Architecture and Living in the Future

Yesterday my business networking group met at the showroom of Exquisite Kitchen Designs. We were dazzled by the way technology has insinuated itself into the design, manufacture, and utility of kitchens.  The new kitchens we are installing in luxury homes are glimpses of a science-fiction future that ultimately will filter down to the average residence. 

It often feels like we are living in the future we imagined decades ago. In many respects we have surpsassed our imperfectly imagined future. Disneyland's World of Tomorrow exhibit  has long been dismantled because it couldn't keep up with the real future that was happening around us.

Today I ran across this video - an extended ad for Corning Glass. This glimpse of a techno-friendly future (all of the technology shown in the video is possible right now) is worth a look. Pay attention to the backgrounds as well as the products. This is a future of sumptuously modern architecture.

  

An Architect's Lecture

1. Light streaming into Grand Central station, New York.

One of the great things about living in a large metropolitan area is the opportunity for cultural events that just don't happen often enough in smaller places. Yesterday I rode the train into downtown Denver to take advantage of one of those events: a lecture by Finish architect Juhani Pallasamaa. (I blogged about Pallasamaa May 21, 2009, citing his book The Eyes of the Skin as one of the great theoretical books about architecture.) Not exactly a household name, Pallasamaa is one of the most influential architects you've probably never heard of. His books have somewhat of a cult following among students. He is certainly well-connected to the world of architecture. He is currently in the United States after being invited to live at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West for a season. And he allowed in his opening remarks that he was pleased to be speaking at the Denver Art Museum because Daniel Liebskind, architect for the DAM, is his son's godfather.
His lecture last night was "Materiality and Light." He spoke passionately about the life that light brings to architecture. We can't see anything without light, of course. To Pallasamaa, light has a nurturing quality that more than aids vision. It shapes, changes, and establishes architecture. In a sense, light feeds architecture just as it does plants, landscapes, and people.
Coincidently, I just finished reading Grand Central by Sam Roberts. It is a facinating story about the architecture of Grand Central station in New York as well as the engineering, financial, and social influences that shaped it. A photograph that stands out in the book shows light streaming through lofty arched windows over the main waiting room. It is a classic effect of light making space palpable. Sadly, this is an effect that no longer exists at Grand Central. Construction across 42nd Street has forever blocked the sun. This fact, pointed out in Grand Central, had me thinking about light and architecture. I was primed for Pallasamaa's lecture. He did not disappoint.

2. Light modulating color. Casa Gilardi by Luis Barragan, Mexico City.

3. Light creating contrast. Salk Institute by Louis Kahn, La Jolla, California.

One of the interesting things about attending a lecture that you don't get from reading a speaker's books (Pallassamaa has authored thirty) are the little anecdotes that emerge. During the Q&A a member  of the audience asked Pallasamaa for his thoughts about the building we were in. After railing against the penchant of modern architects to be too enthralled with novelty and too frenetic with form, it would be interesting to hear his answer. After all, Liebskind is about as novel and frenetic as architects can get. But, still, this architect was his son's godfather.

4. Light and shadow. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. 

"Daniel," he said, "is a very good friend. When we first met in 1979 I knew, after exchanging a few sentences, that this man was a genius. But I didn't know in what field." The audience wondered if it should chuckle at this.
"Now, after more than thirty years knowing him and seeing his work" he continued, "I still think Daniel is a genius. And I still don't know in what field."  At this observation, delivered dryly,  the audience let our a real laugh.

5. Light, shape, novelty. Daniel Liebskind's DAM (left) and his
Museum Lofts (right).

6. Dappled light. Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West.

Pallasamaa was equally perspicacious when asked about living in the Frank Lloyd Wright studio.
"When I visited this country for the first time years ago, I loved the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. I thought he was a genius. But I didn't know why. Now, after living at Taliesin for four months, I still think he was a genius. But I still don't know why. He had a natural genius, unforced by grand theories. He just created naturally, without apparent effort."

7. Light, color, and depth. Ronchamp chapel by Le Corbusier.

Pallasamaa interprets architecture through a lens of feelings, emotions, and metaphysics. If you haven't yet discovered him, find a copy of The Eyes of the Skin and see architecture in a new way.

Credits:
1. AP
2. Ulises00
3. TheNose
4. Osvaldo Gago
5. Frank Vanbetlehem
6. John Fowler
7. Sanyambahga

Zip Zap Architecture

Zip! Zap! And a token curve thrown in too.

Residential architecture in the United States has taken on a fresh look lately. "Modern" (in quotes because the definition is impossible to nail down) architecture is in ascendancy.  Materials that used to be considered edgy (corrugated metal, concrete panels, polycarbonate windows) are now popular. Or, at least, accepted without criticism. Architects are experimenting with shape, form, and colors. Commercial architecture has always been a little more adventurous. Now residential design, in all price ranges,  looks more contemporary too. Mid-century modern, once a daring style avoided by conservative developers, is box office gold in the theater of speculative housing.

I applaud this trend because the prior "approved" styles were stodgy artifacts of a dusty past. (In most cases, a past not even connected to American history or mores.) Modern architecture encourages innovation and lends itself to new technologies, materials, energy efficiency, and sustainability. However, I  can't help being concerned about the slap-dash manner in which much of the new modern is designed. Modern architecture ought to be about exciting new spaces and clarity of purpose. But a lot of it is different solely for the sake of being different. It does not emerge from a coherent philosophy. In particular, I'm referring to architecture that is jarring and lacks composure. I call it Zip Zap architecture.

Zip Zap is a cartoon version of architecture. It is made of askew geometry and a jumble of materials that bear some resemblance to mid-century modern icons without their sense of originality and dignity. Too much of this will taint the whole idea of doing anything modern. Come on, young architects; get your act together with something a little more thoughtful. Thank you.

Oscar Niemeyer ARCHITECT

Oscar Niemeyer died last week at 104 years of age. He actively practiced architecture past the age of 100, reinforcing the phenomenon that famous architects continue to work well into their later years. (I'm not sure if that is true for not-so-famous architects.) His career began in the mid-1930s, including the Brasilian pavilion for the New York World's Fair in 1939 (with Lucio Costa).

Oscar Niemeyer was instrumental in my career path. I vividly remember being aware of his spectacular work when I was about 12 years old. I wrote a homework assignment that had something to do with the president of Brasil, Juscelino Kubitschek. I don't remember anything about Kubitschek's politics or why I wrote the paper. I do remember he hired Oscar Niemeyer to design a new capitol for Brasil: Brasilia. It was carved out of the jungle in a fearlessly modern style that employed bold shapes and sensuous curves. Unlike the austere boxes of most modernists, Niemeyer was unabashedly sensuous in his approach to architecture. He likened his work to the curves of the beautiful women on Rio's Copacabana beach. He was a Brasilian modern architect, not of the prevailing "international" style. His beautiful buildings directly influenced my decision to become an architect.

1. National Congress of Brasil.

2. Museo Nacional.

3. Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasil.

4. Presidential Palace

5. Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasil. 

6. Auditorium.

7. Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasil, interior.

"I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves....
Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of Einstein."

-- Oscar Niemeyer









































































































Even today, five decades later, Niemeyer's work in Brasilia appears fresh and modern. His more recent projects are as vigorous and inventive as his earlier ones.  Oscar Niemeyer deserves to be remembered as one of the great architects of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Images:
1. Marcelo Jorge Viera
2. Pub. Dom.
3. Victor Soares
4. Pub. Dom.
5. Joau Felipe
6. Jesus giez lago
7. Javier Gil

Half-A-Cup of Architecture

There is a shopping center near my house that is nice enough, as shopping centers go. It has a quasi-prairie style demeanor with hip roofs and broad overhangs. It supports a useful assortment of shops: Pier One, Petsmart, a couple of banks, and the obligatory Starbucks.

A neighborhood shopping center.

The architecture softens a big box venue, Office Max, as well as can be done. But every time I visit the center I'm disappointed by a potentially good design that has dropped the ball. The hip roof motif looks great from certain angles (head on) but from other vantage points the hip roofs are severed like useless appendages. Worse: when viewed from the rear, the hips turn into aluminum-paneled gables.

Phantom hip, above.  Details, below.

Some people view things as a cup half full and others as a cup half empty. Either way, these chopped-off hip roofs are half-a-cup of architecture. They are incomplete; fake; deceptive. Obviously, these phantom roofs are a way to simplify (cheapen) the design. The architects probably thought we would never notice. They appear to have succumbed to a common pitfall amongst architects and developers: designing a building from the front, forgetting that we live in a three-dimensional world. This shopping center sprawls over three city blocks, surrounded on four sides by busy streets. It is impossible not to see the architecture from all sides.

Main street in an old west town.

The set for Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles.

We are constantly exposed to this type of facade-ism: buildings designed like storefronts in a western movie. A Flatland world where a building is imagined to exist only in one dimension. Then we turn the corner and realize half of it is fake. A pretentious facade designed to make us think the building is more important than it really is.

A "spec" house under construction.

We are inundated with this attitude in residential architecture. Many houses are built with brick facades facing the street and cheaper materials around the sides. This is so common we don't think much about it anymore. It has almost become a style in itself. Maligned by thinking architects over the years,  facade-ism is sometimes addressed (somewhat defensively) by taking a wee bit of brick around the corner (see, we really are three-dimensional) but then suddenly quitting the more expensive material for something cheaper. This strategy can work only if the expensive material ends in a graceful way, such as at a jog in the building or by completing a column. All too often it is an empty gesture that only emphasizes the haplessness of the architect and/or the developer. Better to leave the brick off altogether than expose the vacuity of style in a half-hearted attempt at three-dimensional thinking.

Kinda makes you thirsty for a full cup of architecture.

Reductio ad absurdum: a storage shed in facade-ism style.

Would You Like Some Architecture With Your Fries?

Have you noticed that McDonalds has been upping its image lately with newly-mod architecture?
The kitsch of yore is gone, replaced with Starbuckian elevations and furnishings. I don't quite know what to make of it. Seeing a stylish McDonalds is like meeting a monkey in a tuxedo. Will I have a more rewarding experience just because the packaging has improved?

Of course, McDonalds was never not modern. It's just that now it has moved from naive and corny to aspiring sophistication (of a sort).

Here's the dilemma: I am always an advocate of better design in any context, but when good design filters down to McDonalds is it trivialized?  Have the semi-curved roof shapes and organic interiors favored by so many contemporary architects become so common that McDonalds - the lowest common denominator of pop culture - can use them with impunity?

McDonalds is still the same old McDonalds, trying to disguise itself as something better. Plus ce change, plus ce le meme chose. I am still looking for the "McCafe" I see in their ads: cool people drinking customized coffee drinks to the soothing saxaphone of a jazz musician. It doesn't exist, and I'm frustrated every time I search for it.

When you travel across the country every McDonalds menu is still predictable. The restrooms have the same fixtures, the order counter never changes, the ketchup bars are identical. Of course, the food is unvarying. We will never be disappointed at a McDonalds because it always delivers exactly what we expect it to. And now we are gently being offered the same repetitive mod look across the country and we are not offended. It is the pink slime of architecture: a processed filler that keeps us in a numb state of acceptance. None of this new design imagery at McDonalds is in any way challenging or inventive. It lacks the most important quality of good architecture: spatial experience. The new McDonalds architecture is surface treatment with no substance. Just like the food.

Images: MJK

Architecture and Energy: dasHAUS

Acclaimed Energy Efficient Building Pavilion, dasHAUS,

Announces Final North American Tour Stop in Denver

DENVER – The final stop of the North American dasHAUS tour, an innovative solar energy and green building exhibit from Germany, will shortly commence in Denver. The German American Chambers of Commerce have announced the dasHAUS tour will make its last stop on the 14-city tour, which began in October 2011, at the Denver Sustainability Park, 2500 Lawrence Street from October 14-23.  The pavilion is an internationally acclaimed exhibition that demonstrates advanced renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions from Germany, educating the community and opening a dialogue among industry professionals. 

“Through its commitment to the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency, Germany has emerged as a global leader in advanced and sustainable building design,” says Mark Tomkins, Vice President of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest (GACCoM). 

“On this side of the Atlantic, the city of Denver has taken on a leadership role in this area.  With our partner and local host, the Colorado Renewable Energy Society, our goal is to foster an international dialogue and know-how exchange on energy efficiency and renewable energies between Germany and Denver. The dasHAUS project is the perfect platform and rallying point for that exchange.”

dasHAUS is an integrated, multifaceted structure that demonstrates real-world technologies and solutions for meeting ultra-low energy building standards. It draws inspiration from the Technical University of Darmstadt’s 2007 and 2009 first-place entries in the Solar Decathlon, an international solar house competition presented by the US Department of Energy. 

“dasHAUS offers compelling proof that we can improve the comfort and affordability of our homes even while reducing the demands that those homes place on our energy and natural systems,” says Jerry Tinianow, Chief Sustainability Officer for Denver. “dasHAUS will serve as an inspiration to Denver as it works to foster sustainability by moving to a more affordable housing system in which the full cost of home ownership – including the energy cost – can come within reach of all of our residents.”  

Several special events and presentations will be part of the dasHAUS pavilion, featuring presentations by thought leaders on sustainability, green building and new methods of integration for ultra-low energy buildings.

Visitors of dasHAUS can learn about a multitude of sustainability technologies including:

• Thin film photovoltaic roof, facade and louvered panel systems
• Heat-recovery climate control and ventilation systems, Passive House Standard triple-pane windows
• Solar-powered LED lighting systems and high-efficiency appliances
• Vacuum insulated panel systems
• VRLA battery systems
• Advanced wall construction materials and methods

For more information on dasHAUS including an up-to-date schedule of events, visit http://denver.dashaustour.com/. 

dasHAUS is a traveling pavilion, a North American tour and an ongoing international dialogue about advanced technologies for home construction and solar energy use. The purpose – to share German innovations that have achieved sustainable construction and operational energy savings. Attendees will represent leading organizations and businesses in building materials, architecture, engineering, renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as university representatives and public officials.

The German American Chambers of Commerce (GACCs) is one of the largest bilateral trade organizations worldwide. With 2,500 member companies and office locations in Atlanta, Chicago and New York as well as branch offices in Houston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, the GACC offers experience in facilitating connections and services between German industry and its partners in the U.S. 

For more information about the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest and its 800+ members, visit http://www.gaccom.org/