Venice Biennale 2012: SPAINLab / Spain Pavilion
During the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale opening, we had the chance to interview Débora Mesa, curator of the Spain Pavilion together with Antón García-Abril, partners at Ensamble Studio.
SPAINLab, the name of the exhibit, looks to expose the research process behind the works of contemporary Spanish Architects:
- RCR Arquitectes (Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, Ramón Vilalta)
- Selgascano (Lucía Cano, José Selgas)
- Urban Habitat / Barcelona City Council (Vicente Guallart)
- SMAO — Sancho-Madridejos Archiecture Office (Sol Madridejos, Juan Carlos Sancho)
- Menis Arquitectos (Fernando Menis)
- Cloud 9 (Enric Ruiz-Geli)
- Ecosistema Urbano (Belinda Tato, José Luis Vallejo)
More photos about the pavilion and description from Anton and Débora after the break:
Video: Sagrada Familia / Moment Factory
A huge creative and technical challenge was recently undertaken by Moment Factory. They were invited by the City of Barcelona and the City of Montreal to create the first sound and light spectacle to be projected on the complex façade of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. This 15 minute-long multimedia show, using video mapping techniques and their X-Agora playback system, was presented within La Mercè Festival in Barcelona this weekend. The inspiration: to realize Antonio Gaudi’s dream. The architect wished for the façade to be full of colors.
Video: The Junk King
The Junk King – Vince Hannemann - has spent much of his life constructing the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX. In 2010, the City of Austin requested a building permit and Vince was forced to tear down nearly half of his creation. Despite this traumatic event and with the help of many supporters, Vince was still able to keep the Cathedral alive and continue its legacy.
Directed: Evan Burns
Cinematography: Garyle Morgan & Mitzi Morrow
Produced: Eduardo Tobias
TED Talk: Why Architects Need to Use their Ears / Julian Treasure
In architecture we talk about space and form. We talk about experience and meaning. All of these qualities are inextricably the sensory experience of light, touch, smell and sound. Sound expert Julian Treasure asks architects to consider designing for our ears, citing that the quality of the acoustics of a space affect us physiologically, socially, psychologically and behaviorally.
More after the break. (more…)
Video: Nendo Mimicry Chairs, London Design Festival 2012
This year as part of London Design Festival’s Landmark Projects Japanese design studio Nendo have installed Mimicry Chairs, a series of sporadically placed chairs, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Rising stars of Japanese design, Nendo have already exhibited in Madrid, Milan, Paris, Tokyo and New York. Crane.tv follow the installation of Mimicry Chairs before speaking with head designer Oki Sato about the project and why Japanese designers always think with their heads, not their hands.
AD Interviews: 5468796 Architecture & Jae-Sung Chon, Migrating Landscapes
We interviewed Winnipeg- based 5468796 Architecture (Johanna Hurme + Sasa Radulovic) and Jae-Sung Chon (Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba), the team that curated the “Migrating Landscapes” exhibit at the Canadian Pavilion for the 13th Venice Biennale. The Migrating Landscapes Oganizer (MLO) invited, through a national competition, young Canadian architects and designers from a wide range of cultural and educational backgrounds to create scale models of ‘dwellings’ and accompanying videos that draw on cultural memories.
More about the pavilion in our previous article.
Video: B&B Italia Talk / Can Design Save Europe?
In light of B&B Italia’s debate for London Design Festival, ‘Can Design Save Europe’, we speak to Architecture and Design Critic for the FT Edwin Heathcote, Director of the V&A Martin Roth and Olympic Torch designers Jay Osgerby and Edward Barber about the power of design as a force of change on the European economy. The recent recession and subsequent arts spending cuts has sparked debate around the fate of the arts and craft industry, locating it a time of change and redevelopment. While the major manufacturing powers continually look to the East we question what the future holds for European design and manufacture, and if designers themselves should focus on functional products made available to the masses rather than luxury products for the minority.
Venice Biennale 2012: GREENHOUSE TALK interviews leading architects
As we announced earlier, Pritzker Prize Laureate Wang Shu of Amateur Architecture (China), Rahul Mehrotra of RMA architects (India) and Francine Houben of Mecanoo (The Netherlands) participated in GREENHOUSE TALK at the 2012 Venice Biennale. The informal discussion focused on the current reality of design culture in the great countries of Eastern Asia and Europe.
The video begins with an introduction (in Italian) by architect and Senior curator of MAXXI Roma, Pippo Ciorra, which then leads into some fascinating commentary (in English, with Italian subtitles) by the highlighted protagonists.
The GREENHOUSE TALK event was promoted by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rome, in collaboration with MAXXI and NAi. (more…)
AD Interviews: Reiser + Umemoto
Since it’s founding in 1986, Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture P.C. has become a widely published, internationally recognized practice with a diverse collection of projects ranging in scale. On multiple occasions, the firm has been awarded for their contributions to architectural practice and theory – the most recent being The Cooper Union’s 2008 Presidential Citation and the 2011 John Hejduk Award – as they treat “each project as the continuation of an ongoing inquiry, delving into relationships among architecture, territory and systems of distribution.”
The New York City-based practice is led by it’s founders, architect Jesse Reiser and designer Nanako Umemoto. Both partners have taught and lectured at a number of academic institutions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Reiser is currently a Professor of Architecture and director of graduate studies for the M.Arch program at Princeton University’s School of Architecture.
More about Reiser + Umemoto’s work:
- O-14 Building in Dubai (and its construction)
- Taipei Pop Music Center Competition (1st prize)
Ground Zero Master Plan / Studio Daniel Libeskind
With last year’s opening of the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero and the near-completion of the World Trade Center One, Daniel Libeskind’s vision for the World Trade Center site is close to presenting the future of NYC’s downtown financial center, 11 years after the attacks. Studio Daniel Libeskind was selected to develop the master plan for the site in 2003, and since has been coordinating with NYC’s numerous agencies and individual architects to rebuild the site. The project, in Libeskind’s words, is a “healing of New York”, a “site of memory” and “a space to witness the resilience of America”.
Follow us after the break for more on the elements and progress of the master plan. (more…)
KamerMaker: Mobile 3D Printer Inspires Potential for Emergency Relief Architecture
3-D Printing technology is developing at quickening pace as both engineers and architects experiment with its technological and social potential. Consider Enrico Dini’s D-Shape printer that prints large scale stone structures out of sand and an inorganic binder or Neri Oxman’s research at MIT which involves a 3-D printing arm and nozzles that can print with a variety of different materials, from concrete to recycled plastic.
Dutch firm DUS Architects, in collaboration with Ultimaker Ltd, Fablab Protospace, and Open Coop, have added another 3-D printing machine to the list known as KamerMaker, the room builder. KamerMaker is the world’s first mobile 3d printer and has the ability to print “rooms” that are up to 11 feet high and 7 feet wide. The machine was unveiled at OFF PICNIC, a precursor to Amsterdam’s annual PICNIC technology festival.
Join us after the break for more. (more…)
Video: Kris Ruhs at The Wapping Project, Exhibition Preview
Milan-based artist Kris Ruhs has designed shoes, illustrated for Italian Vogue and crafted furniture, but is best known for his long standing partnership with gallerist Carla Sozzini and Milan’s concept store 10 Corso Como. Ruhs’ new exhibition, the eerie Landing on Earth, opens today at the Wapping Project and runs through London Design Festival and Frieze Art Fair, drawing inspiration from aspects of his three studios in Milan, Morocco and Paris. Ruhs tells Crane.tv why his materials always dictate his work, and why he doesn’t feel the need to differentiate between art and design.
Where Does the Internet Live?
One day, Andrew Blum‘s internet stopped working. He called a repair man, who told him that, quite simply, a squirrel had chewed on his internet.
Blum was perplexed. The internet is a nebulous, untouchable “cloud” – isn’t it? Or, as Blum puts it in his TEDTalk: “The Internet is a transcendent idea. It’s a set of protocols that has changed everything from shopping to dating to revolutions. It was unequivocally not something a squirrel could chew on. But that in fact seemed to be the case. [...] And then I got this image in my head of what would happen if you yanked the wire from the wall and if you started to follow it. Where would it go? Was the Internet actually a place that you could visit? Could I go there?”
The question prompted Blum to explore the physical wires, cables, and boxes that make up the internet – an adventure he chronicles in his book Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet. A big part of that journey was visiting Data Centers, those power-guzzling monstrosities where all your Data (and we mean all your data) goes to live.
Curious for more? Check out Blum’s TEDTalk, and revisit our past coverage on Data Centers, including our Editorial “Data Centers: Anti-Monuments of the Digital Age”
Video: New Flea Market in Barcelona / Prompt
Designed by Prompt for the IMMB Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona, the new flea market will play a key role in the economy and urban identity of the city. Their video above highlights the construction process taking part in the dynamic city environment.
Project: B720 Arquitectos / Fermín Vazquez
Client: IMMB Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona
Realized and edited by: Prompt
Video: Jacob Jensen, Designer Profile
At their home in Hejlskov, Denmark Jacob Jensen and Timothy Jacob Jensen, father and son, tell us about their design history, dating back to the 1940s. Since starting work in 1947 Jacob Jensen has become somewhat of a living legend in industrial design, best known for his work at Bang & Olufsen. Here, he and his son Timothy Jacob Jensen tell us why good design always has to turn you on.
Video: 2012 Yeosu Expo Hyundai Motor Group Hyper-Matrix
Created by media artist group : J o n p a s a n g, the Hyper-Matrix is an exhibition pavilion gathering which plays with the walls of the structure to create three-dimensional effects to the viewers. Designed to showcase Hyundai Motor Group, this represents how there are various applications of mechatronic solutions. Comprised of thousands of 30x30cm cubes that make up the facade of the structure, the blocks extrude from the surface of the walls to create a variety of patterns and configurations. Also entertaining are the viewers’ reactions which reveal the excitement surrounding the pavilion.
Video: The late Pedro E. Guerrero speaking at the Julius Shulman Institute
Last April, we announced the opening of Pedro E. Guerrero: Photographs of Modern Life – a retrospective exhibition organized by the Julius Shulman Institute (JSI) at Woodbury University that honored the incredible life and career of the great 20th century architectural photographer, Pedro E. Guerrero (1917-2012). JSI was thankful to have Guerrero join the exhibition’s opening night, where he entertained the crowd with his charismatic personality as he shared fascinating stories from his life.
Sadly, the world is still in mourning over Guerrero’s passing last week, as he died at the age of 95 on Thursday, September 13, 2012, at his home in Florence, Arizona.
Woodbury University and the Julius Shulman Institute would like to share a few words from JSI director Emily Bills:
“The Julius Shulman Institute is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Pedro E. Guerrero. We were honored to host a retrospective of his work last April, which included the lively, and often hilarious, conversation he shared with Hunter Drohojowska-Philp. Guerrero will be remembered as one of the great architectural photographers of the twentieth century, capturing the essence of work by Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Durell Stone, Marcel Breuer, Joseph P. Salerno, and many others. He will be dearly missed.”
Read Guerrero’s obituary in the New York Times and the LA Times to learn more about his epic life and career. Continue after the break to view some of his best photographs that were featured at the exhibition. (more…)
AD Interviews: Renzo Piano – Part III
We continue with the last part of our exclusive interview with Renzo Piano.
Since first achieving international fame in 1978 with the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, Renzo Piano has become known as a prolific, Italian architect capable of achieving a masterful balance between art, architecture and engineering. His intellectual curiosity and problem-solving techniques have led him to develop a wide-ranging portfolio that successfully merges high technology with humane and comfortable environments.
Sophisticated, refined and elegant, the presence of Renzo Piano’s work is internationally celebrated. Originally born into a family of Italian builders, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect now leads a staff of 150 at his practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, from three locations – Genoa, Paris and New York.
Part III to be aired on Tuesday Sept 18th.
Video: Baroque Court Apartments / OFIS Architects
Created by Carniolus, the video above very elegantly gives you a pretty good description of the Baroque Court Apartments, designed by OFIS Architects. A residential block in the historic city center of Ljubljana, Slovenia, the project is positioned to feature an internal courtyard and open-air contemporary glass light well. The inward-facing transparent enclosure was revitalized to create opportunities for communication between apartments at different levels.
AD Interviews: Renzo Piano – Part II
We continue with the second part of our exclusive interview with Renzo Piano.
Since first achieving international fame in 1978 with the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, Renzo Piano has become known as a prolific, Italian architect capable of achieving a masterful balance between art, architecture and engineering. His intellectual curiosity and problem-solving techniques have led him to develop a wide-ranging portfolio that successfully merges high technology with humane and comfortable environments.
Sophisticated, refined and elegant, the presence of Renzo Piano’s work is internationally celebrated. Originally born into a family of Italian builders, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect now leads a staff of 150 at his practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, from three locations – Genoa, Paris and New York.
Watch Part III.
Video: Aero Pavilion Update
The above video is an update to the Department for Architecture Design and Media Technology‘s Aero Pavilion which was completed just last year. An environmental condition of wind combined with the penetration of light through the structure is utilized as means for architectural articulation. Emphasizing the immediate understanding of the airflow, which defines the perceptive characteristics of internal space, the simplicity of the form consists of planar plywood plates in digital parametric models for simple and fast production and assembly.
