Watsons Bay House is complete. More information and images at the project page.
Photography by Murray Fredericks.
- The Guardian reports on the new American Embassy in London, which the US state department says has been designed to “reflect the values of the American people”. Those values it seems are reflected by a 12-storey cube clad in a blastproof glass and plastic façade with a moat running halfway around the building, which the architects freely admit was modelled on a medieval fortress.
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- A film on the recently completed Rolex Learning Centre by sanaa. More images of the building at Space Invading.
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- Architecture Insights. A handsome new website from the NSW Architects Registration Board collecting local (predominately NSW) architecture content and news. Of particular interest to me is the event calendar which will hopefully fill a gap locally by providing a collated event resource.
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- Millenium People on ‘Super Critical’, the first in a new series from the Architectural Association, AA Words:
“I wouldn’t want you to cry for having had to come here tonight for this conversation, because nobody dragged you here.” - Peter Eisenman to Rem Koolhaas. So ends Supercritical, a little volume that documents the rare meeting of two architect friends/enemies/rivals/(whatever) – Rem Koolhaas & Peter Eisenman. It accurately transcribes the two’s complete inability to say anything meaningful to each other, and their ultimate decline into dressed-up name-calling. This spectacular failure on the part of their dialogue has forced me to split this review into two posts: one on the discussion itself, and one on the novel medium through which this piece presents itself.
Via City of Sound#
Global Pecha Kucha for Haiti
Monday, 15th February 2010 permalink
Pecha Kucha Sydney is participating in a global 24hr continuous Pecha Kucha Night to raise funds for rebuilding efforts in Haiti on Saturday the 20th February at the MCA.
There will be a continuous 24hr Pecha Kucha Night taking place in cities around the world and we are excited to be taking the slot of GMT+11. 100% of the proceeds raised on the night will go directly to Architecture for Humanity, a group currently involved in rebuilding works in Haiti.
It is short notice, I know, but we have pulled together a great list of speakers to talk on the night and a fantastic venue, so I hope to see you there!
Speaking on the night we have:
Saturday 20th February
MCA Harbour Terrace
7pm for 7:30 start
Cameron Sinclair, Founder and Chief Eternal Optimist @ Architecture for Humanity writes:
Haiti Fatigue.
It’s a phrase we will begin to hear over the next few weeks. The fact is more people died in Haiti than in the 12 countries affected by the ‘04 Tsunami. Oh, and rainy season begins in 8 days. So this natural disaster IS a big deal and it’s going to get rough.
We are not the first responders, we’re the last responders and we’re in for the long haul. We estimate having teams in Haiti for 4 years but we will only do that with the financial support of others. Thanks to the amazing Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein we’re going to change that.
We are one week away from launching PechaKucha for Haiti – the worlds largest distributed conference. This will be a 24 hour Pecha Kucha (20x20 style) in more than 100 cities – with 2000 presentations. 100% of all donations/proceeds will go towards building schools and community centers in Haiti.
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/pechakucha-for-haiti
I’d love it if you got involved in some way.
Cameron
More Info on the Global Pecha Kucha Night Fundraiser for Haiti
Tickets available online from Moshtix or on the door.
- Issue 3 of Junkjet (a favourite of mine) is out now:
Junk Jet n°3 asked for fluxing architectures, boogie, buildings, rolling rocks, flying architectures, provisory pyramids, and temporary eternities; for all kinds of practical concepts and conceptual practices, for stable happenings and unstable thoughts, for lifted cellars and dugin landmarks, for curtains, mobiles, house boats, bubbles, zeppelins, flying saucers … … it received fantastic forms of material, immaterial, physical and mental flux. Not only were immovables made movable, but also were put forth moving ideas of aesthetic, social, and political concern. We recognize that it is in microarchitectures, where architecture resides today, that speculations cannot be hilarious enough, and that the post-digital is the era, we already live in.
Ordered.#
- Australia is Big. Correct. And with a population of 22 million people, one of the least densely populated countries on the planet.
Greenland is competitive in this market also.
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Drawing a Cupboard
Monday, 8th February 2010 permalink
Mouse movements while I spent about an hour documenting a kitchen pantry this afternoon:
Joe the Barbarian
Wednesday, 3rd February 2010 permalink
I picked up the first issue of Joe the Barbarian, Grant Morrison’s latest series from Vertigo Comics this week. The story follows Joe, a diabetic teenager, who in the midst of a seizure has a hallucinatory adventure through his house.
In the first establishing issue we follow Joe as he makes his way home from a school trip to a veteran’s memorial, catches a bus, gets home, moves through the house, climbs a set of stairs and climbs a ladder to his teenage wet-dream of an attic bedroom. Beautifully illustrated by Sean Murphy, it is a slice of life sequence right up until the last few pages where, having neglected to take his insulin, he begins hallucinating, the room warping around him and is greeted by his toys brought to life seemingly battle weary refugees from some war in the distance.
Where I think it becomes interesting is that the next seven issues of the eight issue series will document parallel journeys through the house. One where we follow Joe descending through the house from the attic to the basement (where I am assuming his medication is?) and the other where he follows a a Narnian/Wizard of Oz like adventure populated by his toys and the contents of the house.
The domestic as landscape for epic adventure.
The idea that there will be timelines operating simultaneously in one space; the long drawn out battle to save a fantasy world, and the short trip from one end of the house to the other, is intriguing and I look forward to watching it play out. It reminds me a little of the haunted house tale The House of Leaves, where the internal measurements of rooms don’t quite add up and the basement leads into an infinite darkness. Morrison describes this transformation of familiar ground to arduous terrain:
So like I said, it’s really quite grounded, because it’s all about this journey down from the attic to the basement of the house. And I think we can all relate to that, because man of us will have had those moments when we were sick or feverish and had to venture down to the kitchen to get something that would make us better. And we all know how difficult it can be to cross familiar ground if you’re weak or injured or delirious. The terrain of an ordinary home can easily become larger than life and apocalyptically meaningful.
In any case, being Grant Morrison—and Grant Morrison in Flex Mentallo mode at that—I am fairly certain that there will be intricacies to the tale that will play out as the series progresses (for instance, Morrison has indicated that the landing where Joe leaves his satchel will be of importance later in the series) so we will check back in at the conclusion of the series to see if it lives up to its promise.
- Regarding the new waterfront city of Tanjong Pagar in Singapore, The Economic Strategies Committee makes a case for a planning framework for underground space:
“The committee said there is also a need for an underground master plan. It said the government should catalyse the development of underground space over the next decade. The committee also emphasized a need to develop subterranean land rights, a valuation framework and to establish a national geology office.”
via Warren Ellis#