April 8th, 2008

Continuing Kahn's Legacy: Cutler Leads Latest UO Lecture
Brian Libby in Portland Architecture
 This Thursday (April 10) at 6PM, the University of Oregon Department of Architecture will welcome Seattle architect James Cutler, FAIA, principal with Cutler Anderson Architects.  He will speak at the new White Stag Block facility at 70 N.W. Couch Street in the public event room on the first floor. From the press release: For over three decades Cutler’s attention to detail, to material qualities and to context and place have put him at the forefront of the Pacific Northwest Regional movement, creating architecture that is at once environmentally sensitive and deeply humane.  Projects such as Grace Episcopal Church, the S’Klallam Tribal Center and residences like the Long House in Orcas Island serve not merely as expressions of client and place, but of Cutler Anderson’s rigorous pursuit of a holistic architecture.  Cutler has taught at the UO as the 1999 Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professor as well as at the University of Washington, UC Berkeley, Harvard GSD and the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied under Louis Kahn."

Seed Conference Moves to Mies' "Cathedral of Modernism"
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
The third time's a charm for the Seed Conference, which this year will take place on June 6 in Mies van der Rohe's Crown Hall on the Chicago campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. And there's sure to be more to swoon over than those dreamy exposed steel trusses. The one-day conference will focus on design, entrepreneurship, and inspiration with presentations and discussions led by the founders of 37signals (Jason Fried), Segura Inc (Carlos Segura), and Coudal Partners (Jim Coudal). The event will also feature a lunchtime talk on Crown Hall by NPR correspondent Edward Lifson and a presentation by Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff of skinnyCORP, the company born from the community-based t-shirt design concept that is Threadless.

Ralph Rapson and the Fight Against 'Un-Design'
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Starting to make the rounds a bit, with surely more to follow, is the Minneapolis StarTribune's recent republishing of Ralph Rapson's 1958 piece "The New Architectural Disorder." Rapson, the famous architect and brilliant mind behind the original Guthrie Theater (before Jean Nouvel gave it a redesign), passed away last week, as you likely heard, and this republished essay is one of those short bits of writing that can explain one person's career, his mindset and what their intentions were in just one quick read. It's great. Here's a bit: Yet it is difficult to reconcile the top-flight individual architectural accomplishment with the unbelievably low level of over-all environmental performance. For every bit of excellence there are countless examples of ugliness.

T House - an Off-Grid, High Desert Prefab
Preston D K in [jetson.green]
So I stumbled upon the iT House construction blog and was completely blown away by the documentation they're posting.  It's an incredible little home that was designed by Taalman Koch for a five-acre lot in the high desert.  It'll be a model home and completely off-grid.  There's an on-site septic tank, 2500 gallon domestic water tank, and eight solar PV panels by Evergreen -- and the home is just the right size, too. Design is paramount with the iT House.   There's Bulthaup cabinets, a Fireorb chimney, 3form backsplashes, and Polygal cladding.  I really like the Sarah Morris / Liam Gillick panels, too.

Cloud City
sabine7 in MoCo Loco
Cloud City is a new pendant lampshade by Phil Cuttance, inspired by paper folding techniques found in pop-up books. The die-cut polypropylene shade folds flat, but then takes it form when placed over a bulb. In all its 360º glory, Cloud City evokes images of a pixelated city in the clouds. Cloud City will be presented at Charles and Marie in Milan, along with the Trophy Hangers that debuted in Milan last year.

Paper House By Shigeru Ban
Frame Magazine
During an art and design auction in London one could offer money on a paper tea house, designed by....

Metro Cabin Maximo
Mohammad Fahmi Tri Wahyudi,ST in Best House Design
Metro Cabin Maximo. This Metro Cabin is using exposed curved steel beams to support the 2 x 6 tongue and groove roof deck. The Metro Cabin line is a series of high efficiency, modern-style prefab BUILDINGS designed by Andrew Kelly and Architect Dan Owens.
Each Metro Cabin is assembled on your site from a kit of prefabricated components, and currently is available in two sizes; 16 x 20

Dr Weigel House by ILG Architekten
Mohammad Fahmi Tri Wahyudi,ST in Best House Design
The house lies in a residential district next to the town centre of the Rosenheim/Bayern. Designed by ilgarchitekten. As a result of the form an outside and an internal side of the building arise. The outside, the road turned side remains almost closed and forms the backs of the house. The internal side orients itself to the garden with large glass areas.

Building Asia Brick by Brick.
Christoph in anArchitecture
Building Asia Brick by Brick Photo by MADA s.p.a.m. People's Architecture Foundation is a New York based non-profit educational organization that seeks to strengthen the relationship between China and the United States thru architecture, urbanism, arts and culture. The "Building Asia Brick by Brick" project - a series of public interactive programs - is designed to raise urban awareness in a playful way. Read an interview with the currators ot the

Schindler's Houses at Facets this Sunday
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
A film by Heinz Emigholz, Schindler's Houses, will play for one performance at 12:30 P.M. this Sunday, April 13th, at Facets Multi Media, 1517 W. Fullerton, 773/281.9075. It looks like it could be interesting:
Heinz Emigholz, the premier purveyor of architectural oddities (D'Annunzio's Cave; Goff in the Desert), offers a stunning portrait of urban Los Angeles through the houses of Austrian-American architect Rudolph Schindler. Using no voiceover, archival photos, or other conventions of standard documentaries, the film presents beautifully composed shots of 40 of Schindler's houses in the order in which they were built. . .

Cyprus Full Circle - a Fluid Four-Home Project
Preston D K in [jetson.green]
Something about this project is just too compelling to not blog about it.  Designed by Iosa Ghini Associati for the distant island of Cyprus, the plan calls for four family houses in the residential district in Nicosia.  The fluid, organic shape of the project ties each unit together.  When complete, Cyprus Full Circle will have a number of green design elements, including low-E glass panels, adjustable solar panels, rainwater capture and recycling, and heating storage for the winter.  The external walls also will be treated with photo catalytic concrete, which will transform harmful organic and non-organic matters into harmless compounds.  Anti-VOC architecture?  Incredible.

Children's Museum Announces Grand Coalition - Poll Respondants Remain Underwhelmed
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
The Chicago Children's Museum called a big press conference Monday morning to unveil its All Chicago Children's Museum Committee, which, according to the Chicago Tribune report on the event, CCM President Jennifer Farrington heralded as proving the CCM's proposed land grab enjoyed wide support from both "well known folks and unsung heroes," but the unsung heroes appeared to be there mostly as window dressing. In the museum's press advisory for the event, published in Trib architecture Blair Kamin's Skyline blog, the only names listed as being available for interviews were very familiar...