there are two very different categories of events-- the everyday event and the occassional event. the success of a building as an event generator should be measured differently for the everyday and the occassional...
architectural history has generally been more caught up with the spectacular, occassional event... but there are everyday hitories that spectacular buildings can still be a part of.
how is the CAC used everyday? how does it shape the urban landscape (imagined and real) around it?
I don't think people know what to do with themselves.
Everything they really want to do is illegal or prohibitively expensive.
Everything they are supposed to do is boring, still pretty expensive and makes them look unattractive.
Built them a slick museum and they will straggle in on nice days when there isn’t a game on and wonder around for a bit trying to figure out what to feel.
Drill a three inch hole in a bathroom partition at the buss station and you'll have a small but excited crowd milling around at all hours of the day or night.
What do people really want to do?
What’s really fun besides eating and fucking and obvious stuff like that?
Mar 21, 06 12:25 am ·
·
bRink, I'm curious, what are the "spectacular, occassional event[s]" that architectural history has generally been more caught up with. Five examples? Ten examples?
According to the article, the CAC gets very little use most everyday.
Also, how does a building shape an imagined landscape?
Mar 21, 06 9:25 am ·
·
Just got back from biking the 7.5 mile loop along the River Drives. Second time this year, but first time as a 50 year old. I park at the municipal/Temple U. boathouse, and there was a strong headwind going toward the city, which means there'll be a strong tailwind when I'm on the other side. I hate headwinds as much as I like tailwinds, so it evens itself out. A few of the Japanese Cherry Blossom trees are just beginning to show some color. Saw an "honest to God" reenactment of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky jogging up the Art Museum steps--one guy was video taping another guy in wool cap and sweatshirt running up the steps. (If those steps could talk I'm sure you'd find out you're not the only one that is sick and tired of constant reenactments.) There were three fishermen just down stream of the Water Works dam, and a puggie little kid chased some Canadian geese a little while before a Canadian goose started to walk into my path. Since the big trees are still all bare, got a nice view of the venerable necropolis named Laurel Hill Cemetery; I like to call it "Land of a Hundred Obelisks." Well, you're always bound to see a few racers also doing the loop--Kelly Drive is after all part of the course where Lance Armstrong won his first major race back in 1993. Glad to see I still average around 15 mph. And finally I can go have lunch now.
I'm not sure how well the CAC is used everyday... But I think it is a matter of watching it as a casual observer, hang out there for a day, wander around it and take pictures... Mundane things that might not make the headlines... I'm not sure what type of life exists there beyond the tourist or event goer, but I'm sure that the building doesn't live in isolation. How does a bus driver or a taxi driver or a pedestrian or a skateboarder or the guy who lives near it, or someone who works beside understand, act on the space vs. somebody who takes the occassional pilgrimage there to see an exhibition?
Buildings are not just a part of a physical built landscape, they also shape our mental maps, how we understand our environment in subjective ways.
Architectural history tends to look at buildings that stand out, that are spectacular... Even if it is a house, it is quite often a house that the average person cannot afford, and it tends not to depict that house as it as lived in and occupied... Even the photos are dressed up. Also, architecture history generally focuses on architects... The designer rather than a history of people who use it... When was the last time you saw a picture of a messy home in an architecture book? Or when was the last time you read about an ordinary home in an architecture history book? Or a monumental building used in ordinary ways? On the other hand, everyday architecture can also be used in spectacular ways.
Give me 5 examples of architectural history that is not about a spectacular, occassional event, but is about an ordinary, everyday event..
How are the toilets in famous buildings? Every time I go to a famous building, I always checkout the bathrooms and see what people other than tourists / visitors are doing...
i don't know remember the toilets at the cac, but other big-architect buildings i've visited exhibit a high level of attention to the toilets. pelli's aronoff center across from the cac is one example.
another, though, is the new 21c hotel/museum here in louisville. deborah berke's office were the design architects and the goal of the project, in a lot of ways, was the unorthodox exhibition of a very contemporary art collection. appropriately for this thread, the whole place has become a sort of synthetic event in which diners, bar patrons, and hotel guests are brought into intimate contact with some pretty edgy art pieces.
the bathrooms were spectacular. finishes are nice: stainless and some sort of translucent composite material, a spectrum of 2"x1/4" ceramic tile set vertical in a kind of scrolling pattern on the back walls of the stalls. in the men's bathroom, instead of urinals there is a waterwall. as you face the waterwall you're looking through a translucent one-way panel, allowing you to see out to the hall. the sinks are very elegant tall chrome fixtures draining into a composite trough. behind them the mirror has a random pattern of cutouts behind which there is a little video screen. on the screens a variety of video eyes (a la tony oursler) watch you wash your hands and straighten your tie.
very much consistent with the rest of the place.
btw, if you stay in the hotel. you're free to take the ipod by your bed. it'll just be charged to the room. and i want this job: they've hired someone to preprogram the music used throughout the hotel, restaurant, bar, and on your room ipod.
Mar 31, 06 7:22 am ·
·
I love playing so the question, so the answer. Hey, did you hear about the new toilet room theme park that's being designed. The site hasn't been picked yet, but I'm hoping it's Flushings.
pee ess: see this http://changingskyline.blogspot.com/
Potty Policy Protest
As to "When was the last time you saw a picture of a messy home in an architecture book? Or when was the last time you read about an ordinary home in an architecture history book?" all I can say is "Thank God for the virtual realm and it's virtual architecture museum and the virtual and even real architecture books it publishes."
Oops, I'm sorry. The architecture community is still almost completely ignorant of the contents of QBVS1, QBVS2 and QBVS3.
non-event cities
there are two very different categories of events-- the everyday event and the occassional event. the success of a building as an event generator should be measured differently for the everyday and the occassional...
architectural history has generally been more caught up with the spectacular, occassional event... but there are everyday hitories that spectacular buildings can still be a part of.
how is the CAC used everyday? how does it shape the urban landscape (imagined and real) around it?
I don't think people know what to do with themselves.
Everything they really want to do is illegal or prohibitively expensive.
Everything they are supposed to do is boring, still pretty expensive and makes them look unattractive.
Built them a slick museum and they will straggle in on nice days when there isn’t a game on and wonder around for a bit trying to figure out what to feel.
Drill a three inch hole in a bathroom partition at the buss station and you'll have a small but excited crowd milling around at all hours of the day or night.
What do people really want to do?
What’s really fun besides eating and fucking and obvious stuff like that?
bRink, I'm curious, what are the "spectacular, occassional event[s]" that architectural history has generally been more caught up with. Five examples? Ten examples?
According to the article, the CAC gets very little use most everyday.
Also, how does a building shape an imagined landscape?
Just got back from biking the 7.5 mile loop along the River Drives. Second time this year, but first time as a 50 year old. I park at the municipal/Temple U. boathouse, and there was a strong headwind going toward the city, which means there'll be a strong tailwind when I'm on the other side. I hate headwinds as much as I like tailwinds, so it evens itself out. A few of the Japanese Cherry Blossom trees are just beginning to show some color. Saw an "honest to God" reenactment of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky jogging up the Art Museum steps--one guy was video taping another guy in wool cap and sweatshirt running up the steps. (If those steps could talk I'm sure you'd find out you're not the only one that is sick and tired of constant reenactments.) There were three fishermen just down stream of the Water Works dam, and a puggie little kid chased some Canadian geese a little while before a Canadian goose started to walk into my path. Since the big trees are still all bare, got a nice view of the venerable necropolis named Laurel Hill Cemetery; I like to call it "Land of a Hundred Obelisks." Well, you're always bound to see a few racers also doing the loop--Kelly Drive is after all part of the course where Lance Armstrong won his first major race back in 1993. Glad to see I still average around 15 mph. And finally I can go have lunch now.
I'm not sure how well the CAC is used everyday... But I think it is a matter of watching it as a casual observer, hang out there for a day, wander around it and take pictures... Mundane things that might not make the headlines... I'm not sure what type of life exists there beyond the tourist or event goer, but I'm sure that the building doesn't live in isolation. How does a bus driver or a taxi driver or a pedestrian or a skateboarder or the guy who lives near it, or someone who works beside understand, act on the space vs. somebody who takes the occassional pilgrimage there to see an exhibition?
Buildings are not just a part of a physical built landscape, they also shape our mental maps, how we understand our environment in subjective ways.
Architectural history tends to look at buildings that stand out, that are spectacular... Even if it is a house, it is quite often a house that the average person cannot afford, and it tends not to depict that house as it as lived in and occupied... Even the photos are dressed up. Also, architecture history generally focuses on architects... The designer rather than a history of people who use it... When was the last time you saw a picture of a messy home in an architecture book? Or when was the last time you read about an ordinary home in an architecture history book? Or a monumental building used in ordinary ways? On the other hand, everyday architecture can also be used in spectacular ways.
Give me 5 examples of architectural history that is not about a spectacular, occassional event, but is about an ordinary, everyday event..
How are the toilets in famous buildings? Every time I go to a famous building, I always checkout the bathrooms and see what people other than tourists / visitors are doing...
i don't know remember the toilets at the cac, but other big-architect buildings i've visited exhibit a high level of attention to the toilets. pelli's aronoff center across from the cac is one example.
another, though, is the new 21c hotel/museum here in louisville. deborah berke's office were the design architects and the goal of the project, in a lot of ways, was the unorthodox exhibition of a very contemporary art collection. appropriately for this thread, the whole place has become a sort of synthetic event in which diners, bar patrons, and hotel guests are brought into intimate contact with some pretty edgy art pieces.
the bathrooms were spectacular. finishes are nice: stainless and some sort of translucent composite material, a spectrum of 2"x1/4" ceramic tile set vertical in a kind of scrolling pattern on the back walls of the stalls. in the men's bathroom, instead of urinals there is a waterwall. as you face the waterwall you're looking through a translucent one-way panel, allowing you to see out to the hall. the sinks are very elegant tall chrome fixtures draining into a composite trough. behind them the mirror has a random pattern of cutouts behind which there is a little video screen. on the screens a variety of video eyes (a la tony oursler) watch you wash your hands and straighten your tie.
very much consistent with the rest of the place.
btw, if you stay in the hotel. you're free to take the ipod by your bed. it'll just be charged to the room. and i want this job: they've hired someone to preprogram the music used throughout the hotel, restaurant, bar, and on your room ipod.
I love playing so the question, so the answer. Hey, did you hear about the new toilet room theme park that's being designed. The site hasn't been picked yet, but I'm hoping it's Flushings.
pee ess: see this
http://changingskyline.blogspot.com/
Potty Policy Protest
As to "When was the last time you saw a picture of a messy home in an architecture book? Or when was the last time you read about an ordinary home in an architecture history book?" all I can say is "Thank God for the virtual realm and it's virtual architecture museum and the virtual and even real architecture books it publishes."
Oops, I'm sorry. The architecture community is still almost completely ignorant of the contents of QBVS1, QBVS2 and QBVS3.
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