You must be this tall to ride: Kengo Kuma's talk

A bunch of us went to go see Kengo Kuma talk today. It was a lackluster speech, but mostly due to the lackluster translation. I'm sure if I were fluent in Japanese, the talk would be a lot more exciting. However, I did leave the talk with some things to think about. The most intriguing aspect of the talk was the importance placed on the relationship between man and the environment and man and history. Architecture serves as a intermediate language between the two. Kuma believes that architecture should not just flatten its surroundings but play a harmonious if not subservient role. Kuma displays this through his work, either placing the architecture in such a way that it becomes a frame for the surrounding beauty, or using local materials that bridge the gaps between the old and the new. That pretty much summarizes my notes, his work is definitely worth checking out.
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Our Heroes: A Multi-Part Series

Architecture is to some extent a profession of precedents. Every architect learns from the experiences of architects past. As a student, sometimes I can't help it but feel like a pre-teen school girl at a Justin Beiber concert. For my heroes are the greatest ever, and any flaws are hugely overshadowed by the sheer beauty of what they build. Unlike Justin Beiber, Architectural heroes are intelligent productive members of the global community. They set a standard and push above and beyond that. Our heroes inspire us to be greater than who we though we could be. They set a target for our aspirations. Perhaps without them knowing, they've already become silent mentors to a generation of rising architects.

One cannot be in the world of architecture today without hearing the name of Justin Beiber

New York New York! High Line and New Museum

Every once in a while, I get to return to this quaint place known as New York City. I find it incredibly surprising that New York, with all its density, is always finding new ways to introduce new architectural projects. This time, I managed to visit and snap a few pictures of the High Line and the New Museum. They are both interesting places and are definitely worth it to swing by if you are in town. As always, clicking on the pictures delivers you to the flickr page where you can pick up the full res versions. More pictures and story after the break.

Building your Architectural Library

It seems we've been told since nearly the beginning of our architectural education of the extremely important concept of building our architectural library. I actually do have a good number of architecture books, but most of them are gifts from aunts and uncles who don't really know what a good book is for an architecture student. Therefore, my architectural library mainly consists of general architectural history books with a handful of Frank Lloyd Wright books and bios sprinkled here and there. It's not that I don't appreciate those books and don't enjoy thumbing through them, it's just that it kind of feels like receiving a subscription of Architectural Digest for your birthday instead of Architectural Record. Inspired by the Barnes and Noble giftcard I found in my wallet and the prospect of returning my second copy of 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (both had been gifts) for some store credit, I set off in hopes of expanding my architectural library with a book or two more relevant to my studies than the secret life of FLW.

I eventually found the architecture section, and realized I had been quite naive in my hopes of finding something along the lines of Vers une architecture or Delirious New York. There were only about 6 ft worth of architecture books, and even more sad was that these were mixed in with the interior design books. Really, the majority of the books in that section seemed to be about home improvement. After much sifting I eventually settled on two purchases: The Architecture of Happiness and From Bauhaus to Our House. The former is about the philosophy of the importance of our architectural environment on our personal psyche and the latter is a critical satire on modern architecture. Neither is written by a big name in the architecture world, and I seriously doubt either is on the list of recommended books given to us by our freshmen studio profs, but I look forward to reading them nonetheless and hope to gain some unconventional architectural wisdom.

"Football O Saurus"

...is the name of the game.

In the spirit of RAWRchitecture and the upcoming World Cup, a fast-paced, vigorous and controversial game has come to my attention.

Named... Football O saurus. It is exactly what you hope and expect it to be.

Football and Dinosaurs.

The aim of the game is to captain a team of vibrantly coloured Titanosaurs and win against another team of dinosaurs in soccer.

"Football-o-saurus is a fast paced game of 5-a-side dinosaur football...The computer controlled dinosaurs are all very intelligent and will run into space when their team has the ball, and mark their opponents when they are defending so you have to put together a good move to score a goal. The computer football game is networkable so up to 10 people can play against each other over a local network or the Internet."

For those of you who have taken lpap125 will know that space is key to winning the game of soccer, so the fact that these dinosaurs understand that shows that they are indeed very intelligent.
Also, a ten player game? To me this sounds like a perfect game to play in that environmental class we have to take next semester. If you think you can take on team Kiwisaurus-rex.

Down with SC... Up with Football O saurus

Singapore Police use Facebook to try to catch criminals

I can remember a time when it wasn't that ridiculous to ask a young person if he or she had a facebook account.  Now, the social networking site is ubiquitous and is changing the way people interact with their computer and each other.  Singapore, always trying to make the city-state a more harmonious place, is using facebook to host security cam stills of suspected criminals in hopes that netizens will call in with tips or leads.  While people use facebook for all sorts of things, I am on one hand impressed by the Singapore Police Forces resourcefulness, and on the other hand somewhat put off that facebook is becoming a huge electronic wall, where anyone can anonymously pinup whatever they feel like.  Perhaps, however, this is just a case of Singapore being Singapore, something that I realized when I found this image:

Its caption reads: "Police are looking for the man shown in the picture to assist with investigations into a case of theft of bicycle at Blk 55 Geylang Bahru on 15 March 2010." 

Hmmm, I wonder if they ever found the guy so that he could "assist".  Nonetheless, at least 25 people like this!

 
 
More candid camera culprits can be found here.

Paris in Review: Sainte-Chapelle

Well this seems redundant, but I guess this will be for those too lazy to rummage through the images themselves or those who like the sound of my sweet written narration. Anyway, onward.
One of my favorite places was Sainte-Chapelle. Here is a Wikipedia brief to prepare you for my comments after the break.


"The Sainte-Chapelle, the palatine chapel in the courtyard of the royal palace on the Île de la Cité, was built to house precious relics: Christ's crown of thorns, theImage of Edessa and thirty other relics of Christ that had been in the possession of Louis IX since August 1239, when it arrived from Venice in the hands of two Dominican friars. Unlike many devout aristocrats who stole relics, the saintly Louis bought his precious relics of the Passion, purchased from the Latin emperor at Constantinople, Baldwin II, for the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres, which was paid to the Venetians, to whom it had been pawned. The entire chapel, by contrast, cost 40,000 livres to build and until it was complete the relics were housed at chapels at the Château de Vincennes and a specially-built chapel at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In 1241, a piece of the True Cross was added, and other relics. Thus the building in Paris, consecrated 26 April 1248, was like a precious reliquary: even the stonework was painted, with medallions of saints and martyrs in the quatrefoils of the dado arcade, which was hung with rich textiles"