Young starchitect Bjarke Ingels talks manifestation, midwifery and shamanism while riding down the Venice canals in this short by Kelly Loudenberg.
— nowness.com
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He is actually proving himself to be a total clown. I guess it helps to come from money in the beginning, but sooner or later people realize that you are a total douche. Also, his architecture had a fresh take, and that was entertaining, but they all turn out to be a classic one liners in the end …
I see what he's trying to say, and I do agree with some of it but he's just really bad with metaphors. Really, really bad. Being less dramatic and less preachy would help his argument, but I get what he's saying and he has a point.
is he philip johnson rich? I doubt it. intellectuals always hate on people who are smart and social.
anyway, if you've actually practiced architecture for a living you would completely agree with the midwife concept.
shamanism, i'd like to here more. intellectual architectural theory, etc.. has been the death of this profession as HGTV and "Designers" take over the aesthetics of the built envrionment. i reference Bjarke's sense comment.
lastly. The Scorpions, a German rock band had silly lyrics like "Rock you like a Hurricane" and the Swedish band Europe had a song called "Final Countdown", non-native english speakers are allowed to be cheesy/campy with our language.
just went to see orestad in copenhagen where the BIG housing projects are, along with some gems by 3XN, Jean Nouvel, etc. The projects are all great, but only the BIG projects are special. 8 was brilliant. the mountain project also very cool but more than that fantastically livable and better than typical stack of frickin boxes with an elevator. one liner or not, those places are seriously well thought out. master plan for the place doesn't work so well in my opinion, but those buildings? best i've seen in a very long time. they aren't classically beautiful like jorn utzon etc, but as architecture still among the best in the world.
It is a difficult and fine line that some architects try to tread. Talking about big ideas thoughtfully without coming across as as eggheaded and pretentious ain't easy.
"...he realized early on that the primary responsibility of the architect was not to play midwife to more and more structures, but rather to stop and consider the human values that are collectively defined as “architecture.” The architect should be concerned with how to create a meaningful sense of place, in whatever medium available – drawings, models, texts, poems – before worrying about bringing more buildings into the world."
Author, James Trainor, on Architect and former Dean of Cooper Union, John Hejduk.
Bjarke came and spoke at my school - we were all told to use him as an example of who to be like - One of my profs. pointed out his website and said "this is what you need to be like"
ovalle - read your qoute over and over until it finally occurs to you why architects bring so little meaning to the built environment.
i'm a fan of Hejduk and there is a time and place for such thinking, but in the BIG picture of creating a meaningful sense of place, that is not how the game is played....
Xenakis' profs are pointing out to the students a guy who plays the game well (outside of academic architecture circles in the world). the game has a lot more players than those who theoretically understand architecture at a "deeper" level.
Chris Teeter- Not sure who you are preaching to, hopefully it is not to me. ( I can't tell if you read it over and over or are asking me to read it over and over again). I found the above quote/article the other day and figured I would share an additional point of view, in this case, John Hejduks, to the discussion. I am not arguing for creating a meaningful sense of place. I know how the game works, and in my opinion , Architects continue to not place enough value on the notion of place making. I believe there is a difference between meaningful sense of place and place making.
If one is a big fan of BIG, I would highly recommend and encourage one to actually study the work of his former office, PLOT. Incredible ideas and concepts were generated from that office in just five years. A prime example of place making that came out of PLOT was the Copenhagen Harbor Bath. That project was extremely successful in fact, that BIG was recently asked to expand on it.
@ovalle: i watched that video a while back and it felt more like PSC was overreaching and desperate to try and justify his own existence and work while beating up on Bjarke. Pretty unprofessional actually...
BIG has proven themselves more than once with their built work, and definitely more than PSC ever has. That recent museum with the wrinkled atrium was oozing pretension once the twisted form wrung out all the fun of it [which is all of 30 seconds]. Talk about a one liner--here's a twisted atrium... and that's it.
One thing about BIG's projects that i really admire is that they entice you to move through & interact with them, to experience them more than most buildings. I think that allows for a much better social atmosphere, and let everyone feel included.
ovalle - if your post was a legal document you should have said "i'd like to share this qoute i found, it's a point of view I do not necessarly share but have pondered, etc..."...and 'preaching' is over-reaching, come on man, my final sentence was 'nihilistic', but Nietzsche did practice sermons as a youth...maybe it's just too loud for the internet?
that video is long, but within the first 30 seconds of PSC introducing Bjarke it was apparent there was some kind of insecurity issue just waiting for a 'rip a new one' to appear in the dialogue...for legal purposes I will disclose I did not watch all of the video, within those first 30 seconds I wanted to offer Bjarke a beer and slice my wrist...or just run out of that auditorium to the nearest Bar...in my imagination of course.
as long as nothing BIG says is too intellectual I think it's fine. he can talk about mid-wives and shamans all he wants, it's a lot more interesting than any of my long winded poetic in structure philsophical 'loud' internet texts. is my tone really that loud? (the wife would say YES). ;)
With all due respect, is Architecture so much a peripheral cultural phenomenon that it can be "spun"? And really: "his optimism that it can be simultaneously less heroic and moreso." ?!?!
This profession is doomed to become utterly irrelevant unless this "Starchitect" bullshit ends. A fawning design media drinks up ersatz post modern self contradictory obscurana as some kind of profound insight and we all "ohhh" and "awww" over it like good little insiders, content in our smug little cocoons of intellectual superiority.
I was just in Haiti; if any of you hipster insiders are longing for an authentic existential human experience, I suggest you go down there and volunteer in a cholera clinic for a couple of weeks. And no, I don't want any claps on the back or "good for yous". I'm back home in LA and the water that I shower in is more drinkable than anything you can find in Haiti.
It sucked. It was depressing as hell, and it makes it damn hard to come back and pretend that some dilettante in a gondola in Venice being blown like the subject of an MTV Cribs episode has any kind of profound insight about any-thing.
And yes, I know, my little lambs, that Architecture hath not the cultural weight to mitigate any of the the ills of the third world. (Or could it?) Just keep it in perspective. Notorious BIG (Copenhagen Represent, yo!) is a pop star, with all that goes along with that.
you guys are funny. did anyone else notice that the credits called this a 'film by...'? this isn't just bjarke talking about his work - which has a completely different dynamic.
it's someone's effort to use him to reflect on architecture, venice, and make a beautiful set of images with soundtrack. lighten up!
i'm as annoyed by the rockstar culture as anyone. but, just as christina aquilera has very little impact on my life and i'm a greater fan of louisville's *excellent* local bands, i can choose to pay most attention to the local architecture culture in the context of the larger architecture culture.
there's value in ingels being out there, being an educator, doing PR for architecture, and giving architects some pretty great projects to which they can aspire. but it doesn't have to be the end-all. do good where you are.
bieber? he seems to me more like barbara cartland. he talks and talks (always) and tries to make it sound so interesting but all it sounds like is a bunch of romantic softporn cliches, somewhere between seemingly deep, benignly cute, sleazy and... manipulative (in the hollywood movie vein).
And Im not criticizing his architecture here but his talk and talk. maybe he thinks it sounds clever, I don't know. maybe his whole verbal existence is a perfect loop for introducing architecture to beginners. the elevator-music of architectural intellectualization.
Rena had promised herself that she would never tell him of her love, for his sake. And yet the words burst from her, called forth by the intensity of his own emotion. John loved her. He had said so. And nothing in heaven or on earth could have prevented her from confessing her own love in return.
“I love you,” he said, holding her away from him so that he could see her face. “I love you in every way that a man can love a woman. You are mine, and I am yours. That is how it has to be. It was meant. It's our destiny. I couldn't fight it if I wanted to. But I don't. I want to love you and rejoice in you all the days of my life. And if you don't feel the same I have nothing to live for.”
Feb 18, 14 10:51 pm ·
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22 Comments
I'm sorry, Bjarke, could you say that once more?
If Bjarke were american, we'd probably all think he was a total douchbag. Just one more reason why its good to be danish.
Yo!
He is actually proving himself to be a total clown. I guess it helps to come from money in the beginning, but sooner or later people realize that you are a total douche. Also, his architecture had a fresh take, and that was entertaining, but they all turn out to be a classic one liners in the end …
Wow. You guys are mean. Thats why I avoid the internet.
I just kept thinking of the director: "Pier Paolo, drive faster - his hair's not rustling enough"
and he's got those hip hop hands that just scream "IM ON A BOAT"
I fucking love Venice.
This is bullshit. Stop doing these interviews and concentrate on the meaningful Architecture you're capable of.
I see what he's trying to say, and I do agree with some of it but he's just really bad with metaphors. Really, really bad. Being less dramatic and less preachy would help his argument, but I get what he's saying and he has a point.
I love the idea of architect as midwife. I think it's a perfect analogy for how I have *always* considered the work I do.
I'm grateful for the spin he's putting on architecture right now, and for his optimism that it can be simultaneously less heroic and moreso.
is he philip johnson rich? I doubt it. intellectuals always hate on people who are smart and social.
anyway, if you've actually practiced architecture for a living you would completely agree with the midwife concept.
shamanism, i'd like to here more. intellectual architectural theory, etc.. has been the death of this profession as HGTV and "Designers" take over the aesthetics of the built envrionment. i reference Bjarke's sense comment.
lastly. The Scorpions, a German rock band had silly lyrics like "Rock you like a Hurricane" and the Swedish band Europe had a song called "Final Countdown", non-native english speakers are allowed to be cheesy/campy with our language.
seriously, who says - rock you like a hurricane!
just went to see orestad in copenhagen where the BIG housing projects are, along with some gems by 3XN, Jean Nouvel, etc. The projects are all great, but only the BIG projects are special. 8 was brilliant. the mountain project also very cool but more than that fantastically livable and better than typical stack of frickin boxes with an elevator. one liner or not, those places are seriously well thought out. master plan for the place doesn't work so well in my opinion, but those buildings? best i've seen in a very long time. they aren't classically beautiful like jorn utzon etc, but as architecture still among the best in the world.
It is a difficult and fine line that some architects try to tread. Talking about big ideas thoughtfully without coming across as as eggheaded and pretentious ain't easy.
"...he realized early on that the primary responsibility of the architect was not to play midwife to more and more structures, but rather to stop and consider the human values that are collectively defined as “architecture.” The architect should be concerned with how to create a meaningful sense of place, in whatever medium available – drawings, models, texts, poems – before worrying about bringing more buildings into the world."
Author, James Trainor, on Architect and former Dean of Cooper Union, John Hejduk.
http://www.jamestrainor.net/1026
Bjarke came and spoke at my school - we were all told to use him as an example of who to be like - One of my profs. pointed out his website and said "this is what you need to be like"
ovalle - read your qoute over and over until it finally occurs to you why architects bring so little meaning to the built environment.
i'm a fan of Hejduk and there is a time and place for such thinking, but in the BIG picture of creating a meaningful sense of place, that is not how the game is played....
Xenakis' profs are pointing out to the students a guy who plays the game well (outside of academic architecture circles in the world). the game has a lot more players than those who theoretically understand architecture at a "deeper" level.
you can't prescribe or design meaning anyway.
Chris Teeter- Not sure who you are preaching to, hopefully it is not to me. ( I can't tell if you read it over and over or are asking me to read it over and over again). I found the above quote/article the other day and figured I would share an additional point of view, in this case, John Hejduks, to the discussion. I am not arguing for creating a meaningful sense of place. I know how the game works, and in my opinion , Architects continue to not place enough value on the notion of place making. I believe there is a difference between meaningful sense of place and place making.
If one is a big fan of BIG, I would highly recommend and encourage one to actually study the work of his former office, PLOT. Incredible ideas and concepts were generated from that office in just five years. A prime example of place making that came out of PLOT was the Copenhagen Harbor Bath. That project was extremely successful in fact, that BIG was recently asked to expand on it.
On a side note, if anyone wants to see Preston Scott Cohen "rip a new one" into Bjarke, watch this GSD discussion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lc0-SAITq0
Not surprised this video flew under the BIG PR radar.
@ovalle: i watched that video a while back and it felt more like PSC was overreaching and desperate to try and justify his own existence and work while beating up on Bjarke. Pretty unprofessional actually...
BIG has proven themselves more than once with their built work, and definitely more than PSC ever has. That recent museum with the wrinkled atrium was oozing pretension once the twisted form wrung out all the fun of it [which is all of 30 seconds]. Talk about a one liner--here's a twisted atrium... and that's it.
One thing about BIG's projects that i really admire is that they entice you to move through & interact with them, to experience them more than most buildings. I think that allows for a much better social atmosphere, and let everyone feel included.
ovalle - if your post was a legal document you should have said "i'd like to share this qoute i found, it's a point of view I do not necessarly share but have pondered, etc..."...and 'preaching' is over-reaching, come on man, my final sentence was 'nihilistic', but Nietzsche did practice sermons as a youth...maybe it's just too loud for the internet?
that video is long, but within the first 30 seconds of PSC introducing Bjarke it was apparent there was some kind of insecurity issue just waiting for a 'rip a new one' to appear in the dialogue...for legal purposes I will disclose I did not watch all of the video, within those first 30 seconds I wanted to offer Bjarke a beer and slice my wrist...or just run out of that auditorium to the nearest Bar...in my imagination of course.
as long as nothing BIG says is too intellectual I think it's fine. he can talk about mid-wives and shamans all he wants, it's a lot more interesting than any of my long winded poetic in structure philsophical 'loud' internet texts. is my tone really that loud? (the wife would say YES). ;)
I had a girlfriend like BIG once. She was very sociable, friendly, and witty. But in the end, there wasn't much too her.
With all due respect, is Architecture so much a peripheral cultural phenomenon that it can be "spun"? And really: "his optimism that it can be simultaneously less heroic and moreso." ?!?!
This profession is doomed to become utterly irrelevant unless this "Starchitect" bullshit ends. A fawning design media drinks up ersatz post modern self contradictory obscurana as some kind of profound insight and we all "ohhh" and "awww" over it like good little insiders, content in our smug little cocoons of intellectual superiority.
I was just in Haiti; if any of you hipster insiders are longing for an authentic existential human experience, I suggest you go down there and volunteer in a cholera clinic for a couple of weeks. And no, I don't want any claps on the back or "good for yous". I'm back home in LA and the water that I shower in is more drinkable than anything you can find in Haiti.
It sucked. It was depressing as hell, and it makes it damn hard to come back and pretend that some dilettante in a gondola in Venice being blown like the subject of an MTV Cribs episode has any kind of profound insight about any-thing.
And yes, I know, my little lambs, that Architecture hath not the cultural weight to mitigate any of the the ills of the third world. (Or could it?) Just keep it in perspective. Notorious BIG (Copenhagen Represent, yo!) is a pop star, with all that goes along with that.
He's 38, and he's built dozens of top-shelf projects. You might not like his style/position, but you can't deny the value of his work.
you guys are funny. did anyone else notice that the credits called this a 'film by...'? this isn't just bjarke talking about his work - which has a completely different dynamic.
it's someone's effort to use him to reflect on architecture, venice, and make a beautiful set of images with soundtrack. lighten up!
i'm as annoyed by the rockstar culture as anyone. but, just as christina aquilera has very little impact on my life and i'm a greater fan of louisville's *excellent* local bands, i can choose to pay most attention to the local architecture culture in the context of the larger architecture culture.
there's value in ingels being out there, being an educator, doing PR for architecture, and giving architects some pretty great projects to which they can aspire. but it doesn't have to be the end-all. do good where you are.
Bjarke is the Bieber of the architecture world.
bieber? he seems to me more like barbara cartland. he talks and talks (always) and tries to make it sound so interesting but all it sounds like is a bunch of romantic softporn cliches, somewhere between seemingly deep, benignly cute, sleazy and... manipulative (in the hollywood movie vein).
And Im not criticizing his architecture here but his talk and talk. maybe he thinks it sounds clever, I don't know. maybe his whole verbal existence is a perfect loop for introducing architecture to beginners. the elevator-music of architectural intellectualization.
Rena had promised herself that she would never tell him of her love, for his sake. And yet the words burst from her, called forth by the intensity of his own emotion. John loved her. He had said so. And nothing in heaven or on earth could have prevented her from confessing her own love in return.
“I love you,” he said, holding her away from him so that he could see her face. “I love you in every way that a man can love a woman. You are mine, and I am yours. That is how it has to be. It was meant. It's our destiny. I couldn't fight it if I wanted to. But I don't. I want to love you and rejoice in you all the days of my life. And if you don't feel the same I have nothing to live for.”
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