The cyclist

Lightness of being, self-sufficiency, human tortoise.

Christophe Egret of Studio Egret West via RIBA Journal Unconsidered Trifles

Porcupine Tree

Moxon Architects design for Oliver’s Place Preston via Ecofriend

Concentrated substance

Protection des ruines romaines de Coire, 1987

Every year the Pritzker is awarded to someone who I thought had already received it! As much as I absolutely love Peter Zumthor’s work I can’t help but agree that  this year’s committee opted for a ’safe’ choice.

And another interesting article published at the Architectural Record expressing a similar view (via mave).

Thermes Vals, 1996

On tonight’s show: Architecture and/or Morality, The Movie

Francesco Borromini Rome S. Ivo della Sapienza interior-dome

Alternative title: The Age of Arrogance

Just came back from the ‘Ethics in Architecture: The Corbusian legacy‘ at the Barbican Hall. Just a few notes/bits and pieces  from what was said (apologies if what I write does not match exactly the words of the speakers, I will try to find some audio/video material soon):

Cameron Sinclair: “Ethics is aesthetics.”/”Asking from Zaha Hadid to talk about ethics in architecture is like asking from Robert Mugabe to talk about human rights.”

Winy Maas: “I’d love to live in a manifest!”

Charles Jencks: “I like the multiplicity of positions we have today, you didn’t have that with modernism.”/”Koolhaas morphing to Herzog morphing to Zidane: all unhappy men.”

Sean Griffiths: “Then again, arrogance is not necessarily a bad thing.” (Think Borromini.)

The Zaha Hadid understudy, Fabian Hecker wore a nice suit.

Yeah, “no conclusion was reached” but I could visualize Jencks and Maas engaging on this endless discussion on whether architecture is a political act while sitting on an active volcano. Move people move!

And thanks Cameron. If only for being there and for showing actual architecture work.

And an excellent article here: The Architect’s Dilemma: The Architecture of Excess vs. an Architecture of Relevance

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

An update: Apparently, websites and the press responded quickly to Sinclair’s polemic language so you can find an analytical review of the debate via Treehugger: Cameron Sinclair Lights Fuse Under Zaha Hadid Architects at The Barbican Debate.

The article ends with the question:

Why Fabian Hecker couldn’t have defended his office with the ‘Bilbao effect’ argument and the role that iconic architecture has to play in city regeneration I don’t know.

For some reason I still have on mind not only the Age of Stupid archivist’s musing at the end of the film:

Maybe we weren’t sure if we were worth saving?

but also the Red Army Colonel Kotov, the Stalin-like moustached hero of National Theatre’s recent production Burnt by the Sun, asking his ex-bourgeois in-laws who sip their tea reminiscent of their pre-revolution times of easy living, Puccini and biscuits:

If this life meant so much to you, why didn’t you do anything to defend it?

So God save the Borrominis and Puccinis and Hadids of this world, if only because they cannot defend themselves. And God save tea and biscuits too. After all, isn’t this the life that the young doctor from Nigeria in the Age of Stupid again is aspiring to? Isn’t this what keeps her going during her daily fight for clean water in her village facing the impacts of the climate change that the starchitects and politicians of this world have been blissfully ignoring for so long?

More dialogue here.

For Waiting, For Chasing

I think that from this crisis will emerge another moment. An architecture that is essential and not reliant on things that are not needed.

Alvaro Siza, RIBA Gold Medal Award 2009

Image credits: archidose, archdaily

Iconic village, iconic flame

Image credits: Fleaheart

I could not resist to post Rem Koolhaas’s tweet (@remkoolhaas):

It’s as if we need the reassurance of Dubai’s demise to restore our own confidence.

And following this, Cameron Sinclair’s comment (@casinclair):

I’m sorry Rem but Dubai’s demise should spell the end of an era of form follows fevered ego. Now is time for an architecture of relevance. As far as Dubai is concerned perhaps it is an opportunity to enact fairer and more humane working practices for those working in the construction industry and to find an architecture of the place not one imposed on it. Zero carbon does not equal zero guilt.

Good times. And to receive this on your live news feed… Good times indeed…

Παρκο Ναυαρινου και Χαριλαου Τρικουπη

The Unnecessary

Jan Bathel | Alexander

Man has violated nature and we have built a civilization based on power and fear; our scientific discoveries are put to evil and use and savages are more spiritual than we are; we have created a dreadful imbalance between our material and our spiritual development. If sin is that which is unnecessary, our whole civilization is built on sin.

Andrey Tarkovsky, Offret (The Sacrifice), 1986

Thermal performance simulation as an architectural design tool

Since I’ve started working with various thermal simulation software packages two years ago, I’ve been feeling more and more fascinated by the way they could be integrated to the architectural design procedure as essential decision-making tools. As they still tend to be mainly used by specialized practicioners/consultants rather than the ‘average’ architect/layman, there seems to be a large gap to be bridged. Having mainly worked with EDSL TAS, I found that this could be attributed partly to the lack of software flexibility to reflect the design process. However I just came across an excellent paper by two researchers at Cardiff University, addressing the same issues. Worths reading!

I cannot resist to add a brief quote:

What SERI (1985) would call “re-invention”of the design process at that time, Bachman (2003) would call integration nowadays. In either case the identified need is to deal with the building as a whole not by assemblage of components. We are now in an age where building performance targets will not only be set but will be explicitly measured as well, so architects who do not integrate creativity and rational technology risk becoming purely professional specifiers of “environmentally friendly” components that might even jeopardize the overall performance of a building depending on the overall context they are put into.