"There's a shift away from the role of the heroic master creator," says Terence Riley, curator of MoMA's Spain show. Many younger architects emphasize the process of investigation and design, rather than committing to an idealized form””a strategy some attribute, ironically, to star Rem Koolhaas and his Rotterdam firm OMA. "This generation are perhaps more flexible and pragmatic," says Rosalie Genevro, director of the Architectural League in New York. "They're not worrying so much about the theory and meaning of it all. They have an attitude toward problem solving." For them, the computer is more a quotidian tool than an inspiration, and they naturally absorb environmental or social issues into their work.
love that chapel by sancho-madridejos. i'm going to probably have to spring for the catalog of the spain show.
what sneaking around the edges of the article is that it may not be so much about the end of the starchitect, as it seems to suggest, but about the grooming of the next generation of starchitects for public display. riley, like pj before him and like aaron betsky et al, wants to be both the forecaster of trends and the discoverer of these stars.
best part to me is that we're getting to see all of the beautiful spanish work by lesser known firms like abalos & herreros. i wonder if aranda pigem vilalta are in the show. i love those guys.
still you can see a shift: even if those firms become 'stars', they will be star firms: MAD, or UN is different from the reigning giants, all individuals: Hadid, Gehry. thom mayne (no surprise operating in the west coast) was the first to have caught on to the idea: Morphosis. i think that the new generation of firm names in themselves say a lot about this trend. i'm surprised no one has brought this up.
but i think something that the article is pointing out is that what distinguishes this new generation from the old is that demand for the work, and 'stardom" seems to depend on ongoing innovative problem solving, process that produces *different* rather than riding the same style out... whether this is true or not is debatable, but it sounds fresh in the print.
gehry has been a star since when the late 80's? the guy is almost 80, so he was not a star until he was almost 60. one must remember that these stars really only shine for the likes of those who come to sites like these. i was at two of the stars buildings on the weekend and although the zaha's museum is growing on me i didnt really see anything that couldnt have been done by many firms. so, i aint asking for any autographs here. also, the idea that the starhitect will go away is ridiculous given the fact that we are media saturated and architecture students tend to worship these people as something they are not.
Vado retro.. thats always such a lame critique of an artist but saying you dont see anything that couldnt be done by anyone else...
the point your missing, is that you havent seen these things done by anyone else until she did them first...theres a fearlessness in zahas work that is what separates her from service architect practices.
I also think youll all be woefully surprised to find that the notion of start and figure in architecture doest not eventually go away, and will always be around, even though there are whispers of its death.
i never said that the work could be done by anyone else. i said the same quality could be achieved by many firms. believe what you want i know i do... if you think zaha was the first to make angled stairs or protuding volumes in her elevations or angled walls or urban carpets well...and if you think no one has seen anything like her work i would suggest taking a freakin modern art history course. you can withdraw after the middle age lady with the wedge haircut finishes her lecture on russian constructivism.
i was with vado at the zaha (<sounds funny) and my main observation was that most of us could have developed those forms but very few of us could have exercised the restraint and control it took to make those few moves SO clear and powerful - no glomming on of other crap. the cac is really fairly simple. brilliantly so, imo.
theres an interesting point... anybody can do something, but few people can do something very well... if it takes so much perfection to do what you do well, is doing something different all the time just failure to commit to craft?
trademark design can be seen as a negative these days, but sometimes innovative can also mean innovative but not great.
for everyone else's edification, there was a turntable up there and it would play a couple of grooves of a soul record when you pushed the doorbell. so, we weren't actually looking at building stuf....
end of the starchitect
Interesting article here: building recognition
"There's a shift away from the role of the heroic master creator," says Terence Riley, curator of MoMA's Spain show. Many younger architects emphasize the process of investigation and design, rather than committing to an idealized form””a strategy some attribute, ironically, to star Rem Koolhaas and his Rotterdam firm OMA. "This generation are perhaps more flexible and pragmatic," says Rosalie Genevro, director of the Architectural League in New York. "They're not worrying so much about the theory and meaning of it all. They have an attitude toward problem solving." For them, the computer is more a quotidian tool than an inspiration, and they naturally absorb environmental or social issues into their work.Yes, we are entering the glorious era of postmodernity!
One day, even lawyers won't be overpaid and our work will be recognized!
nice article, brink.
love that chapel by sancho-madridejos. i'm going to probably have to spring for the catalog of the spain show.
what sneaking around the edges of the article is that it may not be so much about the end of the starchitect, as it seems to suggest, but about the grooming of the next generation of starchitects for public display. riley, like pj before him and like aaron betsky et al, wants to be both the forecaster of trends and the discoverer of these stars.
best part to me is that we're getting to see all of the beautiful spanish work by lesser known firms like abalos & herreros. i wonder if aranda pigem vilalta are in the show. i love those guys.
yes, i read this
still you can see a shift: even if those firms become 'stars', they will be star firms: MAD, or UN is different from the reigning giants, all individuals: Hadid, Gehry. thom mayne (no surprise operating in the west coast) was the first to have caught on to the idea: Morphosis. i think that the new generation of firm names in themselves say a lot about this trend. i'm surprised no one has brought this up.
but i think something that the article is pointing out is that what distinguishes this new generation from the old is that demand for the work, and 'stardom" seems to depend on ongoing innovative problem solving, process that produces *different* rather than riding the same style out... whether this is true or not is debatable, but it sounds fresh in the print.
gehry has been a star since when the late 80's? the guy is almost 80, so he was not a star until he was almost 60. one must remember that these stars really only shine for the likes of those who come to sites like these. i was at two of the stars buildings on the weekend and although the zaha's museum is growing on me i didnt really see anything that couldnt have been done by many firms. so, i aint asking for any autographs here. also, the idea that the starhitect will go away is ridiculous given the fact that we are media saturated and architecture students tend to worship these people as something they are not.
Vado retro.. thats always such a lame critique of an artist but saying you dont see anything that couldnt be done by anyone else...
the point your missing, is that you havent seen these things done by anyone else until she did them first...theres a fearlessness in zahas work that is what separates her from service architect practices.
I also think youll all be woefully surprised to find that the notion of start and figure in architecture doest not eventually go away, and will always be around, even though there are whispers of its death.
i never said that the work could be done by anyone else. i said the same quality could be achieved by many firms. believe what you want i know i do... if you think zaha was the first to make angled stairs or protuding volumes in her elevations or angled walls or urban carpets well...and if you think no one has seen anything like her work i would suggest taking a freakin modern art history course. you can withdraw after the middle age lady with the wedge haircut finishes her lecture on russian constructivism.
i was with vado at the zaha (<sounds funny) and my main observation was that most of us could have developed those forms but very few of us could have exercised the restraint and control it took to make those few moves SO clear and powerful - no glomming on of other crap. the cac is really fairly simple. brilliantly so, imo.
steven ward at the zaha
liberty bell at the zaha
everything interesting appears to be up there somewhere...
theres an interesting point... anybody can do something, but few people can do something very well... if it takes so much perfection to do what you do well, is doing something different all the time just failure to commit to craft?
trademark design can be seen as a negative these days, but sometimes innovative can also mean innovative but not great.
steven and liberty bell at the zaha...
ha, we're not looking up in that one!
for everyone else's edification, there was a turntable up there and it would play a couple of grooves of a soul record when you pushed the doorbell. so, we weren't actually looking at building stuf....
its a bird! its a plane! ino, ts zaha!!!
I saw that one too! Is it permanent?
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