Monthly Archive for August, 2010

The Architecture Biennale–Welcome to Venice

Published on August 31, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

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From Felix Burrichter at The New York Times Style Magazine…

Yesterday was the first day of the three-day vernissage leading up to the official public opening on Sunday of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, better known as the Venice Architecture Biennale. This year’s curatorial director is Kazuyo Sejima, principal of the Tokyo-based architecture firm SANAA, better known to most New Yorkers as the architect of the New Museum. Sejima is breaking new ground on many levels: not only is she the first woman to spearhead the Architecture Biennale, but her theme, “People Meet in Architecture,” is also refreshingly simple and easy to understand, for architects and laypeople alike (unlike titles of previous years, like “Metamporh” or “Next”).

Indeed, on the first day there were a lot of people to be met in the architecture of Venice. Take, for example, the architect Jürgen Mayer H., who giddily held court among an attractive entourage on the terrace at the Bauer Hotel to celebrate winning the Audi Urban Future Award of 100,000 euros (about $127,000) for his Poke Ville project. Rem Koolhaas could be met in many places. Not only was he awarded the 2010 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, but he also spoke at the presentation of a new Moscow architecture and design school, the Strelka Institute, whose educational post-graduate program was put together by his firm OMA/AMO. More…

Kathryn H. Anthony announced as plenary speaker–Constructed Environment Conference, Venice, Italy

Published on August 31, 2010 in Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

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Kathryn H. Anthony, the newest addition to the 2010 Constructed Environment Conference plenary schedule, is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Architecture’s longest serving female faculty member, its only female Full Professor, the first woman to have served as Chair of the Design Program Faculty and as Chair of the Building Research Council. She holds the lifetime title of Distinguished Professor from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). She received national awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the ACSA, and the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). She holds a Ph.D. in architecture and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.

The author of Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession (2001, 2008), Design Juries on Trial: The Renaissance of the Design Studio (1991)and over 100 publications, Dr. Anthony has served as a spokesperson about gender issues in architecture on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, National Public Radio (NPR), The Chicago Tribune, The Economist, The Los Angeles Times, Time.com, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. The New York Times (April 13, 2009) featured her words as the ‘Quotation of the Day’. More on Kathryn H. Anthony…

Also, more on the 2010 Constructed Environment Conference plenary speakers…

Constructed Environment Journal – Become an Associate Editor

Published on August 31, 2010 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments Tags: .

As part of the process of publishing The International Journal of the Constructed Environment all submissions are sent for peer review, prior to publication. Assessment, comments and guidance by the referees are an essential part of the publication process and invaluable to the authors of the submitted papers.

In recognition of the important role of referees, the international advisory board acknowledges all referees who have refereed papers as an ‘Associate Editor’ in the volume of the journal they have contributed to.

If you would like to referee papers submitted to The International Journal of the Constructed Environment, please email journals@constructedenvironment.com, with your professional details, areas of expertise and contact details. If we feel you are qualified and we require refereeing for papers within your expertise, we will contact you.

Submissions Open for the Constructed Environment Journal

Published on August 31, 2010 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments Tags: .

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We are accepting submissions for The International Journal of the Constructed Environment.

The International Journal of the Constructed Environment publishes open broad-ranging and interdisciplinary articles on human configurations of the environment and the interactions between the constructed, social and natural environments. The journal brings together researchers, teachers and practitioners. The resulting articles weave between the empirical and the theoretical, research and its application, the ideal and the pragmatic, and spaces which are in their orientations private, public, community or commercial.

As well as papers of a traditional scholarly type, this journal invites presentations of practice—including experimental forms of documentation and exegesis which can with equal validity be interrogated through a process of peer review. This might, for instance, take the form of a series of images and plans, with explanatory notes which articulate with other, significantly similar or different and explicitly referenced places, sites or material objects.

Refereeing of submitted papers will commence shortly so start the submission process by submitting your proposal.

Paper submission guidelines and timelines are available online.

British Pavilion Opens at 12th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice

Published on August 30, 2010 in News. 0 Comments

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From Dezeen…

The British Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, commissioned by Vicky Richardson, Director of Architecture, Design, Fashion at the British Council – the UK’s leading educational and cultural relations organisation – and under the direction of muf architecture/art Llp, opens to the public on Sunday 29 August 2010.

The Pavilion is ironically reframed Villa Frankenstein, making direct reference to the ideas of the British Victorian social critic and historian of Venetian architecture John Ruskin. It has been conceived by muf as a stage for an exchange of ideas between Venice and the UK. The centrepiece of the Pavilion, represented as a ‘Stadium of Close Looking’, will be a 1/10 scale model of a section of the Olympic Stadium for London 2012, reinterpreted by muf with Atelier One engineers, and built by Venetian carpenters Spazio Legno. This hybrid structure will act as a platform for drawing, discussion and scientific enquiry. Following its use at the Pavilion, it will be reconstructed on another site in Venice as a lasting legacy of the project.

The ‘Made in Venice’ theme is continued through a series of separate installations in the Pavilion including a 15 square metre ecologically functioning slice of salt marsh showing a close‐up view of the native floral and fauna of the Venice Lagoon. Other exhibits include a new project by Wolfgang Scheppe drawing on both Ruskin’s original notebooks and a series of historical photographs of Venice taken by local residents, Alvio and Gabriella Gavagnin. Seven of Ruskin’s Venetian Notebooks (1849‐50) are being lent by the Ruskin Foundation from the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University, and there will be inter‐active electronic access to his research in Venice. More…

Movie: The Transcendent City by Richard Hardy

Published on August 28, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

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From Dezeen.com…

Bartlett School of Architecture graduate Richard Hardy has shared with us his short film imagining an autonomous, artificially intelligent, sustainable city. The city would adapt to its natural environment and derive energy from available renewable resources. The film’s aim was to explore the idea that artificial intelligence is a necessity for the future of human evolution and supports his 10,000 word Masters thesis.

The concept of a future sustainable city is developed for a society that is currently not responding effectively to environmental dangers. “Transcendence” in this case referring to a point when artificial intelligence has reached or surpassed that of the human.

The Transcendent City is an autonomous artificial machine that extends across the earth adapting to the natural eco-systems it encounters while deriving its energy from the renewable resources available at each particular site. The systems desire is to maintain homeostasis within itself whilst maintaining homeostasis within the greater system, Gaia. Its processes are engineered on the molecular scale by nano technologies controlled by molecular computers that monitor and analyse the environment. More…

Open Source Cities

Published on August 27, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

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From polis…

Meaningful community input in urban development is often called for and rarely achieved. Recent posts at faslanyc, mammoth, varnelis, theincrementalhouse, urban omnibus, and cityofsound consider exciting possibilities. David Harvey and Robert Reich envision new forms of development, and Haiti Rewired shows the potential in sharing ideas and technologies. The Open Planning Project (TOPP) combines many of these elements, strengthening civic engagement in urban policy, planning, and design.

Mark Gorton (founder of LimeWire) started TOPP in 1999. His goal was to promote alternatives to automobile dependency. While maintaining this focus, TOPP has become a kind of incubator for projects that support open participation in urban development. Their approach is rooted in the idea of open source, most commonly associated with free computer programs that can be shared, adapted, and further developed by anyone with the ability to contribute. While TOPP has much expertise in programming, they’ve also applied the open source model to urban planning and governance. With projects ranging from Portland’s TriMet transit system map to the closing of Times Square to traffic, TOPP has been using technology for public work in many creative ways. More…

Mitchell Joachim: Don’t build your home, grow it!

Published on August 15, 2010 in News. 0 Comments