gravestmor » 2007 » May : : architectural ephemera

May 25th, 2007 Comments {1} + del.icio.us +digg

It is that time again. Again.

Pecha Kucha Volume 04 will be held next Thursday the 31st of May at the Commercial Travellers Association. Get there early to get a good spot last time the place filled up rather quickly….

New to Pecha Kucha? Look here and here.

See you there!

‣ UME - one of the few Australian architecture journals of any real merit - has made its entire catalogue available for download as pdfs.
“UME is not a journal of record and is not engaged in marketing the latest architectural trends. (…) UME is about the drawings architects make to build their designs. Generally the emphasis is on showing the working drawings. Photographs of the buildings are intentionally reproduced not in colour but in black and white (often as duotones) in order to present designers’ ideas in as abstract a manner as possible. ”
Via Butterpaper. #
‣Video of the Museum Plaza project in Louisville by ~~OMA~~ REX.
Reader, Dave Brown says it best:

“I saw this a few weeks ago and thought it was one of the coolest all time animation presentations ever…

I mean, you’re taken on an emotional roller coaster…at first your like…jeez, who do these guys think they are, showing off their office like that…so pompous…and then you’re like…wtf…where did those bars come from…and then all of a sudden there’s an f@#$#@ing building growing, and the cameras all shaky and shit…and then boom….wireframe, and out of nowhere comes a frigging city where did that shit come from all of a sudden…and just when you think it can’t get any better…

THEY TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL…amazing…you’re in the building…you’re looking at it while driving down the street….you’re all over town…and when you think you can’t take anymore, it fades to black.and you’re like…thank god, i can’t take anymore…only to come back with a friggin 360 panorama…like…let me off…think i’m going to puke…feel bad for the people in the three cars behind me….i mean, what a RIDE!!!!

love it….love it.”

#
‣The Nagakin Capsule Building in Tokyo looks set to be demolished. Apparently Kurokawa submitted a proposal which was dismissed whereby the existing capsules would be removed and updated capsules - presumably sans reel-to-reel tape decks - reattached to the core. The proposal was dismissed in favour of knocking the whole thing down and starting again in order to add 60% more floor space. Previous Capsule madness on g-mor. #
‣ Former Prime Minister Paul Keating is speaking about the development at East Darling Harbour on 23 May 2007 at the next Design Quarter event at the Powerhouse Museum. “The Honourable Paul Keating was on the jury that selected the winning design for the redevelopment of East Darling Harbour. This lecture will give his unique perspective on the selection process, the outcome, and the impact that the redevelopment of this historic foreshore precinct will have on our cityscape.” #
‣Goal Sculptures at Strange Harvest. Goal posts in deserted parks caught unawares while they play art. This one is rather nice. As is this. [Link] #
‣The roundest sphere ever made. A ball of fused graphite forming a part of NASA’s Gravity Probe B, so smooth “that were it blown up to the size of Earth, the tallest mountain would be only eight feet high.” [Link] #
‣Postopolis is BLDGBLOG, Subtopia, Inhabitat and City of Sound teaming up to hold a five day series of talks etc at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. On the final day the Storefront will turn into a kind of drop in centre for architecture bloggers. Sounds grand. [Link] #

Desert Deathstar and the Little Japanese Radio That Could

May 4th, 2007 Comments {8} + del.icio.us +digg

In the UAE, OMA have been getting busy in the desert:

(Image Source)

The project is for the RAK Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE and comprises of a large sphere, booleaned by other large spheres and a long linear bar.

“What is left to be invented when it comes to the creation of a landmark?

So far the 21st century – in a desperate effort to differentiate one building from the next – has been characterized by a manic production of extravagant shapes. Paradoxically, the result is a surprisingly monotonous urban substance, where any attempt at ‘difference’ is instantly neutralized in a sea of meaningless architectural gestures.

RAK is confronted with an important choice: Does it join so many others in this mad, futile race or does it become the first to offer
a new credibility?

This project represents a final attempt at distinction through architecture:not through the creation of the next bizarre image, but
through a return to pure form.”

(Image Source)

Pure form. Yes indeed. The immediate comparison is not, as I know you are all thinking, Boullee, nor is it the Deathstar. Sure at first glance, it may appear to be the planet destroying super structure of our dreams - it is big, it is round, it has craters. But as we all know the deathstar only had the one crater, the one from which the laser beams were focussed on Aldaraan with such pleasing results.

So if not the Deathstar or Boullee, then what?

Released in the early seventies Panapet by Panasonic is a small transistor radio. It, like the convention centre, is not in space, is round, has several craters and it has no lasers. It is funny; the Panapet dates back to 1972 (I think), five years prior to the release of A New Hope and is such clear precursor to the Deathstar and yet it never gets a mention. Geonosian industrialist, Poggle the Lesser, Raith Siener and Imperial Officer, Grand Moff Tarkin get all the credit with poor little Panapet not rating a mention.

And so now, thirty years later, the strange little radio has spawned a second behemoth offspring, this one in the desert, on the outskirts of town, biding its time.

+ Thanks to Matt for the links.