Inadvertently, this episode is all about food – where it comes from, where we eat it, and how it shapes national identity. Our discussion on food and design starts in Los Angeles, where Norm's Restaurant recently received "historic and cultural" landmark status, and a tamale-shaped building strives for the same (just one of LA's many proud programmatic architectures). Shifting east, we extol the multi-uses and virtues of Waffle House, and praise the Waffle House index. This dovetailed across the Atlantic into our interview with James Biber of Biber Architects about his design for the US Pavilion at the Milan EXPO, entitled "American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet". We ask him about balancing corporate and national identities in food, and what it's like having the US State Department as a client.
Listen to episode thirty-one of Archinect Sessions, "Hot Dogs Around the World":
Shownotes:
The now-open Milan Expo U.S. pavilion salutes to the future of food, the American way
James Biber’s blog post on professional ethics and the AIA
Biber Architects' 100 Ideas project
Monsanto’s “Adventure Thru Inner Space”, formerly at Disneyland
General Motors pavilion at the “Futurama” World’s Fair in New York, 1939
The real-life architecture of "Ex Machina"
Whose work are you currently interested in? thread by Nick Weaver
Not All Sidewalks Are Created Equal in DC
Michael Jantzen’s “Deconstructing My Chairs”
Katya Tylevich's 2009 interview with Michael Jantzen
Nicholas's write-up of One Night Stand, an art/architecture installation at a motel, for one night only.
Trailer for "The Babadook" (2014):
25 Comments
babadook was terrifying.
After we slammed their food culture I hope Chicago doesn't turn us away at the door when we arrive for the Chicago Architecture Biennial later this year!
I'll offer that one of the three best meals Ive ever had in my life was in Chicago, at acclaimed restaurant Moto shortly after it opened.
Also, in the off chance that people don't know what I mean when I refer to all architecture projects being an example of a "wicked problem" here is the Wikipedia:
A wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. The use of term "wicked" here has come to denote resistance to resolution, rather than evil. Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems.
Being from the east coast, I love busting on Chicago, their food is fine; if you like okay. ;)
i don't understand. it's like when jla talks about the difference between a 'cook' and a 'chef.' the folks in chicago know what they're doing. they care about stuff going into their mouths. go to the east coast and they squirt ketchup on cardboard. west coast is just rabbit food. no contest.
That's a lovely Chicago dog, curt.
The spicy Chicago Polish dog is my favorite at Pinks.
I'm sorry, but pizza, in Chicago is classified as casserole, that's not pizza, especially if you need to eat it with a fork and knife.
outside of east coast none of that shit is real Italian food,especially Pizza.
^tru dat!
the other day i was at this pizzaria in NJ ordering the usual rice bowls and slices, the TV is always on some Italian satellite channel.....as i wait for my order some really big NJ native who moved to Pittsburgh begins to explain the shitty Pizza scene out there and how no one knows what the hell a Sicilian is. what shape is a sicilian (slice)? after philadelohia its Pennsyltucky and the world of Pizza Huts and Olive Gardens....
Here, if it wasn't for the chef inspired pizza joints, it would be horrible. As for Italian, well let me say this, if you don't know what a zepple is, you don't know Italian.
Oh, and no pignolis? WTF?
thing I miss most about NY is the Italian food. The smell of Zepple at the feast reminds me of the begining of summertime...
Chicago is also famous for hot dipped Italian beef sandwiches, which is what I tend to get when I'm there.
italian food is the stuff you find in italy. the east coast is a long way from italy.
now if you want a good american pizza, chicago is the place to go.
I think Ken was suggesting deep dish pizza is the same as casserole?
Let's be honest here, can barely tell the difference?
i'm sure ken suggests a lot of things, but nobody puts cream of mushroom in pizzas....
you are saying "in" pizzas. you put things "on" pizzas...my experience is the closer you get to Italy the thinner the crust.....starting with Staten Island (staten italy)
Thomas Pynchon's description of cream of mushroom soup as the Universal Binding Ingredient has always delighted me.
Yeah, but at least in NY, they don't empty the garbage can of leftover vegetables into something, and call it "pizza". Like Olaf stated, vegetables and meats go ON not IN pizza, and anything consumed with a knife and fork is not a Pizza.
"Anything consumed with a knife and fork is not a pizza" is truth. And I'll add that anything with chicken and barbecue sauce on it is damn sure not a pizza. It's flatbread.
do you know how much shit Mayor Bill De Blasio (NYC) got for this?
random note....the Mayors do take the subways in NYC.
I was on the same 1 train as De Blasio - that dude is tall.
what caught my attention at first were two guys with ear pieces and then I saw De Blasio.
black guys and white guys, total strangers, were laughing and going - man that guy takes the subway. how do you think he is doing:? I like him. Should've of played ball.
Thank you Biber for pointing out our occasional contribution to this planet. The USA is always the dumbest and most profound entity in it's evolution...I don't get it?!?! we're all a bunch of idiot geniuses....
we're either all a bunch of fuckin' idiots that dump garbage into a sheapheards pie and call it pizza or the biggest positive fun lovin' smart people...
$0.99 pizza slices exist in NYC
remember Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles first 10 minutes of movie....
NYC....liberty...America...Pizza
eat that shit right.
(as I jam to Ry Cooder and Jimmy Buffet)
Does Norms really qualify as "vernacular architecture"? Perhaps it is my misunderstanding but I have already read "vernacular" in a more Rudofsky(ian) sense. As implying something beyond architectural style or fashion, more primitive, and not designed by architects.
Googie seems more explicitly a (sub)style/version of modern architecture. Plus, Norms was actually designed by an architect, Helen Liu Fong.
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