15 agosto, 2007

Não façam erase ao artista dentro de vós

Nos dias que correm a profissão do arquitecto perdeu o brilho artístico que a caracterizava.
E quando digo isto, é obvio que não me refiro a meia dúzia de ferlizados que tem a sorte de poderem fazer arte através da arquitectura (ex: Zaha Hadid), e pagos como se autênticos génios se tratassem. Pretendo retratar o lado menos mediático da profissão, ou antes o grande grosso da profissão que se vê entalada em projectos e clientes onde a mediocridade do pensamento e a ausência de sensibilidade por parte dos protagonistas exteriores, os conduz a soluções extéreis e a um trabalho quotidiano mecânico e enfadonho.

Eu não sei quanto a vocês, mas o que me fascinava na profissão era o seu lado mais belo, plástico, artístico, a oportunidade de servindo um bem comum, poder exercitar o meu pensamento criativo, e não propriamente trabalhar com uma escala de cinzas em desenhos técnicos insipientes. Pois bem, a ingenuidade dos meus 17 anos trouxe me aqui hoje, e por vezes vejo-me a rogar pragas, por pura inveja e frustação, a esses mesmos que, através dos seus clientes faraónicos tem a oportunidade de exprimir a Arte que deve ser a Profissão e não a Ciência Técnica em que se está a tornar....cada vez mais estamos parecidos com os engenheiros....cruel destino o nosso. Qualquer dia passamos a usar calculadora no bolso em vez de lápis. Mas a culpa é nossa, fruto da nossa pouca determinação e confiança nas nossas habilidades, eventualmente cansados de pregões populares que rotulam os arquitectos como loucos e egocêntricos, rendemo-nos e deixamo-nos levar pela maré, tornando esta profissão cinzenta e resumindo a nossa existência profissional a longos anos de dominio de programas CAD! Gostava de ter de volta a partilha entre a obra de arte e a arquitectura!Entre o artista e o Arquitecto! e como a necessidade interior é mais forte que o comodismo ou a preguiça dou por mim nos intervalos dos meus projectos standardizados (atenção que o uso desta palavra é para vos fazer pensar em toda a conotação engativa que lhe possa estar adjacente) a tentar subverter o método, à boa maneira dos ensinamentos do mestre Canau Espadinha (ou talvez não), e por vezes encontro algo que me faz sentir um pouco mais livre, onde as fronteiras da tectónica desaparecem para dar lugar ao infinito e as transparências do imaginário. O modo de o fazer não importa, usem o modo tradicional: a graffite, o modo dos agarrados: a borra dos vossos inumeros cafés diários que vos mantém concentrados em frente ao ecran, o modo dos elitistas: a prestigiada Bic, ou entao para aqueles que olham para o passado com algum desdém, o modo dos nerds: entreguem-se ao computador, às video instalações...mas no fim criem, construam algo de único e belo, façam a vossa Arte, não deixem morrer a alma de artista dentro do arquitecto que há em vós!


aqui vos deixo o resultado desses momentos em que deixo crescer a barba, não me penteio e digo coisas que ninguem me compreende.



12 agosto, 2007

Theo Jansen - Kinetic Sculptor

p.s. obrigado manuela!

Olympic Stadium Beijing

Graças a uma colaboração de dimensão internacional que os fundadores deste blog se orgulham de fomentar, aqui vos trago em primeira mão um registo fotográfico do novo estádio Olímpico em Beijing, da dupla suiça Herzog & Meuron, através da objectiva do dignissimo João Santiago.







Krematorium Baumschulenweg








10 agosto, 2007

Oscar Niemeyer

Aconselho-vos a perderem uns minutos para se debruçarem sobre a entrevista concedida por Oscar Niemeyer, ao jornal britânico "Guardian", na qual este homem simples, génio da arquitectura fala do seu percurso de vida. A não perder.

08 agosto, 2007

Big ideas by BIG

Deixo-vos com algumas imagens de uma exposição em Praga, dedicada ao atelier dinamarques BIG. A exposição entitulada BIG IDEAS consiste em diversas maquetes de projectos deste atelier, devidamente iluminadas numa sala sem luz.





04 agosto, 2007

Dear Architects, I am sick of your shit.

Obrigado Saruntcha por me abrires os olhos para a realidade :)



Once, a long time ago in the days of yore, I had a friend who was studying architecture to become, presumably, an architect.This friend introduced me to other friends, who were also studying architecture. Then these friends had other friends who were architects - real architects doing real architecture like designing luxury condos that look a lot like glass dildos. And these real architects knew other real architects and now the only people I know are architects. And they all design glass dildos that I will never work or live in and serve only to obstruct my view of New Jersey.



Do not get me wrong, architects. I like you as a person. I think you are nice, smell good most of the time, and I like your glasses. You have crazy hair, and if you are lucky, most of it is on your head. But I do not care about architecture. It is true. This is what I do care about:



* burritos


* hedgehogs


* coffee



As you can see, architecture is not on the list. I believe that architecture falls somewhere between toenail fungus and invasive colonoscopy in the list of things that interest me.



Perhaps if you didn’t talk about it so much, I would be more interested. When you point to a glass cylinder and say proudly, hey my office designed that, I giggle and say it looks like a bong. You turn your head in disgust and shame. You think, obviously she does not understand. What does she know? She is just a writer. She is no architect. She respects vowels, not glass cocks. And then you say now I am designing a lifestyle center, and I ask what is that, and you say it is a place that offers goods and services and retail opportunities and I say you mean like a mall and you say no. It is a lifestyle center. I say it sounds like a mall. I am from the Valley, bitch. I know malls.



Architects, I will not lie, you confuse me. You work sixty, eighty hours a week and yet you are always poor. Why aren’t you buying me a drink? Where is your bounty of riches? Maybe you spent it on merlot. Maybe you spent it on hookers and blow. I cannot be sure. It is a mystery. I will leave that to the scientists to figure out.



Architects love to discuss how much sleep they have gotten. One will say how he was at the studio until five in the morning, only to return again two hours later. Then another will say, oh that is nothing. I haven’t slept in a week. And then another will say, guess what, I have never slept ever. My dear architects, the measure of how hard you’ve worked and how much you’ve accomplished is not related to the number of hours you have not slept. Have you heard of Rem Koolhaas? He is a famous architect. I know this because you tell me he is a famous architect. I hear that Rem Koolhaas is always sleeping. He is, I presume, sleeping right now. And I hear he gets shit done. And I also hear that in a stunning move, he is making a building that looks not like a glass cock, but like a concrete vagina. When you sleep more, you get vagina. You can all take a lesson from Rem Koolhaas.



Life is hard for me, please understand. Architects are an important part of my existence. They call me at eleven at night and say they just got off work, am I hungry? Listen, it is practically midnight. I ate hours ago. So long ago that, in fact, I am hungry again. So yes, I will go. Then I will go and there will be other architects talking about AutoCAD shortcuts and something about electric panels and can you believe that is all I did today, what a drag. I look around the table at the poor, tired, and hungry, and think to myself, I have but only one bullet left in the gun. Who will I choose?



I have a friend who is a doctor. He gives me drugs. I enjoy them. I have a friend who is a lawyer. He helped me sue my landlord. My architect friends have given me nothing. No drugs, no medical advice, and they don’t know how to spell subpoena. One architect friend figured out that my apartment was one hundred and eighty seven square feet. That was nice. Thanks for that.



I suppose one could ask what someone like me brings to architects like yourselves. I bring cheer. I yell at architects when they start talking about architecture. I force them to discuss far more interesting topics, like turkey eggs. Why do we eat chicken eggs, but not turkey eggs? They are bigger. And people really like turkey. See? I am not afraid to ask the tough questions.
So, dear architects, I will stick around, for only a little while. I hope that one day some of you will become doctors and lawyers or will figure out my taxes. And we will laugh at the days when you spent the entire evening talking about some European you’ve never met who designed a building you will never see because you are too busy working on something that will never get built. But even if that day doesn’t arrive, give me a call anyway, I am free.



Yours truly,Annie Choi



Only a non-architect could possibly articulate this so poetically, but only architects know how close to the truth it really is.

03 agosto, 2007

Pavilhão Britânico para a World Expo Shanghay

Aqui vos trago algumas imagens dos projectos dos seis ateliers convidados a participarem no design do pavilhão Britânico para a World Expo 2010 em Shanghay.


The Pavilion of Ideas da autoria de Heatherwick Studio, Casson Mann, Adams Kara Taylor & Atelier Ten

Our Island projecto de draw Architects & dcm studios, Graven Images, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd/Arup International Consultants (Shanghai) Co Ltd, Botanical Society Of Scotland

Ribbon of Culture by EIGHT: John McAslan + Partners, Brisac Gonzalez, Carmody Groarke, Nord Architecture, Project Orange, Surface Architects, Wordsearch, Arup

Sharing Innovations, Engaging Nations projecto de Marks Barfield Architects/Imagination Limited, Price & Myers Consulting Engineers/Arup


O Network Pavilion da autoria de Zaha Hadid Architects, Arup, Metstudio e a Architectural Association School of Architecture Curatorial Projects

“Better city: Better Life” by Avery Associates & Sidell Gibson, Event Communications, Fulcrum Consulting, Adams Kara Taylor, DHA Design Services, William Pye, Clyde Malby



PRESS RELEASE


Embargoed till 12.00 noon 21 May 2007



DESIGN SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED


Six design teams have been shortlisted by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) to design the British Pavilion for World Expo 2010, Shanghai. The list includes internationally known Zaha Hadid Architects and Marks Barfield, creative studios Avery Associates and John McAslan Architects, a team unit around the architect / sculptor Thomas Heatherwick, and a new practice Draw Architects. The six teams will now work up conceptual ideas based on a brief devised by design adviser to the FCO Malcolm Reading & Associates.



There will be a public exhibition of the six team designs to be held simultaneously in London and Shanghai in the summer. A final selection for the winning entry will be made in September. Malcolm Reading, of Malcolm Reading & Associates, who is managing the competition for the FCO and is acting as design adviser said: “This is a rich and distinctive shortlist. These are very creative teams, drawn from a shortlist of 47 entries. The response was fantastic and reflects the widespread interest from the design community in this unique project. We want this pavilion to be amongst the top ten exhibits at Expo 2010.”



The overarching theme of World Expo 2010 is ‘Better City, Better Life’. The UK pavilion will have to deal with up to 40,000 visitors a day over the six month Expo. The working budget of £10 million for the UK pavilion is a mixture of public funding and private sponsorship. The competition is supported by the RIBA, CABE and the Design Council. The pavilion will occupy a 6000m2 plot in a prime location overlooking the Huangpu River on the 3.28km2 Expo site. The brief for the pavilion highlights the UK’s lead in promoting policies and technologies for a low carbon economy and sustainable urban development.



The contents will use innovation and technology to display the UK’s strengths in sustainable development, creating a stimulating and long-lasting showcase to illustrate how British culture, media, sport, education and business is supporting this central theme.
The expression of interest stage sought out responses from integrated teams of architects, designers and content originators. This attracted 47 responses from which the shortlist of six was chosen. The six teams are (in alphabetical order):



1. Avery Associates Architects with Adams Kara Taylor, Fulcrum and Event Communications


2. Draw Architects with Arup, DCM Studio and Graven Images


3. Heatherwick Studio with Adams Kara Taylor, Atelier Ten and Casson Mann


4. John McAslan + Partners with Arup and Wordsearch


5. Marks Barfield Architects with Price & Myers, Arup and Imagination


6. Zaha Hadid Architects with Arup, Metstudio and the Architectural Association School of Architecture Curatorial Projects



The development of the design and implementation in Shanghai will be project managed by MACE, the construction partner of the FCO.

Cityscape

Não podia deixar de anunciar a intenção do designer e escultor Arne Quinze, criador para a marca de mobiliário Quinze & Milan, de construir mais uma das suas instalações em madeira no centro de bruxelas. Autênticas estruturas arquitectónicas efémeras, demonstram claramente uma forma de ocupar vazios urbanos, ou ao invés de criar vazios urbanos, habitáveis quicá, certamente espaços de encontro, marcas no território da cidade.
Após a sua ultima intervenção no festival Burning Man, em Nevada USA, desta vez Quinze propõem-se eregir uma construção similar, com cerca de 40m x 25m x 18m, baptizada de "Cityscape". No entanto, ao que parece, não há intenções de incendiar a estrutura após o término da exposição, tal como acontecera em Nevada.
.

02 agosto, 2007

Berlin sightseeing


Kapelle der Versohnung _ 2001 _ Architekten Peter Sassenroth und Rudolf Reitermann.


Krematorium Baumschulenweg _ 1999 _ Schultes + Axel Architekten



Physicalisches Institut _ 2002 _ Augustin + Frank Architekten


Informations und Kommunikationszentrum Adlershof IKA _ 2002 _ Gossler Architekten


Photonik - Zentrum _ 1998 _ Sauerbruch and Hutton Architekten
.

Britische Botschaft _ 2000 _ Michael Wilford Architect


Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe _ 2005 _ Peter Eisenman Architect


Landesvertretung Niedersachsen u. Schleswig-Holstein _ 2001 _ Cornelsen und Seelinger/Seelinger und Vogels


Landesvertretung Brandenburg _ 2001 _ Gerkan, Marg & Partner


Sony Center _ 2000 _ Jahn/Murphy Architects


Silberlaube Bibliothek _ 2001 _ Foster and Partners


Atelier Hauser _ 2001 _ Becher + Rottkamp