Exhibition: Bartlett 1st Year Site Specific works

Saturday 10 December - Friday 16 December 2011

Pitzhanger Manor, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London, W5 5EQ

Soane Annex((ed)

Private View: Friday 9.12.2011, 15:00 - 18:00

An exhibition of six site-specific works by the Bartlett School of Architecture

As Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, Sir John Soane had a tradition of opening up his home to his architectural students. Pitzhanger Manor-House's collaboration with Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, continues this practice, engaging Soane’s historic Pitzhanger Manor-House with contemporary architectural installations.

In Soane Annex(ed) Bartlett presents new work by Year 1 students annexing six areas throughout the house, using it as a testing ground for new ideas and concepts - challenging the traditional understanding of ‘architecture’, ‘design’ and ‘space’. The temporary nature of the installations offers the student a freedom to experiment with materials and crafting.

Mixing the Ingredients: A Lecture by Peter Cook

For those of your struggling to craft your plans, take 65 minutes to watch this lecture by Peter Cook.  He describes the different approaches to designing in plan taken by many notable modern and contemporary architects.  

http://www.aaschool.ac.uk//VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=1360

From factory to Kunsthall:Petra Gipp Arkitektur

in the designer's words, from archdaily: 
"In the landmarked industrial building, dating from the last turn of century, there are imprints of different eras. It can be compared to an archive – layers of time. The building has served as ammunition factory, paint factory and presently as kunsthalle for contemporary art and architecture.

The visitor is lead through a narrow alley with the light from above shining down towards the water. The walkway runs close to the kunsthalle as it passes the entire building, to then be invited into the dark stairway and the vast pillar hall."

Ground floor, first and second floor plans, along with further description and images can be found at archdaily.

Garden Museum: Dow Jones Architects

from archdaily:

In October 2007, Dow Jones Architects won an architectural competition to redesign the museum. The competition brief asked for a new gallery space where temporary exhibitions could be housed in secure and environmentally-controlled conditions.

The designers say:

"It appeared to us that creating a dedicated place for the museum’s permanent collection was equally important, as the exhibits were frequently moved to make space for events. We developed a strategy which addressed both issues.

Our idea was to create a belvedere within the existing building. This houses the new galleries and provides a raised ground from which a new perspective of the existing building is attained.

The belvedere structure enables us to place the temporary gallery at ground floor level and move the permanent collection, from its former location in the nave, up to the new first floor level."

This museum is about a five minute walk from Beaconsfield.

Invitation: Pavilion of Protest

Organizers are looking for volunteers from University of Westminster to take part in a project at the RIBA, where students are asked to draw for 2 hour slots about architectural education. They are particularly looking for volunteers to fill daytime slots i.e. before 4pm, between now and next Thursday.

Click poster above for opening times and booking details.


addition:  Btw, I just stopped by this morning and this is what the drawing desk looks like at the Pavilion:

Building as Register: ICA Media Center by Diller + Scofidio + Renfro

From http://www.dillerscofidio.com/ica.html:

"The new Boston Institute of Contemporary Art is located on the harbor at Fan Pier in south Boston. The 62,000 square foot building includes 18,000 square feet of galleries, a performing arts theater, a restaurant, a bookstore, education/workshop facilities, and administrative offices.

The Boston Harborwalk borders the north and west edges of the ICA site. This surface is metaphorically extended into the new building as a pliable wrapper that defines the building’s major public spaces.  Above the wrapper sits the "gallery box": a large exhibition space on one level that dramatically cantilevers over the Harborwalk toward the water."

There are a lot of interesting and successful parts of this building.  The Media Center room there is particularly interesting for our discussions of "building as register" because of the 'fold' that exposes a specific view to the water below.

The Media Center is the wedge-shaped protrusion below the ICA’s distinctive 80 foot cantilevered top floor and as one visitor describes it "really shows what happens when you allow talented architects to do what they want: space is transformed. Water fills the front edge of the room’s view and the sensation of hanging is palpable."

Above: Design Drawing for Media Center room at the ICA by Diller + Scofidio + Renfro

 Above: Media Center room under construction in 2006

Above: Media Center room completed by Diller + Scofidio + Renfro

Stephane Malka

Boombox in Barcelona

Stephane Malka  is a French architect who, influenced by graffiti, is interested in how the skins of buildings can be re-thought with temporary, low cost materials. He can be found at http://www.stephanemalka.com.

Boombox 
This scenographic installation was at Santa Monica Arts Centre, Barcelona.     'An explosion of the Art Center, it transforms the existing architecture in order to change the perception and experience of the site. The basic module .. is the cardboard box. Appropriated from its original use, it... retains the symbol of an ordinary container for the nomad.'

Ame-Lot
'Ecological strategies often generate an over-production of materials....
The real ecological combat is in ...the re-appropriation of materials and experimentation with ready-made objects.....
The project for student housing on rue Amelot (Paris) inserts itself into an urban interstice: the thickness of a blind wall.'

Ame-lot project for student housing: Stephane Malka

burble: haque design and research

burble in Singapore: Haque design and research

The first Burble ever, launched at the open ceremonies of the Singapore Biennale 2006, was known as Open Burble and consisted of a 15 storey structure designed, assembled and controlled by members of the public. The purpose of the project was to explore how people could design and contribute to their urban environment at a massive scale, albeit just for one night.

Haque design and research are well known for creating the Burble, but are responsible for many other interactive works. They can be found at http://www.haque.co.uk.

factory fifteen

Factory Fifteen is a new animation company formed by architecture graduates (yes, from Nic Clear's Unit at the Bartlett) which generates imaginative and fantastical imagery. Find it at http://www.factoryfifteen.com

Machine Installation: HEYHEYHEY video

Zuzana found this video by Dutch design studio HEYHEYHEYon dezeen; very fun and similar to the Fischli and Weiss film that we watched in studio a few weeks ago.  Enjoy!


Other cool (and pertinent) videos that she found:

http://www.dezeenscreen.com/2011/10/20/tales-of-the-hunt-tom-price/

 

http://www.dezeenscreen.com/2011/08/05/good-ideas-glow-in-the-dark-by-bruketazinic-and-brigada/

The Living: Amphibious Architecture

Amphibious Architecture by The Living is a a floating installation in New York waterways that glows and blinks to provide an interface between life above water and life below. Citizens can text message the fish, receive real-time information about the river, and contribute to a display of collective interest in the environment.

Instead of treating the rivers with a “do-not-disturb” approach, the project encourages curiosity and engagement. Instead of treating the water as a reflective surface to mirror our own image and our own architecture, the project establishes a two-way interface between environments of land and water. In two different neighborhoods of New York, the installation creates a dynamic and captivating layer of light above the surface of the river. It makes visible the invisible, mapping a new ecology of people, marine life, buildings, and public space and sparking public interest and discussion.

Exhibition: Power of Making at the V & A

from the V & A website:

"Power of Making is a cabinet of curiosities showing works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world to present a snapshot of making in our time.

The exhibition showcases works made using a diverse range of skills and explores how materials can be used in imaginative and spectacular ways, whether for medical innovation, entertainment, social networking or artistic endeavour.

Making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world. What and how we make defines who we are, and communicates who we want to be."

The Power of Making Exhibition runs until January 2nd at the Victoria and Albert Museum and it is FREE.  

Large Scale Wrappings: Christo and Jeane-Claude

Christo and Jeane-Claude were a married couple who created environmental works of art. Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic impact. The purpose of their art, they contend, is simply to create works of art or joy and beauty and to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes. Art critic David Bourdon has described Christo's wrappings as a "revelation through concealment."

For the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris, 40,000 m2 of sand-colored polyamide fabric was needed. The wrapping began on 25 August 1985 and was completed on 22 September. In the next two weeks over three million people visited the project.

wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin,1995

The drawing/collages they make to illustrate their projects (which can take years to gather funds and support for) are necessarily gorgeous and effective in presenting their ambitious ideas.  

And of course these larger scale works started with kernels of smaller ideas:

There are many more interesting projects to be found at:


http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/

Conrad Shawcross

Conrad Shawcross

'Winnowing Oar' 2003
Oak, spruce, ash / 226 x 28 x 13 cm



Imbued with an appearance of scientific rationality, Conrad Shawcross's sculptures explore subjects that lie on the borders of geometry and philosophy, physics and metaphysics. Attracted by failed quests for knowledge in the past, he often appropriates redundant theories and methodologies to create ambitious structural and mechanical montages, using a wide variety of materials and media, and working on an epic scale. Different technologies - nautical and audio-visual - and different natural forces inspire his forms, but his mysterious machines and structures remain enigmatic, filled with paradox and wonder. Some have an absurdist melancholy feel, while others tend to the sublime.


More recently, with another group of works, Conrad Shawcross has begun to experiment with ideal geometries and topologies; these constructions are conceived as systems, sometimes modular, sometimes mechanical, which could be theoretically extended infinitely into space. In these and other sculptures, Shawcross pays tribute to some of the great pioneers and analysts, and considers a specific moment or figure from the past. Paradigm (Ode to the Difference Engine) (2006) references the life of Charles Babbage, Space Trumpet (2007) is inspired by the history of early acoustic mapping, while Slow Arc Inside a Cube (2008) takes its inspiration from the scientist Dorothy Hodgkin's discovery of the structure of pig insulin.

Born in 1977 in London, where he currently resides and works, Shawcross is currently Artist in Residence at the Science Museum, London.

Text provided by Victoria Miro Gallery, London.

Conrad Shawcross

'Light Perpetual ' 2004
Mixed media 225 x 300 x 250 cm

Conrad Shawcross

'Small Arc Inside A Cube' 2008

Conrad Shawcross 'Pre-Retroscope VI'

“Pre-Retroscope VI—Gowanus Journey,” by British artist Conrad Shawcross documents an expedition undertaken along the length of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal using a specially adapted rowboat.

Pre-Retroscope VI is a hand-built boat carrying a special device for capturing 360-degree panoramic videos on bodies of water. During voyages, a motor-driven platform holds a camera that takes in the full view of its surroundings as it slowly moves around a circular track mounted to the top of the small craft. Reconfigured in the gallery to accommodate a projector, this same revolving apparatus then “re-tells” the voyage by projecting the resulting footage on a small screen that moves in synchronization with it. The form of Pre-Retroscope VI’s transmission—evoking the rotation of a lighthouse beacon—suggests the impossibility of a comprehensive understanding of our surroundings.

The most recent in a series of expeditions that began with a trip last summer on the River Lea in London, “Pre-Retroscope VI—Gowanus Journey” represents the first of Shawcross’s explorations of New York City’s little-known inland canal systems.

Mapping: An illustrated guide to graphic navigational systems

By Roger Fawcett-Tang and William Owen, this exhibition catalogue shows innovative ways of mapping space and journey.
http://www.struktur.co.uk/books/mapping.html

Long Exposure Photographs: AppuruPai

"AppuruPai made these beautiful long exposure shots on the Yurikamome rail transit, an automated guideway train that connects Odaiba with Tokyo."

from 'greater than' blog

Upcoming Talk: 'New Atlantis' Project

On Thursday 13 October 10:30 AM Hui Ye will come to speak to us about her model of her "New Atlantis" project that was recently exhibited in the Bartlett Masters Show.  Not to be missed.

More on the work of Hui Ye's research group, M.A.R.S., here.  

Video: 3D Drawing Machine

from archdaily:

Two young artists Ryan and Trevor Oakes have introduced a unique way for drawing using a 3D drawing machine that assists in re-presenting the view in front of one’s eyes. The machine was developed as an exploration of the nature of vision with a goal to recreate realism in the correct proportions and perspective. The artists explain how the machine works; by limiting vision of the scene to one eye and the other to plot the image on concave paper, an illusion occurs where the paper becomes transparent, rendering an effect that you are simply tracing the scene in front of you. It is an interesting take on creating artwork with amazingly accurate results. Check out the video for their presentation.

Gordon Matta-Clark: 'Splitting'

From the Met Museum website:

In the decade between receiving his B.A. in architecture from Cornell University and his death in 1978, Matta-Clark was a key member of the New York avant-garde. His work, like that of Dennis Oppenheim and Robert Smithson, was formed outside the parameters of gallery presentation, and as with many artists who matured in the 1960s, his subversive activities were rooted in a critique of bourgeois American culture.

Compelled to focus attention on the dehumanization of the modern world, Matta-Clark developed a personal idiom that combined Minimalism and Surrealism with urban architecture. Using abandoned buildings for his medium and wielding a chainsaw as his instrument, he cut into the structures, creating unexpected apertures and incisions.

In 1974, Matta-Clark operated on a two-story home in New Jersey slated for demolition, effectively splitting it down the middle. The light from the incision invaded the interior and united the rooms with a swath of brilliance. The artist photographed his work and created a collage of prints, the unconventional disposition of which re-creates the disorienting experience of the unprecedented destruction.

All images from Gordon Matta-Clark's project, Splitting, 1974

Collage/Model Hybrids: CJ Lim

CJ Lim is an architect based in London.


He says "My architecture is spatial storytelling and employs narratives in creating visions and innovative architecture, landscape and urban design focusing on interpretations of cultural programmes."


He uses collages and models to generate narrative structures that guide his work. See below:

more at: http://www.cjlim-studio8.com/