1. Prefab Rehab : Everyone lugged out their Eames and Prouve monographs as prefab reached its most feverish revival pitch yet. Seven admirals of prefabularity were knighted. Dwell continues to prod designers to get their own prefab scheme or die tryin' . In fact, Dwell did such good marketing, that the Dwell Home owners cashed in their chip$ . Suddenly architecture was looking like big business .
The complex nature of prefab beyond its token appeal emerged as post-disastor schemes offered antidotes to beer-crate homes and near obsessive donors .
So, if you didn't have a prefab scheme worked out, no worries. First, get thee a container (or eight), stencil some fancy graphics (not that , you silly) on it (preferred with monogram) then deploy like there is deploying tomorrow, or stack em and charge an entry fee.
2. Asia Supersized : China's hyper-infrastructure in which supersize malls , much fresh asphalt , and extensive railways have led to some staggering numbers of intense urbanization . And here comes India .
3. Not : Everything is so faktastic lately. MoMA got its fake on . Dubai is reinventing fake in its own Spiral-Jetty-aint-nothing kind of way, as utopian palm-shaped archipelagos surface on a bed of blue-green . Suddenly the world really is smaller than we thought - as sand does offer considerable freedom . Hey, is that a dolphin in my cul-de-sac? And if that is too hot for you, come into the cool . Oh and speaking of Smithson and fake, was this really necessary ?
4. Florida v The People : No, not the state ... the tussle around Richard Florida's punditry of the Creative Class got a little messier. Karrie Jacobs offers an excellent dissection of Florida's fuzzy math and a suspicious glance at those silly 3 Ts .
5. Babel On : The greatest single loss of the year could be attributed to Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920-2005) . R.I.P CoBrA and New Babylon. I bet even Rem shed a tear.
6. Book of 2005 : Keller Easterling's Eduring Innocence charts a tour of the guilty pleasures of post-global network protocols. Through I Love Cruise, Arnold Palmer Golf Management, and distriparks, Keller makes spatial capital palpable. Runner-Up : Mark Linder's Nothing Less than Literal offers a pleasurably roving and undisciplined minimalism. Other books of note from 2005: Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations and Simon Sadler's Archigram: Architecture without Architecture .
7. Essay of 2005 : Stan Allen's The Digital Complex , from Sarah Whiting & Bob Somol's (shapefully!) edited Log #5 , resonates well. The Monsters Inc vs. Waking Life makes it worth the cover charge alone. Runner-Up : And, in case you are wondering , Pier Vittorio Aureli killed your diagram . (Log has been getting good lately.)
8. Oh Ja : Detail expanded its languafication franchising into French, Italian, and Spanish - oh ja ja! . And speaking of sultry temptuous details, I will gladly accept gift copies of Constructing Architecture .
9. Borderlust : Closer to home, Javier's blogosphere wanderlust (especially 1 , 2 , 3 ) and Finoki's borders (especially 1 , 2 , 3 ) are a must feed / read. Looking forward to more UpStarts (1 , 2 , 3 ) with other editors. Also Oana and Marlin can count me among their many blog-groupies. M is for Magnificent.
10. Office : Following the work of: aat + makoto yokomizo | Atelier Kempe Thill | AUDC | Balmori | Elastik | Mass Studies | MAP | mitnick roddier hicks | nARCHITECTS | Piercy Conner | Plot | S333 | Sadar Vuga | Studio Sputnik
10 Comments
best archinect thread of 2005?
Wow, thanks, Mason, this list is an excellent resource.
(And: its timing, coming out on the 3rd day of the following year, makes me feel less guilty about the fact that my hand-made 2005 holiday cards are still sitting un-addressed on my dining room table - great minds!)
well, since you asked ...
11. Best Thread(s): The best threads from 2005 for me tend to be the posts that received no response. In a Cage-y way, the silence speaks more than the din within other posts.
Best (deafening silent and w/o response) threads of 2005 are:
5. post b-arch dergrees love the typos
4. what is missing in a Metropolis?! - i'll show you whats missin'...
3. Parametric Retail - what?
2. in search of licensed New Jersey architect - what a sales pitch!
1. architectural details site - pure gold!
great work mason!
(i think i'll get my NJ license now)
Nice!
'prefab rehab' is guru material.
thank you for the expo. specially pleased to read AFH's position on the subject.
mason i think you forgot best of lists on you best of list. They had a pretty big year this year. I think you outmatched Vh1 and E!, and they set a high bar.
A thorough reading of a post like this takes an estimated week. I’m nowhere finished, but intend to be before next year, and still timing. I had picked up the pace with 5, but then 9 took me three days to get through, two of them spent by the borders and beyond–Rotterdam, Romania, Australia. Now I’m jet-lagged and lost all sense of linear, chronological experience. Last night in my dreams, I had four parallel storylines going, kept hitting back buttons and jumping from tab2tab. Blaming it on hypercard.
But Mason Rox.
I think i have all of your books on my wish list at amazon...great list!
Thanks Mason. As usual something stimulating for the mind.
sandy yum
thanks!!!!!!!!
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