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Learning from CCTV | publication

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:45:32 +0000

Learning from CCTV | An Interview with Rory McGowan | Mark Magazine#24

In Mark Magazine #24 (February-March 2010), Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published an interview with Beijing-based structural engineer Rory McGowan [ARUP and ARUP in Beijing]. “Learning from CCTV | an interview with Rory McGowan” is now online.

The interview, which took place at the ARUP headquarters in Beijing in June 2009, touched upon a lot of different topics; the engineering behind the CCTV-project, the evolution in fundamental engineering design in the near future, his involvement with the Tokyo Kansai airport team in the 1990s, his close collaboration with Rem Koolhaas/OMA during the past 17 years, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange building and Rory’s advice for the future generation of architects.

A few quotes from “Learning from CCTV | an interview with Rory McGowan“:

At first I was taken aback: it was outrageous but at the same time was a drop dead serious proposal. We all knew what the OMA circumstances were based on our prior experiences with them, like the hyper building and other projects in the 1980s and ’90s.

We had to demonstrate that any key column at any location in the building could be removed without disproportionate consequences. CCTV is actually overdesigned.

What we demonstrated is that by using the same material in another way you can create a completely different geometry and building typology.

The main feature of Kansai is its dynamic wing structure. Renzo Piano’s office had learned from the Bercy shopping centre not to do ‘a blob’ again. As a result, the geometry of the airport is a toroid and was seen as a really clever way to do repetitive geometry, redefining architecture in its wake.

Architects are becoming more and more deskilled. At the same time building design is becoming more and more technically driven.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange by OMA | November 14, 2009

full article: “Learning from CCTV | an interview with Rory McGowan” – Mark Magazine #24 (Feb-March 10)

http://movingcities.org/

Learning from CCTV | publication

The City Seekers | publication

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:55:34 +0000

The City Seekers by Bert de Muynck | BEYOND02

In BEYOND no.2, Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published ‘The City Seekers’.
BEYOND – Short Stories on the Post-Contemporary – is a bookazine dedicated to new, experimental forms of architectural and urban writing. The contribution is based on references, adaptations and updates to Vance Packard’s ‘The Status Seekers‘ (1959) and inspired by last year HBO’s psycho drama series ‘In Treatment‘.

The theme of this edition of BEYOND is ‘Values and Symptoms’, explained by editor in chief Pedro Gadanho as follows:

The uncertainty of the present moment, accompanied by symptoms as fear, social imbalance and cynicism defines an interesting turning point. We need to question which are the values we want to pursue and represent in the urban landscapes of today. Where do we find the groundings on which to rebuild pragmatic optimism and shared goals for our daily life?

Contributors to BEYOND no.2 include Douglas Coupland, Roemer van Toorn, Sam Jacob, Andrés Jaque, François Roche, Triin Ojari, Markus Miessen, Iassen Markov, Ole W. Fischer, Lieven de Cauter, Emiliano Gandolfi, Rui Zink, Nuno Coelho & Adam Kershaw and Marc Schuilenburg.

Values and Symptons | BEYOND02

A short extract from ‘The City Seekers’:

FRIDAY 11 A.M. XIANGMIN LU

Lu asks me to explain Blixa Bargeld. Last week, on her request, I filled her iPod with my music and now one sentence from Bargeld is stuck in her head: “Ich bin das ganze chinesische Volk und Yü-Gung kann Berge versetzen, bin sechs Meter gross, bin neun Meter gross, bin zwölf Meter gross.”

We listen to ‘Yü-Gung’ together and afterwards she says: “So this person says he is six meters tall, nine meters tall and so on, until the climax – that he is the entire population of China. Is it an arrogant fantasy or just deliberate hyperbole?” She grabs my hand while I walk her to the door. We end up under the shower.

The rest of the piece can be found in BEYOND no.2 hard copy (SUN architecture publishers). Also, check ‘shrapnel contemporary‘ blog, in case you’re interested in contributing to BEYOND no.3, themed ‘Trends and Fads‘.

http://movingcities.org/

The City Seekers | publication

Green and Tidy | publication

bert — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:44:22 +0000

Puri Indah by mamostudio | Mark Magazine#21

In Mark Magazine #21 (August-September 2009), Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published a review of the Puri Indah House by the Jakarta-based architecture office mamostudio. “Green and Tidy” is now online.

Also included in the aforementioned New Indonesian Architecture-publication [in SPACE#498], this review in Mark #21 [check ArchDaily synopsis] discusses more in-depth the recently finished house/studio in Jakarta for a photographer and painter:

The Puri Indah house is mamostudio’s most recently completed project. The client is a photographer and painter who needed a place to work and space to exhibit his private portfolio and art collection. Natural light plays an important role in the design, as does the concept of rationality. ‘I wanted to question rationality,’ says Purnomo, ‘To see if it hampers or promotes the creative process.’ The result is a dwelling with a rational structure that nevertheless leaves space for creativity. The house is set up as a series of slanting walls on a rigid grid, on the premise of catching and redistributing sunlight at certain hours of the day.

Puri Indah by mamostudio | Mark Magazine#21

The work of mamostudio is surely one to keep an eye on, as it addresses a set of issues – rationality, low-budget, green, urban architecture – and solutions for how to live in large-scale metropolis that are under development. Jakarta, which we observed and interpreted last year in a series of posts, is the apotheosis of the architecture of airconditioners, a culture mamostudio intelligently aspires to stay away from:

In the Puri Indah house, the plants are on the roof. They ensure the house is shaded and kept cool, while still admitting daylight into the house. His architectural aversion to air conditioners isn’t solely based on personal preference, but also on his idea that they generate complex problems.

full article: “Green and Tidy | mamostudio” – Mark Magazine #21 (Aug-Sep 09)

http://movingcities.org/

Green and Tidy | publication

New Indonesian Architecture | publication

bert — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:53:20 +0000

New Indonesian Architecture | SPACE #498

The 498^th issue of South-Korean architecture magazine SPACE features a special on New Indonesian Architecture. Bert de Muynck | MovingCities wrote the introduction essay and selected recent works by Studio Tonton, mamostudio, 12AKITEK and Ahmad Djuhara. Text and images now online!

New Indonesian Architecture | SPACE #498

Based on the new Indonesian architecture projects that were visited during last years’ trip to Jakarta [on invitation to be part of the jury for the 2008 Architecture Awards organized by Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI)], we got to know the work of a small, vibrant and emerging architectural arena in Jakarta. In SPACE’s introduction essay, called “Regional Architecture Confronting with Indonesian Tropical Climate“, the following analysis is made of the scene:

They might not share a common architectural language, but they surely share a common concern. It is this spirit that is reinterpreted by a younger generation today. Although different in styles and forms, the projects presented here share similarities in their approach to the common factors of heat, wind, and rain. The quest to build structures that blur the boundary between the outside and inside spaces has stimulated a local contemporary tropical architecture. Emerging from a small but vibrant architectural community is design that balances local responsibility and global creativity.

Following projects are now online on SPACE-website:

Wisnu House | Ahmad Djuhara

Studio Tonton Office | Studio Tonton

Traffacon Office | 12AKITEK

Puri Indah | mamostudio

In the coming weeks MovingCities will publish an in-depth follow-up review on the pictured-above Puri Indah project by mamostudio, as Mark Magazine #21 (Aug-Sep 09) features it in its most recent issue.

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

New Indonesian Architecture | publication

SAKO Architects | publication

bert — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:53:40 +0000

Keiichiro Sako, SAKO Architects | Beijing, February 2009

In Mark Magazine #20 (June-July 2009), Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published an interview with the Beijing-based Japanese architect Keiichiro Sako [Sako Architects] entitled “Mr. Blunt”. Full interview now online.

SAKO Architects office | Jianwai SOHO, Beijing

In the interview Keiichiro Sako talks about his experience as project architect for the Beijing Jianwai Soho-project by Riken Yamamoto. In the spring of 2004 he started his own firm in Beijing, together with a translator. Now, five years on, Sako Architects has 24 Japanese and three Chinese architects and four translators. In the interview the architect sheds a light on projects such as the Romanticism-store (Hangzhou), Lattice Project (Beijing), Mosaic Project (Beijing) and Bumps in Beijing (Beijing). In search to grasp his style, he explained as following his method of working:

For me, the most important issue is to find a theme and express that in my design. The clue is to make sure my ideas totally make sense when the project is finished, to make the drawing reality. In the Mosaic project, in Beijing, for example (published in Mark #15), we applied a mosaic on a very large scale. By doing so, I believe I can give a new meaning to a design method that already exists. In the Bumps project, also in Beijing, a 100,000-m2 residential and commercial building, I pursued the same by stacking black and white boxes. In that way, I can create diversity in a very simple way.

Keiichiro Sako, SAKO Architects | Beijing, February 2009

Pictures by Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org

read full article: “Mr. Blunt | Keiichiro Sako | SAKO Architects”
published in Mark Magazine #20 (June-July 2009)

Other publications in MARK Magazine;
A Letter from Beijing | MARK Magazine #09 (July-August, 07)
An interview with Ai Weiwei (CN) | FAKE Design | MARK Magazine #12 (Feb-March, 08)
Olympic Architecture | MARK Magazine #14 (June-July, 08)
Babel for Billionaires | MARK Magazine #15 (August-September, 08)
Mongolian Private Meadow Club by MAD | MARK Magazine #16 (October-November, 08)
Anything That Is Good Is Called Lekker | Mark Magazine #17 (Dec 2008 – Jan 2009)
Local Hero | An Interview with Wang Shu (CN) | Mark Magazine #19 (April-May 2009)
The Importance of Slowness | Wang Hui (CN) | Mark Magazine #19 (Apr-May 2009)

http://movingcities.org/

SAKO Architects | publication

The Importance of Slowness | publication

bert — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:12:12 +0000

Two Artist Studio's | by Wang Hui | Limited Design

In Mark Magazine #19 (April-May 2009), Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published a small article called “The Importance of Slowness” about two artists’ studios in the suburbs of Beijing designed by Wang Hui | Limited Design. In it, the architect explains why he didn’t go to his office for two months and how century old trees dictated the design of the studios.

Two Artist Studio's | by Wang Hui | Limited Design

Born in 1969, Wang Hui possesses everything needed to make him the helmsman of a new generation of Chinese architects: his work is precise, distinctive and admired. At the same time his career and designs seems to go against the dictatorship of speed that Chinese architects are subjected to. The interview took place in Beijing’s “Today Art Museum” and touched up his experience of working at Atelier FCJZ, setting up MIMA Design and his current architectural activities with Limited Design:

At this moment, attitude is very important. Many architects are doing the same things – crazy, unlimited stuff, including city planning and huge buildings – but I’m trying to distance myself from that sort of work, to look back and analyse certain phenomena, and to think for myself. I’m almost 40, but that’s quite young for an architect. My question is how to use architecture to think about society, about human life, about people’s lifestyles. But I think my thinking is very limited, so my work is limited.

Pictures by Limited Design

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read full article: “Wang Hui | Limited Design | The Importance of Slowness”
published in Mark Magazine #19 (Apr-May 2009)

Other MARK publications:
A Letter from Beijing | MARK Magazine #09 (Jul-Aug 07)
An interview with Ai Weiwei (CN) | FAKE Design | MARK Magazine #12 (Feb-Mar 08)
Olympic Architecture | MARK Magazine #14 (Jun-Jul 08)
Babel for Billionaires | MARK Magazine #15 (Aug-Sep 08)
Mongolian Private Meadow Club by MAD | MARK Magazine #16 (Oct-Nov 08)
Anything That Is Good Is Called Lekker | Mark Magazine #17 (Dec 08- Jan 09)
Local Hero | An Interview with Wang Shu (CN) | Mark Magazine #19 (Apr-May 09)

http://movingcities.org/

The Importance of Slowness | publication

Times Museum Guangzhou | publication

bert — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:40:47 +0000

Times Museum Guangzhou | Image by Iwan Baan

In the July 2009 issue of DOMUS Bert de Muynck | MovingCities published the first review of the Times Museum (Guangzhou) by Rem Koolhaas & Alain Fouraux. Recently DOMUS also put the Urban Transformation-bookreview online, which was published in its February 2009 issue. Scoop!

Times Museum Guangzhou | Image by Iwan Baan

For copyright reasons it is currently impossible to republish the review of the Times Museum. But this short project description, floating here and there on the web, should give an insight in the project:

The Times Museum is interwoven in a newly built 19 stories residential building block in the north of Guangzhou. By distributing the museum over several different floors of this building, a high degree of diversity is generated by an archetype that is very common in contemporary urban China, the commercially developed residential building block.

Images for the article were provided by architecture photographer Iwan Baan. Get a hard copy of the magazine and/or check out the complete Times Museum photoset by Iwan Baan.

Times Museum Guangzhou | Image by Iwan Baan

Urban Transformation | Ruby Press

“Urban Transformation” was published in 2008 by Berlin-based Ruby Press, a new publishing house specialized in “books on architecture, art and other cultural practices engaged in the production of space in contemporary society.” The book itself is a collection of essays inspired by the Holcim Forum 2007 held in Shanghai.

Urban Transformation | Ruby Press

The point of departure of “Urban Transformation”, edited by Ilka and Andreas Ruby (Ruby Press), is that “as opposed to the colonial era of the 19th century, the term ‘urban’ today no longer indexes a normative cultural concept – such as expressed, for instance, in the “European City” – but represents a cosmos of extremely varied notions determined by geographical, cultural, and individual preferences.” Unfortunately this idea got totally side-tracked in a myriad of musings on all things vaguely related to the term ‘urban’, except a few excellent contributions. Overall the book presents a collection of scattered contributions by a seemingly randomly selection of authors and architects. For the why and how underpinning this critique, check out the now and then also positive “A Sense of A City“-review on the DOMUS website.

http://movingcities.org/

Times Museum Guangzhou | publication

Crossing | publication

bert — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:44:22 +0000

Crossing exhibition | SOU FUJIMOTO ARCHITECTS

Bert de Muynck | MovingCities publishes “Crossing: Dialogues for Emergency Architecture” on the ArtForum Chinese website. The piece discusses the 16 proposals from Chinese and foreign architects shown at the earlier reported exhibition at the National Art Museum of China.

Crossing exhibition | ENCORE HEUREUX + GSTUDIO

Marking the first anniversary of the May 12th Wenchuan earthquake, the “Crossing: Dialogues for Emergency Architecture” exhibition aims to raise awareness over the prevention and relief of natural disasters and epidemics. From the review:

All in all, Crossing: Dialogues for Emergency Architecture was an excellent exhibition. Organized jointly by NAMOC, CAFA and curators Zhou Shu and Pan Qing, it presented diverse proposals – in terms of scale, aesthetics and functionality – from an inspiring group of emerging and established architectural practices. The organizers have been able to present these proposals, and guarantee the quality the architects desired, in a safe museum environment where art meets architecture. Strangely this did not weaken or obscure the emergency and urgency that the solutions provoke.

Read full review: “Crossing: Dialogues for Emergency Architecture” | ArtForum

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Crossing | publication

Amateur Architecture Studio | publication

bert — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:46:13 +0000

Wang Shu | Amateur Architecture Studio

Mark Magazine has in April/May 2009 its 19th issue out. Bert de Muynck | MovingCities contributed to it with an interview with the Huangzhou based Chinese architect Wang Shu (Amateur Architecture Studio) called “Local Hero”.

The interview took place in December 2008, when MovingCities met with Wang Shu in his recently completed Ningbo Historic Museum. Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu, are the principals of Amateur Architecture Studio. The office derives its name from his analysis of the current state of affairs in China. ‘Built spontaneously, illegally and temporarily,’ he says, ‘amateur architecture challenges professional architecture but is generally considered to be insignificant. Professional architects think of buildings too much as physical objects, in my opinion. They can learn from amateurs in that respect.’ Professor and Head of Architecture department at the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, Wang Shu is one of the few Chinese architects with a clear insight into the mechanisms underlying the development – or should I say ‘non-development’? – of architecture and cities in China.

Ningbo Historic Museum | Amateur Architecture Studio

Wang Shu’s architecture is neither a protest nor an alternative to the numbing work, both foreign and domestic, that is preventing China from building a future distinctly its own. In search of identity and creativity, Wang Shu explores the rich legacy of China’s intellectual and architectural history and subsequently takes a seemingly simple approach to architecture that culminates in astonishing creations. In the interview Wang Shu talks about his work, attitude, philosophy and the state of affairs of architectural and urban development in China:

An important aspect of your approach is the relationship between architecture and landscape design. In today’s Chinese cities, that relationship seems to be lost. How come?

In China we have lost the tradition of building cities and of creating architecture that is part of the landscape. In my design for the Hangzhou campus, for instance, I positioned the buildings at the foot of the Xiangshan (Elephant) Mountain in such a way that each building enters into a different dialogue with the mountain, offering various views of it. To me, a building as an object isn’t important. It’s the building’s relation to nature that most interests me.

Contemporary Art Museum (Ningbo) | Amateur Architecture Studio

Tea House (Ningbo) | Amateur Architecture Studio

Our conversation ranged from the absurdities and realities of the construction process in China to his concern for the ‘common life’ and his ambition to be a local architect. Wang Shu explains his points by going deeper in some of his recent constructions like the Contemporary Art Museum (Ningbo), Five Scattered Houses (Ningbo), the Historic Museum (Ningbo), Xiangshan Campus (Huangzhou) and the Ceramic House (Jinhua).

An intriguing addition to the “Local Hero”-interview with Wang Shu are the two documentaries the architects at 0300TV made about him in April 2008. Both are part of the “China According to China”-documentary. Recently they re-uploaded the Amateur Architecture Studio (interview) and the footage of the visit to the Xiangshan Campus | Amateur Architecture Studio.

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“Local Hero | An Interview with Wang Shu (CN)”
Published in Mark Magazine #19 April-May 2009.

http://movingcities.org/

Amateur Architecture Studio | publication

Lekker Design | publication

bert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:29:18 +0000

Lekker Design | Hebron House

Mark Magazine had in December/January 08/09 its 17th issue out. Bert de Muynck | MovingCities contributed to it with an article called “Anything That Is Good Is Called Lekker” (full version) about the young Singaporean based architectural practice Lekker Design.

Joshua Comaroff, an American citizen, and Ong Ker-Shing, a Singaporean citizen, are the directors of Lekker Design. In 2008, Lekker Design was present at the 2008 Venice Biennale Singapore pavilion, being part of the SUPERGARDEN-project, as well part of Ordos100 – where they presented this very nice double house proposal. They are also involved in Strangelets, a group of inspiring Singaporean designers that proclaim ‘militant craftmanship’ and investigate the quality of uniqueness, “An escape from the the dullness of hyper-mega mass production. In various studios in various cities, we found makers and suppliers of singularly charming and clever items, who impressed us with a new take on old problems.”

Lekker Design | MARK Magazine#17

In “Anything That Is Good Is Called Lekker” the architects talk about lekker, their life, work and architectural chance encounters in Shanghai, an overseas Chinese property developer of the Onassis-type generation, another client which had a ‘tremenduous feng shui problem’ and what it means to work in Singapore, a place they describe as ‘violently inventive’.

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“Anything That Is Good Is Called Lekker”
Published in Mark Magazine #17 December 2008 – January 2009.

http://movingcities.org/

Lekker Design | publication

[bracket] ON FARMING | publication

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:15:41 +0000

[bracket] | [architecture, landscape, urbanism, environment, digital culture]

The outcome of the ‘LINE 13 SUPERLINEARITY‘ workshop, in collaboration with Adrian Blackwell (Beijing, May 2008) was selected for the first issue of [bracket] publication.

[bracket] is a collaboration of Archinect and InfraNet Lab, and is composed of a collection of diverse editors and an open-source contributing membership.
[bracket] is an annual publication documenting issues overlooked yet central to our cultural milieu that have evolved out of the new disciplinary territory at the intersection of architecture, landscape, urbanism and, now, the internet. (…)
[bracket] is a publishing platform for ideas charting the complex overlap of the sphere of architecture and online social spheres. Seeking new voices and talent, [bracket] is structured around an open call for entries. The series will look at thematics in our age of globalization that are shaping the built environment in radically significant and yet unexpected ways.
Supported by the Graham Foundation.

In total, 39 Projects were selected by the jury – which consisted of Michael Speaks (Dean of the College of Design and Professor of Architecture at the University of Kentucky); Nathalie de Vries (principal architect/founder of MVRDV); Mason White (co-founder of Lateral Office); Fritz Haeg (Fritz Haeg Studio, Sundown Schoolhouse); Charles Waldheim (Associate Dean and Director of the Landscape Architecture program of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto). Publication Date: Winter 2009.

Superlinear Garden Hub | Joseph Yau | Line13 Superlinearity Workshop

[bracket] ISSUE #1: ON FARMING

Once merely understood in terms of agriculture, today information, energy, labour, and landscape, among others, can be farmed. Farming harnesses the efficiency of collectivity and community. Whether cultivating land, harvesting resources, extracting energy or delegating labor, farming reveals the interdependencies of our globalized world. Simultaneously, farming represents the local gesture, the productive landscape, and the alternative economy. The processes of farming are mutable, parametric, and efficient. From terraforming to foodsheds to crowdsourcing, farming often involves the management of the natural mediated by the technologic. Farming, beyond its most common agricultural understanding is the modification of infrastructure, urbanisms, architectures, and landscapes toward a privileging of production.

—

LINE 13 SUPERLINEARITY project page

End of May 2008 movingcities was invited by Adrian Blackwell, Assistant Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design | University of Toronto to give a design workshop in Beijing. Through a series of fieldtrips and programmatic interventions, we looked closer into the Beijing’s peri-urban condition along the Northern section of Line13.

Students participating on this workshop: Gary Chien, Maya Desai, Holly Jordan, Hayley Imerman, Safora Khoylou, Esmond Lee, Timothy Lee, Antoine Morris, Mariangela Piccione, Matthew Spremulli, Sando Thordarson, Sandy Wong, Joseph Yau.

[bracket] | LINE13 - SUPERLINEARITY

http://movingcities.org/

[bracket] ON FARMING | publication

OBRA at work in China | publication

bert — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:10:54 +0000

RED+CROSSING | NAMOC | OBRA Architects (2009)

Perspective magazine (Hong Kong) features in its February 2009 edition ‘OBRA at work in China’ – a text by Bert de Muynck | MovingCities. OBRA Architects, founded by Jennifer Lee and Pablo Castro in 2000, operates from New York. Throughout 2008 both Castro and Lee visited China four times, twice in the context of ORDOS100, once to present their ‘Beijing Tripod, Blank 2008′ installation in the Median Art Gallery and now with ‘RED+CROSSING’ in the context of the Crossing Now: Dialogues for Emergency Architecture-project, an exhibition organized by the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) and Beijing‘s Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA).

Villa of Captured Distance | ORDOS100 | OBRA Architects (2008)

‘OBRA at work in China’ zooms in on the involvement of OBRA Architects in China, while also highlighting projects like BEATFUSE! (PS1, NY, 2006) and their Freedom Park -proposal (UIA, South-Africa, 2003).

BEATFUSE! | PS1 | OBRA Architects (2006)

While working in China has its advantages and disadvantages, it is clear that OBRA is interested in a long-term relation while being cautious about exploiting this context. As Pablo Castro explains:

“There is a context here where, without being presumptuous, we, architects in general, can help to form many of the unfulfilled modernist projects in Europe and the US. With insight and experience these can perhaps be applicable to China. This deals with the notion that design can improve everybody‘s life, leading to an architecture based on a consideration that doesn‘t separate form and function or solely depends on the use of latest technology. This might propel architecture into a different position within the construction of a society. Everything seems to happen at the same time in China, all those opportunities, and that is part of the reason why we are interested.”

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‘OBRA at work in China’ by Bert de Muynck | MovingCities
Published in Perspective Magazine, February, 2009

http://movingcities.org/

OBRA at work in China | publication

Burn After Building | publication

bert — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:52:02 +0000

TVCC | February 11, 2009

The morning after the blaze was about mourning the aftermath of the destruction. And two publications for the pyromaniacs amongst us (and there are a lot, that much we know). Both Abitare and ArtForum published a version of ‘Burn After Building’, the first one the raw version, the second one intelligently and graciously edited by Phil Tinari. Thank you both!

TVCC | February 11, 2009

Burn After Building is a quick write-up of a walk around Ground Pyro (somebody feeling like copyrighting, trademarking?) the morning after. A strange sense of sulfur and serendipity filled the Beijing air and the proliferation of Burn After Building (see amongst those “The Boom is Over” on BLDGBLOG, dysturb.net, Archined and others) happened shortly after.

One could write a lot on how much architecture is supposed to burn, see how this is advancing the end of Architecture, if not the Icon, read it in lawlessness, stupidity and bad luck. It happened. That is about it. I rather stick to questionably, retrospectively and retro-actively “legitimating” the reality, hence the reference to “Fighting the Flames” as described by Rem Koolhaas in Delirious New York in the text. All that there was left to say is summed-up in my pyro-noid critical impression of that morning, the rest on Abitare and ArtForum.

Walking around the area, one is immersed in a strange architectural experience, one feels something is happening, but is wondering what. More fingers point to the façade. For a second one could think an audacious stuntman is climbing the façade of CCTV. Police troupes are walking the streets, sidewalks are closed, traffic diverted. For all its devastation, human loss and years spend in negotiations over the construction of the building, its interiors, its management, for all of its tragedy, there is a strange beauty to the building as it stands now. A burned out Olympic torch-like tower next to a glimmering ring.

TVCC | February 11, 2009

A lot can be said about the unfortunate event. But we will restrain ourselves until further notice.

Pictures by movingcities.org

http://movingcities.org/

Burn After Building | publication

ORDOS100 | publication

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:17:13 +0000

PERSPECTIVE PLUS | 2009 Yearbook (click to see full cover)

Perspective Magazine (Hong Kong) recently published the 2009 edition of their annual architecture book, Perspective Plus. The yearbook features a report on the current architectural trends in Asia, a selection of 10 emblematic projects completed or started in the Asia-Pacific region in 2008 and a selection of around 40 projects currently at earlier stage of development and due to be completed between 2009 and 2014. Check out the table of content (pdf) to see what is expected to be build during the coming years. Bert de Muynck | MovingCities contributed to the “emblematic projects” section with an article on ORDOS100. The article is available for download (pdf).

F451 Arquitectura (left) & R&Sie(n) (right) | Perspective Plus

In following up on earlier publications on this subject – “ORDOS100: avant-garde architecture in the desert” (ArtForum.cn) and “Babel for Billionaires” (Mark Magazine #15) – the article for Perspective Plus focuses on the architects involved in the second (April 11-17, 2008) and third (June 24-29, 2008) phase of ORDOS100.

ORDOS100 impressions by MovingCities | Perspective Plus

While the overall story and intentions of the ORDOS100-project are well-known (and repeated in this article) and well-published (see the ArchDaily coverage of ORDOS100-proposals), the article discusses the intentions of some architectural office involved. Based on a series of interviews conducted during the Ordos-meetings, this article highlights the proposals of following eight offices: Alejandro Aravena Architects (Chile), at103 (Mexico), Johnston MarkLee (US), SAMI Arquitectos (Portugal), Atelier Bow-Wow (Japan), DRDH Architects (UK), F451 Arquitectura (Spain | US) and R&Sie(n) (France).

The proposal of the Portuguese office SAMI Arquitectos is a house built up out of a single line, determining façades, floorplans and program distribution: “We designed in a pure architectural way and saw it as an exercise with our imagination, background and ideas onhow to do a house in China. What could be an interesting way to work with this? There is a thin border between architecture, art, and sculpture, as AiWeiwei said in the first meeting.”

For the Japanese office Atelier Bow-Wow there is another aspect to the commission besides, but influencing, the design. Faced with the intensity of human exchange in the gatherings they refer to Ordos 100 as a ’social sculpture’: “We are interested in this aspect of the project. Participation is the most important, to become the material itself. Competition here is not so important. When we realised this we decided to create something calm and follow the restrictions of the masterplan.”

Atelier Bow-Wow (left) & DRDH Architects (right) | Perspective Plus

PERSPECTIVE PLUS 2009 | ORDOS100:

Perspective Plus Magazine spreads: 1> 2> 3> 4> 5> 6
ORDOS100 by Bert de Muynck | full pdf

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http://movingcities.org/

ORDOS100 | publication

Urban China #33 | Creative China

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:48:58 +0000

UC#33 Creative China | on the book shelves

UC#33 Creative China | cover

Urban China#33 is out! The special ‘Creative China: Counter-Mapping the Creative Industries’ issue was guest-edited by Mónica Carriço, Bert de Muynck and Ned Rossiter; and designed by Hendrik-Jan Grievink.

The magazine is in Chinese (with select texts published in English). An overview, including all texts in English, is available at our project website: OrgNets.net. Also visit the Urban China#33-page on MovingCities for a summary of the content and background to this issue.

It may be possible to request copies throughout China and abroad, though the issue has sold rapidly and is in limited supply. For detailed information on how to order this issue, see UC#33 OrgNets ordering page.

Counter-Mapping Creative Industries | UC#33 network of contributors

Recent news from Urban China Magazine include the establishment of a mirror version of their website, iURBANCHINA, and an upcoming exhibition, called “Urban China: Informal Cities” (February-March 2009), at the New Museum (New York):

Urban China: Informal Cities is a multifaceted exploration of the groundbreaking and influential magazine Urban China. The exhibition brings together a retrospective of the publication with a space transformed into a physical manifestation of its pages.

Best of 2008 | publication

bert — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:16:14 +0000

Bert de Muynck | MovingCities publishes “Best of 2008″ on the ArtForum Chinese website. Both an arbitrary, discussable and personal selection of what Chinese architecture brought the world during the Olympic year. Of course, China is too large, its urban and architectural development too unknown to many to make this selection a fully legitimate one. At most it is critical at one point, blatantly personal driven at another and talks more about encounters than insight. It is hard to escape and avoid some of the well-known and well-published Olympic projects, the involvement of foreign architects and some cleverly mediatized architectural events. As always the list is the shiny small top of an iceberg. Many are drawn to describe what is above the surface, few realize its depth, size and sparks of creativity buried and frozen into the colossal collision of construction cranes and architectural styles in China.

http://movingcities.org/

Best of 2008 | publication

Urban China Magazine | project intro

bert — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:52:17 +0000

UC#33 | Creative China

During the past month MovingCities, Ned Rossiter and the Urban China team compiled, edited, discussed, translated and re-edited content and graphics for the 33rd issue of Urban China Magazine.

Entitled “Creative China – Counter-Mapping the Creative Industries”, this guest-edited publication is based on preliminary research during May-July 2007, when Ned Rossiter, Bert de Muynck and Mónica Carriço, coordinated the ‘Transdisciplinary Research on Creative Industries in Beijing – Mobile Research Laboratory’ (orgnets.net).

Production got underway in early 2008, and Hendrik-Jan Grievink was invited on board to provide a critical grammar of design.

UC#33 will be available from mid-December 2008 on, and will be partly bi-lingual CN/EN for international readership.

2007年5－6月，奈德·罗斯特、伯德孟与莫妮卡·卡瑞苏协作组织了“北京地区创意产业跨学科研究－移动研究实验室”（详见www.orgnets.net）。本期的客座编辑工作从2008年年初启动，并邀请亨德里克－扬·格里芬克为此设计一套独特视觉语言。

Organised Networks | Beijing

bei-CI | Mobile Research Laboratory | May-July 2007

The “Urban China: Counter-Mapping Creative Industries Issue” text on orgnets.net gives a full background to the topic:

This issue of Urban China sets out to critique and redefine the idea and practice of ‘mapping’ the creative industries. Foregrounding the experimental process of collaborative constitution, we are interested in the multiple idioms of expression that make creative industries intelligible beyond the blandness of policy discourse. Activist researchers, artists and writers in Europe, Brazil and India have been particularly inventive in combining collaborative techniques of production with social-political critique via media of communication. We see this work as part of the prehistory and global dialogue around how to create new spaces and transdisciplinary knowledges able to negotiate the complexities and politics that attend the economization of culture.

In bringing the idea of counter-mapping to the creative industries in Beijing, the question and problematic of translation is quickly established. Understood as a social practice rather than search for linguistic equivalence, translation registers the conflictual dynamics of the encounter between different knowledge and social systems. Rather than adopting a defeatist logic, we instead see the conflictual processes of translation as constitutive of new social assemblages and knowledge systems.

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More than 30 contributors have each in their own way visualized and written about their experience, research, work and vision on what the Creative Industries still mean today in China and outside. Contributors include Shveta Sarda, Soenke Zehle, Michael Keane, Luka Frelih, Hao Dong+Binke Lenhardt/crossboundaries, Alex Pasternack, Elaine Wing-ah Ho/HomeShop, Xuefei Ren.
Overall, the magazine tries to grasp the interlocking layers of creativity, ecology, organized networks, real-estate speculation, cultural heritage, the music industry and many more.

Import/Export

Once the Urban China Magazine is out, movingcities/orgnets will publish the writings online. As for now the introduction text to the “Import Cultures & Export Innovations in Architecture and Urban design”-chapter:

An important and often overlooked aspect of today’s architecture is the concept of mediation. With an enormous range of possibilities for image making and the ubiquitous demand on architects to ‘make a difference’, it seems as though the work of mediatiation has been sidelined. Mediation gathers knowledge and experience through a process of transformation and adaptation. The culture of construction has became a commodity where one size fits all. This self-inflicted architectural amnesia among professionals has many surprising results –great buildings are erected and designed in absence of any cultural legitimation, providing architects a plethora of possibilities. This global euphoria with neo-internationalism has frequently been controversial for local inhabitants, producing a dynamic tension in which local creativity precipitates on a global scale.

UC#33 Creative China | Design

Fake for Real Memory Game | design by Hendrik-Jan Grievink

Hendrik-Jan Grievink, the guest-designer of this issue, was also the graphic-mind behind the MyCreativity-newspaper, a free accidental publication dedicated to the anonymous creative worker result of conference with the same name that took place in Amsterdam in 2006. More recently he designed the “Fake for Real Memory Game” and soon after got sued by Louis Vuitton over its graphical style:

The Fake for Real Memory Game – consisting of 60 cards that playfully visualize the classical theme of fake and real in our society – has temporarily been taken offline due to legal issues with a luxury leather luggage brand Louis Vuitton. (…) Although the Fake for Real memory game is not a handbag, suitcase or anywhere near the product range of Louis Vuitton and the FFR memory game is immediately recognizable as an artistic and educational take on the fake industry, lawyers of Louis Vuitton nevertheless found it necessary accuse the creators of the FFR game of copyright infringement.

- – -
More updates about the Urban China magazine will follow. In the mean time,
Be Creative! Get Payed!

movingcities.org on architecture, China & the creative industries

http://movingcities.org/

Urban China Magazine | project intro

EWHA Campus Complex | publication

bert — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:07:41 +0000

EWHA Campus Complex | Seoul, South Korea

Icon Magazine published in its August issue a review by Bert de Muynck | MovingCities on the EWHA Campus Complex (Seoul, South Korea), designed by Dominique Perrault Architecture. Icon Magazine just recently published this contribution online.

Recently, at the Seoul Design Olympiad 2008, Daniel Libeskind expressed his concerns about the future development of Seoul. As with a lot of urban discussions Libeskind tried to engage with during the past years (post 9/11 New York, the role of foreign architects in China) his remarks on Seoul are none less than a series of architectural and urban platitudes disguised a critical concerns. Not that it is not relevant to state that “Seoul needs to be developed. It needs a breakthrough in innovation and architecture to shed old notions and really create new neighbourhoods and iconic places” (Daniel Libeskind in Building Design, October 13, 2008) but a little knowledge on the state of affairs would be welcome to push the architectural development further, instead of trying to pull architectural commissions in his direction.

EWHA Campus Complex | Seoul, South Korea

In my review I tried to stay away from analyzing the EWHA Campus Complex as an icon – and without a shadow of a doubt the project re-establishes a new relations between the neighbourhood and the campus – but more in the light of the architectural ambition to merge a building with a hill, thereby questioning both the conceptual and architectural and landscape quality of what I call a ‘hillding’.

Despite Perrault’s insistence on creating a perfect balance between landscape and architecture, there is one important aspect of this “hillding” that fails to weave these aspects together. In spite of the light streaming into the underground space, with no entrances to the building on the roofscape – except for the elevator – there is little correspondence between exterior and interior. The slanted roof and the warped mirror effect of the steel fins distort the interior perspective, limiting the visual link with the landscape. And the remarkable spatial quality of the void can only really be experienced from the outside.

EWHA Campus Complex | Seoul, South Korea

The project is the result of a competition and the program consists out of an academic area (learning and project space, libraries, cafeteria), administration and commercial area (cinema, theatre, shops as well as external sporting spaces and car parks). More on the project, a description and pictures can be found on the EWHA Campus Complex page on the website of Dominique Perrault Architecture. The “hillding” aspires to explore, due to it size, in its architecture a balance between inside and outside, thereby being an example of the notion of “underground space” Dominique Perrault has been dealing with in his career. When I interviewed him, he explained this to me as follows:

“The space is very impressive and emotional,” he says. “Normally people tend to get nervous when they enter underground space, but not in this building – it is not a closed and heavy space. To me this is a paradox because in the ECC there is a certain smoothness of the architecture, and at the same time you create a building that is both landscape and architecture. As a large building it fits well in its environment.”

EWHA Campus Complex | Seoul, South Korea

During the short trip to Seoul (June, 2008) I took the time to explore the city, a journey which brought me to the area around Dongdaemun and Sinseol-dong, some locations nearby the subway stops of Seoul’s Inner Circle Line and the Jongo Tower (Rafael Viñoly Architects, 1999) a masterpiece of the almost lost craft of high-tech architecture.

Seoul Urban Snapshots I | June 5, 2008
Seoul Urban Snapshots II | June 6, 2008
Seoul Urban Snapshots III | June 7, 2008

Pictures by Bert de Muynck | movingcities.org

- – -
FULL TEXT “Ewha Campus Complex, Seoul” by Bert de Muynck
Published in Icon Magazine #062 August, 2008

http://movingcities.org/

EWHA Campus Complex | publication

Mongolian Private Meadow Club | publication

bert — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:33:22 +0000

Mark Magazine has in October/November its 16th issue out. Bert de Muynck | MovingCities contributed to it with an article on the Mongolian Private Meadow Club (full version of publication) by MAD. In all MAD-fashion – focusing on a communication strategy which highlights the intention of positioning architecture at the intersection of human and natural space – the architects describe the purpose and functioning of the project as follows:

Located in the middle of an extensive meadow in Ulanbutong district of Inner Mongolia, the main purpose of the project is to create a space which can connect human and nature once again. With 500,000sqm site area which is covered with green of grass in the summer time and white of snow in the winter time, anything visible is natural matter and the building is designed to be buried in it. The main function of the building is for only few weeks a year to welcome people who come from cities. (…) Mongolian Private Meadow Club shows a possibility to change the concept of distance with nature for living space. Space become part of nature and nature become a space.

Mongolian Private Meadow Club by MAD | Image by Chen Yan

Good intentions do not necessarily produce good architecture. The article doesn’t demystify the cause and effects between good public relations, the perceived MAD-starchitectural status (see their diversely appreciated (with comments ranging from “Zaha’s probably jealous” over “Why is everybody so mad at MAD?” till “I think this work is 100% deliberate in it’s shortcomings”) Superstar: A Mobile Chinatown by MAD-project for the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale via Dezeen) neither some of the obvious contradictions in the architectural intentions of the project and the final outcome of it. What the text does is telling the story of MAD’s second build project to date and providing a small insight in the architectural psyche of Ma ‘it is very easy to be special’ Yansong.

Two years ago the client, an economist, contacted MAD. He had acquired a large plot of land in the desert and made it fertile again. The next step was to develop it and sell it as holiday and weekend houses. ‘The client came to us,’ Ma Yansong recalls, ‘and asked us to find the interesting places on the plot to build the houses. We made a master plan and chose to build on eight totally different topographies: on top of a hill, in a valley, in a cave. All houses feature different relationships to their surroundings.’

- – -
FULL TEXT “Mongolian Private Meadow Club” by Bert de Muynck
Published in Mark Magazine #16 October/November, 2008

Other publications in MARK Magazine:

A Letter from Beijing | Published in MARK Magazine #09 (July-August, 07)
An interview with Ai Weiwei (CN) | FAKE Design | Published in MARK Magazine #12 (Feb-March, 08)
Olympic Architecture | Published in MARK Magazine #14 (June-July, 08)
ORDOS100 – Babel for Billionaires | Published in MARK Magazine #15 (August-September, 08)

http://movingcities.org/

Mongolian Private Meadow Club | publication

TURENSCAPE | lecture review

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:26:24 +0000

The Red Ribbon Park | TURENSCAPE (Image courtesy of Prof. Kongjian Yu)

On September 30th Professor Kongjian Yu, founder and dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University and President of TURENSCAPE (Beijing Turen Design Institute) lectured at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
A review by Dan Handel.
—
In front of a hall full of landscape architects, protagonists and students, Professor Kongjian Yu waited patiently while Neil Kirkwood, Head of the landscape architecture department, introduced him. Wearing a very red shirt, later to become an example of “Chinese” in his lecture, he quickly broke the ice by showing a few slides of himself with some of the professors sitting in the audience, ten years ago when he was part of the Harvard D.des. program. These slides immediately exposed the difference in pace between China and the states. Between Yu and his teachers’ professional resumes.

The Floating Gardens - Yongning River Park | TURENSCAPE (Image courtesy of Kongjian Yu)

He than began his lecture and skillfully illustrated his version of the landscape history of China. In his view, two distinct trajectories have shaped the development, and our understanding, of Chinese relationship with the landscape. The idea of the “productive landscape” is the first determining factor. Growing out of necessity and needs for survival, the people of rural china, and later their rulers, have developed (since when) techniques and strategies to coexist with natural forces such as flood and droughts. That experience proved valuable not just in finding the right spots for new settlements or diverting the water for irrigation, but also in creating a distinct landscape which became known as “the land of peach blossoms”, a paradise of vernacular Chinese landscape. The second trajectory of development originated in the emperor’s desire to recreate this paradise in his own garden. That desire led to the view of landscape as a set of cosmetic operations, deprived of productive logic. These ornamental operations are what underlie all high Chinese culture, including its architecture and urban design. One could state that as such the idea on the landscape turned from an art of production turned into the art of consumption.

Shenyang Architectural University Campus | TURENSCAPE (Image courtesy of Prof. Kongjian Yu)

Ironically, the results of the Emperor’s ambition to create a high culture ware better communicated outside of China and became the dominant image of what represents China in the western eye. This “fake” culture is responsible, in Yu’s opinion, to most of the problems evident and present in contemporary Chinese urban and architectural developments . The ornamental approach leads the way in which cities get built, buildings are designed, and landscape is treated. What we get, from CCTV and the Bird’s Nest to the Channeling of the Yangtze river, is fake. More than that: Since these developments are disconnected from any productiveness by definition, they are irresponsible and when in large scale, unsustainable.

As the huge infrastructural works are leading China to an ecological and humanitarian crisis, Yu suggests another approach, again as an art of survival. This approach aspire to connect once again with the productive manner of designing landscape. It offers the rebuilding of an ecological infrastructure on all scales as a pattern for all future urban development. While doing so, is seeks to create a new vernacular and address the problem of identity, and consequent contemporary crisis, in Chinese culture. For Yu, the infrastructural and the cultural are well connected to one another through the notion of survival, once again a very real issue in the lives of people in China.

The Floating Gardens - Yongning River Park | TURENSCAPE (Image courtesy of Prof. Kongjian Yu)

While Yu’s arguments are very convincing, the projects done by his firm TURENSCAPE are sometimes less clear. While some of the projects shown on the lecture, such as the Yongning River Park, or the rice campus of Shenyang Architectural University Campus, aligns with the logics of these arguments in their ability to capture an illusive notion of production recycled for non-productive programs, other projects, such as the Zhongchan shipyard park or the Red Ribbon and some which were not shown are strolling on the fringe of purely aesthetic gestures of design in a profit oriented environment. These expose the problematic nature of promoting such an agenda in the current Chinese environment, mixing together the interests and aspirations of government officials, private entrepreneurs, big corporations and star architects. This other type of development that Yu envisions for China, and the world, is still waiting to be discovered.

Review by Dan Handel

Dan Handel. Architect, research coordinator at City/State Unit, Bezalel Academy of Art and Architecture, Jerusalem. He is currently studying at the Architecture department, Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

MovingCities & CITY/STATE Unit

“What can we learn from China?-workshop | February 2008

TURENSCAPE links

http://movingcities.org/

TURENSCAPE | lecture review

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Urban China #33 | Creative China

LINKS

Best of 2008 | publication

Urban China Magazine | project intro

UC#33 | Creative China

Organised Networks | Beijing

Import/Export

UC#33 Creative China | Design

movingcities.org on architecture, China & the creative industries

EWHA Campus Complex | publication

Mongolian Private Meadow Club | publication

TURENSCAPE | lecture review

MovingCities & CITY/STATE Unit

TURENSCAPE links