The Architectural Review articles from June 2007

The Architectural Review archives from June 2007

Politics, patronage and parallels.(view)
June 1, 2007... Architecture is both a response to, and consequence of, context. Not merely in respect of site, but the multiple contexts from which the built environment springs: economic, political, social, cultural and historical. However committed a...

Creative mission: beyond the superstar posturing, Design Indaba aims to catalyse South Africa's growing design community. Marcus Fairs reports from the 10th gathering held earlier this year in Cape Town.(view)
June 1, 2007... The location wasn't bad: the opening cocktail party took place on the sands of Clifton 4th Beach in Cape Town, with the sun blazing, the Atlantic Ocean lapping a few feet away and the Twelve Apostles--the dramatic seaward escarpment of Table...

AR awards.(view)(architecture awards)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Time to get cracking on entries for this year's Emerging Architecture Awards, the leading international award for architects under 45. See the enclosed entry form for full details or go to www.arplus.com.

International Book Award.(view)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Manfredo Tafuri's magnum opus on Renaissance architecture Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects published by Yale University Press is the first winner of the Sir Nikolaus Pevsner International Book Award for Architecture....

Errata.(view)(Correction notice)
June 1, 2007... Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that the section through Alvaro Leite Siza's house in last month's issue was printed upside down. See how it should look at: www.arplus.com/broch/articles/armay07pdfs/arMAY07SIZA.pdf

Peter Cook: our cosmopolitan correspondent muses on the unexpected joys of architecture getting its wires crossed.(view)
June 1, 2007... It was in one of those worthy and informative children's books, sporting a thick navy-blue cover embossed with a big badge and called something like 'The World of Exploration'. I loved these books and would return again and again to Ptolemy's...

South Africa's entry to last year's Venice Biennale makes a welcome pitstop in London at the RIBA.(view)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... South Africa's entry to last year's Venice Biennale makes a welcome pitstop in London at the RIBA. Curated by Mphethi Morojele of Johannesburg-based MMA Architects, the show offers a rare chance to connect with a part of the world which,...

Bringing a welcome air of Nordic sobriety to the feverish Latin scrum of this year's Milan Furniture Fair.(view)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Bringing a welcome air of Nordic sobriety to the feverish Latin scrum of this year's Milan Furniture Fair, Shigeru Ban conceived this elegant pavilion for Finnish furniture makers Artek in the grounds of the city's Triennale park. Artek, of...

Great Expectations: thirteen years on from South Africa's first democratic elections, Matthew Barac considers the challenges confronting architects and urban designers in a country profoundly convulsed by the effects of social and political change.(comment)
June 1, 2007... Twelve years ago Catherine Slessor's introdction to the last AR devoted to South Africa was entitled 'Brave New World' (AR March 2005). In the 2006 catalogue for South Africa's contribution to the Venice Biennale, Peter Ahrends referred to...

Long walk to freedom: this urban square in Soweto cccpolitical struggle and creates a new forum for township life.
June 1, 2007... In 1955, on a hot and heavy afternoon, close to 3000 people of all races gathered at Kliptown, in Soweto township, to 'speak together of freedom' at the historic Congress of the People. The two day meeting, which voiced collective resistance to...

Prison break: a powerful totem of state oppression is radically recast and transformed.
June 1, 2007... The Constitution Hill precinct is the most complex of the projects commissioned by public clients in post-apartheid South Africa. Along with the Constitutional Court (AR November 2004), this redevelopment of a former penal site includes the...

Two township schools.(School construction)
June 1, 2007... Under the apartheid system, education became one of the most polarising and destructive expressions of state power. Original Bantu education policies stipulated that 'natives' required only the most basic level of schooling, and this spawned a...

Force for good: this new police station reflects a wider cultural and political transformation.
June 1, 2007... Formerly emblematic of the ruthlessness of the ruling elite, South Africa's police force, like all state institutions, is being slowly transformed. Recasting the force's buildings is an essential part of this process, with notions of literal...

Urban magic: a responsive approach to urban placemaking in a Cape township.
June 1, 2007... South African cities still operate as a geography of separation and exclusion, undermining the democratic intentions of the new regime. Despite widespread commitment to the goal of an inclusive environment--one that promotes rather than...

Good work in the tropics: this Durban office building is an enlightened response to a hot, humid climate.
June 1, 2007... The lush subtropical climate of Durban is seductively enveloping. Lazy breezes caress a landscape of rolling hills and luxuriant vegetation that clings to every sense. Lying on the beach may be the obvious thing to do, but what if you have to...

Between earth and sky: the wonder of the natural world is revealed and celebrated in this safari lodge.
June 1, 2007... 'When we discover a nest it takes us back to... the childhood we should have had. For not many of us have been endowed by life with the full measure of its cosmic implications.' (1) Such are Gaston Bachelard's philosophical musings on '... the...

Living in the ruins of apartheid: the apartheid regime gave brutal shape to the urban and social dynamics of South African cities, but now that such proscriptions no longer apply, what comes next in the quest for a responsive, inclusive and multi-layered urbanism?
June 1, 2007... In trying to portray in words the complexity of the ways in which apartheid cities have unravelled since the early 1990s, it is important to recall the city apartheid imagined and partially constructed. Through its primary spatial planning...

Black matters.(society)(Viewpoint essay)
June 1, 2007... Thirteen years on from the optimistic birth of the 'New' South Africa, race remains as complex and potent a subject as ever, possibly nowhere more so than in the intricate web of issues surrounding the identity, disposition and possession of...

Bridge house: poised above Cape Town, this house exploits its dramatic sloping site.(African architecture)
June 1, 2007... Extending themes introduced in the earlier Tree House (AR November 1999), this latest dwelling by Van der Merwe Miszewski exploits the specific nature of Cape Town's steeply sloping bowl-like topography. Sloping down towards the north, the site...

Milan furniture fair.(product review)
June 1, 2007... The canape-fuelled maelstrom of the Milan furniture fair shows no signs of slowing down. Catherine Slessor whirls along in pursuit. Go to www.arplus.com/enq.html for further product information. 501 DRIADE STORE Philippe Starck's PIP-e...

Specifier's information.(Advertisement)
June 1, 2007... Corus The new Quadrants at Man Utd have been clad using Colorcoat HPS200[R] pre-finished steel. Corus Panels and Profiles supplied the cladding system. It is a continuation of the Colorcoat[R] product that is already used on the famous Old...

The great American dream.(The Modern American House: Spaciousness and Middle Class Identity)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... THE MODERN AMERICAN HOUSE: SPACIOUSNESS AND MIDDLE CLASS IDENTITY By Sany Isenstadt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2006. [pounds sterling]55 Spaciousness, argues Sandy Isenstadt in The Modern American House, is derived from an...

Building processes.(Rethinking Technology: A Reader in Architectural Theory)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... RETHINKING TECHNOLOGY: A READER IN ARCHITECTURAL THEORY Edited by William W. Braham and Jonathan A. Hale. Abingdon: Routledge. 2007. [pounds sterling]25 To appreciate the significance of this thoughtful new anthology, one must...

Georgian beginnings.(Inigo Jones and the European Classicist Tradition)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... INIGO JONES AND THE EUROPEAN CLASSICIST TRADITION By Giles Worsley, New Haven & London: Yale University Press for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 2007. [pounds sterling]40 Summerson and others held that the work of...

Architecture as icon.(The Architecture of Aftermath)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... THE ARCHITECTURE OF AFTERMATH By Terry Smith, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 2006. Cloth [pounds sterling]47.50, paper [pounds sterling]19.50 Including Uluru, the huge monolith formerly known as Ayers Rock at the red heart...

University challenge.(Imagining Mit: Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... IMAGINING MIT: DESIGNING A CAMPUS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY By William J. Mitchell, London: MIT Press. 2007. [pounds sterling]15.95 Imagining MIT is a fascinating book that takes the reader far beyond imagining. And while the paper...

Eighteenth-century masterpiece of landscape design, celebrated in Infinitely Beautiful: The Dessau-Worlitaz Garden Realm.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Dessau was renowned for an eighteenth-century masterpiece of landscape design, celebrated in Infinitely Beautiful: The Dessau-Worlitz Garden Realm (ed Thomas Weiss, London: Frances Lincoln, [pounds sterling]35). Scholarly information combines...

Re-engineering the European City.(reviews)
June 1, 2007... A stellar line-up of architects and thinkers consider the evolution of cities. The recent AR-Arup conference Re-engineering the European City at the RIBA had the avowed purpose of 'exploring the impact of economic, social and climatic...

Sutherland Lyall takes a deep breath and sniffs the midsummer cyber meadows.(browser)(Personal account)
June 1, 2007... Flying the flag You have no idea how we wallow in post-Empire tristesse. Non-Brits will have to forgive me for a tiny surge of happiness at two little flags signifying language options on the home page at www.chdeportzamparc.com. For once...

The engineering perspective.
June 1, 2007... THE ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVE Declan O'Carroll of Arup considers the challenges and complexities of urban development from an engineer's point of view. I sense in the future we will look back and reflect that now we stand at a historic...

Diary.(Diary entry)
June 1, 2007... AR'S CHOLCE OF INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS GERMANY BAUHAUS DESSAU - WORKSHOP OF MODERNISM Bauhaus, Dessau The permanent exhibition on the history of the distinguished 'School of Design' was installed in the recently...

Delight: Ronnie Levitan's shots of township life reveal a vivid and richly ingenious internal world.
June 1, 2007... We talk of being 'at home' when we feel that we belong and the domestic interior is a primary arena for making that sense of belonging tangible. Cultures of the home provide a trace of how we place ourselves in the world--in particular, how we...