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@toaster, you're mostly right about the lack of group publications... alison smithson edited a 3 books that are sorta group publications... they are either collections of material published elsewhere (Team 10 Primer), transcripts of meetings (Team 10 Meetings), or collections of archival materials (Team 10 Out of CIAM)... other than those books, all of my research relies on misc. publications by the participants and archival materials... also, although van eyck and the smithsons are the most well known, my argument is that the other central figures (bakema, candilis, woods, etc.) are actually more interesting and more important to the discourse of the group...

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don't bother reading any further unless you're actually interested in team 10... what follows is an excerpt from my dissertation proposal...

The loosely affiliated group of architects known as Team 10 is best known for their role in dissolving the influential Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in 1959. This group of architects—which included among others Alison and Peter Smithson from England, Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema from the Netherlands, and Georges Candilis and Shadrach Woods from France—is oftentimes portrayed as a group of radical young architects rejecting the ideals of the “functional city” that had been developed in the interwar years by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Sigfried Giedion, and their
colleagues in CIAM. However, as is often the case, the real story is more complex. While many scholars have suggested that Team 10 represented a “profound division” and “decisive split” from CIAM’s urban ideals, this dissertation will show that the participants in the postwar discourse of Team 10 were far more interested in a reconsideration of Modernism than with a rupture from it. In the immediate postwar years—at least partially as a result of the influence of future Team 10 participants Bakema, van Eyck, and Candilis—the discourse within CIAM had already begun to show evidence of significant shifts.

One of the most striking differences between the urbanism of Team 10 and that of many of the earlier generation of modernists is their approach to dealing with the existing fabric of the city. While in 1930 Le Corbusier stated that “the corridor street must be destroyed”, the architects of Team 10 viewed the street as “the essential physical infrastructure of the community.” While this shift had begun with the middle generation of modernists like Josep Lluis Sert and Ernesto Rogers, it was extended further by Team 10. As Peter Smithson would say in retrospect, “Team X’s…work is about fabrics; interventions in old fabrics; the making of new fabrics; repairs, patches, the weaving of extensions onto old and new fabrics.” This changing approach is perhaps best illustrated by comparing Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin with Candilis-Josic-Woods’ project for a similar site in the heart of Paris. While Le
Corbusier’s project made some token efforts at tying into surrounding fabric there was still a definitive break between new and old. In the case of the Candilis-Josic-Woods project particular attention was paid to the intermediate scale that transitioned from the large linear housing blocks to the human scale of the street.

Critical of orthodox Modernism, yet not quite Post-Modern, Team 10 represents a critical hinge point of the discourse of twentieth century urbanism. The group was made up of a heterogeneous mix of contributors, thus making it possible to consider Team 10, as a whole, to be a microcosm of the multiple threads of thought in postwar architecture and urbanism. While other postwar critiques of Modernism—particularly Aldo Rossi’s embrace of the historical city fabric and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown’s populist examinations of the Las Vegas strip and Levittown—focused attention on particular aspects of the postwar urban condition while refuting or ignoring others, Team 10 can be seen as treating these seemingly antithetical modes simultaneously. As described by Tom Avermaete, “Team 10’s approach seems not to be based on the rejection of particular aspects of the urban condition, but rather on an attempt to simultaneously embrace multifarious aspects of it.”

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We now return to your regularly scheduled Thread Central programming.

Jun 24, 10 4:19 pm  · 
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Ms Beary

Didn't know about the foreign language requirements for PhD's either. I'm starting a self taught crash course in Spanish in my free time, mostly because one of our students is seeking instruction in it. I want to be able to teach it this fall.

I've mentioned this here before, but livemocha is a free online Rosetta Stone type program for anyone interested in exposing themselves to more foreign language.




Jun 24, 10 4:23 pm  · 
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toasteroven

Philip - I'd be interested in looking at your dissertation when it's finished. I know very little about the other figures in team 10 and I'd be very interested to learn more.

Jun 24, 10 5:45 pm  · 
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I dug the bakema work I saw.

Jun 24, 10 7:10 pm  · 
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thats cool site strawbeary.

philip, very cool. i recently learned that fumihiko maki and even kenzo tange were peripherally involved with team X too, which totally surprises me.

so will you be like beatriz colomina and realign how we see mythical architectural figures, or more like crimson (love mart stam's trousers!) try to stir up sh!t but in an interestingly bookish way...?

it is interesting to imagine team X is seen as a break away from CIAM cuz in retrospect at least in their planning work they are as disconnected and brutal in their approach to urbanism as CIAM was. I only give a short lecture on them but teach them as continuity with LeCorbusier and the Athens Charter, but with apocolyptic overlay and a more accepting view of complex social orders...

anyway, definitely looking forward to the dissertation then. i hop you will share. you thinking of using whole 5 years?


oh and for all those football fans out there, Japan beat Denmark this morning, 3 to 1 . !!! There are drunk people on the streets of Tokyo today. very cool way to start a beautiful sunny day. Kinda funny too, to watch the reporter stationed on the streets downtown say in all seriousness, "I can smell alcohol in the air." As if that is the important news to be reported. Japan is such a happy country.

Jun 24, 10 7:30 pm  · 
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@Philip as I mentioned before via email, I really am interested in your PhD topic. Something you've mentioned above that I must of missed before was the topic of the destruction of the corridor street, and am finding myself making a connection useful or not to the elevated streets used in larger, urban housing projects by some of the architects you've mentioned where they are in many ways trying to embody the characteristics of streets found in traditional or familiar environments.

@Barry we both seem to share that problem. Although to be more accurate I just such at languages, always have. They attempted to teach me Spanish in hs but that went painfully, and I tried to teach myself French in grad school hoping I had transcended my difficulties but alas.

@Straw... thanks for the link hopefully I can passed my problem

Jun 24, 10 9:23 pm  · 
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also I always felt in much of the readings I've been exposed that Le Corbusier had much of a heavy hand in the dissolving of CIAM

Jun 24, 10 9:36 pm  · 
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holy shoot-heck,

sarah did you know people receiving unemployment are all drug users? ! i hope you aren't still getting your benefits cuz i would hate to think that of you...

ok, i lie, i hope you are still getting benefits, and i also hope that your country will extend them even though the bill was just blocked...

but i just heard senator hatch suggest that the unemployed are going to take their unemployment benefits and "blow it on drugs" (his words from his own mouth on the tv-gizmo thing), so he wants to have everyone submit to a a drug test before picking up their checks .

wow, i just thought it was the economy that was causing the problems, not that the unemployed are actually all high and strung out on drugs. How in the world do people like this get elected? he ain't the only one either. man oh man the republicans make conservatives in canada look amazingly level-headed. its better than theatre. except that the shenanigans on this particular stage are causing pain to good people for no reason at all.

Jun 25, 10 3:07 am  · 
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Distant Unicorn

Jump, the last welfare reform bill in the US that was passed (2002 or 1998, maybe?) address that.

There was a clause than allowed (if not suggested) that drug testing be mandatory for receiving welfare benefits.

I think three states took a bite-- if I remember correctly, one state found that offering more money for housing significantly reduced welfare costs. Another state (Alabama) I think found that spending the drug testing money on education also resulted in significantly less welfare claims.

The third state (New York) found that drug testing was pointless because it discovered only something like 49 verified hard drug users out of 10,000 tests.

Apparently, mandatory drug screening only catches potheads. For some classes of drugs, like cocaine and heroin... there's a lot of false positives from various sources and often have to be retested. Since hard drugs are often out of your system in 24-72 hours, it is almost pointless to test for them.

Anyways, a basic drug test costs $50-$70 bucks. An "advanced drug test" runs between $110-150. To catch an individual, you'd have to drug test every 5 days (6 times a month, minimum $300). These figures do not cover the nurse, social worker and supervisor to administer the test.

Anyways, it actually costs more to drug test one single person (effectively) than most people on welfare receive in cash benefits.

Jun 25, 10 3:16 am  · 
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Jun 25, 10 7:02 am  · 
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yeah i caught all that, but this is about why they don't want to extend unemployment benefits, not a long term policy thing. its just mean, and the way they are talking about the issue is sick. one fellow says doesn't want to extend benefits cuz doesn't think the govt should be in the business of creating hobos. similar and worse things were said. it's all kind of surreal.

as if in this economy everyone without a job is in that position through their own fault. sheesh. all for the sake of some crazy percentage of deficit, like .004 percent or something close to it. double yeesh.

Jun 25, 10 7:11 am  · 
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japan happiness example:

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/11xs9mFKObs&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/11xs9mFKObs&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Jun 25, 10 7:21 am  · 
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That's just perverse and wrong.

(I mean the penguin thing, but Orrin Hatch too.)

Jun 25, 10 8:02 am  · 
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b3tadine[sutures]

i remember this when i was a kid:



never thought it would be a reality. sometimes children have wishes, but adults should not try to realize them...

Jun 25, 10 8:30 am  · 
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****melt

I think it's utterly hilarious. Totally love the backpack. That livemocha thing looks rather interesting. May have to check it out to improve the German. I'm totally getting rusty and the German Meet-up Group in town always meets on evenings I am busy.

Jun 25, 10 8:31 am  · 
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wow, a pet penguin...

Philip that dissertation seems like a great read. Sign me up for a advanced order copy... The quote re weaving fabric/interventions etc seems so contemporary to me.

Also, barry and archi i feel you re: PhD and language requirement. I took some language (Latin and German but only for translation) for my MA. I did well in them but realized it was the kind of thing that wouldn't last unless i had to use all the time. The only language I ever kind of got was Spanish. It also seems like the only one that would be of real use to me in the long term within the context of a) America's cultural/immigration shift b) my long standing desire to live for extended period of time in South America. Particularly one of the Andean countries... Plus, if I did go back to school for a PhD it would be in urban planning/design etc and honestly Spanish language speaking countries are currently doing some of the most interesting (to me) explorations of the potentials of such practices...

So it might actually be doable...

Hope everyone has a great day! I know i am looking forward to next weekend and the extra day off already!

Jun 25, 10 8:49 am  · 
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phillip's getting enough hits here with his yet-unwritten dissertation that maybe he should enlist us as investors in a self-publishing arrangement, sorta like sam phillips did and ellis paul did for their recent albums!

Jun 25, 10 8:52 am  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Dang, how am I going to pay for my PCP now?! Guess I'll have to start hitting the streets. The only reason I haven't yet is because I would lose my UE benefits. Guess unemployment will end today. Weekends are best for finding johns, right?

Stupid.

Jun 25, 10 10:30 am  · 
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Oh my god, how did I never know this term until now?!?

Skeuomorph.

It's incredibly useful to us architects!

Jun 25, 10 4:58 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

I feel like maybe that word was mentioned in my arch history class, but filed it along with the small parts of temple detailing, so I didn't keep it for daily use. It wouldve been great in a crit. Sounds like a made up word. "I skueemophed the facade to create a better dialogue with the neighborhood."

Jun 25, 10 6:54 pm  · 
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lol.

penguins, american political theatre, and words that sound imaginary but are real.

so where do i sign up to pre-order philip's book?

Jun 25, 10 7:48 pm  · 
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Oh my god Sarah I never thought of using it as a verb - that's perfect!!!

I'm so drained. 18 desk crits in three hours. Love these students but they suck me dry.

Jun 25, 10 10:26 pm  · 
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hi all. Big bbq tomorrow... but not in the texan definitions of things. I'm awfully tired too.

Speaking about strange definitions - there was a collective description about Lady Gaga and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where the design takes cues from historized fantasy but for the life of me I can't remember (help)

Jun 25, 10 11:08 pm  · 
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Steampunk?

Jun 26, 10 12:17 am  · 
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glam-fi?

--

re: the choices we make. some are more fateful than others?:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/06/24/apple.forgotten.founder/index.html?iref=allsearch

Jun 26, 10 7:30 am  · 
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omg, donna, i've now seen you post that word in 4 different places, i think. are you driving your students crazy with it or what?! ; )

Jun 26, 10 7:37 am  · 
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maybe i should make a pdf of this part of the thread to send along to a publisher once i'm done with my dissertation... "see, you will sell at least 5 copies of the book!"

i'm just glad that i've found a topic that interests someone other than me!

i've actually been wondering how the collapse of the traditional publishing industry is going to effect the granting of tenure in the long run... at least at upenn you pretty much have to have a book published by a reputable academic press in order to be granted tenure and many of those presses have really reduced the number of books that they publish...

jump, are you reworking your dissertation into book form? i'd be first in line to pick up a copy...

Jun 26, 10 9:25 am  · 
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I'd pretty much buy any book by someone I know and like. How's that for a micro-publishing proposition?

Jun 26, 10 10:37 am  · 
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I'm with Steven - and I own a copy of Rita Novel's book to prove it.

Money quote (ironically): But when you're at a focal point of history, you don't realize you're at a focal point of history.

Hi Steven!

Jun 26, 10 10:48 am  · 
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snook, did you escape the tornado?

yesterday, we had a torrential t-shower that dumped 1 1/2" of rain in 1/2 hour. that was fun! now I don't need to water my garden for the rest of the week.

Jun 26, 10 2:17 pm  · 
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we had a huge storm here in philly on thursday too... the windows in my loft were whistling/leaking... i had just gotten back inside from walking the dogs about 5 seconds before the sky opened up... and my wife's office has been without power since the storm...

Jun 26, 10 3:25 pm  · 
 · 

Philip, there are pictures online of the roof of the church at 17/Bainbridge blowing off in that storm. The debris crushed a lot of cars on the street - that's two doors down from my first house! That was a crazy storm. A lot of trees in Bartram's Gardens were ripped up, too.

Jun 26, 10 3:41 pm  · 
 · 

i have thought about it philip. I believe I need to do a post-doc with lots more field research to make it convincing enough to be a book and have tried to get funding to do so, but so far no takers...competition in last years is punishing thanks to the economy. hopefully some day i will get the chance.

actually after dissertation made it through jury we were required to make 10 copies, hard cover bound books produced by the university press (copies for uni, for the jurors, and for scholarship funding groups, etc). It is satisfying to have that black volume with the gold letters sitting in my bookshelf, though to be honest i don't think it is all that much worth reading. too technical.


Yours on the other hand sounds great, Philip!


Jun 26, 10 9:49 pm  · 
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Jump for my MArch dissertation we had to get the final product bound in the same fashion. I'm not sure how many we were supposed to make but I didn't keep one and now I don't have copy of my work (computer crashed with the file, corrupted file on the cd). Another reason why I'll be going mac before the year is out

Jun 27, 10 9:02 am  · 
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Steampunk is what I was looking for, it is so visually distinctive.

Jun 27, 10 9:18 am  · 
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snook_dude

barry, storm missed my part of the woods. Connectiuct is funny in that way it hit Stamford and Bridgeport. I did tag a photo last Friday of a modern church which sustained some interesting damage. I'm going to look again and see if I can find it. Wind Storm damage, like I have never seen.

Jun 27, 10 10:42 am  · 
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snook_dude

[img]http://www.courant.com/media/photo/2010-06/113070180-25045403.jpg/[img]

This is the damage I was talking about. You think maybe some one forgot to put in some reinforcement?

Jun 27, 10 10:48 am  · 
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snook_dude


Jun 27, 10 10:49 am  · 
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snook_dude
Jun 27, 10 10:50 am  · 
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hi all!

sounds like some people had an exciting weekend! myself i just did a little reading and writing. Plus, the lady made some great asian food last night, green papaya salad, pad thai and wontons.

Archi, how did steampunk come up?

Jun 27, 10 12:29 pm  · 
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is that SRC?

thats a pity archi. we did something more casual for m.arch, but it was just a design with some almost clever archi-babble attached - nothing worth preserving in my case. i do keep phd backed-uped in several external drives.

do macs not crash?

Jun 27, 10 8:04 pm  · 
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snook, that church destruction is crazy.

I'm exhausted.

Jun 28, 10 12:21 am  · 
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say do any of you super smart folks have a book on sustainability for architecture and urbanism that you would reccomend for introduction to topic?

I am starting new course this fall and on the hunt for something with broad base. The books I have are all far too specific to be useful for textbook.

thoughts?

Jun 28, 10 3:02 am  · 
 · 

jump, i haven't read any of these in quite a while and i'm sure that barry will have some better suggestions, but i'll through out a few titles...

cradle to cradle (william mcdonnough)
ecological design (sim van der ryn)
cities as sustainable ecosystems (peter newman)
design with nature (ian mcharg)

Jun 28, 10 7:49 am  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Jump, we had to get Sun, Wind, and Light for school. It's a bit Ching-ish, but marries technical with broad introduction fairly well, I think. You might look at it a bit.

I forgot how much fun it was to run and jump on trampolines. We took Abe to a cousin's 3rd birthday party at a gymnastic place yesterday. He had a blast in the foam pit - which I hated because it smelled like feet, and was just gross.

Morning!

Jun 28, 10 7:58 am  · 
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vote 2 for sun, wind, and light.

Jun 28, 10 8:42 am  · 
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I really liked cradle to cradle (all problems of mcdonnough's pr/marketing aside), but it doesn't really do architecture and urbanism...

morning Sarah!

Jun 28, 10 8:45 am  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Morning, Nam!!

Jun 28, 10 9:21 am  · 
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holz.box

i would drop some coin for kiel moe's integrated design in contemporary architecture, jump.

Jun 28, 10 10:01 am  · 
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