A City explored....

Alternative methods of exploring a city

                                      

A City Narrated

A City Salvaged

The Process of Making One Hundred Chairs by Martino Gamper 

" I didn’t make one hundred chairs just for myself or even in an effort to rescue a few hundred unwanted chairs from the streets. The motivation was the methodology: the process of making, of producing and absolutely not striving for the perfect one. This kind of making was very much about restrictions rather than freedom. The restrictions were key: the material, the style or the design of the found chairs and the time available — just a 100 days. Each new chair had to be unique, that’s what kept me working toward the elusive one-hundredth chair. I collected discarded chairs from London streets (or more frequently, friends’ homes) over a period of about two years. My intention was to investigate the potential of creating useful new chairs by blending together the stylistic and structural elements of the found ones. The process produced something like a three-dimensional sketchbook, a collection of possibilities. I wanted to question the idea of there being an innate superiority in the one-off and used this hybrid technique to demonstrate the difficulty of any one design being objectively judged The Best. I also hope my chairs illustrate — and celebrate — the geographical, historical and human resonance of design: what can they tell us about their place of origin or their previous sociological context and even their previous owners? For me, the stories behind the chairs are as important as their style or even their function. I wanted the project to stimulate a new form of design-thinking and to provoke debate about the value, functionality and the appropriateness of style for certain types of chair. What happens to the status and potential of a plastic garden chair when it is upholstered with luxurious yellow suede? The approach is elastic, highlighting the importance of contextual origin and enabling the creative potential of random individual elements spontaneously thrown together. The process of personal action that leads towards making rather than hesitating." 

Taken from the book 100 Chairs in 100 Days

A City re-presented

Guy Debord's Psychogeographic guide of Paris

"The map of Paris has been cut up in different areas that are experienced by some people as distinct unties (neighbourhoods). The mentally felt distance between these areas are visualized by spreading out the pieces of the cut up map. By wandering, letting onself float or drift (dériver is the French word used) each person can discover his or her own ambient unities of a specific city. The red arrows indicate the most frequent used crossings between the islands of the urban archipel (seperated by flows of motorized traffic). "

A Borough re-presented

A link to a preview of Iain Sinclair's book 'Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report'.

London Overheard

A link to Timeout's brilliant catalogue of a city overheard....

On Rear Windows and Front Windows

Rear Windows....






and Front Windows:

You will not be surprised to learn that the net curtain is a British, or, specifically, English device, as it allows examination of the outside world without permitting introspection.

The net spread with the rising urban middle classes, who began to worry that their betters might sneer at their interiors and their inferiors might steal from them.

Originally made of lace, the introduction of light polyester nets increased opportunities for hidden observing, and the net assumed its role as a cipher for suburbia and its supposed narrowness and nosiness. Now it is rarely met without its default adjective, "twitching", emphasising that it's seen mostly as a means of prying rather than protecting.

Its more organised consequence, Neighbourhood Watch, hasn't attracted the same opprobrium. The upper classes prefer shutters. Continentals, who largely operate an open-curtain policy, are puzzled by all this obscurantism. But then they, palpably, are not British.

Article from The Independent

The Blossoming of Perspective

A selection of image of perspectival devices from Dr Penelope Haralambidou's research output the 'Blossoming of Perspective'

Here is a link to her exhibition pamphlet: link

Sequences of Space in the White House

Well worth watching if suffering from a creative block...(skip to 7:22 if needs be)

 

Departure Point: On Casting....

Some modes of casting we should (or should become) acquainted with:

Max Lamb's Hexagonal Pewter Stool

Guiseppe Penone - Spazio Di Luce

Rachel Whiteread - Whitechapel Facade Commission (follow link for video )

Chriso and Jeanne Claude - Coast

Three Minute Movie - Rebooted

All,

Further to our presentation last week regarding the three minute movie we would like you to being collating for your portfolios, please refer to the film references below:











 and some others:

Nave Yutes: Flores Prats
Bornholms Museum: Flores Prats

At this stage of the year we ask you to use film as a way of recording and interrogating your work; allow the camera to reveal and present new ways of viewing your work.
We will be expecting to see you all use film in this way throughout the year and ask that you bring in snippets along to tutorials, be it films of processes of making, drawing or just light dancing across a room.
As we progress through term one we will begin to explore film editing software and discuss the role the films could take in our portfolios/crits etc...

For clarity the premise of the 3 minute movie is to alleviate the restriction on the number of portfolio sheets and models you are permitted to submit. As such we envisage that the 3 minute movie is intended to act as a supplement to the portfolio.

Any further questions please ask.

J

Union Street

Trailer: Good Bye, Union Street from openvizor on Vimeo.

Pop-up Garden

Accommodating Change

“do not assume that order and stability are always good, in a society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born, the old must perish. This is a dangerous realization, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. But that is part of the script of life. Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves begin to die, inwardly. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. And that is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism which can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new.” Philip K Dick. Excerpt from 'How to build a universe that doesn't fall apart two days later' 1978

Three Minute Movie

All,

Further to our presentation last week regarding the three minute movie we would like you to being collating for your portfolios, please refer to the film references below:






and some others:

Nave Yutes: Flores Prats
Bornholms Museum: Flores Prats

As there are restrictions to the number of portfolio sheets and models you are permitted to submit as part of your final hand-in's, we envisage that the 3 minute movie is intended to act as a supplement to the portfolio. As such we ask you to be tactical, use the movie to showcase extra work you might have done. For example, sketches, models, photographs, films, films of models, precedents, and other work which might be conveyed better through the movie rather than your portfolio. We do not expect you to produce new work for the movie, you should only be collating your current work for the movie.

The movie should be no more than 3 minutes in length. We will be very strict on this, and you should weight the movie so that half is assigned to project 4, and the other half to the first three projects of the year.
We envisage that the movie can be used for cross crits and final hand-in's to introduce the overall themes you have been investigating through the year, before spending the remaining time talking through your key work. As such be sure to edit your movies well to ensure that the strands of your research throughout the year come through clearly.

This is intended to be an enabler so that you can focus on your portfolio. Use the opportunity well.

We will be reviewing the movies every other week, so please ensure that you work on this progressively throughout the term and do not leave this till the last minute.


Any further questions please ask.

Reality as an Instrument

All,

A new TV series following the individuals who make planning decisions. 'The Planners' is an interesting insight into the considerations planners take when reviewing a scheme and their attitudes to space planning.

A must watch for moments of procrastination.

LINK

Hong Kong Architect Turns Shoebox Apartment into 24 rooms 

relevant to those looking at urban density, residential London and architecture of necessity for their design projects - (following on from Henry's previous Post)

Chang, 46, turned the flat he has occupied since the age of 14 into what he calls his “domestic transformer,” and in the process offered a vision for how one of the world’s most densely-populated cities could better use its limited space.

“The key idea is that everyone could look into their home more carefully and into how better to optimize their resources, because space is a resource,”

“There is no use making your home as if it is a perfect show flat but at the same time never using the space,” 

Chang has tackled the lack of room by replacing the flat’s walls with a series of accordion-like sliding units, hung from metal tracks on the ceiling, that can be moved about to form a variety of configurations.

Growing up in the flat with six others, Chang had to be flexible.

“I have three younger sisters, so we all lived here. Originally there were three bedrooms, a living room and a dining room,” he said. “My sisters occupied one room, my parents another room and the third was actually not for me, it was for an outsider — my parents sub-let it to somebody else to get more revenue. So actually I slept in the living room.”

Chang still lives in the flat, and has spent his adult life reinventing his small corner of a 19-story 1960s tower block in Hong Kong’s bustling Sai Wan Ho district.

The architect believes his innovations can show even the poorest families how to improve their domestic arrangements and is determined that his book My 32m² Apartment: A 30-Year Transformation will influence new housing.

SOURCE : firewireblog.com/

Ernesto Oroza: Architecture of Necessity (Havana)

The city’s inhabitants are aware of their real needs, driven by the inevitable, they transform their city under a new order: The Moral Modular. Urgency provides for the individual a foundational alibi. Every sexual or physiological impulse, every birth and even death, will provoke the appearance of new walls, columns, stairways, new windows or plumbing and electrical systems.

Form follows Necessity. The modified houses of Havana express this relationship.  It’s an Architecture of Necessity.

http://ernestooroza.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=39&Itemid=56

Dark Days (2000) - Marc Singer

Dark Days (2000) is a documentary by Marc Singer traveling through New York’s underground in order to meet the “mole people”, the homeless living along Penn Station’s underground railway.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235327/

Broadway Malayan Liverpool housing

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpgs/liverpool/mann_island_liverpool_bm07.jpg

Lessons for Students in Architecture

"The work of Herman Hertzberger is the subject of wide international esteem. In this book, the background to his work and the ideas underlying it are put into words by the architect himself. It presents a broad spectrum of subjects and designs, with practical experience and evaluation of the use of these buildings serving as a leitmotif.
The book divides into three parts: Public Domain, Making Space Leaving Space, and Inviting Form. By arranging texts and designs into a number of themes Hertzberger has managed to direct his broad practical experience into a fascinating theory. In his view everyone - the more he sees, experiences, and absorbs - is automatically in possession of an ever-expanding arsenal of potential instructions with which to choose a path towards a result. More than 750 illustrations give a broad insight into Hertzbergers library and a stimulating impression of one of the most important Dutch architects alive today. Rather than supplying the reader with design recipes, Hertzberger has provided an essential source of inspiration to everyone involved in some way with the design process."

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Lessons_for_Students_in_Architecture.html?id=iw5Jczr3zkwC

Donnybrook by Peter Barber Architects

“Donnybrook is one of the most innovative housing projects to be undertaken in the UK for decades…
It is not impossible to imagine that in 10 years time, Donnybrook might be remembered as a significant turning point in the culture of British housing 
provision” 
Ellis Woodman, Building Design Magazine, 24th February 2006

http://www.peterbarberarchitects.com/01_Donny.html

Arte Povera

This might be interesting for those of you interested in casting....Guiseppe Penone, of the Arte Povera movement.
The installation will be on show at the Whitechapel Gallery until August 2013 so drop by and have a look.


GIUSEPPE PENONE - Spazio Di Luce - An Installation for the Whitechapel Gallery from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.


Another project he mentions briefly is this:

London Calling...

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, we are now leaving the sunny climes of Portugal and we shall shortly be arriving in London where the temperature is 3 degrees Celsius and wet.
Be sure to wrap up warm on any planned expeditions.

Find attached a link to the site map of the earl's court re-development. LINK
As discussed today, the map has 23 clearly defined boundaries which straddle the periphery of the redevelopment as well as an area within the development zone. You must pick a site that relates to your areas of investigation from P02. 1 site per student.
You will be asked to confirm which site you have chosen at Thursday's pin-up.....

....and before you head into town a couple of videos to inspire you:

London Bus Tour from moritz oberholzer on Vimeo.

....and finally an interesting talk from Simon Withers of Architecture Diploma Unit 15 at the University of Greenwich. About working with Vivienne Westwood and Malcom Mclaren at their renowned World's End shop in west London, 16th Century armour, the Kelly Gang, and making universes out of one's studio.


Sun, Sea and Piracy from Jonathan Hagos on Vimeo.

London (Re)Generation

An interesting publication on regeneration in London, would be worth a read. There is an article about the Earl's Court Project, which would be worth photocopying and putting up in the unit space.

Here is a link to the google books preview LINK

Earl's Court 2030

As we draw an end to our projects in Portugal, perhaps it's now time to start re-considering Earls' Court.

Have a look back at the website myearlscourt.com, as there are some interesting new updates including an edition of TimeOut London focusing on the Earl's Court area (post re-development) in 2030. It's very much a fictional 'moodboard' for the proposed development and was interestingly given out to local residents who visited the masterplan exhibition drop-in sessions and the 21,000 homes in the vicinity of the development.

Publisher's disclaimer - "this guide is a vision, not a blueprint".

Also, an interesting link to the Cultural Strategy for the Earl's Court Project LINK

Millionaire Boy Racers

All,

A stone's throw from our sites - the millionaire boy racers of sloane street...

A must watch:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/millionaire-boy-racers/4od