Post-it City phenomena emphasise the reality of the urban territory as the place where distinctive uses and situations legitimately overlap, in opposition to the growing pressures to homogenise public space. In contrast to the ideals of the city as a place of consensus and consumption, temporary occupations of space reaffirm use value, reveal different needs and lacks that affect given collectives, and even promote creativity and the subjective imagination
Category Archive: architecture
Since 2003, young photographer Charlotte Lybeer spent extended periods of time in gated communities and contemporary theme parks to document how these places neatly designed around a central theme managed to give an illusion of safety and dream lifestyle
Artist Rodrigo Derteano’s autonomous robot plows the desert ground to uncover its underlying color, using a technique similar to the one of the Nazca lines, the ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. Guided by its sensors, the robot quietly traced the founding lines of a new city that looks like a collage of existing cities from Latin America
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The project is based on two opposing inspirations; research trips to learn about intentional communities like the Amish, who carefully select technologies for their community, and an extrapolation of current scientific research which embraces technological alteration of nature. The outcome of the project is a fantastical caravan, a nomadic module of illusionary freedom, which explores our belief in technological progress
“At first glance the attempt to plan a bank robbery might sound like a post-adolescent prank. But it’s not, of course. Such a project claims most of the core competences of an architect. i.e. research and value the site (if of necessity), find out weak/strong aspects, think, imagine, anticipate, sense and develop a concept, sketch, think, design, rethink, reimagine etc., prepare action plan documentation, plan the time schedule, the costs. And well, in this case also an escape plan was asked”
A time machine, a giant self-balancing mechanism, a highly frustrating pinball machine, forensic photography that captures your movements before the picture was taken, etc. Each work in the room looked at a different type of energy –electric, mechanical, potential, mass, sound, thermal, chemical, and gravitational– in a way that makes us realize how little we know about energy
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Founded in Berlin in 2000 by the brothers Jan and Tim Edler, realities:united have built a unique reputation for their spectacular art and media extensions to buildings all across the globe. Working together with some of the most prominent figures of contemporary architecture realities:united have established an ingenious type of collaboration they refer to as featuring. Usually invited by architects to cooperate on a project, realities:united have a special gift to detect the idiosyncratic strength of a design and amplify its qualities by techniques and procedures that exceed the realm in which architects usually work. Inversely, realities:united can only work their magic by designing in a dialog with an architect featuring them
Trucks, Containers, Collectives is an initiative by Santiago Cirugeda (Recetas Urbanas) which has inspired more than a dozen collectives to get involved in creating a network for spaces that are self-managed by the entire Spanish territory. This is no longer a matter of experimenting with individual, isolated situations, a process which Cirugeda initiated fourteen years ago and, in any case, is being reassessed during these times of recession. Rather it’s a self-organised and joint action taken by small citizen groups who unite their efforts
Currently on view at Tate Modern’s Level 2 Gallery, Out of Place features four artists who explore the relationship between dominant political forces and personal and collective histories by looking at urban space, architectural structures and the condition of displacement
Jerram’s interest in perception takes many forms: a kinetic sound installation controlled by the movements of the Moon and Sun, a miracle toaster, an engagement ring etched with a sound message that can be played back with a miniature record player, street pianos left for the public to play, etc. His most spectacular exploration of perception is Sky Orchestra, a series of performances in which hot air balloons fly over a city at dawn and broadcast music designed to turn the dreams of the sleeping public into an artistic experience. There is a lot to like and write about in his portfolio but i’ll just focus on two of his most recent projects: Glass Microbiology and Aeolus – Acoustic Wind Pavilion
Arctic Perspective uses media art and the research of artists to investigate the complicated, global, cultural, and ecological interrelations in the Arctic, and to develop concepts for constructing tactical communications systems and a mobile, eco-friendly research station, which will support interdisciplinary and intercultural collaborations
Ghostlike architecture that comes straight out of the Gomorrah movie, displaced classrooms and cardboard manifestation of gravity
The film observes the method and practice of the Modernist architects who rebuilt London after World War Two. It shows how they revolutionised life in the city in the wake of destruction from war and the poor living conditions inherited from the Industrial Revolution. This film is their story. Utopia London travels through the recent history of the city where the film maker grew up. He finds the architects who designed it and reunites them with the buildings they created
Herman Joshua Wallace has spent the past 38 years in Solitary Confinement (or closed cell restriction) for a crime he probably didn’t commit. A few years ago, artist Jackie Sumell asked him: “What kind of house does a man who has lived in a 6′ X 9′ box for over 30 years dream of?”
ShapeShift is an experiment in future possibilities of architectural materialization. This project explores the potential application of electro-active polymer (EAP) at an architectural scale
The exhibition “West Arch – a new generation in architecture” shows 25 architecture studios from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany which all respond to present demands and problems in an experimental and unconventional way
The walls of this experimental museum are built with compressed stacks of plastic, paper, metal, fabric and wood. All the material is recycled. The books of the library are kept inside disused fridges, tables are installed on top of upside-down washing machines. A huge fan regularly blows wind that moves the fabric walls of the corridor. A rudimentary skywalk allows visitors to get a better idea of the architecture of the museum
Thousands of buildings in the Netherlands lie vacant. Some of them for a week or a few months, many even for years. The exhibition at the Dutch pavilion, “Vacant NL, where architecture meets ideas”, is a call for the intelligent reuse of temporarily vacant buildings around the world in promoting creative enterprise
Called Usus/Usures, the exhibition investigates a specific phase in the life of construction materials: the time when they are subjected to use and are gradually re-shaped by human beings passing through them, walking on them, touching, pressing, stroking, scratching or holding them
To discover M10, you have to open a very mundane door. Then another one on your right. And another one in front of you. There are ten of them, each leading to a plain, beige room so claustrophobic you quickly look for more doors that will take you out of there as the art critics mayhem pictured here demonstrates
Architect Caruso St John and artist Thomas Demand are paying homage to the famous Chongqing nail house with a project that involves reconstructing the Nail House under a road viaduct in Zurich, and to open it to the public as a 24/7 restaurant
Tom Sachs, who made a career revisiting contemporary icons such as Prada, the atomic bomb and Hello Kitty, has been given a large room to exhibit his take on the work and legacy of Le Corbusier. The irreverent artist goes as far as drawing parallels between the Villa Savoye and McDonalds drive-in
Unlike most critics and visitors, i can’t say i’ve found the exhibition of 12th biennale of architecture particularly exciting. Call me a masochist but i missed the overdose of information we were submitted to in 2006. I also missed the extravagance and the speculation of the 2008 edition. The 12th biennale of architecture is mostly aesthetics and lightness. What i did enjoy more than any other year however was the way Kazuyo Sejima played with the architecture of the Corderie. There was air, grace and gaiety
Architect Tetsuo Kondo has teamed up with German climate engineering firm Transsolar to fill a closed space inside the Corderie with clouds. Visitors can experience the cloud from below, within, and above as they climb up 4.3 meter high helical ramp erected in the center of the room
Justin’s work is a prototype responsive screen proposed as a speculative stage set. Blooming mechanical flowers are used as pixels in a grid formation responding to movement. It draws on the balletic tradition of a choreographic poem combining narrative, choreography and score
This book is not only visually inspiring. Because it documents plans, describes associated costs, and suggests concrete solutions for common problems, it is a practical reference for architects, planners, and cultural activists as well as event and marketing managers, to guide them in deciding what types of containers are best suited to their upcoming projects
The project explores the difference between the virtual freedoms experienced by a population and the physical constraints imposed upon it by the urban environment. It explores the effects of new technologies of urban sight and urban occupation on the social and political structure of a city. The resultant proposition is a series of physical interventions that subvert the urban landscape through its digital counterparts
The graduate project, set in a 16th century hunting castle, uses drawing and modelling to inquire into the spatial possibilities of reinterpreting the artefact as a field of events
Building Blocks is a fresh way to open discussions about the accepted norms for all buildings. Is dull architecture a product of a client’s lack of imagination, the architect’s failure to inspire or the restraints of the planning process?
Loosely defined as a long-term project initiated between architecture and performance presenting work in several cultural contexts, IF keeps coming up with projects and ideas that could not be more diversified: videos, perfumes, arabic courses inside Copenhagen’s Temporary National Theater, TV-programs, a mini Mobile Disco. The even shot a remake 1949 musical film On The Town as an alternative way to explore the social and spatial geographies of New York City
An explosion of architectural little magazines in the 1960s and 1970s instigated a radical transformation in architectural culture, in which the architecture of the magazines vied with buildings as the site of innovation and debate
Beyond is a bookazine dedicated to new, experimental forms of architectural and urban writing. In the second issue of Beyond there is an excerpt of Douglas Coupland’s new novel, “Generation A,” and contributions from Lieven de Cauter, François Roche and many others
Rachel Harding’s project knits together a scenario made of gene therapy, criminality, love and lurid gossips for tabloids. The twisted and compelling scenario revolves around the question: In a Future Dominated by Gene Therapy, How Might Criminal DNA Mend Britain’s Breaking Hearts?
Habitar is a walk through new emerging scenarios in the city. It is a catalogue of ideas and images from artists, design and architecture studios, and hybrid research centres. Together they come up with a series of potential tools, solutions and languages to negotiate everyday life in this living organism that we call city
The schedule is up and before i start packing my suitcase to DF, i’d like to say a few words about the artists, architects and activists i’ve invited to talk about their work during Postopolis!
Architects Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, and Alessandro Poli have developed unique and imaginative responses to the questions of space travel and the inhabitation of new, extraterrestrial realities. Their odysseys, real and virtual, ultimately promise a rediscovery of life on our own planet
A collection of the latest, provocative projects from the field of digitally-enabled architecture. Oscillating between the analog and the digital, from concept to realisation this is a book that maps process
Mark your calendars and join us in Mexico City! Here comes the third edition of Postopolis!, a public five-day session of conversations curated by bloggers from the fields of architecture, art, urbanism, landscape, art, music and design
Change, the buzzword of the last U.S. presidential campaign, is the order of the day, and the task of AGENDA is to explore what kind of change will be needed if architects are to assume a political and social agency in this new landscape. Bringing together diverse forms of content, AGENDA is a product of vigilant observation, introspection, and engagement with outside thinkers and collaborators – artists, curators, politicians, authors, economists, journalists, developers, educators, and architects
R&Sie(n)’s investigative approach to architecture focuses on developing technological experiments–cartographic distortions and territorial mutations–in order to explore the bond between building, context, and human relations. Each building is a process, a dynamic device with the tenacity of a parasite that uses every means offered by architecture to perform an ecologically useful function.