The Architectural Review articles from March 2004

The Architectural Review archives from March 2004

Making a place for art: beyond the material and formal lessons that have inspired generations of architects, and recognition of his influence on loft living and the regeneration of redundant buildings, Tate Modern's retrospective of Donald Judd reveals his masterful command of the forgotten spaces in between.(View)
March 1, 2004... 'The space around my work is critical to it: as much thought has gone into the installation as into the piece itself [...] somewhere a portion of contemporary art has to exist as an example of what the art and its context were meant to be.'...

Out of the jungle.(View)
March 1, 2004... The mythical Cuban art schools (AR January 2000) are at long last being restored by the original team of architects. The idea for five art schools came to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara when they were playing a round of golf at the Havana Country...

Snowed under: in deepest Lapland, architecture and the elements interact with some intriguing (and unpredictable) effects.(View)
March 1, 2004... It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that most architects are control freaks and hate sharing responsibility for their buildings. How remarkable, therefore, that New York art curator Lance Fung persuaded 15 adventurous firms to collaborate...

Sutherland Lyall tunnels for treasure in the multi-dimensional cyber-strata.(Browser)
March 1, 2004... Kunsthaus celebration In all the cheerful excitement surrounding the Peter Cook/Colin Fournier Kunsthaus in Graz (see pp38-39, 44-53), spare a thought for their Austrian collaborator, Architektur Consult ZT, the GmbH formed from the former...

Bumpy ride?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... SIR: 'Yes', Charles Jencks is right (AR January). New angles on the wheel make for a bumpy ridc. But Malcolm Andrews' comment a few pages on, that landscape is commodified twice--once as real estate and again as aesthetic amenity, made me go...

Model prisons revisited.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... SIR: In his letter (AR Nov 2003) Leslie Fair-weather questions the Model Prison (AR Oct 2003). He suggests that learning regimes can be carried out in existing prisons. While that may be the case, the morphology of nineteenth- and...

Bam plan.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... SIR: Archie Walls should be given the chance to rebuild Bam (AR February, p28). Thanks to him, and you, we had a glimpse of the wonders of the unknown Iranian city immediately after the dreadful earthquake. The world has not all been explored....

Designer appeal.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... SIR: I am researching the architecture and interior design of London coffee bars of the 1950s. A central part of my research is to make contact with (and hopefully interview) people who were associated with the bars--either as owners,...

Wonderful Copenhagen is under immense pressure to expand and, to protect the fabric of the old city centre, the formerly almost deserted island of Amager is becoming a new and vital part of the city.(View from Copenhagen)
March 1, 2004... Visitors to Copenhagen over the last year will have noticed that the austere geometry of the city's new Metro system has been compromised somewhat by the addition of rough wooden blocks and gaudy plastic tapes which raise the height of the...

Diary.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
March 1, 2004... AR'S CHOICE OF CURRENT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS For an expanded and constantly updated list, go to our website: www.arplus.com/exhibitions AUSTRIA AUSTRIAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY Until 28...

Light fantastic: the flank of the Graz Kunsthaus has become a giant illuminated screen using simple, readily available technology.(Design Review)
March 1, 2004... Oozing its way around the Baroque fabric of Graz, Peter Cook and Colin Fournier's new Kunsthaus (p44) is more than just a fashionable biomorph. In a modern manifestation of Cook's and Fournier's adventures in technological optimism with...

City shifts: cities are continually in flux, but recent changes in the prosperity of many industrial nineteenth-century ones offer exciting possibilities for generous architecture and urbanism.(Comment)
March 1, 2004... Curious things are happening in the old industrial cities of Europe. Towns as different as Leeds, Leverkusen and Lille are being transformed by new prosperity: people, particularly the young and the old, are beginning to move back to live in...

Alien encounter: clad in a pulsating skin, Graz's new Kunsthaus is a spunky modern interloper that adds both to the life of the city and to its historic fabric.(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... As second city of Austria and capital of Styria, Graz's cultural significance is greater than its 250 000 population would suggest. Separated from Vienna by the Austrian Alps, it looks south to Italy and the Balkans, but also east across the...

Gehry's great concerto: the Disney Concert Hall has radically transformed a block of downtown Los Angeles making it a place to visit rather than drive through.
March 1, 2004... From the first solo notes of The Star-Spangled Banner, sung by jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves in spotlight at centre stage, to the final crescendo of the entire LA Philharmonic expressing the energy and shock of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the...

Stepping stones: an attempt to make urban architecture on a very difficult and disjointed site.(Trumpf AG )
March 1, 2004... With 6000 employees worldwide, Trumpf AG is one of the great German postwar manufacturing success stories, prospering in the heavily industrialized heartland of Swabia around Stuttgart. As such, Trumpf's management has pursued a bold...

The city as theatre: this theatre complex has a rich, eclectic spirit that reflects the vitality of the city.
March 1, 2004... Haarlem's Aktiegroep Toneelschuur has its origins in the heady radicalism of les evenements of 1968, founded as a provocative, egalitarian alternative to traditional theatre, emphasizing direct contact between performers and the audience. Since...

Skin craft: by peeling back the layers, Allies and Morrison reveal how to use restraint when faced with the opportunity to design their own office building.
March 1, 2004... The question that leaps to mind when visiting Allies and Morrison's new offices in Southwark, is why does this not look like an Allies and Morrison building? When faced with the unadorned surfaces of glass and in-situ concrete many questions...

Touching heaven: this proposed new residential tower in Vancouver forms part of a strategy to reconfigure the city skyline.
March 1, 2004... Cradled between the ocean and snow-capped mountains, Vancouver is one of North America's most spectacularly situated cities. Much of its prosperity is generated by a thriving port, which cuts journey times to the Far East, making it an...

From townscape to skyscape: in an edited extract from a lecture due to be given to mark the 75th anniversary of the University of Sao Paulo later this month, Robert Tavernor from the University of Bath analyzes the future of London's distinctive skyline.(Theory)
March 1, 2004... Urban design as art The Viennese architect and planner, Camillo Sitte, was the first modern to describe urban planning as essentially an art. In City Planning according to Artistic Principles (1889) he articulated his admiration for the...

Loo and behold: inventive use of new technology makes these Brazilian unisex lavatories luminous and ethereal.(Interior Design)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Lavatories are becoming increasingly strange as technology radically alters the qualities of traditional materials. Indeed, they sometimes seem to have become the focus of exploration of transparency, opacity, privacy and public life. ...

It's a wrap: this unorthodox house in a Melbourne suburb is a bold response to the area's Mediterranean climate.(House)
March 1, 2004... Young Australian architects traditionally draw first blood with private houses, often remarkably good ones such as this Modernist house by award-winning BKK Architects for a semi-retired couple in posh Melbourne suburb, Toorak. Expensive the...

Lighting: Rob Gregory throws light on some of this year's exhibitors.(Product Review)
March 1, 2004... 501 LOUIS POULSEN Enigma is a new pendant inspired by Japanese lighting culture, sharing the lighting philosophy of glare-free, comfortable light. Enigma was designed in collaboration with Japanese designer Shoichi Uchiyama, who set up as...

Potter & Soar.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... Featuring the striking new mesh-clad Pulrose power station chimney, IOM, on the front cover, the latest edition of Potter & Soar's architectural mesh brochure is now available. Illustrated in full colour throughout, the 20-page. A4-sized...

Barlo Plastics.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... Leading sheet extruder Barlo Plastics has launched MARLO SPC diamond, a multiwall polycarbonate sheet. Aimed at the conservatory market, the product has benefits during the summer months by minimizing unwanted and excessive heat build-up. The...

LS Group.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... LS Group is the first company in its industry to offer an independently assessed chain of custody for a range of performance flush doors and doorsets produced from fully certified FSC, sustainable timber. As a result, doors and doorsets can now...

Avanti Systems.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... Avanti Systems, the UK's largest independent producer of office partitioning systems, in association with Schott, introduce a 30 minute fire-rated glass door that is entirely frameless, and fully certified to BS476 part 20 and 22 1987. The...

Glaverbel.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... Glaverbel's Stopray is a high performance glass capable of performing as a virtual sunscreen, heat reflector without significant reductions in light transmission. With a coating of precious metal, the glass reflects up to 97% of internal...

BlueSky.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... BlueSky, the recently formed aerial photography company, has announced new aerial imagery of New York. Taken during the summer of 2003, the aerial photography provides stunning up-to-date views of one of the world's greatest cities, featuring...

Lindapter international.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... Lindapter have launched an exciting new product to significantly reduce installation time, while offering greater performance than traditional cast beam clamp products. Called the 'Swiftgrip', it enables connection of drop rod to beam in one...

Ambi-Rad.(Specifier's Information)
March 1, 2004... Ambi-Rad AR40 and AR50 radiant tube heaters have been installed to provide background warmth during cold periods for employees at RWE Nukem, one of the UK's leading independent nuclear engineering companies. In an environment where safety and...

Official taste: Creating Excellent Buildings-a guide for clients.(Reviews)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... CREATING EXCELLENT BUILDINGS-A GUIDE FOR CLIENTS By CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment). 2003. Free on request from CABE, email jkennedy@cabe.org.uk CABE is a public agency, successor to the Royal Fine Art...

The Sea Ranch.(Princeton Architectural Press)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Sea Ranch was one of the most influential developments of the 1960s, planned by Lawrence Halprin it was an inspiration to the whole Pacific rim. Its genesis, history and present state are thoughtfully chronicled in The Sea Ranch by Donlyn...

Cogent landscapes: new landscape design.(Reviews)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... NEW LANDSCAPE DESIGN By Robert Holden. London: Laurence King, 2003. [pounds sterling]35. If anyone asked you who currently is the most thoughtful commentator on landscape design in the UK you would almost certainly nominate Robert...

An Art of Living.
March 1, 2004... Charlotte Perriand's Shadow chair (c1956), 'a duck chair, like shadows around a long table'. Her work is comprehensively summarized in Charlotte Perriand, An Art of Living, ed Mary McLeod, Abrams, New York, 2003, [pounds sterling]45. ...

Blobblurb; Blobitecture: waveform architecture and digital design.(Reviews)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... BLOBITECTURE: WAVEFORM ARCHITECTURE AND DIGITAL DESIGN. By John K. Waters. Hove: Rockport Publishers. 2003. [pounds sterling]27.50 Transport for London has brought out a handy guide for passengers which can be found at every...

Office evolution: the twenty first century office.(Reviews)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY OFFICE By Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross. London: Laurence King. 2003. [pounds sterling]45 If you want interesting and well chosen examples of the latest trends in international office design, paralleled by a...

Transparent tapestries; The history of stained glass: the art of light medieval to contemporary.(Reviews)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... THE HISTORY OF STAINED GLASS: THE ART OF LIGHT MEDIEVAL TO CONTEMPORARY. By Virginia Chieffo Raguin. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. [pounds sterling]24.95 Stained glass is a unique and remarkable art form. It has a history of 1000...

Poul Kjaerholm.
March 1, 2004... PK 0 (1952), elevation of black lacquered two-shell ply chair from Poul Kjaerholm by Nils Fagerholt, Ole Palsby, Christoffer Harlang and Ulf Hard, Arkitektens Forlag, Copenhagen, 2001, 465DKK (text in English). An exploratory analysis of the...

Tbilisi is an undiscovered treasure. Even in decay, and after much destruction, the Georgian capital is still rich in architectural moments.(Delight)
March 1, 2004... The capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, means 'warm' due to its sulphur springs. It has attracted travellers and inspired artists, poets and philosophers for many centuries. The location has shaped its history and appearance. Having been inhabited...