The pursuit of an architecture that pleases people, gives them mystery, fulfills their sense for beauty has gone underground. While the schools worry over theories, the job of developing architecture has changed hands.
Deep, deep and far from the surveillance of academia it has passed into...
... the hands of those who create worlds for cinema and gaming.
LOL. Holy moley. I think it's true. Do not underestimate the numbers of people who have experienced architecture within the gaming environment.
And while much of it would be called historically derivative by many architects and theorists, who can condemn a user-centric approach that drives towards creating architecture that interests people and gives them places they would love to inhabit?
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Floating House Of Brad Pitt
The Floating House Of Brad Pitt by Morphosis seems to be outside of the context that made this kind of design meaningful - the 1980s.
The angularity, and prickily-ness of this house's aesthetic made sense in the 80s when we were challenging both Modernism's bleak regularity and Post-Modernism's detached ironic position to the whole profession. But now that the urgency to address these two trends has died down, I wonder who this building is speaking to?
Is it a shout out to Gehry's old Venice Beach residence?
Or is it a challenge shouted by Morphosis at anyone who walks by? If so, is that needed?
Fueled by the UX movement in the web, architects are recognizing that they must recognize the needs of the final audience before they address their own need to confront the final occupants and passers-by.
In other words, it appears Morphosis' aesthetic/theoretical agenda is jacketing the needs of the final users inside a conversation that most have moved on from.
The angularity, and prickily-ness of this house's aesthetic made sense in the 80s when we were challenging both Modernism's bleak regularity and Post-Modernism's detached ironic position to the whole profession. But now that the urgency to address these two trends has died down, I wonder who this building is speaking to?
Is it a shout out to Gehry's old Venice Beach residence?
Or is it a challenge shouted by Morphosis at anyone who walks by? If so, is that needed?
Fueled by the UX movement in the web, architects are recognizing that they must recognize the needs of the final audience before they address their own need to confront the final occupants and passers-by.
In other words, it appears Morphosis' aesthetic/theoretical agenda is jacketing the needs of the final users inside a conversation that most have moved on from.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
How do you speak of your talent?
Stern's book also show a way to see one's talent. As Stern writes, it becomes clear that he is aware that he has world class talent; exceptional talent. I think most people either shy away from acknowledging this talent, if they have it; or go too far the other way and use their talent as a force to clear others out of their way.
Stern seems to have found the balance.
"The cantor of the temple was a man named Rubin Rinder. He was a very good cantor of the old school, and he loved music. One day there was some occasion when I played the violin in the temple. Cantor Rinder chanced to hear me and suddenly realized that he was hearing talent. He knew my family had no money for lessons: there was hardly any money then for us to live on. And so he spoke about me to a certain maiden lady." [p. 11]
The cantor was hearing talent. It's the perfect way for Stern to say that he blew the cantor away. It is also important that the statement comes in the stride of a the paragraph. Stern has achieved the perfect balance of pride in himself and the awareness that talent is a gift.
And so he is aware of it and neither abandons it nor use it to beat up others.
Stern seems to have found the balance.
"The cantor of the temple was a man named Rubin Rinder. He was a very good cantor of the old school, and he loved music. One day there was some occasion when I played the violin in the temple. Cantor Rinder chanced to hear me and suddenly realized that he was hearing talent. He knew my family had no money for lessons: there was hardly any money then for us to live on. And so he spoke about me to a certain maiden lady." [p. 11]
The cantor was hearing talent. It's the perfect way for Stern to say that he blew the cantor away. It is also important that the statement comes in the stride of a the paragraph. Stern has achieved the perfect balance of pride in himself and the awareness that talent is a gift.
And so he is aware of it and neither abandons it nor use it to beat up others.
How do you view your talent?
How do you view your talent? What is the proper angle?
I like this quote I just read in Issac Stern's "My First 79 Years". Stern is speaking,
"I have another photograph of Mr. Pollack [one of Stern's first teachers], this one of him alone, dated 1930, on which these words appear over his signature: 'to my beloved pupil Isaac Stern - May he watch every day over the treasure nature has given him.' "
Your talent is given to you by nature.
Your talent is a treasure from nature to you, which you must vigilantly watch over every day- to protect it, to grow it.
I like this quote I just read in Issac Stern's "My First 79 Years". Stern is speaking,
"I have another photograph of Mr. Pollack [one of Stern's first teachers], this one of him alone, dated 1930, on which these words appear over his signature: 'to my beloved pupil Isaac Stern - May he watch every day over the treasure nature has given him.' "
Your talent is given to you by nature.
Your talent is a treasure from nature to you, which you must vigilantly watch over every day- to protect it, to grow it.
Monday, September 14, 2009
The elements of architecture: the needs they meet
A quick and incomplete list:
- Organizational Clarity
- Imprintability - provisions for the user to imprint themselves on the building
- Completeness and continuous opportunity
- Place - responses to place, connections with place, embodiment of place, clarification and expression of place my place - the place.
- Having a wholeness of its own
- Utility - functionality and enablement
- Connection to the place around
- Connection(s) through time
- Beauty - Eloquence and elegance
Sunday, July 05, 2009
A Better Modern in Philadelphia: Crate & Barrel's KOP Store.
Anchored at the far South West Corner of the King of Prussia Mall, Crate & Barrel's KOP location could be the nicest piece of modern architecture in Philadelphia.
It is easy to not consider a Crate & Barrel store as fine architecture. Especially this one since it floats amongst the cars of a [hiss] Mall [further hissing], but its form is abstract and dynamic while at the same time having a human scale that draws me in.
The second floor balcony immediately helps me understand the scale of this building and suggests that is it is a place for people. This is important. Many modern buildings fail to achieve an affect that allows me to understand how big they really are and how they fit my body. This building makes that all clear.
The interior quickly supports the impression that this is a building for people (I have more pictures of the interior but will save them for another post).
To return to the exterior, I find it hard to think of many other modern buildings in the Philadelphia area that are as well done as this one.
It is easy to not consider a Crate & Barrel store as fine architecture. Especially this one since it floats amongst the cars of a [hiss] Mall [further hissing], but its form is abstract and dynamic while at the same time having a human scale that draws me in.
The second floor balcony immediately helps me understand the scale of this building and suggests that is it is a place for people. This is important. Many modern buildings fail to achieve an affect that allows me to understand how big they really are and how they fit my body. This building makes that all clear.
The interior quickly supports the impression that this is a building for people (I have more pictures of the interior but will save them for another post).
To return to the exterior, I find it hard to think of many other modern buildings in the Philadelphia area that are as well done as this one.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Pattern Text
We need to move from the meaning of a thing being in the signs on its surface to our experience of it...
From literary theory to experience.
From print to interactive.
From ideas flowing across the face of a building to the experience within it.
From semiotics to the meaning in an experience.
So now I get to the title of this post. When I was 24 I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the meaning we get out of the experience of architecture. I had spent 4 years studying semiotics as part of the telecommunications and film major (technically a BA in Speech with an emphasis in TcF) that I was completing. To write the thesis I took many of the tools that I learned from the semioticians and pointed them at architecture - as if it were mass media. It resulted in this thought:
That experience - architecture or anything else - could be broken into a collection of patterns. Each pattern has a meaning within it. That meaning is the "pattern text".
From literary theory to experience.
From print to interactive.
From ideas flowing across the face of a building to the experience within it.
From semiotics to the meaning in an experience.
So now I get to the title of this post. When I was 24 I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the meaning we get out of the experience of architecture. I had spent 4 years studying semiotics as part of the telecommunications and film major (technically a BA in Speech with an emphasis in TcF) that I was completing. To write the thesis I took many of the tools that I learned from the semioticians and pointed them at architecture - as if it were mass media. It resulted in this thought:
That experience - architecture or anything else - could be broken into a collection of patterns. Each pattern has a meaning within it. That meaning is the "pattern text".
Blogs are Essays, Dang It.
I deleted all of my posts so far in 2009. I had not taken the time to articulate my ideas clearly in those posts. This blog (the whole idea of blogs to be honest) keeps saying, "Hey! Go ahead and post your thoughts whatever they may be! It's the web! It's two point oh!!! It's OK that they are only half baked!"
But it's not.
A blog is an essay.
Just as homeowners who find a designer on Craigslist still expect the services of a professional architect even though they aren't willing to pay for one, so do I expect a fully tuned essay from a blog.
But it's not.
A blog is an essay.
Just as homeowners who find a designer on Craigslist still expect the services of a professional architect even though they aren't willing to pay for one, so do I expect a fully tuned essay from a blog.
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