tiny appartment

Yesterday, Thursday 28th. in Rotterdam; the presentation of a series of studies/projects called Tiny Appartments by TU-Delft’s Hyperbodylab, run by Prof. Kas Oosterhuis, in collaboration with real estate company Blauwhoed. Working prototypes on a 1:1 scale show a variety of options and solutions to deal with functionalities in a limited space.

Salter & senses

Chris Salter referring to Arakawa&Gins Reversible Destiny-project during a discussion on Displace 2.0:
“the general concept was that as we get older, we tend to lose sensory acuity – we lose our sense of smell, of taste, of tactile feeling. By designing architecture that would literally confuse the body, distort the same perceptual habits that you get used to day after day, one might prevent death – not literally, but metaphorically in the sense that death is really about falling into the blandness and lifelessness of routine.”
His project was presented at Todaysart Festival in 2012, theme this year was “the search and the loving for the undiscovered”. Let’s proceed………………..

Habraken

Next Sunday; January 13th. a new film is shown in NAI’s Auditorium on the works of John Habraken: de Drager‘. John Habraken introduced a totally new vision for residential construction by separating the ‘support’ – the base building – and the ‘infill’, its fitting-out. The architect’s only responsibility was the design of the support, of ‘open buildings’ that users could then fit out for themselves. Sonja Lüthi and Marc Schwarz have made a film about Habraken’s body of thought.

performance architecture

On December 6th. 2012, Pedro Gadanho, MOMA’s curator for contemporary architecture, was present at Stroom the Hague for an illustrative lecture on Performance Architecture. Using images from the works of e,g. Gordon Matta-Clark, Haus Ruecker, Raumlabor, Exyzt and many others he discussed the links between architecture and art, between function and influence; adding social space by means of ‘city-performance’.

Interactive spectacle

Until coming Saturday, Nov. 17th. an inter-active project by Usman Haque Design in Eindhoven at Strijp-S: Marling. Through mass-participation the voices of citizens are given form through spectacular effects that hang in the air above the crowd, forming a delicate, intricate ceiling of animated colour; a 3-d experience. See also the video.

Under Tomorrow’s Sky

On August 10th. 2012, at MU in Eindhoven the first phase of the project ‘Under Tomorrows Sky‘ was presented and will be extended over the coming month. From the website: “Under Tomorrows Sky is a fictional, future city. Speculative architect Liam Young of the London based Tomorrows Thoughts Today has assembled a think tank of scientists, technologists, futurists, illustrators, science fiction authors and special effects artists to collectively develop this imaginary place, the landscapes that surround it and the stories it contains.” More, much more than the Matrix meets StarWars…….

Matta-Clark

Tot 21 oktober 2012 is in het MACBA in Barcelona een boeiende tentoonstelling te zien van het tijdloze werk van Gordon Matta-Clark; de helaas te vroeg overleden architect/kunstenaar die vooral bekendheid kreeg met zijn building-cuts: integrale insnedes van gebouwen. Zijn werk is echter nog uitsluitend te zien via video’s; het werd uitgevoerd op gebouwen die op de nominatie stonden te worden gesloopt.
Leestip: ‘Object to be destroyed’ van Pamela M.Lee.

Knight’s Move

dinsdag 24-4, Stroom Den Haag; in de reeks ’the Knigt’s Move’ de lezing ‘Biophilic Future’ van de Finse artist/architect Juhani Pallasmaa. Auteur van o.a. ‘Eyes of the Skin’ en ’the Thinking Hand’. Ik heb nog altijd waardevolle herinneringen aan de eerdere lezing van Anthony Vidler vorig jaar juni.

Biocleave house

Bij toeval stuitte ik op een mij onbekend filmpje van het Bioscleave House; architecten Arakawa & Gins, uit 2008. Arakawa, helaas overleden in mei 2010, werkte met Madeleine Gins aan diverse projecten binnen de architectuur, maar tevens poezie, schilderijen, stedebouw, doel: ‘we refuse to die’.

Novak

In 1996 Marcos Novak wrote ‘Transmitting Architecture’, an article still valuable and actual today. Last February he was interviewed by Per-Johan Dahl in Los Angeles; again intriguing and