Patty Gay, executive director of the Preservation Resource Center, takes us to the Irish Channel (a historically working-class neighborhood between the Mississippi River and the tawny Garden District) to explain this simple but adaptable, practical but occasionally flamboyant style of house.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
LAPD Motor Transport Division + Main Street Parking John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects
This render doesn´t show the cars crowding the street, it looks weird, but nice anyway
See the dull buildings in the perspective. Still the cars are absent, but believe me, usually there is only a few walking in this street.
If there is a design that´s difficult to resolve when we think of aesthetics, it´s parking structures. In my city, Buenos Aires, they are built underground because we don´t have earthquakes. In California, most parkings structures are built above ground, as earthquakes are continuously shaking the cities.
Old parkings in Los Angeles are really awful, grey monsters spread everywhere. There´s a colorful one in Santa Monica, my favorite up till now that I´ve seen this project. I´m anxious to see the bright green panels, and I hope it´s not just an illusion for the night.
From architectural record:
¨The historic core of Downtown L.A. is on the upswing. Neglected commercial properties and prewar buildings abandoned during the latter half of the 20th century are being converted into residential lofts and art galleries, and St. Vibiana, the city’s former cathedral, which was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, has been restored and renovated into an elegant event space. Needless to say, the community was less than welcoming when they got wind of the LAPD’s plans to build a vehicular parking and maintenance facility on Main Street, the burgeoning Gallery Row, adjacent to the revamped church.
Taking their cues from the area’s cultural vibe, JFAK employed a whimsical combination of materiality, color, transparency, and light to minimize the impact of the 300,000-square-foot, five-story concrete structure. And although the architects incorporated an 800-car employee garage in addition to a mechanics shop, car wash, and refueling station for official vehicles, the program is subliminal.¨
Keep on reading:
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Mitología y fundación de un pueblo o ciudad
Rómulo y Remo. Google images
¨Conforme a la interpretación tradicional, la cultura había nacido al producirse en Grecia el paso "del mito al logos", es decir, la sustitución de la mentalidad mítica y mágica por la racionalidad de la filosofía y la ciencia. En el siglo XX, se estaba describiendo el giro inverso: una crítica al "logos" occidental, que tenía mucho de vuelta al mito. Claro que el mito que se recupera entonces no es lo que un "logos" excesivamente seguro de sí mismo había imaginado que es: una aleación caprichosa de fantasías coloridas y sugerentes, pero completamente irracionales. Se descubre, por el contrario, que hay una verdad en el mito.(....)Esos cuentos folklóricos sobre héroes que realizan grandes hazañas o se enfrentan a monstruos legendarios no respetan la lógica, pero son racionales, bien que su racionalidad no es científica sino artística. Como el arte, los mitos seleccionan sus ingredientes de entre lo plural y fragmentario del mundo y, transformando el azar en necesidad, crean con ello la ficción de un orden significativo y unitario que integra lo meramente circunstancial de la experiencia humana en un todo comprensivo y legitimador. Por eso son siempre usados para explicar la fundación de una ciudad o de un pueblo, y por eso en el interior de nuestra conciencia flota también la mitología de nuestra identidad personal, satisfaciendo en nosotros la demanda de narraciones y colaborando con la obligada construcción narrativa de la realidad.¨
Javier Goma Lazon. Para El País.
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Majorelle gardens in Marrakech, Morocco
Majorelle gardens, Marrakech, Morocco. Picture by Alamy
Jacques Majorelle is born in 1886 in Nancy (France). In 1919 he settles in Marrakech to continue his career of painter, where he acquires a ground which was going to become the Majorelle garden. Since 1947 he opens his garden's doors to the public. Following a car accident, he returns to france, where he dies in 1962. in 1980 Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent repurchase the garden and restore it.
Contrasts, the colors, the light games seem go out of one of the pictures of Jacques Majorelle. It was one of the more important collectors of plants of his era, and this is in this spirit than enlarges itself from day to day the flore of the garden. Plants of the five continents are exposed in an enchanting framework. This that was the workshop of Jacques Majorelle, inspiration place and of contemplation, shelters today the magnificent art collection Islamic of Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. The originality of these places lies in the combination of a luxurious végétation and architectural elements allying sobriété and traditional aesthetic Moroccan. The power of the blue Majorelle participates in the freshness impression and of quiétude.
REFERENCE
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Trozos y Trazos. Relato urbano de Sandra Fontecilla
Barrio histórico en Chile. De thisischile.cl
Un trocito de cielo me acompaña, el poste del alumbrado público ya está encendido, sin embargo, resulta aún innecesario, así como lo es por ahora, cubrirse de la suave brisa marina.
Es el norte de Chile, en un barrio costero indeterminado. Muros separan distancias breves entre casa y casa, vehículos incansables transitan. Los rostros de los paseantes no se miran, somos todos extranjeros, visitantes ocasionales que persiguen olas intentando grabarlas en su mente y cuerpo, para que perduren en los sentidos durante el largo y tedioso año en la capital.
Repentinamente todo sonido molesta. La ciudad me es ajena desde hace muchos años. Recorriendo el sector por las noches en largas y quedas caminatas, he observado cómo cada propietario intenta diferenciarse de la seguidilla de construcciones similares, realizadas claramente con fines de lucro y no buscando calidad de vida. Cada cual lo hace, sea con mansardas de madera que imita las naturales del sur o con ampliaciones de material ligero, pero más ostentosas que las casas mismas; así también, pisos altos con terrazas de estilos variopintos. En tan solo un pasaje -espacio menor a una calle- se encuentra de todo, esto es, la confusión mental de miles de seres humanos expresada en lo material y concreto de sus “creaciones”.
El estrato social no hace grandes distinciones en esta tendencia. He visto dicha realidad aplastante en barrios acomodados y pujantes. La diferencia está en que mientras más recursos tiene el dueño, más es la asesoría de ingenieros, arquitectos, diseñadores y un sinfín de nuevas especialidades, surgidas del mismo afán consumista que nos atraviesa a todos.
Desde los mozos años de juventud, disfrutaba de paseos similares con algún enamorado. El ver cómo cada quién hacía uso –y muchas veces abuso- de lo que era su propiedad privada, siempre me ha producido especial fascinación. Me gusta la diversidad, mas junto a ella, mis requerimientos estéticos exigen armonía y la adecuada distribución de los espacios. Entonces surge una contradicción que atraviesa todas las áreas de mi vida: por un lado el rechazo a lo acomodaticio y a la monotonía y, por otro, la necesidad de equilibrio. Pero tal vez este último se halla, precisamente, en el desajuste necesario a la norma, establecida como válida universalmente para todos. Todo depende, eso sí, de la azarosa elección de cada cual y de los recursos utilizados.
Hoy paseo por esta ciudad en horas que los habitantes de la misma ya moran el interior de sus construcciones, mas dejan una huella -como todos nosotros en cada cosa por nosotros creada- de su concepción del mundo a través de ellas.
Bellavista, un barrio en Chile. De http://www.mapasdechile.com.ar
Barrio Lastarria en Chile. De http://www.lugaresenchile.com
Conozca a la autora Sandra Fontecilla:
http://letraskiltras.ning.com/profile/SandraFontecilla
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Shots from the video Pigs, by Pink Floyd
If pigs could fly....
¨You radiate cold shafts of broken glass.
You're nearly a good laugh,
Almost worth a quick grin.
You like the feel of steel,
You're hot stuff with a hatpin,
And good fun with a hand gun.
You're nearly a laugh,
You're nearly a laugh
But you're really a cry.¨
Friday, May 20, 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS: 65th Society of Architectural Historians. Annual Meeting 2012
Members and friends of the Society of Architectural Historians are invited to submit abstracts by June 1st for the thematic sessions listed below. All abstracts must reflect the theme of the sessions, which cover topics across all time periods and architectural styles with an international scope. Interdisciplinary papers are encouraged. Some topics include: epistemology of architectural history, architectural representations, material in architectural history, topographies, Medieval architecture, Modern architecture, architecture and privilege, Gothic architecture, landscape architecture, institutional architecture, built environments, architecture and economics/capital, and shrinking cities. Date: April 18-22 2012
Ttitles of the paper sessions below:
1. AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE AS MUSE
2. ALBERT KAHN, FORDISM AND THEIR LEGACIES
3. ARCHITECTURAL ECOLOGIES: A RELATIONAL HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
4. ARCHITECTURE 1500: THE END OF GOTHIC
5. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE AMERICAN BUILDING INDUSTRY, 1945-PREESENT
6. ARCHITECTURE'S NOCTURNES
7. THE ARCHITECTURE OF AUSTERITY: BETWEEN CRISIS AND POSSIBILITY
8. BUILDINGS AND OBJECTS: BAROQUE, ROCOCO AND BEYOND
9. CITY AIR
10. CONTESTED MODERNISMS: POLITICS, THEORY, AND DESIGN
11. THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN
12. DESIGN REFORM IN THE GREAT LAKES: USEFULNESS AND BEAUTY
13. DRAWING IN THE DESIGN PROFESSIONS, 1500 TO 1900
14. EVERYDAY CHINA: DOMESTIC SPACE AND THE MAKING OF MODERN IDENTITY
15. FROM IDEA TO BUILDING: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURAL PROCESS
16. FRONTIERS: TOPOGRAPHIES OF SURVEILLANCE AND FLOWS
17. GLOBAL HISTORY AS A MODEL FOR ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
18. INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR ARCHITECTURE IN THE 17TH CENTURY
19. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND ECONOMICS
20. MEDIEVAL STRUCTURES IN EARLY MODERN PALACES
21. MODERN LATIN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY TODAY
22. NOT THE JESUITS: “OTHER” COUNTER-REFORMATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
23. PRIVILEGED SITUATIONS: CITIES AND TOPOGRAPHY IN ROMAN ASIA MINOR
24. RADICAL MARBLE
25. REMEMBERING GEORGE A. KUBLER
26. RETHINKING ARCHITECTURE IN THE AGE OF PRINTING
27. SACRED PRECINCTS: NON-MUSLIM SITES IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES
28. SHRINKING CITIES
29. SYSTEMS AND THE SOUTH
Read more:
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Call for architectural visualisations of 10 dimensional space
Submission Guidelines
This project is a laboratory for ideas and the imagination. If you are interested in participating in this experiment please fill out the application information and return by email. You will then be notified as to how to proceed.
Collaborations between artists and scientists are encouraged. All applicants will need to do the necessary research into physics theory. All final visual design solutions will be submitted as PDF files. Three finalists will be chosen from all submissions. This is the first exploratory stage of the project. There is no honorarium at this time, nor any fees.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
