Beer and Poetry Notes

The first of Beer and Poetry, again. Sorry this is such a long post, but it includes notes from two meetings. Happy musing!

• ideas for module content generation
  
• interventions
• haiku reviews of architecture lectures
• whatever we can get submissions, if people like it we'll bring it back
• quotes
• for discussions
• possible focus points for discussions prepared before or after
• also could gain ideas from discussion and research and generate later
• audience?
• publicize something to get attention for it
• however - this is for getting our ideas out and matured on paper for us
• represent readings
• core group for content and reader generated submissions if available
• We are not writing for someone
• get issue done before buzz
• Open source architecture/ Architecture for Humanity Cameron Sinclair
• a network for people to submit designs for third world countries
• can be anything even mundane
• openly submit design ideas, test them and see if they work
• once design is built it can't be copywrighted by anyone else, but anyone in any third world country can download it and built it
• collaborations
• architecture school
• tension of architecture
• trying to design "good" architecture conservatively in school, versus breaking boundaries
• new expeiences based on architectural thougts
• architecture school experience
• insiteful writing on issues of bein involved in architecture culture
• environment for learning
• challengeing your environment what means what and how
• disecting a wink
• Procrastination- self-reflection
• Biggest issue= wrap around Ambrose
• "If you love it, clone it"
• Dont be pretentious- no elevated vocab, dont want to fart above our assholes, meaningful, well-informed words.
• Studio culture= isolated from campus, want an issue in Diamondback
• Module= Diamondback for architecture school, relationship to university-get other people involved
  
• Slip them in the Diamondback
• Better way to teach architecture?? Could we learn architecture without being in studio? Better to be submerged or to step back and think about it? Where is the balance?
• Is there a happy architecture student? Is it appropriate for a university campus? Should we be in a firm as a mentor?
• Should we be designing retreats? What should we be learning?
  
• Different teachers are better for different people
• Problem= dissconnect with critic and student
• Explain, analyze problems and then have a 'so what', what do we do about it?
• ALWAYS GOING TO BE MORE, need a stopping point- Is there ever an end?
• Can design the same project their whole life and never be done, fundamentals of design is always evolving. If time allows evolution of design- will always be more/new design
• Quotes- how we are introduced to things
• Possible theme= word, can be organic but also think critically. Can interpret a word in so many ways, good idea for theme
  
• We are isolated- how do you connect to the world? Talk to other majors?
• Quad conference- generate other things, generate buzz
• Restraint vs editing- fell free to edit, but dont restrain each other. This needs to be a free space.
• Write something, put your thoughts after it- the exquisite corpse
• Inviting excessability- dont do too much text/content/graphics
• Website- post cool sites, visit it, get inspired.
• Digital vs something tangible, better reading it out of the magazine or online?
  
• Attending Beer and Poetry Night is mandatory for any influence on direction
• definitions of architecture
• architecture is shit
• is the creation of shelt by a group of individuals
• is what does it matter to define
  
• primitive hut
• architecture is such an ambiguous topic, imore vague then other careers
• constant issue in the field of architecture
• in architecture - you CAN do more than be architect
• architecture is a "pretty" way in which we can define our discipline
• where does design want to manifest itself. Can't it manifest itse;f in other interventions
• Do you still beat your wife?
• Be organic!

meeting 4/10/09

• meetings => contribute to discussions
• never really settled on theme, but led to discussion of lots of themes
• we'll talk about this for 30 min and you talk about this for 30 minutes
• not an organization - cloud of changing people
• intended audience - other school from architecture
• ways to get around the edge of getting money
• fundraising - sell it to firms
• macnturff
• steve parker
• money through egb and sga
• faculty members maybe be willing to pitch in research money
• school of architecture
• don't let professors publish
• don't let alumni write in it
  
• keep it student => don't let it become an organization -> no members no dues
• secret santa for ideas
• other people read your ideas - starter for development of ideas
• decide audience - no critique of any faculty members or projects specifically
• turn it into an archetype that could apply to many different settings
• may use this semester to brainstorm and get ideas started and raise awareness - fundraise all summer and bang it out in september

Too High Tea with Terunobu Fujimori

image courtesy of dezeen.com

image courtesy of designcrack.com

a fruitful bit o' diggin' yielded this architectural gem today.

Terunobu Fujimori is a Japanese architectural historian and architect who, after a well-developed career as a researcher, decided to design buildings of his own. This tea house was for his own use and enjoyment. For more info check Fujimori's own site.

Just a quick, fo' fun post today!

good ol' boring architecture

New and exciting is great, and boring and old is bad. Right? maybe?

Let me preface this by saying that I haven't done much research on the subject, but I have made a lot of my own assumptions. Of course, this completely qualifies me to shoot my mouth off about it.
Some buildings are just good at doing what they do. The architect knew the job the building had to do, and desigined accordingly. Usually with these buildings, they have nice moments, and the inhabitants generally enjoy living/ working/ playing/ eating/ whatevering inside them without taking much notice of how their built environment is assisting their enjoyment. Is it such a terrible thing to strive for making these sort of buildings?

Sort of. An architect's primary responsibility should be to make space that considers its users and effectively engages its program and, if possible, future programs that may present themselves. If you're building achieves this through a standard procedure, in ways that have been done thousands of times, well then great. You still probably have an idea of why these methods work and why fix something that's not broken. Congratulations your building works.

Taking larger risks can mean larger rewards, sometimes. It's always interesting when architects question the fundamentals. Why do we have to do it this way? What does it mean to eat, or sleep or view, or rest? These questions can lead to some absolutely terrible buildings. They also can lead to buildings that are beautiful physical representations of an idea about living, but don't seem to work on a realistic, day-to-day basis. It seems like our history books are full of buildings like this.

The problem is that as an architect it's difficult enough to balance the clients needs and expectations, with your own ideas about architecture. Adding the risk of trying to answer too many questions and the job seems nearly impossible. Unless, of course, you've established yourself enough to gain rich clients that want you to make big clear moves in your architecture, even at the expense of smaller, basic details and programtic requirements. Starchitecture is often it's own worst enemy, ask Frank Gehry.

Maybe it's simply about finding a balance between fresh hot, and functional. The idea of building something that "looks nice" on the street and achieves success through the rigorous employment of standards and precedence set by others is somewhat dull. However, designing a flashy building that only works in one way isn't all that appealing either. Focused questioning can lead to some beautiful and unique solutions, and standard solutions can fill in the blanks. This allows a building to have an identity with out losing it's practicality.

project the first

So here it is, the first studio project of the semester and it's already winding down.

The Site: Santa Fe, New Orleans, Minneapolis, or Seattle (but the same site plan for each)

The Client: a pianist, sculpture or large canvas painter of your creation

The Program: A studio, an outdoor performance/gallery, living space (eating, sleeping, peeing...), a stargazing area, and a wine cellar.

Personally, I have a Pianist heading up a music collective, who's a bit of a rebel and a lot of a night owl. She chose Santa Fe as her geographic and climatic existence.
The concept I concocted for her home and studio in Santa Fe, is a lantern plugged in to the landscape, allowing her to enjoy her surroundings at night. The lantern will be contained/framed by shifting punctured planes of concrete.
The concrete planes and cubic shape of the studio lantern reflect the volumetric forms found in the area. Their punctured and shifting nature allows focus to be placed on the glass encased in them, promoting the idea of my client as a structured yet dynamic and creative individual. The shape and position of the concrete is in response to climatic variables such as the position of the sun and direction of the wind.

Here's the sketch up model. Real plans, sections and perspectives may find their way here as well.

And finally: MoMA

MoMA is sweet. We can all give Yoshio Taniguchi a large round of applause for desiging it's expansion and renovation. According to MoMA.org, Taniguchi's plan for the museum was to incorporate the original pieces of the museum into a unified whole. The renovation greatly increased MoMA's gallery space as well as added a research and education portion to the museum.

A bustling lobby reflects the busy street life of the NYC.

Visual and circulatory connections between the old and new.

Taniguchi punched out sections of wall to allow visitors to get glimpses into other parts of the museum. Not much of the galleries that the punch-outs lead to are revealed, and they all seem to be filled with the same quality of light. This makes the punch-outs feel like ambiguous lanterns cut in to the wall.

Taniguchi continues the idea of punch-outs in to exterior views as well.

roflcopters

The most exciting gallery space, in my not-so-professional opinion, was the industrial design and architecture portion of MoMA.

It incorporated installments from famous architects like Frank Gehry

and Phillip Johnson



to the likes of Evan Roth (UMD what?!) and the Graffiti Research Lab.






This is only a taste of MoMA. It's filled to the bursting point with amazing art and exhibits, but unfortunately that must be saved for some other blog.... well, o.k. here's this stuff...

Dear MoMA,

Thanks for that great night in NYC. We'll have to do it again some time. How does spring break sound?

Yours sincerely,

Me

CCTV tower may have been too fresh hot...

A rogue firecracker seems to have lit up the Beijing Mandarin Oriental Hotel, designed by Rem Koolhaas as part of the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. Tears.

I ♥ NY

We may have been a few months late, but we finally made it to NYC. A roadtrip to New York was a great way to spend the last Friday of winter break. First, a post on everything up to MOMA and later a post on MOMA!

Our visits to fresh hot architecture in the Big Apple included:

• The Apple store on Fifth avenue for some trendy fresh hotness. What better way to say "we're apple, we're hip, and we want your money" than a giant apple logo floating in a glass box. Thank you Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. For more info check LOISOS + UBBERLOHDE (the constultant's page) and BCJ's own page.

• Pinkberry, where frozen yogurt has never been so fresh hot. According to wikipedia, the first store was opened in 2005 by Shelly Hwang and Young Lee. Apparently, Young lee is an architect, and although I couldn't not find anything concrete saying he was responsible for some the chain's interior design trademarks, it's probably a safe assumption. Here's an interesting article on about "Crackberry" as fanboys call it, the "phenomena" of the frozen yogurt wars at CNN.

• Lever House, because it was fresh hot in it's day (some day in 1952 to be exact) and was next to the Seagram building. Sorry Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, we don't really like Mies that much more than you, the Seagrams building was just a more noticeable landmark because of it's height. Providing the boulevard with it's first glass curtain wall (leaverhouse.com) the Leaver House is great example of the application of high modernism and the international style ( greatbuildingsonline.com).
• 

• The Seagram building. Effin' Mies. Erected from '54 to '58, piloti and all, Mies' sky scraper clearly reflects his ideas of celebrating the structure of a sky scraper rather than covering it up with "a chaos of meaningless and trivial forms." (Mies' own words atgreatbuildings.com) The dark Bronze of the Seagram building truly does give it an attractive drama when compared to the buildings around it compared to the buildings around it. Although, the plaza around it seemed a bit sparse or unbalanced do to the fountain and plants crowding the 53rd st. side of the building.

• interesting places we passed by:

• The Citicorp Center

• Unfortunatley, I can't remember the name of this successful plaza at the moment, but I will update once I figure it out. Yes, I know, the pic does not depict a successful public plaza, but it is January after all.

• LEED pursuit!

• Facade? Billboard? Iconic..

• Deconstructivism?
  

And next time...MOMA.