Wednesday 9 April 2014

LEGO House in LEGO Form

In what might be best described as "LEGO imitating architecture imitating LEGO," BIG's design for the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, is for sale as a special edition kit:

Lego 4000010 LEGO House
[Photo: Hamid/Flickr]

Lego 4000010 LEGO House
[Photo: Hamid/Flickr]

I'm not sure how much the limited-edition set goes for, or where it's even available, but somebody on ebay wants to get $109 for the "RARE" set with "exclusive minifigure."

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Book Review: The Wrong House

The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock by Steven Jacobs
nai010 publishers, 2013 (second edition)
Paperback, 344 pages
"Rope contributed in no small way to freeing the filmmaker from his obsession with painting and making of him what he had been in the time of Griffith and the pioneers – an architect."
Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol, Hitchcock (1957)
This quote is accompanied by seven others at the beginning of Steven Jacobs' book on Alfred Hitchcock, and it serves to reinforce the author's premise that Hitchcock is an architect and therefore deserves a traditional monograph. I doubt anybody would take this premise to mean that Hitchcock  literally worked as an architect, but the role of buildings and their interiors in his films is undeniable. Not only are the buildings he envisioned with his set designers memorable (think of the Bates house from Psycho), but often the rooms, particularly in houses, serve to heighten the suspense and drama of his films. It's as if architectural spaces are a member of the cast, and therefore Hitchcock's sets are worthy of their own "monograph," in this case focused on the domestic realm.



Like other traditional monographs, Jacobs' book includes a couple essays before it launches into the projects. The essays "Space Fright" and "The Tourist Who Knew Too Much" allow Jacobs to paint broad strokes in his analysis of Hitchcock's films (especially on their production), all the while extending his reach beyond the houses and other domestic spaces that populate the book. Hitchcock did not exclusively "design" residential sets, but these spaces allowed him to bring horror "into the home, where it belongs," as he said.

The examples of murder happening close to home are numerous, and Jacobs partitions the 22 films in the book into three chapters: Houses, Country Houses and Mansions, and Modern Hide-Outs and Look-Outs. The films reach back from the director's days in 1920s and 30s London to Marnie from 1964. Most of the residences are treated with floor plans that arise from the author watching the films repeatedly, rather than based on archival plans and other set designs. Therefore the focus is on what is on screen, what the viewer experiences; this means architectural logic and spatial logic aren't always present. Such is the nature of film that sets and spaces serve the narrative reality rather than architectural or an objective reality.


[Spread from chapter on Rear Window, courtesy of nai010]

The book's "projects" are best when the reader has seen the film. I've seen many of Hitchcock's films but only about half of the ones Jacobs analyzes; not having seen a film makes the analysis less desirable while also giving away much of the plot, hardly ideal with suspense films. The projects are also best when they are accompanied by plans; it's unfortunate that some houses are missing them, as they add a layer of information that makes the analyses more understandable and even enjoyable.

Not surprisingly, the chapter on L.B. Jeffries' Greenwich Village apartment in New York City is a highlight, even though the film has been architecturally dissected by many critics, in particular Juhani Pallasmaa and Jeffrey Kipnis. Really, the film can be considered Hitchcock's penultimate example of giving architecture a leading role in a film. It's impossible to think of any portion of the narrative happening outside of the self-contained world the director created. Thankfully the film comes near the end of the book, allowing the reader to digest some of Jacobs' words on earlier films and to see how "the wrong houses" built up to this masterpiece.

Monday 7 April 2014

Today's archidose #746

Here are some photos of the ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2013 (completed spring 2014) in Stuttgart, Germany, by students in the ICD Institute for Computational Design (Prof. Achim Menges) and ITKE Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (Prof. Jan Knippers) at the Unviersity of Stuttgart, photographed by Trevor Patt.

IMG_7778

IMG_7761

IMG_7769

IMG_7771

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:
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Saturday 5 April 2014

Review: Cool Spaces!


[All images are screenshots from episode 1 of Cool Spaces!]

This month the four-part documentary series Cool Spaces! is premiering on PBS stations, starting with an episode on "Performance Spaces" and moving on to "Libraries," "Healing Spaces," and "Art Spaces." Host and show creator Stephen Chung, an architect and teacher from Boston, presents three recent buildings that fit the typology in each episode. For "Performance Spaces," which I was able to watch and which I discuss below, the buildings are Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Dallas by HKSArchitects, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City by Safdie Architects, and Barclays Center in Brooklyn by SHoP Architects.

The segments get across information on the building (Barclays Center in this illustrated example) in a fivefold manner:

1. Original footage of the buildings, inside and out:


2. Chung speaking with the architects (in the office and on location) and clients:


3. Chung using a telestrator to highlight parts of a design:


4. Chung speaking with his resident experts, such as structural engineers and acousticians, to explain certain aspects of the building (in this case the Barclays Center's cantilevered oculus):


5. Footage of the spaces being used:


This last is particularly important, given that it is a fairly well accepted norm in determining the success of a building, and because the AIA ads that bookend the show stress use over all other contributions that architects can offer. In the case of the first episode of Cool Spaces! it is measured through visuals, like the packed house above and through Chung's interviews with the architects and clients. There aren't any interviews with the users themselves, and this starts to get at some of the shortcomings of the documentary. By being filtered through the client in particular, use is defined in their terms, rather than those of the people actually using the building. Further, in the case of the Barclays Center segment, the show does not mention the flexible nature of the arena; instead it focuses solely on the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. Frankly, I could do with less of the ESPN-style, slow-motion footage of the Nets' players making lay-ups (screenshot below) to see how the space is outfitted for a Jay-Z show or even a circus.



Also missing from the Barclays Center segment is any mention of the project's beginning, be it Frank Gehry's initial design or the controversy surrounding the mega-development that will platform over the rail yards in Brooklyn. There is about a minute near the end of the piece that discusses the larger development, by showing SHoP's design and fabrication of the modular towers that are rising behind the arena. But overall the show is fairly amnesiac, befitting the name Cool Spaces! (exclamation point and all) and a focus on the contemporary. Sure, Chung mentions Ebbets Field as a precedent for a sports stadium in Brooklyn, but it is in passing and only to highlight where the flagpole in front of Barclays Center came from. The particular histories of how projects came about, at least in the case of Barclays Center, is non-existent. Viewers learn the how and why of a building's form and appearance via the five means of presentation noted above, but the lack of further depth is glaring. Perhaps cutting down to two shows per hour instead of three would remedy this deficiency, but there is obviously some value in more variety in each episode.

These criticisms aside, Cool Spaces! is very good at explaining contemporary architecture to a general audience. The show does an excellent job in explaining why and how a building looks the way it does, which overcomes one impediment to people appreciating new buildings – as ties with the past are broken through architectural forms aiming for innovation and distinction, the understanding of them decreases. Cool Spaces! may not make everybody think that the Barclays Center is beautiful, but it should increase people's appreciation of what goes into designing and making such a building.

A preview of the first episode, "Performance Spaces":


Check the Cool Spaces! schedule to see when the show will be airing in your area.

Thursday 3 April 2014

Today's archidose #745

Here are some photos of the West Terminal Tram Track Electricity Supply Station (2012) in Helsinki, Finland, by Virkkunen & Co Architects, photographed by Arnd Dewald.

Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki

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Tuesday 1 April 2014

Not an April Fools

In January it was revealed that Rizzoli Bookstore "may have to flee the wrecking ball, again" (NYTimes) to make way for what will most likely be yet another supertall building on 57th Street. Walking past the store today I saw a sign that makes their eviction official:



If you haven't been to Rizzoli's beautiful three-story space in the 109-year-old building at 31 West 57th Street, you have 10 days to do so. Oh, and per their Facebook page, all books and CDs are 40% off!

(For the curious, the photo on the right is taken from a 1964 Glamour photo shoot.)

Architecture & Narrative

A week ago I attended a panel discussion at the Syracuse University Fisher Center in New York City. The evening was billed as a book launch for Matthew Stadler's Deventer, one of my favorite books from last year, but it was really a discussion on narrative and architecture through the guise of three books: Deventer, which documents two projects by Dutch architect Matthijs Bouw's One Architecture, Jimenez Lai's graphic novel Citizens of No Place, and Bjarke Ingels's comic monograph Yes Is More. While Mr. BIG was not in attendance, Lai and Bouw were joined by moderator Michael Speaks, Dean of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University, with Stadler participating from Europe via Skype.

Following some introductory remarks from Speaks, Stadler read a chapter from his book, a great one on the Seattle Public Library competition. Stadler served on the jury and recounted in the chapter how the library created a situation (having to do with paper and an overhead projector) that forced the architects to deal with a dilemna in a public context; it enabled the library to learn about the architect before even seeing any designs. Bouw then talked about his work with One Architecture, but the discussion gravitated to one project in particular, a small one ("Space of Unassociation") he executed with Stadler for a writing festival in Canada. With a $1,000 budget for design and construction, Bouw proposed renting a bouncy castle and setting up large sheets for screens within a large space that would be used for readings. Lastly, Lai spoke about his work, particularly Citizens of No Place but also the built work that have recently transplanted his drawings, in particular the Taiwan Pavilion he is designing for the Venice Biennale that starts in June.

So what is the role of narrative in architecture? Like anything, there was no consensus in the panel discussion, with a few (small) disagreements here and there (admittedly, there would have been more if Ingels was in attendance as planned), but a few interesting points came out of the evening:
  • Even the most well developed student work can fall apart if it doesn't have a coherent narrative (a comment by Speaks).
  • There is an apparent Dutch history with architecture and planning incorporating narrative ("scenario planning," Oud's "character driven" architecture), evident in Bouw's use of written narratives in the early stages of projects.
  • Buildings can be seen on a gradient from open to closed, with the former allowing multiple narratives (Space of Unassociation, as one example) and the latter dictating one path or means of interacting with the spaces.
  • Narrative in architecture is ripe for comedy, be it through irony or that based on a previous body of work.
Ultimately, taking comments from the evening but also from elsewhere, I see narrative having three uses in architecture:
  1. Critiquing and/or reconceptualizing architecture,
  2. Aiding the design process,
  3. Explaining a design.
The first is evident in Lai's book, which does not focus on particular real-world projects, while the third is what we see in Stadler's book and BIG's comic monograph. But what about the second?



The fairly laid-back evening brought to mind the latest issue of MAS Context – Narrative – squeezed in between Lai's and Stadler's books above. The extraordinary, extra-thick issue guest edited by architectural scholar Koldo Lus Arana and architect-cartoonist Klaus "tackles the intersection between architectural practices and different forms of visual narrative." Each issue of editor-in-chief Iker Gil's MAX Context is thematic, but this issue is particularly focused, reflecting a heavy hand on the part of the editors and a longer fruition than the other quarterly issues. The focus is strong enough that the three sections of the issue the editors mention – graphic narrative in disciplinary architecture, comic artists making forays into the built world, and looking at the tangents between "emerging animation practices in architecture" and written narratives – are hard to discern. The whole issue is fairly organic, flowing via interviews, comics and essays.

The biggest distinction between Narrative and the evening at the Fisher Center is the form of narrative – the issue of MAS Context focuses almost exclusively on the visual, while the three participants in the panel veer from text only (Stadler) to primarily visual (Lai), with Bouw's use of narrative straddling the two. It's in the visual where I see point 2 above – aiding the design process – being addressed. Narrative is full of contributions that fit into point 1 (much of the critiquing and reconceptualizing coming from outside the profession), but the inclusion of architects like Archigram, Factory Fiftenn and Jones, Partners starts to talk about how narrative expression can influence design. Wes Jones and company's critique of Dubai could have restricted itself to the written word, for example, but by illustrating it as a comic they were forced to give their alternate scenario a form. Like the issue itself, this example shows that there is plenty of overlap in the three uses of narrative above, which makes sense given the multidisciplinary aspect of visual narrative and the way it exists somewhere between idea and built reality. Ultimately both critiques and explanations of architecture can influence architecture, but it would be great to see architects increasingly incorporating narrative (visual or otherwise) into their design processes to better shape their buildings and better understand whom they are designing for.