[Selective Commons] Architecture, Sculpture & Design

What's Past is Prologue [* -]

Again, another cultivating endeavor of mine, for all the gallery to enjoy.
This shall be the Architecture, Scultpure & Design [A-S-D] restoration.
Since I still believe I shall be the only one who will be contributing to this aim,
I shall give myself a set of rules to abide by: this topic is to feature tangible
evidence of the 1st Art - 'Architecture', and all that may encompass such a broad genre.
This could opt to include clay sculptures, steel buildings, wax models, ice carvings, human
remains and whatever else may happen to pertain, so long as the artwork is not created
solely for commercial consumption, but for aesthetic/apperception awareness.
Let us walk through the museum of the world's finest creations.


BIG IDEA - Christo and Jean-Claude

VALLEY CURTAIN, 1972 It took 28 months to put up the curtain across Rifle Gap in the Colorado
Rockies, and about 28 hours for it to come down. On Aug. 10, 1972, Christo's team unveiled the
curtain - nine tons of orange nylon polyamide fabric suspended from steel cables - only to watch
a sandstorm tear it to shreds the next day.

"That the curtain no longer exists only makes it more interesting," Christo said.


[NYTimes.]

(^^ highly-recommended read)

A topic in which we can come to discuss beautiful & intricate concrete works of art, the ones that we can imagine touching, and perhaps even making a mental note to visit one day. You may contribute by solely commenting upon your favourite designers, architects and makers, or help me out be questioning the rationale as to why I choose to feature certain works at certain times. Please come and have your voice heard, and tell the community why you dis/-like a certain installation, and why.

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“Infinite Forest” won the design competition for the proposed AIDS Memorial Park in the Greenwich Village. The design is by Studio a+i.

The park inside:

[NYPL.]

 

Thousand-armed Kuanyin of the Four Cardinal Points in Kieh thung Monastery, China. 1906


[onlinebrowsing.]

 

If you build it… [PBS lists Top Ten Buildings that Changed America]

[archdaily.]

 

Le Grand Van Gogh, (bronze sculpture) crafted by Bruno Catalano (France).

[antidepresivo. / arch20.]

 

laje jardim - Photo by Vanessa Mendes Argenta

Edifício Gustavo Capanema
Antigo MEC
Ícone da Arquitetura Moderna Mundial
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil


[adayby.]

 

Le Corbusier - School of art and architecture, Chandigarh, India. 1965.


-- Photography by Cemal Emden.

 

Wire sculptures crafted by David Oliveria (Lisboa)

modus operandi:
For me, to be able to 'draw' I must know and understand the object.

The knowledge of the anatomy is very important, because the skin stretches and changes according to what is underneath. The structure is fixed. The challenge is to correspond the theme with the object. My works live in an ethereal world, like a memory or a dream. The theme has to respect that.

The spectator has a very important role, because in order to see, he has to fill the empty spaces with his own memories, creating a bond with the sculpture and his own life experiences.


[mymodernmet.]
- - - - -
+ bonus

 

[Read of Interest]

The Role of Architecture in Humanity's Story
--------------------------------------------------
Vikas Shah, Thought Economics, July 2012​

In this exclusive series of interviews, we speak to Martha Thorne (Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize), Richard Rogers (architect of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Lloyds building and Millennium Dome in London and founder of Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners) and Mohsen Mostafavi (Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design). We discuss the very nature of architecture itself, how it relates to culture and topics ranging from the nature of cities, how buildings influence our lives and the future of architecture itself

Q: What is the fundamental purpose of architecture?

[Martha Thorne] That’s a very simple yet complicated question. Architecture exists to create the physical environment in which people live. Obviously that’s a very simple answer, but if we deep digger we see the complexities. What is the built environment? what constitutes quality of life? how do architects determine whether something is positive, helpful or relevant for individuals and collectives?

[Richard Rogers] It serves society and improves quality of life. It’s a physical manifestation of the society’s wishes to be civilised! …public domain being the obvious place which encapsulates this as buildings, alongside being art and science, are part of the public domain.

[Prof. Mohsen Mostafavi] Architecture should fulfil multiple criteria. One of its purposes is to itself. A lot of people believe to some degree, in the autonomy of architecture as a discipline which means that part of the purpose of architecture is to construct new forms of knowledge that relate to the enhancement and advancement of the discipline itself. In a way, this is inseparable from the performance or performativity of architecture in terms of its responsibilities to engage with the society at large. There is, in a sense, a purposive dimension to architecture which really provides the symbolic ideas of habitation and- broadly- serving the humankind.

It’s both this version of architecture that removes purpose, and one that really engages it fully in a purposive dimension. I think the simultaneity of these two conditions that’s key.

Q: To what extent is architecture art or science?

[Martha Thorne] Architecture is both an art and a science. I might even take it a step further and say that it’s a multifaceted gemstone as it is not just art, or just science… it is more than that. This is a discipline which draws on psychology, sociology, economics, politics and so many more areas.

I am reminded of my time working at the Art Institute of Chicago. Architecture in that sense was a curatorial department in a major art museum. Within the museum itself, there is a hierarchy and with my colleagues we sometimes joked that the more useful art is- the more you can walk on it or sit in it- the less it was considered an art and the lower down the totem pole it was!

Architecture on one hand is considered and art and is studied as such. It is strange in the sense that architecture is not truly the creation of an individual or collective for the purpose of research, contemplation or beauty but has the purpose of responding to functional needs. That takes it beyond the realms of art into other fields of human existence

[Richard Rogers] It has to be both! The architects nightmare is to have a blank piece of paper… we’re not writers or abstract artists… we’re a strange mixture of the two. It’s about using imagination in form, giving scale, giving order, giving rhythm… to space.

Q: How does architecture relate to wider culture?

[Martha Thorne] Without a doubt, architecture is a part of culture- it has been called the mother of all arts! It is certainly part of how we see ourselves, and part of how we see the world. The unique aspect of architecture is that in its physical incarnation of buildings, it may last for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Architecture is created by people! the most successful architecture goes beyond just being a shed or a box for living… the most important architecture as we look back over history are buildings or environments that have done so much more in a variety of ways- be that innovation in building and construction, or buildings that have pushed the discipline to get us to think about our environment in different ways, or just incredibly beautiful buildings that have lifted the human spirit in addition to housing our activities and our lives.

[Prof. Mohsen Mostafavi] Many of the practices of architecture are about the discipline’s entanglement in contemporary issues. The concept of contemporary is one that is fully implicated in contemporary tradition, practices and ideas. There is therefore a symbolic dimension to architecture which leads it to become a manifestation of those themes. Therefore, as a form of art practice… as a cultural production… it is obviously the manifestation of the spaces within which we see practices and lives taking place…. exemplars of contemporary life.

If architecture wasn’t implicated in that project, one would simply have to conclude that it was not keeping up with the times. Does every piece of architecture accept these responsibilities? well… that remains to be debated. For me however, that responsibility is not in question.

Whenever you collaborate on a project which involves multiple agencies and participants- like people playing jazz together- each player contributes to the tonality, sound and experience of the overall. In that sense, architecture as a cultural production has the responsibility to be of them time, but represent the time…. to be the vehicle through which transformations are made….

We have to be aware of the responsibilities we have for architecture as a framework for social action. In that way, there is a reciprocity… a connection.. between how you’re affected by a circumstance and how you affect the circumstance itself

Q: What do you feel makes great architecture?

[Martha Thorne] I’m immediately reminded of the words of Renzo Piano. It’s very interesting to debate and discuss architecture and buildings with him, he’s an extremely eloquent and thoughtful person. We’ve debated that buildings must be functional, manifestations of their time and not just seeking to replicate the past or manifest nostalgia… We’ve discussed the fact that buildings must be well constructed- one building must serve a multiplicity of functions and people in very defined ways. Renzo Piano always said, “…in addition to that, there’s a quality of magic….”

That’s what differentiates good architecture from just being any old building. Good architecture is intentioned. It somehow touches the people who use it and live in it… it somehow touches the human soul. I realise these phrases sound somewhat utopian, but truly good architecture has the ability to relate to individuals in a very profound way. That is a quality which cannot be deciphered into scientific terms or quantified- but is something we all know when we experience a quality building or a space that somehow goes beyond being functional and is- somehow- very special.

To give you an example… when I entered the Ningbo Museum by the recent Pritzker winner Wang Shu, it’s a building which is truly huge. It is- in some ways- monumental. When you enter that building however, you know that it was made for the people that visit it and work there. You never feel insignificant… you feel that you’re cared for as you go in the building. It’s a magical quality that’s hard to put into words, but undoubtedly is there within the building.

[Richard Rogers] This is a very difficult question and the answer would have to consider all the various aspects of architecture including rhythm, function, aesthetics and more. At one level, this could be something very simple… even a wooden hut in your garden.

[Prof. Mohsen Mostafavi] What’s important is that we acknowledge architecture as an artistic practice not as pure science. It is an artistic practice to the extent that it involves new forms of creativity and creative thinking. At the same time, we are deeply conditioned by our knowledge of science.

Science is not purely seen in a rationalistic sense, but also in the context of natural sciences. We cannot then see the worlds of art and science as so inseparable but rather as fields of available knowledge and practices that are open to us. I think the relationship of art to practice is very important.

If we look at the act of drawing as a way of imaging as opposed to assuming you have a scientific knowledge of a field that you are replicating. The artistic dimension of creativity is critical and it’s imperative that we do not separate the worlds of art and science in architecture.

READ MORE...

-- due courtesy to you might find yourself.

 

Anish Kapoor (Bombay)


Anish Kapoor dedicates art installation to detained artist Ai Weiwei.
Kapoor has described his epic new installation, which has been unveiled
in the cavernous nave of the Grand Palais in Paris for the Monumenta
2011 exhibition, as a "single object, a single form, a single colour".


[paperblog.] + [BBC.]

 

Face Forward, created (for Burning Man 2011) by Christian Ristow.

author's comments:
“Face Forward is an exercise in group dynamics. It offers the possibility of collective striving to achieve something which, when seen, will be immediately recognizable to the entire group, and therefore immediately satisfying. … The face will be a reflection of the dynamic within the group operating it.”


[make.]

 

Modern Record Console by Symbol Audio | Design by Blake Tovin and Matt Richmond ... -- courtesy of The Womb.

 

do ho suh’s work ‘bridging home’ is an outdoor mixed-media installation
built between two structures. the small house is built on an angle, seeming
to hover several feet above the ground between two taller buildings. the
perched piece has an unsettling affect, highlighting the tension existent
between stranger-neighbors in larger cities, alluding to the dual sense
of belonging and anonymity of an individual hailing from this place.
‘bridging home’ also explores the affect of living in an interconnected
world upon the psychology of the individual and the community.


{as seen in liverpool, england, UK, c. 2010}

 

Public street-bookshelves in Berlin made from hollow logs - Boing Boing

descriptor:
“Book Forest” [was] an outdoor, public bookcase in Berlin, designed to allow
BookCrossing users to drop books they’re done with so that others can take them
in and read them. The “forest” is made from hollowed out logs with protective clear doors.


- Modellregion Berliner Wald und Holz

 

I don't know the building names or locations.

/necroposting

 

A little contrast.