The Architectural Review articles from January 2005

The Architectural Review archives from January 2005

Design: just a flush in the pan?(architects taking design formalism seriously)
January 1, 2005... Last month two very strange things happened: in a poll of 500 art experts, Marcel Duchamp's famously displaced urinal was heralded as the most significant work of art of the twentieth century; while a week later, Philippe Starck succeeded in...

Archisculpture.(architectural exhibition)
January 1, 2005... On first impression, some architects will find the Fondation Beyeler's current exhibition, Archisculpture, nonsensical. Drawing simplistic comparisons between Corbusier and Moore, Wright and Brancusi, Gehry and Tatlin, will, I suspect, inspire...

Design [not equal to] Art.(architectural exhibition)
January 1, 2005... When Oscar Wilde pronounced that 'all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful', he captured the essence of utilitarian Modernism: a movement describing how contemporary artists, mainly sculptors, are inspired by...

AR in IBP triumph.(Architectural Review)(International Building Press Awards )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The AR has won the award for Best Non-Weekly Magazine in the International Building Press Awards which were held at the end of November. This is the second successive time the AR has won. The judges commented, 'This publication was consistently...

AR transparency conference.(view)
January 1, 2005... The fourth annual Architectural Review conference will be held on 1 March 2005 at the RIBA, London. Speakers include Michael Wigginton, Tim Macfarlane, Eva Jiricna, James Carpenter and Luke Lowings, Tony Hunt, and Werner Sobek. To...

Twinly talented.(browser)
January 1, 2005... Sickening it is really. Ace New Zealand practice, Architecture Workshop, not only got lots of gongs last year--including a prize in our own ar+d awards--but it runs a pretty-much exemplary site at www.archwksp.co.nz. You could also try...

High jinks at Burlington House.(browser)
January 1, 2005... The dear old Royal Academy has been the source of much amusement lately: president retiring early fed up with constant sniping from the back of the life class, one keeper running a separate account. Actually, given the way the RA operates, this...

Mother of invention.(browser)
January 1, 2005... Accompanying the New York opening of the new, bigger and only perhaps better MoMA is its revived site, www.moma.org. This is effortlessly superior in the best sense. You can enlarge the text, the navigation seems straight-forward and the online...

Local knowledge.(browser)
January 1, 2005... You would be astonished if the web site of multi-Stirling Prize winner practice, Wilkinson Eyre, wasn't up to snuff. So no surprises then that its new version, designed by ID Media London, is pretty good indeed. My caveat is that the only way I...

Shimmying for Denmark.(browser)
January 1, 2005... Design review director at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, Peter Stewart, suggested I take a look at the site of Danish architects 3XN whose housing he had admired. He found their cheerfully wacky site at the admirably...

Scottish outrage?(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: I would like to point out the unfortunate omission of the title 'Outrage' from the header of the feature on the new Scottish Parliament in this month's issue (AR November 2004). That the Scottish people have not taken to the streets by the...

Maltzan masterplan.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: Congratulations on your recent issue of AR devoted to Canadian architecture (October 2004). I wish to note, however, that Michael Maltzan Inc (MMA) is currently working on the mastcrplan for the Vancouver Art Gallery--not a building...

Olympic bid.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: We've discovered with great pleasure and surprise that our design for the 'Repere olympique' in the Delight section of the November issue (p98). We are very grateful for this great honour. This section has been our favourite since our...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2005... Credits for the bus shelters (Zuidtangent), Schiphol/Haarlem, the Netherlands (AR November, p40) should read Design: VHP s+a+1 with Dok industrial design. Maurice Nio was project manager before NIO Architects was established.

Diary.(Calendar)
January 1, 2005... AR'S CHOICE OF CURRENT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS For an expanded and constantly updated list, go to our website: www.arplus.com/exhibitions JAPAN ARCHLAB: NEW EXPERIMENTS IN ARCHITECTURE, ART AND THE CITY Until 13...

View from Warsaw: fuelled by foreign investment, the battered Polish capital of Warsaw is experiencing a building boom, with often mixed results.(view)
January 1, 2005... Last May, Poland, together with nine other former Eastern Bloc countries, joined the European Community. So ended a more than fifty year long period of enforced segregation from Western Europe. The Polish capital Warsaw with its 1.7m...

Shipshape solution: this bespoke display system adds drama to a historic collection of model ships.(British Petroleum Company PLC contracts an architectural firm to design a display system )
January 1, 2005... Energy supply group BP has one of the world's largest shipping fleets, ferrying oil and gas around the globe. It also has a sizeable collection of model vessels--a scale model is commissioned when each new ship is procured. The collection is...

In place: in cherishing the particular against a corrosive tide of globalization, architects can make the world a better place.(comment)
January 1, 2005... The once rare and exotic have become commonplace. We no longer 'for lust of knowing what should not be known' take Flecker's Golden Road to Samarkand, (1) but arrive by 747 and find the city equipped with efficient trolleybuses; Machu Picchu is...

Site specific: a health centre in a small Australian township responds with great sensitivity to site and place.(Architectural services)
January 1, 2005... Founded in 1995, Merrima operates as a design unit within the New South Wales Government Architect's Office, specializing in buildings specifically for Aboriginal communities. The name can be translated as 'falling stars', alluding to the...

Cultural connections: this cultural centre in Bethlehem sensitively connects with and invigorates the physical and social life of the town.
January 1, 2005... Building in the Holy Land is underscored by both the weight of ancient religions and the more unforgiving contemporary dynamics of conflict, politics and culture. Bethlehem, the site of Jesus' birth and one of the most sacred places in...

Venetian dolce vita: Giancarlo De Carlo's new beach playground on Venice's Lido is a responsive and nourishing armature for many different kinds of public activities and pleasures.
January 1, 2005... The Lido in Venice is a strip of land dividing the lagoon from the Adriatic, just a short vaporetto ride from St Mark's. You arrive at the quay on one side to meet a front of shops, cafes and fast-food places. Ten minutes' walk past stately...

Irish identity: the social and urban fortunes of a provincial Irish town are revived by this bold new civic centre.
January 1, 2005... To Dubliners, Athlone, at the very centre of Ireland, seems a distinctly provincial place. But this recently-completed civic centre, incorporating a new public library and prefaced by an ambitious central square, underlines the town's ambitions...

Ashes to ashes: artists and architects collaborate to create a powerful, sobering memorial in Poland.
January 1, 2005... The Belzec Cemetery continues a powerful tradition of monuments that literally build upon the horror of past events. Instead of shying away from the scale of the atrocity--be it a killing field, a battlefield, the site of a massacre or in this...

Moon walk: with artist Simon Patterson, Arup Associates lead us through the streets of London.
January 1, 2005... It is rare to be given the opportunity to design a street. Particularly a new street, in the heart of the City of London; an area richly steeped in history, and haphazardly defined by a unique dense mediaeval web of streets. Such an...

Aga Khan Awards 2004.(Architectural services)
January 1, 2005... The triennial Aga Khan Awards for Architecture have become important ingredients of international architectural discussion. Offered for work in Islamic countries, or for Muslims in other parts of the world, the awards celebrate a wide spectrum...

Concrete casket: this family house maximizes a tight urban site to create a dramatic internal realm.(ar house)
January 1, 2005... When designing houses for their own use, architects are usually more able to succumb to the pleasures and perils of self-expression with sometimes intriguing, sometimes dismaying results. This new house in Kobe falls into the former category....

Timber: Rob Gregory reviews a number of recent applications of timber.(product review)
January 1, 2005... 501 AMERICAN TULIPWOOD American Tulipwood (Liriodendron tulipifera), supplied by Rochester-based Morgan's Timber Yard, was used to clad this award-winning intervention in an east London community church. Chosen by architect Matthew Lloyd...

Specifier's information.
January 1, 2005... Potter & Soar Potter & Soar, the UK's leading manufacturer of architectural wire mesh, has recently launched Solaris, an innovative pre-crimped wire mesh pattern that combines a vertical crimped weave with flat horizontal wires to create a...

Sense of places.(Sensory Design )(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... SENSORY DESIGN By Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2004. $29.95 paperback, $82.95 cloth bound Sensory Design is an excellent book, although I have to admit to being slightly confused by...

Skyscraper delight.(Expressing Structure--The Technology of Large-Scale Buildings)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... EXPRESSING STRUCTURE--THE TECHNOLOGY OF LARGE-SCALE BUILDINGS By Virginia Fairweather. Basel: Birkhauser. 2004. [euro]65 This book, although it doesn't say so, is actually a monograph on the work of the American engineers...

Santiago Calatrava, The Complete Works.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... Is he an architect, an engineer or a sculptor? Does it matter? Santiago Calatrava, The Complete Works by Alexander Tzonis, Rizzoli International Publications, 2005, [pounds sterling]49.99, attempts to answer none of these questions but...

Artist who lost America.(The Architect King: George III and the Culture of the Enlightenment)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... THE ARCHITECT KING: GEORGE III AND THE CULTURE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT By David Watkin. London: Royal Collection Enterprises. 2004, [pounds sterling]30 George III's accession to the throne in 1760 prompted much national rejoicing. Young,...

Seen through De Stijl.(Towards Universality--Le Corbusier, Mies and De Stijl )(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... TOWARDS UNIVERSALITY--LE CORBUSIER, MIES AND DE STIJL By Richard Padovan. London: Spon Press. 2004, [pounds sterling]28 Towards Universality--Le Corbusier, Mies and De Stijl sets out, as its title implies, to offer new insights into the...

Mario Botta, Light and Gravity, Architecture 1993-2003.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... Striated light in Noah's Ark, Jerusalem Zoo by Mario Botta and Niki de Saint Phalle. A remarkably light-hearted work by Botta, that master of the serious (and often portentous) architectural statement, shows his playful side which, as the most...

Angels on the head of a pin.(Mirror-Travels: Robert Smithson and History)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... MIRROR-TRAVELS: ROBERT SMITHSON AND HISTORY By Jennifer L. Roberts. London: Yale University Press. 2004. [pounds sterling]30 Assistant Harvard lecturer, Jennifer L. Roberts' book is strictly for contemporary academics. It reads rather...

Delight.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Chess, that most ancient and cerebral of games, has proved an unlikely catalyst for a new urban park in that most modern and uncerebral of places, California. Designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios and inspired by the history, lore, evolutions...