thats a sleazy way to attract attention towards the article.
i wonder if an architect will ever again trust this guy again.
"i'll tell you something but don't tell anyone"
"YEAH sure. go ahead" (i won't tell anyone, i'll only write an article in The New York Times)
very few surprises for us who keep up on architecture and what the big guys are doing, but it's good to see n.o. putting this out there in the nyt mag. nice piece.
Probably one of the more relevant NYT articles about architecture and urbanism to date. Compare this piece with the recent article in The Economist about suburbs, and one wonders what state of rigor mortis the 20th century is really in? My guess is that it died a long time before 1999.
when it comes down to it, n.o. is a newspaper reporter, guys. sure his story sounds like status quo to us, but do you think the audience of the new york times registers it the same way?
i think it's remarkable. this is an article in a daily paper read by millions and it's a feeling-out of a condition that is affecting the way building is happening in a place that most readers will never see - likely that i will never see. and it will affect the way WE build as well, meaning that the general public will eventually see through domestic architects' work the affects of what's happening over there.
and it's not all 'status quo', exactly, anyway. he's reporting a condition - a real condition of ambivalence among some of our most accomplished architects - holl, koolhaas, reiser. the big question n.o's asking is even impt to us regular architecture-folk: what do you do when you have so few clues about what to do, so few constraints, and you are being asked to invent a place?
No, no, i should be less snarky. I was trying to gently make fun of Koolhaas here, no Ourossoff, both for his faux confidentiality (who tells secrets to a reporter from the New York Times?) and for what I see as a continued failure to do much more than simply fetishize the givens. If there is going to be a true Cambrian Explosion of new urban Types, I kind of doubt that the OMA megageneric will last very long in the gene pool.
In many ways, Nicolai is being more critical than Rem here, very much to his credit. I love the turn his writing seems to have taken over the past two years, it's important stuff.
I also do kind of love the 'don't tell anyone, but ...' format, I might even start a thread.
i would say its a condition that needs to be looked into even more... it may be old news for people in the know, but it really hasn't been analized enough. the end is telling, the fact that koolhaas feels there is 'no time for a manifesto.' - implied, that there really is a need for a manifesto.
what about the other side? urban conditions have become even more polarized in the last few years. while there are apparently limitless amounts of money being poured into these brand new cities, there are huge populations that are creating their own environments in slums, favelas or whatever you want to call them.
both conditions exist without memory, and grow at great speed, maybe they start informing each other? the last part about urbanus seems to touch on this but at the scale of the informal city [reminded me a bit of urban think tank or mario jauregui].
still, the excessive amount of money poured into some of these projects [dubai, etc] just smells bad.
I agree that Nicolai has been doing great reporting lately. Much more critical of the current status quo that we are all discussing.
And, moreover i think the fact that it is for "mass consumption" will hopefully help challenge critically the expectations/hopes or at least understanding of the situation for the regular joe.
As for the current status quo,
I think Steven, AML and others emphasize a good point. While not new or unique the key challenge is this
"what do you do when you have so few clues about what to do, so few constraints, and you are being asked to invent a place?"
“Another option that I personally find very interesting,” Koolhaas told me, “is the modernist vernacular of the 1970s — buildings that once you put them in Singapore or Dubai take on totally different meanings. Some of the modern typologies work in Asia even though they are totally dysfunctional in America. Typologies we’ve rejected turn out to be viable in other contexts.”
ether - in Singapore you can travel multiple city blocks just by going from shopping mall to shopping mall. It's safe and clean and interesting.
I tend to think this had more to do with the maintenance and security budgets for these places than it has to do with the intersection of typology and culture, but that's a lot less interesting to architects.
20 Comments
Nicolai be snitchin'.
thats a sleazy way to attract attention towards the article.
i wonder if an architect will ever again trust this guy again.
"i'll tell you something but don't tell anyone"
"YEAH sure. go ahead" (i won't tell anyone, i'll only write an article in The New York Times)
i thought it was one of ouroussoff's best articles. it does read like it took a lot of work. imho.
Don't tell anyone, Orhan, but post-rationalization scares the hell out of me.
i didn't realize this was already posted. apologies...
very few surprises for us who keep up on architecture and what the big guys are doing, but it's good to see n.o. putting this out there in the nyt mag. nice piece.
Probably one of the more relevant NYT articles about architecture and urbanism to date. Compare this piece with the recent article in The Economist about suburbs, and one wonders what state of rigor mortis the 20th century is really in? My guess is that it died a long time before 1999.
Don't tell anyone, Smokety, but critical arguments that amount to nothing more than an aestheticization of the status quo are disingenuous and lazy.
Yep ... in other words ... tell me something I don't know.
when it comes down to it, n.o. is a newspaper reporter, guys. sure his story sounds like status quo to us, but do you think the audience of the new york times registers it the same way?
i think it's remarkable. this is an article in a daily paper read by millions and it's a feeling-out of a condition that is affecting the way building is happening in a place that most readers will never see - likely that i will never see. and it will affect the way WE build as well, meaning that the general public will eventually see through domestic architects' work the affects of what's happening over there.
and it's not all 'status quo', exactly, anyway. he's reporting a condition - a real condition of ambivalence among some of our most accomplished architects - holl, koolhaas, reiser. the big question n.o's asking is even impt to us regular architecture-folk: what do you do when you have so few clues about what to do, so few constraints, and you are being asked to invent a place?
No, no, i should be less snarky. I was trying to gently make fun of Koolhaas here, no Ourossoff, both for his faux confidentiality (who tells secrets to a reporter from the New York Times?) and for what I see as a continued failure to do much more than simply fetishize the givens. If there is going to be a true Cambrian Explosion of new urban Types, I kind of doubt that the OMA megageneric will last very long in the gene pool.
In many ways, Nicolai is being more critical than Rem here, very much to his credit. I love the turn his writing seems to have taken over the past two years, it's important stuff.
I also do kind of love the 'don't tell anyone, but ...' format, I might even start a thread.
that second sentence should read 'not Ourossoff', d'oh!
Don't tell anyone, archinect, but I make a lot of typos.
i would say its a condition that needs to be looked into even more... it may be old news for people in the know, but it really hasn't been analized enough. the end is telling, the fact that koolhaas feels there is 'no time for a manifesto.' - implied, that there really is a need for a manifesto.
what about the other side? urban conditions have become even more polarized in the last few years. while there are apparently limitless amounts of money being poured into these brand new cities, there are huge populations that are creating their own environments in slums, favelas or whatever you want to call them.
both conditions exist without memory, and grow at great speed, maybe they start informing each other? the last part about urbanus seems to touch on this but at the scale of the informal city [reminded me a bit of urban think tank or mario jauregui].
still, the excessive amount of money poured into some of these projects [dubai, etc] just smells bad.
I agree that Nicolai has been doing great reporting lately. Much more critical of the current status quo that we are all discussing.
And, moreover i think the fact that it is for "mass consumption" will hopefully help challenge critically the expectations/hopes or at least understanding of the situation for the regular joe.
As for the current status quo,
I think Steven, AML and others emphasize a good point. While not new or unique the key challenge is this
"what do you do when you have so few clues about what to do, so few constraints, and you are being asked to invent a place?"
Also, I am getting more and more excited re: Linked Hybrid...
China has favoured nation status with the U.N.
It is seen as the model state.
They want all states to be like it.
God help us...
examples?
ether - in Singapore you can travel multiple city blocks just by going from shopping mall to shopping mall. It's safe and clean and interesting.
I tend to think this had more to do with the maintenance and security budgets for these places than it has to do with the intersection of typology and culture, but that's a lot less interesting to architects.
"ether - in Singapore you can travel multiple city blocks just by going from shopping mall to shopping mall. It's safe and clean and interesting. "
i think the reason for this shopping mall typology is because it rains a lot in singapore.
... and it's 100 degrees every day.
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