design, architecture, urbanism… with a grain of salt

These are my links for May 18th through May 27th:

• Eikongraphia » Blog Archive » This building is a bird?s nest - Iconography and the icon. An essay.
• Eikongraphia » Blog Archive » MoPo 2008 - The top 25 Architecture Blogs. All wonderful, all observant, some omniscient (that's a good thing!)
• Gallery2:FAQ - Gallery Codex Moving from one folder to another -
• Steel Framed Windows, Doors, Curtain Walls. - Steelight manufactures custom designs of: Doors, windows and curtain walls in mild steel or stainless steel. Click on thumbs on left for examples of other types of work. If you would like more details Please feel free to ask any questions by calling or em
• Home Page - Limestone Resources Pty Ltd, for Western Australian Limestone products
• concrete design competition - Ahh for the love of this material.
• B&B ITALIA - Italian contemporary modern furniture Design - Furniture - Antonio Citterio, Mario Bellini
• First Off-Grid Building in San Francisco Coming Soon! - Jetson Green - An argument for the progression toward a more "sustainable" future would be that of going off the grid. Less reliance on centralised utilities, and what better place to implement it than in a classroom? If we don't get it right, may the next generation ha
• Arquitecto Instant

lunes 22.46pm | Tuesday 4.47am

The chosen moment to describe with words and photos, some tenuous threads between 2 cities. Well, official links - no. Just the ones I see at this moment, in a search for meaning. Nothing revolutionary, after all, in the notion that two cities described and disputed as Mediterranean… might have a few common points worth noting.

The stuff of architecture we were trained in provides a starting point. Light. Form. Street. People.

Light: We have the same types of light to play with.

Harsh light. White light. Light to be filtered. Light for silouette.

Notes on beauty:

Noticing that there is a fragility between being surrounded by beautiful things and learning to see the beauty in ordinary things. This is a clue to being inspired…

I think this thread is something of Robert Venturi and Simon Anderson and perhaps José Antonio Coderch. But that needs investigation.

Post-Script on people in architecture: If you remove humanity from a project, why build it at all? I´m going with the suspicion that humanity is in all facets and all phases of a project. Looking for humanity,

could be as easy as inviting it.

Don´t you love the idea that we could harness the mess of peoples dreams, mistakes and emotions and put them in a building?

I don´t know - surely without that, a building can only be object less beautiful, less functional and more of an aberration on the landscape than what would have grown there by itself. So, its my belief that you squash people and their mess out of the process at your peril.

So, never quite got around to mention “form”. Light. Beauty. Humanity. Is there a case for making form, simply incidental, and subservient to these other preoccupations? Or is this exactly the type of introspective garbage to be left to those people who spend their evening writing blogs about ephemeral things, while the real architects prepare for the next day of form.

Ok, next entry about form.

I remember whilst studying back in the early 2000’s, an Academic by the name of Julian Raxworthy was running a Landscape Architecture class, or a studio, on the Landscape of Clouds. 

I wasn’t enrolled in this class, but it interested me. As per usual I only really paid attention briefly, enough to pick up on the title, and ponder a little on what it meant. I should have read on. There is a plethora of these moments that litter my memory, and all I am left with is the ability to draw my own conclusions from a title I remember from a distant time. I suppose its enough sometimes. I read other things. As the other day, whilst skim reading BLDGBLOG I came across the more than stunning images that are in this post, and it triggered my memory and the thought that if Clouds form landscapes, then these landscapes could be captured in building or landscape projects. A transient piece of landscape that is forever still, vicious, ominous and beautiful. Nothing is more relaxing than staring at the sky. I need more skylights. 

It also triggered a plethora of questions relating to; the indeterminant nature of Nature. Thoughts on manicured gardens, macro landscapes and the image, Gaia and micro landscapes and control (e.g. courtyards).

 It then led me to think a little more about another question, “can Architecture (or Landscape Architecture) be taught?”. My answer is no. I believe it can’t be taught, but the teaching of Architecture is essential to Architecture itself. Architecture is tacit then… but if it is tacit, how can you teach it? 

   I was fortunate enough to work with Julian Raxworthy, Rene Van Meeuwen and Laura Rossi as well as other Landscapers from the ALVA school a couple of semester’s later than the Cloud studio on the entry to the National Arboreturm Competition, and was really fond of JR’s and RvM’s approach. RvM went on to be my honour’s supervisor. I got to explore the project tacitly. To apply one’s self to a project or a part of a project. I came to the conclusion that you aren’t a designer until they are completely your own designs and ideas that are on the page, in the music, in the product etc.etc. That is what I took from that experience.

So there you go. I came into this post at cloud, and left on tacit knowledge.  

Photos by Carlos Gutierrez for UPI, I saw these on BLDGBLOG

These are my links for May 15th through May 17th:

• A Daily Dose of Architecture: AE5: Folding Facades - An article on folding facades. Movement in Architecture. An adaptive outer layer. Will a facade ever resemble skin? Is it so hard to imagine? What if a facade actually broke a sweat. That would be interesting.
• Amazing Laying Bricklaying Services - Haven't used these guys as yet, but I'll look into them in the future
• Dezeen » Blog Archive » Casa en el Campo by Benjam

I’ll include 2 points of thought here. Again, if you’d like to go ahead and read the lot, click here (new window).  

“31. Don’t borrow money. Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.” 

“42. Remember. Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.”

These are my links for May 5th through May 9th:

• Green Roofs | Garden Planning | Landscaping | Planning and Ideas | This Old House - 12 - The Recipe for a green roof/Green Wall. Plus 12 other photos of nice green roofs
• Projects Recognized for Green Roofs, Living Walls - Jetson Green - It's not that I think they are a great idea, its just the appeal of them. I find them beautiful. That's all. In the end, isn't that all that Architecture is?
• rolu | dsgn - News > the quiet journey of the tulips -
• Diller Scofidio + Renfro - Architect's based on the Eastern Seaboard. USA. Bigness.
• Portugese Architects. Lovely Work - …but I can't get the images to load!!! Genuinely frustrating!!!
• ALMA RD « perth?s best architecture - SImon Anderson's Latest Development. As materially sound as they come.
• Home - "…in essence white is not so much a colour as the visible absence of colours, and yet at the same time the concrete of all colours." Moby Dick, Herman Melville.

  What a quote.

  Great creative mind.

Bruce Mau Manifestio Point No. 18. Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world. 

These are my links for May 4th through May 5th:

• Interior view of china's national stadium on Flickr - Photo Sharing! - Inside the bird's nest.
• A Daily Dose of Architecture: Literary Dose #26 - A quote by Rem Koolhaas on the public and memory.
• Studio Granda - Hof Residence :: arcspace.com - A beautiful house in Iceland. Fantastic Internal Finishes and use of off-form concrete. Worth a click

These are my links for April 30th through May 1st:

• ASLA — Green Roof Project - The Green Roof. Has a great axonometric drawing with breakdown of structure.
• the green living manifesto. One movement, one goal: truly sustainable living. - A manifasto for green. Now all we need is a definition.
• Piel.Skin - Ethel Baraona Pohl - Arquitectura Contempor