The Architectural Review articles from November 2006

The Architectural Review archives from November 2006

The surface of meaning.(Viewpoint essay)
November 1, 2006... A stimulating discussion on the nature of the facade, at the Royal Academy in London, prompted the thought that the phrase 'skin deep' may be taking on a non-pejorative meaning. Architects today are showing increasing interest in what, not so...

A view from the bridge.(Viewpoint essay)
November 1, 2006... Wails of dismay recently greeted Herzog & de Meuron's proposed extension to the Tate Modern in London at least from some quarters. The visualisations seem to have frightened many of the natives; how could the Tate, which opposed and finally...

Foster takes Manhattan: a tower designed for strength and economy animates the Manhattan skyline.(Norman Foster)(Hearst Publications-Hearst Business Group's office tower)
November 1, 2006... Norman Foster has made his long-delayed New York debut with a prismatic glass office tower that enlivens the congested skyline of mid Manhattan and reunites the scattered offices of the Hearst publishing corporation. The design was scheduled...

Colin Boyne 1921-2006.(Obituary)
November 1, 2006... Colin Boyne has died aged 85. From the '50s to the '70s, he was the immensely successful editor of The Architects' Journal and steered it to a position of great influence and authority in the profession. His death seems to bring to an end an...

AR Awards judging.(view)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Last month the AR Awards for Emerging Architecture were judged in London. This year's jury was chaired by editor Paul Finch, and included Christine Binswanger (Herzog & de Meuron, Basel), Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham, Tokyo), Benedetta Tagliabue...

RIBA Stirling Prize.(2006 RIBA Stirling Prize Building)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The 2006 RIBA Stirling Prize Building of the Year went to Barajas Airport in Madrid (AR July 2006) by Richard Rogers Partnership. It beat Hadid's Phaeno (AR April 2006), Rogers' Welsh Assembly Building (AR February 2006), Hopkins Architects'...

Peter cook: a thought-provoking meditation on the meaning of the actual stuff of architecture.(Viewpoint essay)
November 1, 2006... It is some time now since I was invited to stick my finger into a building. My host was a serious American architect and the building looked real enough, but two inches into it I realised that this piece of Georgian pastiche that had found its...

ADIA HQ Abu Dhabi: a new commercial headquarters for the Gulf state of Abu Dhabi synthesises tradition and modernity.(Abu Dhabi Investment Authority)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The soaring towers of the headquarters for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates form a new landmark for the Gulf state. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Perfect skin: the creative and commercial quest to redefine the building skin continues to enthral.(comment)
November 1, 2006... Current preoccupations with appearance and performance make skin a conspicuous focus of attention. Impelled by the elusive quest for good looks and well-being, however, skin consultants are being sought not only by beauticians, models and the...

The art of engagement: wrapped in a skin of steel and glass, this new faculty building for young artists is a dynamic social matrix.
November 1, 2006... The historic core of the University of Iowa campus is integrated into the city grid, while across the river to the west, where the grid is disrupted by the natural forms of limestone bluffs, the campus plan is more organic. The School of Art...

Rubber soul: an activity centre uses innovative recycled tyre shingles.
November 1, 2006... Essentially two sides of the same coin, environmental stewardship and sustainable design find concerted expression in a new visitor centre for Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Covering 67 000 acres of forested valley in eastern...

Leading lights: in one of the world's centres of counterfeit and fake, Kuma and Zhongtai have created this delightful Asian original.(Cover story)
November 1, 2006... China is a place of extremes. Experiencing the world's largest human migration in history, its cities are growing at a phenomenal rate. With this rate of change, quality and restraint are rare priorities, which is why this relatively modest...

Rustic rainscreen: a rustic skin of timber palings envelops and enlivens this social housing complex.
November 1, 2006... Snakeskin-booted Edouard Francois first shot across the bows of the AR around six years ago, with his remarkable Sprouting Building in Montpellier (AR May 2000), an apartment block that uninhibitedly celebrated materials and nature. The most...

Clarity and light: a delicate crystal casket for a major collection of glassware.(Toledo Museum of Art)
November 1, 2006... Rarely has a building fused form and purpose as seamlessly as the Glass Pavilion of the Toledo Museum of Art. Selections from one of the world's finest collections of historic and contemporary glassware are displayed in solid- and glass-walled...

Pop art: Hitoshi Abe's three ply composite skin is inventive and distinctive.
November 1, 2006... The manner in which some architects choose to describe their work is at times obscure, sometimes overblown, and often extremely baffling. Admittedly, when not using their mother tongue, it is reasonable to expect the odd metaphor to get lost in...

The missing link: in the Galician city of A Coruna, Grimshaw's first gallery demonstrates the practice's trademark ingenuity with a unique glass and marble skin.
November 1, 2006... The Caixa Galicia Art Foundation is a significant building. Significant for its city, providing a new cultural focus (with galleries, a cafe and an impressive subterranean venue), and significant for its patron, Caixa Galicia, a cooperative...

Extra terrestrial: new student halls in a remote Icelandic campus combine poetry with pragmatism.(Bifrost University )
November 1, 2006... Building in Iceland is a bit like building on another planet. A tectonically perilous geology and barely habitable climate scornfully rebuff attempts to make a lasting mark on this isolated, island terrain. Everything manmade defers to the...

Silo revival: two former grain silos on a Copenhagen waterfront are inventively remodelled into flats by adding external layers.
November 1, 2006... For over 60 years, Copenhagen's south harbour was dominated by the hulking profiles of two grain silos, relics of the city's lost industrial past. Originally built during the Second World War as part of a factory complex making animal fodder...

Home office: Herman Miller continue to lead by example, working here with Gensler to create bespoke offices that challenge market standards.(interior design)(Gensler Architecture, Design and Planning Worldwide)
November 1, 2006... Herman Miller is a name that is familiar to many architects and designers, representing as it does one of the world's leading furniture manufacturers. With a heritage that dates back to 1905, the company has grown up with Modernism, and along...

Specifier's information.(Hacel Opulus)(SAS International)(SCHUCO International KG)
November 1, 2006... Corus Colorcoat HPS200[R] and Colorcoat Prisma[R] pre-finished steel by Corus have been used as part of a built-up cladding system by Euroclad on the recently completed print works near Rotherham. A desire to meet the terms of the revised...

Free-flowing ideas: an exhibition at LA's MOCA explores the convergence of architecture and fashion.(reviews)
November 1, 2006... 'For architects, fashion was once a taboo--they were guardians of reality and timelessness,' says LA architect Neil Denari, who recently designed a free-form glass tower to be built alongside the High Line in lower Manhattan. Morphosis'...

Cramming it in.(browser)(architectural websites)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... This column has a penchant for architectural websites which exhibit clarity, brevity and the odd quirk. I think many architects take their websites too seriously which is why they try to cram in everything they can think of. Sure, potential...

Almost anonymity.(browser)(www.orms.co.uk)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... I like London practice ORMS's site (www.orms.co.uk) because of its clarity and quirks. Incidentally its designer is not credited. The guide to the site's sections is in a line across the top: About, Staff, Contact, Education, Business, Leisure,...

Smiley faces.(browser)(www.adparchitects.co.uk.)(Architects Design Partnership)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The outlines of Oliver Richards and his partners are all faceless. Happily Recently looming out of the screen have been too many mugshots of balding architects trying to look serious and youthfully shaven-headed and succeeding only in appearing...

The average white male.(browser)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... More mugshots on the relatively new Michael Aukett site at Michaelaukett (I'm fed up with www and com, just type michaelaukett, it does the business just as well). Here are lots of white males, some with lots of hair, some not, but not a scalp...

Diary.
November 1, 2006... AR'S CHOICE OF INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS FINLAND EERO SAARINEN: SHAPING THE FUTURE Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki Until 6 December The first retrospective to explore the complete career of this...

The art of obfuscation.(Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... INTERPRETING THE RENAISSANCE: PRINCES, CITIES, ARCHITECTS By Manfredo Tafuri. London: Yale University Press. 2006. [pounds sterling]35 Manfredo Tafuri (1935-1994), once Chairman of the Faculty of the History of Architecture and...

Judging by appearances.(Style and Time: Essays on the Politics of Appearance)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... STYLE AND TIME: ESSAYS ON THE POLITICS OF APPEARANCE By Andrew Benjamin. North Western University Press. 2006. Hardback $54.95, paperback $23.95 Readers should pay careful attention to the subtitle. This book collects together a series...

Capital Soane.(Sir John Soane and London)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... SIR JOHN SOANE AND LONDON By Ptolemy Dean. Aldershot: Lund Humphries. 2006. [pounds sterling]40 John Soane must be the most popular historic architect in Britain, so it is remarkable that there is anything new to say or find out about...

Ethics man.(The Architecture of Happiness)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... THE ARCHITECTURE OF HAPPINESS By Alain de Botton. London: Hamish Hamilton. 2006. [pounds sterling]17.99 I believe that de Botton has had a lot of stick from other critics over this book. Not a single colleague has had a positive word...

New Wood Architecture.(Wood Houses)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... With two books on the nuances and niceties of timber architecture now under her belt, Ruth Slavid is rapidly assuming the mantle of Wood Queen. This latest, Wood Houses, London, Laurence King, 2006, [pounds sterling]30, follows on from last...

Delight.(museum designed wih aviation from the cold war)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... This striking new hangar--designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley--was built to contain the world's first museum devoted to aviation from the Cold War period. As part of a masterplan developed by the architects for RAF Cosford, the museum contains a...