A Masterpiece at Ground Zero

Published on October 29, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Martin Filler at The New York Review of Books…

I wept, but about what precisely I cannot say. Much to my amazement, after having done everything possible to shut out the ubiquitous maudlin press coverage that engulfed the tenth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, I visited Michael Arad’s National September 11 Memorial in New York City—which was dedicated exactly a decade after the disaster—to find that it impressed me at once as a sobering, disturbing, heartbreaking, and overwhelming masterpiece.

Arad’s inexorably powerful, enigmatically abstract pair of abyss-like pools, which demarcate the foundations of the lost Twin Towers, comes as a surprise to those of us who doubted that the chaotic and desultory reconstruction of Ground Zero could yield anything of lasting value. It is generally held that great architecture requires the participation of a great client, but just how this stunning result emerged from such a fraught and contentious process will take some time for critics and historians to sort out. More…

Call for Book Reviewers

Published on October 28, 2011 in Book and Newsletter. 0 Comments Tags: .

Common Ground Publishing is seeking distinguished peer reviewers to evaluate book manuscripts submitted to The Constructed Environment Book Series.

As part of our commitment to intellectual excellence and a rigorous review process, Common Ground sends book manuscripts that have received initial editorial approval to peer reviewers to further evaluate and provide constructive feedback. The comments and guidance that these reviewers supply is invaluable to our authors and an essential part of the publication process.

Common Ground recognizes the important role of referees by acknowledging book reviewers as members of The Constructed Environment Book Series Editorial Review Board for a period of at least one year. The list of members of the Editorial Review Board will be posted on our website. In addition, Common Ground also offers a US$200 voucher for each completed review which meets the standards set out by the Commissioning Editor at the commencement of assignment. Vouchers may be used in the Common Ground Bookstore or for registration at one of our international conferences.

If you would like to referee book manuscripts submitted to The Constructed Environment  please email:

  1. a brief description of your professional credentials
  2. a list of your areas of interest and expertise
  3. a copy of your CV with current contact details

If we feel you are qualified and we require refereeing for manuscripts within your purview, we will contact you.

Interview: Rem Koolhaas on OMA’s current preoccupations

Published on October 14, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Dezeen Screen…

Interview: Rem Koolhaas on OMA’s preoccupations from Dezeen on Vimeo.

The Art-Architecture Complex

Published on October 4, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Review from Edwin Heathcote at the Financial Times on The Art-Architecture Complex, by Hal Foster…

I like this title. It suggests the uncovering of a huge conspiracy, a moneymaking axis on a par with the military-industrial complex or the newer, more sinister military-entertainment complex (which sees the confluence of shoot-’em-up computer gaming and training soldiers to kill without compunction). Unfortunately – because, surely, we all love conspiracy theories – it is nothing of the kind. Instead it is a collection of essays, some very good, some less so, on the state of contemporary architecture and contemporary – particularly minimal – art.

Hal Foster, a US art critic and author who writes for the London Review of Books, purports to reveal an alliance of the corporate and the cultural in an increasingly globalised world of contemporary visual culture. He backs this up by pointing to the ubiquity of big-name artists in homogenous new museums designed by an elite group of “starchitects”.

It is an intriguing proposition and one, you would think, that could be bitingly critical. But Foster feels, perhaps, too much affection for his protagonists. Essays on the architecture of his namesake Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid present standard histories paired with perceptive but slightly bland analyses of their work. A chapter on what he calls “minimalist museums” – white walls, concrete, raw industrial spaces and so on – identifies a trend that is by now so familiar as to have become a cliché. We all know these are the default spaces of modernity; the question is, what is the next phase? More…

Today at Dezeen Platform: JAILmake Studio

Published on October 3, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Dezeen…

JAILmake Studio will pack seeds and soil into bricks using their one meter by one metre factory at Dezeen Platform at Dezeen Space.The Brick Replacement Service produces bricks from the seeds of wildflowers, trees, grasses and herbs packed into clay and soil. The bricks fit into holes in existing walls, or can be used to build new structures. As the seeds grow, an array of plant life sprouts from each block. The bricks are available to buy from Dezeen space until 16 October. Each day, for 30 days, a different designer will use a one metre by one metre space to exhibit their work at Dezeen Space. More…

How Does My Garden Grow?

Published on September 29, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Gautam Pemmaraju, 3 Quarks Daily

A distinct advantage to my small rental in the once ‘leafy suburb’ of Bandra in western Bombay is its garden. Actually, not quite a ‘garden’ in the sense that it is arranged with great care or acuity, tended to diligently, or bedecked with decorative flowers and plants, it is rather, for the most part, an unkempt, somewhat derelict yard with several planted trees and a wide range of wild ferns, creepers, fruit, herb, and vegetable plants. The diversity of botanical life is pretty fascinating, not to mention the many song birds, from the White-Throated Fan Tail, the Oriental Magpie Robin to the Asian Koel, and lest I forget, the many worms, slugs, bees, butterflies, garden lizards, frogs, squirrels, snails that are to be found in residence – occasionally at my doorstep. Itinerant cats, the odd fatigued kite, noisy crows, sparrows and pigeons, barn owls, and bandicoots pass through, and I have often imagined an irascible rodent knocking at my door demanding a change of music.

The space around me is a wild urban garden.

To Read More…

Vanaprastha

Published on September 26, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Aditya Dev Sood, 3 Quarks Daily

I think it was the beginnings of the meltdown, almost three years ago, that I first came upon the City Forest. I was talking into my cellphone with someone, maybe my Dad, about where the economy was going, where it was taking all of our clients. It was about finding ways to ride it out. I remember walking and talking further and further away from the office till I ended up at a large half-open garbage collection center. Cycle-rickshaws came by from time to time to drop off refuse from the neighborhood that a truck would later load up and take to a landfill somewhere. Behind it was a small gateway, and behind that another kind of reality altogether.
I stepped past the gateway to a series of paths amidst greenery of every kind. There were tall uncut grasses on the edge of pathways, and behind them shrubs of every size, sometimes growing into large boulder-like forms. The trees were mostly short and coiled, unfurling canopies with their leaves a bit above man-height. It was only raining lightly, but I stood sheltering under those contrapposto trees for a long while. Nothing much else was happening that Tuesday afternoon, and I felt safe, sheltered among those trees despite the rain.

A milestone marked the narrow tar road at 1600 meters, which I supposed was meant for runners or distance walkers. I headed off in the direction marked Tughluqabad, though I was sure the ruins of that city lay much further than I could walk. The narrow, tarred walkway wound all round the forest, sometimes bumping up against the backs of petrol-pumps and busy intersections, at other times losing you in the depth of a forest that knows nothing of the teeming city encircling it on all sides. Saplings have been planted along the sides, here and there, protected by metal baskets. But this touch of human intervention appears superficial, being soon lost in the dense scrub that waves this way and that way, comprised of a teeming variety of plants of all sizes.

To Read More…

The World Trade Center Towers As They Were

Published on September 12, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From The New York Times, the film 9/11: The Reckoning, featuring Philippe Petit (Artist), Henry J. Guthard (Architect), and Leslie E. Robertson (Engineer). For the film and an interactive, panoramic re-creation of the original World Trade Center Complex, visit The New York Times webpage.

Call for Journal Editor

Published on August 30, 2011 in Headline, Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

The International Journal of the Constructed Environment seeks an editor, or team of editors, for a one-year term. This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to what we believe will become one of the leading journals in its field, the journal’s associated conference and, more broadly, the knowledge-community which the journal and conference seek to serve.

The roles of the editor are to:

  • write an introduction for the Journal volume which would be included in the first issue for the year, and possibly on the website, the newsletter and other appropriate places or for the purposes of marketing and promotion.
  • collate papers addressing a theme of the editor’s choosing into a book, to be launched at the conference at the completion of the editor’s term. The chapters may be drawn from submissions to the journal during this or recent years, and other material as considered appropriate.
  • actively solicit manuscripts for the Journal from well-known and notable members of the community—these would could be refereed if the author wished, or regarded as ‘invited papers’.
  • assist the Commissioning Editor with suggestions of supplementary peer reviewers for specific papers (and this will never be burdensome – note that the Commissioning Editor of the Journal finalizes a majority of the peer reviewer requirements based on thematic matching and ‘mutual obligation’ principles in which all author requested to review up to three other papers).
  • promote the journal throughout their network and other associated networks.
  • maintain regular communications with the community via periodical blog posts to the community website (which feeds automatically to our email newsletter, Facebook and Twitter).

The editor will be offered a complimentary electronic subscription to the Journal, free copies of the book which they edit, an electronic subscription to the book series as well as complimentary registrations to attend the conferences at the beginning and end of their term.

Qualifications

The Editor of the Journal must possess the following attributes:

  • They will have successfully obtained higher degree, and have academic teaching and scholarly research experience in an area related to the subject matter of the Journal.
  • They will have published in this or other comparable scholarly journals.

Applicants are asked to send:

  1. a cover letter outlining their interest and relevant experience, and the ways in which you would propose to enhance the profile of the journal
  2. a curriculum vitae
  3. a special theme outline: a title with paragraph explanation.

Please send applications and supporting documentation to journals@constructedenvironment.com.

The deadline for applications is 26 September 2011.

Eyes Above the Street: The High Line’s Second Installment

Published on August 26, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Marin Filler at NYR Blog…

Rarely do additions to works of architecture or engineering by the same designers who created the originals attract as much comment as the initial installments. Thus there was some question as to just how much excitement could be generated by the debut this June of the second segment of the High Line, which runs between West 20th and West 30th streets.

Happily, the same elated reaction that greeted the first segment occurred again this summer, as the newly completed middle portion of the High Line revealed that rather than being simply more of the same, the park is evolving into a much more varied experience than many had anticipated. The newly completed half-mile stretch feels different from the first in that its route is straighter and narrower (two tracks wide as opposed to four in the southernmost section). It makes fewer jogs and lacks the extravagantly sweeping arc of the northern end of the viaduct, which will bring the High Line to a dramatic culmination when the entire project is finished. More…