The Architectural Review articles from September 2006

The Architectural Review archives from September 2006

Welcoming the inevitable.(medieval architecture)
September 1, 2006... 'Stadtluft macht frei', as the German medieval adage had it: 'Town air makes free'. For all the difficulties associated with urbanisation, particularly since the industrial revolution, that adage holds good. It was difficult for medieval...

Intellectual leap: the Venetian gondola is the inspiration for a new bridge on the Grand Canal.(Venice)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Somewhat precariously located within the Venetian Lagoon, the city of Venice seems surprisingly resilient to change. Bridges, perhaps, are the most frequent mode of new development, from temporary pontoons and lashed-together boat bridges to...

Steeling victories: two winning schemes from Living Steel.
September 1, 2006... Living Steel, a worldwide programme to stimulate innovation in the design and construction of housing, recently awarded two prizes in an international design competition. With two sites--one in Poland, the other in India--the competition...

Peter Cook: the Oslo architecture scene is now a mere shadow of its exuberant former self.
September 1, 2006... You glide in through one of the most agreeable airports in the world--along impeccably detailed woodwork and long sailing spars, past highly civilised seafood bars and bookstores that carry the very latest issues of Frieze, Guitar, Stereophile...

Cathedral and bike shed: icons and the city; This year's Venice Biennale addresses cities. Here, Charles Jencks argues that what he describes as the 'convulsive beauty' of the iconic building will continue to be significant in their future.
September 1, 2006... Monuments have lost their power to enshrine permanent memories, but society has scarcely lost its appetite for grand structures. Quite the opposite: the self-important building characterises our time, partly because the size of commissions...

Cities, architecture and society.(10th International Architecture Exhibition)
September 1, 2006... This issue of the AR focuses on the 16 cities that feature in the main display of the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the Arsenale in Venice. Cities have been selected to ensure a degree of consistency in size--they are all above...

Farringdon Futures: concluding our cities theme, we review seven ideas for a neglected part of London, prepared for the London Architecture Biennale.(place)
September 1, 2006... The theme of this summer's London Architecture Biennale, preceding its international parent in Venice, was 'Change', and as an armature for a smorgasbord of architectural events, a route was chosen stretching from King's Cross station in the...

100% Design.(product review)
September 1, 2006... 100% Design--the UK's leading contemporary design show--continues to evolve, this year adding 100% Light to its stable of shows, events and seminars. From 21 to 24 September, London's Earl's Court will host a tantalising array of furniture,...

Specifier's information.(Luxeon USA Corp introduces Luxeon Wall Washer)(Hacel lighting introduces Hacel Linaj lighting equipment)(Angle Ring Company specialty metals industry)
September 1, 2006... Corus Architects Ellis Belk Associates selected Corus Colorcoat HPS200 pre-finished steel for Tegral's cladding of a new technical base for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in Swords, near Dublin. The product, in Goosewing Grey, was...

A bridge too far?(Energy Efficient Architecture: Basics for Planning and Construction)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... ENERGY-EFFICIENT ARCHITECTURE: BASICS FOR PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION By Roberto Gonzalo and Karl J. Habermann. Basel: Birkhauser. 2006. [euro]79.90 It comes as no surprise that one of the authors of this attractively produced book was...

Grand Prix.(Get Off of My Cloud: CoopHimmelb (L)AU Texts 1968-2005)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... GET OFF OF MY CLOUD: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU TEXTS 1968-2005 By Wolf D. Prix. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. 2005. [euro]29.80 Prix writes like a star and thinks he is one. Like the buildings, this publication slams together lecture notes,...

Brandt conscious.(Tempo, Tempo: The Bauhaus Photomontages of Marianne Brandt)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... TEMPO, TEMPO! THE BAUHAUS PHOTOMONTAGES OF MARIANNE BRANDT By Elizabeth Otto. Berlin: Jovis. 2005. [pounds sterling]19.99 Bauhaus students saw themselves as radical and left-wing, sporting strange modernist appearances, especially the...

History repeating itself.(Building Shanghai : The Story of China's Gateway)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... BUILDING SHANGHAI: THE STORY OF CHINA'S GATEWAY By Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren. Chichester: Wiley-Academy. 2006. [pounds sterling]39.99 Shanghai is rightly known as China's Gateway, but for whom, the non-Chinese entrepreneurs, or the...

Five recent books on the city.(City of Collision : Jerusalem and the Principles of Conflict Urbanism, A Field Guide To Sprawl, Sir John Soane and London, Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the Use of City Spaces, The Form of Cities : Political Economy and Urban Design)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... TEMPORARY URBAN SPACES: CONCEPTS FORTHE USE OF CITY SPACES Edited by Florian Haydn and Robert Temel. Basel: Birkhauser. 2006. E29.90 The subject of this book is the use of temporary space, especially in the urban context. With 10...

Architecture and Utopia in the Era of the French Revolution.(Claude-Nicolas Ledoux)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Nikolaus Pevsner described Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) as the boldest and most extreme French Revolutionary architect. Known to many for his visionary engravings--such as his coup d'oeil of the theatre of Besancon, shown here--his utopian...

Delight.(Venetian palazzo )
September 1, 2006... AT THE PALAZZO FALIER ON VENICE'S GRAND CANAL, ORIENTAL AND GOTHIC INFLUENCES EVOKE THE CITY'S APPETITE FOR SENSUOUS DISPLAY. This Venetian palazzo would be equally at home as a 'kiosk' on the Bosporus or a merchant's villa on the Yangtze...