The Architectural Review articles from January 2002

The Architectural Review archives from January 2002

"Best Technology, Best Reliability in the World". (World Quality).(Lotte Jamsil Hotel installs elevators, escalators from Mitsubishi)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Mr. Lee Dong-Ho of the Lotte Jamsil Hotel, Seoul, Korea, is very proud of the Mitsubishi elevators and escalators installed in the hotel. "The hotel features two spiral escalators, the only such escalators in Korea!" Combining a deluxe hotel...

View.(excerpts from speech by Aga Khan, exhibition of Thomas Herzog's work, new architectural Web sites)
January 1, 2002... THE AGA KHAN'S COMMITMENT TO PLURALITY AND INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM IN ISLAMIC CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE. THOMAS HERZOG, PIONEER OF GREEN ARCHITECTURE AND NEW TECHNOLOGY CELEBRATED IN FRANKFURT. GRAPHISOFT PRIZE 2001 RESULTS. TRADITIONAL TIBETAN...

Outrage. (View).(Palais de Justice in Caen, France)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: We all now know Jean Nouvel's views on court house design -- his almost cruelly severe building at Nantes is intended to warn the citizen that for all the supposed people-friendliness of modern democratic...

Letters.
January 1, 2002... TIBETAN TRAGEDY SIR: I was pleased to see Delight covering a Buddhist monastery in Ladakh (AR November, p98). However, if you raise your eyes to the neighbouring hills, the situation is far from peaceful. The destruction of monasteries is...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2002... ar+d award prizewinner Taiko Shono is a soundscape designer (see AR December 2001, p40). Her design team assistant was Takayuki Osamura.

View from San Francisco: San Francisco may be suffering because of the collapse of the e-industry, but its ambitious infrastructure projects are a fair bid to make it the most civilized city on the US Pacific Coast.
January 1, 2002... What a difference a year makes. Last year San Francisco was experiencing all the irrational exuberance of Silicon Valley's Internet boom. The Bay Area economy epitomized the good times of the Clinton-era policies promoting globalization and...

Living architecture: Since ancient times, myths of natural architecture derived from growing trees have haunted European imagination. Here, they are made corporeal. (Design Review).(architect Marcel Kalberer designs structures from living trees)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... One of the slogans of contemporary architecture is ecological design and building based on sustainable development. A point of departure for these ideas is provided by Marcel Kalberer, Swiss-born architect working in Germany. The brushwood...

The Quest for Ecological Propriety. (Comment).(ecological aspects of architecture)(Column)
January 1, 2002... As if fulfilling the portentous predictions of some medieval soothsayer, the first year of this new century has witnessed an unprecedented catalogue of warnings of the cumulative effects of climate change. Heatwaves in Europe caused over 100...

Hanseatic Restoration: The transformation of this dockside warehouse into flats and offices follows a familiar urban pattern, but is underpinned by strong environmental concerns.(Stadtlagerhaus on the Elbe)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Despite rising sea levels and the cost of flood defences, recycled dockside buildings are highly prized developments. Their brick monumentality stands for stability and their high ceilings offer the luxury of space. The romanticism of sanitized...

Ecohouse-A Design Guide. (It's up to Us).
January 1, 2002... By Sue Roaf, with Manuel Fuentes and Stephanie Thomas. Oxford: Architectural Press. 2001. [pounds sterling]24.95 It's great to read a book with a no-nonsense message. Sue Roaf's is this: we are doomed unless we do something about it, and...

Eco Urbanity.(architecture and environment)
January 1, 2002... An aim of Team X was to generate community by harnessing and humanizing industrial production. Team X member Ralph Erskine still believes in the ideal, which he has married to a lifelong enthusiasm for sustainability. Jutting northwards...

Exhibition Eco: An unpretentious prototype production building in a demonstration ecology park involves ingenious technological and sustainable devices for conserving energy.
January 1, 2002... The Ecopark on the edge of the small town of Hartberg in Styria was set up as a demonstration of ecological design and construction. Built on the site of a former clay pit, it was intended to be self-sufficient, and to heal the bruising of the...

Making History: On the site of a Victorian public baths, a new library and archive illuminates women's lives and is a model of good practice in environmental regulation.
January 1, 2002... Founded in 1926 by Millicent Fawcett, the distinguished campaigner for women's rights, the Women's Library began life in a converted pub in Westminster. Emerging out of the suffrage movement, it has since evolved to become the UK's most...

Solar Collector: Using passive devices which enhance its architecture, this house manages to reduce energy consumption to a third of the norm.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... This solar house manages considerable energy saving through passive means without excessive costs or gadgetry. Essentially linear in concept, it was pushed to the north edge of the site. A string of rooms faces the sun, with a toplit hail...

Polychrome Experiment: Wrapped in a bold candy-striped skin, this new research institute combines the rational and romantic to stimulate intercourse between academia and industry.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The young Anglo-German partnership of Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton is acquiring a reputation for architecture characterized by formal experimentation, environmental awareness and an uninhibited use of colour. Mundane buildings types --...

The Slick and the Hairy: 'Slick and hairy', the house made by a pair of architects on a neglected north London site, has many environmental lessons to teach -- not least about the nature of wit in building and the importance of imagination.
January 1, 2002... Jokes in architecture are not usually good. Unless you're Lutyens, they quickly seem to be solidified embarrassments, as many of the tattered hulks of '80s PoMo demonstrate only too clearly. Little do you expect to find one of the wittiest new...

Sustainable School: One of the most rigorous programmes ever devised ensured that this French school is environmentally appropriate in multiple ways. It has many lessons to teach.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The new Lycee at Caudry near Cambrai in north-east France involved the most stringent design and construction ecological competition yet for a school in France. All aspects were considered: running energy. embodied energy, lighting,...

Fit for a queen: Remodelling of part of the Queen's House, Greenwich permits its use as a gallery and improves circulation without disturbing its seventeenth-century architecture. (Interior Design).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Queen's House in Greenwich was designed by Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark, wife of James I. Built between 1616 and 1635 in the hunting grounds of the Tudor palace of Placentia, it was an essay in Jones's assured handling of Palladian style...

Distilled Baltic: Celebrating the austere elegance of the Baltic and the roughness of early nineteenth-century London, this restaurant is built with a strange, imaginative recipe.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Baltic, a new Polish restaurant on Blackfriars Road in south London, very near Tate Britain, was initially designed with customary elegance, and feeling for space, by Seth Stein Architects, and subsequently executed with Drury Browne...

Historic fusion: One of Enric Miralles' last works shows in small, exquisite scale his sensitivity to old and new, tectonic and human.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... With its skewed angles, curving and intersecting elements and complex plans, the architecture of Enric Miralles, who died unexpectedly last year, was apt at one time to be consigned to Deconstructivism. Examining his richly embroidered and airy...

Park of colours. (Landscape).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Barcelona's network of urban parks, often in quite neglected neighbourhoods, has been a key part of the city's regeneration. This latest park by Miralles and Tagliabue is a series of colourful incidents and events that forms a vivid backdrop to...

Kristalia. (Product Review).(wood table)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Aeroplane wing technology inspired the design of a new range of dining, office and conference tables, Bird. Bartoli Design has created a table top of laminated cherry or birch which tapers to a delicate edge of solid wood. The splayed tubular...

Kristalia: The Bebop bookshelf. (Product Review).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The Bebop bookshelf, by Bartoli Design, is 1.47m high and accessible on four sides; it is intended for use as a free-standing element. Made of Finnish birch plywood, in natural or cherry coloured finish, it comes as a flat pack for on-site...

Walter Knoll. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... Norman Foster has designed the Foster 500 range of single seats, benches and sofas for reception, waiting and meeting areas. The seating units have broad arm-rests and are upholstered in dark grey with elegant metal bases. A range of glass...

Fritz Hansen. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... Runner is an elegant stacking chair designed by the young Danish designer Kasper Salto. The separate back and seat are made of moulded laminated beech, maple or cherry on a black-grey, chromed or satin chromed base frame. It can be supplied...

Segis SPA. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... Designed by Roberto Romanello. Hitau is a stylish bar stool with a footrest, an addition to the Alphabet collection. It is available with or without a back, and with a fixed or a rotating base. The cone-like seat is lined with non-deformable...

Kusch + Co. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... Luca Series 1500 is a range of chairs and tables designed in wood by Robert de le Roi. The range includes a stackable armchair and a bench for short-term waiting. They are available in different backrest heights and with removable seat and seat...

Arvo Piiroinen OY. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... The Chip chair has been designed by Antti Kotilainen to be as light as possible. The seat and backrest are made of moulded plywood which is only 4.2mm thick. They are connected to the steel frame with plastic injection-moulded fittings. The...

Lensvelt. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... Designed by Fritz Frenkler and Justin Kolberg, Minamo is a work/organization furniture system. It can be adapted to suit individual ergonomic requirements by adjusting the height of the satin anodized aluminium under-frame. An intelligent cable...

Brunner GmbH. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... Intended for use at meetings and conferences, the new Freischwinger executive chair has an upholstered seat and back which is designed to offer exceptional seating comfort. It has a tubular frame and a cantilever sled base of quenched and...

Interstuhl. (Product Review).
January 1, 2002... Designed by Rainer Moll, Xantos is a range of swivel chairs with backrests of transparent mesh mounted on diecast aluminium frames. Three heights of backrest are available, along with a variety of mesh or upholstered backrest options. The...

The Ethical Architect: The Dilemma of Contemporary Practice. (Reviews - Design Ethics).
January 1, 2002... By Tom Spector. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press. 2001. Hardback [pounds sterling]37.95, paperback [pounds sterling]17.95 What is the value of architecture? What constitutes good design? What is an architect's duty? These are...

Compact Cities: Sustainable Urban Forms for Developing Countries. (Reviews - Developing Cities).
January 1, 2002... Edited by Mike Jenks and Rod Burgess. London: Spon Press. 2001. [pounds sterling]35 This is the third book in a sequence that began with The Compact City: A Sustainable Urban Form? (Jenks et al, 1996) and Achieving Sustainable Urban...

Council Housing and Culture: The History of a Social Experiment. (Reviews - House and Home).
January 1, 2002... By Alison Ravetz. London: Routledge. 2001. [pounds sterling]22.50 Professor Ravetz is Britain's most distinguished housing historian. In the '90s she wrote with Richard Turkington The Place of Home, one of the few housing histories to take...

In Detail: Building Skins -- Concepts, Layers, Materials. (Reviews - Detailed Analysis).
January 1, 2002... Edited by Christian Schittich. Basel: Birkhauser, 2001, SFr 88, Euro 58 Those who love the way buildings are put together are familiar with the German magazine Detail. This book is from the same stable. 'Skin' is treated in a broad...

The Lowe Lectures: The Paradox of Contemporary Architecture & Digital/Real: Blobmeister/First Built Projects. (Reviews - Simultaneous Translations).
January 1, 2002... THE LOWE LECTURES: THE PARADOX OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Edited by Peter Cook, Neil Spiller, Laura Allen and Peg Rawes. London: Wiley-Academy. 2001. [pounds sterling]24.95 DIGITAL/REAL: BLOBMEISTER/FIRST BUILT PROJECTS Edited by...

A Mysterious Evocation of the Power of the Forest and of Religion, this Tower stands Unexpected and Pristine before its Tranquil Pool in a quiet clearing under the Styrian Mountains. (Delight).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Germanic forest is full of myths: unicorns abound; the shade of Armenius who slaughtered the legions of Augustus hovers in pine scented air; the ancient Nordic gods wait for Wagner's trumpets. Romance has not stopped. In a clearing in...