The Architectural Review articles from July 2003

The Architectural Review archives from July 2003

The world's leading emerging architecture award.
July 1, 2003... JURY The Jury will be: SHIGERU BAN Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo, Japan AHMED BUCHEERY Gulf House Engineering, Manama, Bahrain FRANCOISE-HELENE JOURDA Jourda Architects, Paris, France FARSHID MOUSSAVI ...

View: Hamburg celebrates its wealth of architectural talent; obituary, Philip Powell, one of England's most daring and charming architects; Lisbon, how to build an expo that makes a lasting, enjoyable and stylish contribution to the city; is architectural education stuck in an outdated paradigm?
July 1, 2003... From 30 exhibitions in 1994, Hamburg's triennial Architecture Summer has now grown to over 200 happenings held in museums, cafes, shopping arcades, and even under open skies--weather permitting--between May and November. Perhaps due to...

Obituary.(Obituary)
July 1, 2003... PHILIP POWELL 1921-2003 'Not all geniuses were as likeable as Philip.' Philip Powell, who died on 5 May, was one of the masters of British postwar Modernism; as an architect of unrivalled popularity, together with his lifelong partner...

Sliced toast.(Browser)(Adrian Welch architecutral websites)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Adam brothers came down to London to make their fortune, and so did a lot of writers and engineers and politicians--and such later architects as Charles Rennie Mackintosh. A lot of good it did him. Despite the regular grumbles of one...

Institutional excitement. Not.(Browser)(Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... All right, let's be fair to the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (as they are more accurately and quaintly known--though not as quaint, as this column has pointed out before, as Republic of Ireland architects being members of the...

Not the Irish institute.(Browser)(Archeire)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Still on our British Isles tour, the relatively new Irish site Archeire, aka Irish Architecture Online at www.irish-architecture.com (although it may now be archeire.com), spawned Archiseek at www.archiseek.com which we reviewed briefly three...

Cool clean makeover.(Browser)(Richard Meier and Partners revamped website)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... A couple of years ago Richard Meier's website was offhand to a degree--as we described it then, 'infrequently tended'. Now it has been revamped with quite a lot of changing and zooming images, elegantly arranged text, lots of white, like the...

Local girl makes good.(Browser)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Bit local this, but it's billed as America's only--and first--design and architecture radio show. Despite the inherent difficulties of sensibly discussing visual arts in words-only, it apparently runs for half an hour at 2.30 on the first and...

Centre on artistic man: relax.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2003... SIR: With my February 2003 issue lost to the local postal system, I have only just seen Charles Jencks' New Paradigm article. There is something new going on, but it is not right to say the new stuff is better than the 'boring incessant...

Irreversibility, the downfall.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2003... SIR: Ayssar Arida is to be commended on his letter drawing our attention to the new paradigm. It is, of course, not confined to architecture and the paradigm shift already goes by several names, the most helpful being that of the transition...

Flagging up the Bawa show.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2003... SIR: There are -- as Michael Brawne writes in his review of the book about Geoffrey Bawa (AR June, p96)--not three but perhaps four essential steps: to buy the book, get a ticket to Sri Lanka, look at Bawa's buildings--or visit the exhibition...

View from Lisbon: in Portugal, traditions of craftsmanship and urbanity are translated for the modern world by a masterly group of architects working in stone and concrete.
July 1, 2003... I have been in Lisbon for Tektonika, the annual Portuguese international building and construction fair, which is held in the four spacious pavilions lined up along the Tagus built as part of the Expo 98 development (AR July 1998). I had...

August.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The August issue of The Architectural Review is concerned with those essential ingredients of architecture, particularly important in the last two centuries: transparency and the penetration of light. Light transmitting technologies are perhaps...

Spectrum of talent: the AR's Awards for Excellence are an established and popular feature of London's Spectrum annual design show. Here we review the products premiated by the jury.
July 1, 2003... Now a regular fixture of Spectrum, the annual international furniture and interior design fair held at the Commonwealth Institute in London, the AR Awards for Excellence attracted an encouraging diversity of entries (previewed AR May 2003)....

Pop and posh: buildings both enclose and embody memory, and as such, they are a vital part of civilization. Now, we should be exploring in architecture how pop and posh cultures can enhance each other.
July 1, 2003... Cultures are what we all do; they are the sum of our activities and values. In Western countries, these include sports, junk food and traffic jams as much as the fine arts, philosophy and science. We tend to divide culture into the pop and...

Foil to nature.(art centers)
July 1, 2003... Frank Gehry's first building on a rural site is a model performance complex clad in swishing, sensuous steel drapery that animates its Arcadian campus setting. The Hudson River enjoys mythical status as the boundary between New York City...

Photo finish: carefully inserted into a historic naval warehouse, this photography museum has an enthralling spatial variety.(Sverre Fehn)
July 1, 2003... Sverre Fehn's career has been punctuated by distinguished and thoughtful museums. The archaelogical museum at Hamar (also known as the Cathedral Museum) was perhaps the first building to bring him to international attention: it was a series of...

Cultural crossroads: a dramatic new entrance to the Graz exhibition grounds houses a multi-cultural space suitable for all seasons.(Klaus Kada)
July 1, 2003... As Austria's second city and one of few large, urban centres in a generally mountainous country, Graz has for centuries been the site of an important fair. Its twentieth-century fairground lies in the southern suburbs alongside one of the...

Top of the pops: this arrestingly amoebic new concert hall in Breda exploits the tension between old and new elements.(Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects)
July 1, 2003... As part of an urban development masterplan for a now abandoned military barracks in Breda (overseen by the ubiquitous OMA), a former officer-cadets' mess hall has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis, transformed into a venue for pop and rock...

Art outcrop: a strange abstracted intrusion of the outback enriches and completes (for now) Melbourne's adventurous Arts Precinct.
July 1, 2003... The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) lies at one end of Melbourne's Arts Precinct, a necklace of galleries and performance buildings that stretches through the city to Federation Square, the controversial new cultural piazza next...

Dancing bridge: an ingenious intervention into London's ballet complex adds unexpected richness to a humdrum street.(Royal Opera)
July 1, 2003... Floral Street is a tall narrow thoroughfare in London's Convent Garden in which the massive white neo-renaissance bulk of the Royal Opera House suddenly obtrudes into a small-scale streetscape of pubs and little shops. Most people do not look...

Engineering enlightenment.(Process)(Arup Lighting)
July 1, 2003... While working with some of the world's leading contemporary museum and gallery designers, London-based Arup Lighting have identified two distinct streams in the pursuit of passive daylit solutions. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'Daylight is...

Musical variations: a fine 1930s broadcasting building has been rescued from decay and transformed into an urban music centre.(Interior Design)(Belgian National Institute for Radio Broadcasting, Samyn & Partners, Storme van Ranst, Wachtelaer)
July 1, 2003... The headquarters of the Belgian National Institute for Radio Broadcasting in Flagey Square, Brussels was the subject of a 1933 competition set up to bring together all the functions of the state broadcasting system. It was won by Joseph Diongre...

Marine curves: using the traditional materials of the surrounding neo-vernacular seaside resort, this holiday house explores memories of the German organic and geological time.(Ar House)(Ixtapa)
July 1, 2003... Ixtapa is in the state of Guerrero, some 250km up the coast from Acapulco, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Its traditional name means 'the white sand place', and its climate ranges from humid, with heavy tropical rains on summer nights, when...

Rob Gregory reviews the latest external furniture and lighting products.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2003... 503 GARPA With over 24 years experience, to complement their diverse collection of traditional teak products. Garpa now offer an alternative 'feather light' aluminium and stainless-steel range available with either taut strap weave or warm...

Wright Style.(Specifier's Information)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2003... A new door and frame system from Wright Style, the advanced steel glazing system specialist, has successfully completed stringent fire tests in Singapore on the performance of fully glazed doors. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The single...

Gooding Aluminium.(Specifier's Information)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2003... Gooding Aluminium's robust perforated squeeze frame panels have recently been used in balcony installations in central London. Offering security and privacy, the aluminium panels provide a versatile low maintenance solution. The square...

Vetrotech Saint-Gobain.(Specifier's Information)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2003... Vetrotech Saint-Gobain, the world's leading manufacturer of fire resisting glass, has completed a glass road tunnel in Munich, Germany--the first of its kind to use a point-fixing spider system. The 280m tunnel was built as a noise enclosure to...

Dorma.(Specifier's Information)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2003... Seven of DORMA'S Horizontal Sliding Glass Walls (HSW-G) have recently been installed in the new, state-of-the-art London head office of Pentland Group--the UK's leading sports and fashion brand management group. HSW-G is a frameless glass...

Future Designs.(Specifier's Information)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2003... Future Designs has produced the DFL Range of modular luminaires. When used in the correct configuration, a fully compliant installation with the CIBSE LG3 amendment is assured. The luminaire has also been tested to confirm that the suspended...

Gooding Aluminium.(Specifier's Information)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... GA's Anolight range of ribbed decorative panels was used to create these futuristic cylindrical showcases for a chemical industry exhibition at the Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough. Anolight is available with a brilliant mirror reflective surface,...

Farrell.(Specifier's Information)(Advertisement)
July 1, 2003... Air is a new range for the modern workplace to suit all levels of offices, comprising AirFORM worksurfaces, AirFRAME supports, AirSPACE conference and meeting systems, AirBUBBLE call centre systems and AirPORTS storage systems--all complemented...

Reynaers.(Specifier's Information)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Reynaers Aluminium will be presenting a unique award in 2003 to one successful Belgian graduate in architecture. The prize will include a six-month internship at Foster and Partners in London. The Reynaers Institute, located near to Reynaers'...

Networking for modernism.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... F.R.S YORKE AND THE EVOLUTION OF ENGLISH MODERNISM By Jeremy Melvin, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. 2003. [pounds sterling]29.95 The familiar photograph of F.R.S. Yorke that prefaces this slim but nicely produced study presents the...

Defining ornament.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... THE ORDER OF ORNAMENT, THE STRUCTURE OF STYLE: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN ART AND ARCHITECTURE By Debra Schafter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. [pounds sterling]60 Debra Schafter, Assistant Professor in the Visual...

Subtlety up north.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... ESKIMO ARCHITECTURE: DWELLING AND STRUCTURE IN THE EARLY HISTORIC PERIOD Molly Lee and Gregory Reinhardt. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. 2003. $45 ([pounds sterling]30) The Eskimo realm comprises an area mostly north of 60...

Risk taker.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... EERO SAARINEN: AN ARCHITECTURE OF MULTIPLICITY By Antonio Roman. London: Laurence King. 2003. [pounds sterling]40 Eero Saarinen died, at the height of his powers, in 1961. His best buildings are now some fifty years old. This must put...

Finding the plot.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... THE EPHEMERAL OF REAL: AN ARCHITECTURAL NOVELETTE By Chris Thurlbourne. Aarhus: Arkitektskolens Forlag. 2003. [euro]32 ([pounds sterling]21) Author Chris Thurlbourne has impressive credentials: Associate Professor at Aarhus School of...

Zuho Zheng Yuan garden, Suzhou looking towards Coolie-hat Pavilion from beside Hall of Thirty-Six Mandarin Ducks.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Caption: Zuho Zheng Yuan garden, Suzhou looking towards Coolie-hat Pavilion from beside Hall of Thirty-Six Mandarin Ducks. The 'Artless Administrator's Garden' is one of the triumphs of Chinese gardening discussed with insight and sensitivity...

Karla Kowalski, founding partner of Szyszkowitz+Kowalski, the immensely inventive organic firm from Graz, has a penetrating eye on the characters of her colleagues.(Delight)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Karla Kowalski of Szyszkowitz+Kowalski recently resigned after 15 years as professor at Stuttgart's Technical University. As part of the leaving festivities, she privately published and presented to her colleagues a book of sketches and doodles...