Is Outside Space Public Space

What happens when an architect (or developer) proposes an ugly building?
Is it a right to be able to build what ever you want even if its an eyesore ... this new project for a boutique hotel in the Bowery (NYC) raises some questions.

"Remember the crazy rendering of the new Salvation-Army-replacing Bowery boutique hotel revealed earlier this week? The Observer got a fresher rendering from architect Gene Kaufman, and the design is even more nutso than previously imagined. For example, "it has light up balconies that will shimmer at night, bringing a bit of that dance-club flare back to the cleaned up thoroughfare." It also has what appears to be a Jumbotron. The Bowery goes Times Square! So when can we expect the M&M's store?"
via Curbed

Pick an architectural disaster, stick with 60's or make new ones?

A development in London, which brings up some relevant issues.

Robin Hood Gardens: don't knock it… down

Robin Hood Gardens in east London has seen better days, but you should see the monstrosities they want to replace it with

Norwegian Flair at the DX in Toronto

Since my trip to Copenhagen, I go crazy for anything scandanavian.

So Conventus is very exited to go check out the DX and its new free exhibition called Construction: Contemporary Norwegian Arts & Crafts

Runs from November 19 2010 to January 21 2011.

As the house turns

A lovely little film about a modernist rotating house in Italy.
(The narriation is done in Italian and is quite soothing to listen to).

Secret Subway

New York's gorgeous secret subway station.
(not so secret anymore)
Makes one wonder what other treasures lie hidden away in the city.

Protoges

Mr. Idenburg agreed that “architecture is a profession of patience,” adding, “For the first 10 years you just hope to survive.”

"IN the video, on YouTube, Madonna is seen laying the first brick at a school in Lilongwe, Malawi. But to connoisseurs of architecture, the real star of the video is the man standing next to Madonna, alongside a rendering of the 40-acre campus. He is Markus Dochantschi, the German-born, New York-based designer of what is called the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.

For a young architect it’s hard to imagine a higher-profile project than a school backed by Madonna. And if the attention mostly goes to the pop star, Mr. Dochantschi isn’t complaining. He spent seven years working for the architect Zaha Hadid, a larger-than-life figure, learning how to stand outside the spotlight."

"http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/arts/design/30proteges.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1"

I'll have french toast with wall honey

A very strange post from bldg blog.
A house that has been invated by bees and now has honey seeping out of it...

Living With Mies

Living Rooms With a View

These photographs of residents of Lafayette Park, a residential community in Detroit designed by the architect Mies van der Rohe, were shot in the same room in each of their townhomes. The homes share design features, including a floating staircase and floor-to-ceiling windows. Click on each of the photos to hear about how the residents live in their space and what the architect does and does not mean to them

Rrrrrough!

Would you live here?

more here

Post 500!

The best way to celebrate?
Beavertechture!

Art Gallery of Ontario

So, the panel visited the AGO yesterday.
I can't formulate a full opinion until I know what was there before the Gehry intervention. This task is proving to be very difficult as it seems like all pictures prior to the renovation have been deleted, off of .. the internet. Yes, the whole internet seems to be void of them. (Im sure there must be some around, but its damn hard to find, its like they WANT you to forget what it was before). The only reason I'm so interested is because of a very beautiful limestone wall found in the back courtyard which suggests there was a potentially interesting historic building here there at one time.
Since my practice is all about context and narrative, I NEED to know what was there in order to formulate my thoughts. I'm not a clean slate girl. Clean slates? They don't exist .. anywhere. All building sites have baggage. 
Therefore I will post pics of the AGO, from arcspace, and will defer my opinions until a later date.

Spadina and Dundas with billboards by Artist Barbara Kruger

Back of the building, facing Grange park over the historic Grange House.

Narrow

Article in Cyberpresse about two Toronto firms:

Donald Chong: donaldchongstudio.com
Drew Mandel: drewmandeldesign.com

Sleeping with the birds

Tree Hotel in Sweden

Wearable Architecture

Posted for Jet Set
"dutch design team studio roosegaarde recently teamed up with fashion designers maartje dijkstra and
anouk wipprecht to create the variable transparency intimacy dresses. these two dresses are made from
white and black e-foil, reacting to the presence of people by becoming transparent. the white intimacy
dress was made with dijkstra, while the black version was a collaboration with wipprecht. the dresses
are both made from a single flat sheet of material, cut into a pattern and fastened to give it volume.
the dresses intend to allow the wearer’s social interactions to determine the level of transparency.
the designers are also working on a bag to go with the dress and a pavilion."

via Designboom

Death of a Building

Usually we witness the birth of buidings, or at the very least a slow and steady decline to death.
Here a photographer, Christoph Gielen,  discusses witnessing a sudden death (ie blowup demolition) of a failed housing complex.

"What compels me most in the resulting images is the sudden absence of the Whitfield tower and the way the cloud’s shape describes an impact of a large mass hitting the earth. The idea that something so large, so present in the landscape could disappear almost instantly is more interesting to me than documenting its fall frame by frame. I prefer to let the image of the apparently vanished structure conjure up speculation over its former shape, its history and the reasons for its demolition."
more at the NYT

Serpentine Gallery by Jean Nouvel

From the Serpentine Gallery Website:

"This year—the Serpentine's 40th Anniversary—the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is designed by world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. This 2010 Pavilion is the 10th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It will be the architect’s first completed building in the UK.

The Pavilion commission has become an international site for architectural experimentation and follows a long tradition of Pavilions by some of the world’s greatest architects. The immediacy of the commission – a maximum of six months from invitation to completion – provides a unique model worldwide.

The design for the 2010 Pavilion is a contrast of lightweight materials and dramatic metal cantilevered structures. The entire design is rendered in a vivid red that, in a play of opposites, contrasts with the green of its park setting. In London, the colour reflects the iconic British images of traditional telephone boxes, post boxes and London buses.

The building consists of bold geometric forms, large retractable awnings and a sloped freestanding wall that stands 12m above the lawn. Striking glass, polycarbonate and fabric structures create a versatile system of interior and exterior spaces, while the flexible auditorium will accommodate the Serpentine Gallery Park Nights and Marathon and the changing summer weather.

Nouvel’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion will operate as a public space, a café and as a venue for Park Nights, the Gallery’s acclaimed programme of public talks and events, which attracts up to 250,000 visitors each summer. The pavilion design highlights the idea of play with its incorporation of traditional French outdoor table-tennis tables."

Recycling and Opera

New opera house in Quebec?

Galleries are the spiritual houses of the 2000's?

I heard this lady speak on cbc, however she recently wrote an article for the guardian postulating that galleries are replacing churches as spiritual centers. She also talks about the lack of religion in contemporary art.

"Despite the centrality of faith in the art of centuries past, religious themes within contemporary art are fading fast. At Chelsea College of Art & Design, where I work as chaplain, God is dead. As students in their studios aspire to join the avant garde there is only a faint desire to look back at works in which the Christian tradition is central. Perhaps when universal themes such as death, suffering and delight are explored though a religious and theological lens the students cannot see them. Could it be then that art is replacing religion? The Tate's Turbine Hall, into which visitors flock, could be recreating the awe and excitement that great cathedrals and churches once provided. Or is it that objects created by people are filling in the empty spaces where the ineffable and the invisible once dwelled?"

more at the guardian

No more movies

We have had similar discussions in Montreal.

"A grass-roots movement is trying to keep Main Street movie houses, with their jewel-like marquees, at the center of community life."
NYT

Arch Quiz

See how you do, its tough
From the Guardian: Friday quiz: the architect's sketch