The Architectural Review articles from September 2003

The Architectural Review archives from September 2003

Berlusconi to rape Veneto: one of the most disastrous planning moves of the twentieth century was Mussolini's decision to drive the Via dei Fori Imperiale through the ancient classical fora in the heart of Rome. Now, the Berlusconi government threatens to carry out an equally vile desecration--of the precious and tranquil landscape tapestry of the Veneto.(Outrage)
September 1, 2003... INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED AGAINST DUBIOUS MOTORWAY THAT WILL RUIN PALLADIAN LANDSCAPES IN THE VENETO; BRIDGET RILEY'S LONDON RETROSPECTIVE VIBRATES IN COLOUR; COLUMBIAN ARCHITECT ROGELIO SALMONA GETS AALTO AWARD--JAMES TURRELL'S JAIL...

Life of Riley: having recently received the prestigious Japanese Award for the Arts, Artist Laureate Bridget Riley takes us from black and white to vibrant technicolour at Tate Britain, in an exhibition that begins and ends with her latest wall drawing composition with circles 3.(Outrage)
September 1, 2003... 'In the beginning, in 1961, I laid aside my hands. The final execution of the work is done by someone else, because I do not want any personal handling to distract from the visual experience. And the way to make that clear, to make a statement,...

Service and light in Jyvaskyla: as Rogelio Salmona received the Alvar Aalto Award, speakers at the Jyvaskyla symposium pondered on the morality and politics of light and space.(Outrage)
September 1, 2003... Columbian architect Rogelio Salmona was awarded the Alvar Aalto Award at a ceremony during the Aalto Symposium held at Jyvaskyla in central Finland last month. Given periodically, the award (unlike, for instance, the Pritzker, which started by...

Sutherland Lyall nimbly steers his magic carpet through the nebulous and confusing post-modern clouds of the internet.(Browser)
September 1, 2003... History as bunk Here in Britain we would eventually have come across Complexity and Contradiction ourselves but the defining moment was actually a short series of lectures which Santa Barbara architectural historian, David Gebhard, gave at...

Not transparent enough.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... SIR: I am confused by your cover and contents of the August issue which is supposed to be devoted to transparency. That big cone is made of stainless steel as the article states: what has this to do with transparency? The laboratory block by...

Paradigm, schmaradigm.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... SIR: Paradigm, schmaradigm, Dr Jencks (AT August). Fractals or not, Melbourne's Federation Square is a lousy piece of urban 'place making', compounded by tacky, unresolved buildings. Oh, and I have been there. Yours etc PAUL NOTLEY...

Errata.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2003... The photo credit for Murphy/Jahn's offices in Bonn, Germany (AR August, p58) should read: Photographs by Andreas Keller, except 1 Josef Gartner; 6, 9 Dirk Altenkirch; 8 Helmut Jahn. The photo credit for Fumio Toki Associates' library in...

Diary.(Brief Article)(Directory)
September 1, 2003... AR'S CHOICE OF CURRENT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS For an expanded and constantly updated list, go to our website: www.arplus.com/exhibitions AUSTRIA CARLO SCARPA: THE CRAFT OF ARCHITECTURE Until 14 September MAK--Austrian...

View from Palermo, Sicily: Palermo is like nowhere else, next to Africa but in Europe, combining traces of great historic riches with extraordinary squalor only gradually being alleviated.(View)(European Union)
September 1, 2003... Palermo is immensely old. Founded by the Phoenicians in the seventh century BC, it was seized by the Romans as their empire expanded. They were succeeded by the Byzantines who got it back after an Ostrogothic interlude. By conquest, papal and...

Timber bubble: wrapped in a dramatic timber gridshell, this viewing platform at Helsinki Zoo is an imaginative exercise in construction.(Design Review)
September 1, 2003... Set up almost 10 years ago, Jan Soderlund's Wood Studio at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) is renowned for a highly expressive approach to timber design (AR June 1997 and December 2000). Now under the direction of Georg Grotenfelt,...

The joy of mix: in the historical evolution of cities, mixed use is nothing new, but such forms of development still have immense contemporary relevance in the pursuit of sustainability and a more humane and enriching view of the urban realm.(Comment)
September 1, 2003... Though the notion of mixed use might sound like a fashionable mantra for the modern age, its origins are deeply ingrained in human evolution and patterns of settlement. Roman cities thrived on unplanned diversity--colonnaded buildings around...

Bath time: returning to the city that helped launch his career in the mid-1970s, Nicholas Grimshaw re-contextualizes his machine aesthetic in the heart of Georgian Bath.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2003... To the pump-room we went, where the grave and the gay And the aged, and the sickly, lounge time away; Where all the choice spirits are seen making free With the sov'reign cordial, the true 'eau de vie'.--The English Spy, 1825 A spa is...

Central focus: now near completion, this mixed-use building boldly combines three very disparate elements, shopping mall, university and office tower, to try to create an urban and social centre in the middle of sprawling suburbs.
September 1, 2003... One of the strangest contemporary conjunctions of urban uses today is to be found in the City of Surrey, where Bing Thom has designed an office tower on top of a university, which itself is set over an existing shopping mall. Surrey is the...

Market forces: this historic Art Nouveau era market in Valencia has been imaginatively restored to become part of city life once more.
September 1, 2003... Valencia--the much-underrated third city of Spain--is full of remarkable buildings, from the medieval silk exchange with its tall twisted columns to the flamboyant food market with its green parrot weathervane, and Calatrava's gargantuan City...

Hackney rises: new meets old--materials and functions combine to complete a dense cluster of live/work spaces in north-east London.
September 1, 2003... The edge of Hackney against Islington is one of the most rapidly changing areas in London. As in every other nineteenth-century city, industrial uses, which predominated until two decades ago, are rapidly becoming very unusual. Their sites and...

City varieties: an unusual mix of uses and architectural ingenuity make this municipal building both dramatic and popular.(Stuttgart)
September 1, 2003... In 25 minutes the Stadtbahn whisks you from Stuttgart's main station to the southern hilly outskirts. Here is an almost rural landscape with belts of green generously spread between and in front of the houses. Amid this pastoral idyll is...

Berlin big top: enclosed by a spectacular circus tent-like roof, the revitalised Tempodrom in Berlin draws on its original spirit of imagination and informality.(Interior Design)
September 1, 2003... Berlin's Tempodrom occupies a cherished place in the city's recent cultural history. Set up in Potsdamer Platz near the Berlin Wall on Mayday 1980, two circus tents, one large and one small, hosted a lively assortment of performances and...

Antipodean cocoon: this unusual holiday house in the Australian bush is a lyrical yet highly practical response to site and climate.(Ar House)
September 1, 2003... Seen from afar, this extraordinary holiday house looks like a Zeppelin crash-landed in the Australian bush. Clinging to a precipitous slope, the curved capsule seems improbably fragile, like a giant insect cocoon lodged among the trees....

100% design.(Product Preview)
September 1, 2003... Rob Gregory previews 100% Design, the UK contemporary commercial interior design exhibition- [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Gooding Aluminium.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... Gooding Aluminium's versatile, lightweight, perforated sheet has been used as the main feature in the reception area of a contemporary new office for the Cardiff Harbour Authority. The floor-to-ceiling perforated panels include radiator...

Wrightstyle.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... A new landmark building in Hong Kong is being completed using a specialist fire resistant curtain walling system from Wright Style Ltd, one of the world's most innovative suppliers of steel glazing systems. The Hong Kong Urban Renewal Authority...

Gooding Aluminium.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... The elegant matt satin lustre of GA Ano-Sil anodised aluminium has been used throughout a new build development at Margery Street, Central London, With a sleek contemporary look, the GA Ano-sil surface provides a long-lasting and...

Renderplas.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... Renderplas PVCu beads were specified for the rendered elevations and internal partitions on the recently completed Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort in Fujairah. Situated in an exposed coastal site, the client needed assurance that there would be...

Abacus lighting.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... Abacus lighting pulled out all the stops to help ensure the newly built Hyderabad Stadium fulfilled its role as the host venue for the 2002 National Games. As the specified floodlighting and mast manufacturer, they met all shipping dates...

Corus Colours.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... Corus Colors, one of the UK's largest manufacturers and providers of organic-coated and pre-finished metallic steels to the construction industry, held its first Continuing Professional Development (CPD) seminar in conjunction with the Royal...

Dinesen floors.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... Dinesen floorboards are produced to order for each individual room. Supplied in lengths up to 15m, and widths to 450mm, the floorboards are long enough to run the entire length of almost any domestic room without the need for any distracting...

Gooding Aluminium.(Specifier's Information)
September 1, 2003... Gooding Aluminium's eye-catching range of perforated squeeze-frame panels have been used in a major upgrade of the main entrances to eight apartment blocks in a community housing project in south-west London. High on performance and low on...

Material gain: Material World: innovative structures and finishes for interiors.(Reviews)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... MATERIAL WORLD: INNOVATIVE STRUCTURES AND FINISHES FOR INTERIORS. Edited by Edwin van Onna. Basel: Birkhauser, 2003. [euro]60.75 This is not a book which would normally be reviewed in The Architectural Review. After all it is not much...

Users and creativity: actions of architecture: architects and creative users.(Reviews)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... ACTIONS OF ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECTS AND CREATIVE USERS. By Jonathan Hill, London: Routledge, 2003, [pounds sterling]25 The creativity of the user is typically overlooked in the production of architecture. In an effort to redress the...

Californian Idylls: private landscapes, modernist gardens in Southern California.(Reviews)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... PRIVATE LANDSCAPES, MODERNIST GARDENS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. By Pamela Burton and Marie Botnick. London: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. [pounds sterling]28.95 When you learn that most of the photographs in this book are taken by...

Wonderful bamboo: grow your own house--Simon Velez and bamboo architecture.(Reviews)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... GROW YOUR OWN HOUSE--SIMON VELEZ AND BAMBOO ARCHITECTURE. By Mateo Kries, Jean Dethier and others. Weilam-Rhein: Vitra Design Museum with ZERI and CIRECA. 2000. [pounds sterling]19.95 (Distributed by Art Books International) This is a...

Structurally sound: Masters of Structure: engineering today's innovative buildings.(Reviews)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... MASTERS OF STRUCTURE: ENGINEERING TODAY'S INNOVATIVE BUILDINGS. By Sutherland Lyall, London: Laurence King, 2003. [pounds sterling]45 Sutherland Lyall has always been a strong advocate of the principle that engineers should get more...

This striking new maze in the grounds of Kielder Castle in Northumbrland evokes the dark, primeval spirit of the legendary Minotaur, doomed to roam forever in its stone labyrinth.(Delight)
September 1, 2003... Ever since King Minos of Crete created a giant labyrinth beneath his palace at Knossos to confine the Minotaur, the monstrous chimeric progeny of his wife's liaison with a bull, mazes and labyrinths have exerted a powerful sway on human...