No More Play / Michael Maltzan
In this book Michael Maltzan holds conversations with a photographer, architects, a landscape architect, a futurists, and a urban planner about Los Angeles’s recent past and its near and distant future. For Maltzan, Los Angeles is currently in a delicate moment of transformation “where past vocabularies of the city and of urbanism are no longer adequate, and at this moment, the very word no longer applies.” In order to guide this transformation in a positive direction Maltzan asserts that “architects, urban theorists, architects, designers, planners, and city leaders requires keen investigation to produce forms that represent this city and and its culture, as opposed to importing other urban models.” The conversations along with the photographs by Iwan Baan presented in this book are part of the keen investigation Maltzan advocates for. This makes for a very engaging book for anyone interested in Los Angeles and shaping the future of cities in general.
Landscapes of Quarantine
Several times I haves asked myself what is inside Geoff Manaugh’s mind. The author of the BLDG Blog has been pushing architectural thinking (or more like stretching, bending, twisting…) by proposing views of an uncertain future (while linking this to our past), leaving an open door that invites us to think about architecture in a non traditional space-restricted way.
Sounds weird, but I can´t really define it. Maybe we should stick to his definition: ”Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, Landscape Futures”.
A couple of days ago Geoff told me that he is going to be in NY during the fall, where he will run an an independent design studio, called Landscapes of Quarantine, “meeting to explore the spatial implications of quarantine”. The studio will run from Oct 6 to Dec 5, and he has already confirmed a group of ten people, whose backgrounds include architecture, sound design, urban gaming, comic books, film, photography, art, landscape, and food. The studio will conclude with an exhibition at the Storefront Gallery.
But the interesting part, at least for our readers, is that the studio is open for public applications. If this sounds interesting to you, just head to BLDG Blog and read the details about Landscapes of Quarantine and on how to apply.
p.s.: I also recommend you to follow Geoff at Twitter, as he is constantly sharing ideas and links worth reading. And another thing worth reading is his book: The BLDGBLOG Book.
