Archigram Archived
Archigram member Michael Webb's Temple Island.
It’s hard to remember that the phenomenally influential Archigram only worked together as a group for two years: 1962–1964. But all six members (four are still living) carried on extremely active practices on their own, sometimes in combinations with other members, and they produced an amazing body of work. The University of Westminster has embarked on an archival project to assemble this creative output in digital format and make it available online. Though this monumental task is far from complete, the university has amassed almost 10,000 images, and will go live with the website on Monday at 7 p.m. London time at a special event. I have been planning on flying over for the occasion, and, should Iceland’s volcanic eruption permit, will be in Westminster to report on it next week.
Hejduk Saves Face?
Hejduk's Kreuzberg Tower, as seen on March 31. (Courtesy SLAB Magazine)
We recently reported on the defacement of John Hejduk’s Kreuzberg Tower and Wings in Berlin, the architect’s poetic 1988 project built as part of the IBA program. After an international outpouring of angst over the developer’s “renovation” of the building—in just two weeks, more than 3,000 people signed an online petition, with testimonials penned by architects including Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, Thom Mayne, and others—the building’s managers, BerlinHaus GmbH, have now said they will meet with the design community to take public opinion into consideration, and perhaps rethink their plans. Read More
Raimund Abraham, Real & Imagined
The work of Raimund Abraham. CLICK TO LAUNCH SLIDESHOW
In the latest issue of the paper, Lebbeus Woods pays tribute to his friend and colleague Raimund Abraham, who died last month. Here, we gather together a survey of the visionary architect’s work, both built and—perhaps more importantly—unbuilt, for as Woods recounts of Abraham, “Building, he believed, necessarily violates nature’s wholeness, and must be done with a full awareness of consequences.” Click the image above of Abraham’s best known building, the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, to begin the slideshow. (Special thanks to Stefan Heßling for generously sharing his images of Abraham’s musikstudio in Germany.)
You can also watch Abraham’s last lecture, delivered at SCI-Arc the night of March 3. He died in a car accident on his way home.
The Great Architect
Where's the T-square?
A new book argues that Jesus was not the son of a humble carpenter after all, but instead, of a well-respected architect. “The Jesus Discovery,” written by Dr. Adam Bradford and published by Christian UK publishing company Templehouse, revisits the New Testament in its original Greek and concludes that Joseph’s profession has suffered from a mistranslation for the past two millennia.
Nouvel Under the Sun
Nouvel's National Museum in Doha, Qatar. (Courtesy Ateliers Jean Nouvel)
Fresh from landing the commission for the Serpentine Gallery’s annual summer pavilion in London, French architect Jean Nouvel was in New York yesterday for the official unveiling of the new National Museum in Doha, Qatar. Designed as a ring of low-lying, interlocking pavilions encircling a large courtyard, the 430,000-square-foot structure is created from sand-colored disks that define floors, walls, and roofs, almost as if growing out of the desert landscape. Read More
Defacing Hejduk
Hejduk's Kreuzberg complex in happier days. (Courtesy architectureinberlin)
The late John Hejduk, dean of Cooper Union, a member of the Texas Rangers, and an influential member of the New York Five, built very few buildings, preferring to leave architectural ideas on paper. But he did build several housing projects in Berlin as part of the influential IBA program, and now one of his finest projects, the Kreuzberg Tower from 1988, is being defaced by its new owners in the name of “improvement.” Kazys Varnelis sends word that a petition is being created to protest this destruction. The effort is being led in part by Hejduk’s daughter Renata, an architectural historian who urged the new owners to halt the work, but apparently received a rude response. According to architectureinberlin, Renata explained: “I tried everything I could to get them to stop and at least consult with the Estate and other architects who were interested in helping to preserve them. They were completely uninterested and felt their facade changes would be much better than the original.” Help save the tower by spreading the word, signing the petition, and putting pressure on the new owners to reconsider their actions. You can see the terrible plans after the jump. Read More
Tunnel Vision
Detour ahead: Le Gallerie is a twin tunnel-turned-exhibition space in Italy's Dolomite Mountains. (Photography by Pierluigi Faggion)
New York’s celebrated High Line may have turned an old rail trestle into a park, but the Northern Italian city of Trento has one-upped Manhattan, reclaiming two 1,000-foot-long tunnels in the Dolomite Mountains as an experimental history museum—and a fascinating example of the reuse of abandoned infrastructure. Read More
STACKing Up
Giving a new meaning to software architecture.
It’s seems everybody’s on Facebook and Twitter these days (us included—and if you’re not already following us, get on it!) while MySpace and Friendster have been all but abandoned. There’s the new Google Buzz, but that’s been more like Google Glitch. What all these social networks have in common is that they’re designed for people. But what if there was a social network designed exclusively for buildings? May we introduce you to STACKD. Started by the fine folks at Supermetric, who just so happened to help design Archpaper.com way back when, STACKD takes social networks out of the virtual world and transports them to the real one, a place where the burgeoning site needs our help. Read More
Ai Takes on Turbine Hall
The Tate's South Bank space. (Tate Photography)
The outspoken Chinese architect and artist Ai Weiwei has been selected by the Tate Modern as the 11th person to create a work for its massive Turbine Hall in London. A known figure in China and the west, Ai lived in New York for many years and attended the Parsons School of Design before going on to collaborate on projects such as the Beijing National Stadium (with Herzog & de Meuron) at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and was included in the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale, where he collaborated (also with H&deM) on a sprawling installation of bamboo poles and chairs set akimbo. Read More
Alessandro Magris, 1941-2010
Superstudio's Alessandro Magris is pictured fourth from the left.
Peter Lang called this morning with the sad news that Superstudio member Alessandro Magris has died in Florence, Italy. Born in 1941, Magris joined the group in 1970 after graduating from the University of Florence, and was responsible for the general organization of the Superstudio office. He continued a practice long after the demise of Superstudio, specializing in the restoration of historical monuments and residential and commercial renovations. He is the brother of Roberto Magris, also a member of Superstudio, who died in 2003.
Gateway Of India
Built in 1911 to commemorate a visit from King George V and Queen Mary, Mumbai's Gateway of India is now welcoming a wealth of American architectural talent.
The past ten years have seen an impressive amount of economic growth and infrastructural development in India, and the nation is becoming more and more a well established market for American architectural talent. This trend doesn’t seem to be changing as we embark on a new decade. One sign of that is the September 2009 opening of an office in Mumbai by structural engineering firm Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA). Founded in 1923 in New York City, LERA has contributed its services to many of the city’s iconic structures (such as the World Trade Center) and has designed buildings all around the world, but this will be its first foreign office. A release by the firm cited a “growing workload” and the need to “facilitate client relations” as key reasons for the opening. LERA will join a number of other American architecture firms that have recently opened branches in the subcontinent, including HOK and Perkins Eastman. See some of the projects LERA has worked on after the jump.
A European Version of AN?
Just when things were looking bleak for print, here comes new bi-monthly European publication Panorama, which has already been billed by one blogger as Europe’s answer to the Architect’s Newspaper. The printed (yes, PRINTED!) glossy broadsheet is published by the makers of Future Arquitecturas, a magazine on international competitions. A one year subscription will cost £15.00 in Europe and £17.00 in the rest of the world. We found its Facebook page here. No response yet from the pub, but it appears Panorama began last year, and is published in both English and Spanish. According to the RIBA bookshop, the January issue included an interview with Spanish architect Carlos Ferrater as well as stories on the new Dallas Theater Center, on plans for the new home of the National Archives of France, and Andalusia’s tallest building, The Towers of Hercules. We’re so proud of our little printed sibling.
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