The Architectural Review articles from November 2004

The Architectural Review archives from November 2004

Swiss rigour: a new exhibition on Swiss rationalists Diener & Diener is a thoughtful distillation of their utterly rigorous approach.(view)
November 1, 2004... Covering an oeuvre that spans the past 26 years, this new exhibition in Munich's Architectural Museum is the most comprehensive yet on the architecture of Swiss partnership Diener & Diener. The statistics are impressive out of the 72...

Ar+d decision.(view)
November 1, 2004... The ar+d jury met a month ago to review an astonishing range of talent from all over the world. The five jurors were Gert Wingardh (Gothenberg), Mario Cucinella (Bologna), Kevin Daly (of Daly Genik, Los Angeles), and Ryuc Nishizawa (Kazuyo...

Chinese puzzle.(browser)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... You could design two or three commercial office buildings in the time it takes for the Atelier Feichang Jianzhu site at www.fcjz.com to load up. What you get is a seven by four grid of black boxes, some outlined in red and all of them having a...

Becky the brave.(browser)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... I see that the Evil Empire is using a day on the life of an architect to promote its wares. Take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/innovation/yourpotential/main.html and follow architect Becky as she 'Seizes the Moment'. The most...

Students, apathy, no change.(browser)(www.students-union.net)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Running an architecture student website has to be a both thankless and intermittent activity. Intermittent because you have nice long university hols, when students have better things to do, and thankless because you tend to do this stuff...

Keeping it up.(browser)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Five years ago we took a brief look at Architronic, the scholarly refereed Electronic Journal of Architecture at www.saed.kent.edu/Architronic. This was a production of Kent State University's college of architecture and environmental design. I...

Pillow fight.(browser)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Australian practice with the unmemorable name, PTW, won the recent Venice Biennale special prize for atmosphere with its and Arup's National Swimming Centre for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. PTW's site is at www.ptw.com.au and its opening page...

Frozen smoke.(browser)
November 1, 2004... And finally a Google suggestion I think you will like: aerogel. You may know it as the lowest density building material ever which can be anything from transparent through translucent to opaque and has great insulation qualities. It's pretty...

Semper semper.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... SIR: Semper's 'Bekleidung' principle is key for designing contemporary layered construction, as well as for understanding Roman, Byzantine, Moorish architecture. It is essential even for truly apprehending the implications of the opposite...

Symbolically suggestive.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... SIR: Re Konigs Architekten's Burgweinting catholic church (AR September 2004), Christian Brensing says it is '... a radical departure from the familiar forms of ecclesiastical architecture'. As there are countless box-like modern churches, one...

Propaganda vehicle?(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... SIR: I am an old subscriber of your magazine. The magazine is usually professional and very interesting. Unfortunately, it is the second time you fall victim to an anti-Israeli cheap propaganda. First, was your article View from Ramallah...

Iridescence on the puddle?(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... SIR: What a wacky picture on the cover of your November issue. One of your best for a long time. It leaves me with only two questions; How come the glass is so buckled? Surely such deformed panes would be rejected by most architects. Why is the...

View box.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... SIR: I would like to know how it is possible that an unimaginative and ill-proportioned house on a spectacular site can be published as AR House (AR September, p88). It may be that we are blessed with a mostly temperate climate in Sydney, but...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
November 1, 2004... Photographs of the house in Nova Scotia (AR October, p89) were taken by Steven Evans, and not James Steeves as printed.

Diary.(Brief Article)(Directory)
November 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 CANADA MONTREAL THINKS BIG Until September 2005 Canadian Centre for...

View from Chicago: as these recent projects show, the Windy City is still a place for grand civic gestures and innovative architecture, renewing a tradition that was becoming ossified.
November 1, 2004... 'Make no small plans,' declared Daniel Burnham. 'They have no magic to stir men's blood,' Burnham's vision shaped the 1893 World's Fair and the Chicago masterplan of 1909, and that legacy is apparent in Millennium Park, the city's latest...

Sheltering in style: this series of colourful, eye-catching bus shelters dignifies and animates the business of bus travel.(design review)
November 1, 2004... In terms of infrastructure and experience, bus travel still tends to be a marginalized means of transport, though in terms of sustainability, it has obvious advantages over car use. Doubtless more people would take to buses if facilities were...

Democratic representation: since the beginning of the state, all governments have built to demonstrate their power. How can modern democracies find expression when many perceive that terrorism is a major threat?(comment)
November 1, 2004... Do governments have to build symbolically when they are making architecture for themselves? Most of them have thought so since the first emperor, Augustus, said that he had found Rome 'in brick and left it in marble'. Vitruvius, in the...

Scotland the brave: operatic in both conception and execution, Scotland's long awaited new parliament will help a fledgling institution to mature and evolve.(Cover Story)
November 1, 2004... With its swirling subtexts of politics, death, love, rivalry, money and nationhood, the saga of Scotland's new parliament would make a wonderful opera. Finally unveiled three years behind programme and ten times over its original (albeit...

Centre court: South Africa's Constitutional Court is the highest judicial body in the land. A young practice won the competition to build an icon for the free republic.(Design Workshop)(Urban Solutions)
November 1, 2004... The emblem of the South African Constitutional Court in Johannesburg is a tree with branches spreading over the people it protects. This is representative of the old African custom of settling matters and disputes under the protection of an...

Clear Finnish: an annexe to the Finnish parliament building helps heal rifts in urban fabric and throws new light on the democratic process.
November 1, 2004... The nineteenth-century heart of Helsinki is a precise model of NeoClassical urban propriety, but twentieth-century parts of the centre have much less coherence. To the north, isolated object buildings, Parliament, the National Museum and...

Dutch courage: a new Dutch embassy in Maputo treads lightly in a city being rebuilt after civil war.
November 1, 2004... With its prosperous trading heritage and vibrant Portuguese colonial architecture, Maputo, on the southern tip of Mozambique, was once a cosmopolitan port city on a par with Cape Town or Rio. Yet since the Portuguese left in 1975. Mozambique...

Foreign office: with their British Embassy in Warsaw, Tony Fretton Architects fuse antiquity, modernism and car-cockpit chic.(process)
November 1, 2004... Few would naturally associate the work of Tony Fretton with that of global giant SOM. What could possibly link the architect of small-scale idiosyncratic gems, such as the Lisson Gallery and the Red House, with the great tower builders? With...

Luxury mirage: a new Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills is a homage to sensuous material and optical effects.(interior design)
November 1, 2004... When in 1998 the French luxury goods company Louis Vuitton acquired a commercial lot in Nagoya, Japan, its architecture department was faced with producing a design for its first stand-alone store. Having made their mark with boutiques...

Paradys regained: this seaside house is a sensitive fusion of local influences tempered by Modernism.(ar house)
November 1, 2004... 'Paradys', architect Gabriel Fagan's own holiday and weekend house, sits above the beach of Langebaan Lagoon, an extensive inlet of sea on South Africa's west coast 70 miles north of Cape Town. To shut out views of neighbouring houses and not...

Exterior envelope: in search of variety, colour, and flamboyant new textures, Rob Gregory looks at some recent innovations in facade design.(product review)
November 1, 2004... 501 GKD GKD mesh has been used on the facade of the world's largest Louis Vuitton flagship stores. Designed by Jun Aoki, the store's facade responds to its Tokyo streetscape with vitality, versatility, and optical trickery. Integrating...

Specifier's information.
November 1, 2004... Stairrods (UK) Making unsightly carpet joins into a smart feature, Stairrods' latest range includes the first ever black nickel door threshold. Together with wrought iron handles, hooks and hinges, the threshold can now help achieve a...

Tectonic visions.(MATERIAL INSIGHTS)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... TECTONIC VISIONS By Anne Beim. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. 2004. DK248 Anne Beim is Associate Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, and is head of its Centre of Industrial...

Giancarlo De Carlo: layered places.(THE MAESTRO)
November 1, 2004... GIANCARLO DE CARLO: LAYERED PLACES By John McKean. Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges, 2004. [euro]78 GIANCARLO DE CARLO: INVENTARIO ANALYTICO DELL'ARCHITETTO Edited by Francesco Samassa & Anna Tonicello. Padua: II Poligrafo (2 vols....

The Jewish contribution to modern architecture, 1830-1930.(MAJOR INGREDIENT)(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... THE JEWISH CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN ARCHITECTURE, 1830-1930 By Fredric Bedoire. Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House, in collaboration with Paideia--the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden and Kungliga Konsthogskolan, Stockholm....

NOX: Machining Architecture.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... D-tower, an urban monument that will change colour with the emotions of its town's citizens. One of the many bloboid manifestations from NOX: Machining Architecture by Lars Spuybroek, Thames & Hudson, London, 2004, [pounds sterling]29.95....

Encyclopaedia of Mosaic.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Most people think of mosaic in terms of Roman villa floors and golden Byzantine walls, but it offers much broader possibilities, and is still developing in new and fascinating directions. Elaine M. Goodwin, a leading artist of the medium in...

Delight.(Paris)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Though the 2004 Athens Olympics are now a fading memory and the 2008 Beijing Games a glimmer on the horizon, the great Olympic bidding circus rolls on. Paris is one of five candidate cities (along with London, Madrid, Moscow and New York)...