VS 17.08.2008: Manufactured Landscapes
AMNP
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5920583419422014234
Edward Burtynsky is internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of nature transformed by industry. Manufactured Landscapes – a stunning documentary by award winning director Jennifer Baichwal – follows Burtynsky to China, as he captures the effects of the country’s massive industrial revolution. This remarkable film leads us to meditate on human endeavour and its impact on the planet [via].
New Mexico EcoSteel House - more done than not
lavardera in LamiDesign Modern House Plan Blog
It finally feels like the New Mexico EcoSteel House has crossed the line to being more finished than not. The latest round of photos show the painting almost done, finishing touches going in, light fixtures too.
AIA Launches “GreenStep” Video Series
Dawn Killough in Green Options
The American Institute of Architects recently launched its “GreenStep” online video series. The series presents short episodes on several green building topics. It is meant for those planning new buildings or the renovation of existing buildings, and shows how architects can help clients address their green concerns.
A Strangely Butch Delicacy
owen hatherley in sit down man, you're a bloody tragedy
Rodney Gordon was one of the greatest British architects of the 20th century, and the architectural illiteracy of this country must be at least a major reason for the truly remarkable series of indignities he suffered. First, most of his buildings were credited to his boss Owen Luder; then they won interminable 'worst building in Britain' awards from sundry aggrieved traditionalists; and more recently the finest of his works have either been demolished, or await demolition, or are being considered for demolition or have been so altered that for some, demolition would have been preferable. He also died three months ago, and no obituaries in the national press resulted whatsoever.
Cityförster's Winning Design
Frame Magazine
The municipality of Tirana (Albania) awarded the first prize to Cityförster's Park City, a new neigborhood that will house 7.000 inhabitants. The buildings and an urban park will be build on a former military airfield and consists of approx. 400.000 square meters built floor area. Park City stretches between two large parks. A robust and simple urban layout, which forms a hinge between these two parks, makes them accessible and connects the two with eachother. The structure is a combination of three typologies: strips, towers and solitaires. As a basic structuring element the architect has placed several strips (16 meter wide) perpendicular to the Runway Park.
Book Review: Concrete Reveries
John in A Daily Dose of Architecture
Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City (2008) by Mark Kingwell
Viking Press Hardcover, 256 pages
"All great manifestations of social life have in common with the work of art the fact that they are born in unconscious life." - Aldo Rossi
The interaction between our internal states and the exterior world is a subject ripe for investigation, as half the world's population finds itself in cities and a good deal of that number find the physical character of those surroundings lacking, to say the least. Rampant modernization, globalization, and an abstraction rooted in Modernism have morphed places into non-places, ubiquitous constructions that replace the unique and the local with a repetitive brandism. What seems to be missing is considerations of the body, that threshold of interaction between the internal and the external, the porous boundary between us and the rest of the world; or, in essence, our primary way of being in the world.
The Architectural Practice II.
Christoph in anArchitecture
Building = Collaboration. It's the result of interacting individuals: structural engineer, heating /ventilation / sanitary planning engineers, electrical planning engineers, energy consultants, building technology engineers, light planning consultants, facility management, façade engineers, CAD drafters, building physics, clients, carpenters, landscape designers, interior designers, cost calculation consultants, construction supervision, project controllers, technical-economic controllers, traffic consultants, sound engineers, legal advisers, tender writers, the municipality, media, contractors, financial advisers, , fire protection engineers, renderers, metalworkers, architects, drywallers, tillers, floorers, bricklayers, plumbers, façade contractor, gardeners, electricians, model makers and more. (maybe I confused those involved in the project with stakeholders)
Canada’s Bay of Fundy: Beautiful and Renewable Power
Amiel Blajchman in Green Options
Majestic and serene, Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy is one of Canada’s natural marvels. Every tidal cycle, about 100 billion tonnes of seawater flows in and out of the Bay. With some of the highest tides in the world (it has a rivalry with the Leaf Basin in Ungava Bay), there are multiple opportunities to generate electricity from this natural wonder. These high tides provide an opportunity to generate power from the tidal energy in a similar manner to modern hydroelectric dams. And just like with hydroelectric dams, the question arises: is this energy really renewable and green?
The Great Debate Over Housing Plans
Jason Sahler in Inhabitat
Earlier this summer we introduced you to Freegreen and their efforts to bring green prefab design to the masses. Recently Lloyd Alter from treehugger conducted an excellent interview with David Wax from Freegreen and architect Greg La Vardera whose smart modern home designs can be found on Houseplans.com. Lloyd looks at the issues facing consumers who decided to go the prefab route, exploring the different approaches to design taken by David and Greg. The interview elicits some great responses from each participant, and sums up what their respective design paths mean for consumers. Head on over to treehugger to check it out!
Architects: ADD+ Arquitectura - Manuel Bailo Esteve, Rosa Rull Bertran Location: Igualada, Spain Collaborators: O.Florejachs, N.Canas, D.Franz, E.Grammont, M.Hita, P.Juarez, J.Maroto, A.Romero, M.Rull, M.Cabestany, J.Vives Client: Godó Family Constructed Area: 200 sqm Budget: US $627,000 Project year: 2003 Photographs: José Hevia
The house has been designed in a parcel with extremely high topography. The parcel is located at the end of the city of Igualada, and the project will look to the landscape at the front.
The views are excellent and the mobility inside and outside the house will define the project.
The house could be understood like a promenade throw the landscape. And the Garden House 0.96 will be the promenade between the level of the car road (entrance) to the level of the river (garden).
The structural solution of the project is a continuous steel tube fitted in the earth at the extremes. A steel tube covered with aluminum panels which flies over the trees of the parcel.
So the big day is September 8, 2008 -- the day Mr. Thomas Friedman's next book goes on sale. It's called Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--And How It Can Renew America. I have a feeling it's going to be good, too, but I can't pinpoint why. Maybe it's because Friedman does a lot of research and assesses that research with a fresh perspective. Maybe it's because he says new stuff -- he's not necessarily regurgitating what we hear everyday. Maybe it's because he takes a strong position. Whatever it is, I have a stack of great books that I've been trying to get through, but this one will likely make it to the nightstand.
Says Friedman: "We need 100,000 people in 100,000 garages trying 100,000 things — in the hope that five of them break through."
I haven't read the book, so I can't say much, but here's an introduction taken from Friedman's website:
Thomas L. Friedman's no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy—both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future.
Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy—which he calls "Geo-Greenism"—is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.
As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era—the Energy-Climate era—through an illuminating account of recent events. He shows how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet (which brought 3 billion new consumers onto the world stage) have combined to bring climate and energy issues to Main Street. But they have not gone very far down Main Street; the much-touted "green revolution" has hardly begun. With all that in mind, Friedman sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs we, and the world, will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive; and he explains why America must lead this revolution—with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman—fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.
This project is part of a masterplan that looks to develop a reclaimed area of the Tromsø strait. It’s amazing what is being done in Europe in terms of new dwellings. The construction of the rest of the masterplan is currently in progress.
Strandkanten is a new housing area just south of the centre of Tromsø, attractively situated on a reclaimed area in the Tromsø strait. This area is an important part of the city’s development strategy, where a concentrated growth from within will strengthen the activity in the centre and reduce the need for transportation.
The entire area is expected to be developed with 900 dwellings on a site of 88 decar.
The development plan is concentrating on ensuring the quality of the outdoor areas as well as maintaining the high density. The contents and quality of the outdoor areas will be a deciding factor for the development of the area.
In 2003-2007 area III was built with 70°N arkitektur as architect. K9 in area V, also by 70°N arkitektur is to be finished in 2009.
In addition to area III, construction has also been started in area II, IV, VII and VIII, with buildings of different architects such as Dahl + Uhre arkitekter, boarc, Voll Arkitekter and code: arkitektur as well as 70°N arkitektur.
Do you remember what you were doing on March 24, 1988? I was a 10th grader at the time, counting the days until I could get my driver's license and speed recklessly through McMinnville, and reading Cliff's Notes of literary classics for English class. But here in Portland, that day saw the release of the Central City Plan (pictured at left).
In other words, it's been more than 20 years since Portland, that much hailed bastion of planning, has updated its plans for the greater downtown core.
But fear not: We won't be sliding back into Dallas or Atlanta-like tendencies just yet. The city is currently at work on a new Portland Plan. A citizens advisory committee is expected to begin work in September, with completion in 2010. There are also intra-neighborhood plans like the North Pearl District Plan, which for example could see that area near the base of the Fremont Bridge go considerably taller. (Which makes sense.)
The last Central City Plan in 1988 was largely an expansion of the 1972 plan, which created high density office and retail cores downtown as well as the Transit Mall along 5th and 6th Avenues. The 1988 plan focused on greater connections with the river and expanded the notion of the central city to the south and east. The '88 plan also emphasized introducing housing to the urban core.
In an interview published earlier this month in The Oregonian by Stephen Beaven, Steveata of the Planning Bureau said the goal this time around is to bring more jobs to the central core neighborhoods. "I think we've done pretty well on the housing side," he said, "But job creation, that's a significant challenge."
I'd amend that thought just slightly: We need more job creation in the northern part of the central city, particularly the Pearl District. There are already numerous office spaces under construction there. But we still need lots more housing in the traditional part of downtown and in Old Town. That's the only way we can get downtown to stop feeling dead on evenings and weekends, or overrun with vagrancy. This phenomenon has improved measurably in the central core over the last 20 years, but there is still a long way to go.
How would the rest of you like to see the new Portland Plan for the central core put together?
Arun Jain, chief urban design strategist for the city, has with his staff created several studies of past Portland planning efforts, such as those involving famed New York freeway builder/neighborhood destroyer Robert Moses, and earlier plans involving the famous Olmstead brothers of Central Park fame. (The plan at right is from 1897.) Jain, who I also interviewed in June for Design Within Reach's 'Designs on Portland' discussion series, has also scoured the globe for cities whose topography, street grids, relationship with bodies of water and other factors either resemble Portland or provide a historic case study: Barcelona, Savannah (Georgia), Glassgow, Edinburgh, Philadelphia and Kyoto.
Of the street grid examples, "Each city uses its grid differently," Jain says. " Some follow it rigidly (Philadelphia, Barcelona, Savannah) whereas others manipulate it for emphasis (Kyoto, Edinburgh, Glasgow). Philadelphia and Barcelona have disturbed the monotony of their grids through powerful diagonals but Savannah deliberately enhances its character through repetition and extension of the historic grid."
"In contrast, Kyoto plays with its grid by combining or further sub-dividing it to satisfy changing function and need. Kyoto also overcomes monotony through a height strategy that allows only temples and prominent structures to dominate.."
Regarding topographical factors, Jain says, "Cities with the strongest natural forms have a natural advantage in framing and defining their urban form. Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Kyoto have capitalized on their assets by deliberately limiting development on surrounding hills, preserving only large historic monuments and allowing only few prominent institutions and outlooks."
Each city’s relationship with water varies, too. Proximity to water frames and contains the urban cores of Philadelphia and Kyoto, while Barcelona and Savannah have water as an edge, and Glasgow and Edinburgh embrace both sides of their river.
Then there is the character and identity, something as important to Portland as its architecture. "Barcelona pursues its agenda of social equity in terms how art and design are expressed in the city," Jain says. "Glasgow has chosen to leave industrial artifacts to retain historic memory and character and reinvent itself as a cultural and youth-oriented city. Edinburgh has strict design guidelines to retain historic character and ambiance while using monuments and icons to pursue the creative city and promote innovation. Kyoto encourages preservation and restoration of the traditional Machs building form. Savannah has adopted a strategy to createa city of parks. Philadelphia has used a mix of traditional historic inheritances and reuse of existing infrastructure to continue its evolution."
What do these comparisons mean? They provide a template, or a guide, for how we go forward with issues like establishing more creative and recurring uses of Portland’s grid, creating better waterfront relationships to and across each river bank, promoting civic functions and events to strategically activate street life, and enhancing existing assets (such as bridges) through lighting and design. If we don't, we could end up with a freeway-strewn city like Moses planned in this map.
At the same time, planning can only do so much. It's the private sector who mostly fills out the city. That said, Jain is right that we ought not to plan in a vacuum. We don't want Portland to be any other city, but some of them have been at it a lot longer than us.
Meanwhile, there is also an upcoming series of evening lectures as part of Riverfest that will feature a variety of speakers who will discuss Willamette River's role - past, present, and future -- in shaping the city we live in. The lectures will be held September 2, 3, 4 and 5 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm at the former McCall's restaurant at 1020 SW Naito Parkway. The series is officially called "The Lower Willamette Group/Port of Portland Willamette Chautauqua". Just don't try to say it five times fast.
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