Archinect - News

'Countryside, the Future' through the post-pandemic lens

2020-11-06T13:35:00-05:00

Certainly New Yorkers’ revaluation of the countryside had begun long before the “Decameron”-style outflows of remote-working urbanites and their families, fleeing the coronavirus last spring. [...] The phrase “farm to table” has been a cliché for years, and Park Slope idealists long ago exported their Marie Antoinette rural fantasies to the Hudson Valley.

With the coronavirus eating its way through America's hinterlands and the election unmasking a deeply entrenched urban-rural ideological divide, NYT art critic Jason Farago takes a second look at the Rem Koolhaas-starring exhibition Countryside, the Future which opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum back in February — only to close again three weeks later due to the unraveling pandemic.

"What 'Countryside' does is take seriously the contention that all avant-gardism gets commodified, that dissent is always co-opted, and that under such conditions you might want to get out of town," Farago writes.

Related on Archinect: Koolhaas in the countryside

Eight Frank Lloyd Wright works recognized by UNESCO

2019-07-08T10:45:00-04:00

Eight buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Prairie style masterpiece of the Robie House in Chicago and the bold concrete structure of Unity Temple in Oak Park, were named Sunday to the United Nations’ list of the world’s most significant cultural and natural sites.

As architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune Blair Kamin writes, American Modernism is finally getting its due, at least, in the eyes of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has named a collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures to its World Heritage Sites list.

According to Kamin, “the Wright structures are the first works of U.S. modern architecture to make the prestigious list.”

The highlighted works include:

Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois (1909).
The Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago (1910).
The Taliesin complex in Spring Green, Wisconsin (begun in 1911).
The Hollyhock House in Los Angeles (1921).
Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania (1939).
The Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin (1937)
The Taliesin West complex in Scottsdale, Arizona (begun in 1938).
The Guggenheim Museum in New York City (1959).

Rem Koolhaas envisions the future of the 'countryside' in upcoming Guggenheim exhibition

2017-12-01T13:23:00-05:00

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is teaming up with Rem Koolhaas and the research arm (AMO) of his practice (OMA) for an upcoming exhibition that will be on display come fall 2019. The project, Countryside: Future of the World, will explore radical changes in the countryside while positing speculations about its future and is an extension of research already underway at the think tank.

Koppert Cress, The Netherlands, 2011. Photo: Pieternel van Velden.

Curated by Troy Conrad Therrien—the museum's first curator for architecture and digital initiatives who also happens to be one of our Ed contributors—the exhibition will examine themes of artificial intelligence and automation, the effects of genetic experimentation, political radicalization, mass and micro migration, large-scale territorial management, human-animal ecosystems, subsidies and tax incentives, the impact of the digital on the physical world, and other developments that are altering landscapes across the globe, according t...

Frank Lloyd Wright's shabby models and how MoMA preserved them

2017-06-29T13:21:00-04:00

The majority of the models were far from pristine. Architectural maquettes are often only used to quickly communicate an idea; longevity of materials such as chipboard or Plexiglas is rarely a concern. So, when Moody set out to restore the 14 models in MoMA’s archive (the museum holds the three-dimensional works of Wright’s massive archive), she was faced with missing elements, acidified paper, warping, and discoloration, among other issues.

Exploring lesser-known parts of Wright’s 70-year-long career, MoMA's new exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive (on view through October 1, 2017) presents projects for an experimental farm and a series of rural school buildings in the segregated South. Besides that, the show also focuses on Wright's models—often extensively modified by him and largely representative of the architect's thought process and the evolution of his ideas.“For him, they were presentation pieces meant to seduce the clients or put them at ease, especially if the designs were avant-garde or difficult to picture on paper,” says MoMA conservator Ellen Moody.

Analysis of the models also revealed the alterations performed by other stakeholders, including clients and conservators.

Model for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (Image courtesy of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives MoMA Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University)

"A model of an early iteration of the Solomon...

The Guggenheim will install a fully functioning solid gold toilet

2016-04-20T22:17:00-04:00

... instead of its standard Kohler toilet, it will have a solid 18-karat-gold working replica of one, a preposterously scatological apotheosis of wealth whose form is completed in its function: You could go into the restroom just to bask in its glow, Mr. Cattelan said, but it becomes an artwork only with someone sitting on it or standing over it, answering nature’s call.

Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist who famously retired five years ago, has returned with a solid gold (and fully functioning) toilet for the Guggenheim Museum. Perfectly paired with the late Tobias Wong's Gold Pills.

You can now explore the Guggenheim rotunda galleries online via Google Street View

2016-01-22T18:28:00-05:00

Online visitors from around the world can now explore the interior of the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum through Google Street View technology. Additionally, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, in collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute, has made available over 120 artworks from its collection for online viewing. [...] The Guggenheim’s architecture presented unique challenges for Google’s engineers and Street View team.

Ready to immerse yourself? Click here to start your stroll down the rotunda.

All images courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.