Pamphlet Architecture 34: Fathoming the Unfathomable

Pamphlet Architecture 34 by architects and educators Perry Kulper and Nat Chard speculates on how architecture might discuss indeterminate conditions of production through a generative agency of representation. Kulper and Chard explore the indeterminacy of architectural research through drawings that exceed traditional drawing space. Located in two different countries, they communicate by shipping each drawing across geographical borders. As a result the drawing acts as a tactical and conversational medium, providing the architects with new opportunities for the confluence of the uncertain.

more at Princeton Architectural Press.

'Second Nature'

Second Nature is a 20-minute documentary on skater and budding landscape architect, Janne Saario of Finland. The short film allows a glimpse of Saario’s thoughts and dreams, which float between design, art and skateboarding. Though it also reveals the important concurrence of post-industrial areas, sustainable concepts and natural environments, and unfolds the demanding obligation, towards today’s generation and those to come, to create positive and inspiring, local communities.

Dwell says: "Saario started skating when he was six, eventually got sponsored, and through his experience riding around the world he developed an interest in designing landscapes. He's got his own firm now, with a specialty in skate parks."

Friday at Tate Britain: Performing Architecture

Alex Schweder and Ward Shelly, Stability, Seattle, 2009 Photos 
© Scott Lawrimore, edited by Ward Shelly & author.

What does performance have to do with architecture? 
How can a building perform, and how can we perform a building?

Come on a playful journey through the gallery in its current phase of spatial and structural transformation, taking a look at architectural and art practices that explore how our physical bodies interact with built form.

With talks, performance, a workshop, and sound and film from Alex Schwederand Lamis Bayar, Kreider + O’Leary, Effie Coe, Emptyset and The Architecture Foundation. 

*Late at Tate Britain: February 2013
Performing Architecture*
Friday 1 February, 18:00 - 22:00
Tate Britain

more details here.

Philip Beesley's Hylozoic Series

Hylozoic Ground, by Philip Beesley

This work is a growing, touring artwork that suggests a new kind of responsive architecture.
It can now be found at the Sydney Biennale (september 2012).

The Hylozoic environment can be described as a suspended geotextile that gradually accumulates hybrid soil from ingredients drawn from its surroundings. Akin to the functions of a living system, embedded machine intelligence allows human interaction to trigger breathing, caressing, and swallowing motions and hybrid metabolic exchanges. These empathic motions ripple out from hives of kinetic valves and pores in peristaltic waves, creating a diffuse pumping that pulls air, moisture and stray organic matter through the filtering Hylozoic membranes. 'Living' chemical exchanges are conceived as the first stages of self-renewing functions that might take root within this architecture.

(Excerpt from the press release for his installation at the Canadian Pavilion at Architecture Biennale Venice 2010 ).

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v86B9Nz_LVU
for an excellent explanation of its layers by its designer, Philip Beesley.

Arthur Ganson's Kinetic Art

Sculptor and engineer Arthur Ganson talks about his kinetic art.

BA Interior Architecture at OPEN 2012

A few photos by recent graduate Olivia Dunin of the current BA Interior Architecture installation at University of Westminster's OPEN exhibition.  The installation, which re-purposed discarded office chairs and incorporated student designed and fabricated frames from The Tell-the-Tale Detail Exhibition, will be transported to Freerange at the Truman Brewery and then on to the VOLA London Showroom as part of the London Design Festival. 


See a photo of last year's installation here.

Berndnaut Smilde makes real clouds appear inside gallery

Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde makes real clouds form inside of empty rooms. He uses a fog machine and carefully adjusts the temperature and humidity to produce clouds just long enough to photograph.

Watch a video of Smilde creating a cloud at booooooom.com.

Wyckoff Exchange by Andre Kikoski Architect

from dezeen:
Manhattan firm Andre Kikosi Architect installed a folding Corten steel façade to transform this disused New York warehouse into a market and music venue. The motorised façade of The Wyckoff Exchange is made up of five panels, which fold outwards to shelter the pavement and reveal a glass skin beneath. LED lights hidden within perforations on the metal sheets give the building a glowing effect at night, when the shutters provide protection for the shops inside. The building houses a live music and performance venue, an organic food market and boutique wine shop.

see an animation of the facade system here.

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.  

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.