Week #10
chilling out…
So 5 months in 2018 and I think I can confirm that my resolution of "chilling out" has not been on the agenda... It's been busy to say the least. And unfortunately Space Invaders has been seeing little love. However the newsletter hiatus needed to happen, as a couple of weeks ago, I FINALLY finished my last registration exam, which makes me unofficially an architect. (Wish me luck with the NY State Rego peeps now). Before I rattle on, a big thank you to everyone who has helped me get through this. 2017 was a bit of a mare to say the least and I thought that I would honestly get "deported" before completing US registration in New York.
~ This week is a collection of the architecture that's currently on my mind. I hope you enjoy.
And like every other week, shenanigans are at the bottom.
Ash xx
this song reminds me of high school chamber music (seb squad!…)
In spirit of the New York weather which is slowly slowly turning. Here is summer, 3rd Movement by Vivaldi, performed by Nigel Kennedy and the Polish Chamber Orchestra.
so what’s been happening 2018…???
1.0 coming in hot with …
national museum of qatar
architect: ateliers jean nouvel
location: doha, qatar
I think the biggest question here is WHY? The project is set to open in December of this year and is constructed from steel, cladded with glass reinforced concrete.
The building's design is said to pay homage to the country's geographical location in the desert and its proximity to the sea. I guess accurate, seeing as it looks like shells on a rock.
To me, it seems like an unnecessary mindf*** of wasted structure and materials. A big thumbs down I'm afraid.
See the resemblance?
2.0 hudson yards update
hudson yards
architect:
ds+r, som, kpf
LOCATION: hudson yards, new york, usa
A brief update on what's happening on Related companies gigantic site at the end of the highline on the West side of Manhattan. Last weekend Anna, Nick and I went for a quick site visit to scope it out! The morning started out super foggy and I was nervous the visit was going to be a flop. But we got lucky and the sun burnt off the cloud and we had a stellar day at the Top of the House. Not to be biased, but Tower D is looking slick! The cold bent curtain wall units are working out a charm and now they are up to floor 64 out of 71. Here is a link by curbed NY which has all the surrounding sites and intended construction for that area. Below are some pics I took on my faithful iPhone.
3.0 architect literature: an excerpt from patrik schumacher’s
the autopoiesis of architecture
(this is as pretentious as architecture gets)
Recently, Patrik Schumacher (now director of Zaha Hadid's office) has been at the forefront of the UK press with his attacks on councils and civil servants. Read more here. This aside, Schumacher is famous or infamous for a gigantic philosophical bible on architecture. Or more crudely put, a ghastly number of rhetoric non-nonsensical theories to elevate it to some higher plane of literature. (This is why architects have egos). I've never read it and probably never will. Someone at work mentioned that every morning someone from a previous office would pick up this book and flip to a random page and recite a paragraph. So... here goes...
Volume II, somewhere...
Side effects become selected effects, capacities transform into functions. This process whereby hitherto redundant features become vital functions is called exaptation in contrast to adaptation where a given functional feature is gradually optimized relative to a stable selection criterion.
Ok that’s enough. Link below if you’re interested in purchasing.
4.0 food and architecture: noods on noods on noods.
noodle cup museum
architect: ???
location: osaka, iikeda, japan
If you've been watching my insta-stories, I've been posting lots of nood pics. And then... I discovered that there was an instant noodle museum.
5.0 art & architecture
monochrome
location: greenpoint, brooklyn, new york, usa
At the beginning of last month, I was lucky enough to be able to attend the opening of CJ Hendry's monochrome exhibition. It was only open four a hot second, and had lines up to 4 hours long!
The exquisitely pencil rendered, hyper-realistic drawings of scrunched pantone swatches were nestled alongside theme-coloured rooms with props. Perhaps paying homage to CJ's fleeting architectural background perhaps? It was definitely interesting watching people interact with the space. Some did not even pay attention to the artwork... although one can always argue that the space is part of the artwork itself.
6.0 raw
il capo
A beautifully captured video filmed at a marble quarry in Italy. Well worth a watch.
SOUND ON!
7.0 in progress
125 greenwich
architect: rafael vinoly
location: 125 greenwich street, new york, ny, usa
Yet another skyscraper set to grace the downtown skyline. When complete this tower will stand at 912 ft. The mammoth 72 floor building will house 273 condos, with full amenities on the top 3 floors. Interiors were designed by March & White, who have a background designing super yachts. The central core is further expressed on the exterior and the tower has rounded corners. A feature that reminds me of Renzo's 565 Broome. Back in the day I worked on this tower's neighbour, 133 Greenwich (not shown in the render below) and the current progress on site is already making it look like a dwarf.
8.0 is this real life…?
42 bond street
Found this cool render by Hayes Davidson of 42 Bond Street, designed by Herzog and de Meuron.
let’s wind it back with a golden oldie.
Love this song.
9.0 an architectural model
Taken at a visit to Grimshaw Architect's office. This incredibly detailed model is of the Fulton Center in downtown Manhattan.
10.0 the sh*t list…
About a month ago starchitect Richard Meier stepped down from his firm after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct including creepy bathrobe behaviour. It comes at a time where women are now starting to speak out with the #metoo campaign smothered all over the media. Public shaming sh*t lists are hot on the press right now and architecture has its own. Admittedly I have seen the list, which exists in the form of a google doc, but the list had been severely edited and all the names had been taken out.
People say rumours are rumours, but sometimes when there's smoke there's fire...
See here for the New York Times article on Meier's fame to shame and here for an interview with the anonymous author of the architecture shit list.
11.0 architectural spotlight…
this is…
amanda levete
(November 17, 1955 - ) This week's spotlight is a UK favourite. Levete, a Stirling Prize architect runs her own firm AL_A. She launched her career in the 80's starting at Richard Rogers office. Back in April I had the fortune on attending one of her talks at the Cooper Union. She spoke for a solid 75 mins about two buildings.
She spoke about this building first: the MAAT museum in Portugal. This beautiful low lying building was sculpted to draw visitors to the water edge, but without blocking the historical city of Lisbon. An array of morphing and carefully crafted tiles are arrayed over the form of the building and at sunset the front elevation reflects the sunlight on the water.
Indirect light is supplied to the underground gallery space through the landscaped form which peels up ever so slightly.
Watch the shimmer in the video below.
And last but not least she introduced her new addition to the Victoria and Albert museum. The new gallery space is located underground so visitors are invited to enter the building through a courtyard. Similar to the MAAT project, AL_A specially designed the ceramic tiles that cover the courtyard space. As part of their daring competition submission, AL_A proposed modifications to the historical front wall entrance which required demolishing the lower portion of the "sacred" elevation. At first their proposal was whole-heartedly denied but after some archival digging they uncovered a drawing which (showed a fully permeable entrance way) and allowed them to further back-up their argument.
The Victoria and Albert museum.
The gallery space below the courtyard.
Cross section through courtyard and entrance.
Stackable soccer pitches...?
Comme de Garcons, New York (back when she was with Future Systems)
shenanigans
1.0 a canine friend
Nugget. So. Cute.
2.0 babe
Workout Wonder Woman, also dubbed "Queen of Workouts" Alexia Clark, is someone who always posting excellent workout regimes and creative exercises. Sometimes I'm definitely too uncoordinated for them though... (I'm waiting for the day when she's going to release an ap... hint hint).
3.0 boy
In ode to the new Avengers (which I still haven't seen), rumour has it that this might be Evan's last stint.
4.0 stair porn
This week we have some ancient stair porn, heralding from Jaipur, India. These are the step wells at Chand Baori.
5.0 art
Another find from the Gram is Canadian artist Callen Schaub. Schaub is an abstract artist who has a unique method of spinning his canvases and pouring paint to create some pretty insane pieces of work.
untitled, 2018, acrylic & resin on canvas on panel
Twisted Perception, 2012, acrylic on canvas
6.0 lost in translation
egg (nz) = idiot (everywhere else)
Sometimes New Zealanders call each other eggs. e.g Don't be an egg.
7.0 harsh realities
8.0 meanwhile…
In the 'Naki in New Zealand, someone couldn't afford a pie and got a little rarked up about it...
9.0 doodle
It's not 100% right... but sometimes you have to commit pen to paper to figure something out. You have to start from somewhere!
10.0 nom nom nom
As a celebration dinner my NYC fam and I went to the Musket Room, a little place of kiwiana in Soho. So yum. We may have had the Long Menu...
11.0 and that’s a wrap! here’s some ‘new’ music.
This week we have two videos by Khruangbin. Both, must watches. The first is their music video to Evan Finds the Third Room, featuring and adorable old lady who is walking around the streets with an imaginary hula hoop. Then second a live studio recording. honestly can't believe that I had not been told about them till a couple of months ago and this Texan trio has been pumping their silken guitar beats through my headphones daily. Sound up and enjoy.
_
Till next week my friends.
I hope that I have credited everything. If not images are not mine unless stated, please click on the images and hyperlinks to their original sources :)