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Architecture is not buildings. We get confused lots of times because architecture and buildings are not the same, and I don’t think it’s a question of semantics. But I think it’s very important to point out that buildings ARE buildings. They are made out of bricks and stone and concrete and wood and plastic (…) they have a space that they contain, they look like something, they are usually bigger than me (…). Architecture is ABOUT buildings (…). A building is a product of architecture, and if one looks at it carefully enough, one can find architecture in it (…). The building is, for me, the evidence of architecture.
(…)
So what is architecture? And to ask the fundamental question, what is architecture, is to ask why does one build, why does one make buildings? And I would answer that one makes architecture first of all because it makes us at home in our modern world, which of course makes sense when we make houses, because it produces a sense of belonging, of being at the same place at the same time.
To be at home in the modern world, maybe all you need is a chair. Maybe all you need is your iPod. Maybe all you need is your mother calling on your telephone. Maybe all you need is a good suit. Maybe all of these things are not enough, no: I’m sure all of these things are not enough, but I’m also sure that most of our buildings are too much. We have to ask what is the essence beyond a good chair, and before a big house, that makes us feel at home. But we can also try to understand our world through architecture (…) because architecture can be a form of criticism, a criticism in itself. And we will show, in Venice, ways in which architecture is moving beyond buildings. Not because buildings are bad, but because buidings are the starting point: to find out in which way to be at home in the modern world, in which way to figure out the modern world, in which you can find your way to the modern world.

- Aaron Betsky (via bimba tzatziki)

la biennale di architettura :: cincinnati art museum

(ecco, bravo, diglielo tu ai palazzinari de casa nostra…)

Scherzetto: non è vero che sarà costruita un’estensione in cima alla Torre Eiffel…

Ci eravate cascati, eh?

(via DesignNotes)

Due eventi nelle ultime 24 ore: l’assegnazione del Premio Pritzker per l’architettura a Jean Nouvel (ed era pure ora, mi verrebbe da aggiungere.) e dell’Expo 2015 a Milano.

Per il primo, come ho già detto, ho fatto quasi le capriole (manco l’avessero dato a me…) - dico “quasi” perché mi ha trattenuto solo la mano infortunata.

Per quanto riguarda la seconda notizia, sono contenta con moderazione, anzi, no, con preoccupazione (perché spero non si facciano pasticci) - è una sfida non solo per Milano, ma per tutta l’Italia. Fusse ca fusse la volta bbona che ci rimettiamo in carreggiata…

cavaturaccioli gigante Sydney - Garvan Institute
photo by eagle.ffm1

Questo che vedete qui sotto è l’interno di un ufficio a Tokyo, opera dello studio di progettazione Nendo:

Quando il leziosismo prende il sopravvento (”uuuh, che figata gli archi al contrario…gajàrdo!“) succede che un elemento progettuale altrove funzionale (esempio: le paratie delle imbarcazioni, che non solo le dividono in ambienti, ma servono innanzitutto per irrigidire la struttura dello scafo.) viene trasposto in un contesto completamente avulso, con il risultato che al “segno stilistico” (bello quanto vi pare, per carità.) si aggiunge purtroppo anche la beffa nei confronti dell’utente ultimo dell’architettura medesima (ricordiamo alla gentile clientela che l’architettura è un’arte-scienza dedita in primo luogo al miglioramento dell’esistenza abitativa dell’uomo. Insomma: dev’essere bella, sì, ma pure comoda.).

E tanti cari tanti saluti all’accessibilità e all’universal design.

(via dezeen)

It seems dissing Italy has become a favourite sport worldwide.

Newest kid joining in the dissing game is The Guardian’s John Hooper, with an article comparing Italy to Spain, most of which is trite news but, sadly, also so hurtingly truthful.

I won’t go into politics et al as that’s the agreeable part of the article (yes our politicians are old. Very. Yes, Festival di Sanremo is boring. Tell me something I don’t know.), but since this blog is on architecture I feel the urge to point out something I disagree with.

Hooper claims the only piece of contemporary architecture in Rome is Richard Meier’s Ara Pacis museum. It’s true there isn’t much noteworthy contemporary architecture over here, but I’m surprised he forgot to mention Renzo Piano’s Auditorium - oh, right, that one’s been designed by an Italian, so it probably doesn’t count. Also, he fails to understand tourists coming to Rome don’t travel to see Richard Meier’s white concrete and glass box, but what’s inside it, i.e. the real Ara Pacis (yes - it’s not the box that’s called Ara Pacis, but its content. Surprise!), which, incidentally, dates back to some 2000 years ago.

Italy in general, and Rome in particular, is an old (aka “ancient”) place, which doesn’t necessarily mean decrepit to the point it has to be tore down by bombs or any other available means in order to make room for new, shiny stuff that glitters - thank God this is not Las Vegas. Most of the times that means it’s a place that retains history in the form of art and architecture. Some of it has been there for centuries, twenty of them (that’s two thousand years, again) if you think of Colosseum. I’m not quite sure which contemporary architecture masterpieces will be able to claim the same in twenty years’ time, let alone in two thousands - especially since I know some of them are already leaking just three years after they’ve been completed.

Being old is not always a bad thing.

p.s.: as for the “the Italian language has remained unaffected by recent changes in the status of women (…) so a female lawyer, for example, is still an ‘avvocato’” bit, I must say I’m thankful for that, as I’d be embarrassed if people started calling me an “architetta“.

(image via The Guardian)

Tunnel acustico
Super Dodge Returns! - photo by Vermin Inc

(thanks to puscic)

Questa è una panoramica del Corno d’Oro, estuario che costeggia la parte bizantina di Istanbul:

Istanbul è una città bellissima ma anche ad alto rischio di terremoti: secondo gli scienziati, se ne prevede uno grave entro i prossimi 30 anni, nell’ordine dei 6.8 - 7.5 gradi della scala Richter. La città, specialmente la parte antica, non è progettata secondo criteri antisismici, ed ha strade strette che, in caso di terremoto, non consentirebbero un facile accesso per i soccorsi.

Per questo motivo il governo turco ha commissionato alla Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA) uno studio per una nuova città satellite, a prova di sisma.

Read the rest of this entry »

(foto di Ed Reeve)

Alla Casa dell’Architettura (piazza Manfredo Fanti 47, Roma - aperta dal lunedì al sabato, dalle 10:00 alle 18:00) fino all’11 marzo, una mostra su David Adjaye:

Horizon, il più recente dei padiglioni realizzati da Adjaye, è influenzato dal paesaggio e dalla terra dell’Africa e del Medio Oriente. L’ispirazione arriva in particolare dalle forme architettoniche e dalle pietre di Aswan, in cui Adjaye si è imbattuto durante un suo viaggio in Egitto. L’architetto britannico esplora il concetto della progettazione architettonica di padiglioni sin dal 2003, anno in cui è stato invitato a collaborare con Chris Ofili al Padiglione Britannico della Biennale di Venezia. Read the rest of this entry »

Piano will develop a 42-acre (17 hectare) property on the coast near the center of Athens, the capital, according to an e- mailed statement from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which commissioned the project. The site will house the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center with new opera and library facilities within an educational and cultural park.

The foundation has budgeted 300 million euros ($442 million) for the center and will hand over the project to the Greek state on completion.

(via Bloomberg.com)

Speriamo bastino, 300 milioni, non vorrei si finisse come il coso della Hadid per l’Architecture Foundation…