For anybody planning on visiting the Milano Expo 2015, the 'Expotecture' online magazine by Uncube is worth reading. It show the history and excesses of The International Exposition from its idealistic beginnings to its present state as a vanity fair - by the words of Jacques Herzog who was interviewed in the magazine on the subject. Interesting, mainly because Herzog has been trying to change the concept of the international Expo, but failed in doing so. He explains why.
How to make an attractive city?
The debate about our urban condition is complex, confusing and unresolved for ages. Luckily, Alain de Botton explains in kindergarten language the reasons why we 'haven't built a nice city' since 1905: 6 simple rules on how to create attractive cities. And watch out for greedy developers. Watch this children's fairytale about cities if you plan on starting an urban debate somewhere this weekend.
Ice Cube shows us around the Eames house
This worthwhile clip combines some personal heros: Ice Cube showing his LA and his personal architectural favorite: the Eames' case study house. Love the way he talks about the architecture South Central style.
Thinking inside the box
Our prototype is finished, time for production. Our office will be redesigned with the help of 200 wooden boxes, specially designed to be CNC milled. The box is bookcase, storage and moving box at the same time, allowing us to change the layout every week if we want to.
We will soon share some images of the box puzzle extravaganza when we have to put them all together.
From a 1:10 prototype
To the 1:1 prototype
A theatre by the people
News magazine Elsevier posted an article about the new Singer Theatre, focusing on the way the Singer Foundation dealt with the current decline in public funding. The funding for the project is found in a very close relation between the theatre and the community. Almost 80% of the project's funding is raised by the citizens, showing its involvement with the cultural institution in the relatively small village of Laren.
The close relation between the SInger institution, Laren's citizens and the design team is also felt in the intensive dialogue about the public space, the village's architectural heritage, its green character and the direct contact with the theatre's neighbours. Everybody is involved and has a saying. A theatre built and funded by the community.
Light Surface Texture
The coming 2 months we'll be joining Gabriel Lester's Artist in Residence at the Academie van Bouwkunst. In the Light Surface Texture workshop, we'll be exploring new textures together with students in architecture, film and theatre, together with Gabriel.
Coming Monday Gabriel has his inaugural lecture at the academy.
Melancholia - Gabriel Lester
We are Building Homes
The second site for WeBuildHomes is almost finished. This innovative concept by our friends @ Space & Matter is really taking off now. We have been involved from the start, allowing for our designs to be picked by the future inhabitants through the WBH website. We have been lucky to have granted 4 families with new homes, until now.
The concept is providing the building industry with an alternative to serial housing and allow for people to choose for architecture without needing an large wallet. We hope we can take the concept even further with our architect's community. More diversity, more innovative designs. We think there is nothing more personal than living. So why should we all live in the same houses?
Blessed with architecture
An unusual situation today: a Jesuit priest blessing the new underground passage of the Ons Lieve Heer Op Solder Museum. A project by Felix Claus, in which a new 3 level entrance building is linked to an old 'hidden' Catholic Church (schuilkerk) of the XVIIth century. A unique project and a blessing for this amazing small but precious hidden gem in the midst of Amsterdam's Red Light district. The city is truly blessed with this new piece of (underground) architecture.
Infograph friday
One of the nicest yet oldest infographs we know: William Darton made it in 1823. A collection of the world's longest rivers and highest mountains together in one graph. And this was long before the Marvin Gaye song.
Head in the trees
Green light for Sustainsville! Today we have had a perfect meeting.
Chris Ofili in the New Museum
Last november we did a short visit to The New Museum. Amazing pieces of Chris Ofili. His darkest paintings and most brutal fetishes are disarmingly beautiful.
The most striking was the way the New Museum dealt with his presence: no white context but colorful, dark exhibition space, where the artist himself painted walls purple, dark blue and allowed for floral patterns.
The end of the white cube?
Wonderful World of Wood
In our BSH project, the search for the perfect wood is coming to an end. The floor beams are a significant part of the unfinished interior so one should think about tree type, size, sawing direction, surfaced or rough, color, contrast, local or global, fsc or pefsc, dry or wet, etc etc etc. It's hard to combine heart, mind and eye in this. Local feels better, but structurally less performant, rough looks better but is harder for cleaning. Dilemmas dilemmas...
Where does my food come from?
Something to think about at the Christmas table: California based UrbanLab traced the roots of their shared taco dinner. Did you know that food transport is responsible for almost 40% of all road transport CO2? You can calculate your food miles per meal and be surprised that 1 meal traveled further than yourself the last year.
Could you trace your Christmas dinner?
House on Zeeburgereiland almost finished.
Winter in Rotterdam
We did a Christmas office tour around 010 to catch up with their latest projects. It was cold, but a fine weather for photography and the fog added to the atmosphere.
Perez Art Museum, Miami
A visit to the new museum of modern art in Miami by Herzog & DeMeuron. The stairs of the public veranda have become a huge playground for school kids.
Patrick Blanc was responsable for the vegetation, inserting the landscape into the design.
The large veranda on the bay.