10(+) MORE architects i have been thinking about

I have some Venice and surroundings here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorcasino/sets/72157601373054872/

this is my favorite thing in the world at the moment:

http://www.spaceinvading.com/bookmarklet/Images/0401091231094892leoniestair.jpg
http://www.spaceinvading.com/bookmarklet/Images/0401091231094893leoniestair3.jpg
http://www.spaceinvading.com/bookmarklet/Images/0401091231094893leoniestair2.jpg

by Levitate Architects

haha I thought that first shot was an elevation and was like "whaaaaaaat?"

That design is a really fantastic thing.

haha, did the same thing!

that stairbookcase is insanely beautiful: the top image reminds me of this mad dream i used to have as a child about a rabbit-warren library with walls made of earth ane books.

i posted that stairbookcase to the What do your books look like? thread on ILB and stet said:

That looks great, but is functionally crap: you'll kick dirt into the books as you climb, and the ones at eye level are furthest from your eyes.

which kinda boggled me.

well yeah but it's more of a limited space solution than it is a most perfectly accessible behind glass eye level book collection solution.

dezeen maybe needs to work on the color balance for those video interviews they're doing - ross lovegrove looks like a DEMON! I was going to post the pic here but it's actually too frightening so I'll link instead.

http://www.dezeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/rosslovegrove.jpg

ross lovegrove IS a demon. did you watch the Aranda\Lasch one? fancy themselves a bit, don't they?

I just watched it - my gosh I hate it when designers think they're doing something scientific when they're just aping the aesthetics of science.

well exactly. so they do some actually quite beautiful faceted tiles etc. that's good enough! the introduction where one of them keeps reiterating how serious they are actually made me feel quite depressed.

I would be so supportive of them if they said "We like triangles and crystals because they are pretty! We make very expensive things that kind of look like them."

Yeah, the thing is in twenty or thirty years it'll be quite clear that some designers were aggressively interrogating the possibilities of new materials and computer-aided-manufacturing, and others were picking up on the look...but while the former MAY end up more valorized, it's the pretty-looking stuff (from either camp) that will rack up big prices at vintage stores.

Thinking specifically of midcentury furniture here - some of it was made by material geeks trying to figure out how to do things that were never possible before, and some of it was made by people who thought outer space was super neat, but all of it's kind of great.

i couldn't actually work out whether they were trying to take the piss by going on about how serious they were? or do they just have zero sense of humour?

xpost

also, i still don't get the Bloomframe exactly - why not just...have a balcony?

I think they were taking the piss, but trying to be funny by talking about how serious you are only works if you're funny.

i just see it as another way to have a balcony. it's neat and clever and seductive!

Well yeah, transforming stuff is kind of guaranteed to be cool in my book.... but would you ever actually have it in the closed-up position?

I guess it depends on climate really..

if you were in glasgow the question would be - would you ever actually have it in the open position?

No, the question would be - why do you actually live in Glasgow? Ba-dum-CH!

i'd laugh at that if i didn't take myself so seriously.

I beg your pardon; I know next to nothing about Glasgow and am just free-zinging.

;)

http://www.archdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/1789314738_01.jpg

ok were the designers of Jenga paid off for this

also, "free-zinging"! cute.

I blogged about Michael Graves :/
http://theskyscraperblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/something-about-hating-michael-graves.html

Great Blog Name!

THANKS!

hi, what's happening in architecture? has spaceinvading replaced our lovely thread?

Frozen skyline

And I guess things have got worse since then. Mentions Newhall in Essex, which has some quite interesting smaller houses.

Reversible Destiny Housing by Arakawa and Madeline Gins

Neo-Hundertwasser?

Ooooh speaking of Spaceinvading these are great: http://www.space-invaders.com/ I saw a good few in Paris (including on Picasso's chimney). Great fun!

http://www.space-invaders.com/images/pa636gp.jpg

I've a few on the flickr account thingy but can't post private pics to ILX sadly...

Ha, I've seen a few such things too, never realized it was a movement (or whatever)!

http://www.freewebs.com/jannekevanderlinden/Central-Chinese-Television-CCTV-Beijing%20Rem%20koolhaas.jpg = http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/2/9/1234201284213/Mandarin-Oriental-hotel-f-001.jpg

wtf?!

It's not the actualy 'square' that went up in flames, no? 'Just' one of the buildings next/across it?

Anyway, a sad thing. They had Rem Koolhaas on Dutch TV and he was pretty gutted.

ah yes, the news reports on this are pretty confusing. still an unfinished koolhaas building goes up/down. sad.

this one:

http://www.eikongraphia.com/wordpress/wp-content/OMA%20-%20TVCC%20Exterior.jpg

which i think is hideous but there's little point in discussing that now.

It looks like an uncomfortable chair. Still RIP and all that...

ha, yes it does!

symbol of 2008 starchitect culture inadvertently becomes symbol of 2009 starchitect culture

I've a few on the flickr account thingy but can't post private pics to ILX sadly...

I think you can. At least I have in the past.

guys, teach me about Lebbeus Woods and where to start with his work

Anarchitecture: Architecture is a Political Act is good.

He's a good thinker and a great draftsman - he started out doing renderings in Saarinen's office! Super radical unusable proposals, but at heart he's a big classical softie with all the attendant ideas about the shape of a city reflecting the shape of a culture that you see in Boullee or Alberti's work.

I should look him up - I know him only from the rather stiff treatment Neal Leach gives him in Anaesthetics of Architecture for, I guess, taking formal inspiration from the devastation of Sarajevo? Or something? It's been a little bit and I was reading it in a hurry.

should be 'neil'

guys, teach me about Lebbeus Woods and where to start with his work

― mh, Monday, February 9, 2009 8:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^fuckin huge stan of this guy

haha my friend texted me "did you hear about rem's building getting butthaased"

I've a few on the flickr account thingy but can't post private pics to ILX sadly...

I think you can. At least I have in the past.

― The Unbelievably Insensitive Baroness Vadera (Ned Trifle II), Monday, 9 February 2009 21:53

Okay will try.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/3062664793_1f0307997b.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/3063521590_968bf57fe0.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/3063525894_0ab706feb2.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3165/3062688335_bce423a48b.jpg?v=0