10(+) MORE architects i have been thinking about

yep, get me a spacebox while you're at the shop.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/08/adaptation-or-disaster/

what??? Not quite buying this story.

I think there were maybe some errors that wouldn't have been super expensive to fix but somehow it was quite convenient cut out the condo portion which hadn't been selling at all.

this rem koolhaas thing, lord love him, has provided me with more architecture lols than anything ever has iirc

also would smash francois roche, pretty sure

+ would like more info on this pollution house, google is tough on me here

http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/lantern_02_11/l22_17910347.jpg

looks like the end stages of a robot fight

pair of pants beats balled-up chair, sorry dude

"Clash of the Chair titans!" (xpost)

the stonework on this is pretty awe inspiring. the second photo is like o_O

http://www.archdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/1167062845_wang-shu-ningbo-museum-4124.jpg
http://www.archdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/470058299_wang-shu-ningbo-museum-4278.jpg
http://www.archdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/1213211655_wang-shu-ningbo-museum-4405.jpg
http://www.archdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/982224247_wang-shu-ningbo-museum-4391.jpg

Saw that the other day on SpaceInvading - pretty wicked. What IS it, again? That ramp in the last photo is pretty monumental considering it goes just nowhere at all.

some kind of regional chinese historic museum.

i think the reason it impresses me so much is that i can never think this way, i'm too rigid and reasoned in my thinking but i really admire the look of this. not so sure about the overall context and the interiors.

the Ningbo Historic Museum designed by Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio.

Great firm name!

Thanks for the info. And yeah - I have a tough time bringing in the irrational and the miscellaneous. It's my first instinct to do so, but I can never keep it under control so I end up simplifying the stuff I like best right out of the project.

(This is my last quarter of studio as I may have mentioned and I'm sort of burnt out anyway, don't mind me if the above sounds sort of tragic.)

well overall it's the most useful and productive way to work so i wouldn't get depressed about it.

Comment by roxy lost in the discussion of pomo upthread:

also, are there any wittgenstein/popper-esque stories about famous architects beefing? i never encounter these. are architects just chill?

There are some good ones! Off the top of my head:

* Bernini versus Borromini - the former said the latter had been "sent to destroy architecture." Lots of cute anecdotes about how a project by one would be a deliberate attempt to upstage a project by another - Bernini's fountains in Piazza Navona featuring a statue arguably recoiling in horror from the Borromini building it faces, etc. They were also stereotypical Hollywood opposites - He's a genteel, suave, theatrical architect - he's a low-born geometry nut who bludgeons workmen to death for bad craft!

* Frank Lloyd Wright versus everybody. Ego a-go-go and he didn't take well to the long years of being considered a has-been, eg "the greatest architect of the 19th century" according to MOMA. Refused to meet with Gropius when the latter came to America, and I think there's some story of a really awkward meeting with Mies. There are also some perceived betrayals by his students, I think - I'm pretty sure he fired Soleri for some reason.

* More recently - there was some kind of falling out among the New York Five, possibly relating to the pomo tendencies of some of its members? But they all still support each other's work. Supposedly the generation just after them (Stephen Holl, Williams & Tsien et al) are much more fractious generally but this is just repeating things said by professors; I have no details because, y'know, it's a generational thing to really care. If I'd been following it at the time, it'd probably be as clear to me as Eminem's beef with Triumph the puppet dog, but, well, LOL 1980s u old.

Oh, and not to be missed, Adolf Loos vs. Josef Hoffmann. I'm not sure the latter ever really shot back but Loos couldn't stand Jugendstil/Art Nouveau, and Ornament and Crime is more or less an anti-Hoffmann screed. Great little read, too, if you haven't done it - should be easily found in full-text online. Any architectural text that accuses people of being "either a criminal or a degenerate" has to be good. (Warning, icky early-20th century racism is in full force.)

casino, i love you

hahah, well, I love being in TA mode, so thanks!

Ornament and Crime is probably my next favorite piece of architectural writing after the Futurist Manifesto.

I am now thinking about Frank Gehry because I just saw him on Arthur - complete with Arthur-esque ears.
http://13.media.tumblr.com/1195466_400.jpg
He was also on The Simpsons iirc, which must make him unique among architects I think.

So while we're at it - this is one of his buildings I really like - much less...er...ornamental than his more well known stuff.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Hannover_Gehry-Tower.jpg

What I like about it is that he hasn't really done that much but it's enough. If that makes sense.

haha, he WAS on The Simpsons - note the letter box.
http://blog.davidteoh.com/archives/simp5.jpg
OK, enough Gehry already.

Huh, didn't know about that one in Hannover, or the Arthur appearance...nice!

http://www.dezeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/kvadrat-showroom-by-peter-saville-and-david-adjaye-2-kvadrat-1.jpg

http://www.dezeen.com/2009/03/20/kvadrat-showroom-by-peter-saville-and-david-adjaye/

awesome what can be done with a showroom that doesn't display anything!

that project is utterly gorgeous.

just drooling over it, makes me happy to have specified mostly Kvadrat fabrics on my current project.

I am not much of a fan which is odd because normally I'm all about the "ooh shiny"!

Has anyone been to Le Courboisier exhibition in The Barbican? I am wondering if it's worth travelling over for.

Eldridge Smerins
http://www.eldridgesmerin.com/img/projects/hampsteadvillage_large6.jpg
http://www.eldridgesmerin.com/img/projects/kithouse_large1.jpg
http://www.eldridgesmerin.com/img/projects/highgatecem_large2.jpg

Lots more pix at the architects website.
I really like the first two there, but the third one I'm in two minds about - firstly the glass corners look a bit awkward i think and second it replaces a fine house by John Winter (which I am struggling to find a photo of sadly). In fact I'm pretty sure it was Winter's own house, which was a lovely floating glass box of a house.

http://www.eldridgesmerin.com/img/projects/hampsteadvillage_large6.jpg

^ prefer the one on the left

i like them both, i think. i would probably prefer to live in the new one.

the middle one was the subject of last week's grand designs (a UK TV show that follows the construction of a house from plans to completion.)

Where did I read about that one on the end? I think NYT or Dezeen. Still. I likes it.

I like all of his things. I don't like Grand Designs. The host (and people responsible for some of the monstrosities) make me v v angry.

the middle one was the subject of last week's grand design

Damn, really? I have given up with the programme specifically because of Kevin McCloud. "When that huge piece of granite fell on your head - how did that feel?" and his constant tone of impending disaster - but I would have liked to have seen more of that house. It's described as "low cost" by the architects, but I notice it has a price tag of £650k on the Grand Designs site. I suppose these things are relative.

^ prefer the one on the left

I lived in a house v. similar to that and it was great in many ways, character, lots of wood, lots of space but it was terrible to heat, terrible to keep clean and bits kept falling off it. I don't know if it's everyone's experience but once a house gets to about 100 years old it really starts to feel it's age. I would have given anything to have moved into "the house next door" there. Also check out this inside wall.
http://www.eldridgesmerin.com/img/projects/hampsteadvillage_large4.jpg

yeah "Low Cost" my arse. the building looked like it was going to be great but the interior was pretty poor, i have to say.

Talking of ceder cladding (I know we weren't but the hpuse on the middle there is) I went to see a housing scheme in Birmingham the other day built in 1917 from pre-fabricated cedar clad houses made in Michigan. A little bit of Americana in the heart of England.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3297/3332809131_ca78a0ffb8.jpg

fwiw, i don't mind kevin mcleod it's the clients that make me mad. more often that not it's a childless couple building a six bedroom house or something. cunts, usually.

I always shout at the TV - WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING!!!??? - and it always turns out to be "consultant" or "interior designer".

I think when an architect says a project is "low cost" it means the client didn't spend as much as the architect wanted them to.

Ha! Everyone OTM.

I used to (as penance for my sins) be responsible for an historically very important Georgian building for more than five years (on top of my day job). Having dealt in parts with conservationists, architects and general "ooh the past was so great why would you ever need CAT-5 cabling?" types of people I now err on the side of modern. Case in point: I'm off in May to check out the Vitra design museum on a visit to the parental units. Why is this a case in point? Well, if I ever have to deal with another sacrosanct building again at least I'll know what fun can be had with a hangar and a bit of money. Bloody architectural sacred cows...

I will admit that I am now a total wood snob. It behoves on on such occasions to be able to spot one's cuban mahogany (phwoar!!!) from one's stained oak.

I will admit that I am now a total wood snob. It behoves on on such occasions to be able to spot one's cuban mahogany (phwoar!!!) from one's stained oak.

co-sign! I'd be lost without my American Woodwork Institute Quality Standards Handbook.

http://spaceinvading.com/bookmarklet/Images/resized/2603091238108405frame_bar.05.jpg
http://spaceinvading.com/entry/project_id/Frame_Bar200903261238108397

okay, this seems to be a nice enough design but descriptions like this...

The main aim of the design was to recreate the usual typologies of chairs, benches, bars stands, tables and coffee tables using forms that morph from one geometry to the other, thus denying determined typology - activity associations.

...make me insanely angry. You mean the main aim of the design wasn't to create an enjoyable gathering place or a successful business? The client came to you and said "we are seeking to deny determined typology - activity associations, what do you suggest?" Fuck designers who describe their built projects as anything other than the result of a set of very real client, financial, and regulatory requirements.

I don't mean to dismiss larger design concepts - I just want designers to acknowledge that the concept serves the project rather than the other way around.

YAY PRITZKER

http://mamariapapoila.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/peter_zumthor1.jpg

Nice. I'm pretty sure his chapel was put up somewhere else here(perhaps it was on the other thread) but here's another view of it anyway...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/3122721913_bcb11d573d.jpg

Lots of detail on it on the flickr page from whence it came. The photographer,seier+seier+seier, has a big set of architecture photos worth seeing.

Yeah, Seier is the man! Great photos, really selective with what he posts, and obviously a thoughtful writer. Definitely learned a lot from him.

At this point AFAICT the Pritzker is a kind of honorary award for living long enough and doing at least two or three buildings nobody dislikes. It helps that Zumthor lives in a hermit hut in the middle of the Alps (or something to that effect) and hasn't made any enemies. I don't mean to diminish him because I love his buildings - but it's interesting to ask who HASN'T gotten it by now that arguably "should" have... if I ever remember my Archinect login info maybe I'll take it over there though.

^otm

My reaction on hearing who won the Pritzker every year is usually "What? They didn't already have one?"

sure that's partly it but i'm such a staunch fan of zumthor. i really do think he's the best in the world!