Hi all!
this is going to sound very weird and I apologise in advance!
As I was going through my stuff yesterday, I came upon a magazine cutting from 1995 (when I was still 15 and at school) and it was about liquid architecture. it was a very broad overview of that trend and it featured some images of a project by Eisenmann.
It also mentioned a name of a practice: AKS RUNO. I do know that it was based in LA and it was some sort of research group (?) but I haven't been able to find any info on them on the web.
And that is my question: Does any of you have any more info on them?
AKs RUNO was a started by bahram shirdel, and included andrew zago, and karl chu.
bahram shirdel studied at university of toronto and then at cranbrook academy of art (close to detroit), directed by daniel libeskind (1979-82). karl chu, was first at university of houston, then also at cranbrook, (1981-84).
after cranbrook, shirdel did a year teaching at university of houston, before going to teach at GSD-harvard. there he had a student, andrew zago, who origianlly was from detroit. the teaching of shirdel was in sympathetic battles with eisenman (who was teaching at harvard), who also had jeff kipnis as his assistant/theorist at harvard. after two years at harvard, shirdel moved to los angeles.
in los angeles, shirdel, chu and zago started to work together, to look at setting up a research studio. this didn't last too long, with shirdel and zago deciding to stay working together and chu starting his own separate studio. shirdel and chu also were teaching at sci-arc (although not together).
shirdel and zago were finalist in the nara cultural centre competition (won by isozaki). their work was published in various journals.
in 1993-94 jeff kipnis was invited to the AA in london to set up the graduate design studio (the forerunner of the DRL). bahram shirdel joined kipnis to run the program in 1994. they did work on several competitions together ( cardiff bay opera house, projects in china, and iran).
in 1995 shirdel returned to iran (which he had left to study in toronto many years before) and has remained there since then. he is working as an architect there, but not much is known.
karl chu has been teaching for several years now at columbia and at pratt, as well as in barcelona. he has written numerous articles and does lots of lectures.
andy zago is head of the graduate design section of architecture at city university in new york, and has an office in detroit and new york.
I'm currently working at his office (Shirdel & partners) based in Tehran, Iran.
since his return in 95, he has worked on some 20 (or so) projects,
none of them built.
he has been badly screwed by clients. almost EVERY architect here
hates him. the academics considers him a threat. architects believe
his bullshitting about his work all the time (and i consider that jealousy or somethin...as that sort of jealousy is a common disease over here in no mans land).
any further info needed? :)
(and also, u didn't hear any of this from me).
great response - do you have any idea what AKS RUNO stood for? the name is
great and it must have a meaning or non-meaning. any chance to see what you've been working on - the AK work was unbelievable
william taylor - now partner of taylor fierce architects was a partner. bill taylor taught for many years at cal poly pomona and is now affiliated with the laaid.
the name "AKS RUNO" came from karl chu. it is derived from aks - being related to axis, line, coordinate, etc. runo - from rune, as in writing, mark, mystery markings. the names refers to "strange lines", or "secret markings".
william taylor was also a student at cranbrook academy of art - during the time of bahram shirdel and karl chu.
yo dlb - that's incredible, I've been asking that question for about 15 years and
you're the first to offer anything! shirdel just laughed and told us to use more
black in our drawings - so maybe he wasn;t being as obtuse as it seemed.
Jun 8, 05 7:32 am ·
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AKS RUNO ???
Hi all!
this is going to sound very weird and I apologise in advance!
As I was going through my stuff yesterday, I came upon a magazine cutting from 1995 (when I was still 15 and at school) and it was about liquid architecture. it was a very broad overview of that trend and it featured some images of a project by Eisenmann.
It also mentioned a name of a practice: AKS RUNO. I do know that it was based in LA and it was some sort of research group (?) but I haven't been able to find any info on them on the web.
And that is my question: Does any of you have any more info on them?
AKs RUNO was a started by bahram shirdel, and included andrew zago, and karl chu.
bahram shirdel studied at university of toronto and then at cranbrook academy of art (close to detroit), directed by daniel libeskind (1979-82). karl chu, was first at university of houston, then also at cranbrook, (1981-84).
after cranbrook, shirdel did a year teaching at university of houston, before going to teach at GSD-harvard. there he had a student, andrew zago, who origianlly was from detroit. the teaching of shirdel was in sympathetic battles with eisenman (who was teaching at harvard), who also had jeff kipnis as his assistant/theorist at harvard. after two years at harvard, shirdel moved to los angeles.
in los angeles, shirdel, chu and zago started to work together, to look at setting up a research studio. this didn't last too long, with shirdel and zago deciding to stay working together and chu starting his own separate studio. shirdel and chu also were teaching at sci-arc (although not together).
shirdel and zago were finalist in the nara cultural centre competition (won by isozaki). their work was published in various journals.
in 1993-94 jeff kipnis was invited to the AA in london to set up the graduate design studio (the forerunner of the DRL). bahram shirdel joined kipnis to run the program in 1994. they did work on several competitions together ( cardiff bay opera house, projects in china, and iran).
in 1995 shirdel returned to iran (which he had left to study in toronto many years before) and has remained there since then. he is working as an architect there, but not much is known.
karl chu has been teaching for several years now at columbia and at pratt, as well as in barcelona. he has written numerous articles and does lots of lectures.
andy zago is head of the graduate design section of architecture at city university in new york, and has an office in detroit and new york.
I'm currently working at his office (Shirdel & partners) based in Tehran, Iran.
since his return in 95, he has worked on some 20 (or so) projects,
none of them built.
he has been badly screwed by clients. almost EVERY architect here
hates him. the academics considers him a threat. architects believe
his bullshitting about his work all the time (and i consider that jealousy or somethin...as that sort of jealousy is a common disease over here in no mans land).
any further info needed? :)
(and also, u didn't hear any of this from me).
great response - do you have any idea what AKS RUNO stood for? the name is
great and it must have a meaning or non-meaning. any chance to see what you've been working on - the AK work was unbelievable
william taylor - now partner of taylor fierce architects was a partner. bill taylor taught for many years at cal poly pomona and is now affiliated with the laaid.
the name "AKS RUNO" came from karl chu. it is derived from aks - being related to axis, line, coordinate, etc. runo - from rune, as in writing, mark, mystery markings. the names refers to "strange lines", or "secret markings".
william taylor was also a student at cranbrook academy of art - during the time of bahram shirdel and karl chu.
yo dlb - that's incredible, I've been asking that question for about 15 years and
you're the first to offer anything! shirdel just laughed and told us to use more
black in our drawings - so maybe he wasn;t being as obtuse as it seemed.
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