Happy Holidays!

for all of you who bother to read, here for only for a short visit or comment, i wish Happy Holidays and amazing New Year! Buon Natale e Buon Anno! Schöne Feiertage und guten Rutsch! Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo! Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia! שנת 2011 מצוינת במיוחד

Chicago - the first school

sometimes disasters can become new opportunities. that was more or less the case of Chicago when in 1871 the Great Chicago Fire turned into ashes 18.000 structures, leaving one third of the population, at that time around 300,000, homeless. the reconstruction of the city though, was remarkable and after less then a year most of the visible signs of the destruction were erased. moreover, the Great Fire is a turning point in Chicago's early history as it symbolizes opportunity, renewal, and future promise. one decade after the Great Fire the city had more then one million inhabitants and it became a center of innovation for architecture and construction technologies.

by the end of the 19th century a group of active architects in the city started to define a new style of design which will later be known as the Chicago School. one of the most important features of the 'school', was the use of steel frame structure with usually masonry cladding. together with the invention of the elevator, it allowed the construction of the first skyscrapers. This new technology, while costly, had overwhelming advantages. It was almost fireproof, the thin curtain walls hung from the steel frame allowed for more interior rental space, new floors could be added easily; and since the exterior walls were no longer essential, they could be replaced by larger windows. sounds familiar? well, few years later this new technology was adopted by the Modernist movement in Europe and the 'free facade' became one of Le Corbusier's Five Points. however while in Europe the Modernist movement was against any ornaments on the facade, in the Chicago School some Neoclassical elements were used and the buildings were usually divided in three, according to the classical column order.

Architects whose names are associated with the Chicago School include Henry Hobson Richardson, Dankmar Adler, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird, William LeBaron Jenney, Martin Roche, John Root, Solon S. Beman, and Louis Sullivan.

Matias Bechtold

models of architectural projects are kind of problematic. although some of them are made with great talent (or a laser printer...)and few are really representing interesting projects, you mostly will not consider them as art pieces to hang in your living room. except maybe to the conceptual models you built during the study in the university, of which, you were of course, really proud. the reasons are many, they are too specific, not abstracted enough, strange format with a plexiglass cover etc. but there is one artist that gives all the model freaks (like me...) hope - Matias Bechtold.

Matias Bechtold is a german artist who lives and work in Berlin. he usually works with corrugated cardboard and it seems he knows every characteristic of this multi-layered, wavy structure material. By cutting it in extremely various and precise ways, he can realize both very small and very large structures. his utopian-dystopian urban visions are so rich in detail that the viewer can lose himself in them and forget that they are models. one of his works "Kreisstadt" (that i could absolutely hang in my living room...), is shown at the Neochocolate Gallery in Berlin. until 3.11.10

The Railzeppelin

when i was a kid, i used to be a big fan of train models, especially of the german firm Märklin. i used to collect all their catalogs since they were much cheaper then the real thing...one model however was really inspiring, an hybrid between a train and an airship - the Railzeppelin or the Schienenzeppelin.

the real experimental Railzeppelin was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg in 1929 and it was powered by an aircraft engine with a huge airplane propeller located at the rear. it was built using an airship construction technology with aerodynamic shape and very light materials. the interior of the railcar was spartan and designed in Bauhaus style.
only one prototype was ever built and in 1931 it exceeded a velocity of 200 km/h for the first time. On 21 June 1931, the train set a new world railway speed record (which was kept until 1954) of 230 km/h on the Berlin–Hamburg line. due to many problems with the prototype and the disagreement between the railway company and the developer, the Railzeppelin never entered in service and in 1939 it was finally dismantled because its material was needed by the German army.
one of the reasons for the failure of the railzeppelin was the danger of using an open propeller in crowded railway stations. kind of a mixer...

September 1961

back after a long summer break and a great september in Berlin, here is something dedicated to that month... 'Come September' is a romantic comedy film directed by Robert Mulligan in 1961, starring by Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida. the story about the American millionaire who arrives for his annual vacation at his luxurious Italian villa and has to face the love games of his long-time girlfriend, might not be so sophisticated but never the less it gives a chance to see Italy and Milan in its glorious times, the 60's...

Stalinist ambition

Stalinist architecture is the term typically applied to the years between 1933 (the date of the final competition for the design of the Palace of the Soviets) and 1955 (when the Academy of Architecture was abolished). In the 1930's and 1940's the architecture represents a return to conservatism and reflected several different styles including neo- renaissance, classicism, and constructivism (although Stalin itself rejected it).

in the Soviet policy of rationalization of the country, all cities were built according to a general development plan. in order to underline the power of the state and the collectivism, Stalin desired to make cities made of 'super buildings', therefore the development was generally limited to urban planning, public buildings, luxurious residential buildings and selected infrastructure projects like the Moscow and Leningrad Metro.

the construction technology was simple brick masonry covered with rich decorated stucco (mostly in the early years) or decorated ceramic tiles. it relied on a huge labor power and a very slow building progress so by the end of the second world war, when a deep housing crisis was striking all over Europe, this inefficiency was one of the reasons for the decline of the Stalinist architecture in the future. however, with the soviet occupation and control after the war, Stalinist buildings are decorating almost every capital in the former east-block, sometime mixed with local influences like in Yerevan.

the post war years of the Stalinist style are also characterized with high-rise buildings and skyscrapers ambitions. some important projects are within the 'seven sisters', a name given to a group of skyscrapers in Moscow built between 1947 and 1953. some say they are influenced by the architecture of the municipal building in New York which made a strong impression on Stalin.

A Solution, maybe...

something bad is happening in Jerusalem in the last couple of years. as mentioned in my previous post about the city, political inspirations are threatening to bring the city and the region on a verge of explosion.

some facts: in 2008 the population of the city was 774.000 inhabitants (the biggest in Israel). of which around 478.000 are Jews, 261.000 are Muslims and the rest are Christians or nonreligious 35.000.

by the end of the British Mandate in 1947, the UN Partition Plan recommended the creation of an international area that include Jerusalem and Bethlehem - corpus separatum under the administration of the UN. the 1948 war between Israel and the Arabs brought instead to the devision of the city between west (Israeli) and East (Jordanian). in 1967 Israel occupied the west bank and east Jerusalem declaring the reunification of the city. unlike the west bank, east Jerusalem was annexed to Israel, so it is actually under Israeli law. although it is officially the Capital City of Israel, it is not recognized as one by the rest of the world and there are no embassies in the city.

the urban development of the city under the Israeli law is different for the two populations, while the jewish population gets new construction of neighborhoods and infrastructure, in the west and in the east parts, the arab quarters of the city are lacking any urban planing and they have an 'organic' urban development with no infrastructure.

the political inspirations makes thing even more complicated. since 1967 the Israeli governments encouraged the construction of new jewish neighborhoods in the annexed area of the city in order to establish the reunification of the city. the separation between the populations however was kept and there is hardly no interaction. any try to apply the Israeli construction law in the arab quarters (mainly for demolition of buildings with no permits) gets a strong international protest, since the UN doesn't recognize the annexation of the east part of the city by Israel. in the last couple of years, right wing extremests in Israel, are trying to buy or get properties inside the arab quarters in order to fail any future talks on the devision of the city based on neighborhoods or quarters. their aim is to create a strong opposition in the Israeli society against any withdrawal in case of agreement.

based on these conditions, plus the fact that it is an economically poor city, the future is grim. as far as i and many others who hold a pragmatic political view can see, there is no escape from a peaceful division of the city between Jews and Arabs. the 'Holy Basin' which includes the Old City and the adjacent areas of common interest (Mt. Zion and Mt. of olives) should have a separate common administration (corpus separatum...) possibly with international supervision, which will guarantee a free access to everyone. the city will only earn from this challenging situation, it will allow a sane urban development, free of political influence and will enhance its cultural richness. due to the separated populations and the topography, the division is already there, someone just has to be brave enough to give it names before the Nothing begins to consume the Ivory tower (the never ending story)...

Reality bites

these two movies 'Sommer vorm Balkon' (summer in Berlin) by Andreas Dresen, Germany 2007 and 'Tutta la vita davanti' by Paolo Virzì, Italy 2008, describe the life of the margins of society, which becomes more and more mainstream in their countries. it is interesting to compare, beyond the story, the current issues that emerge in each one of them and the specific problems that these countries deal with in these days: unemployment, social assistance, family ties, relationships and instability. i find that in both movies there is a very good study of the scenography and the characters with big attention to the details.

Olaf Hajek

olaf hajek is one of Germany’s most renowned illustrator and one of my favorites. he took a degree in graphic design at the fachhochschule in düsseldorf in 1993 and currently he lives and works in berlin.

most of his work could be described as 'magic realism' and it includes elements of South American folklore, mythology, religion, history, and geography creating a fantastic images on the border between imagination and reality.

his list of clients includes the new yorker, rolling stone, apple, united airlines, macy's, daimler chrysler, volkswagen, playboy, architectural digest, taschen, flaunt, qvest and many more.

his exhibition 'FLOWERHEAD' will be open till the 20th of July at the Gallery Johanssen at the Direktorenhaus in Berlin.

Iakov Chernikhov

Iakov Chernikhov is a Russian constructivist architect and graphic designer, the illustrator of 101 Architectural Fantasies, one of the only avant-garde art books published in the eastern bloc during the Stalinist era. he was born in 1889, in Pavlograd, Yekaterinenskav Gubernia, Ukraine (now Dnepropetrovskaya Oblast - i can't pronounce these names). in 1904 he left Pavlograd for Odessa and became a student at the Odessa Art School, a branch of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. his teachers were G. A. Ladyzhenskii and K. K. Kostandi, both leading artists of the South Russian School.

to earn his living, young Chernikhov did some common student jobs, one of them was an assistant architect employed to design and construct the Odessa Exhibition, during which he mastered various aspects of graphical design. this period became the most significant for the formation of his creative personality and it was in Odessa that the distinctive style of Iakov Chernikhov took shape. in 1912 he became interested in the art of drawing, in graphics, and began his work on a course in ornamental drawing, which gave direction to his subsequent creative searches. that same year he began his pedagogical activity, which he would continue until the end of his life.

for other images visit the Iakov Chernikhov International Foundation website

Brutalism!

Brutalism is an Architectural style or philosophy which was quite 'in' in the mid-20th century and it was often associated with socialist utopian ideology. some say it was a response to the glass curtain walls technology that was developed few decades earlier and was overtaking institutional and commercial architecture in the 60's. this threatening term was coined in 1954 by the english architects Alison and Peter Smithson and it refers to the french phrase 'béton brut' (raw concrete) used by Le Corbusier to describe the exposed concrete with which he constructed many of his post war buildings. the term became popular when the British architectural critic Reyner Banham used it in the title of his 1966 book, The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?. the advantages of concrete: low price and speed of construction together with technological development of casting and plasticity made Brutalism into a quite common style, especially in the heavily bombed european cities and developing countries. the striking repetitive geometry with the rough blocky appearance continued to flourish also in the 70's and the 80's, mainly in the east block, where some amazing examples still decorate its landscape.

the upper image is 'Druzhba Holiday Center Hall' ,Yalta, Ukraine, (1984). architect Igor Vasilevsky. Soviet era hotel that was considered by the CIA as some strange military object. the lower image is the Roads Ministry building, Tbilisi, Georgia, (1975) architects Gorge Chakhava and Zurab Jalaghania. images: Frederic Chaubin

Sanaa

Sanaa is not only the capital of Yemen, it's also the name of an architecture firm founded byKazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 1995 in Tokyo, Japan. a globally-recognized architects studio responsible for high-profile projects including The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio (in the photo), the New Contemporary Art Museum building in Manhattan, the Zollverein School of Management and Design, Essen, Germany, the recent Rolex Learning Center, Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne, Switzerland and more others.

this year Sanaa won the Pritzker prize, the highest of honors for architecture - 'and the Pritzker goes to...' The Pritzker jury praised their buildings for being 'in direct contrast with the bombastic and rhetorical. instead, they seek the essential qualities of architecture that result in a much appreciated straightforwardness, economy of means and restraint in their work'.

few words about the Pritzker prize - The prize takes its name from the Pritzker family, whose international business interests are headquartered in Chicago. Their name is synonymous with Hyatt Hotels located throughout the world. The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.

in 2006 i saw an exhibition of their work at the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza, Italy. i remember in particular, the numerous small models made for the space study of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa and i was wandering about the probably sisyphic work they had, to build them.

Barbican

I just came back from a short visit in London and among some other places i never saw before in my previous visits, was the enormous Barbican complex next to the 'city'. despite its huge scale and its central position, you will probably not find it on the 'must do' list of London unless you go to a performance at the Barbican Arts Center.
the complex was built between 1965 and 1976 on an area that was badly damaged during World War II. it was designed by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon and it covers an area 160.000 m2. instead of rebuilding the London historic street maze, the architects chose to create a concrete mega-structure maze (try to find your way out without the yellow line...) with more then 2000 apartments, museum, art center, lake and retail. Although the design was inspired by the 'brutalism' of the 50's and Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, its dimensions and complexity make it a thing apart with no similar developments in the UK. however, the attitude toward the project changed in the last decades and if once it has been voted as London's 'ugliest building' today it considered as a jewel of concrete Brutalist architecture. in 2001 the Minister for the Arts even announced that the Barbican complex will be listed as Grade II (buildings of special architectural or historic interest) and considered a landmark.

Bangkok, Oriental setting

the last time and the only time i visited Bangkok was in september 94'. backpackers vacation with friends before i started the university. i didn't see much of the city then. it was was kind of a station between the airport, the islands in the south and the Chang-Mai/Chang-Rai tour in the north. but i still have some memories of the unbearable humidity and the smog at the Khau-san district, the first encounter with the local street food, the clubs at Phat-pong district (i think it was the 'Queens') the temples, the royal palace and the traffic jams. people said that at that time Bangkok held the world record for traffic jams. already then you could say it was very dynamic city and i'm sure it has changed almost completely by now.
some facts:
Bangkok or better Krung-tehp in thai, is the short version of the longest name ever given to a place (it's composed of 21 words).
the greater Bangkok area has a population of 11,971,000.
as a direct result of the 80's and 90's Asian investment boom, numerous multinational corporations base their regional headquarters in Bangkok and the city has become a regional force in finance and business. in 2009, it was the second most expensive city in South-East Asia behind Singapore.
the city's notorious red-light district (Phat-pong) attracts 11 million international visitors each year, following just Paris and London.
according to Travel and Leisure magazine, Bangkok was ranked the best city in world, in 2008 (!).
the hit 'one night in Bangkok' by Murray Head from 1984 is banned in Thailand (for more banned stuff around the world check this amazing link).



p.s. thanks to Nathalie Tours in Khau-san. if anyone has info about her, please drop me a line.

Architecture in the movies

especially for the Academy Award nomination tonight - the Oscar night, here is a link to a list of eight classic films (made almost a year ago) where the buildings are more than a backdrop, made by flavorwire.com.
i would include some other great movies like Star Wars or the Fifth Element, but for me, Blade Runner was definitely the most inspiring one.

Dan Metro System

Dan Metro System (DMS) is a proposal for an underground train system for the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv - 'Gush Dan'. it is the largest metropolitan area in Israel and it is located in the centre of the country along the Mediterranean coastline. the population of 'Gush Dan' is estimated of more then 3.200.000 inhabitants. the cultural, social and financial centre of the area is the city of Tel Aviv but other small centres still exist in the heart of the satellite cities and new centres are created in the outskirts and the open areas between them.

a week ago (22.02.2010), the government announced that it will invest 7.270.000.000,00 USD between 2010 - 2020 in the traffic infrastructure of the country. the development plan consist of building new highways and train connection between the periphery and the centre that will, according to what they claim, reduce the traffic jams and allow an effective population distribution. the development of the train network (and not the highways) might reduce the traffic on the roads but, as far as i see, if the problem of the traffic in 'Gush Dan' will not be solved in the next years, all the investment in connecting the periphery is worthless. the traffic problems in the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv should be solved, as in any other big metropolitan area, with an efficient public transportation system that will reduce the need of the car use.

for the last 30 years many solutions were suggested but nothing really has been done. still today the public transportation in the area is based on buses and taxis which create traffic jams, mess and severe air pollution. the ideas for underground train system were raised by previous mayors and helped them to gain political popularity but somehow because of budget questions nobody really started to dig. the most current option is the "magical" light-train which consist of what we know from europe, Trams. the first line of the light-train (the red line) should connect Petah Tikva to Bat Yam and it is suppose to cross only the centre of Tel Aviv in an underground tunnel. some other lines are planed but still in a very early stage. the light-train is actually a very short term development solution. it has no vision for the future growth of the city. although some similar projects in the world work successfully, it is always because they have a good supporting infrastructure as very wide roads or tunnels. in other words, in most cases unless you have streets wide enough to create a differentiated lanes, the light-train solution is only an additional weight on the existing streets and infrastructure of the city.

the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv is big enough to have its own metropolitan train system. a net of lines that will cross the area in underground tunnels where subterranean tracks are not possible. it should be efficient and connect the centre of the populated areas and not the outskirts. it should provide connection to civil services, cultural and recreation points of interests. it should be built all at once and not in stages if we really want to have a change. it should work 24/7 and also on Saturdays if we want that people, like in every other big city in Europe, will have no need of a car. it should be electric and not on gas turbine. it should have a connection to the state train stations to allow an easy interchange.

for those of you who have a vision i drew this plan. something to dream about.

Rafael Moneo

was born in Navarra, Spain in 1937. He graduated in 1961 from the Escuela de Arquitectura in Madrid after which he worked in the Denmark office of Jorn Utzon for two years. he then worked as an assistant at the Academia de Espana until 1965 when he established a private practice in Madrid. his professional life is divided into teaching and architectural practice, mainly in Spain and in the US. yesterday, at Instituto Cervantes in Berlin, he presented three project he built in the recent years in America. the projects reminded me of my years in the university, the late 90's, coherent plans and sections, the aesthetics of the structure and the forms that follow function. you could definitely tell that Moneo doesn't follow contemporary design trends (which he describes as short-life architecture). Instead, he produces buildings with influences of Nordic or Dutch design mixed with his own historic traditions, trying to maintain the competence of architecture.

Beyond Architecture

is a book that documents the creative exploration of architecture and urban propositions in the contemporary arts. the projects collected in this book demonstrate how not only architects and designers, but also artists are taking architecture as a starting point for experimentation. they range from performance, installation art and crafted sculptures to architectural models, alternative ideas for living spaces and furniture, as well as illustration, painting, collage and photography. through stunning photography, visuals and complementary texts, these visionary concepts reveal the hidden creative potential for architecture and urban environments in inventive ways. some of the works are really interesting and they had and will have a place of honour in this blog.
in this hard times for architects all over the world, that book shows that there is an alternative. so just dust your old conceptual models and photoshop collages and make art out of it!
Editors: Robert Klanten, Lukas Feireiss
source: Gestalten

Flughafen Tempelhof

presentfuture
this airport, one of Europe’s three iconic pre-war airports (the others are Croydon airport in London and Le Bourget in Paris) was first opened in 1923. in 1926 the German airline company Lufthansa was founded here. its main building, constructed in 1927, was the largest building in the world, before it was beaten by the Pentagon building in 1934. Tempelhof however, is still the largest building in Europe. as part of Albert Speer's plan for the reconstruction of Berlin during the Nazi era, Prof. Ernest Sagebiel was ordered to replace the old terminal with a new terminal building in 1934. the new terminal was built between 1936 - 1941 and one of the airport's most distinguishing features was its large canopy style roof that was able to accommodate most contemporary airliners until the early 70's. it’s considered by many to be an architectural masterpiece. the architect Norman Foster described Tempelhof as no less than 'the mother of all airports' (sounds a bit like a middle-eastern expression. Saddam Hussein's threat before the first golf war 'the mother of all wars'...). after the war, the airport became famous during the Berlin Blockade (1948 - 1949) where it was used for the Airlift, the Lufbrücke. on 30 October 2008, despite the efforts of some protesters to prevent the closure, the runway and air field lights were switched off. in the present days the empty terminal host events as Bread and Butter, concerts and the Berlin marathon fair. as for the future, it is still not clear and the city of Berlin is evaluating dozen of suggestions, but that is for another post.

ICC Berlin

before i even imagined of moving to Berlin, somewhere in the 80's, i saw some shots of this building in a movie and i was deeply impressed by its bionic architecture. a huge spaceship on earth.
the Internationales Congress Centrum Berlin (most known as ICC Berlin) was opened in 1979 (four years after the official "end" of the space race between USA and USSR). it was designed by the architects Ralf Schueler and Ursulina Schueler - Witte. the building is 320 metres long, 80 metres wide and 40 metres high, perhaps one of the largest conference centers in the world. its particular "machine like" architecture made it a landmark of the post-war German architecture in Berlin.

Haiti

once i had a neighbour that his mother used to live in Haiti (she still lives there and luckily she was found alive). every summer when he went to visit her, he used to bring me t-shirts with the print 'Haiti' on them. i felt so special that i used to wear them for the whole summer, until they were practically decomposed. even my friends from high school remember me as the one with the 'Haiti' t-shirt...

the horrible earthquake (with still unknown number of casualties) who attacked the Caribbean country is the latest in the chronology of disasters made by nature and men.
the beginning was promising. inspired by the French revolution, the slaves on the western part of the island Hispaniola (brought by the french to work in the sugar cane fields) upraised against the french troops and defeated them in 1804. they then founded the only nation in the world born on a slave revolt. to defend the island against future French attacks, the new king Henri I, constructed the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere - Citadelle Laferriere (a world heritage site by UNESCO).
in the following 200-year history, Haiti has seen 32 coups. the US occupied the island between 1915 - 1934. from 1957 - 1986, the Duvalier family (Papa And Baby) reigned as dictators, turning the country into a hermit kingdom with a personality cult and corruption. under pressure of the US, those two went to exile leaving the country in a political chaos between attempts for democracy, coups and corruption.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. it has no natural resources and the most available fuel for domestic use is wood. in 1925, Haiti still had 60% of its original forest but since then, the population has cut down an estimated 98% of its original forest cover. the deforestation has caused soil erosion and flooding leaving more then 3000 people dead after the tropical storm in 2004. what a sad story