The Architectural Review articles from June 2002

The Architectural Review archives from June 2002

Yemen in Peril. (View).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Yemen Republic has one of the longest continuous architectural traditions in the world. As a fine and provocative exhibition on the Queen of Sheba at the British Museum in London shows, (1) the traditional way of building has changed little...

Ar+d 2002. (View).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The ar+d awards for emerging architecture are intended to bring wider international recognition to a talented new generation of architects and designers under 45. Entries for this year's awards are now being called for. Last year the...

Venice in Peril: the 31st symposium. (View).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Venice, a city so beautiful and haunting, inhabits the imagination of most who visit her. A time-share in the dream has inspired hundreds of organizations to devote themselves to her preservation and enhancement. Venice in Peril, the English...

Browser. (View).(miscellaneous brief articles)
June 1, 2002... Sutherland Lyall charts the vast expanse of the architectural cyberwaves. The Murcutt oeuvres completes You may not have a Glenn Murcutt (he of this year's Pritzker prize) monograph on hand so the next best thing is nearly 100...

View.
June 1, 2002... VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE SIR: I was surprised to find that I subscribe to a magazine that covers not only the world of Architecture but is also used as a platform for architects to express their political views. The letter View from...

View from Mexico. (View).(architects and architectural projects of the 20th and 21st centuries)(Column)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Mexican architecture, that astonished the world in the mid twentieth century and then seemed to fall quiet, is reawakening. The centenary of the birth of Luis Barragan, the most important figure in the history of Mexican architecture,...

July. (View).(Architectural Review's July issue plans)(Editorial)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The theme of AR's July issue is Space and Identity, one of the main topics at the triennial International Union of Architects conference being held in Berlin at the end of the month. In a world that is becoming increasingly homogenized by...

Home run: three students designed this scheme, taught themselves to work in metal, and made it. (Design Review).(Auburn University's College of Architecture, Design and Construction)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Rural Studio at Auburn University's College of Architecture, Design and Construction was founded in 1992 by the late Sam Mockbee (AR February 2002), with the aim of extending the study of architecture into a socially responsible context....

Building with metal: metals have been used in buildings for more than three millennia. What were originally rare and honorific architectural substances are now essential, and their potential is incalculable. (Comment).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Our use of metals is as old as civilization -- indeed the two are intimately connected, for metal cannot he worked from ore without sophisticated social and economic structures. And without metals -- copper, bronze, lead and iron -- we would...

Cool urbanity: metal is the main material that allows this centre to help make a Finnish suburb into a real piece of civic design, and focus for a disparate community.(Helsinki, Finland)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The suburbs of Helsinki, as of many other northern European cities, often show the least cheering aspects of Modernist planning, with individual buildings and blocks scattered into a vacuous waste of roads and meaningless unusable green....

Restrained exhibitionism: in urbane European cities, Rem Koolhaas is the most bad-mannered boy on the block. But he ripostes to the world's capital of kitsch with minimalism, and elegance.(Hermitage satellite museum in Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... When the Russian-born theatre designer Theodore Komisarjevsky borrowed from Venice in creating the interior of the Tooting Granada -- a super-cinema of 1931, now relegated to use as a bingo hall -- he did it with bravura, inventing as much as...

Vaulting ambition: with its ingenious suspended steel structure and low energy glass skin, this vast office building is a modern version of the industrial cathedrals of the nineteenth century.(Berliner Bogen, Germany)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... In reality, the Berliner Bogen, a 140m-long steel and glass barrel vault of offices, has no site. The bulling is a bridge, hanging over a water basin at the end of a canal. It could be classified as a land reclamation project. The primary...

Steel arbour: a tautly detailed steel pergola forms the formal and spatial focus of a new Korean restaurant in downtown Los Angeles.(Chosun Galbi designed by architect Richard Lundquist)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Richard Lundquist trained at the AA and acquired his mastery of steel working for Morphosis in the mid-1980s and then for Michele Saee, where he was project designer on two cuttingedge clothing stores. His most ambitious project since setting...

Cultural collage: veiled and screened in a skin of metal louvres, this mediatheque is a robust collage of volumes that enlivens a dull public realm.(in Lyons, France)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The rise of the French multimedia library began in the 1980s. Now most French towns can boast a mediatheque and they have become an increasingly important local focus for various cultural and civic activities. They also provide opportunities...

Chameleon skin: wrapping a dumb concrete and glass office block in stainless steel mesh is intended to turn it into a shining landmark.(Kramm and Strigl's Expomedia Light-Cube, Saarbrucken, Germany)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Digital service companies are seen as the panacea for stagnating economies. Beside the Saar river in Saarbrucken, an inner-city multimedia business centre has replaced former labour-intensive coal and steel industries. Kramm & Strigl's...

Aluminium forest: poised above a lake on a forest of spindly aluminium columns, this eye-catching building is an unusual collaboration between design and industry, calculated to demonstrate the metal's versatility.(Aluminum Centre, Houten, Netherlands)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... As I drove into Houten near Utrecht I asked a local tradesman the whereabouts of the Aluminium Centre. He replied, not unkindly, 'drive out of town, you can't miss it'. He was right. Set on the edge of an artificial lake, the building glistened...

Leaning tower: copper and the sea have always been intimately associated, in Lisbon they are brought into crisp modern conjunction.(Lisbon, Portugal)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... From the lagoon-like estuary of the Tagus, the first great European ocean sailors were sent out in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by Prince Henry the Navigator to explore the world. Now, Lisbon has a new harbour, and its entrance is...

Contrapuntal composition: Rudy Ricciotti's concert hall in Potsdam sensitively and imaginatively reconciles a new building with fragments of the city's Prussian past and its recent darker history. (Interior Design).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Rudy Ricciotti has shown himself adept at working with old structures. His scheme for the Visitors' Centre at Aries (AR March 2002), treasures the past, and makes the new impinge as lightly as possible on the old. Such an approach, which has...

Social whirls: design of advertising offices overlooking the Thames in London expresses vitality and humour and draws on the river's luminance.(Claydon Heeley Jones Mason building by Ushida Findlay)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Ushida Findlay's offices for an advertising agency are scattered about four floors of a 1980s speculative building next to Battersea Bridge in south London. Of little architectural merit, it had the advantages of overlooking the Thames and...

Hilltop retreat: poised on a Greek hillside, this house is a serene interplay between nature and artefact, exterior and interior, unfolding as a fluid series of spaces. (Ar House).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... On the flank of a hill over Kiourka, some 35 kilometres north of Athens, is a most tranquil house. You come up to it through a quiet winding country lane, a wonderful relief after the crowded motorway from the capital. The route winds through a...

The city as sculpture. (Academy Forum).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... This report by Jeremy Melvin records the proceedings of the Royal Academy of Arts Architecture Forum, which investigates concerns common to contemporary artists and architects. Held at the Royal Academy in London, the most recent forum explored...

The city as sculpture -- from skyline to plinth. (Academy Forum).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... SILENT AND STILL. I love cities for their wildness born of change and of the unknown. This is man's constructed wilderness where mothers traditionally feared their daughters would tread. That other city -- the green city that man has...

Rooms and spaces for sculpture within the dynamic city. (Academy Forum).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... NOISY AND MOVING. Art is for most people a luxury to be indulged after we have completed the necessities of living. This distinction between necessity and luxury is reflected in the way we spend our time. In broad terms, there is committed time...

Where is the plinth of the skyline? (Academy Forum).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... At the risk of being over-simplistic, the skyline has traditionally been the domain of power -- whether secular or religious -- and the expression of domination. As Andy Warhol said, 'When I see the New York skyline, I think only of money'. It...

Stretching metal: metal applications in building are constantly changing. These pioneering examples show how wire mesh can be used to evoke both opacity and translucency, to alter with every movement of the clouds and the time of day. (Materials).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Stainless-steel wire mesh draws its conspicuous quality from two poles -- change and permanence. It is an aesthetically versa lie material which reflects changes in nature and in city life in combination with the permanence of steel cloaking....

Louis Poulsen. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Louis Poulsen stand at Frankfurt Light+Building displayed only their latest products, including LP Charisma, shown on the right, a large room pendant which has just won the prestigious Danish Design Award. The prototype of a new concept of...

Swarovski. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A new range of Crystal downlighcs consists of halogen lights used in combination with cut crystals. The crystal element is suspended below the downlight and moves to produce shadows and reflections by optical refraction. Cut crystals have also...

Martin. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Alien 05 is a new recessed colour changer with an adjustable head which allows it to be used as an uplight, downlight or wall fixture. Eight interchangeable dichroic colour positions are possible, plus open white. Alien 05 is used on its own,...

Fagerhult. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Teno is a new range of luminaires designed to suit all types of office environments including reception areas, conference rooms and cellular office spaces. It comprises two basic designs, the round Circle and the rectangular Line, both of which...

Ansorg. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The innovative reflector technology of a new range of luminaires, Maxx, allows them to be used as downlights in the PC workplace. Recessed, semi-recessed, semi-surface mounted and suspended versions are all available, with low voltage halogen,...

Trilux-Lenze. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... New lighting models shown at Light + Building, included Astron, a series of elegant wing-like luminaires for working spaces, and Stabo, a voltage-crack spotlight for commercial displays. The spotlight has a pivoting mechanism and can be...

Spectral. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Iris ring luminaire won the F Design Award in 2002. It has a diecast ultra-pure aluminium reflector and a ring-shaped electronic ballast in a transparent housing into which coloured materials can be inserted. Pendant, ceiling-mounted or...

Modular. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Hit-me is an exterior luminaire in the shape of a nail, with an aluminium end which can be driven in the ground. The connecting cable in set just above ground level so that the light can be moved easily around the garden or landscape. The...

Hess. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Based on LED technology, Hess illuminating strips can be used outside in paved areas and walkways to mark routes with coloured light. Tiles, in sizes from 100 x 100mm to 400 x 400mm, are also available; they have glass covers with antislip...

Erco. (Product Review).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A new outdoor lighting range allows architects and lighting designers to coordinate the design of indoor and outdoor lighting concepts. The range includes the Beamer projector, which has a narrow. rotationally symmetrical beam distribution for...

Berker. (Product Review).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... Berker has produced glass light switches since 1985. when it launched 'Glasserie' a replica of a Bauhaus design. The new B.7 Glas range of light switches has a frame of green glass of which the back is tempered and screen-printed white. ...

Lutron. (Product Review).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... A new control system. Grafik Integrale. was launched at Light + Building. Designed for residential and small commercial buildings, the system allows preset lighting arrangements to be controlled from one unit. It will operate without interfaces...

Hewi. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... Hewi products are designed for both able-bodied and disabled people. The specifications of their balustrade range match the recommendations of the Code of Practice BS 8300:2001, which covers design of buildings to meet the needs of disabled...

Aquila design. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... Polo is a simple yet elegant lamp for exterior urban use which offers tool-free maintenance. The aluminium housing is available in two sizes and a range of polyester powder-coated RAL or British Standard colours. The luminaire is protected with...

Dorma. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... A range of Dorma fittings has been installed in the Manchester Aquatics Centre, where the 2002 Commonwealth Games will be held. Glass partitions and glass doors have been used extensively to allow daylight to penetrate into the building. The...

Concord:marlin. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... Torus FX, winner of the German International Red Dot Award and Design Plus Light+Building Award, has expanded its ranges of Halogen, Halide and accessories. A remote-controlled spotlight, Torus 100Fxi, has been developed using the latest...

Kawneer UK. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... The facades of a 10-storey speculative office building in Leeds have been clad with Kawneer 1612 curtain walling using two different glazing methods. The curtain wall to the main entrance and two end bays of the building are glazed with...

Vincent Timber. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... Western Red Cedar has outstanding level of thermal insulation: a U-value of 0.11 w/mK, the highest level achieved by softwood. This, and its low embodied energy, gives it an excellent environmental rating for a house or a commercial building....

Vetrotech Saint-Gobain. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... 600 square metres of Pyroswiss Plus have been used in the new Shanghai Opera House in China, to protect staircases in the event of fire. The glass was chosen for its clear optical qualities which matched the non-fire rated glazing --...

Selecon. (Specifier's Information).(advertisement)
June 1, 2002... Lighting designer Spiers & Major specified Selecon's Aureol Beamshaper in IBM's e-Business marketing suite on the South Bank, London. They were used to provide textural lighting, tree pattern effects, and as flexible spotlights in meeting...

Treasure chest: Castellon's museum is conceived as a hermetic, almost impervious aluminium chest that guards the city's fine collections. Inside, it allows its treasures to be eloquent.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Madrid-based Luis Mansilla and his partner Emillo Tunon began their careers in the office of Rafael Moneo and their work is strongly inflected by similar formal concerns. Neutral, toplit containers, solid, alcazar-like walls and the subtle play...

T.R. Hamzah & Yeang: Ecology of the Sky & Groundscrapers + Subscrapers of Hamzah & Yeang. (Ecological Progress).(two books by Ivor Richards)
June 1, 2002... By Ivor Richards. Mulgrave, Australia: The Images Publishing Group. 2001. [pounds sterling]39.50 GROUNDSCRAPERS + SUBSCRAPERS OF HAMZAH & YEANG By Ivor Richards. Chichester: Wiley-Academy. 2001. [pounds sterling]34.95 These two...

The Language of Space & The Words Between the Spaces: Buildings and Language. (Enriching Discussions?).(two books)
June 1, 2002... By Bryan Lawson, Oxford: Architectural Press. 2001. [pounds sterling]22.99 THE WORDS BETWEEN THE SPACES: BUILDINGS AND LANGUAGE By Thomas A. Markus and Deborah Cameron. London: Routledge. 2001. [pounds sterling]19.99 Lawson, Dean...

Classical Architecture. (Classical Vade Mecum).(book)
June 1, 2002... By James Stevens Curl. London: Batsford. 2001. [pounds sterling]17.99 With Howard Colvin, Professor Curl is the great lexicographer of architecture, his Oxford Dictionary of Architecture (1999) being, in my view, incomparably the best now...

The Eco-Design Handbook: A Complete Sourcebook for the Home and Office. (Consumer Ecology).(book)
June 1, 2002... By Alastair Fuad-Luke. London: Thames and Hudson. 2002. [pounds sterling]16.95 This seductive little book advertises itself as 'a complete guide to beautifully conceived, ecologically sensitive and consumer-friendly fumiture and objects...

Central European Avantgardes: Exchange and Transformation, 1910-1930. (European Centrality).(book review)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Edited by Timothy Benson. London: MIT Press. 2002. [pounds sterling]41.50 This ambitious book was published to coincide with an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Its most interesting claim is made in the last essay, 'The...

The Artificial Landscape-Contemporary Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape Architecture in the Netherlands. (Neo-, Super-and Second Modernism).(book review)
June 1, 2002... Edited by Hans Ibelings. Rotterdam: Nai Publishers. 2001. [euro]41,197 Judging by grumpy mutterings current in England about the alleged airs put on by young visiting Dutch hero-architects, there's a feeling that the Dutch take the view...

Aesthetics, Well-Being and Health; Essays Within Architecture and Environmental Aesthetics. (Uses of Psychology?).(book review)
June 1, 2002... Edited by Birgit Cold. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2002. [pounds sterling]45 The arts are not based on rational thought but there is a whole range of critical writing that examines artistic activity and output. Architecture is about making...

Delight: changeful as a Ruskinian Church, wild as the strangest gothick fantasy from Hollywood, this extraordinarily exuberant timber building towers over the grim texture of Archangel.
June 1, 2002... This very strange erection is in the White Sea port city of Archangel, whacked up in a moment of post-Gorbachevian ebullience. In some ways, it sums up the present state of Russia: wonderfully ambitious, but lacking common sense. Thank goodness...