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Miami Marine Stadium and Basin

Miami Marine Stadium and Basin - Image 1 of 4
© Arseni Varabyeu

Miami Marine Stadium, designed by architect Hilario Candela in 1963, hosted many events – political rallies, boat races, concerts, church services, television shows, movie set for Clambake staring Elvis Presley, and was an important part of the Miami area until 1992 when it fell to disrepair. After much dialogue and arm twisting the Miami Marine Stadium is to be preserved many thanks to the Friends of Marine Stadium. Original architect Hilario Candela, along with Jorge Hernandez, Catherine Lynn and students from the University of Miami’s Architectural Preservation Studio, have created a concept for the revitalization which has been incoprated officially in the to the Virginia Key Masterplan. A hopeful 2012 grand re-opening is planned for this important local neighborhood civic plaza.

More photographs following the break.

Serial Architecture - Systems of Multiplicities / Rocker-Lange

Serial Architecture - Systems of Multiplicities / Rocker-Lange - Image 8 of 4
Courtesy of Rocker-Lange

Rocker-Lange architects shared with us the release of their research project, Serial Architecture – Systems of Multiplicities, which was also part of the exhibit “Quotidian Architectures” in the Hong Kong Pavillion at the Venice Biennale 2010. The project, accompanied by a 400+ book, rethinks quotidian architecture in Hong Kong, a city with an average density of over 6,300 people per square kilometer. More images and architect’s description after the break.

The Indicator: Why We Look at Architecture

The Indicator: Why We Look at Architecture - Image 3 of 4

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

– Oscar Wilde

I’m drawn to John Berger’s essay “Why Look at Animals” for many reasons but primarily because it takes something obvious and turns it inside-out to reveal dimensions that were completely unexpected. The way he describes our cultural and personal engagement with animals got me thinking about how we look at architecture and why we look at it. What are we trying to see there? And is there a there there?

More after the break.

The Indicator: Post-Occupancy 01

The Indicator: Post-Occupancy 01 - Image 3 of 4

This week, we present the first of a special series called “Post-Occupancy” in which we feature the experience of the owner-dweller in different types of architectural spaces. Our goal is to present architecture by letting the users narrate for themselves what it means to them, how they experience it, how it has transformed them. We pose the questions. What do owners want? What do they need? How do they experience their homes after they’ve lived in them for a while?

Often, architectural discourse begins and ends with the designer. Here, the owners come first. They provide the answers in their own words, without the dialect of the discipline mediating what they say.

In this first installment, the goal was to examine the experience of domestic space from the point of view of a globe-trotting intellectual couple. James Massengale and Tracey Sands are both scholars. And as is the way of many academics, they have more than one residence: one in the United States and one abroad, located in the region of their studies. In this case, that is Scandinavia. And this is what they had to say.

More after the break.

Moving Homeostatic Facade Preventing Solar Heat Gain

Moving Homeostatic Facade Preventing Solar Heat Gain - Image 4 of 4

This prototype system, Homeostatic Facade, is the latest in green building design. The line maze like facade consists of material that flexes and bends as an artificial muscle fighting solar heat gain by changing shape on its own. No computer programing or physical adjustments required. The system regulates a buildings climate by auto responding to environmental conditions and has an advantage over other systems because of its low power consumption and localized control.

Check out the video of the moving Homeostatic Facade following the break.

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A Room for London proposal / LMTS Design

A Room for London proposal / LMTS Design - Image 17 of 4
Courtesy of LMTS Design

Bangkok-based architect Nontawat Jittrong (LMTS Design), shared with us his proposal for the competition A Room for London, for the 2012 London Olympics. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Mies van der Rohe Society

Mies van der Rohe Society - Featured Image
Hagen Stier

The Mies van der Rohe Society recently released their newly designed website. Some of the features we like are the detailed building biographies, sketches, models, 3D renderings, and photographs that showcase the buildings Mies designed.

New Yorkers top Architectural Events of 2010

New Yorkers top Architectural Events of 2010 - Image 1 of 4
© Iwan Baan

This years architectural events in New York are bound to have a meaningful effect on the years to come; the decision by NYU to add another tower complementing I.M Pei’s existing Silver Towers complex (rather than their initial plan to demolish them), the opening of the first section of Brooklyn Bridge Park coupled with the completion of the High Line has re-established New York City as a key model to reference when it comes to designing urban public space, and finally construction began on Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, by Louis Kahn, to name a few.

From transportation, urban planning, exhibitions, residential and office buildings follow the break to see the New Yorkers list of some of the most influential decisions surrounding architecture over the past year in New York.

A Room for London Proposal / Design Initiatives

A Room for London Proposal / Design Initiatives - Image 15 of 4
Courtesy of Design Initiatives

Design Initiatives, an innovative, award-winning architecture practice based in Los Angeles, California and Sofia, Bulgaria, shared with us their proposal for A Room for London, a competition for a temporary demountable hotel room for up to two guests on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London during the Olympic year of 2012. Designed as a boundary structure floating in space between ground and sky, their proposal employs the dialectical contrast of active OR passive. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Eathouse / de Stuurlui stedenbouw & Atelier GRAS!

Eathouse / de Stuurlui stedenbouw & Atelier GRAS! - Featured Image
Courtesy of de Stuurlui stedenbouw & Atelier GRAS!

Architects Marijke Bruinsma (de Stuurlui stedenbouw) with Marjan van Capelle and Arjen de Groot (Atelier GRAS!), shared with us Eathouse, a house and garden to eat. More images and architect’s description after the break.

European Architectural Travel Photographs

European Architectural Travel Photographs - Featured Image
© Kevin Hui

Kevin Hui of pushpullbar architecture + design forum and 4site architecture shared these travel photographs. He recently completed a 16 day / 66 building trip through Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, accompanied by Andrew Maynard of Andrew Maynard Architects. The photographs include: Mercedes Benz Museum by UN Studio, Museum of Modern Literature by David Chipperfield, Dupli.Casa by J Mayer H, Sammlung Goetz by Herzog & de Meuron, Treptow Crematorium by Axel Schultes Architekten & Charlotte Frank, Cottbus Techincal University Library by Herzog & de Meuron, Wolfsburg Cultural Centre by Alvar Aalto, and Phaeno Science Centre by Zaha Hadid. Follow the break to see all eight featured photographs.

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The Indicator: The Student is the Client

The Indicator: The Student is the Client  - Image 3 of 4
Illustration, Guy Horton

This article is co-authored by Sherin Wing

It’s the season for end-of-year juries before everyone escapes to the sanity of real life. And true to expectations, horror stories abound about instructors and jurors.

Here is one story: a student at a well-known Southern California program said that after spending five straight days at studio without returning home once (he clearly didn’t read The 101 in re: change your underwear and it’s not medicine), his instructor approached him and said one thing: “You’re F%#@$!”

Hey, thanks for that helpful and really insightful advice!

And if that weren’t enough, this same instructor had embarked on a campaign of concerted humiliation of this student, teasing him not just to himself, but repeatedly in front of his entire studio class regarding another student he supposedly had a crush on. That is clear harassment and she should not only be fired, but she is opening up the entire school to a lawsuit.

More after the break.

The Indicator: Photographing the Architect, Part 2: The Mystery of Dora

The Indicator: Photographing the Architect, Part 2: The Mystery of Dora - Featured Image

He is so much older than she, isn’t he? You can see they love one another. They are not just sitting together. She is leaning against him, her head against his temple. Though they are looking in different directions, they are as one and inhabiting a private realm of emotion. His gaze regards us but it is she who draws our attention by looking away. It is 1926 and he is content. He seems more at ease posing with Dora than alone. Without her he must clasp his hand together, unsure of how to hold himself.

More after the break.

Architects in Movies

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Gary Cooper in Fountainhead (1949)

From the mid 1900′s to the beginning of the 2000′s, being an architect as a profession has made its way into key roles on the big screen for many big shot celebrities. Whether the roles they play in the movies are similar to the reality of the profession or not, I’m sure many architects that have watched some of these movies feel honored that their profession is one that deserves to be highlighted in ways that are not not just in architectural publications, but in the cinema world as well. More images after the break.

The Indicator: My Robot

The Indicator: My Robot - Image 3 of 4

Deep in suburban southern California, the future of architecture has already arrived. This future is not just about more complex forms and compound geometries. It is not simply about software but how to make what is generated with software a reality. It is about processes, ways of working, and materials. It is also about more control for the architect. This is what Guy Martin had in mind when he started his own firm.

Guy Martin Design, is quite possibly the most famous firm you have never heard of. He’s the guy who figures out how to make some of Philippe Starck’s more complicated creations, translating the digital into the physical.

Mr. Martin works behind the scenes in a non-descript warehouse with no windows. Thankfully, he has a huge ventilation system. He spends most of his time here with Marie, his robot accomplice. He’s moved up in the world. He used to operate out of a shipping container (also without windows) in the parking lot of SCI-ARC—until he graduated and was asked to leave and take that damn container with him.

Keep reading after the break.

The Indicator: But What Does It Mean?

The Indicator: But What Does It Mean? - Image 2 of 4

Ai Weiwei is a complicated individual living in complicated times. But he’s an artist so this goes without saying. He’s constantly challenging the status quo and seems to thrive on it. But for him there may be no other way of being human, given the role he has accepted as an artist.

For many artists, it is this way. Regardless of nationality, art is about getting into trouble, not about sitting safely in one’s designer loft. Notice how artists flock together whenever they move into rough industrial neighborhoods. Many people like to think of themselves as artists. It’s easy to adopt this pose. Very few, however, actually take risks either in their work or to produce it. Ai Weiwei risks everything for his work.

More after the break.

The Indicator: Following the White Rabbit through Google Earth

The Indicator: Following the White Rabbit through Google Earth - Image 7 of 4

What does a life look like when viewed through Google Earth? On the surface, it simply looks like different settlement patterns that morph depending on the altitude setting. Some places have 3D buildings, but most do not. In a few cases, the 3D buildings were inaccurately rendered. The person who had done them had never actually visited these places from my life. He was merely going off the satellite image and guessing at building heights and shapes. I, on the other hand, posses a great deal of information.

What would it look like if I annotated these maps with my memories; if I extruded the buildings? The notations would be so dense as to obscure the territory itself. Should Google give the responsibility for these geographies to those who contain them within their memories? Maybe Google should hire me to be the custodian of my own territories, past and present.

More after the break.

The Indicator: Wind Swept Dune

The Indicator: Wind Swept Dune - Featured Image

Architect Hagy Belzberg recently showed me around his latest creation, the new Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. He had kindly agreed to give me a personal tour since I was preparing to write up a review.

While I had fully intended to focus on the architecture, the site, the ideas behind the design, I was caught off-guard by something unexpected: people.

Prior to my visit I had been looking at some new photographs of the building taken by Iwan Baan. Architecture photographed for reviews is usually uncluttered by the messiness of life. The buildings are often empty vessels waiting to be activated. People appear as mere apparitions, like objects, often blurred. Thus, there is little evidence of other responses or adaptations to the architecture. If we overlook the gaze of the photographer, there is then only one gaze present: that of the singular “I”. And this “I” had expected an encounter with a building.

More after the break.

The Indicator: And the Award Goes to…

The Indicator: And the Award Goes to… - Featured Image

If you happen to find yourself in Los Angeles tonight be sure not to miss the AIA Design Awards Party at LACMA. As the email I recently received noted:

Join us for what will be a joyous celebration of architecture and design in the Los Angeles community.

These award bashes are always well-produced: nice venues, music, projection screens, hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, sumptuous buffet. Plus, who doesn’t like getting awards? Everyone being honored deserves the recognition, respect, and adulation of professional peers. The accomplishments of architects, firms and organizations like the Skid Row Housing Trust should be celebrated and honored. But what if they were honored more publicly?

More after the break.

A Doll's House for Clementine / TDO Architecture

A Doll's House for Clementine / TDO Architecture - Image 8 of 4
Courtesy of TDO Architecture

TDO was commissioned by Wallpaper* Magazine to re-approach the design of a doll’s house. They were asked to consider Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye as an inspirational starting point, and from there developed a concept that successfully responded with a functional doll’s house with a contemporary design.

Silk Road Map Evolution / OFL Architecture

Silk Road Map Evolution / OFL Architecture - Image 20 of 4
Courtesy of OFL Architecture

Roma-based OFL Architecture shared with us their winning proposal for the Silk Road Map International Competition. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

The Indicator: Still Learning from Las Vegas

The Indicator: Still Learning from Las Vegas - Image 2 of 4

There is much debate about competitions and their implications for design and the business of architecture. Regardless of where you fall on the pro-con spectrum, the fact remains that they have become institutionalized within the profession and the public expects architects to work this way.

Architectural practice is thus based as much on not getting projects as it is on getting them and getting paid. People in business would consider this a high level of risk. In some ways, given the chances of winning, an unacceptable level of risk and a business condition that merits critical reassessment. Plus, how do you do a strategic risk-assessment for something like design? Maybe not for design, but for the business of design this seems like something worth looking into.

More after the break.

The Indicator: Happy National Boss’s Day

The Indicator: Happy National Boss’s Day - Featured Image

As stupid as this sounds, it’s National Boss’s Day in the US and Canada. But, you may ask, isn’t every day your boss’s Day? Technically yes. But today is that one special day when you can express your gratitude openly…and maybe score some extra points. But, of course, it isn’t about that. If you don’t have this holiday in your country, you should lobby for it—maybe even make it a day off!

For architects, National Boss’s Day means celebrating the good work done by your principals, thanking them for their leadership excellence. After all, in this economy, principals are having a hard time and are under a lot of stress. You may have noticed them age, much like Obama has in the last two years.

The Indicator: There Must be a Better Way

The Indicator: There Must be a Better Way - Image 2 of 4
Execution in France, 1929 via New York Times

Recently, two firms I know of laid off groups of employees. One victim was a veteran of over ten years. Another was a junior employee being mentored by one of the best people in the office. They were all valuable employees the firms had invested in and benefited from.

If you can believe it, when I was laid off I actually felt sorry for the leaders who had to drop the guillotine. There I was with my neck under the blade and I was saying things like, “I know this must be difficult for you” and “So sorry you have to pull the lever.” Even after the blade came down I kept saying this, a talking head without a body. And here I am, still a talking head!

Leadership is undoubtedly in a difficult situation. After chopping someone’s head off they probably go back to their desks, pull out their little metal flasks of whatever they prefer and take a swig. Think of the emotional damage this does. I wonder if this makes it difficult for management to carry on in their leadership roles to help their firms weather the storm. Can a captain who throws crew members overboard still function as a good captain? I suppose that is for the historians to determine. And what does the rest of the crew think?

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