Recently in Architecture Category

Can never get enough of Calatrava.

Interesting prefab project. The home is completely self sufficient. It collects its own electricity and water. It processes its own waste and the entire home can be controlled via a laptop. And a contemporary design to beat. Pretty cool.

Steven Holl gives a rare tour of his addition for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. It's a spectacular project. See the video here.

My parents just recently went to the American Institute of Architects - Seattle project of the year awards. The AIA posts all the submissions online. The homes are very interesting. I especially found the Cavehill Residence interesting as it was a complete remodel but on the same footprint of the original house it replaced. That's supposedly a much cheaper way to get a home built in Seattle versus building new.

Several weeks ago, I swung by the opening of the new Seattle Central Area (Douglass-Truth) library. I came away quite impressed. I think it's one of the most contemporary additions to the library system in Seattle sans the new Central Library of course. The PI just finished a review and came away disappointed that they didn't tear down the old classical building and produce a far larger contemporary building. I think the merging of old and new is cool. Although, the article mentions the architects originally proposed a larger addition. I wonder what the original proposal looked like? In any event, happy to see the library bond continuing to introduce great architecture to the city.

Former Rem Koolhaas architect Joshua Prince-Ramus (now of Ramus Ella Architects) spoke at this year's TED conference. Many of the talks from the conference were just posted. Ramus spends his talk covering the design of the Seattle Library and two other projects. Can't say I like the architecture too much but I do like the pushing of boundaries and interesting approaches to solving clients requirements.

For example, for the Seattle Library their analysis identified the social responsibility of the library to act as a public space and pushed to design for it. Initially, the librarians weren't at all interested in the public meeting place aspect of the project. That surprised me especially given all the public funds allocated to the library system. You'd think the city would have put some guidelines on how the library funds were to be allocated. Glad the architects were paying attention.

Since the debut of the Seattle Library, I've found I now enjoy bold architectural statements in some of the structures in our city even if I don't totally agree with the design direction. Viva le difference! Video of his talk here.

Any architecture fans out there or if you're looking for an architect, don't miss James Culter speaking Wednesday 12/7, 6:30 pm at Design Within Reach on 1st Ave. downtown Seattle. He's one of the top architects in the Pacific Northwest.

Wednesday night I went to a lecture to hear Charles Jencks speak. He's a big architectural critic and was here to talk about "the building as icon" and an amazing garden he designed in Scotland.

The majority of the lecture was focused on comments on why iconic building like the Guggenheim in Bilbao are springing up all over the world. Sure there's any economic bonus from these projects. It cost $100M to build the Guggenheim in Bilbao. The city brought in $100M the first year after it was built. $200 million the next year and the cash has been rolling in ever since. But this was a lesser factor from his perspective. According to him these buildings are now being funded because despite religious fundamentalist movements occurring all the world, it's his belief that the world is becoming more and more agnostic. The iconic buildings of yesteryear where churches. No longer.

This brought up an intersting question during Q&A which was hosted by Peter Miller. He was asked why he thought religious fundamentalist movements were seemly gaining strength. Interestingly, he said fundamentalist movements were not attempts to take society back in time. Rather they were modernist movements. Surprised by that statement, I got home and looked up the definition of modernism in Wikipedia. He absolutely has a point:

The modernist movement emerged in the mid-19th century in France and was rooted in the idea that "traditional" forms of art, literature, social organization and daily life had become outdated, and that it was therefore essential to sweep them aside and reinvent culture. Modernism encouraged the idea of re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was "holding back" progress, and replacing it with new, and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end.

Jencks went on to say that, for example, muslim fundamentalism is a reaction to many poor of the world who are frustrated by being left behind. Very interesting perspective.

It's been on my to-do list for some time to do some self study on modernism. I was mostly interesting in learning more about architects like Le Corbusier. But now I'd like to learn more about the movement it-self and contrast it to post modernism.

I recently purchased the soundtrack to My Architect. There's an interesting audio excerpt from something Louis kahn said about art. Pretty interesting (.mp4)

Any architecture fans out there in Seattle don't want to miss Santiago Calatrava speaking at the UW on Sunday, 7pm November 7th. Unfortunately, I'll be out of town but this is a chance to see one of architecture's superstars. Catch his exhibit at the Henry before the lecture too.