Last Week...

NYC Successfully Installs Tidal-Power Turbine in East River
Alex Felsinger in Green Options
After two failed attempts, New York City has installed a new-and-improved aluminum alloy turbine in the East River, the only of its kind in the United States. The turbine is the first of 300 which the city hopes to install in the waterway. Unlike the typical river which flows in a constant direction, the East River is a tidal straight with strong, fluctuating currents which allow for more efficient power generation. Once in place, the system could provide electricity to 10,000 households.

Architectural Balkanology
New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South Eastern Europe
Curated by Kai Vöckler
In the western Balkans, the collapse of the socialist economic system in Yugoslavia and Albania has given rise to extensive informal building activity that represents a new form of urbanisation. The question is: how far do such urban transformations indicate patterns of future development for European cities in general? The exhibition uses examples from projects in Belgrade, Zagreb, Kotor, Prishtina and Tirana to illustrate the way architects, artists, urbanists and activists are dealing with these rapid new transformation processes. The outstanding yet hardly known buildings of socialist modernism in Yugoslavia are compared and contrasted with contemporary architecture.

When theatre and architecture merge
Spacing in Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape
Since time immmemorial, we have constructed walls and defined boundaries to create spaces. What is often forgotten in the process is the experience of the space as whole, literally and metaphorically. What happens if the boundaries are challenged? In this time of collaboration amongst artists in various disciplines, Blue Note proves to be not only a successful theatrical performance, but an experience in which the audience is integrated and even written into the play. Created by Brian Quirt and Martin Julien, Blue Note is a character study of vocal ensembles. The collaboration begins with musicians, vocalists, actors and invites architects and artists to contribute in what seems to be a casual rehearsal.

Reason to Dream
WorldChanging Team in WorldChanging
The Otesha Project is a five year old, grassroots, youth-run organization which uses cycling and theatre to empower young people to make more just and sustainable life-style choices. Otesha Canada has presented to more than 80,000 people to date. This Ottawa based organization has proven so inspiring that there is now an Otesha UK and an Otesha Australia. We asked one of the cyclist actors to share what the experience of an Otesha cycling tour is like from the inside.
By Stefanie Bowles. Years of studying governments and public policy issues left me with what I think is a common perception of governments as powerful. I had to revisit this understanding of power when I started actually working for the government. I would look around me and think—ok—I’m here, who has the power? My experiences with Otesha—I signed up to join one of their two-month bicycle tours from which I recently returned—gave me a new perspective on power. We were eleven total strangers from across the country, between 20-28 years old, who signed up to live in a mobile community together for two months. The message we were to live and present theatrically was one of sustainability and social justice as articulated in the Otesha Book (to which the play we performed corresponds) with chapters/scenes on food, transportation, clothing, coffee and media. We had no leaders, and were encouraged to modify the script to make the message something which reflected our own ideas of justice, sustainability, humour and communication.

Synecdoche, New York and Infinitely Repeating Cities
Jimmy Stamp in Life Without Buildings
The trailer for the new Charlie Kaufman written-and-directed movie, Synecdoche, New York was released today and it’s every bit as weird and wondrous as you’d want it to be. A synecdoche, for those non-English majors out there, is a figure of speech in which a part of something is made to represent the whole; e.g. “all hands on deck.” The film follows the life of a failed, yet incredibly ambitious director (played Phillip Seymour Hoffman) as he attempts to stage a play inside a full-scale replica of a portion of New York City…built inside a warehouse. We learn during the preview that this process takes no less than 17 years. We also learn, as evident in the above image, that at some point during the production, another warehouse is built to encompass the already-cavernous warehouse that was originally adopted as a set — or does he build a replica of the original warehouse in itself? Intrigued yet?

DEAD WORDS
lebbeuswoods in LEBBEUS WOODS
There are words and terms that once had currency in architecture but have become, in effect, dead. This short, annotated list contains a few, but I’m sure there are more, and I invite readers to submit their own in the comments section. The point here is not merely academic, but rather to note the shifts in thinking that impact the nature of our field’s development. The words we use—and don’t use—are important.
radical This term used to refer to paradigm shifts and other important changes in thinking and practice that contributed to human progress [see below]. But today, it is associated with ‘extreme.’ In the era of terrorism and the so-called ‘war on terrorism,’ radicals are seen as the enemies of the currently hunkered-down system of social order—in short, as terrorists. They are to be shunned, especially in the application of the penultimate instrument of social order, architecture. It is certainly acceptable to propose extreme forms, now and then, but only in the service of already known and familiar programs of use, and therefore as a reaffirmation of the status quo. Proposing radical forms that implement radical programs is unacceptable. Indeed, radical programs of use are more unacceptable than they ever have been.