News Flash: Beauty=Boring, Ugly=Interesting!

An interesting discussion over on CityKin about beauty in architecture: Rem Koolhaas gets double-teamed by Spiegel Online and CityKin after what I consider to be a light-hearted and witty conversation. His designs are a bit scary at times, but who can't love someone for saying, "Isn't it remarkable? Talk about beauty and you get boring answers, but talk about ugliness and things get interesting." (p.s. reminds me of Bob's Learning From Las Vegas discussion of Heroic and Original, or Ugly and Ordinary, p. 91 AND Is boring architecture interesting? p. 93).

Above all, CityKin's take on the interview is a relatively accurate perspective on today's public perception of architecture: pissed off and unimpressed. Next on the agenda for us unemployed architects? (1) Apparently don't talk s#*% about today's boring urban centers being caused by suburban"weekend warriors", and (2) celebrate beauty in architecture. As a last resort, N O R T O N will be designing an infill project for the city - something of a hybrid between a new urbanist McMansion and a neo-classical monumental civic building. Perhaps then I will be popular...or at least I will have achieved beauty in architecture! I can't wait.

Slutty Technology + A New Brutalism = ...

...A rant by N O R T O N

I was recently eStalking Sam Jacob via twitter (my apologies to Mr. Jacob for eStalking, and to everyone for mentioning Twitter) and came across an interesting article: The young generation with a new vision to build Britain, by Geraldine Bedell of The Observer.  You can read about it here.

Something that immediately caught my eye: a discussion of our generation's rejection of what I would call "technological puke" or what others call "bubble architecture"...and what Peter Lynch in the article identifies as the "idiot avant garde."

As a member of the generation Lynch is talking about, I find the subject is critically relevant, yet lacking significant discourse.  In school, for example, faculty were seemingly caught off guard by "thin" design where image and flashy computer graphics trumped "thick" design of drawing, thought, and decision-making.  We were not slapped in the face for presenting a building associated with the "idiot avant garde" -  the infamous building which was seemingly only designed around, or built for, that one night rendering produced in 3D Studio Max, V-Ray, et. al.

From Bedell's article: 

Patrick Lynch is actively hostile to what he sees as the inevitable decline of modernism into what he calls the "idiot avant garde, which means that all your work ultimately looks the same, whatever the climate". He claims that younger architects are disenchanted with "the idea that technological progress equals artistic progress equals moral progress equals virtue, which leads to the kind of thinking that it's OK to go and build for a completely unpalatable regime and fuck up the planet for money, because you're working in your signature style and it's an expression of individual creativity" (^interjection: isn't that what happened in China for last summer's olympic games???)

A couple of reasons for my personal hatred of slutty technology:  

1. The tradition of "making" is succumbing to the tradition of "picking" with a mouse (e.g. before: "that architect has a hot pencil." today: "that architect has a hot mouse.")
2. The building I was trained as an architect in (Mr. Eisenman's 1996 addition to D.A.A.P.) seemingly exists for the architect's pursuit of a singular, narrow-minded vision and (brutal)ly ignores the needs and uses of students and faculty.  Perhaps this is a new interpretation of brutalism - one of narrow and limited social objectives.  It seems fitting Eisenman's building is in the shadows of one of the largest continuously poured concrete structures in the world - a the brutalist tower/skyscraper named Crosley Tower. Images below:

(Link to evan.chakroff's photostream)

Cincinnati PARK(ing) Day

Cincinati PARK(ing) Day was held on Friday...

"“Cincinnati PARK[ing] Day” to be held Sept. 19, 2008 in parking spaces around Cincinnati. This is a one-day, global event in which artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into public parks and alternative public spaces. Parking spaces show the fundamental elements of a good outdoor public space and may include seating, shade, and a place to watch people, exchange information, and view scenery. Each parking spot can be transformed into a park, playground, puppet show, or whatever you like."

A quick synopsis of how N_O_R_T_O_N's intervention went...

"three police cars and a bike cop showed up within 40 minutes of setting up. my location might have had something to do with it...i was on probably the busiest street in the city...Walnut between 4th and 5th adjacent to fountain square where they were scrambling to set up for octoberfest. the cops told me the radio dispatcher said there were "kids playing cornhole in the middle of the street" which naturally garnered a lot of attention. anyway, i was told i had to have a permit to be using a paid meter space for something other than storing a car which is complete bullshit. after they kicked me out i went to district 1 where they "couldn't find" a copy of the municipal code or parking ordiances for the city. this was also bullshit. how can they enforce the law when they don't even have a copy of it at their main station? wow. i was pissed. then i went to city hall,
where the law department told me the cops were the only ones who dealt with "permit issues" which is what they described my situation as. so i looked up the code, and nowhere does it specify that the ONLY use for a metered parking space is to store a vehicle. I'm pretty sure what i was doing was legal. anyway, they didn't give me a ticket because they couldn't figure out what to charge me with, then got nervous and told me to leave. the entire altercation was photographed thankfully. haven't seen the photos yet. heres a photo
of my park...it was pretty solid." [more...]