The Chicago Spire

It's nice to see the American skyscraper isn't completely dead.  The Chicago Spire by Santiago Calatrava is currently under construction in Chicago. It is slated for completion in 2011, and will stand as the world's second tallest building.  Now if only it didn't look like a giant joint.

Architecture with a twist

New York architect Eric Clough left one family with more than a unique apartment renovation. He left them with a scavenger hunt mystery that unfolded over the weeks and months that followed. Click here to read the story.

If you have 15 minutes...

This short story was recommended to me last night by a friend. I was blown away by the prose and style. Enjoy!

MORE-akami, Please!

The Tashaki Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum is everything a well done retrospective of a current and great artist should be. The paintings were well displayed, his masterpieces new and old were present, as well as meaningful glimses into different media, colloborations, and a well thought out path that brought his career to life.

His interest in High Art vs. Commercialism made a play, as did his thoughts on globalization, and sex vs. society. A Kanye West Movie video played in a room covered with Carpet by his desing. Giant acrylic paintings hung next to his Louis Vuitton Purse collection. His stunning paintings contrasted with $10 stuffed animals of his favorite characters. He combines Ancient Japanese styling with his new streamlined characters, and adds a unique sanding technique to end with a completely unique style.

If you have the way and the means, GO SEE IT NOW. It runs through July 13th.

Another day, another project, another Jewish Museum for Daniel Libeskind.

Opening the Monday times, I saw that the new San Francisco Jewish Museum has opened. Designed by the Jewish Museum Guru, Daniel Libeskind, it is his 4th Jewish museum after Copenhagen, Osnabrück, and Berlin. While it seems he would be honing his skills, using each to aproach an issue of place or context (San Francisco has an entirely different meaning to Jews than Berlin), he instead focuses on the cultural traditions of Judaism. The first seemingly sparse collection is appropriately titled: "Being Jewish, a Bay Area Portrait".

Although Liebeskind intended the Museum to represent or perhaps invoke Paradise, the opposite is rather true. Although the U.S. has often represented sanctuary during times of opression, the Museum has the acute stabbing angles, cold steel and hard concrete of its terror inspiring Berlin and Copenhagen counterparts.

Again reissued were the Hebrew letters, Biblical phrases turned into architectural representation, Jewish symbols abstracted, other themes employed as "symbols".

All in all it seems a bit overdone. Maybe just re-done too many times. I wouldn't be surpised if Libeskind had an alogarithm for cranking out Jewish Museums. No matter how or through what means he came to this building, a $50M budget should get more from him than reissuing a previous project.

An insider at the firm has told me He's flying his entire enterprise, interns included, to SF for wining, dining, and the opening parrrrty.

For more information, read the New York times Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/arts/design/09jewi.html?pagewanted=2&ref=arts

IF you have pictures, please send!

Graphic-Exchange

I have long mourned the cancellation of my subscription to Communication Arts.  I always enjoyed thumbing through pages of solid graphic design.  Usually it was nothing too revolutionary but some nice eye candy.  Today I stumbled upon this gem to help fill my fix.  Graphic-Exchange is a well design website featuring works from Artless, DHNN (design has no name) and many others.  The designs range from very straight forward letterheads to abstract graphics design.  The site has several categories depending on what you are looking for - graphic, print, identity, music, web, photo, packaging, interior, and design.  I know I'll lose many hours exploring this site.

Mean Cards

Usually when I go to the local drug store to buy a card I'm getting ripped off. I'm paying $5 for a card with shitty graphics and the sappiest, most cliche message ever. Mean cards are something I can get behind. Anyone with a good sense of humor will enjoy the brilliance behind these utterly sarcastic cards by Julianna Holowka. If not - fuck em.

Creepiest or Coolest thing you've ever seen.

Whatever Pritzker.

Dear Pritzker:
I know you're fancy, and you have a lot of money, and you're really powerful, and the "Most Prestigious Prize in Architecture" (self-titled, by the way). I get that you're basically a lifetime achievement award, and you commend those who have "significant contributions to humanity". I understand that you have formed around yourself a club of the most famous and notable architects to grace the planet in the last 1/2 century, and to set the record stratight, I do admire Jean Nouvel. His work can be imaginative, creative, and surprising in ways not often seen. I also love Zaha Hadid, because she powerfully combines her mathmatical genius with her stunning artwork to create ideas that have changed the way many think of architecture. I also love myself a bull-headed cold-herated strong bitchy woman every now and again. Actually I like many of the architects chosen by you to carry your torch.

But Thom Mayne? Anyway, back to the point. My point is that you are so big and strong and powerful that you could change architecture through your choices. Instead you choose the architects who are almost household names, "starchitects" if you will. These are people who have branded themselves, so that they pump out projects one after the other in their signature image. I don't need to do any research to find out if a building is a "Ghery". Or a "Meier". You and your grandiose ways overshadow the small design firms who are searching for the real next thing in architecture. It's the small studios who really embody the ethics of the profession, and it is the small firms that are contributing to humanity. At this point the Daniel Liebeskinds of the world design outrageously large buildings at outrageous costs with no concern than their own bank accounts. You blot out the present and future by awarding established giants of the past two decades your award. It's really annoying.

All the smaller prizes get eaten up in your momentum. Maybe you could just buy yourself less press. I think everyone would rather hear more about the vastly different and edgy projects of the upcoming Biennale in Venice. I'm not exactly sure what you should change, but I know this: I am getting really tired of looking at Nouvel's shiny pate every single time I open up a design publication or site.

Thanks.

From Pleated Fashion to a New World Vision?

Issey Miyake takes pleats seriously. He has an entire fashion line evolved from pleated crepe fabric. While the clothes are beautifully consturcted, innovative, and fresh, being in his tiny Soho store is enough to make your eyes long for a flat surface. I guess I didn't take him seriously enough (It's like writing of Shigeru Ban for trying to design buildings out of cardboard), because he just directed the Tokyo exhibit XXIst Century Man which looks like one of the more fascinating takes on modern culture I've seen.

The futuristic show stays in the mystical, and embraces what's to come as a source of energy and promise. Held in 21_21 Design Sight, Tadao Ando's 1 year old underground design museum, the museum touches on thhe dragons and serpents of Easten Mythology, and also delves into how industry has shaped our culture today. One of the more notable pieces is a chair designed by Nendo, out of Miyake's pleats, making the exhibition personal.

Directing an exibition that attempts to capture Zeitgeist is no easy feat. Although all 11 pieces in this exhibition were carefully chosen, perhaps a wider, more sporadic selection would have given a better sense of how we actually think of the future. Futurism is definitely back, in movies, in fashion, in styles, and materials. Perhaps it's a trend destined to reappear every few decades. Or, maybe with war hanging over us, the economic depression, and our forced isolationism while the rest of the world goes global, its nice to see the green grass on the other side. Either way, Miyake's future is a place I'd like to experience.

Rhizotron and Xstrata Tree Top Walkway

Looking through Icon's latest publication, I stumbled upon this little ditty by Marks Barfield Architects. High in the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens in London, it winds its way through the tops of sweet chestnut, decidious, and oak trees. The light-looking (but probably not) steel structure resembles the trees it coexists with. The architects goals were to create a unique experience without harming the existing environment, or detracting from the natural beauty of its surroundings. The result is remarkable: innovative, distinct, and it looks like a heavenly walk. Let's hope this is the directions of "Ethical Design"!

http://www.iconeye.com/index.php?view=article&catid=1%3Alatest-news&layout=news&id=3243%3Amarks-barfield-rhizotron-and-xstrata-tree-top-walkway&option=com_content&Itemid=18

Casa Per Tutti at Milan Triennale

Designboom has some amazing coverage of the Casa Per Tutti exhibit at the Milan Triennale.


Here is a list of the works on display:

Palette House by I-Beam
Elemental by Alejandro Aravena
Clothes House by MVRDV
Deep Purple by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas
U-dome World Shelters
Peruvian Red Cross Shelters
Umbrella House by Kengo Kuma

Interactive Fun

Give Richard Meier Your Time and Money

An interesting postcard just dropped into the office today. Richard Meier is signing copies of his Complete Works book "Live and In Person" Tuesday, June 3rd at 107 Greene St in NYC. Thrilling, if you want to spend way too much for a way too heavy book full of images you could easily find online.

But, if you're really in to coffer table books, white architecture, or just have $150 burning a hole in your pocket order your copy at www.taschen.com, and meet the pritzker prize winning architect in person. As for me, working next door to him has afforded me enough opportuniteis to see him without standing in line. Beware: He'll steal your cab if you give him half a chance.

Rem designs Highways?

I'm not sure whether to think of this as the downturn of architecture, or the upturn of roadtrips, but OMA's designing schemes for the existing motorway between Amsterdam and Antwerp. Called A4 Corridor, it aims to

reinvigorate the lifeline that connects the major cities of the region. Aiming to organize the metropolitan infrastructure, it will set the stage for Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Antwerp to become major players in the global field.

The concept is interesting, and unusual. Lets hope the project gets past the schematic phase!

I thought Tony vs. Paul was the greatest stop animation I was going to see. I was wrong. MUTO by BLU is an impressive animation that takes over the streets of Buenos Aires and Baden.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Yo' MoMA

The recent Design and the Elastic Mind show has come and gone at MoMA in New York, however the struggle to gain relevancy in a constantly changing world will plague designers for years to come. The Exhibition opens on the realization that our relationships with space, time, matter, and individuality are being revolutionized by technological advances. As designers, our challenge is to harness the technology at our fingertips to create change for the better. We can help to ease humanity into a new era of living through our thought explorations, sensitivity, understanding of what we have, and more importantly, what is to come. The collection of designers have used their grasp of monumental technological changes that demand wide changes in behavior, to create objects and systems accessible to everyday people.

Some pieces, like The Honeycomb Vase by Studio Libertini, were not only stunning in their own right, but show a creative and playful way to approach design and creation. Other ideas, are at the cutting egde of communications technology; new technology by nokia and motorolla. Taking communications further was a device that could tell what mood a dog was in by the speed it wagged its tail. Non-working cellular devices are part of a study by IDEO in London to learn about effects of cellphones on mental and emotional health.

One of the most interesting, yet least complete pieces was a video by Greg Lynn, Peter Frankfurt and Alex Macdowell that explored the "New City". They asked themselves how people would live, behave, travel, and communicate in the future. Unfortunately, they spent more time on their 3D renderings than thoroughly answering their own questions.

Also fascinating were graphs and diagrams of information found on the internet. Changes to Wikipedia pages mapped in bright photoshop colors, neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of felons and inmates arrowed in red. Although the information hasn't been analyzed, it was an interesting reminder of the amount of information a quick internet search puts in front of us.

As projects fluctuated from nano to cosmic, tiny chips that will change the life of a heart attack victim, to new designs for space stations, it became clear that computation and calculations done by computers can give us an edge, but a human touch is what makes a project responsive to the real world.

For more information: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

Welcome.

Welcome to our new writing, art, and design blog. Along with highlighting works that have caught our attention, we encourage all designers, artists, and writers to send in their own works or commentary to be featured. Please send all posts, comments or otherwise to WritingArtDesign@gmail.com.

"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers." -CARL SAGAN