google parade on google street.

Image: Chicken by Nicolas Lampert,
via Street With A View.

Pittsburgh artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley, with help from a mattress factory and a local gallery, collaborated with Google last year to inject performance and street art into Google map's street view feature. Giving the usually utilitarian (but often novel) feature a sense of culture and community to the streets(view) of Pittsburgh's Northside. They posed various scenes, an artist's chicken sculpture, a faux marathon, band practice, rapunzelesque mattress factory escapes, and in some cases the locals of the community caught on and joined in with the spectacle.

No doubt, this was somewhat inspired by the various unintended scenes that have been found on Google maps or street view, most of which have been removed. The topless sunbathing Dutch woman, a drunk Australian man passed out in his own gutter, crimes in progress, adult movie/market follies, and spectral looking entities open to interpretation, are a few of the things that have been found by street view wanderlust.

Soon enough, a schedule of google's street view-mobile will be blogged. Local business people, artists, exhibitionists, and nutjobs will take to the streets to pimp out their wares, creations, and ideologies for you to find while looking to get directions. David Koresh wannabe's with John 3:16 signs. Liquor stores advertising a 'street-view extravaganza!' of 2-for-1 Budwiser tall cans. Daniel showing his girlfriend how much he 'loves' her by getting a picture of them making out on google.com. Budding architecture firms throwing up guerilla installations to show off their design talent.

This is clearly the age where privacy dies and transparency reigns. Your identity can't be stolen, the world knows exactly who you are anyways. Everyone knows everything about you, your face is slapped across the internet, including a picture of you waving from your stoop on google street view when friends attempt to find where you live.

Image: Marching Band,
via Street With A View.

links to enjoy 1.28.09.

• The English House @ Fantastic Journal. - "Just what is it that makes yesterday’s homes so different, so appealing? Over 30 million people visit stately homes annually in the UK. The National Trust has grown to 3.5 million members in recent years..."
  


• WTC Clusterfuck @ Curbed. - "Behold! Our updated, wildly confusing World Trade Center timeline infographic! Hey, what's with the question mark on Lord Norman Foster's diamond-topped Tower 2, and Sir Richard Rogers' bulgy-bottomed Tower 3? Brace..."
  


• 300,000 pack of Bic pens @ Designboom. - "tomas gabzdil libertiny of rotterdam’s studio libertiny sent us some images of his latest design. ‘the bic blue cabinet’..."
  


• Hacker Commune @ NYT. - "A ROBOTIC roller skate propels itself across the fifth floor of an old sewing factory at 397 Bridge Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The softly lighted room is permeated by an acrid odor..."
  


• Buildings can Matter? @ Architecture + Morality. - "If it is not obvious to most people already, there is no doubt: the current economic recession has had devastating consequences to the building trades, in particular architects..."
  


• Applied Graphic Design Math @ Architectural Scholar. - "The application of diagrams extends beyond its classical field of use today. Data Flow charts this development, introduces the expansive scope of innovatively designed diagrams and presents an abundant range of possibilities..."
  


• Absurdos 100 House in Sketchup @ Arch Daily. - "A few days ago we featured an interview with Alejandro Aravena and his project for a villa in ORDOS 100, with more than 70 images. In order to further extend the possibilities of understanding this project, Alejandro shared with us a very detailed Sketchup model..."
  

projects to enjoy 1.13.09.

Here is the first installment of bi-weeklyish short list posts of a few of the interesting projects floating around the 'sphere. Next up, I am going to do the same with architecture related links, often with more reading than pretty pictures.

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Bronnoysund Waterfront by Fantastic Norway


Image: Bronnoysund Waterfront, via designboom.

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Residence in Toyama by Yukihide Mizuno


Image: Residence in Toyama, by Yukihide Mizuno.

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Sperone Westwater Gallery by Foster+Partners


Image: Sperone Westwater Gallery, via designboom.

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House 1 by Claudio Vilarinho


Image: House 1, from Claudio Vilarinho.

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Maritime Youth House by PLOT


Image: Maritime Youth House, via Arch Daily.

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The National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra by Konior Studio


Image: The National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, from Konior Studio.

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implicit truth.

Yes, yes, that's right. Thanks go out to Swissmiss for this one.

cold stark living.

Everyone these days is used to checking out some new residential architecture and finding spaces or complete homes wrapped from floor to ceiling with a single material or finish. Art collectors with 'stark' white-wrapped walls, often throughout the rest of the house even where there isn't any art for the desired contrast. The 'cold' concrete homes where it looks like someone was hired to pour the foundation and ended up doing the framing, finishing, casework, and often the furniture. I put the words stark and cold in quotes in a sarcastic way, since they are adjectives I often hear used to describe interiors finished in this way by those who seem to not get along with spaces defined only by lights and shadows rather than the hard edges of differing materials.

Image: Chalet de vacances aux Diablerets,
by Charles Pictet Architecte.

It came as a surprise to me when I saw these photos of the first home I have come across, where the same uniform material style was applied, but with exposed grain wood rather than a concrete or matte blanket. This seemed fresh, maybe it's the contrast it has with the previously mentioned materials or that due to the light wood finish it feels like I can experience the aroma of the place (smells like freshly sawed pine), the interior just felt new to me.

With a material which is thought of as warm, like wood, would someone who's comfort is offended by complete concrete and matte houses, find this 'stark' or 'cold'? If so, I wonder what material or color in this kind of excess would work for those individuals, or if none to that excess what saturation would be acceptable.

Image: Chalet de vacances aux Diablerets, by Charles Pictet Architecte.

What about a house where every bit of the interior is wallpapered with... wallpaper? Surely it must be a very rare fetish to enjoy frilly patterns, 70's flowers, pinstripes, or cartoon dinosaurs surrounding you, dominating your eyes, feet, and thoughts until you run from the house screaming from an architecture induced panic attack. A constant of carpet may be acceptable to most. It just seems to me that most who think a concrete house feels like a prison, find satiation in spaces lined with various materials and finishes any of which done in an extreme would be headache in comparison to concrete or white everywhere.

Image: Chalet de vacances aux Diablerets, by Charles Pictet Architecte.

I would love to know more about this, and why people develop these associations. Of course no design should work for all or it wouldn't be design, it's the flippancy and the writing off of such design I would like a stronger grasp on. I more understand (but don't excuse!) the hardcore minimalist's anti-ornament comments more than the traditionalist's comments about living in a prison. I guess I can relate more to a fight against the comfort zone, rather than never having traveled out of it.

tin robot salute to 2008.

What a better time than the new year to post again, and hopefully start a trend of doing so (1 makes a pattern?). New posts coming very soon about architecture with a little psudo-science, math, and music mixed in, as well as posts on the architecture school application process that is so quickly coming up on me, and possibly a new design (don't hold me to it). More frequent and unfettered posts alone, will please the robot.

Happy new year to all, and here's to another twelve months of experiences, hopefully some good architecture sculpture to ogle. Don't forget to salute, just as the robot.

eight projects.

I have been on a bit of a hiatus and will continue to be for another couple weeks due to a summer class. In the mean time I decided to post links and pictures to a few of the many projects I have been digging on recently. No real content, just some flashy pictures and links to things other people wrote! Real content posting will continue soon enough, for now, enjoy!

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Romita Project by PRODUCTORA Arquitectos


Image: Romita Project, by PRODUCTORA Arquitectos.

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Casa en el Campo by Juan Herreros Arquitectos


Image: Casa en el Campo, via Plataforma Arquitectura.

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The Blue Planet by 3XN Architects


Image: The Blue Planet, by 3XN Architects.

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TDA House by Cadaval Sola Morales


Image: TDA House, by Cadaval Sola Morales.

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Macro Museum by ODBC Architectes Urbanistes


Image: Macro Museum, by ODBC Architectes Urbanistes.

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Building Tamarindos 29 by Garduno Arquitectos


Image: Building Tamarindos, by Garduno Arquitectos.

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Office Building by Manuel Graça Dias + Egas José Vieira


Image: Office Building, via A Barriga de um Arquitecto.

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Tribeca Building by Alison Brooks Architects


Image: Tribeca Building, by Alison Brooks Architects.

repaired shop.

Image: Villa de Murph, by bldgs.

While searching around local neighborhoods for a project to call home (quite literally), an architecture firm duo, in Atlanta came across a dilapidated gem of an old repair shop. Their own little slice of gentrification, the duo transformed the repair shop into a live/work space with flexibility, comfortability, style, and honesty. Their design is a perfect mix of social space, design studio, and private area with stunningly intelligent adaptive reuse to boot. The parties that could be had with this pad...

I could just go on to tell the story and let images do most of the talking, but the architects (and inhabitants!) know it better themselves, and have already done the word work for me, and for you.

Image: Villa de Murph, by bldgs.

I started by driving around in the bad neighborhoods. Vacant lots, railroad lines, burned-out buildings. These are the industrial parts of the downtown, which still show the deep scars of a late-century urban flight. I was looking for something that nobody else wanted anymore. Something anonymous, something forgotten.

The building had been abandoned for seven years. It had always been, since 1947, an automotive electric parts warehouse. When the owner died in 1992, the family locked the door and moved out of the state. Since then, the roof had collapsed from the weight of standing water. It took me three months to track down the descendents of the owner, and when their agent showed up to meet me, I had to climb over the walls to get in.

Demolition took six months. One saw, one wheelbarrow, and five dumpsters. A dead forklift was dragged out by chains. 38,000 lbs. of steel starter gears were recycled.

I began with what was left: 4 windowless walls, a concrete slab, the roof joists, and the ever-present sky. And the three tracks of freight trains roaring by. The sounding of a train whistle is always the same: two long, one short, one very long.

Image: Villa de Murph, by New York Times.

Across the three freight train tracks, you approach the front door under a rusted canopy, 16 feet tall. Unknown to the street, inside is a private courtyard with a fireplace and a table for 18 friends. The paint, the rust, the decay - all is preserved.

Image: Villa de Murph, by bldgs.

Further on, the back wall of the courtyard is all glass. Eight doors make a window inside to the studio. These are the only doors in or out, and these doors serve as the single window for both spaces.

Image: Villa de Murph, by New York Times.

The studio is one room: 1000sf. Between the studio and the living area are two parallel walls. These walls are staggered and sliced by gaps filled with glass. The parallel walls hold three rooms: a kitchen, a utility room, and a shower room. When you wash dishes, when you do laundry, when you shower, the gaps in the walls frame views to the courtyard and beyond to the sky.

Image: Villa de Murph, by New York Times.

At the very back, the living area is 850sf. It holds a bed, two chairs, and a table. From the bed, through the gaps in the walls, you can keep your eye on the front door.

Except for the trains, it is very quiet at Villa de Murph. And with the skylights, the night is often as bright as the day.

Image: Villa de Murph, by bldgs.


Image: Villa de Murph - Plan View, by bldgs.

i've got a feeling were not in Newport anymore...

Image: OCMA Prospective Building Site, from .

Last week the Orange County Museum of Art received the approval to develop itself a new building in the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, off of Avenue of the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. A move north in Orange County geography, a likely migration for anyone looking for culture in the area, to attach itself to a nucleotic campus that already trumps anything around when it comes to the arts. Every time I have driven along the east side of the center I have felt as if the 1.64 acre clean slate were screaming to out do its brothers and sisters. I can't think of anywhere else better in Orange County for a brand spanking new museum (no, not in Laguna).

It took a moment for me to realize that this is a museum... surely they would choose an architect to design it, hopefully something designed outside the Irvine influence of a pastel stucco monstrosity. No banal turd of a building shat from the sky or the earth (I can never tell which)! I prepared myself to see a name like Cesar Pelli, who designed most of the recently developed buildings in the Segerstrom Center, or possibly someone like Robert A.M. Stern. Don't get me wrong, both have made contributions to architecture (more so Pelli than Stern), but I expected an architect to keep inline with the usual wealth and taste relationship, much like a supply and demand graph, where in Orange County the slope of taste is rapidly decreasing.

So surprised, and glad to be, I saw the name Thom Mayne. Finally, someone in Orange County looked for design beyond what is 'nice' and 'safe', and took a gamble. Thom Mayne's firm, Morphosis, has contributed quite a bit to the built world but has never designed an art museum, a staple commission for most architects, which usually shows up in the top five on project time-lines. For the announcement Thom was invited to a gala at the OCMA, featuring him as their choice architect and the man of the hour. The walls of the museum featured imagery of his architecture and he committed to making the museums new home environmentally sustainable. In 'the OC' thems fightin' words (and images?).

I am excited to see what Thom can do in Orange County, with the building, with the area, with the culture. Surely the many near by consumer grazelands are there to stay, but hopefully their pavers and facades aren't, and when they go, let them take the region's desire for the Irvinesque plague with them.

existential dilemma.

A quick story found after traversing a few links originating from Archinect, about LA based Architects Orhan Ayyuce and Eric Owen Moss, who was Orhan's professor at the time. I thought to pass along the story since the story itself as well as the project idea made me laugh more than once, and it was tucked away in the comments on a materialicious post about Orhan.

"I always like his ‘existential dilemma’ project; a double cube linked by a very high walled courtyard. The doors locked randomly “When one door closes how do you[sp] know the other will open”; Moss didn’t get it, said Orhan was nuts and wouldn’t admit that Orhan passed the class. I think it shook Moss up."

Quickly came through my mind, the idea of Klein bottle blobitecture (Zaha Hadid style) and Jean-Paul Sartre's play, No Exit, and I laughed again.

send in the decoys.

Image: A German bus station, by Stacey G..

I came across a delighting article a few days ago in the Telegraph how German senior citizen homes are using decoy bus stations to head off wandering alzheimer's patients, before they get too far away. Not being able to come up with the image of a German bus stop in my head, out of curiosity, I asked the internet to find one for me, and one of the first good images I found was of a Peter Eisenman designed bus station in Aachen, Germany (below). "But of course this is not the type of bus stop branded into the brains of these seniors with alzheimer's!" I immediately told myself. Erect a bus station like this in front of the senior home and you might find the wandering patients gazing at it with confusion, but you certainly wouldn't find them waiting for a bus that will never come, even with one of the signature yellow and green transit signs posted next to it.

Image: Aachen Bus Shelter, by "perpetually dishevelled".

This makes me wonder of the culture that would be produced by a people who have everyday architectural iconography like this, associated with 'getting home'. What would real architectural icons, such as the Eiffel Tower or The Empire State Building, end up looking like with such design making up familiar and utilitarian infrastructure. Maybe rebellious architects would have to draw up elaborate theses of organic structures designing themselves like cancer or this cultures version of Archigram would look behind them with fantastic visual theories rooted in the past, something resembling the native American teepee or possibly a south American monolith... quite possibly, radical designers of this other dimensional culture would design bus stops to look like those in the first and last pictures of this post.

Image: German Bus Stop, by "Casper Kongstein".

use of useless.

This fantastic work of space was an immediate inspiration of emotions and questions at first sight. Among the emotions, jealousy, of the young Belgian architectural firm duo that not only designed this (what to call it?), but get to work and live in it.

Once the first images came into focus and it's initial resemblence to the Zurich FREITAG Store fleeted, so appeared the realization of how wonderful the spacial transformation of useless to useful is here. A space, like so many similar in every city in the world, that almost certainly smelled like urine and had never seen colored light from anything but reflections from amber and green broken beer bottle fragments, had been transformed into something desirably livable (by some, at least). The story the designers of this space tell, is how irregularity of a site does not determine it unusable, no matter how irregular, just that those unwilling to use it don't know how to do so. One could assume that no realistic discussion of using this gap took place by anyone other than the two adjacent buildings, until sculp(IT) came along.

So, what to call this? It isn't quite a building, it's more than just a space, it isn't an just an office or a home. In a way, one could say that the owners are squatting on a piece of property, that they own. It seems that there are no walls, only boundaries created from usurped exterior concrete walls that have kept a roof over their neighbor's heads for all of these years. Just paint them white and call them yours.

Somewhere exists a vagrant pipe-dream of modern minimalist squatting. Prefabricated sets of steel ledgers and length-adjustable joists are given away or sold for minimal cost, in a package with a fold up re-usable roof, all bundled together like a tent. After hours, a small alley way, a drive-thru, or even one of those tight places between to buildings. Wedge your roof structure between two solid objects and move everyone you know in for a night, or until the police make you tear down and vacate.

This type of creative land use could be adopted in many more areas, especially where land is scarce and of course a high-priced commodity. It always seems that irregular properties like this embolden creative programs and design in general. If the majority of eyesore or useless urban/suburban gaps were transformed into useful and beautiful filler like this, this blogger would hope that all architectural philistine eyes attracted to their presence would lead to a brain that thinks of architecture in a whole different way.

All Photography by Luc Roymans, plan image by Sculp(it) Architecten.