Thanks to Steven Ward for this weeks submission.
See after the jump.




side a

track 1: stellar vernacular:

whenever something exceptional appears, it's always tempting to wonder from where it came. scott burnham thinks about this, apparently, and his nice little piece about potential vernacular sources for h&dm's bird's nest is pretty good piece of speculation. even if it's not true that the forms were borrowed in a conscious way, it’s fun to imagine that there was something in the air (besides smog) that jacques, pierre, and ali may have absorbed: who's zoomin who?



track 2: looks like....

snohetta's proposal for the rak gateway in the uae makes me think that they've decided that blobbiness is a middle eastern vernacular they must mimic. is the need to ‘fit in’ no longer just a euphemism for borrowing historic forms? why else would they betray their strength in making rigorous, clean, angular, and cool forms and glom onto the dubai'tgeist? it's not like they weren't getting attention before. (see the cover of this month's arch record.)



track 3: hormel sweet home:

foggo associates tries to simultaneously put themselves on the map while taking some misguided clues about context from foster's gherkin. if only it were taller we could say it looks like the box the gherkin came in, but in this short stubby iteration....i got nothin.



track 4: defending the jackass:

i have to say that i love archinect because i can join in on conversations like this one. it's fun, harmless, but also allows us to feel out territory, to figure out how we feel about things, and allow our own personal values to evolve via discussion.



track 5: interlude:

if i have any criticism of the projects above, it's that they're so visually noisy, flashy, and in need of attention. i stand by my manifesto submitted to metamechanic's competition back in ‘06: shhhhhh.



Toward a quiet architecture.

Modern architecture has often privileged the programmatic object-figure over considerations for continuity of the environment-field. The field remains unconsidered, underdeveloped, or ancillary to the disengaged and attention-grabbing object-figure.

In contrast, pre-modern urban forms evolved with a normative environment-field as the primary condition of urban engagement and cohesiveness which, once established, could then accommodate complementary incidental figures.

Architects’ desire for recognition has prompted us to take every opportunity to draw attention to our projects, thereby continually adding to the visual clamor and chaos that defines the contemporary cityscape.

Why can’t we just be quiet for a change?



side b

track 6: homonymous:

ok, ok, despite that, there is a good argument for recognizable buildings: somebody should have noticed this.



track 7: does he do windows?:

to make your art, sometimes you gotta make something, sometimes you gotta wash it away.



track 8: book’em:

i’m very excited about the release of this monster. whether or not you think yale sux (


track 9: big box medley:

if i didn't know better, i'd think that someone was trying to dress up big boxes to make them more sexy. i mean, walmart puts on a shiny hat and ikea's working on building its street cred by insinuating itself into the red hook community of brooklyn. of course, some retailers have been targeting designers for quite a while already. what's next: adjaye-designed leed platinum garden sheds by kmart?



track 10: diversions:

_urb_ lets us know what’s up in china, including some sporting event or something. oobject finds fun things that you might not know exist. visual complexity = eye candy. and, since i’m the son of a surveyor and a closet (not-really-)historian, i’ve become a strange maps junkie.



bonus tracks: flickr streams i've been loving lately:

arndalarm, bochum

sevensixfive, baltimore

crowbert, chicago

lavardera, merchantville

kenmccown, l.a.

ubiquity_zh, zurich

o d b, beijing

ony one, brussels