Sean Griffiths on the American Bar in Vienna by Adolf Loos

"The American Bar is an astonishing interior.

As well as being a very radical piece of early 20th century design, as Europe’s first ever cocktail bar (cocktails are an American invention) it brought a decadent New World experience to an old imperial Europe on the verge of catastrophic dissolution."

More from Sean Griffiths at BD.

Thanks to Níall McLaughlin for mentioning the article.

I-LANDS Installation

I-Lands is an interactive installation that incorporates sound, water, wax, and temperature to explore the chaotic and random individual influences constantly present in climate and landscape formations. Composed and generated by individual visitors that engage with strategically placed 'activators', it is a generator of topographies.  The work acknowledges that individual actions can generate unpredictable processes.

Part of Ines Dantas's *Emospheric Arch-I-pelagos series, it was performed in June 2012 at the Institute for Experimental Architecture, in Innsbruck, Austria.

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.

Urs Fischer – You, Gavin Brown’s enterprise (NYC) -2007

"The artist dug a crater on the gallery, removing its concrete level. The architecture of the gallery is altered by cutting, disruption, and destructive transformations. 'You simultaneously attacks and fetishizes the attributes of galleries, the qualities that the critic Brian O’Doherty has described as 'something of the sacredness of churches, the austerity of courtrooms, the mysteriousness of research laboratories, something that, together with stylish designs, makes them unique cultic places of the aesthetic' ', writes Jerry Saltz in the New York Magazine."

from SOCKS.

The work of artist Clay Ketter

"The former carpenter Clay Ketter constructs walls in the space between house-like interiors and modern abstract painting.

Ketter constructs flat sculptures, installations and three-dimensional paintings – or a compound of all three categories. His striking painting-cum-sculpture-cum-installations principally recall interior design. They capture moments in condemnation or rebuilding usually of limited duration but here freeze-framed in art. The walls exist in a permanent limbo between the presence of demolition and the eternity of art." from ARKEN

His earlier works included the Gulf Coast Slabs, a series of overhead photographs taken of structures after the passage of hurricane Katrina in 2006, one of which is shown above.

Thanks to Clay Thompson who spotted Ketter's work via SOCKS.

Carlo Scarpa Documentary

Carlo Scarpa (June 2, 1906 – November 28, 1978), was an Italian architect.

Scarpa refused to sit the pro forma professional exam administrated by the Italian Government after World War II. As a consequence, he was not permitted to practice architecture without associating with an architect. Hence, those who worked with him, his clients, associates, craftspersons, called him "Professor", rather than "architect".

His architecture is deeply sensitive to the changes of time, from seasons to history, rooted in a sensuous material imagination.

'Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined' at the Royal Academy

Concept image of environment by Li Xiaodong (detail), commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts, London. © Li Xiaodong.

25 January — 6 April 2014
In the Main Galleries

Some of the most creative architectural minds from around the world are coming to the RA – and together they will give you an unforgettable experience. Read more

the Royal Academy is located at: Burlington House, Piccadilly London W1J 0BD

Section Detail; Old Folk’s Home, Morecambe by David Hart

from AR tumblr

more here.

Alvar Aalto Viipuri Library Lecture Hall

Alvar Aalto's section of the lecture hall in the Viipuri Library which worked out the trajectory of  sound.

more here.

The Left-Over-Space House by Cox Rayner Architects

"This narrow private house demonstrates what can be achieved on the myriad of ‘left-over’ spaces in inner cities, such as disused easements or parking lots. In this case, a 3 metre wide tiny caretaker’s cottage, adjoining a heritage hall has been recycled and linearly extended into a family house for parents and two children."

from DETAIL.

sophia chang piques suspense through cavernous installation

"...the piece consists of softened fabric geometries that blur the boundaries between its inside and outside. upon entering, both occupant and environment are estranged, creating greater awareness of one’s self, relation to others and surroundings. the expansive, curving walls form an immersive cave-like interior, framing both people and their context that piques the experience of interior and exterior, wall and room – both hiding and revealing places to be explored."

image © anita kan

"the installation is constructed from large pieces of lycra fabric that is suspended between rectangular frames. snatched glimpses of the original context are captured through breaks in the fabric, pulling them into the suspended space, while visitors occupy both sides of the frame, creating a playful interaction between its two sides. the re-captured everyday moments, a glimpse of brick, a stair, or out to the street appear distant and other. conceived as multiple layers of poché, which commonly refers to the space within walls, here it receives a more ambiguous reinterpretation: what could be understood as a wall or space from one vantage point, becomes an inhabitable room from another."

from designboom.

'Skinned' by KNOL Ontwerp features latex casts of derelict buildings

Shrouds of latex cast from derelict buildings hang in this installation by Amsterdam design studio KNOL Ontwerp, forming ghostly recreations of spaces.

from dezeen.