January 23, 2008 | Event | Reports

Shigeru Ban at the Cooper Union

The annual Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment is delivered by an international figure whose work has significant implications for the relationship between architecture and the environment.

continue >>>

January 22, 2008 | Articles | Features

Culture of Criticism: A Morning Thought

I woke up one morning – it was a Saturday – and checked my email before 8am as usual and found an email written to me by a presumably young and enthusiastic reader of architecture. The content of the email was fascinating. Not only did the author explain her own understanding of “criticismâ€? with straightforwardness and clarity, but also used an interesting term in criticizing the current method in which criticism is viewed as a discipline. Her explicit comments brought me gratitude and also humility to think that I had a small part in her architectural thinking. I will now call the writer of this email “Sophieâ€? – just like the main character in the renowned philosophical novel “Sophie’s World.â€? I paraphrase what she wrote:

Criticism is not about “good” or “bad,” it is not also about “being accepted” or “not being accepted,” and lastly, criticism is not about “being open-minded” or “being close-minded.”

Then, she continued with a long paragraph describing what she thought criticism should be. Truly, I was amazed and really enjoyed reading her email. I felt that the words she wrote were full of energy and unbounded enthusiasm: I cannot recall how long it has been since I have read such a powerful opinion piece.

Notwithstanding my fascination and admiration, I also found that Sophie’s understanding of criticism is not entirely accurate. Although, I also realize that maybe what Sophie meant was not criticism in general, but “architectural criticism� per se. However, no matter what she meant, it still does not change the way in which criticism should be understood. The entire notion of criticism has been derived from one main root, and the structure and the cause of criticism are by no means different although the details can be varied from adjective to adjective. For instance, “literary criticism� is different in details and methodology from “architectural criticism.� This urged me to give up going back to bed after routinely checking my email to compose this short piece on criticism, which I give the name “Culture of Criticism.�

Let me start with the definition of criticism as I understand it. I do not know Greek, but I know as everybody knows that the term “critic,� as well as hundreds other terminologies associated with knowledge (as well as Sophie), comes from Greek linguistics, the father of philosophy. A critic is person who offers a value judgment by definition; therefore, “criticism� is an act of qualitative judgment and construal, aiming at, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “expressing disapprovals of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes.� In the context of ancient Greek where people were searching for the value of intellectuality in the context of the seminal democratic society, “criticism� was a tool to understand the nature of knowledge. By pointing out the areas of disapproval, the entire community learned to think and re-think, to be argumentative, to be sophisticated in thinking, and to be thoughtful of what they spoke, for which they were all responsible. The most famous masterpiece of criticism during this time is Plato’s “Poetics,� a fundamental book for students of criticism in which Plato criticized that art is secondary to literature: Whereas literature connotes and active act of interpretation by the readers, giving broad horizon of thoughts, art is fixated to one meaning as its figurative form denotes one meaning per se, which is, to Plato, the end of the affair. In this sense, Plato is saying that literature is “better� than art. I think what Plato gives us here is by all means valuable. What is important to Plato is the effectiveness of logical thinking. Criticism, in this sense would decry defects in thinking rather than defects in the object being criticized. Perhaps, it is easier to discern an ineffective intellectual process in literature than it is in art. Literature, especially expository writing, adheres by rules of logic. Art may or may not adhere to strict logical rules. The prevalence of logic may be found in Greek architecture, which was built on the perfection of geometric forms and the anthropomorphic Golden Section. Of course, his criticism is truly an opinion because artists today would claim that art can also connote multiple meanings in a diverse pluralistic sense, not just a single narrative; for instance if we take a look at Conceptual Art or Abstract Art, only a few meanings of the art itself are passively demonstrative, the rest, which are the more important part of the art itself, are substantiated by the active interpretation of the audiences. Therefore, what we learn critically from Plato is that criticism can change if the context of the object into which the criticism goes is altered. The only form of art available back then was realism, which could be thought of as the imitation of reality; whereas forms of literature were totally imaginative dreaming of utopians that never existed – telling us why the only approved interpretation of art 400 years before Christ is Platonic.

In the modern times, criticism gradually becomes an act of interpretation of, mainly, literature. Due to the change of atmosphere in the landscape of new knowledge in the era of industrialization and constant social and political change, intellectuals elevated the status of criticism from being just individual opinions to a popular activity for scholarly investigation of literary or historical texts, if not philosophy. Many of the renowned thinkers and philosophers in this time used criticism as a tool to understand the fundamental nature of knowledge, the reality and the existence of mind. This is something that cannot be done prior to this time, such as ancient Greek time when histories have not yet been written. By criticizing the general concepts of the society that could be seen as something surrealistic derived solely from the sensory experience, probably the most influential thinker of the modern time namely Immanuel Kant created his philosophy, “The Critique of Pure Reason,� using “critique� as the main subject of understanding of his title; while at the other end, German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel purpo sefully used the methods of criticism to generate a series of opposite possibilities, know as “dialectics,� to simulate an alternative route to answer the question of history by virtue of qualitative “value� judgment.

January 22, 2008 | Event | Reports

Reï¼?fabricating City

The “Architect’s Dialogue” Forum, after the opening ceremony.

On Jan 9 at the Central Police Station Compound in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, was given a pretty well-done kick-off. Aimed at being a non-ad hoc sequel of the Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture in 2005, this event is sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Government Development Bureau, Home Affairs bureau and Eric K.C. CHENG, this exhilarating three-month exhibition is the first of its kind in the city of Hong Kong. As a coordinator for the Exhibition of “REaD Beijing,” which selects and re-fabricates Beijing urban development of Beijing from 1949 onwards, by Professors WANG Lu and SHAN Jun of Tsinghua University, both were invited-participants for this Biennale, I was fortunate to have my seat in the crowded opening ceremony. Through academic connection, not only did I get a chance to do the installation of our exhibition with my student colleagues, but also witnessed the last few days of hardcore preparation before the opening of this Biennale.

Charged Infrastructures:Elaborations on the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge.

On this big afternoon of Jan 9, inside the renovated courtyard plaza of the Police Station, keynote speeches were given by Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, Shenzhen Depute Mayor, Chief Curator Wang Weijen, and the Biennale’s sponsors to congratulate this brand-new model of two-city joint Biennale. In 2005, Shenzhen was the sole host for such event. Followed the ceremony was a movie by a Golden Lion awardee from the Venice International Film Festival Jia Zhang-ke and vibrant and vivid cocktail party. Exhibition tours and a forum on the topic of “Re-generation/Re-fabrication� were also concurrently held. The forums were the arena for exhibitors to give a talk on various urban issues, which is one of the main features of the Biennale that will continue throughout the first week, and be carried on during several other days in February and March.

In response to the Shenzhen exhibition across the sea in facilitating the “showcase� of a lively city, this Biennale in Hong Kong including lectures, forums and free-visits, is intended to highlight the architecture and urban spaces fabricated through the interweaving of Hong Kong’s buildings. About 100 architects and designers are invited, while over half of which are local architects and authorities, the other half are emerging pioneering Chinese architects and firms including leading pioneer designer MAD, Shenzhen/Beijing-based young architectural-urbanism think tank URBANUS, and well-known Asian architects like Qingyun Ma and Yung Ho Chang, who are now leading 2 major architecture schools in the West- and East-coast of America.

January 19, 2008 | Emerging Studios

FFW Videos:Architecture Studios. Coming Soon-2008

January 16, 2008 | Broadcast | News

So Very Thin

At 0.76 inches at its thickest; you’d think this were a practical joke. But it’s not the 1st of April; no.

To put things in perspective, 0.76 inches is 1.93 centimetres. That’s right.

Not that it’d be ideal for all the CAD applications and rendering software that you’d be using on your typical day of work; but with a standard 1.6GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 800 MHz frontside bus, and 2GB of 667 MHz SDRAM, I guess it’s decent enough.

Still don’t know what we’re getting at? look here.

January 15, 2008 | Broadcast | News

A day at the Office: OMA

For all those who are excited by the above 3-lettered acronym (most people are), here’s a recruitment drive-esque video off Youtube:

January 15, 2008 | Broadcast | Events | News

Call for entries: 2008 International Bauhaus Award

INTERNATIONAL BAUHAUS AWARD 2008

“Housing shortages: The minimum subsistence level housing of today”

Deadline: March 31

With the 5th Bauhaus Award, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation continues its research into “Updating Modernism�. In doing so, a central topic of the historical Bauhaus is taken up and put into the context of a contemporary discourse: solutions are sought for the subsistencelevel housing of today. The same title was chosen for the second conference held by CIAM (or International Congress of Modern Architecture) in Frankfurt am Main in 1929. Here, new models and prototypes for small apartments were presented and discussed by, among others, the Bauhaus directors Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer.

Almost eight decades later, this historical Bauhaus theme is more pertinent than ever. Societies worldwide are confronted, in the social, ecological and cultural respect, with the problem of housing shortage. The 5th International Bauhaus Award will look at modern standards in the field of housing and examine these in the light of the current parameters of housing shortage. Creative designs or concepts and models or scenarios for housing policy are sought for the social strata, which live on the subsistence minimum and are therefore unable to establish themselves on the housing market. The urban ways of life associated with poverty lead to existential housing shortages, which, given the ecological conditions of climate change, will only become more extreme. How is the ever-critical relationship between poverty and the housing shortage resolved? Individuals or groups may tender entries of work developed in the last five years – design outlines, plans, research projects, films, concepts, etc. Participants may include designers, artists and academics who are under 40 years of age by the project completion date. The first prize is 6,000 Euro, the second 4,000 Euro and the third 2,000 Euro.

More information is available at the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau

January 15, 2008 | Broadcast | News

Rs 5000-crore plan for a world class railway station

by Raghvendra Rao, www.expressindia.com

New Delhi, January 13 A Rs 5,000-crore makeover plan, intended to convert the New Delhi railway station into a world-class facility, appears set to change the way the station exists and functions as on date.

Architect Terry Farrell and technical consultants, who are preparing the master plan, are expected to submit the feasibility report for the project in February. The authorities are already in the process of pre-qualifying potential bidders who could be entrusted with the task of carrying out the required construction work.

The Railway ministry, meanwhile, appears to have zeroed in on some key aspects of the redevelopment plan.

To start with, the redevelopment plan envisages a three-level terminal building with segregated areas for arrivals and departures, thereby clearing the platform space for exclusive use of boarding and alighting.

More at www.expressindia.com

January 15, 2008 | Broadcast | News

Building.co.uk: The business case for green buildings

9 January, 2008 / By Jerry Yudelson

Building.co.uk US green columnist Jerry Yudelson is typically upbeat about how sustainability developed in 2007 - and next year looks even better.

Read more at www.Building.co.uk.

January 13, 2008 | Uncategorized

Other Stuff: Author Information

FFW ver 1.3 now automatically displays information about yourself (the author) with each post.

How to update your Author Profile.
——————————————————————

1. Go to the control panel and click on “Users”.

2. Go to “Your Profile”

3. Write a little info snippet in the “About Yourself”.

4. Save it by clicking “Update Profile”.

Done!

As you would know, under each post title, the name of the author and the date on which it is posted appears. Now,  clicking on your name brings to a page where the reader can view all your posts within the system. Try it out and you’ll see what I mean.

January 13, 2008 | Uncategorized

Other Stuff: Tagging

FFW ver1.3 leverages on the tagging capability of Wordpress. Just like tagging photos in Flickr or iPhoto or placing labels on your gmail emails, tagging allows keywords to be attached to your posts for easier identification by search engines. Tagging is also critical in ensuring that the “Related Posts” plugin works correctly.

How to Tag.
——————————————————————

The Tags entry box sits immediately below the ‘Post’ panel. Inside the box, type in the keywords that are related to your posts;separated by commas. Thats it!

January 13, 2008 | Uncategorized

Text Formatting: Excerpts

FFW Ver1.3 has a built in capability to extract the first 40 words of your posts and make it the excerpt of the post. I.E, the part before the  (more…) section. However, if you choose to overwrite this, do the following:

1-In the post view, scroll down to the part called “Optional Excerpt”

2-Type in the desired excerpt that you want to appear instead. Do keep this less than 40 words.

3- Save/Publish the post. Done!

January 13, 2008 | Uncategorized

Text Formatting: Pagination

Q: What do you do if you have a very very long article and you do not want to split it into 2 separate posts?
A: You split it into shorter pages.

FFW Ver1.3 now allows you to do that and this is how you do it.

1. Type out your posts

2. At a nice junction in your posts that you feel it should go to the next page, type <!–nextpage–>. Make sure that this is typed in the CODE view and NOT the Visual view.

3. DONE! Now, preview your post and you will see page 1,2,3 at the bottom of the posts.

January 13, 2008 | Uncategorized

Image Formatting:General Guides

Images are a critical part of FiveFootWay articles. They add to the richness of the article and a good picture can tell a story by itself. FFW ver1.3 introduces thumbnails to accompany your posts and also the creation of an automated slideshow at the front page. This new version also introduces the capability for captioning your images.

For this version of the website to function as desired, it is critical that images are formatted properly. Failure to do so might cause images to not appear, the layout of the website to be distorted or cause the slideshow on the front page to show a blank screen which isn’t a good way to start a website.

In this section, you will find the image formatting standards used in the website and also help on how to upload the various images into the system.

We will start it off by introducing some general guides.
Image Guide
——————————————————————
You will need:
- 01x Thumbnail image. Scaled to 65px by 65px
- 01 x main Article Image. Scaled to width:550px, height:380px
- Various other images as desired. Ensure that all images are of a MAXIMUM width of 550px and scaled down to 72dpi. Images smaller than 550px are allowed and can be formatted as detailed in the Image Formatting:Captions and Acknowledgements Section

January 13, 2008 | Uncategorized

Image Formatting: Captions and Acknowledgements

Captions are used for 2 purposes.

1- To describe the photo
2- To acknowledge the source.

The standard formatting to use is

” Image: A nice picture. Source: Name of Source “

Acknowledgements
——————————————————————

For ANY image that is uploaded to the FFW system, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary permissions to use that photo. Please ensure that you acknowledge the source of that photo/image that you are using as per the caption formatting as described below.

Caption your Images
——————————————————————

If you want to align an image to the left or right of a paragraph, or if you want to display a big image spanning the width of the post, insert the following block(s) of code before the paragraph:

For left-aligned images with captions:

<div class="captionleft"><img src="path/to/image.jpg" alt="The Title of your Image" /><p>Caption goes here</p></div>

For right-aligned images with captions:

<div class="captionleft"><img src="path/to/image.jpg" alt="The Title of your Image" /><p>Caption goes here</p></div>

For images spanning the width of the post with captions:

<div class="captionfull"><img src="path/to/image.jpg" alt="The Title of your Image" /><p>Caption goes here</p></div>

January 13, 2008 | Uncategorized

Image Formatting: Main Article Image & Thumbnails

FFW ver1.3 introduces thumbnails to accompany your posts and also the creation of an automated slideshow at the front page. For this NEW formatting to work, it is critical that images are formatted properly.

IMPORTANT NOTE
——————————————————————
As you would know, every image that is uploaded to the system has its own specific file location/path.
Example: http://sandbox.fivefootway.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/ffw-japan-banner-1.jpg

For the purpose of formatting the Thumbnail and Main Article Image, only take the filename AFTER the ” uploads/ ” tag. i.e: for the above example, the relevant filename is ” 2007/12/ffw-japan-banner-1.jpg ”

However, there is NO change to the way you insert images in your Post.
Detailed instructions on how to set the Thumbnail and Main Article Image are listed below.

Formatting the main Article image
——————————————————————
1. Scroll down to “Custom Fields”
2. From drop down menu, select “post_MainImage” and inside the box called “value”, type or paste the file name of the Article Image. Note that this filename is as per the format mentioned above.

Formatting Thumbnail image
——————————————————————
1. Scroll down to “Custom Fields”
2. From drop down menu, select “post_thumb” and inside the box called “value”, type or paste the file name of the thumbnail image.Note that this filename is as per the format mentioned above.

January 10, 2008 | Broadcast | News

interview - Kengo Kuma

Great Bamboo Wall House (CN) by Kengo Kuma. 2002. image via inhabitat

Artkrush, January 9, 2008

One of Japan’s most celebrated architects, Kengo Kuma is widely known in his home country for his modern take on traditional materials and methods. His work has become increasingly known in the West through a traveling exhibition and several recent publications. Artkrush editor Paul Laster caught up with the architect, who rarely travels to the US, at the Dellis Cay booth in the Art Basel Miami Beach Collectors Lounge in December 2007.

read full interview at Artkrush

website; Kengo Kuma and Associates

January 9, 2008 | Broadcast | News

close-up - Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa

The New Museum, New York. SAANA. Image by Iwan Baan.

The Japan Times, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008

Japanese architecture office SANAA — centered on its principals, Kazuyo Sejima (born 1956) and her protege-turned-business-partner Ryue Nishizawa (born 1966) — was set up in 1995. Old-timers? Well, after winning several high-profile competitions around the turn of the century (the New Museum in Manhattan included), it’s only in the last three or four years that they have finally begun to emerge from their labyrinths and present the world with the tangible fruits of their amazing architectural vision.

Then came the Manhattan project: On Dec. 1, 2007 the New Museum of Contemporary Art opened to the public on the Bowery. Just before they headed off for those opening festivities, Sejima and Nishizawa sat down with The Japan Times to talk about that project and how they got where they are.

Read full interview at The Japan Times

website; SANAA

selection of SANAA-projects;
New Museum of Contemporary Art, US
Toledo Glass Pavilion, ES
Almere Theatre, NL