Talk by Joshua Prince-Ramus

A good talk by Joshua Prince-Ramus on designing the Seattle Central Library, Museum Plaza in Louisville and Dallas' Charles Wyly Theater.

Talk

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/49

Bio
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/49

H&dM to build in Pompey

A controversial scheme was unveiled by Portsmouth FC the other day. The plan is to relocate Fratton Park and build a new stadium complex right between the Spinnaker tower and HMS Victory on a 13 acre reclaimed land site. The £600m development will also include 1,500 apartments. It was designed by Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron who also built the Allianz arena in Munich and the National stadium in Beijing (birds nest).

It was vital to retain the unique atmosphere of Fratton Park, that was done by limiting the stadium to 36,000 seats to keep the stadium full on a regular basis, and by keeping the close correlation between the stands and the pitch which the current venue is known for.

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=426&storycode=3085901

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3085673&c=2

Allianz arena

http://www.allianz-arena.de/en/index.php

National stadium Beijing

http://www.danda.be/reviews/96/

"Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake."

A speech by Luis Barragan on receiving the Pritzker prize in 1980

Luis Barragan:
I take this occasion to present some impressions and recollections that, to some extent, sum up the ideology behind my work. In this regard, Mr.Jay Pritzker stated in an announcement to the press with excessive generosity what I consider essential to that ideology: that I had been chosen as the recipient of this prize for having devoted myself to architecture "as a sublime act of poetic imagination." Consequently, I am only a symbol for all those who have been touched by Beauty.
It is alarming that publications devoted to architecture have banished from their pages the words Beauty, Inspiration, Magic, Spellbound, Enchantment, as well as the concepts of Serenity, Silence, Intimacy and Amazement All these have nestled in my soul, and though I am fully aware that I have not done them complete justice in my work, they have never ceased to be my guiding lights.

Religion and Myth. It is impossible to understand Art and the glory of its history without avowing religious spirituality and the mythical roots that lead us to the very reason of being of the artistic phenomenon. Without the one or the other there would be no Egyptian pyramids nor those of ancient Mexico. Would the Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals have existed? Would the amazing marvels of the Renaissance and the Baroque have come about?
And in another field, would the ritual dances of the so-called primitive cultures have developed? Would we now be the heirs of the inexhaustible artistic treasure of worldwide popular sensitivity? Without the desire for God, our planet would be a sorry wasteland of ugliness. "The irrational logic harboured in the myths and in all true religious experience has been the fountainhead of the artistic process at all times and in all places " These are words of my good friend, Edmundo O'Gorman, and, with or without his permission, I have made them mine.

Beauty. The invincible difficulty that the philosophers have in defining the meaning of this word is unequivocal proof of its ineffable mystery. Beauty speaks like an oracle, and ever since man has heeded its message in an infinite number of ways: it may be in the use of tattoos, in the choice of a seashell necklace by which the bride enhances the promise of her surrender, or, again, in the apparently superfluous ornamentation of everyday tools and domestic utensils, not to speak of temples and palaces and even, in our day, in the industrialized products of modern technology. Human life deprived of beauty is not worthy of being called so.

Silence. In the gardens and homes designed by me, I have always endeavoured to allow for the interior placid murmur of silence, and in my fountains, silence sings.

Solitude. Only in intimate communion with solitude may man find himself. Solitude is good company and my architecture is not for those who fear or shun it.

Serenity. Serenity is the great and true antidote against anguish and fear, and today, more than ever, it is the architect's duty to make of it a permanent guest in the home, no matter how sumptuous or how humble. Throughout my work I have always strived to achieve serenity, but one must be on guard not to destroy it by the use of an indiscriminate palette.

Joy. How can one forget joy? I believe that a work of art reaches perfection when it conveys silent joy and serenity.

Death. The certainty of death is the spring of action and therefore of life, and in the implicit religious element in the work of art, life triumphs over death.

Gardens. In the creation of a garden, the architect invites the partnership of the Kingdom of Nature. In a beautiful garden, the majesty of Nature is ever present, but Nature reduced to human proportions and thus transformed into the most efficient haven against the aggressiveness of contemporary life.

Ferdinand Bac taught us that "the soul of gardens shelters the greatest sum of serenity at man's disposal ," and it is to him that I am indebted for my longing to create a perfect garden. He said, speaking of his gardens at Ies Colombiers, "in this small domain, I have done nothing else but joined the millinery solidarity to which we are all subject: the ambition of expressing materially a sentiment, common to many men in search of a link with nature, by creating a place of repose of peaceable pleasure " It will appear obvious, then, that a garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy. There is no fuller expression of vulgarity than a vulgar garden.
To the south of Mexico City lies a vast extension of volcanic rock, arid, overwhelmed by the beauty of this landscape, I decided to create a series of gardens to humanize, without destroying, its magic. While walking along the lava crevices, under the shadow of imposing ramparts of live rock, I suddenly discovered, to my astonishment, small secret green valleys the shepherds call them "jewels" surrounded and enclosed by the most fantastic, capricious rock formations wrought on soft, melted rock by the onslaught of powerful prehistoric winds. The unexpected discovery of these "jewels" gave me a sensation similar to the one experienced when, having walked through a dark and narrow tunnel of the Alhambra, I suddenly emerged into the serene, silent and solitary "Patio of the Myrtles" hidden in the entrails of that ancient palace. Somehow I had the feeling that it enclosed what a perfect garden no matter its size should enclose: nothing less than the entire Universe.
This memorable epiphany has always been with me, and it is not by mere chance that from the first garden for which I am responsible all those following are attempts to capture the echo of the immense lesson to be derived from the aesthetic wisdom of the Spanish Moors.

Fountains. A fountain brings us peace, joy and restful sensuality and reaches the epitome of its very essence when by its power to bewitch it will stir dreams of distant worlds.
While awake or when sleeping, the sweet memories of marvellous fountains have accompanied me throughout my life. I recall the fountains of my childhood; the drains for excess water of the dam; the dark ponds in the recess of abandoned orchards; the curb stone of shallow wells in the convent patios; the small country springs, quivering mirrors of ancient giant water loving trees, and then, of course, the old aqueducts perennial reminders of Imperial Rome which from lost horizons hurry their liquid treasure to deliver it with the rainbow ribbons of a waterfall.

Architecture. My architecture is autobiographical, as Emilio Ambasz pointed out in his book on my work published by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Underlying all that I have achieved such as it is are the memories of my father's ranch where I spent my childhood and adolescence. In my work I have always strived to adapt to the needs of modern living the magic of those remote nostalgic years. The lessons to be learned from the unassuming architecture of the village and provincial towns of my country have been a permanent source of inspiration. Such, for instance, the whitewashed walls; the peace to be found in patios and orchards; the colourful streets; the humble majesty of the village squares surrounded by shady open corridors. And as there is a deep historical link between these teachings and those of the North African and Moroccan Villages, they too have enriched my perception of beauty in architectural simplicity.
Being a Catholic, I have frequently visited with reverence the now empty monumental monastic buildings that we inherited from the powerful religious faith and architectural genius of our colonial ancestors, and I have always been deeply moved by the peace and well being to be experienced in those uninhabited cloisters and solitary courts. How I have wished that these feelings may leave their mark on my work.

The Art of Seeing. It is essential to an architect to know how to see: I mean, to see in such a way that the vision is not overpowered by rational analysis. And in this respect I will take advantage of this opportunity to pay homage to a very dear friend who, through his infallible aesthetic taste, taught us the difficult art of seeing with innocence. I refer to the Mexican painter Jesus (Chucho) Reyes Ferreira, for whose wise teachings I publicly acknowledge my indebtedness.
And it may not be out of place to quote another great friend of mine and of the Arts, the poet Carlos Pellicer:
Through sight the good and the bad
we do perceive
Unseeing eyes
Souls deprived of hope.

Nostalgia. Nostalgia is the poetic awareness of our personal past, and since the artist's own past is the mainspring of his creative potential, the architect must listen and heed his nostalgic revelations.
My associate and friend, the young architect Raul Ferrera, as well as our small staff, share with me the ideology which I have tried to present. We have worked and hope to continue to work inspired by the faith that the aesthetic truth of those ideas will in some measure contribute toward dignifying human existence.

The Human Camera

A fascinating video of Stephen Wiltshire drawing Rome from memory. On the topic there is an exhibition of his recent works at the Riverside Gallery in Richmond from the 20th January to the 11th of March 2007. On display will be his 360 degree panorama of Tokyo, which is even bigger than the one of Rome.
http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/

My Flickr page

I have created a Flickr account where I will upload photographs of some of the places that I have visited.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loody82/

A talk by Claudio Silvestrin

The extract below is an interesting part of a bigger discussion which I read in a journal. It is a brief talk by Claudio Silvestrin on a topic titled Something or nothing:Minimalism in art and architecture, at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 8 December 1998.

Claudio Silvestrin:
I tend to describe my work, particularly with clients, as simple. However, the word 'simple' can be open to many interpretations, some of them even quite negative. Some time ago, during a very interesting project for a German art collector, we kept talking about 'simple' and 'simplicity'. To avoid the possibility of any misunderstandings, I eventually decided to write him a letter:
Dear whatever, I'd like to take this opportunity to say what I mean by 'simple architecture'. Our human body is, in appearance, very simple, yet the skin veils a complicated machine. If we cut a body in half we would immediately realize that behind the simple and easy appearance there is a magnificent complexity. This is nature, and some would say of God's making. It is nature which, I believe, we will learn from in our making of the environment. Some artefacts have the same characteristic. A mondrian painting, for instance, looks simple and easy to the eye, but you know, probably more than I do, how much energy and thought Mondrian gave to achieve simple paintings. I believe that the greatest architecture, however simple in appearance - like for instance, the Cistern monasteries - has a great deal of thought and detail behind the surface. There is nothing easy about a Mondrian or about a Cistercian building.
Because the interest here is, I presume, on the theoretical aspects of this terrible word Minimalism, I will try to explain some of the thought and architectural principles which challenge me everytime I'm faced with a project.
First of all it's tough to define architecture. Many people have tried, I'm not sure how successfully. Perhaps it doesn't really matter. I, however, had a go because I thought it was important for me to make my thinking and also my standards as clear as possible.
When one actually sees the solidity of a mountain or the vastness of the sea, when one comes upon it suddenly, there it is in its monolithic presence. Everything, including ones own ego, has been pushed aside, except the majesty of that mountain or that sea. Such a sight absorbs you completely - it is beauty itself. If you are fortunate enough, think of a building that absorbs you with the same intensity - that building I call architecture; the others are nothing but edifices.

Series of architectural principles follows:

- Try to construct a new architecture - honest, austere, clear, calm.

- Time suspended in stillness: try to stop time or at least give us the illusion that time is suspended in stillness.

- Clearing of the horizon, a horizon free of clutter.

- An architecture that brings sight closer to the senses - it lets the earth be earth.

- Nearness of the sky: to bring the sky as close as possible to our senses. Architecture compliments nature. If I walk in a landscape and I look up at the sky I have a certain perception of that sky. If I build a room with very high walls, when I look up at the sky I have the sensation, the feeling, that the sky is coming towards me.

- The void perceived of massiveness. This is how I go about projects. I never see space as empty. I see it almost if its a mass of stone, a mass of air, a mass of material. So the air is material, the mass is material.

- Task to reveal unlimited nature in a limited fragment.

- Architecture as a place in which to feel serene, still, at peace, free from disorder and vulgarity.

- A site configuration in which any form of conflict ceases, the eye calms, the cogito gives up doubting, the direction becomes clear

- To feel the presence of silence, of the non visible, of the non-material - a great task

- The work (of art) seen in its full presence. Try not to fail the material. Transform the material. Although the material is there, you transform it so that you make it almost not there anymore.

- It is not a matter of scale, proportions, light efficiency, floor finishes and white walls - it is a matter of awakening people's sensitivity.

- The attempt for the feeling of inwardness - since we are always so desperate to look out and have a view of modernity.

- Purity of view.

- Architecture as a technique to bring to the fore spiritual energy, stillness of mind.

- Good architecture makes us silent.

- Visual orientation. That's something which a lot of modern architects have forgotten. Sometimes I go into places and I'm so confused. I have to rely on graphics to tell me to go right or left. There is no sense of direction, of easy movement for my eyes.

- It is the act of preservation of space that counts.

- Thickness of space. As there is thickness to the top of a table, to a particular object, there is also thickness to space.

- Abstraction of functions.

- Opening up a new seeing, that is, relaxing the willing eye for a seeing free from possessiveness.

- Harmony between elements, between figures - no opposites, no clutter, no tension, no fragments.

- Space is not distance, it is immensity.

- Subtle lifting of gravity and weight. How to make the heaviness of a wall become lightweight so that there is challenge, there is attraction to the earth's gravity.

- The sun's piercing engraved onto plain surfaces.

- The intensity of the sun wrapped in shadow - coolness. It is by manipulating shadows and understanding the value of shadows that you can really glorify light.

- The endurance of materials freezes the fashions of time. It is not by chance that nine out of ten times I use stone in my works, stone being a material that doesn't have any fashion whatsoever. It's been there for 10, 20, 30 million years. When I walk on a stone floor, its not like walking on any material. You have the history of the earth under your feet.

- Beauty is like love - it is timeless. There are things which are timeless, like beauty, like love. However the media today attempt to label things and to give them a time. I believe that certain things never die. You cannot locate them on a calendar.

- A place to which we can come and for a while be free from thinking about what we are going to do.


http://www.claudiosilvestrin.com/

Parans Natural Lighting

"A room is not a room without natural light. Natural light gives mood to space by the nuances of light in the time of the day and the seasons of the year as it enters and modifies the space."
Louis Kahn

A Swedish company has developed a natural lighting system which transports sunlight into internal rooms using fiber optic cables that are connected to a collecting panel, placed on the roof of a structure. Internally the cables are connected to a luminaire block which has a mixture of parallel light beams and ambient light. The system can create a natural atmosphere in a room absent of exterior fenestration, re-establishing a connection with the outside environment. The product has reminiscence of more primitive methods such as reflecting light though mirrors similar to a periscope.
Technical info
http://www.parans.com/Technical%20Information.pdf
Site
http://www.parans.com

Virtual Earth

Microsoft have released an aerial and satellite mapping service similar to google earth, it has some different features such as photobased elevations on the 3d cities and birdseye views for many locations enabling you to view the same site from four different angles in 2d mode. It also maps some locations at a higher zoom definition than google earth.
http://maps.live.com/

Micro landscape

Swiss landscape architects Tur & Partner have designed an inventive business card to market their ideas. It is filled with seeds which eventually sprout through the small holes to create a minature landscape.
http://www.turpartner.ch/

You Know You're An Architecture Student When...

You can live without human contact, food or daylight, but if you can't print it's chaos.
Lots more at:
http://pintday.org/funny/architecturestudentwhen

Pilkington

Glass! :)
http://www.pilkington.com/

Environmental Products

Construction resources is Britain's first ecological builders merchants which supply state of the art building products and systems for sustainable design solutions.
http://www.constructionresources.com/

RIBA Product Selector

This website lists companies which manufacture, supply and design products related to the construction industry classified under subject listings. It also has a key to identify if the website of the company involved has catalogues, technical documents, keyfiles, NBS links etc.
http://www.ribaproductselector.com/

Emaar

Emaar is another of Dubai's large scale developers with many residential projects already complete. It is also constructing Burj Dubai which will become the worlds tallest building, over 800m, when finished. Its form was inspired from the harmonious structure of a local flower, the quality of the structure is shown through the worlds most sought after designers using the finest concrete and steel complementing the luxurious interior materials and finishes. At the base of the tower there is a development of the worlds largest shopping mall which will occupy 12.1 million sq ft and house 1,200 shops.
http://www.emaar.com/
http://www.downtownliving.ae/
http://www.burjdubai.com/

Nakheel

Nakheel is one of Dubai's largest developers which has transformed the fabric of the city with numerous superscale landmarks, they have already added 1,500km of the beachfronts' coastline. They are responsible for famous projects such as the world, the palm islands, jumeirah developments and many more. These projects, most of which are complete, were only conceptual visions in 2001.
http://www.nakheel.com/

SuDoku

Found this which is quite funny.
http://www.spilsbury.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=30001&storeId=10001&productId=21610&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=11111&categoryId=11111&ref=perf&itemNo=2&totalNo=19

DesignBoom

I came across this website a few years ago, it mainly concentrates on industrial and product design competitions. Participants from around the world submit 3 images of their designs on a specific category, and it is then judged by a panel of architects and designers. The prize for each competition ranges between 1000-5000 euros. If you go to the competition section and look under the results for each of the competitions you can find the archives of all previous entries, very interesting. Another section on the site has informal interviews with around 100 top architects and designers which is also very interesting as it breaks away from the commonly asked questions in interviews and reveals their real personalities.
http://www.designboom.com

Hassan Fathy

Here is an online link to Hassan Fathy's book 'Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture'. It covers topics concerning architecture in hot and arid climates and has examples of how to utilize natural energy sources in vernacular architecture.
http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80a01e/80A01E00.htm

There is also another site with an online digital library which contains a biography, images, plans, sections, elevations and pdf reports on his works.
http://archnet.org/library/parties/one-party.tcl?party_id=1

No Posts

I havent had time to post recently but i will be up and running by next week.
Khalid.

Reverse Demolition

After a debate on whether the latest sony bravia advert was animated or real I found the official website. It turns out that 70,000 litres of paint was used in the amazingly choreographed 'reverse demolition'. The ad is a follow up of sony's successful and just as colourful bouncy ball ad in San Francisco last year where 250,000 'superballs' were dropped down the streets, although this time the site being the Toryglen estate in Glasgow, where the buildings used are scheduled for actual demolition. It was directed by Jonathan Glazer, well known for his creation of the Guiness advert with the horses running through the surf. During the process 1,700 detonators, and a series of bottle bombs, cluster bombs and mortars were installed to set off the fireworks.
Watch the ad at the official site:

Paint
http://www.bravia-advert.com/
Balls
http://www.bravia-advert.com/balls/

Hotel Puerta America, Madrid

The Hotel Puerta America Madrid is not your average hotel. 19 of the worlds powerhouse architects and designers have had the opportunity to design a floor, each representing their own style from every detail down to the towels. The colourful facade reveals somewhat the variety of the interior. The contributors are: Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, David Chipperfield, Plasma Studio, Victorio & Luccino, Mark Newson, Rod Arad, Kathryn Findlay, Richard Gluckman, Arata Isozaki, Javier Mariscal & Fernando Salas, John Pawson, Christian Liaigre, Teresa Sapey, Harriet Bourne & Jonathan Bell, Arnold Chan, Felipe Saez de Gordoa and Oscar Neimeyer. In short it is an eclectic mix of spaces, a daring project which is a bold departure from the usual. Even more they have a great website with in-depth information covering each floor. Each architect and designers' profile has a report of their own input, images and a video of their speech at the opening press conference.
Which floor is your favourite?

HPAM
http://www.hoteles-silken.com/HPAM/index.php

RIBA Stirling prize 2006

And the winner is........

http://www.architecture.com/go/Architecture/Also/Awards_2006.html
http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=1,4,25,295,1037#test1

'Atmosphere is my style' (JMW Turner to John Ruskin in 1844)

When asked, what we speak of when we talk about architectural quality? Peter Zumthor responded in his book atmospheres quite simply: "Quality in architecture does not - not to me anyway - mean inclusion in architectural guidelines or histories of architecture or getting my work into this or that publication. Quality architecture to me is when a building manages to move me. What on earth is it that moves me?"

The book titled atmospheres represents through texts and small images his views on architecture on a more emotional, poetic, even visceral note. With continuous chapters containing theories on presence of materials, surfaces, smell, light, sound, levels of intimacy, coherence etc. Peter Zumthor describes justly, an architecture more closely related to the senses.

To fundamentally understand what Zumthor is explaining, I suggest you read the book and visit one of his 'built atmospheres'. Such as the thermal baths in Vals, a building with an overwhelming exchange with its surroundings. A truly moving experience.
book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Atmospheres-Architectural-Environments-Surrounding-Objects/dp/3764374950/sr=8-1/qid=1160673001/ref=sr_1_1/202-9799005-6663868?ie=UTF8&s=books

thermal baths
http://www.therme-vals.ch/?__locale=en

Absolut ads

I found this site last year, it is a gallery of absolut vodka's hugely successful advertising campaign which has over 1000 versions of the instantly recognizable form of the absolut brand bottle. It is clever how so many ideas can evolve from the simple concept of keeping the shape of the bottle and adding a witty caption. To help design these ads over the years they have commissioned designers, musicians, sculptors, fashion designers and over 300 artists; all of which leave their own visible touch. I personally like the 'places' section which contains many of the worlds famous cities all depicted 'absolut style'.Go and check it out:
http://absolutad.com/absolut_gallery/singles/

Quote

“An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full, a pessimist will tell you the glass is half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be”

Audio interviews and lectures

The BBC radio 3 website has an interesting archive of 20 audio clips of interviews and lectures by famous architects . Of particular interest was one from the BBCs sounding the century collection(1999), the lecture titled 'metropolitan apotheosis' by Rem Koolhaas. Koolhaas; architect, theorist, journalist, is also a well respected 'psychoanalyst of the city' gives a short lecture on his research and theories of the contemporary urban condition in its pure form. He gives examples of how cities have resisted or succumb to becoming 'perfectly formed' in a predictable, generic, consumerist culture. Well worth a listen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/architecture/ram/akoolhaas.ram

Other interviews range one with John Pawson on the injection of his austere style into the British consumerist market through the M&S lifestore in Gateshead, a discussion about Hampshire county councils approach to quality school design and many others including the architects Gehry, Libeskind, Grimshaw, Piano, etcetera. Find the whole collection here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/architecture/progarchive.shtml

Whilst on the topic there is also a BBC4 website containing audio interviews with earlier 20th century architects such as Le Corbusier, Groupius, van de Rohe, Speer, etc.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/professions/architects.shtml

'natura mater et magistra'

I first experienced Santiago Calatravas work in Zurich when passing through Stadelhofen station, one of his many engineering-led, concrete-spined and glass-winged possibly expressionist buildings.

Whilst recently researching him I found some other underlying values of his work more interesting, as he quoted (probably not the first architect to) "geometry is fundamental to the understanding of architecture; the language of geometry is as important as the language of structure". The article went on to state that this mathematical framework has been married to a love of the sculptural potential of concrete and of forms from the natural world.

Hence the motto and title of this post 'natura mater et magistra' - nature is both mother and teacher - which says Calatrava, guided all his work.

An architect not afraid to have a signature style. http://www.calatrava.com

First Post

I am creating this blog as a reference point for myself and others, based mainly on my internet findings of topics related to architecture and design.

But I will probably end up posting all sorts of useless information on here too.

I would also like to state that the analysis of any of the topics that are posted are of my own personal opinion (unless otherwise referenced) and are not necessarily the beliefs or ideologies of the person/body in question.