces that work together fairly seamlessly without being repetitive or direct in cinematic references. It's a great start to 2011 in New York City. Outside, the light blue triangular metal panels now seem subdued, especially relative to the main theater. The addition's opposition to the existing facades is still striking, but it can be read as a solid wrapper to the interior spaces free of natural light. Their geometric regularity recalls a wireframe, as if the elevations are a canvas for something else, perhaps a metaphor for the production of moving images in digital environments. When the courtyard is complete in the Spring an outdoor theater will accompany the three spaces inside the museum. (The slope in the bottom right corner of the last photo is the rake of the seating, with the screen to be installed perpendicular to the facade.) A light blue artificial turf will echo the metal panels and tie it to the floor inside. Behind this last photo is a new facility for the Kaufman Astoria Studios, what I thought was an unfortunate situation architecturally when I saw it initially . Yet earlier tonight I learned that their presence on both sides of 36th Street has led them to work with the Department of City Planning towards decommissioning the one-block stretch of the street north of 35th Avenue. The plan is to use the street as a lot for the studio, to film exterior scenes for movies and television, like a Hollywood backlot . If this happens, it would be great for the museum as well, knitting it with the Studios into a two-block campus of sorts for making and celebrating the moving image. What better way to visit the Museum of the Moving Image than to see filmmaking in action? Share Posted by John at 10:15 PM 7 comments A Weekly Dose My Bookmarks My Other Stuff » » » » » » » » » » »
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