The Slow Building

Lately I've been really interested in the Slow Movement.  Slow food, Slow travel, even Slow Cities!   Fantasies of the slow life are almost a constant for me throughout the school year, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who can imagine how much healthier and happier the world would be if massages were as cheap as coffee and nap carrels were available at the library.

Once upon a time before Kraft Dinner, people took the stairs.  Now, obesity and heart disease as leading killers in North America, change is imminent and architects have to do their part.  It takes a sexy staircase to seduce people away from elevators, but that's what Thom Mayne has included in his building for Cooper Union (above), Frank Gehry with the whimsical spirals in the AGO, and these people did in Stolkholm.  (Ironically sponsored by Volkswagen.) Either buildings become more walkable or, as Thomas Farley, New York City's health commissioner suggests, make elevators slower and smaller, leaving people with little choice.  Read more: "If You Build It, They Will Walk".

- Sarah

What is a City?

For this blog post I would like to attempt to provide one possible answer to the ever prevailing and inexhaustible question of "What is a City" with a hope that it will trigger an ongoing discussion on this matter that will bring to light various perspectives portraying the phenomenon know as 'the urban'.
   
    A city on the whole is a layered entity. It is composed of various layers, each devoted to a specific urban component. Public infrastructure (government institutions, bus stops), private infrastructure (private organizations, residences), transportation routes (roads, streetcars) and the water supply system are some examples of layers. For a city to function well these layers need to interact with each other and its users in a smooth manner. The system thus created will enhance the performance of its users and vice versa. In the article titled What is a City Lewis Mumford argues that, “The city…is a theatre of social action and everything else – art, politics, education, commerce – only serve to make the social drama…more richly significant, as a stage set, well designed, intensifies and underlines the gestures of the actors and the action of the play.” Mumford downplays the city by considering it to be just a static physical object staging human life. Contrary to Mumford’s argument I believe the city is dynamic in nature. It actively participates in urbanism and is in a constant state of interaction with its users. It presents challenges and opportunities to its users (e.g., Ivy growing on the side of existing structures creating a sustainable green wall feature, building façade deteriorating due to high water content in the soil). The challenges and opportunities presented inspire Conversation, which can then lead to thoughtful action amongst the conversationalists/urbanites. According to Theodore Zeldin, “..talking does not necessarily change one’s own or other people’s feelings or ideas. I believe the twenty-first century needs a new ambition, to develop not talk but [Conversation] conversation, which does change people.” Conversation changes the way people think, which leads to significant social, political and economic changes.

    City unlike other non-urban areas is more successful in instigating revolutionary ideas and techniques because of two reasons. As mentioned in the text by Louis Wirth, titled Urbanism as a Way of Life, there is a sense of anonymity and impersonality amongst city dwellers, which allows them to make informed decisions from a more professional and impartial point of view. As a result more Conversations, and not talk is generated in cities. The second reason is the higher number of interactions amongst city dwellers, and amongst the city and its inhabitants. This is facilitated by high concentrations of people, infra structural facilities, economic and social resources within a city.

    The city brings together all the above-mentioned factors that are inductive to constant change. The city thus serves as an active tool for development affecting various spheres of the contemporary society.

 - Sugra

References:

• Mumford, Lewis “What is a City?” In The City Reader, Fourth Edition, eds, R. Legates and F. Stout, London: Routledge, 2007, Pg. 85-89
• Wirth, Louis “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” In The City Reader, Fourth Edition, eds, R. Legates and F. Stout, London: Routledge, 2007, Pg. 90-97
• Zeldin, Theodore “How every new era changes the subject of conversation” In Conversation, The Harvill Press, Great Britain, 1998; HiddenSpring, North America, 2000, Pg. 1-16

Music as an Inspiration for Architecture Design

In response to the theme of the upcoming shift issue, 5 sensations in architecture, I thought this could be an interesting project to look at. Steven Holl designed a private residence for art collectors, that explores the relationship between musical and architectural forms, alters the ordinary anticipation of a space with different sensations and arrives at unison and playfulness.

The Stretto House is located on a site adjacent to three ponds where a river runs through them. The river pours over the concrete dams which contain water within them. There is a constant murmuring sound created by the flowing water. Hence, the scenery is similar to the stretto form where musical phrases overlap one another. In particular, Steven Holl adopted Bartok's four part composition - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste as the inspiration for his design. The challenge is to materialize musical characteristics and qualities in the construction of the house; to represent the following narrative:

Powerful flows of rhythmical divisions and irregular tensions made time seem to stand still or to rush forward with irresistible momentum.

The resulting composition encompasses the abstraction of the stretto form: overlapping floor planes connect one space to another in a continuous flow, while roof planes overlap one another and articulate with a different rhythm. The play between floor planes and roof planes creates the arched walls and a series of openings along the ceiling. At the same time, the spatial expression is an experimentation of light, materials and textures, smells and sound.

Domus commented on the project in the 1992 December issue, #744:

'A house surrounded by green becomes intensely articulate writing. In the style of a musical score, Holl composes a many-voiced dialogue between water and light, spaces and materials, nature and construction. A design but also a manifesto, in which the most abstract thought and professional craftsmanship meet beyond the limits of academy or hollow provocations.'

 Stretto House, 1989-1991

Location: Texas, United States
Program: Private residence
Size: 7,500 sf


websites: http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?id=26&worldmap=true
               http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/2006/04/stretto-house-in-dallas-by-steven-holl.html

- Jesse

problematic PLAYGROUND

Isamu Noguchi's oeuvre is rich with designs for play spaces, although only a couple were ever realized.  The designs and models are abstract and quite surrealist and intended to be spaces open to endless interpretation rather than prescriptive of certain "playful" activities.

Taken from The Noguchi Museum's website, here the architect comments on the playground commissioned for the UN in New York City that was blocked by the infamous father of urban renewal, Robert Moses.

PLAYGROUND FOR UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY
1952, unrealized

The suggestion that I design a playground for the United Nations came from Mrs. Thomas Hess in early 1951. It was proposed that the spirit of idealism and good will engendered by the UN should be matched with a new and more imaginative playground for the small children of the delegates and of the neighborhood. A private subscription was raised for the building, and everybody was enthusiastic about it, including the people at the UN and, of course, myself.

Upon finishing the model and submitting it, I asked Julien Wittlesey, the architect, to join with Mrs. Hess in promoting its realization, as I had other things to do in Japan. That Robert Moses was so opposed to it should not have been the surprise that it was; I thought that this time he would not be concerned, because of the United Nations extraterritoriality. I had underestimated him.

The upshot was that the Museum of Modern Art showed the model in an exhibition in their children's department as a protest, in which the press joined: The playground was killed by ukase from a municipal official who is supposed to run the parks in New York, and who somehow is the city's self-appointed guardian against any art forms except banker's special neo-Georgian. The fact that he had no legal or moral right to dictate the UN's aesthetics was of concern only to the many distinguished educators, child welfare specialists and civic groups who had seen the model and had hailed it as the only creative step made in the field in decades...A jungle gym is transformed into an enormous basket that encourages the most complex ascents and all but obviates falls. In other words, the playground, instead of telling the child what to do (swing here, climb there) becomes a place for endless exploration, of endless opportunity for changing play. And it is a thing of beauty as the modern artist has found beauty in the modern world. Perhaps this is why it was so venomously attacked ('a hillside rabbit-warren') by the cheops of toll bridges. -- Art News, April, 1952

Eventually the United Nations had to submit to Moses who I understand threatened not to install the guard rail facing the East River.

- Sarah

Rodarte F/W 2009

Kate and Laura Mulleavy's latest fall collection for Rodarte was inspired by Gordon Matta Clark and reflects his theory of Anarchitecture and buildings in decay. View the full collection here.

-Steven

Serpentine Pavilion - SANAA

I was initially let down by the renderings of SANAA's Serpentine Pavilion, despite the fact that Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa are two of my favorite architects. It really wasn't until I saw this photograph that I could appreciate just how fascinating the the Serpentine Pavilion is and what SANAA were doing with transparency, lightness and reflection.

I bet you that it would crumble into silver dust if you were to touch it

-Steven Ischkin.

photo: jblacombe

George's Play

In the most recent Shift magazine, I discussed making common day buildings more playful - giving adults, just as we do for children, a chance to learn and grow through play. To do so we can learn not only from playgrounds but also nightclubs and bars - the adult jungle gyms we retreat to when the sun sets. George's Play is a bar/club on Church Street specializing in events such as drag queen shows and dance nights. Upon recommendation, a friend and I decided to explore this unique place.

The façade of the building is relatively unremarkable and un-telling – drab in colour and holding the potential to be merely a regular pub inside. But this it was not. Upon entering I found myself in a much happier, friendlier world than the one outside. What is it that made this place so comfortable and so good at making me dance with ease to the Latinfever-Abba-I will survive-Top-forty mix? I decided that a great part of it was the playful and eclectic interior décor/design.

Sometimes kitsch can be a good thing – especially when it’s in a place for play. Between the classical portico shelf holding liquor bottles above the bar, shirtless male torso statue, the Georgian (coincidence?) mirrors along the wall, the circus themed mural behind the stage, and the vintage (slightly suggestive) ads above the functional bar stools and tables – all mixed with rainbow neon lights and disco balls - there was no room to not fit in. It made me realise how strongly we generate an assumption about a place when it has a specific uniform décor, often with the aim of including a certain type of person, and excluding another. George’s Play has overcome this rigidity and has created a heaven of a playground that does not discriminate.

For more info: http://www.playonchurch.com/

-- Natalia Z.