Saturday, December 25, 2010

The triclinium

A fresco of a triclinium in Pompeii. From historyforkids.com
Roman diners were accommodated on couches arranged in a ¨U¨ shape and called the triclinium. When the guests were seated, their slippers were removed. If the host was rich or pretentious, his guests might then be subjected to a full-scale pedicure, although it was more usual for slaves simply to bring round ewers of water so that they might wash their hands and bathe the dust of the street from their feet.
A reproduction of a triclinium. From wikipedia.org
Triclinium. From novaroma.org
The table was set in the centre of the ¨U¨ and, as the courses came and went, ¨a high-girt slave with purple napkin wiped well the maple-wood table, while a second swept up the scraps and anything that could offend the guests¨. This last, slightly sinister phrase (from one of Horace´s Satires) takes on meaning when it is realized that Roman wall hangings and canopies occasionally came adrift, descending ¨in mighty ruin upon the platter, trailing more black dust than the north wind raises on Campanian plains¨. When this happened, guests were inclined to call for their slippers -a sign that they intended instant departure.
REFERENCE. 
The Fine Art of Food. By Reay Tannahill. P. 19

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!


My fractal contribution to the holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays for all readers!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Selection of pictures of Tadashi Kawamata´s works


Translation from Wikipedia.org:
Tadashi Kawamata has quickly gained on the Japanese and international art scene. At age 28, a graduate of the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo, he was already invited to the Japan Pavilion of the Venice Biennale 1982. Therefore, it intervenes in the world to produce monumental projects always in agreement with the site invested.
Tadashi Kawamata's work reflects on the social context and relationships that define it. When installing shelters made of materials (wood, cardboard) recovery on the edge of the cities of Montreal, New York or Tokyo, it refers to the slums and the homeless. At Alkmaar, these are people with social problems that are associated with a proposed bridge linking the rehabilitation center in the city. In any project, the artist is surrounded by students, residents, groups involved in editing and producing the work.


A careful discovery, physical and mental health, history, landscape, architecture and lifestyles they bring him gradually to determine the nature of its projects. At the root of his work, Tadashi Kawamata interested in planning issues, construction sites or demolition, the intermediate areas that remain in urban areas are reinvested by the artist who uses the building for its same materials of the site, the "recycling" (chairs, boats, scaffolding). For example, in Kassel, is a church in ruins, destroyed by World War II and neglected during the reconstruction of the city, Tadashi Kawamata restores to the people on the occasion of Documenta VIII in 1987. Time as an indicator of greatness or decline of a monument or site, is a key element of his work.
Its operations recreate bridges between past and present, revealing the emotional, invisible things, but also their material reality. Work sharing and reflection on community life that animates and builds each of its projects promote the awakening of this memory. At the Saint-Louis de la Salpetriere in 1997, The passage of the chairs form an elevation of chairs and pews, spiral springs towards the dome of the chapel. In Barcelona in 1996, is a bridge that connects the contemporary art museum in the old neighborhood. In Evreux in 2000, pedestrians are asked to move on instead of City Hall by an elevated walkway that allows to change the point of view. All examples and situations where the work calls for a shift to a path. At St. Thélo in the Côtes-d'Armor, Tadashi Kawamata has invested three summers (2004-2006) during the old weaver's houses doomed to destruction.
Professor at the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo from 1999 to 2005, he currently teaches at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 2005 he was appointed artistic director of the Second Triennial of Yokohama, Japan. Recent projects have taken him to France to participate in the artistic journey The estuary between Nantes and Saint-Nazaire and Japan in a solo retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.


All pictures downloaded from google images

Sunday, December 19, 2010

James Stirling Exhibition At the Yale Center for British Art


Curator Anthony Vidler, architecture dean at Cooper Union, discusses "Notes from the Archive: James Frazer Stirling, Architect and Teacher"

KTV House. By Standardarchitecture

The theme of the 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture\Urbanism was "City Mobilization." So Standardarchitecture created Eggs of the City — a pair of mobile living pods designed with China’s enormous population of young migrant workers in mind. Made of fiberglass, the playful egg-shaped units stood on the plaza of Shenzhen’s civic center; one doubled as a bench with a small sleeping area inside, while the other served as a karaoke room. Both were purely experimental, but a third, more fully outfitted variation was later made of bamboo at Standard’s office, by a firm member who, as of press time, had lived there full-time for more than three months.
Picture and text from Architectural Record.com

Friday, December 17, 2010

El Centro Cultural Recoleta festeja sus 30 años junto a sus hacedores

Fotos de commons.wikimedia.org
¨Hoy abre al público una muestra con obras de Clorindo Testa, Fernando Benedit y Jacques Bedel.
Hace tres décadas fueron los responsables de la obra arquitectónica que le dio origen. A partir de hoy, a las 19, la institución festejará su 30° aniversario con una exposición de esos tres grandes realizadores: Clorindo Testa, Luis Fernando Benedit y Jacques Bedel.
En diciembre de 1980, el Recoleta abrió sus puertas a la experimentación artística en un espacio remodelado por los tres artistas/arquitectos, que le dieron nueva función a un edificio que constituye una de las construcciones más antiguas que se conservan en la ciudad, que en el siglo XVIII había pertenecido a los frailes Franciscanos Recoletos y que luego se convirtió en un asilo de mendigos.
Bedel, Testa y Benedit en 1980. Foto de La Nación
Foto de info-recoleta.com
Foto de buenosaires.it
Para este aniversario, "era indispensable convocar a los tres geniales artistas que lo diseñaron", señaló Claudio Massetti, director del Recoleta, institución que pertenece al gobierno porteño. Reunidos por La Nacion, Testa, Benedit y Bedel recordaron la obra que los convocó como arquitectos, en un diálogo en el que el humor y el recuerdo se desplegaron en dosis parejas. "Fue una obra interesante, divertida arquitectónicamente, creo que nos llevamos bastante bien", comentó Benedit.
Hace treinta años, los tres posaron para una serie de fotografías en distintas partes del edificio. "Cuando veo la foto de aquella época lo primero que pienso es ¿y éstos quiénes son? Después me doy cuenta de que somos nosotros", comentó Testa con su habitual jovialidad.
En tanto, Bedel señaló: "Este edificio fue uno de los primeros que se hicieron como restauración, pero no histórica, sino con intervención de ideas contemporáneas, cosa que no tenía muchos antecedentes en esa época. Fue un desafío". También recordó que el Recoleta irrumpió en la escena cultural porteña como un espacio de experimentación artística y de propuestas nuevas que le daba oportunidades a la gente joven desde un ámbito oficial, lo cual era novedoso.
Testa rememoró el llamado que recibieron del entonces secretario de Cultura, Ricardo Freixá, para realizar la obra, debido a que los tres eran arquitectos y artistas. Nunca habían trabajado juntos como arquitectos, pero sí como artistas. Como integrantes del Grupo CAYC, en 1977 habían ganado el Gran Premio de la Bienal de San Pablo.
"Cuando nos convocaron para la obra del Recoleta fue un desafío y un honor, e hicimos el anteproyecto ad honorem ", dijo Bedel. Si bien no volvieron a realizar juntos otra obra arquitectónica, continuaron vinculados en el campo de las artes visuales. En cuanto a los roles durante la construcción del centro, Benedit comentó con humor: "Clorindo llegaba más temprano y lo agarraban a él primero. El era el bueno y yo el malo". En tanto, Bedel agregó en sintonía: "Yo era el jamón del sándwich, hacía de amortiguador entre las dos versiones".
Testa+Bedel+Benedit es la exposición de obras que, hasta el 20 de febrero, se exhibirá en la sala Cronopios del Recoleta (Junín 1930). Una selección que ofrece trabajos de distintas etapas de cada uno de los artistas, a lo largo de estos 30 años. Si bien sus propuestas artísticas son diferentes, hay elementos que los unen, como ellos mismos señalan: una forma parecida de pensar, una constante renovación, y ganas de seguir generando ideas y propuestas.¨
REFERENCIA
Texto tomado del artículo de Laura Casanovas para La Nación, Sección Cultura.
Siga leyendo:

Thursday, December 16, 2010

India to Build 24 Green Cities in Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor

Delhi. Picture posted in the article of inhabitat.com
¨As a rapidly developing country, India still makes heavy use of fossil fuels (especially coal) — however in recent years it has worked to diversify its energy supplies and make its infrastructure ‘greener’. The largest infrastructure project currently underway in the country is the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and India just announced that it plans to build 24 ‘green cities‘ as part of the development.
The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is a major infrastructure project that India is developing with Japan. The project will upgrade nine mega industrial zones as well as the country’s high-speed freight line, three ports, and six airports. A 4,000 MW power plant and a six-lane intersection-free expressway will also be constructed, which will connect the country’s political and financial capitals. The DMIC project is already underway and it will cover six states — Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The mega-project, which is rumored to cost over $90 billion, is being partially funded by the government along with Japanese loans and investment by Japanese firms. The 24 green cities are designed to boost India’s infrastructure in the smaller towns along this 1,483km corridor, as well as national economic growth and prosperity. A key part of the green city development will improve and repair the basic infrastructure of two major metropolitan cities that suffer from poor roads due to high levels of transport. A large portion of the funding will go into developing better transport facilities and public transport systems.¨
Keep on reading Timon Singh´s article for Inhabitat.com

The New King Abdullah Economic City

A computer rendering of the King Abdullah Financial District on the outskirts of Riyadh.
¨Saudi Arabia — Just off a desert road about an hour’s drive from this port city, an enormous arched gate capped by three domes rises out of the sand like the set for a 1920s silent film fantasy. It is, instead, a fantasy of contemporary urban planning, the site of what one day will be King Abdullah Economic City, a 65-square-mile development at the edge of the Red Sea. With a projected population of two million, the city is a Middle Eastern version of the “special economic zones” that have flourished in places like China.
The city is one of four being laid out on empty desert around this country, all scheduled for completion by 2030. They follow on the heels of the country’s first coeducational university, which opened last year next to the King Abdullah site, and a financial district nearly the size of Lower Manhattan that is rising on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh.
Architecturally they couldn’t be more dreary and conventional — bloated glass towers encircled by quaint town houses and suburban villas decorated in ersatz historical styles. Their gargantuan scale and tabula rasa approach conjure old-style Modernist planning efforts like the creation of Brasília in the 1950s or the colossal Soviet urban experiments of the 1930s, but these are driven by anxiety over the future, not utopian idealism.
With more than 13 million Saudis — half the population — under 20, the 86-year-old Saudi ruler, King Abdullah, is trying to create more than a million new jobs and 4 million homes within 10 to 15 years. He and his royal clan envision an economy less dependent on oil, run by a new class of doctors, engineers and businessmen who can function in a global marketplace.
To accomplish this feat the Saudi government says it needs to crack the door open to some sort of Western-style modernity — or at least a softer version of the Islam practiced here, with its strictly enforced separation of the sexes, its severe restrictions on the public lives of women and the ever watchful eye of the religious police.¨
REFERENCE
An article by Nicolai Ouroussoff for The New York Times.
Keep on reading

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