I love how it's like a demonstration, an action that temporarily changes the space of the city of DC, then disappears again. And it's a sign for itself. AND it's a great example of solving the problem by answering a different question than the one that's being asked: how do we do an addition that will spark a shitstorm of irrelevant political wrangling no matter what is proposed? Answer: we don't do an addition.
(And it's the kind of item that more properly belongs in the News here, but I'm trying to gear the forums back towards talking about architecture.)
the form is beguiling - as is the temporary nature of it, and the event that will make it appear each time...
...but the purpose is what brings it home for me:
a neutral-ground public forum in the mall!
let's hope that aspect of it can actually be realized.
the article doesn't speak positively of the hirshorn - a museum i have loved since i was little. it's not as forbidding as NO makes it out to be, but maybe he just needed a foil for what he wanted to say about the dsr project.
the sculpture garden outside the building is a nice introduction and then, despite the solid walls of the drum, from the ground plane a pedestrian looks through the legs and under, into the center space. once in the center, glass walls look into the court. all in all, a nice progression with episodes along the way.
another part of the impact of this intervention is that it appears that it will completely change this approach and entry narrative. what is now most open will be the most closed. even the interior of the galleries will change because of the way the bubble will mess with the entry of natural light. a twice-a-year transformation: magic.
i actually hadn't made the blob connection until you mentioned it, liberty bell. possibly because this blob isn't forced but feels natural somehow - as if it really is a product of the pressure of air physically pushing the envelope of this thing up through the middle of the museum. maybe the best 'blob' architecture yet because it isn't a fixed form!
Agreed, Steven, that the Hirshhorn is far more elegant and light-handed than NO describes.
But that's part of the public input snake pit that DSR is avoiding through this proposal. Anything proposed for this building will inevitably draw public cries to destroy the Hirshhorn because it's "modern", to replace it with some faux-revivalesque piece of Dryvit frosting. The temporary addition not only avoids that whole scenario, but celebrates the cool, subtle essence of the existing building.
vado, I'm headed there after the holidays - I better beef up.
Subversive indeed. Subversive of common sense, decency, propriety, and anything else moral, ethical, or sefl evident truth.
That thing looks like a ginormous, bloated corpuscle or ZIT. Disgusting and very cruel and unusual punishment to foist these products of deranged, scatterbrained, self labeling "architect" misfits onto society. Just like the US army is using Heavy Metal music to torture prisoner's ears in foreign countries like Iraq, the contemporary AIA sponsored architect is torturing the public's eyes with these grotesque, metastasizing, cancerous blights on the landscape. The torture has really got to stop. Enough already.
GO back to graphic design, selling used cars, and peddling snake oil you half baked charlatans! Stop invading the professional body like the malignant cancers that you are.
‘A human being this once resembled1’: bodily transgression in
extreme metal music
Karl Beckwith 2006 (Unpublished Paper)
Introduction
In the song ‘Exhume to Consume’ the extreme metal music act Carcass remind us of
the possibilities of the body. They show us that the corporal is a contested site of
opportunity, where bodily representation is multiple, ambivalent and transgressive.
The song explores the acts of a seemingly out-of-control and unknown protagonist,
disinterring the dead to be eaten and to satiate an irrepressible desire. Here the body is
undermined as a traditional object of sacredness, before or even after death, and is
presented as nothing more than food to be eagerly consumed. The most base and
necessary functions of the human body are explored and revelled in. Those who act
out these deeds are aware of their own activities but are also driven by them. They are
complicit performers in their own actions and obsessed victims, aware of their own
madness
Respecting the desire of a few here to discuss architecture -- and conscious of the parallel "ugly architecture" thread:
Blue ? Is this thing going to be made of a plastic membrane of some sort -- mostly opaque/translucent (those terms are often confused and confusing) with some transparent portions ? With its inflated construction and blobular form, maybe blue as suggestion of water is appropriate. What do you think ?
I am reminded of the odd little addendum to the de Young Museum's cafeteria end, a seeming afterthought in the form of a white and clear plastic stretched and suspended "tent/awning." Ugly and icky, I thought (though not as bad as the row of pigeon-shit that immediately developed, in full view of the main interior plaza, deposited on top of a glass-roofed subterranean passage. Somebody forgot the Nixalite ?
I have visions of water leaking from the tubular weight element at ground level, mixed with blowing leaves and bird feathers and ticket stubs, all collecting in impossible-to-reach crevices but all too visible, and blue plastic with an irregular surface texture, bulging around cables that rub against existing structure, making a new kind of graffiti for the months when this thing is in hiding. I don't mean to be negative.
I know that lovely detailing and perfect space-age material are being deployed every day, somewhere, now. It's just. . .
DasVagueness - can you clarify your point about reenacting? Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Are you calling out these architects for ripping somebody else off? Or is it a constructive dialogue between projects over time? Or somewhere in between?
I prefer to think of it as somehow an analogy of starfish and jellyfish which can expel their stomach, engulf their prey and then digest.....
pop will eat itself
Dec 17, 09 1:28 am ·
·
765, it just so happens that exactly 10 years ago I sent an email entitled "Reenactionary Architectures" to Roger Conover, the architecture editor at MIT Press. So, in the spirit of reenactment, here it is again:
To: conover @ mit . edu
Subject: Reenactionary Architectures
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 11:24:48 -0500
Roger Conover:
I am writing to inquire whether a book proposal for Reenactionary Architectures would be of interest to The MIT Press. As a series of individual yet thematically connected essays, Reenactionary Architectures explores the notion of reenactment throughout architectural history while also recognizing the pervasive role of reenactment in architecture today. The central text of Reenactionary Architectures is "Inside the Density of G.B. Piranesi's Ichnographia Campi Martii," a paper I delivered this past November at the Network for Theory, History and Criticism of Architecture's (NeTHCA) INSIDE DENSITY colloquium in Brussels, Belgium that is currently available online at (links no longer active)*. The last section of this paper, 'reenactment architectures', provides a loose outline of what Reenactionary Architectures is about. (Note: the 'reenactment architectures' section comprises four web pages, and a hypelink at the bottom of each page connects to the next page. Additionally, the abstract to "Inside the Density..." is attached as an addendum to this email.)
You may recall that we briefly corresponded via email over two years ago with regard to a proposed book on Piranesi's Campo Marzio. Reenactionary Architectures is now the major (albeit unexpected) thesis to have come from my Campo Marzio work. If you are interested in receiving a full book proposal, please inform me as to the acceptable submission protocol, e.g., would you accept a Microsoft WORD document sent via email, or should all proposal material be sent as hardcopy via regular post?
Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
I don't recall having heard back from Conover, but I have published extended notes of "reenactionary architectures" within A Quondam Banquet of Virtual Sachlichkeit: Part III (2006), specifically "The Speeches" pages 180-242.
a study in/of degrees of separation
more riff-off than rip-off
nomad
gypsy
circus
.
Archigram
"kinetic architecture"
. now look who's reenacting
.
OMA Serpentine Pavilion
OMA Prada Pavilion (in Korea)
SD&R Hirshhorn
aside:
FAT is very much a reenactionary architecturism practice.
Diller Scofidio and Renfro blob up the Hirshhorn, yay!
is completely awesome. So subversive!
I love how it's like a demonstration, an action that temporarily changes the space of the city of DC, then disappears again. And it's a sign for itself. AND it's a great example of solving the problem by answering a different question than the one that's being asked: how do we do an addition that will spark a shitstorm of irrelevant political wrangling no matter what is proposed? Answer: we don't do an addition.
(And it's the kind of item that more properly belongs in the News here, but I'm trying to gear the forums back towards talking about architecture.)
my comment from somewhere else:
the form is beguiling - as is the temporary nature of it, and the event that will make it appear each time...
...but the purpose is what brings it home for me:
a neutral-ground public forum in the mall!
let's hope that aspect of it can actually be realized.
the article doesn't speak positively of the hirshorn - a museum i have loved since i was little. it's not as forbidding as NO makes it out to be, but maybe he just needed a foil for what he wanted to say about the dsr project.
the sculpture garden outside the building is a nice introduction and then, despite the solid walls of the drum, from the ground plane a pedestrian looks through the legs and under, into the center space. once in the center, glass walls look into the court. all in all, a nice progression with episodes along the way.
another part of the impact of this intervention is that it appears that it will completely change this approach and entry narrative. what is now most open will be the most closed. even the interior of the galleries will change because of the way the bubble will mess with the entry of natural light. a twice-a-year transformation: magic.
there were plenty of blobs at the hirsshorn when i visited. in fact, d.c. was and is full of blobs. they're called tourists.
i actually hadn't made the blob connection until you mentioned it, liberty bell. possibly because this blob isn't forced but feels natural somehow - as if it really is a product of the pressure of air physically pushing the envelope of this thing up through the middle of the museum. maybe the best 'blob' architecture yet because it isn't a fixed form!
Agreed, Steven, that the Hirshhorn is far more elegant and light-handed than NO describes.
But that's part of the public input snake pit that DSR is avoiding through this proposal. Anything proposed for this building will inevitably draw public cries to destroy the Hirshhorn because it's "modern", to replace it with some faux-revivalesque piece of Dryvit frosting. The temporary addition not only avoids that whole scenario, but celebrates the cool, subtle essence of the existing building.
vado, I'm headed there after the holidays - I better beef up.
good blow job^^
aspect FTW
LOL, aspect!
washington dc should ban blobs for the same reasons that switzerland banned minarets...nobody wants to go there & see these things.
Have you ever lost all respect for someone after working with them?
DSR, what a long, atrocious, horrific nightmare,
Liz Diller, what a flake.
Subversive indeed. Subversive of common sense, decency, propriety, and anything else moral, ethical, or sefl evident truth.
That thing looks like a ginormous, bloated corpuscle or ZIT. Disgusting and very cruel and unusual punishment to foist these products of deranged, scatterbrained, self labeling "architect" misfits onto society. Just like the US army is using Heavy Metal music to torture prisoner's ears in foreign countries like Iraq, the contemporary AIA sponsored architect is torturing the public's eyes with these grotesque, metastasizing, cancerous blights on the landscape. The torture has really got to stop. Enough already.
GO back to graphic design, selling used cars, and peddling snake oil you half baked charlatans! Stop invading the professional body like the malignant cancers that you are.
i happen to like that, go on OF4, please tell me more.
you must be a fan of Umberto Eco
i am reading this book now, and i am fascinated with the ugly, as a thing of beauty. can't wait until i get to Rabelais!
OOOO, YEAH, and more on hideousness!
Death Metal
i was just reading this paper recently:
‘A human being this once resembled1’: bodily transgression in
extreme metal music
Karl Beckwith 2006 (Unpublished Paper)
Introduction
In the song ‘Exhume to Consume’ the extreme metal music act Carcass remind us of
the possibilities of the body. They show us that the corporal is a contested site of
opportunity, where bodily representation is multiple, ambivalent and transgressive.
The song explores the acts of a seemingly out-of-control and unknown protagonist,
disinterring the dead to be eaten and to satiate an irrepressible desire. Here the body is
undermined as a traditional object of sacredness, before or even after death, and is
presented as nothing more than food to be eagerly consumed. The most base and
necessary functions of the human body are explored and revelled in. Those who act
out these deeds are aware of their own activities but are also driven by them. They are
complicit performers in their own actions and obsessed victims, aware of their own
madness
totally up my alley.
Hernia Architecture....ouch.
2006.01.31
2006 July
"now look who's reenacting"
2002.11.10
jiffy pop...
hmmm
...i should get a second opinion?
are we sure this proposal isn't someone's attempt to land a reality TV series?
I can see it now...
BALLOON MEETS THE PRICK
behind the scenes
Respecting the desire of a few here to discuss architecture -- and conscious of the parallel "ugly architecture" thread:
Blue ? Is this thing going to be made of a plastic membrane of some sort -- mostly opaque/translucent (those terms are often confused and confusing) with some transparent portions ? With its inflated construction and blobular form, maybe blue as suggestion of water is appropriate. What do you think ?
I am reminded of the odd little addendum to the de Young Museum's cafeteria end, a seeming afterthought in the form of a white and clear plastic stretched and suspended "tent/awning." Ugly and icky, I thought (though not as bad as the row of pigeon-shit that immediately developed, in full view of the main interior plaza, deposited on top of a glass-roofed subterranean passage. Somebody forgot the Nixalite ?
I have visions of water leaking from the tubular weight element at ground level, mixed with blowing leaves and bird feathers and ticket stubs, all collecting in impossible-to-reach crevices but all too visible, and blue plastic with an irregular surface texture, bulging around cables that rub against existing structure, making a new kind of graffiti for the months when this thing is in hiding. I don't mean to be negative.
I know that lovely detailing and perfect space-age material are being deployed every day, somewhere, now. It's just. . .
DasVagueness - can you clarify your point about reenacting? Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Are you calling out these architects for ripping somebody else off? Or is it a constructive dialogue between projects over time? Or somewhere in between?
765, I'll attempt a full/concise answer tomorrow.
Soooo...
is it a "luminous pop landmark" or is it "subversive"? Are those two characterizations compatable?
Just asking.
I prefer to think of it as somehow an analogy of starfish and jellyfish which can expel their stomach, engulf their prey and then digest.....
pop will eat itself
765, it just so happens that exactly 10 years ago I sent an email entitled "Reenactionary Architectures" to Roger Conover, the architecture editor at MIT Press. So, in the spirit of reenactment, here it is again:
To: conover @ mit . edu
Subject: Reenactionary Architectures
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 11:24:48 -0500
Roger Conover:
I am writing to inquire whether a book proposal for Reenactionary Architectures would be of interest to The MIT Press. As a series of individual yet thematically connected essays, Reenactionary Architectures explores the notion of reenactment throughout architectural history while also recognizing the pervasive role of reenactment in architecture today. The central text of Reenactionary Architectures is "Inside the Density of G.B. Piranesi's Ichnographia Campi Martii," a paper I delivered this past November at the Network for Theory, History and Criticism of Architecture's (NeTHCA) INSIDE DENSITY colloquium in Brussels, Belgium that is currently available online at (links no longer active)*. The last section of this paper, 'reenactment architectures', provides a loose outline of what Reenactionary Architectures is about. (Note: the 'reenactment architectures' section comprises four web pages, and a hypelink at the bottom of each page connects to the next page. Additionally, the abstract to "Inside the Density..." is attached as an addendum to this email.)
You may recall that we briefly corresponded via email over two years ago with regard to a proposed book on Piranesi's Campo Marzio. Reenactionary Architectures is now the major (albeit unexpected) thesis to have come from my Campo Marzio work. If you are interested in receiving a full book proposal, please inform me as to the acceptable submission protocol, e.g., would you accept a Microsoft WORD document sent via email, or should all proposal material be sent as hardcopy via regular post?
Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Stephen Lauf
* 1460 1461 1462 1463
I don't recall having heard back from Conover, but I have published extended notes of "reenactionary architectures" within A Quondam Banquet of Virtual Sachlichkeit: Part III (2006), specifically "The Speeches" pages 180-242.
a study in/of degrees of separation
more riff-off than rip-off
nomad
gypsy
circus
.
Archigram
"kinetic architecture"
.
now look who's reenacting
.
OMA Serpentine Pavilion
OMA Prada Pavilion (in Korea)
SD&R Hirshhorn
aside:
FAT is very much a reenactionary architecturism practice.
Thanks, Stephen, looking forward to digging into some of that over the holidays. And I may treat myself to your book as a late xmas present.
aldorossi said, "is it a "luminous pop landmark" or is it "subversive"? Are those two characterizations compatable?"
of course not. Modernists are oxymoronic, dialectic spewing fools.
They claim that the very things they actively subvert don't exist in the first place...I mean how stupid can somebody really be.
hmmm, yes. A very good question.
liberty bell - i agree
tinker10 - why?
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