Gimme Shelter

martedì 10 dicembre 2013

giovedì 5 dicembre 2013

Le biblioteche sono il tema principale di questo progetto finanziato dal Goethe-Institut.
Presenta il programma in corso in questi anni in Germania, di sviluppo e potenziamento del sistema delle biblioteche pubbliche e private nel paese, oltre alla particolare importanza affidata alla qualità del progetto architettonico.

The libraries are the main focus of this project financed by the Goethe-Institut.
It presents the currently on-going German program of developing and strengthening the system of public and private libraries of the country, as well as the particular importance given to the high quality of architectural design.

Philologishe Bibliothek - Berlin 2009 / Arch. Norman Foster

Akademie des Judischen Museum - Berlin 2013 / Arch. Daniel Libeskind

martedì 26 novembre 2013

Street Hassle

“Street Hassle” is the eighth solo album by Lou Reed. October 1977

The studio tracks on “Street Hassle” were recorded in New York City, while the live recordings were made in West Germany. Unlike most live albums, the audience is completely muted from the mix during the concert recordings.

Bruce Springsteen contributed spoken vocals during the "Slipaway" From min. 09.02 to 09.39 section of the song, writing that part of the lyrics and alluding to his own Born to Run album in the final line. At that time Springsteen was in the process of writing and recording music for his forthcoming album “Darkness on the Edge of Town”

Both the artists were involved, each on its own way but at the same recording studio, to seek beauty at the edge of town.

A beautiful Nico, within the frames

mercoledì 20 novembre 2013

Drawing Architecture

Penso che il tema del disegno di architettura rappresenti attualmente una delle più interessanti forme di ricerca nel campo architettonico: la questione su quale direzione possa prendere e quale significato possa avere il disegno nell'era digitale, rimanda alla questione che si pose sul significato della ricerca pittorica all'indomani della scoperta della fotografia.

Tralasciando, naturalmente, qualunque nostalgico ritorno/rigurgito di formule superate, se ci si vuol fare un'idea di cosa significhi la ricerca in questa direzione, consiglio di visitare il sito di Perry Kulper:
Vidi la sua mostra all'Architectural Association, credo nel 2006, e come tutte le forme di ricerca, la comprensione implica un approfondimento.

Ci sono un paio di pubblicazioni particolarmente interessanti su questo tema:
La prima è di Peter Cook (e di chi altri poteva essere...) "Drawing, The Motive Force Of Architecture" AD Primer - 2008

La seconda, recentissima, di Neil Spiller "Drawing Architecture", data settembre 2013.

Infine, anche se non riguarda prettamente l'ambito architettonico, "Vitamin D - New Perspectives in Drawing", bellissimo libro della Phaidon
Due siti raccolgono materiale molto interessante sul disegno di architettura:
The Draftery and Drawing Architecture
Qui c'è una selezione dei miei lavori su the Draftery: No. 034 - "When the Paths of Every City Are Committed to Memory"

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I think that the drawing of architecture currently represents one of the most interesting fields of the research in architecture: the question of which direction it can take and what meaning can have it, in the digital era, reminds the question about the significance of painting in the aftermath of the discovery of photography.

Leaving aside, of course, any nostalgic return/regurgitation of formulas overcome, if you want to get an idea of what it means to the research in this direction, I suggest to visit the website of Perry Kulper:

I saw his exhibition at the Architectural Association (I think it was in 2006) and, as for all forms of research, understanding involves deepening.

There are a couple of particularly interesting publications on this topic:

The first is by Peter Cook (and who else could it be ... ) "Drawing , The Motive Force Of Architecture " AD Primer – 2008.

The second, recently, by Neil Spiller "Drawing Architecture", September 2013.

Finally, although not strictly related to the field of architecture, "Vitamin D - New Perspectives in Drawing": beautiful book of Phaidon.

Two web sites present very interesting selections of works, about drawing architecture, and look for new approaches: The Draftery and Drawing Architecture.

Here is a selection of my works in this field, by the Draftery: No. 034 - "When the Paths of Every City Are Committed to Memory"

Architettonica #121113

If “action painting” is produced by the dynamics of dripping, smearing, and sweeping brushstrokes of paint to reveal the complex character of abstract art, then “action drawing” would be something like juxtaposing lines, planes, volumes, typographical elements, photographs, and paper cutouts on a drawing that aims to uncover the intricate universe of architectural ideas.

WAI - Drawing Architecture / A conversation with Perry Kulper

Architettonica #1

Free Style Dwg

“…we think that the drawing in architecture, that is, the unconscious act, which calls logic into question, could be the “blind spot”. The coincidence that is not a coincidence, leads us to a method of design in which the drawing becomes important. Free from physical constrains, without thinking about spatial consequences, the drawing comes into being an instant, and “administrates” the building. And when you see the drawing, created in an explosive moment, you see the superimposition of plan, elevation and section. Everything is in drawing.”

Wolf Prix, LectureDresden, 1995

Free Style Dwg #7

Free Style Dwg

"I know I draw without taking my pen off the page. I just keep going, and that my drawings I think of them as scribbles. I don't think they mean anything to anybody except to me, and then at the end of the day, the end of the project, they wheel out these little drawings and they're damn close to what the finished building is and it's the drawing..."
Frank O. Gehry

Mind Games - in The Draftery: "When the Paths of Every City Are Committed to Memory"

"An architectural drawing is a prospective unfolding of future possibilities…a recovery of a particular history to whose intentions it testifies and whose limits it always challenges.

In any case a drawing is more a shadow of an object, more than a pile of lines."
Daniel Libeskind

"By 1979, I was making these drawings every morning. As a method of catching intuition and first thoughts it is a technique which sets the imagination free.

In the meditation associated with the initial conception of a building, its first stirring towards form, space and light, the watercolors played a crucial role: they gave intuition a primary position.

(...) Chance operations opened many paths for the composer John Cage, my next door neighbor who lived on 6th Av in NY. Cage used chance protocols to escape the tyranny of the ego. He recommended unintentional acts as key aspects of his method"

Steven Holl - Written in Water

Arcadia University Office - Roma

lunedì 4 novembre 2013

Shadows of Rome

"Rome is a city of shadows, where light in the blaze of noon shows the motionless present"
S. Holl

Campo de' Fiori

"I first experienced manifest space in architecture, inside the Pantheon in Rome.
What I experienced, was not a conceptual space. Was truly space made manifest.
When this structure, with its simple geometrical order is lit by the light, introduced by an oculus 9 mt in diameter at the apex of the dome, architectural space truly is made manifest. This condition of matter and light can never be experenced in nature.
T. Ando

Santa Maria della Pace - Pietro da Cortona

"Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and tangible within us without ambiguity. It is for this reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms."

Le Corbusier

Chiostro di Santa Maria della Pace - Bramante

Area del Teatro Marcello

"Rome is a city where one could spend a lifetime in Pythagorean silence and still not know it"
J. W. Goethe

lunedì 28 ottobre 2013

Lou Reed

“There's a bit of magic in everything
And then some loss to even things out”
Lou Reed - Magic and Loss

domenica 20 ottobre 2013

David Lloyd Workshop

Coffee and no cigarette

mercoledì 18 settembre 2013

BERLIN - HAMBURG - KOLN

Questo progetto è finanziato dal Goethe-Institut.
Presenta il programma in corso in questi anni in Germania, di sviluppo e potenziamento del sistema delle biblioteche pubbliche e private nel paese, oltre alla particolare importanza affidata alla qualità del progetto architettonico.
Presenta anche disegni ed immagini raccolte in viaggio.

This project is financed by the Goethe-Institut.
It presents the currently on-going German program of developing and strengthening the system of public and private libraries of the country, as well as the particular importance given to the high quality of architectural design.
It also presents the drawings and images made and taken while travelling, along the way...

KOLN

Trimbornstrasse - The Kiosk

OBJECT TROUVE'

Kiosk è un bar fuori la fermata della metro in Trimbornstrasse: qui comincia la giornata.

Due containers uniti e modificati.

Decorato con una sequenza di vasi realizzati con tubi in cemento armato.

Il cemento armato venne inventato da un giardiniere, Joseph Monier, per farne vasi; lo brevettò nel 1867.

Non credo che il titolare lo sappia, per cui nell'allestire il suo bar ha avuto un pò di quel genio.

Le ante alle finestre funzionano da parasole di giorno e da protezione contro le intrusioni di notte.

Una piccola mensola tonda, in legno, su una delle finestre, tiene un vaso di fiori visibile dall'interno, mentre una insegna luminosa sopra la porta di ingresso, indica che il bar è "open".

All'esterno c'è uno spazio per tre tavolini all'aperto e, la sera, un filo di luci appese illumina questo angolo all'uscita della metro.

Il rosso dei containers raccoglie l'attenzione, soprattutto quando fuori è tutto grigio.

Il resto lo fanno le ombre degli alberi, le foglie a terra e i colori di qualche cartello pubblicitario.

C'è una bella atmosfera qui dentro, sia di giorno che la sera.
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Kiosk is a bar outside the underground station on Trimbornstrasse : here the day begins.
Two containers put together and modified.Decorated with a sequence of vessels made with reinforced concrete pipes .

Reinforced concrete was invented by a gardener , Joseph Monier , to make vases, licensed in 1867.

I don’t think that the owner is aware of this and so he had a bit of his genius, in putting together the bar.

The doors to the windows shield from the sun by day and protect against intruders at night.

A small, round, wooden shelf above one of the windows , holds a vase of flowers which is visible from the inside , while a neon sign above the entrance door , indicates that the bar is "open".

Outside there is space for three tables and in the evening, a wire with hanging bulbs lights up this corner at the exit of the underground.

The red of the containers draws attention especially when everything is gray outside .

The rest of the atmosphere is given by the shadows of the trees , the leaves on the ground and the colors of some advertising signs .

There is a nice feeling here, both during the day and at night.

The Koln Dom

Dortmund - Landesbibliothek / Arch. M. Botta

Minibib - Architect: Sonja Zimmermann - 2009

MINIBIB
Minibib è un progetto finanziato e gestito dalla Stadtbibliothek di Colonia, in collaborazione con l'associazione "Forderverein Stadtbibliothek Koln".
Si tratta di un modulo di mini biblioteca ed è il risultato di un concorso internazionale del 2009, vinto dall'arch. Sonja ZImmermann, all'epoca ancora studentessa.
La realizzazione corrisponde esattamente al progetto vinto ed è attualmente in funzione, accessibile sia dalla strada che dal parco Stadtgarten.
E' composto da un unico ambiente nel quale sono esposti i libri, un piccolo angolo ad uso ufficio ed uno spazio aperto, nel parco, con alcune sedute.