Earlier today Make it Right, an organization founded by Brad Pitt and consisting of Graft, William McDonough + Partners, Cherokee Gives Back Foundation, and advisors from the Jolie-Pitt foundation, unveiled The Pink Project. The Pink Project is a huge installation of 150 disassembled tangram-based, pink-clad structures placed within 14 city blocks in the Lower Ninth Ward district of New Orleans. The installation represents hope for rebuilding the neighborhood, with a donation system in place to make that happen. Click here to read our new feature about the project, and stay tuned to Archinect in the coming weeks for more installments covering some of the fascinating components of this unique initiative.
19 Comments
That's funny, I thought it represented the inability of Pitt's project to get any of their $200,000+ houses built. I wonder how much hope the residents of the Lower Ninth find in the media circus.
Ooohh Snapp..!
But seriously, i do think that art while capable of creating dialogue is not ultimately the bandaid that will fix New Orleans or even the Ninth Ward.
The real question is should we re-develop certain areas of old New Orleans. If so every cent should be spent to make it happen. It would take a fraction of what we have spent on Iraq..
whoa, nam and gaspar! the real projects are happening. in the meantime, nothing wrong with the pink follies drawing attention.
construction projects are slow relative to the media's attention span, so you've got to have something to keep up the momentum and interest.
ya, i had dinner last night with one of global green's program directors...he was in New Orleans a few weeks ago and said that construction onthe holy cross project is well underway...no pretty finishes yet to photograph, but real progress nevertheless.
I am still gasping at the idea of rebuilding the lower 9th ward and New Orleans in general.
Build them a real home in a place that is safe and lasting.
L
the lower 9th ward has been a neighborhood for well over 100yrs. it has its own specific neighborhood traditions and culture. it's no less safe than a lot of other much-more-recent developments along the eastern seaboard.
unless there is a change in our national culture that allows us to declare endangered places unfit for occupation 100% of the time (consistently!), we can't remove this particular population of people from their traditional neighborhood so easily. i.e., if you don't rebuild the lower 9th, you also can't rebuild the barrier islands off the carolinas, the low lands around the gulf, the eastern shore of the chesapeake, etc. a good part of u.s. ocean frontage, in other words, would have to be declared unsafe for occupation. there would be an uproar!
@ Steven Ward...
I agree completely...I wasn't actually being feisty. Just thought i would react to Gaspar's comment...
And i think the question you raise is an important one especially considereing the inevitable rise of sea levels regardless of whether or not we (the US) sign on to Kyoto II
maybe instead of a broken city, new orleans is at the vanguard in dealing with the new implications of warming global climate conditions. a change gonna come...
I like to think of it not as a broken city so much as a city with potential...
So much could be done and done right after years of neglect.....
But unfortunately i am a cynic...
Didn't you hear George Bush hates black people...
"a change gonna come..."
Sure, Showbiz will transform architecture, not newthinking.
on the dutch architecture news website www.architectenweb.nl they have images of the mvrdv design...
oh dear..
Seriously, p2an?
"Oh dear" is one appropriate response, You've got to be f*ing kidding me!" is another...
oh my. seriously?
we help concordia on the architectural images for the project of mir :)
http://www.makeitrightnola.org/mir_SUB.php?section=mir&page=designs&mySub=concordia
MVRDV individual units remind me of a broken trailer. however--they look better as a group. not great, just better.
unfortunately i ain't kidding, kinda smacks of a house semi destroyed by a hurricane, perhaps not the most sensitive response IMO.
the deisgn by MVRDV will unfortunatley de-rail the whole project, once the local NOLA papers get a hold of it.
Poor Mr. Pitt
Brad Pitt Commissions Designs for New Orleans
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/arts/design/03pitt.html?em&ex=1196917200&en=d75db6a07a2e178d&ei=5087%0A
Steve,
I am not opposed to rebuilding new orleans as I am opposed to rebuilding until the right measures are taken.
Brad pitt should use his power to have the goverment and state repair the levis and take measures to protect the people in the 9th ward from another katrina.
The tents (as well as MVRDV's design) are all good intents that will not survive the next level 5 hurricane.
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