Cast-Iron

if you have been walking past Cast-Iron building without realizing it, you're not alone! most of the people (me icluded...) who walk through the streets of the SoHo in New York do not notice that many of the charming facades, which are so typical to the area, are actually made of Cast-Iron. the reason is, that the original owners and builders of iron structures wanted their buildings to look like stone. from the colors to the popular renaissance stone design and motives, every afford was made to give the facades a stone-made appearance.

the use of Cast-Iron in architecture began at the second half of the 19th century and the biggest concentration of Cast-Iron facades is in the Soho Area in New York, although some individuals stand alone in other parts of the city. most of the buildings were build for commercial activities: offices, warehouses and hotels which their owners were overwhelmed by the advantages that this new technology had offered-the speed and the economy of the construction. the prefabricated sections of the facade were easy to ship, they were assembled and bolted together, floor above floor, at the construction site. since the iron was cast in molds, it was easy to change the design of the components according to the on going fashion, from Italianate style to high Victorian.

the decline of Cast-Iron architecture began with the introduction of steel-frame building which developed then into the modern skyscraper.

for more essential info click here

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

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.

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.

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.

Copper houses

so yesterday i went to celebrate the anniversary of the Bauhaus school in Dessau. the famous building of the school first opened its gates in 4th dec. 1926 and was in use as a school for design until 1933, when he was shut down after the National Socialist came to power in Germany. the german architect Walter Grupios (1883–1969) was the founder and the first director of the school that was founded in 1919, originally in Weimar. Grupios was also the designer of an experimental and innovative housing solution made of copper.
in the beginning of the 30's he was hired to refine the existing models developed by the Eberswalde based firm Aron Hirsch and Son, a global player in the copper and brass industry. In 1932 he presented two prototypes displaying the slogan 'Sun, Air, and Housing for All!'. various domestic firms were interested, as well developers and planners in the US and the USSR. in 1932 the Hirsch company went bankrupt and the collaboration with Grupios was ended. but with the National Socialist in power, a new market for the copper houses arose - the Jewish emigrants to Palestine. in August 1933 the company put out a special catalogue, with models designed specifically for the Palestine market, called 'Haifa', 'Jerusalem', 'Tel Aviv' and 'Sharon'. the largest model, with a living space of 280 m2 was called 'Lebanon'. a branch of the German Copper House Company was opened in Haifa and at least fourteen houses found their way to the British Mandate of Palestine. when the National Socialists began to rearm, copper came to be in short supply, and its export was forbidden. it is said that the last copper house delivered was immediately melted down on arrival in Tel Aviv and that the value of copper was higher then the houses themselves.
the exterior walls and roofs of the houses were made of copper, insulation was provided by aluminum foil and asbestos (very healthy...), the framing was of wood. their interior walls were sheet metal ornamented with intricate patterns (perfect to hang your Chagall on...). they had nothing to do with the radiant, white modernism of the Bauhaus or the White City of Tel Aviv, on the contrary, they were almost black.
the exhibition Heimatcontainer - Deutsche Fertighaeuser in Israel runs in the meisterhaus Schlemmer in Dessau until 7th March 2010.
source: Housing.com

56 Leonard Street New York

is the address of a new 56-storey residential tower in Tribeca, New York City, designed by the top swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron. the tower will house 145 high-end apartments, each with its own unique floor plan and outdoor space, piled one above the other randomly. 'houses stacked in the sky' as the architects describe. they propose a new alternative to the iconic American skyscraper designing a pixelated vertical layers of customized spaces, the video shows this concept perfectly. i'm also sure that the apartments will be amazing however i think the building is a bit too noisy. the 3D development of Manhattan creates pixelated surfaces even if the single 'components' have simple geometry or rational design. that's its strength. the building would probably work better in another context, flat and sober. the video is great though! source ArchDaily
p.s. and the crisis?

Unité d'habitation

is the name of a modernist housing solution developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of the painter-architect Nadir Afonso. the concept was to create a 'universal' building, which could be built everywhere with the same design principles: the 'free' ground floor on columns, duplex apartments, corridors 'streets', service floors for the inhabitants and a 'living roof'. the planning and the design followed the 'Modulor'- Le Corbusier's idea of a perfect ratio of scale. these principals formed the basis of several housing developments designed by Le Corbusier throughout Europe (between 1947 - 1965). one of them in Berlin (1957).
in 1953 the Senate of Berlin organized an international building exhibition - 'Interbau'. well known architects as Oscar Neimeyer, Arne Jacobson, Alvar Aalto, Pierre Vogo, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier were invited to participate in the event. because of the huge size of the building, Le Corbusier built his Unité d'habitation in an area close to the Olympic stadium and not in the district of the exhibition - Hansa. the building contains a total of 530 apartments, mostly one bed-room apartments. the regulations of social housing at that time forced Le Corbusier (who tried to oppose) to change some of the basic design features; the use of the roof as a communal space (famous in the Unité d'habitation in Marseilles) was not allowed and the the 'Modulor' ratio was stretched (Germans are taller...).

Oscar Niemeyer

for his upcoming 102nd birthday and for the election of Rio de Janeiro to host the Olympic games on 2016, i dedicate few lines to Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (born Dec. 1907 in Rio). he graduated as architect engineer in 1934. although he had some financial difficulties at that time, he decided to work for free (some things never change...) in the architecture studio of Lucio Costa and Carlos Leao. Niemeyer was involved in two important projects commissioned to the office, the new headquarters for the Ministry of Education and Public Health in Rio and the Brazilian pavilion at the New York's world fair (1939). both projects had all the elements of what was to become recognized as the Brazilian modernism. in 1940 he was commissioned to design a series of buildings in a new suburb of Belo Horizonte called 'Pampulha'. the church of São Francisco de Assis in Pampulha provoked some controversy and the conservative church authorities refused to consecrate it until 1959 (because of its unusual form and some art work inside). in 1947, his worldwide recognition was confirmed when Niemeyer was invited to be part of the international team (Board of Design) working on the design of the UN headquarters in New York. Niemeyer's proposal was approved by the Board of Design, but he eventually gave in to pressure by Le Corbusier and they submitted a common proposal. during the late 40's and the 50's he continued to design projects in Brazil and South America until he was requested in 1958 by the new elected president of Brazil to design the new capital of the country. Niemeyer organized a competition for the masterplan of Brasilia and the winning project was of his old master Lucio Costa. Niemeyer however would design the buildings that became a UNESCO world heritage site. in 1966, following the military coup and the dictatorship, Niemeyer went to exile in Paris. Niemeyer that was a member of the Communist party (Fidel Castro once said that Niemeyer and he were the last communists of this planet) lost commissions and his office in Rio was raided. in the mid 80's, with the return on democracy, Niemeyer returns to Brazil. he was involved in the design of new buildings in Brasilia and in other cities around the country. in 1996 (age of 89...) he design what many consider his greatest work: the Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum. in the last years, he is still involved in the design of new projects and art works around the world. unbelievable.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel

back to illustrative 2009, this year it takes place in Elisabethkirche and the adjacent Villa Elisabeth. i'm not sure about the second, but Elisabethkirche was designed by Schinkel and was completed at 1835 (the Villa was completed at 1907 and was a community house of the believers).

so Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781 – 1841) was born in Brandenburg and became one of the most prominent German architects. after his first trip to Italy in 1805, he worked as a painter and as a scene painter at the theatre (famous for the background of the 'Königin der Nacht' in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, which is even quoted in modern productions). in 1810 he realized that he would never be good enough in painting and he decided to became an architect (today nobody would suggest it...). after Napoleon's defeat, Schinkel was supervising the Prussian Building Commission and he was responsible for reshaping Berlin into a representative capital for Prussia. he also oversaw projects in the expanded Prussian territories.

Schinkel's early style was neoclassicism with strong references to ancient Greece rather then the Roman empire (which was identified with the occupier of Prussia - Napoleon). his most famous buildings from that period are the Neue Wache, Schauspielhaus and the Altes Museum in Berlin. later Schinkel started to embrace neo-gothic style as seen in Friedrichswerderkirche(1824–1831) and in a proposal for the Berliner Dom. his most innovative building was the Bauakademie which seemed to point the way to a clean-lined 'modernist' architecture. 

back to Elisabethkirche, the church was heavily damaged after the II world war and it was rebuilt in 1999. today, together with the beautiful Villa next to it, it's considered as a prime spot for cultural events.

Asmara

is the capital of Eritrea, a country between Ethiopia, Sudan and the red see. what makes Asmara so unique is the well preserved Italian foot print in the architecture and the urban planing.
Asmara was occupied by Italy in 1889 but only between the late 20's and the end of the 30's the face of the city was changed completely. the new organization of the 'Terre d'Oltremare' during the Fascist regime created a massive development of infrastructure and urban centers in the colony. most of the buildings were designed with a new architectonic style, the 'Razionalismo Italiano', which was parallel to the modernism or the international style in the rest of europe.
the 'Razionalismo Italiano' was inspired by the movement 'Futurismo' (developed in the beginning of the 20's), abstract Mediterranean architecture and the research for a modern Italian identity. the most important architects of the 'Razionalismo Italiano' in the Italian colonies were part of 'Gruppo dei sette' (the 7 group) which was founded in 1926 in Milan and was guided by Giuseppe Tarragni.
Asmara was nominated Piccola Roma (Little Rome) and still nowadays big part of the buildings are of Italian origin and many shops still have Italian names.

A neighbourhood building

somewhere in south east China, in the province of Fujian, the Hakka people (which originally immigrated from northern China in the 17th century) developed a particular architectural buildings called Tulou, literally meaning earthen structures. these houses, designed to be easily defensible, were often round in shape and internally divided into many compartments for food storage, living quarters, ancestral temple, armoury etc. the largest houses covered over 40,000 m². the external wall is typically 1m thick and the entire building could be up to four stories high. some say the houses were built completely according to the Feng Shui theories and that the round shape of the walls was not only for defensive reasons, but also to avoid corners - the favorite place of the bad spirits.

Hannes Meyer

two days before the finissage of the exhibition 'Bauhaus' at Martin Grupious Bau in Berlin, which was too crowded to let you see all the numerous exhibits, one architect was never-the-less quite notable (among the other famous names) - Hannes Meyer. Meyer (1889 - 1954) was born in Basel, Switzerland. in 1926 he designed together with Hans Wittwer his two most famous projects, for the Basel Petersschule (in the pic.) and for the Geneva League of Nations Building. both were never built. Walter Grupius appointed Meyer head of the Bauhaus architecture department when it was finally established in April 1927. Meyer brought his radical functionalist viewpoint he named die neue baulehre (the new way to build), suggesting that architecture has only organizational task with no relationship to aesthetics, that buildings should be low cost and that design should fulfill social needs. Meyer became the second director of the Bauhaus school from 1928 to 1930 until he was fired due to his radical Communist opinions. he responded to his dismissal by taking seven students and a secretary to Moscow, forming a group they called the 'Left Column'. after 1936 Meyer returned to Geneva for three years and then emigrated to Mexico City to work for the Mexican government. he returned to Switzerland in 1949.