Singapore Trivia

These are photos I took in Singapore earlier today; each buildings has a similarly scaled circulation spaces that makes their functions seem interchangeable. Can you match each lettered photo with the following functions, listed alphabetically:

- Airport
- Convention Center
- Shopping Mall
- Transportation Hub



Answers will be posted tomorrow.

Update: Here are the answers:
A - Changi Airport
B - Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
C - Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center
D - Entrance to SMRT (subway) next to airport

A Peek at "-Ism"

Earlier this afternoon I got a peek at the setup for The Architectural League's (sold out) Beaux Arts Ball at the 69th Regiment Armory, at 25th and Lexington. The party's theme is "-ism," which picks up on the fact that this year is the 100th anniversary of the influential 1913 Armory Show.

Situ Studio (who graciously gave me a peek) is responsible for the environmental design (as well as the fabrication), but the party will be an immersive multimedia experience, with a lighting installation by Renfro Design Group, a performance installation by Processional Arts Workshop (PAW), a sound installation by Nathan Halpern (with Mary Lattimore and Chris Ruggiero), and a DJ set from Jon Santos.





Situ Studio's design consists of lightweight vapor barriers forming diamond-like objects that seem to hover within the armory's grand drill hall. The triangular white panels are actually hung from existing cables that span from one side of the hall to the other; only some 10-foot sections of conduit piping and plastic ties accompany the recycled panels, which will be donated to PAW for future performances (more on PAW's contribution below).





Those lucky enough to snag tickets to the sold-out party will experience something much richer than what I was able to capture in my brief visit. The white surfaces will be canvases for light and color (including projected paintings from the 1913 Armory Show), creating micro-environments within the grand hall. Sound will add another layer of spatial definition, and PAW's puppeteers will don huge mylar suits (a couple pictured below) and roam about the hall, provoking revelers and becoming another canvas for the light show.



Next week I'll post some photos from the party, showing how everything came together.

Today's archidose #708

Here are some photos of the Ørestad Plejecenter / Senior Housing (2011) in Copenhagen, Denmark, by JJW Arckitekter, photographed by Asli Aydin.









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A Blast from the Past

It was January 1999 when I started A Weekly Dose of Architecture, when very few web pages on architecture existed. One page that started a year earlier—and I was amazed to still find online, given that its last revision was May 20, 2000—was The Frontage Road. Below is a screenshot of the web page in its entirety; click on it to take a trip down the "road."

Book Review: Archive

Archive: Design Biennial Boston edited by Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, Mark Pasnik
pinkcomma books, 2013
Paperback, 240 pages


[All photographs courtesy of pinkcomma books]

In a recent eMagazine article I put together for World-Architects, a number of institutions responded to a short Q+A about "making architecture public." Exhibiting architecture, like making books on architecture, is ripe for questioning, as the communication of images and writings on architecture is increasingly spread digitally. But, like books, exhibitions aren't going away any time soon, because even as both suffer from the difficult task of trying to explain something large (a building, a landscape, a city) on a much smaller canvas, exhibitions offer a social aspect—bringing people together into one place—that keeps them popular.

One of the institutions that participated in the piece, Boston's pinkcomma, is an independent gallery that started as an extension of the architecture office over,under. The trio of Grimley, Kubo, and Pasnik wanted to, per the eMagazine article, fill a void in the city "between the critical exhibitions at universities—which were rarely focused on Boston—and the marketing-oriented displays produced by the professional organizations that were meant to engage the local community." Their creation of the Design Biennial Boston (DBB) in 2008, which included an exhibition at pinkcomma of ten emerging local designers, is an important part of a goal that responds to the strong institutions in and around the city (Harvard and MIT, to name just two) and how the people attending them are transient and have a focus elsewhere. The gallery and biennial put the focus on the local, something that may seem counterintuitive these days.



In 2012 the DBB moved to the newly opened BSA Space, a gallery component of the Boston Society of Architects, displaying all 19 winners from the first three biennials (photo above). Additionally, four of the winners created installations for the gallery, each one reflecting one of the four themes set up by the curators: culture, material, discipline, type. These themes are used to categorize the 57 projects (3 from each designer) that were displayed in the exhibition and are found in the pages of the companion book. The themes, like the "survey" portion of the book, enable cross references between the projects; this is fitting given the emphasis on creating an "archive" (of the exhibition's and book's title) of the designers and the projects that represent them.

The survey (photo below) does a decent job of contextualizing the DBB designers, showing where they work, where they teach, where their projects are, how much money they make, what software they use, how they get work, and so forth. The charts use a consistent format of white circles on black backgrounds; the more concentric circles, the more the designers have in common. One or two are unreadable (it's hard to tell at what schools the principals teach, for example), but overall they do a good job of straddling universal/global characteristics with local concerns. The latter make up much of the project archive—considering that just over half of the projects are in Massachusetts—but the local is also addressed in the "observations" section at the front of the book, which includes essays by the curators and a few academics.



Like many exhibitions and books on architecture, the emphasis of Archive is on the projects. Short and sweet (one spread per project), the projects assembled here convey the quality output in Boston really well. Outside of the four themes it's difficult to find consistent threads among the projects; there is too much diversity to further partition them. One thing I found myself doing was focusing on the projects for Boston, especially those that attempt to reshape the public realm: C&MP's Coming Soon, a conceptual provocation for a downtown site; Touloukian Touloukian's Riverside Park Pavilion; and all of Utile's projects; to name just a few. The book is not limited to local designers producing local solutions, but there is something admirable in awarding and cataloging the achievements of those who decide to stay in and around Boston and take part in a growing and (from the outside) exciting architectural scene.

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Monday, Monday

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:

This week's dose features the Leaf Facade in London, England, by Squire and Partners:


The featured past dose is the Leaf House in Sydney, Australia, by Undercurrent Architects:


This week's book review is Landscape Futures: Instruments, Devices and Architectural Inventions edited by Geoff Manaugh (L):

(R): The featured past book review is Urban Future Manifestos edited by Peter Noever and Kimberli Meyer.

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**NOTE: The next doses on my weekly page will be 2013.10.14.**

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American-Architects Building of the Week:

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens: Center for Sustainable Landscapes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by The Design Alliance Architects:

Making Architecture Public

This week's eMagazine at World-Architects features "Making Architecture Public," which includes short Q&As with over ten architectural institutions around the world, to get a sense of the present and future of creating exhibitions and making architecture public. More information is at bottom.

The institutions are: Architekturforum Aedes (Germany), Architekturforum Zürich (Switzerland), Architekturgalerie München (Germany), Architekturzentrum Wien (Austria), Canadian Centre for Architecture (Canada), Chicago Architecture Foundation (USA), Danish Architecture Centre (Denmark), LIGA - Space for Architecture (Mexico), MAK Center for Art and Architecture (USA), NOTE (Portugal), and Pinkcomma (USA).

Architecture exhibitions are valuable means of bringing buildings, the processes of designing and making them, and other aspects of architecture to the public. With a myriad of institutions, venues, and ways of exhibiting, it's hard to determine the best way to make something as complex as architecture understandable to a wider public. With the Association of Architecture Organizations 2013 conference taking place in Boston (26-28 September) and the Yale School of Architecture symposium Exhibiting Architecture: A Paradox following in New Haven (3-5 October), it seems like an apt time to look at how institutions exhibit architecture and what directions they are heading. This short survey asks some international institutions a handful of questions to get a sense of the present and future of creating exhibitions and making architecture public.

Today's archidose #707

Here are some photos of the Cultural Center "SDK" (2013) in Warsaw, Poland, by WWAA and 137kilo, photographed by Wojtek Gurak.











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Book Review: Cities Without Ground

Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook by Adam Frampton, Jonathan D. Solomon, Clara Wong
ORO Editions, 2012
Paperback, 128 pages



Think "guidebook" and most likely photos and descriptions highlighting particular objects—be they buildings, sculptures, parks, or even neighborhoods—comes to mind. But these entities are never separate from what is around them, a fact especially pronounced in cities, where new and old architecture, public art, and landscapes partake in almost constant negotiations with their surroundings. Then there are the networks—usually streets but comprising many more conduits in this age of infrastructure and flows—and this guide to Hong Kong, a "city without ground," is unique in this regard, for it focuses on the above- and below-grade walkways that traverse large sections of the city.



So given the carefully honed subject of the guidebook, the question is "how are the walkways presented?" Photographs, like the elevated walkway above, hardly do justice to the complicated network that winds its way between, above, below, and sometimes within buildings. So exploded axonometric drawings, as shown below, are used to describe the walkway networks in various fragments throughout the city. Buildings are ghosted and the vertical dimensions are exaggerated, both aiding the clarity of the diagrams.



Given the complexity of the routes, and therefore the concomitant complexity of their representations, it's fruitless for the reader to try to understand every map in its entirety. Aiding one's reading of the diagrams are the numerous notes (shops, restrooms, bus stops, etc.) and activities (gambling, fishing spot, drunken expat, and men with bird cages, to hint at the variety). The latter is a particularly important part of the book, because it inserts the observations of the authors and their compatriots that helped make the book into the mix; and because it enables the reader to fictionalize and even personalize places and routes.

After all, is there a big difference between a map labelled with an important event (Mr. X was born/died here; the Battle of X occurred here; etc.) and one marking a relatively unimportant but potentially exotic occurrence? In reality yes, but in the realm of maps, not really. Both the important and the mundane exploit the conventions of maps and help people to remember something by locating it in space. In the case of Cities Without Ground, I like the idea (especially having never visited Hong Kong) of taking a virtual stroll around Shun Tak Centre and Sheung Wan, for example, watching the tourists come and go from the casinos, then jostling past other passengers as I make my way to the Fabric Bazaar, passing "Save the Children" activists and a giant newscast on the way. It's a walk in my imagination, but one I wouldn't have taken otherwise without this guidebook.

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Wine and Architecture - Win a Trip to Spain

Here is proof of what I'd call archenotourism—an assemblage of architourism and enotourism: Wine Enthusiast Magazine is giving away a four-day trip for two to the Marqués de Riscal winery and hotel in Rioja, and Madrid. Details are here and below.


[City of Wine Complex for Marques de Riscal Winery, Frank Gehry, 2006]

The winner of this prize receives:

• Round-trip flights for two from the U.S. to Madrid, Spain
• Two-night accomodations at the Marqués de Riscal hotel, featuring:
  • A private wine tasting and winery tour
  • Treatments at onsite Spa Caudalie Vinotherapy, valued at $300
  • Breakfast daily, and a welcome dinner at the Michelin-starred Marqués de Riscal Restaurant, valued at $500
• Visit to the nearby town of Logroño for sightseeing and a tapas-and-wine pairing dinner
• One-night stay for two at a Madrid hotel

Visit Wine Enthusiast to enter.

High Line Walking Tour on Saturday

This is just a reminder for those in NYC that I'll be giving an architectural walking tour of the High Line. Info and link for tickets below.

The High Line and Its Environs
Saturday, September 21, 11am to 1:30pm
Tickets at 92YTribeca

Trek the High Line taking in the park and the surrounding buildings and step off to get a closer look at select buildings.

Today's archidose #706

Here are some photos of the Sokol Blosser Winery Tasting Room (2013) in Dayton, Oregon, by Allied Works Architecture, photographed by stvdg. For more on the project see this week's Building of the Week feature at World-Architects.











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Monday, Monday

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:

This week's dose features the Pizzagalli Center for Art & Education at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, by Ann Beha Architects:


The featured past dose is the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, by Ann Beha Architects:


This week's book review is Makers of Modern Architecture, Volume II: From Le Corbusier to Rem Koolhaas by Martin Filler (L):

(R): The featured past book review is All Over the Map: Writing on Building and Cities by Michael Sorkin.

Today's archidose #705

Here are some photos of a Sports Hall in Krk, Croatia, by Idis Turato, photographed by Maurice Tjon.









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Book + DVD Review: Gehry's Vertigo

Gehry's Vertigo by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine
BêkaPartners, 2013
Book: Hardcover, 140 pages
DVD: All-Region PAL, 48 minutes



Last year I attended a conference where an architect from Frank Gehry's office—one of his offices, Gehry Technologies, to be precise—talked about the curtain wall for 8 Spruce Street, aka New York by Gehry. One of the points in his fairly technical and detailed talk focused on how the rippling facade is able to accommodate the window washing rig that travels up and down the building. The continuous tracks that extend from top to bottom allow such maintenance, a feature that was incorporated (and therefore considered) from an early stage. Such foresight is hardly present in Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao, as expressed in the aptly named Gehry's Vertigo.



In the first two minutes of the film by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine we witness two people traversing the titanium facade of the famous building. Are they performers? Stunt people? Maintenance crew? From other films by the pair we know the latter is the case, and for much of the next 45 minutes we watch the rope climbers-cum-window washers as they maintain the inside and outside of the complex building. While our cinematic experience of the building is not limited to these workers (we also see a wedding party taking pictures and we follow a boy throughout the whole interior, for example), it uniquely presents much of the architecture via first-hand accounts—for instance we see the roof and atrium from the window washer's perspective, via cameras mounted to their hard hats. In these scenes the film's title makes perfect sense.



Perhaps because the building is so well known, Bêka and Lemoine appear to be having a lot more fun and doing more cinematic experimentation in this film than the ones on Koolhaas's House in Bordeaux or Herzog & de Meuron's Pomerol. Humorous scenes include the boy's voyage through the museum (accompanied by a soundtrack that seems to be generated by the fast-forward cutting of the scene mixed with zoo-like sounds) and a fast-forward scene of cleaning and switching out exhibitions, accompanied by the ticking of a stopwatch. But it's the rope climbers who thread the film together, as they appear intermittently between other scenes. If anything, their "swiffering" of the atrium's curvy walls is the heart of the film, exhibiting the ridiculous height clients and their staff must go to maintain a masterpiece of contemporary architecture.

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