Winner of this year's MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program, Andrés Jaque of the Office for Political Innovation, joins us on the podcast this week to discuss his winning design, COSMO. In a continued thread from last year's YAP, The Living's "Hy-Fi", Jaque's COSMO focuses on issues of sustainability and ecology – its main element is a series of pipes that will purify water with biological treatments.
Before winning the YAP, Jaque's office already had a piece in MoMA's permanent collection, IKEA Disobedients (2011), the museum's first "architectural performance" acquisition. COSMO will be installed from June 23 through September 7.
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Listen to episode eighteen of Archinect Sessions, "Moonwalking Or (The Expected Virtue of Social Architecture) with Andres Jaque, winner of MoMA PS1's YAP":
Shownotes:
Paul Krugman's Rip Van Skillsgap
Donna’s iced-in spa building, West Baden Springs Hotel, and historic info
Andres’ videos, including the following on IKEA Disobedients:
Invisibilia podcast on computers and humans
Float Lab, float tank in Venice
As It Lays, a board game about Los Angeles
Ken the Pen accuses architects of taking credit for engineers' work
Thom Faulder's BAMscape at the Berkeley Art Museum
Ken’s shelfie:
11 Comments
I loved hearing Amelia talk about game development! Even if it was the analog kind. I think every designer should try to make a game, video or board. It's a really rewarding and interesting experience.
thanks Schoon! as a writer/non-designer, I definitely feel out of my wheelhouse, but it's been super fun nonetheless.
I'll need to look into the firm structure issue a little more. One of the primary benefits Brian cites for some was to shield liability, but I was pretty certain that within any structure - LLP, partnership, S-Corp, whatever - the *architect who stamps the drawings* always shoulders personal liability. Maybe that's a state-specific thing?
Also, regarding the discussion of the board game dilemma - could Amelia rip off the folks who ripped off the design of her game - that parallels this week's Radiolab episode pretty neatly: Cervantes' Don Quixote was ripped off by another author so, in return, Cervantes' co-opted that second author's character in his own follow-up to Don Quixote! It's a great story.
Steven, my understanding is that the architect bearing personal liability is a state-by-state thing. I know Indiana is a personal liability state; I was told so during a liability seminar for architects. That lawyer did say that only about half the states had personal liability - this was about 8 years ago.
Loved that Radiolab, Steven. I'm all for self-conscious borrowing, and the idea of anything I've made becoming a Chinese knockoff is only immensely flattering.
Regarding the cost of education and degree timelines a factor to consider is the impact of "STE(a)M" thinking" on architecture programs. Years ago, architecture was considered to be more of a humanity than engineering science. The argument that architects are generalists was grounded in the humanities and associative thinking. As programs have changed- along applicant pools- there has been a shift in teaching things with respect to technical skill sets such as fabrication and computation, and students are trained as specialists for good and bad.
The benefit of this shift to STEM is that schools can compete for the brightest minds interested in effecting change in the built environment. The downside is that you must present a more "scientific face," thus placing an emphasis on the advanced degrees versus the B Arch. I'd even bet that the myth of the masters degree to practice is in part a reflection of the shift from humanities to real science.
Another important factor is the funding stream in institutions. I won't discuss the direct financial gains of graduate degree fees in programs. That is a given. However, money is being channeled in three directions- engineering (grants as a fund source to the institution), science (grants as a fund source to the institution) and with respect to architecture- real estate (proud nostalgic donors). Again this places an emphasis on the advanced degree within the institution- with the exception of real estate. But with respect to the first two, you can't write a grant for that robotic arm and say you are doing "serious research" with undergraduates- even if that is the case.
So in some respects, chasing dollars to keep the program and the institution open has had an impact the degree structures. I'm not saying this is a good thing, it does go to the repeated question of what architecture is, what the practice values and how it is expressed in education.
When I was a kid I invented board games a lot,even various versions of dodge ball, martial art, etc....the analog board game is half way to digital thinking and very much architecture. The one game I thought was genius but had to be played on grid paper and my test subjects lacked the dexterity to play for the long hours that would be required while playing with a pencil and eraser was a game I called "Walls". This was about 2 years before Netscape became the way to see the Internet and before I knew about chat rooms and MUDDS......the rules were simple and played a lot like tic-tac-toe would be played if a 5x5 grid.....each turn the player was allowed to place 3 lines to cover space. The only way to jump other players lines was to go parallel after hitting them perpendicular and up (lose 1 line) and then you claimed their line. It's a slow version of the movie Tron motorcycle game.....very tedious in pencil but probably would of made a great computer game. When you could also do a U with 3 lines to expand a enclosed space. The game really never stopped....but whoever had the most space enclosed with their walls won. Questions at the time we're also what type of grid would be played best. Great podcast as usual.
For better or worse, this PS1 project definatley falls within the 'Young Architecture' scope that the MoMA has been featuring the last view years... the formula seems to involve an ecological/environmental issue + crazy shape and form. I'm not sure if you need to monumentalize utility, unless it is for the purpose of a crazy art museum like this.
in response to andre's video:
- the proposed "home" which appears at the end of the video features what looks like roughly 90 percent of young people, of which most have brown hair (not blond), and largely look like they are from the same social strata (nearly the same makeup of what the video begins to criticize ikea for...". They also seem content to eat watermelon off the floor instead from an ikea table...is this what you're proposing? Unfortunately i don't think simply putting your 'friends' (which i may be incorrect in assuming) in a video like this is an accurate depiction of the people your video proposes to help, if anything it's just furthering the image of a the "vain" society that you claim to attack.
- Your proposal, which i personally don't consider as a 'proposal' states "a different proposal may conceived mainly where the home is a site for confrontations, and encounters with ALL that is different, unfamiliar, or all that is under dispute deciding for instance whether we are on the pill, how domestic chores are assigned, to what extent we want to take responsibility for garbage separation..." This seems to me to be too abstract of a statement to attach any weight to. The goes on to propose an urban counternotion of the domestic which "is not a neutral space, but one that installs controversy and disagreement precisely at the site where affections emerge..." Are you to say that we need controversy and disagreement - which you do not actually outline or propose why or what this would entail- but basically again is the same naive extremist mentality that you yourself critigue?! This looks like someone wants to give a tounge and cheek nod to marx, deleuze, and situationists theories without furthering or specifying anything. Instead we are left in a sea of pastel rainbows when we look at the work and the green pants he wears online...
- It's unfortunate that ppl can put together words like 'political' 'architecture' and 'innovation' and assume that connecting jargon and buzzwords is sufficient to solve ACTUAL problems...how naive of an office this is. Take a look at the colorful representations of your work. Is that not the same as an IKEA catalogue? Happy, colorful, pastely-paletted-kitsch spaces. I think you've missed reality and are too busy 'designing' your version of a better life, in the same - yet slightly more abstract manner - as an IKEA catalogue.
Hey y'all never posted a Show Note BAMscape?
I searched Archinect but couldn't fine a link/post for it. Also that Hejduk book Vladivostok looks very interesting...
Nice catch Nam, I just updated our shownotes with the BAMscape project.
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