The sublimity of landscape

J. M. W. Turner. The decline of the Carthaginian empire. 1817. Google images

¨The interest of a landscape consists wholly in its relation either to figures present—or to figures past—or to human powers conceived. The most splendid drawing of the chain of the Alps, irrespective of their relation to humanity, is no more a true landscape than a painting of this bit of stone. For, as natural philosophers, there is no bigness or littleness to you. This stone is just as interesting to you, or ought to be—as if it was a million times as big. There is no more sublimity —per se—in ground sloped at an angle of forty-five, than in ground level; nor in a perpendicular fracture of a rock, than in a horizontal one. The only thing that makes the one more interesting to you in a landscape than the other, is that you could tumble over the perpendicular fracture—and couldn't tumble over the other. A cloud, looked at as a cloud only, is no more a subject for painting than so much feculence in dirty water. It is merely dirty air, or at best a chemical solution ill made. That it is worthy of being painted at all depends upon its being the means of nourishment and chastisement to men, or the dwelling place of imaginary gods. There's a bit of blue sky and cloud by Turner—one of the loveliest ever painted by human hand. But, as a mere pattern of blue and white, he had better have painted a jay's wing: this was only painted by him—and is, in reality, only pleasant to you—because it signifies the coming of a gleam of sweet sunshine in windy weather; and the wind is worth thinking of only because it fills the sails of ships, and the sun because it warms the sailors. (....) Only natural phenomena in their direct relation to humanity—these are to be your subjects in landscape. Rocks and water and air may no more be painted for their own sakes, than the armor carved without the warrior.¨

J.M.W. Turner. Modern Rome. Campo Vaccino. Google images

John Ruskin. Lectures on Landscape.

These Lectures on Landscape were given at Oxford on January 20, February 9, and February 23, 1871

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20019/20019-h/20019-h.htm

New bridge design for Los Angeles rail

Image courtesy of  Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension

I'm not sure I like it, because the 3D render is not helping, it looks more like an illustration. But, anyway, I'm anxious to see the development of this original design for a freeway's bridge.

From Greg Aragon's post:

Traditional art and modern-day seismic technology will join in an iconic structure to be built as part of the first phase of the $735-million, 11.5-mile Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension in Los Angeles County. Last month, the Foothill Extension Construction Authority unveiled the winning design for an $18.6-million bridge over the 210 freeway in Arcadia that will also sport "smart column" seismic-assessment wiring.

Dubbed the "Gateway to the San Gabriel Valley," the 584-ft-long bridge is scheduled to be completed next summer. It is the first phase of the overall Gold Line's Pasadena-to-Azusa light-rail extension, which broke ground in August 2010 and is scheduled to finish in 2015.

"We started the design process with an artist's concept paying homage to the region's historic Native American basket-weaving tradition," says Habib F. Balian, CEO of the Foothill Extension Construction Authority, the entity in charge of building the line from downtown Los Angeles to the eastern county line, along the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley.

The unique design was created by award-winning public artist Andrew Leicester, who was selected through an international competition seeking a signature bridge facade that would best embody the San Gabriel Valley. His winning idea features two prominent "basket" columns as well as the superstructure's serpentine-like underbelly.

Leicester says he researched the area and discovered an ancient trade route used by Native Americans that paralleled the 210 Freeway.

"The Tongva [tribe] were the earliest dwellers in this area, and they are famous to this day for their skill in basket making," says Leicester, who was born in England and has created public art projects throughout the U.S., U.K. and Australia. "I thought this was a good opportunity to wrap the columns in an ornamental sheathing and basket textile patterns as an attractive way to disguise the columns."

Image from thesource.metro.net

Rebar for one of the columns rises from the ground. Picture by Walt Mancini. http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_19033343

Keep on reading:

http://enr.construction.com/infrastructure/transportation/2011/1205-65279Los-Angeles-Rail-Structure-To-Feature-Tradition-High-Tech-.asp

New York. Through Kafka´s imagination

New York City, 1937. From nyc-architecture.com

NYC 1900. From timefreezephotos.com

¨To a certain degree, by creating his own conception of America, Kafka takes the role of master and creator, producing for himself a feeling of power and superiority over the supposed land of freedom. This sense of superiority enables Kafka to criticize the capitalist and industrialized America through his description of the streets of New York. He writes, from morning to evening and far into the dreaming night that street was the channel for a constant stream of traffic which, seen from above, looked like an inextricable confusion, for ever newly improvised, of foreshortened human figures and the roofs of all kinds of vehicles, sending into the upper air another confusion, more riotous and complicated, of 4 noises, dust and smells, all of it enveloped and penetrated by a flood of light which the multitudinous objects in the street scattered, carried off and again busily brought back, with an effect as palpable to the dazzled eye as if a glass roof stretched over the street

were being violently smashed into fragments at every moment (Kafka 39).

The “confusion” that Kafka explicitly mentions is further revealed implicitly through his heavy incorporation of sensual imagery, ranging from the cacophony of human and car noises to the visual scattering of sunlight to the clash of smells, all of which introduce a bustling and industrious atmosphere into Kafka’s world.

The complex syntax of this lengthy sentence, with its prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses, engenders a sense of confusion in the reader’s mind that parallels the confusion that Karl experiences when staring down at the city from his uncle’s house. Austin Warren points out that “Kafka’s imagined America is not a land of broad cornfields shining in the sun but a chiefly metropolitan affair, already stratified, weary, and hopeless ¨a land of hotels and slums” (Warren 123). Any sense of individualism, of the individual achieving the American dream, becomes lost in the midst of this fast-paced America.¨

Excerpt from: Franz Kafka’s Amerika: The Amerikan Dream. Edmond Lau. April 30, 2001

http://people.csail.mit.edu/edmond/writings/amerikan-dream.pdf

NYC. A structural steel worker in the old times. From solarnavigator.net

Remembering ¨Into White¨ by Cat Stevens

Barley House. Digital art by Myriam B. Mahiques

I like Cat Stevens´ old songs, but I´m not crazy about them, except for this one -Into White- that tells us about a mystic house:

I built my house from barley rice

Green pepper walls and water ice

Tables of paper wood, windows of light

And everything emptying into white.

A simple garden, with acres of sky

A Brown-haired dogmouse

If one dropped by

Yellow Delanie would sleep well at night

With everything emptying into white.

A sad Blue eyed drummer rehearses outside

A Black spider dancing on top of his eye

Red legged chicken stands ready to strike

And everything emptying into white.

I built my house from barley rice

Green pepper walls and water ice

And everything emptying into white

The booming of Hanoi´s ancient quarters

Pattern of Hanoi´s tube houses. Picture from García Lamarca´s post.

Hanoi´s street. Picture from García Lamarca´s post.

I´m sharing an interesting post at Polis by Melissa García Lamarca:

¨Hanoi’s “36 Streets” or Ancient Quarter, an area that has existed since the city was founded in A.D. 1010. Originally the center of supply for Vietnamese rulers in the Imperial City and a residential area for “commoners,” the area emerged as an important trade and craft center in the early 13th century. This was due to its privileged location nestled between the country’s seat of power, the old citadel destroyed by French colonizers, and the Red River, whose flow provided an important connection to nearby regions.

The urban morphology and function of the Ancient Quarter has, remarkably, remained largely intact throughout Vietnam’s more recent history of French colonization and decades of war. Its "spaghetti" street pattern remains from the 15th century, when trade streets emerged that specialized in a particular craft or good, still reflected in street names today. Constant division of properties over the centuries led to the creation of the Quarter’s characteristic "tube" or "tunnel" houses, providing live-work spaces for the residents of the area.(...)

Since the late 1980s, the Ancient Quarter has undergone a massive entrepreneurial boom. A high proportion of the local population has benefited, as they have transformed their "tube" house living quarters into shops, cafes, restaurants and hotels. There is a thriving pavement economy, with street hawkers — overwhelmingly women — commuting in daily from the countryside to sell vegetables and other goods. Foreign tourism is also booming.¨

Read the complete post:

http://www.thepolisblog.org/2011/11/changing-face-of-hanois-booming-ancient.html#more

An artificial glacier in Mongolia´s capital for air conditioning

Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Photograph: Doug Kanter/Getty Images

From Guardian.co.UK:

¨Mongolia is to launch one of the world's biggest ice-making experiments later this month in an attempt to combat the adverse affects of global warming and the urban heat island effect.

The geoengineering trial, that is being funded by the Ulan Bator government, aims to "store" freezing winter temperatures in a giant block of ice that will help to cool and water the city as it slowly melts during the summer.

The scientists behind the 1bn tugrik (£460,000) project hope the process will reduce energy demand from air conditioners and regulate drinking water and irrigation supplies. If successful, the model could be applied to other cities in the far north.

The project aims to artificially create "naleds" - ultra-thick slabs of ice that occur naturally in far northern climes when rivers or springs push through cracks in the surface to seep outwards during the day and then add an extra layer of ice during the night. Unlike regular ice formation on lakes - which only gets to a metre in thickness before it insulates the water below - naleds continue expanding for as long as there is enough water pressure to penetrate the surface. Many are more than seven metres thick, which means they melt much later than regular ice.

A Mongolian engineering firm ECOS & EMI will try to recreate this process by drilling bore holes into the ice that has started to form on the Tuul river. The water will be discharged across the surface, where it will freeze. This process - effectively adding layers of ice rinks - will be repeated at regular intervals throughout the winter.

The qualities of naleds (also known as Aufeis, German for "ice on top") have been known for hundreds of years. The North Korean military used them to build river crossings for tanks during the winter and Russia has used them as drilling platforms. But engineers usually see them in negative terms as a threat to railways and bridges.¨

Keep on reading:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/15/mongolia-ice-shield-geoengineering

Disertación del arq. Clorindo Testa con complicaciones

Arq. Clorindo Testa en la UNLP. Foto UNLP

No es la primera vez que suceden rencillas serias en el Centro de Estudiantes, del que nunca participé, bajo ningún partido político. Mis soportes a la FADU fueron trabajar como docente gratis (Ad honorem) por un tiempo, hasta ser rentada con un sueldo que no se puede ni mencionar (al que hay que descontar estacionamiento, gastos varios, viáticos, etc) y aún sigo siendo investigadora Ad Honorem, pero lo hago con mucho cariño.

Mi esposo, el arq. Luis Makianich, también dió clases Ad Honorem y cursos de ArchiCad para los alumnos, gratuitos, con las computadoras del Centro de Estudiantes, hasta que ellos mismos, en estas rencillas políticas nos las quitaron, es decir, no se las llevaron, sencillamente no permitieron que los alumnos de nuestra cátedra las usaran, por supuesto todos los profesores teníamos computadoras en casa.

Sigo avergonzándome de su comportamiento, tanto en La Plata como en la UBA, y puedo entender que no son todos culpables, algunos se acercan al Centro con buenas intenciones. Del diario La Nación, transcribo un párrafo sobre el escándalo por la disertación del arquitecto Clorindo Testa, quien no se merece semejante actitud, menos aún considerando su prestigio y edad avanzada.

Dejo el link para que sigan leyendo y saquen sus propias conclusiones:

¨Y finalmente Clorindo Testa, uno de los más prestigiosos arquitectos del país, pudo brindar su conferencia académica en la Facultad de Aquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), tras la controversia desatada entre las autoridades de esa unidad académica y la municipalidad de La Plata.

Sucedió que la conferencia de Clorindo Testa, con el título de Clorindo x Clorindo, estaba prevista a comienzo de este mes. A último momento, fue suspendida por el decano Gustavo Azpiazu porque en plenas elecciones estudiantiles Franja Morada y una agrupación kirchnerista se disputaban la exclusividad de la charla del arquitecto.

La iniciativa había surgido desde la Municipalidad de La Plata, por medio de la Dirección de Articulación Ciudadana, y fue propuesta a las autoridades de la facultad. Antes de que estallara la disputa estudiantil, la intención de la comuna era reconocer la trayectoria de Testa. Por eso, el intendente Pablo Bruera (FPV) iba a entregarle un diploma como ciudadano ilustre.

Si bien las elecciones estudiantiles pasaron, ayer se percibía un clima tenso en la facultad. La charla había sido anunciada a las 10.30 pero comenzó a las 10. Esto indignó a Bruera, que había ido a la facultad a entregarle el diploma.¨

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1425937-tras-un-escandalo-testa-pudo-disertar?utm_source=n_tip_nota1&utm_medium=titularP&utm_campaign=NLCult

A fractal as a concept of an urban intervention

This is a fractal I´ve generated myself and it´s not a real urban intervention. But, while I was making zoom, I´ve seen they show the concept of the influence of an urban intervention.

Let´s suppose it´s an important huge building or a recreation area, shopping mall, whatever. All the blocks around will be directly affected and the influence will spread through the urban tissue.

Depending on the scale, maybe the intervention is smaller, but we shall always see the changes in the city.

A fractal as a concept of an urban intervention by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.