The Architectural Review articles from February 2004

The Architectural Review archives from February 2004

Thomas Heatherwick explores the world for design ideas; Ray Kappe rediscovered in Los Angeles; lyons lit up; looking at the future on the worldwide web; view from bam, the earthquake-destroyed Iranian city which was one of the unsung wonders of traditional middle-eastern mud construction.(View)
February 1, 2004... OBJETS TROUVES Thomas Heatherwick has spent the last 18 months scouring 15 countries (visiting six personally for shopping trips) to collect 960 items to be placed simultaneously into the 'things you'd like to live with' exhibition held at...

Sutherland Lyall munches his way through the heavy and spicy mid-winter diet.(Browser)
February 1, 2004... Spread bets Archiseek continues its inexorable global expansion with http://germany.archiseek.com and two new mini-portals http://scotland.archiseek.com and http://canada.archiseek.com. They are in their infancy and, although content is...

AR's choice of current international exhibitions and events.(Diary)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
February 1, 2004... AUSTRIA YEARNING FOR BEAUTY: THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF WIENER WERKSTATTE Until 7 March 2004 Architekturzentrum. Vienna Books on modern architecture from collection of Italian art collector Egidio Marzona, including Frank Lloyd...

Too arty?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2004... SIR: I am intrigued by attempts to relate architecture to the other arts, and the report of the Royal Academy Forum in the January issue gave much food for thought, ranging from Simon Callery's moving exploration of the nature of earth to Andro...

Ar+d exaltation.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2004... SIR: I've just returned from seeing the ar+d awards exhibition at the RIBA where I was heartened to see such fresh wonderful work by young architects. There was no decent international competition for young architects before the ar+d awards and...

Ar+d disappointment.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2004... SIR: While I was not unimpressed by the results of the latest round of the ar+d contest, I could not help but be a bit disappointed. In previous years, you have managed to celebrate a huge range of design activity, from landscapes to tea-pots....

Graz versus Birmingham.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2004... SIR: I was intrigued to see the warm welcome for the Cook and Fournier Kunsthaus in Graz (December) and the outraged attack on the store in Birmingham by Future Systems (AR September 2003). They are somewhat alike: huge blob masses which have...

Premature exclamation.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2004... SIR: The Architectural Review (January 2004) appears to have succumbed to that old school-boy malady premature exclamation. Or is it just that we are to have construction technology and site visits as a new feature. Leave that to the AJ, and...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2004... Lynne Bryant was the author of January's Delight on Scarpa's Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo (p98), and not Richard Bryant.

View from Bam: one of the finest and most ancient mud cities in the world, Bam, in Iran's Kerman Province, was largely demolished by an earthquake in December. Archie Walls reports on past glories and possible futures.(View)
February 1, 2004... I waited 30 years to visit Bam. When I did, it was a dream come true--and that was in December. As the reports came through, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of loss, not only for a magnificent city but for the engaging children I had met, and...

Invisible box: a long deserted ruin has been dramatically brought back to life by inserting a completely new interior.(Esma Sultan)(eighteenth-century brick palace in Ortakoy)
February 1, 2004... Istanbul still has many enigmatic ruins, rarely explained in guidebooks, and often almost impossible to date unless you are a real expert: is it sixteenth century or eighteenth, or even basically Byzantine? Until recently, Esma Sultan was one...

Edifying education: though mass education is taken for granted in the developed world, educating future generations is still a vital task that needs the full resources of architectural imagination to create inspiring places and spaces for learning.(Comment)
February 1, 2004... Making education accessible and effective is not only one of the great challenges of modern societies, it is also at the crux of their civilized development. The importance of education cannot be overestimated; conversely the lack of it is a...

Scholastic centrality: a delicate and thorough investigation into the nature of learning has allowed the Behnisch practice to produce schools appropriate for a modern democracy.(Cover Story)
February 1, 2004... The invention in the Behnisch office of the polygonal school dates back to 1969 and the school 'In den Berglen' near Oppelsbohm. The round form gave a ring of classrooms with each facing a different direction, some combinable with folding...

Human Hubner: the Steiner system of education offers many lessons to society in general. Peter Hubner crystallizes them.
February 1, 2004... The Waldorf schools, based on the principles of Rudolf Steiner (1861 - 1925), have been growing across Germany for the best part of a century and now number around 185. Independently founded, they are run by groups of teachers on an egalitarian...

Academic debate: this extension to UCD's microbiology department is a rational cube that reworks the campus object building.(University College Dublin)
February 1, 2004... Founded in the mid-nineteenth century as the Catholic University of Ireland, University College Dublin (UCD) was first established in the heart of Dublin overlooking St Stephen's Green. Famous alumni include Gerard Manley Hopkins and James...

Physical theatre: drawing inspiration from the physical grace and power of dance, a new student theatre at the University of Arizona is a bold new campus landmark that enhances cultural life.
February 1, 2004... The University of Arizona (UA) came into being in the late nineteenth century at a time when college education in the USA was neither common nor an especially high civic priority. In 1885, when Tucson was named the site of Arizona's new...

Unfolding knowledge: the latest addition to Magdeburg University's campus is a new library with a generous, dynamic interior.(Auer + Weber)
February 1, 2004... Located on the river Elbe, Magdeburg's Otto von Guericke University is slowly but steadily establishing an enviable collection of contemporary architecture. New work for the 10 000 strong campus began in 1995 to a masterplan by Berlin-based...

Work rest and play: after years of absence, a new university campus brings access to higher education back to the city of Gloucester.
February 1, 2004... Walking around the University of Gloucestershire's new campus with Peter Clegg, it is immediately apparent that architects Feilden Clegg Bradley passionately believe in, and profoundly understand, the significant contribution that education...

Teaching an old cat new tricks; when working in the physical and theoretical shadow of Jacobsen and Banham, within a masterplan that was alleged not to be able to accommodate any more residential accommodation, how do you add to a modern masterpiece?(Process)
February 1, 2004... On Jacobsen's ideal platform, an absolute architectural morality prevails--there can be no mistakes and no excuses, no afterthoughts and no escape clauses, about the siting of the individual components of the scheme. No room for improvization,...

Marine world: set within a Spanish national park, this natural history museum is a dramatic concrete grotto.(Interior Design)(Donana National Park)
February 1, 2004... Lying on the south-west Atlantic coast of Spain, the vast and richly diverse Donana National Park has been described as Europe's last wilderness. Spread over the delta of the river Guadalquivir, the area was originally set aside as a royal...

Tropical rigour: this family house in a Singapore suburb is an elegant response to a tropical climate.(WOHA Architects)
February 1, 2004... The two partners of WOHA Architects, Richard Hassell and Wong Mun Summ, met while working in the offices of Kerry Hill in the early '90s and have since gone on to become one of the most imaginative young practices in South-East Asia. Their...

Rob Gregory unwraps the latest cladding innovations.(Product Review)
February 1, 2004... 501 OKALUX As an expression of the building's principal internal organizational device, the facade of the new Dutch Embassy in Berlin by Rem Koolhaas features a unique mix of glass, steel and aluminium components, assembled in dynamic...

John Sydney.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... John Sydney has teamed up with Braemore Properties at its exclusive Park Rock development of 38 apartments at Castle Boulevard. It has supplied the Elite Thermostatic Dual Control Shower Mixer with Fresh Multi Mode Fixed Shower Head shower for...

DuPont.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... In the newly renovated Kindergarten St Hildegard in Dachau, Germany, a laminated glass balustrade has recently been installed incorporating 'Seeds of the Future', a composition in DuPont[TM] Sentry Glas[R] Expressions[TM] decorative laminated...

Robinson Willey.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... With the introduction of four revolutionary wall-mounted landscape gas fires--Expression, Reflection, Impression and Inspiration--leading manufacturer Robinson Willey, in conjunction with sister-company, GrateGlow, is again at the forefront of...

Neaco.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... Neaco--the architectural aluminium and stainless-steel specialist--is continuing its success as a major supplier for Wimpey Homes Manchester, following the installation of the company's Spectrum balustrading at The Lodge development in...

Wright Style.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... Wright Style has become one of the world's leading suppliers of high-quality and innovative curtain wall and roof glazing systems--with a range of systems that continue to push the design envelope further. The firm has now published a...

Formica.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... Formica is showing its exciting range of products on Stand M23 at The Surfaces Show between 31 March and 1 April 2004. The stand will feature an eye-catching bar, and seating and table area, all utilizing the extensive range of surfacing...

O'Donnell.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... O'Donnell Design have recently completed the manufacture and supply of casegoods for 210 bedrooms In London's Docklands. As the latest addition to the Holiday Inn portfolio, this hotel has been designed to cater for business travellers,...

Lindapter.(Specifier's Information)
February 1, 2004... Lindapter fixings have provided safe access to the ongoing maintenance work on Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Lindapter girder clamps were selected as they provide a dependable system of steelwork fixing with guaranteed safety loads, which most...

Le Corbusier and the concept of self: corbusian societies.(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... By Simon Richards. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. 2003. [pounds sterling]27.50 This book is principally about the kind of people Le Corbusier had in mind for the slabs and towers of his urban visions. They were to live in...

Netzstadt--designing the urban: placing non-place.(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... By Franz Oswald and Peter Baccini. Basel: Birkhauser. 2003. [euro] 46.26 Netzstadt, literally 'network city', is the product of a long-standing programme of research and teaching carried out by its authors at the Swiss Federal Institute of...

Transport, engineering and architecture: Arups apotheosized.(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... By Hugh Collis. London: Laurence King Publishing. 2003. [pounds sterling]50 This beautifully illustrated book written by one of Arups' staff, the late Hugh Collis, covers their role in the field of transport engineering and architecture. A...

Asia's old dwellings: tradition, resilience and change: resistance in losing battle.(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... Edited by Ronald Knapp. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003. [pounds sterling]22.50 This book is a collection of 18 essays on the old dwellings of Asia edited by Ronald Knapp, Professor Emeritus of Geography at the State University of...

Last landscapes: the architecture of the cemetery in the west: designs for death.(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... By Ken Worpole. London: Reaktion Books. 2003. [pounds sterling]22 The subtitle is misleading: Worpole's book is concerned less about architecture than with meaning in landscapes and with problems of commemoration after Modernism failed to...

The centre of Treviso forms one of the most delightful little towns north of Venice. Its riverside quays have now been focused on a new fish market that doubles as an urban park.(Delight)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... A fish market has occupied a river island in Treviso, a small town north of Venice, since 1841. The setting had become decrepit and there was talk of demolition, but the commune decided on renewal. Architect Toni Follina gently reshaped the...