Architecture Now
Excerpt from the introduction of the book 'Architecture Now, Volume II', by Philip Jodidio
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Terry Riley's exhibition "The Un-Private House" (Museum of Modern Art, 1999) called attention to a new generation of homes like Shigeru Ban's Curtain Wall House (Tokyo, 1995) that challenge the very precepts of residential design. Ban's more recent Naked House, is made up of a shed-like exterior with interna bedroom units that move on wheels into variable configurations. No longer do homes correspond to a set stereotype with a living room, dining room, kitchen and upstairs bedrooms. Life styles and indeed architecture itself have moved beyond this kind of rigidity, whether or not computer-driven forms are involved.
What is suggested here is that the computer is beginning to make possible the kind of true flexibility that escaped the construction techniques of an earlier time. The "data-driven pneumatic structure" presented by Kas Oosterhuis at the 2000 Venice Architecture Biennial (trans-ports) might be one of the first proofs of the viability of total computer design. "The most important feature of the trans-ports pavilion," says Oosterhuis, "is that architecture for the first time in its history is no longer fixed and static. Due to its full programmability of both form and information content the construct becomes a lean and flexible vehicle for a variety of usage."
Improving the Past
However far-reaching the changes underway in the design of new buildings, it remains that existing architecture can often be rehabilitated at much lower cost than what is required to rebuild on a given site. Depending on budgetary constraints, sophisticated methods and materials can obviously be used in such instances, but low-cost renovation is the more frequent solution. This was certainly the case in two rather ambitious art-related programs, one in the United States, the other in France. The first of these, Mass MoCA (North Adams, Massachusetts, 1988-1999) was the brainchild of none other than Thomas Krens, the Director of the Guggenheim, and client for Frank O. Gehry's Bilbao structure. Although a group of very high-profile architects were involved in the early phases of this project (Frank O. Gehry, Robert Venturi, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), Simeon Bruner carried it out with intelligence and talent. With no less than 27 industrial buildings to choose from on the site and a limited $31.4 million budget, Bruner opted for an almost inevitable rough renovation. This is also the case in the cavernous Palais de Tokyo in Paris, a 1937 building on the banks of the Seine that has been converted into a contemporary art space. Architects Lacaton & Vassal, a young couple from Bordeaux, stripped the 9,000 square meter space bare and dared to not even paint the walls or give more than a rough finish to the concrete floors.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Terry Riley's exhibition "The Un-Private House" (Museum of Modern Art, 1999) called attention to a new generation of homes like Shigeru Ban's Curtain Wall House (Tokyo, 1995) that challenge the very precepts of residential design. Ban's more recent Naked House, is made up of a shed-like exterior with interna bedroom units that move on wheels into variable configurations. No longer do homes correspond to a set stereotype with a living room, dining room, kitchen and upstairs bedrooms. Life styles and indeed architecture itself have moved beyond this kind of rigidity, whether or not computer-driven forms are involved.
What is suggested here is that the computer is beginning to make possible the kind of true flexibility that escaped the construction techniques of an earlier time. The "data-driven pneumatic structure" presented by Kas Oosterhuis at the 2000 Venice Architecture Biennial (trans-ports) might be one of the first proofs of the viability of total computer design. "The most important feature of the trans-ports pavilion," says Oosterhuis, "is that architecture for the first time in its history is no longer fixed and static. Due to its full programmability of both form and information content the construct becomes a lean and flexible vehicle for a variety of usage."
Improving the Past
However far-reaching the changes underway in the design of new buildings, it remains that existing architecture can often be rehabilitated at much lower cost than what is required to rebuild on a given site. Depending on budgetary constraints, sophisticated methods and materials can obviously be used in such instances, but low-cost renovation is the more frequent solution. This was certainly the case in two rather ambitious art-related programs, one in the United States, the other in France. The first of these, Mass MoCA (North Adams, Massachusetts, 1988-1999) was the brainchild of none other than Thomas Krens, the Director of the Guggenheim, and client for Frank O. Gehry's Bilbao structure. Although a group of very high-profile architects were involved in the early phases of this project (Frank O. Gehry, Robert Venturi, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), Simeon Bruner carried it out with intelligence and talent. With no less than 27 industrial buildings to choose from on the site and a limited $31.4 million budget, Bruner opted for an almost inevitable rough renovation. This is also the case in the cavernous Palais de Tokyo in Paris, a 1937 building on the banks of the Seine that has been converted into a contemporary art space. Architects Lacaton & Vassal, a young couple from Bordeaux, stripped the 9,000 square meter space bare and dared to not even paint the walls or give more than a rough finish to the concrete floors.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Architecture Now! 2
Flexicover, 19.6 x 24.9 cm (7.7 x 9.8 in.), 576 pages
$ 39.99
$ 39.99
The quest for a new architecture: a who's who of today's most innovative architects
Simeon Bruner (Bruner/Cott & Associates, Inc), United States: Mass Moca (1988-1999)