‘A Short History of America’ by R. Crumb. Click to see a larger version. Source. Robert Crumb, the cartoonist famous for his interest in American folk art as well as his biting critiques of contemporary culture, portrays the history of America as completely subsumed in its legacy of land speculation and development. In the cartoon …Continue Reading
Archivo de la etiqueta: America
AD Editorial Round Up: Architecture in America Today
A Rebar project, the VIctory Garden replaced San Francisco’s Civic Space with a temporary farm. Via Afasia.
Seeing as it’s the 4th of July, we thought we would take a moment to reflect on the state of Architecture in our country today. Where are we? What’s important to us now, July 4th, 2012? And what does the future look like?
Undoubtedly, the Architecture profession is still hurting from the Recession. Thousands remain unemployed and, as Andrew Maynard pointed out in his popular Work/Life/Work Balance, those who are employed are overworked and undervalued. However, there are some glimmers of hope: in After the Meltdown, we discussed the inevitable rise of Public-Interest Design and the opportunities it will offer; in a guest post, Steve Sanderson of CASE championed the diversification & expansion of the architecture profession, which will better prepare architects for the realities of our Post-Meltdown economy.
As for Architecture today, there has been a rise in community-oriented projects that seek to better the quality of life in our fast-growing cities – from Productive Landscapes (which we explored at length in our Urban Agriculture Series) to Reclaimed Parks, a la the High Line and Low Line. While Green Design is of course on the rise, we discussed the boons & pitfalls of following LEED to the letter. We also took a look at the role technology will play in guiding urban design, wondering “Can you Crowdsource a City?” and “Can you replicate the magic of Silicon Valley?”
Despite the economic struggle, Architects are expanding their definition of architecture and coming up with innovative solutions for a more sustainable, responsible future.
SANAA Supersizes Chair Design for America
“Armless Chair” (l) and “Armless Chair (Wide)” (r) by SANAA
The politics of the American figure–we’ll say form–inspires numerous reactions here at home: some (wrongly) argue for the preservation of the right to poor life decisions, while others indicate the larger systemic social issues at play, advocating for new or amended policies not skewed toward some misplaced (and uninformed) libertarian ethos or influenced by corporate profiteering. Clearly, it’s a difficult topic to broach, yet one which has so singularly defined how we and everyone else perceives the shape of America. Case in point, these two chair designs by SANAA, one of which was intended for the Japanese market and the other for American consumers. It shouldn’t be difficult to guess which is which!
As A Daily Dose writes, SANAA’s “Armless Chair” and “Armless Chair (Wide)” were displayed this past spring at the Canadian Center for Architecture’s (CCA) current exhibition, “Imperfect Health“, which explored problems of health and medicalization through the lens of architecture and urbanism. Manufactured for Maruni, the pair of chairs share the same design scheme, with the back of the seat formed by two splayed “bunny ears”, each of which supports the back of the sitter while alleviating pressure on the spine. Only that the Armless Chair (Wide) is exactly that, wide, the proportions of the original being stretched horizontally to accommodate the American “other”. Still, this iteration looks roomier and probably more comfortable, something that you can slink into or even sleep in. The same can’t be said for the Japanese model, which looks too narrow to not keep the sitter on edge.
Purging the American Dream
With the bursting of the real estate bubble and the recent American foreclosure crisis, the house, particularly the suburban home, has become a potent cultural emblem ripe for artistic seizure. One dilapidated house in Austin, Texas was recently rechristened as an immersive art project by Austin-based art collective Ink Tank. The project, called Last New Year, revolves not around the foreclosure crisis, but around a crisis of a grander and more mythical scale: the end of the world as predicted on the Mayan calendar. The artists described the large-scale installation as a celebration of the end, a study of crisis management, a search for meaning, a chance for closure, and “an unwavering column of truth in a desert of confusion.”
Perhaps the most resonant piece in the installation, as noted in Colossal, is a sculpture called The Purge. While many of the pieces in the house envision glorified and artfully tamed doomsday scenarios, artist Chris Whiteburch’s site-specific sculpture imagines how the physical house would react to the impending doom of 2012. Whiteburch shows the house purging its content, violently spewing structural materials and debris with a powerfully human sense of desperation.
[All photos courtesy Chris Whiteburch, photographers Julie and Nicole Blair, via Colossal]
Design a Fix for the Housing Market
Too often during the bubble, banks and builders shunned thoughtful architecture and urban design in favor of cookie-cutter houses that could be easily repackaged as derivatives to be flipped, while architects snubbed housing to pursue more prestigious projects. But better design is precisely what suburban America needs, particularly when it comes to rethinking the basic residential categories that define it, but can no longer accommodate the realities of domestic life.
The destruction of 24 Beizongbu Hutong
“A replica will be built,” one official unapologetically told the state news media.
Preservationists in Beijing awoke last weekend to find that the house of the famous architects and intellectuals Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin has been reduced to rubble. The two architects educated in America returned to China and established an architecture school in the northeastern city of Shenyang. Perhaps, Mr. Liang’s most recognizable creation is the Monument to the People’s Heroes which is located in the center of Tiananmen Square.
Robin Clark Lecture
Tuesday, February 7, 6:30 p.m.
Robin Clark
Curator, Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface
Woodbury School of Architecture, Ahmanson Main Space
Robin Clark will discuss the recent exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface. Her talk and the show takes an in-depth look at 13 artists whose work with light as a medium in the 1960s and 70s defined an era of art making in California. Featured artists include Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Mary Corse, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Eric Orr, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, De Wain Valentine and Doug Wheeler. Phenomenal is one of only two San Diego exhibitions that are part of the Getty-initiated Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, a collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions coming together this fall to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene.
Clark’s work was featured in Art in America:
http://w…
University at Buffalo seeking Magda and John McHale Fellowship, Peter Reyner Banham Fellowship in Buffalo, NY, US
Magda and John McHale Fellowship
Magda Cordell McHale and John McHale were participants in the London-based Independent Group who, after moving to America to work with Buckminster Fuller, went on to study the impact of emerging technologies on the future of human societies. This research was continued at SUNY Buffalo after Magda McHale joined its design faculty. In celebration of their diverse legacy that ranges from Pop Art to ecology, the McHale Fellowship is intended to foster an integration of teaching with creative activity and research. Candidates should propose an innovative project to be developed in tandem with a pedagogical agenda over the course of one semester. Projects might take the form of workshops, seminars, a design studio, a symposium, or other contribution to the intellectual environment of the school. In addition, the McHale Fellow will deliver a public talk as part of the school wide lecture series.
Applications should be composed of a well-considered p…