January 30, 2010

The Heroics of Scale

A seemingly endless, sprawling labyrinth.
A generic hero – a “super-man,” who lives in a world that no longer needs him.
A world of technological achievement and wonder where man can be everywhere at once.
A crisis of purpose and identity.
A loss of significance in the face of modernity.

Technology. Identity. The humbling power of architecture and the built environment.
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January 18, 2010

Architecture After Las Vegas

This week, an international array of critics, architects and historians will convene at the Yale School of Architecture for Architecture After Las Vegas, a four-day symposium beginning January 21st. The event features lectures and panel discussions designed to consider the long-term impact of Las Vegas – as famously celebrated by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown – on design, urbanism and the architectural discourse.

Stanislaus von Moos will open the event with a lecture titled The City as Spectacle: A View from the Gondola on Thursday, 6:30 p.m. An author, art historian and architectural theorist, von Moos is the Spring term’s Vincent Scully Professor of Architectural History at the School of Architecture. Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown will deliver the keynote address, What Did You Learn?, on Friday, January 22nd at 6:30pm. Other speakers and panelists include Dan Graham, Peter Eisenman, Rafael Moneo, Mary McLeod, Beatriz Colomina, and many others.

I’m excited to add that on Sunday morning, I will be moderating an epilogue discussion with Denise Scott Brown. A Few More Words is an event that has been completely organized by students and planned specifically for students (despite the 10am scheduling) as a follow-up to a conversation held last October between the school’s Methods+Research class and Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown.

All events take place in Paul Rudolph Hall, 180 York Street. The symposium is open to the public, but prior registration is required. To learn more about Architecture After Las Vegas, and to submit your registration, please go to the school’s website.

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January 4, 2010

Inflate and Imbibe: Art and Architecture meet in a New Orleans Courtyard

[Des Cours Installation, original photo]

In December, I participated in Des Cours, a week-long art exhibition in New Orleans organized by The Big Easy’s chapter of the American Institute of Architects. A team made up of Fred Stivers, Sergio Padilla, and myself was invited with twelve other international teams of artists and architects to create installations in thirteen courtyards throughout downtown New Orleans. The spaces of Des Cours are private, hidden spaces. Spaces often unknown by the hundreds – if not thousands – of people who walk by them every day. Des Cours encourages artists to create installations that use new materials, methods, technology and interactivity to present a unique opportunity for viewing contemporary design within a historic setting. Our submittal: a nearly 100-foot-long inflatable structure in Tennessee Williams’ old courtyard. Continue Reading >>

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September 20, 2009

Subverting the Spectacle of Modern Times: Charlie Chaplin and the Situationists

[Still from Modern Times]

“The construction of situations begins beyond the ruins of the modern spectacle. It is easy to see how much the very principle of the spectacle – nonintervention – is linked to the alienation of the old world. Conversely, the most pertinent revolutionary experiments in culture have sought to break the spectators’ psychological identification with the hero so as to draw them into activity. . . . The situation is thus designed to be lived by its constructors…

-Guy Debord, from “Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation.” Continue Reading >>