The Architectural Review articles from November 2003

The Architectural Review archives from November 2003

Libeskind's goodbye to Berlin: Daniel Libeskind is moving to New York: a retrospective of his work is on in Berlin.(View)
November 1, 2003... For 13 years Daniel Libeskind lived in Berlin where he built the Jewish Museum which founded his reputation as a hero of international architecture. Since the beginning of this year he has moved to New York to realize what will most certainly...

The land of chairs: an Italian competition for young furniture designers had mixed results.(View)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Friuli-Venezia Giulia is the most north-easterly Italian province, with Slovenia to the east and Austria to the north. It is often overlooked by tourists unaware of the charms of its geographical complexities and social diversity. The province...

Outrage.(Victorian buildings)
November 1, 2003... Bradford, in the heart of what was once England's industrial north, used to be a rather impressive little city, with a Victorian centre of neo-Italianate warehouses and offices built on a poky, picturesque Yorkshire plan. Then, in the 1960s and...

Jury meets.(View)
November 1, 2003... The ar+d jury met last month to select award-winning and commended schemes from the over 700 entries to this year's competition. Members were Shigeru Ban (Japan), Ahmed Bucheery (Bahrain), Francoise-Helene Jourda (France), Farshid Moussavi...

AR awards at MIPIM 2004.(View)
November 1, 2003... The Architectural Review is mounting its second project awards scheme at next year's MIPIM property show, to be held in Cannes from 19 to 21 March. Our awards, for as yet uncompleted schemes, are open to all architects, consultants and their...

Caught on the web.(View)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Architectural Review has a new international product guide on its website www.arplus.com. It joins our site-based information services on competitions and awards, exhibitions, events (conferences, lectures, colloquia and so on), books, and...

Ducking and diving like a seal, Sutherland Lyall navigates the waters of the web.(about architectural services using websites)
November 1, 2003... Modest conviction Dutch architects have been en vogue for the last decade so we happily acceded to the request of Snelder+Snelder+Snelder to take a look at its site at www.snelder.com. The Snelders are Janneke, Michiel and Wim and they...

Birmingham's blue blob.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... SIR: In the architectural debate here in Birmingham, I try to detach the serious discussion of design standards from the sometimes fevered rebranding, marketing and hyping of this city through its new architecture. For this I am not always...

Outraged by outrage.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... SIR: Your bitter 'P. D.' was not allowed to expand on why, in his view, the Selfridges department store at Birmingham is an 'Outrage'. I would have expected from a writer with his powerful knowledge of epithets to explain this more...

Wake up call.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... SIR: The last sentence, on p24 of AR October (Outrage), is the best I have read since Finnegan's Wake. Great stuff! Yours etc GORDON BENSON London, England

Prison sentences.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... SIR: New ideas on prison design are always welcome, but the model scheme by Buschow Henley proposed in AR October 2003, pp78-81 does present some challenging questions. There are two aspects: the idea behind the design and the design...

Credit where credit's due.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... SIR: Re Sutherland Lyall's note on Robert Venturi and PoMo (AR September, p36), I worked for Venturi & Rauch towards the end of the 1960s. (I write this sitting under an RLM lamp rescued from the wreck of Grands Restaurant.) To the extent that...

View from Quito: occupying a narrow valley in the Andes, Quito's evolution from colonial outpost to modern city has been shaped by legend, myth, topography and a rising population.(View)
November 1, 2003... Very few cities in the world can claim that the Devil built one of its churches, but such is the case of Quito, capital of Ecuador, whose San Francisco religious complex is said to have been built by the stonemason Cantuna with the assistance...

Catching the wind: design review.(Samyn & Partners and Groupe Fabricom contract for wind mast)
November 1, 2003... As wind power evolves into a more widely acceptable source of green energy, so more attention is being paid to the form of the wind masts, which tend to be dominant presences in the landscape and often the source of unfavourable public...

Decency and forethought: it is foolish to behave as if we as a race can go on treating the planet as we have been doing since the Industrial revolution. Architects and their colleagues owe professional duty to humanity and the planet.
November 1, 2003... Another issue devoted to green building? Why is there one, or even more a year? In fact, every issue of The Architectural Review is, we hope, green, but some are greener than others because we must regularly review the latest exploratory...

A world of identities: expressing identities.(Corporate Identity Projects)
November 1, 2003... The Republic of Fritz Hansen has an identity of its own. It revolves around supplying timeless, functional and innovative furniture to the people of The Republic. This enables us to provide you with countless possibilities to express and...

Special brew: reusing existing buildings makes good environmental sense. In Madrid, this redundant brewery has been converted into a regional archive and library.
November 1, 2003... By its very nature, the reuse of historic buildings is an act of environmental awareness, calculated to conserve materials, energy and land compared with a new structure. In densely populated European cities, with their large legacies of old or...

Wake up call: as governments around the world struggle to provide sufficient affordable homes in cities, BedZED has much to teach architects, developers, and residents alike.(Beddington Zero Energy Development)
November 1, 2003... This scheme should need little introduction. But apparently it does. While the aspirations of BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development) have been well documented (1) (AR June 2001), 18 months after the first residents moved in it is time to...

Radiant star: these new headquarters for a German finance company are a creative reinterpretation of the edge of town office.(Behnisch & Partner designs building for Entory AG )
November 1, 2003... Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner's recently completed headquarters for Entory AG extends the practice's distinguished lineage of humanely conceived, environmentally responsive workplaces. Though not as big a project as the mammoth North Regional...

Mathematical paradoxes: big, high-powered academic centre lands in west Cambridge suburb with scale and energy credentials.
November 1, 2003... Mathematical academics work in many different ways: sometimes intensely privately; at others in lectures and colloquia, so the new Cambridge University Centre for Mathematical Sciences (1) had to provide a complex lattice of spaces, ranging...

Office of the future: this humane and environmentally responsive complex of work spaces for Norway's leading telecom company is an inspiring and enlightened vision of corporate life.(Telenor A/S building)
November 1, 2003... The most vibrant new community in Oslo may be an office complex--the Telenor headquarters--where 6000 people come together to work and socialize, indoors and out, in free-floating groups. On plan, the 138 000 sq m development (that's net; gross...

Wind sock: the integration of structure, form and fabric creates London's first environmentally progressive skyscraper.(Process)(Foster and Partners designs commercial buildings)
November 1, 2003... While Charles Jencks may state that big is boring in his theory that measures design tedium against floor areas (AR August 2002), it cannot be denied that Foster and Partners' 30 St Mary Axe is an impressive sight. Regardless of whether or not...

Commonwealth Association of Architects student competition.(Competition)
November 1, 2003... The Commonwealth Association of Architects triennial student competition was judged earlier this year in Bloemfontein, South Africa. A record of 222 entires from all over the British Commonwealth offered great range and variety. Jury chairman...

Moscow nights: an exuberant interior, of solid wood, transforms a dull PoMo night-club in Moscow.(Interior Design)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Cocon-Club has one of the weirdest interiors in Moscow, which is saying quite a lot these days, when you can find the most strange, disgusting and wild places in the world there. In a mid '90s PoMo building, the Cocon, a great three-storey...

Out back: in a concealed Sydney garden, an extension brings new life to a small family home.(Addison Associates designs family house)
November 1, 2003... Increasing the volume of a family home by three-fold is a tall order, especially on a tight urban site. Queensland architect Rex Addison faced this challenge when commissioned by Australian photographer Patrick Bingham-Hall to extend his family...

Wood and trees: timber is the only building material that, properly used, positively benefits the planet and our relationship to it. Wood is indeed good and we should explore as many ways of using it in building as possible.(Timber)
November 1, 2003... Our existence on the planet is ecologically intimately bound to the life of trees. The effect of forests on the atmosphere is undoubted, yet their role as the lungs of the world is sometimes exaggerated. Natural forests are close to...

Wing and a prayer: this new church for a small rural community makes inventive use of salvaged materials, especially timber.(Rural Studio)
November 1, 2003... 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....

Larch veils: an ordinary commercial building is given great urban presence by an external skin of slatted larch screens.(Baumschlager & Eberle designs commercial building)
November 1, 2003... Whether conscious or not, timber's associations with folksy domesticity tends to inhibit its use in commercial contexts. Baumschlager & Eberle were asked to design a small commercial building in the Vorarlberg village of Wolfurt and responded...

Study in cedar: the textures and scents of cedar permeate the new halls of residence at Bennington.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Bennington College in Vermont has a campus that at first seems to be totally 1930s neo-Colonial, with a formal axis flanked by two-storey timber student residences. In fact, the more functional '60s and '70s teaching buildings of the liberal...

Norse Code: lapped in larch, this terrace will gradually grow into harmony with the surrounding forest.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Norway has a programme for providing affordable housing for young people, and one of its more ingenious recent products is the little scheme for 12 flats at Nesodden, near Oslo. Code, a young practice, won the competition for a site between a...

Rob Gregory seeks illumination.
November 1, 2003... 501 TOM DIXON Mirror Ball, by Tom Dixon, is a multifunctional plastic globe light. Available in three sizes, 200, 400 and 600mm, the plastic globe has a metallized mirror finish and can be used as a pendant fitting, mounted in a stand, or...

Barlo Plastics.(Specifier's Information)
November 1, 2003... Barlo Plastics are being extensively used in the manufacture of Sound Wall Barriers throughout the world. In place of traditional earth or concrete barriers, the use of plastic has significant aesthetic and practical advantages. The sheets'...

Vetrotech.(Specifier's Information)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... A new slimline solution has been launched by Vetrotech Saint-Gobain. SGG Swissflam Structure has been developed to give architects a new option to incorporate fire glass into their designs. As each sheet requires only the slimmest of...

Wright Style.(Specifier's Information)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... A new development in curtain walling and roof glazing technology is being launched by Wright Style, the UK-based supplier of steel glazing systems. The Davex system comprises a range of facade profiles that can be perforated to an individual...

Future Designs.(Specifier's Information)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... EDGE Series from Future Designs is a state of the art collection of luminaires designed and developed for the LG3 amendment 2001. The luminaire has 4 lamps located around the perimeter of the luminaire with asymmetric reflectors designed to...

Copper in architecture.(Specifier's Information)(usage of copper)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The brand new www.copperconcept.org website is now live. The pan-European website give architects and specifiers the perfect starting point for inspiration and information about the use of copper in architecture. The website is part of a wider...

Potter & Soar.(Specifier's Information)(trade show)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Architectural mesh from Potter & Soar, the UK's leading manufacturer, was a key element of the Gold Medal winning garden at the recent Hampton Court Flower Show. Used in large screens, Potter & Soar donated 13 square metres of their latest...

E-Motive Display.(Specifier's Information)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... EAVIS from E-Motive Display is the next generation in LCD lift display technology. It allows building managers to offer customers complete floor directories, TV feeds, video clips, animations, still ads, stock market information, fixed and...

Absolute Action.(Specifier's Information)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Fibre-optic lighting from Absolute Action has been used to subtly highlight part of St David's Cathedral in west Wales. The ornate but flammable timber panelling of the cathedral's choir stalls benefited from fibre-optic lighting's heat and...

Shock or comfort?(The Familiar and the Unfamiliar in Twentieth Century Architecture)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... THE FAMILIAR AND THE UNFAMILIAR IN TWENTIETH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE By Jean La Marche. Champaign: University of lllinois Press. 2003, $34,95 This is a book about the architectural 'subject', defined as 'the person that architects imagine...

How the land lies.(Theory in Landscape Architecture)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... THEORY IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Edited by Simon Swaffield. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2002. [pounds sterling]19.50. $27.50 This is a really important book for landscape design because it gives the lie to the...

Funerary relief from Capua showing treadmill crane lifting column shaft.
November 1, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Funerary relief from Capua showing treadmill crane lifting column shaft. From Roman Builders: A Study in Architectural Process by Rabun Taylor, Cambridge University Press, 2003, [pounds sterling]18.95....

Orthodox Cathedral, Asmara.
November 1, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Orthodox Cathedral, Asmara. From Asmara, Africa's Secret Modernist City by Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren and Naigzy Gebremedhin, Merrell, London and New York, 2003, [pounds sterling]35.00. Loving and...

Green agenda.(Big and Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... BIG AND GREEN: TOWARD SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Edited by David Gissen, London: Princeton Architectural Press. 2003. [pounds sterling]28 This is the book of the movie, or more precisely, the catalogue of the...

Ecological rethink.(Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... CRADLE TO CRADLE: REMAKING THE WAY WE MAKE THINGS By William McDonough and Michael Braungart. New York: Northpoint Press. 2002. $25 Americans don't do guilt. Forget Kyoto and all those C[O.sub.2] emissions-guilt represents negative...

In Rome's Trastevere, this extraordinarily compressed and distilled funerary chapel offers visions of the world of the spirit through bravura performance in our material sphere.(Delight)
November 1, 2003... Santa Maria in Trastevere is a typical Roman basilica. Nothing could be more reassuring and comprehensible than its simple planning and construction But an arch off the north aisle frames quite a different sort of architecture: the funerary...