Let’s jump right into this: Japan has the absolute best census in the history of my known world. Not only does it include normal things like age, sex, and the height of each of your pets, but it also legitimizes the gossipy question of What Are You Doing Right Now? Japan slapped a bunch of people with notebooks and a sacred Numbers Mission: keep a log of what you do during the day, in fifteen minute intervals. And those people did!
Fascinating. What people really do with their time - in Japan. Go to xoxosoma.com.
I’ve watched a highly interesting documentary on the prospects of solar power today. Now an english version is available on youtube: Continue reading ‘Here Comes The Sun’
The inside of the bird’s nest is one of the less documented aspects of the building. The spatial relationships are quite spectacular. Check a collection of pictures on flickr by Manuel Ocana.
Last week my friends Bob and Christian gave a new silhouette to cologne, by means of illuminating the television tower with a spectacular lighten moved dress.
Up to the 1980s the construction of a television tower was a matter of course for many German cities to underline their urban character. Cologne is no exception: The local Colonius was designed by Erwin Heinle and was finished in 1981. With a height of 266 meters it is not only the highest television tower in Nordrhine-Westfalia, but also a striking landmark that is visible from far. As such, it is an inherent part of Cologne’s skyline by day and night. Unfortunately its significance as a tourist destination has been lost since the closure of the observation platform several years ago.
The architects Christian Dieckmann and Robert Wetzels want to re-raise the awareness for the significance of the distinctive building for the cityscape of Cologne: Continue reading ‘The sky is no limit’
I was also in Venice for the inauguration of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale. Unlike the other members of Dysturb, this was the fourth time I have attended the opening of the biennale (in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008). So, for me, it was difficult not to compare Aaron Betsky’s work at the Arsenale to the work that had been done by the previous international curators (Burdett, Foster, or Sudjic) of the other biennales. On top of this, the Venice Biennale is the main case study for my PhD thesis: the 1st Venice Architecture Biennale.
I have to say that when I left the Arsenale after seeing the exhibition, my enthusiasm was lukewarm: on the one hand I thought, as Darrel did, that the theme chosen by Betsky was loaded with intellectual potential and openness of interpretation and that overall, the show was well curated due to the compactness of the manifesto format. (In the past years the Arsenale’s bombarded the visitors with an overload of images, information, texts, and so forth.) But at the same time, many of the installations and accompanying manifestos remained obscure and slightly too artistic for my own tastes, and likely for the taste of many architects.
The German architecture magazine, BauNetz, has added a short, but smart interview with Tim Edler from Realities:United. Realities:United is by far the leader in media surfaces integrated to architecture, and the short interview articulates how Edler sees their work in relation to architecture and what projects are meaningful to him. He states that in some cases: “Media facades are also a symptom of weak architecture.” Talking about the integration of media in European architecture, he argues that: “Communication media in architecture is often motivated by an image of modernity” and that it stems from our reading of Asian cities or from science-fiction films. The video also highlights a collaboration with Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos from Spain, as featured in the Re-Sampling Ornament exhibition. One of the office’s exciting new projects, the ECB building in Frankfurt, aims “To shift technical systems to an aesthetic role” and proposes the total control of the lighting system at night for a massively orchestrated 3-dimensional sculpted light show.
A small but fantastic exhibition, Re-Sampling Ornament, has just finished at the Schweiser Architecture Museum / Swiss Architecture Museum (SAM) in Basel. Curated by Oliver Domeisen and Francesca Ferguson, the show featured a selection of contemporary projects that integrate ornament into the design strategy in a fundamental way, rather than applied. Each of the projects are situated within the context of their ornamental typologies and shown next to historical examples considered as lineage. With the recent fascination with pattern, biology and morphologies in architecture, the exhibit is both timely and a smart addition to the current thinking about ornament as it confronts the still predominant attitude of reductionist modernism. The magazine-style catalogue, SAM #5: Re-Sampling Ornament, is equally as good. It’s also worth looking at the other SAM catalogues accompanying the previous exhibitions.
You can see a small selection of photos on either Dysturb.Net or FlickR.
The Ecotopedia bag had a nice invention, the over-sized round strap cutout, which allowed you to wear the bag as a big accessory; Danish Pavilion; Photo: Thomas Stellmach
Upon arriving in Venice for this year’s 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, the Dysturb.Net team was so sick that we didn’t know what to do. But when we began to see this year’s freebie-hipster-cotton-bags that have become a standard give-away from the pavilions, we started to feel better. These bags are the absolute best way to self-promote the individual pavilions, other than offering free drinks, which we also support. On top of this, they can be beautiful, and a great reminder from year-to-year of the best pavilions and their graphic design campaigns. So we said to ourselves, let’s collect them and vote for the best bags…. what a great way to go “beyond building“! To all you future curators of your country’s pavilions, take note = give away some wickedly designed hipster bags and everyone will come!
Click on the photos for a complete high-res shot!
Please comment on which bag you think is the best, and if you have more to submit we would be happy to post them.
