:: summer 2012 reading

One thing I love about summer is having the opportunity to read.  Didn't read as much as I would have liked to, but did read several that were quite interesting.

1.    Architecture of the Absurd: How “Genius” Disfigured a Practical Art.  John Silber

A quick, simple read, but also worthwhile.  I appreciated how this book challenged the validity of buildings that are notable simply because they are new or “modern”. 

In architecture, the architect’s relationships to his client and to the intended occupants of his building define the boundaries of his profession.  This is in part what distinguishes an architect from a sculptor.  The aesthetics of a building, in contrast to the aethetics of a piece of sculpture, are judged according to how well a building fulfills a client’s goals and the requirements of those who live and work within it.  No one lives and works in a sculpture; unlike a work of architecture, it is an aesthetic object and is observed from without  (pg 16).

Silber looks at Gaudi’s work as an example of what is playful and organic, but not absurd.  Gaudi’s buildings are integrated into the context of the city, adding to it, not detracting from it.  And the form comes from reason: “The canting of supporting columns was not absurd but the result of creative engineering that met the load demands of the buildings structure” (20).

Absurdity:

o    Muchamp argued in favor of designs that stand a chance of ‘kicking up a storm’ (26)

o    John Rockwell, the Times chief art critic, recently celebrated an award-winning work of art that featured ‘inflatable sex toys performing unprintable acts’ and sculpture of ‘a decomposed human corpse and other animal parts hanging from a tress.’ The work, Rockwell admitted, was ‘truly disturbing’ but, he asserted, ‘great art is always shocking.’ (26)

A couple case studies that I particularly disappointed by---

Case study 1: John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.  I.M. Pei

         They designed the façade to be this gorgeous mosaic of the city, reflecting the city onto its panels. In fact, there would be no windows, but walls of glass. However, the intended six-by-twelve-foot panes of glass proved to be unreliable for a high-rise tower: the panels cracked and fell to the ground so often that soon it became known as the largest building in the world.  (google John Hancock tower under repair, 1973)

         To solve the problem, Arthur Metcalf, a scientist and engineer and the CEO of Electronics Corporation of American advised that the six-by-twelve-foot panels of glass be replaced with three panes four by six.  The mullions, Metcalf argued, would not detract from the average adults view, the mullions being placed at four and eight feet.  The Hancock Company did not take this simple and inexpensive solution.  Instead, they spent millions of dollars to replace all the panes with heavier glass designed to set off an alarm before shattering. 

         Correcting the flaws in Pei’s design ended up costing the Hancock Company $34 million: about one quarter of the building’s original cost.  Unbelievable.

Case study 2: Walt Disney Concert Hall.  Frank Gehry.

         The design itself of the Disney Hall isn’t absurd, necessarily.  But Gehry’s neglect of the surrounding neighbors certainly is.  Neighbors complained that the reflecting light from the concert hall exterior was blinding and enough to raise their homes’ temperature by 15 degrees.  Los Angeles Philharmonic was forced to cover Gehry’s stainless steel shapes with matte-finished cloth.  A cheap looking exterior replaced the original glamour of the shimmering metal.  “It reminds me of an evening gown made of burlap” (73). 

Silber ends with this:

Theoryspeak, celebrity, and self-proclaimed Genius cannot cover the naked absurdity of much contemporary architecture (91).

           

2.    designing.   Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geismar, Steff Geissbuhler

A wonderful visual book I checked out of the library to get some ideas for my portfolio.  Very stimulating to flip through this fantastic collection of articulate graphics.

3.    The Looming Tower.  Lawrence Wright.

I listened to part of this book on “tape”.  I don’t know if I absorbed enough of it to be able to regurgitate much back.  The premise of the book, though, is giving a narrative of the events leading up to 9/11.  I believe it started in the 1980s.  Truly fascinating.  Most of it was information that I had never heard before—or at least details that were new to me.  Definitely a book I want to pick up again at some point.

 

4.    Glass House.  Margaret Morton. 

An oral history written about a squatter community in New York: the Glass House.  A whole world that I am ignorant of.  The Glass House Community was highly organized, even having tiers of leadership and weekly house meetings.  You had to be voted into the community, and you built your own space when you joined.  Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a personable read on unconventional community. 

I’d rather have adventures than things, because once the adventure is over, nobody can ever take it away from me.  -Donny

What I haven’t seen in any other squats is that Glass House would take people who were not wanted by other buildings…At Glass House, if someone was sleeping on the sidewalk, we took them in. -Scott

I moved into this guy’s room before I built my own room, and he’d built his whole wall out of trash.  He didn’t even use studs or Sheetrock, nothing.  He had car parts and doors and windows for walls.  Radios and typewriters made a wall.  It was pretty fully.  It was the energy.  Everyday was an adventure. –Chad

“I didn’t know about squatting and I had lived in the city for five years.  I think that’s probably true for a lot of people on the Lower East Side.  That’s what was unique about Glass House.  It was a viable community, but unless you were part of it you didn’t know about it.  I thought it was a beautiful idea, recycling buildings.” –Heidi

5.    The Queen’s Coronation.  James Wilkinson

England loves their Queen and the whole royal family at large.  While I was visiting my aunt in Yorkshire, the Queen’s jubilee was going on.  The entire country was celebrating.  I, of course, had to purchase this lovely little book about the Queen’s coronation sixty years ago.  The details that go into that ceremony are incredible.  Like, all the women in waiting who carried the Queen’s train had their heels specially made so they would be the same height as the adjacent woman.  Incredible. 

6.    The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture of the Senses.  Juhani Pallasmaa.

I love this sort of Architectural theory: how do our bodies and architecture relate?

Written in a magazine format--short, lively essays and vivid pictures--this book was a pleasure to flip through.  Talks about adult obsessions with Legos and all these crazy things people have done with it.

7.    The Cult of Lego. John Baichtal, Joe Meno
 
Written in a magazine format--short, lively essays and vivid pictures--this book was a pleasure to flip through.  Talks about adult obsessions with Legos and all these crazy things people have done with it. The Book of Daniel is a wonderful book of the Bible.  Full of spiritual wonders and miracles. 

8.    Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Listened to this one "on tape" before bed once.  We all know the story, and it was really enjoyable to hear it in full.  I've only seen the Disney version before.  

 

9.    The book of Daniel.  (The Bible)

Loved reading about the wonderful ways God was working in Daniel's life and around him.  Like when Daniel was thrown into the lion's den and wasn't even scratched, whereas others were torn to pieces before even hitting the floor.  Or when a hand mysteriously appeared and wrote on the wall.  Craziness.  The power of God.  

10.  September 11: An Oral History.  Dean E. Murphy

Truly moving.  Stories are told from survivors who were in the towers, surrounding buildings, rescuers and heros, on the outside, and in the Pentagon.  Read this throughout August.  I highly recommend it as a very personal history of 9/11. 

11.  Living in the Endless City.  Ricky Burdett. 

I really only read a few pages of this.  But I'm including this as a recommendation for all those interested in urban studies.  Worth checking out from the library!   

:: oaxaca reflection

After coming home from Oaxaca, I needed to write a report about my time abroad to complete a small scholarship I had received.  The following is the reflection I wrote:

Before I left Minneapolis to fly to Oaxaca, I didn’t know what to expect.  All I really knew for sure was that Oaxaca was going to be different from anywhere I had ever lived before.  I was excited about that, but uncertain what “different” would look like. 

I did my best to keep an open mind and minimize what my expectations were.  There were so many unknowns, and I tried to remain at peace about that.  Examples of questions going through my mind were:

            What will the hotel be like where I am staying?

            Where in the city will we be living? How far away is it from school?

            How will I exchange money? Will there be a bank near my hotel?

            Will I be able to cook?  Will there be a place to store food?

            How expensive or inexpensive will food be?

How do they celebrate holidays? Is it festive in the city?

            Is there public transportation that I will be able to use? How isolated is the city?

            Will my Spanish improve? Will people know English?

            How traditional will the city be?  What does “traditional Mexican culture” look like?

Will people receive us warmly? How do Mexicans feel about Americans?

           

I packed fairly light: all of my clothes and architecture supplies fit in one Osprey Backpack and a large purse as a carry-on.  Early on I learned that I had forgotten to buy and bring some essential architecture supplies that were not readily available in Oaxaca.  This made me panic during the first week of the program.  But by the time I really needed those tools, my studio had developed a communal mentality, sharing what we had brought with one another.  The frustrating part about the communal sharing of tools was that occasionally you did lose a ruler, pencil, or something of the like.  The wonderful thing was that you were not out of luck if you had forgotten to bring something. 

The studio culture our group formed was a very special part of the experience.  There were seventeen of us, and we became family.  We worked collaboratively, using each other as resources at all hours of the day/night.  And in the moments when I needed support, I was overwhelmed by the love my friends showed me.  Our professor, Lance Lavine, did the same.  Professor Lavine not only invested in our development as students but also took the time to get to know us as people.

Academically and professionally, the Oaxaca program played an integral role in my development.  Professor Lavine was intentional about bringing in architects and other professionals both from Latin American countries as well as University of Minnesota.  They came to our studio to give feedback and often gave a lecture to show their work.  It was incredibly valuable to have our work critiqued in the development and final stages of the project by professionals who had articulate insight.  I have never before had the opportunity to have my work reviewed so often and intimately by professionals in the field.  Also, these close interactions with professionals allowed me to begin to imagine myself in their position.  Oaxaca solidified my desire to continue pursuing a career in Architecture. 

Oaxaca is a place that will forever remain close to my heart.  The city is rich with color and warmth—both in a literal sense and inter-personally.  In the historical center of the city, where we lived, the building style is uniformly traditional: stucco façade over stone and brick construction, rarely more than two stories tall.  To me, the best part of these stucco buildings was the vibrant colors that building owners chose to paint their exterior.  No building was ever simply white and no two buildings were painted exactly the same.  Each building was nestled into its neighbor and came right up to the sidewalk.  We had to laugh because some of the sidewalks were so narrow that it felt as if the building was spilling over onto the street. 

The people of Oaxaca took every opportunity to celebrate.  If there was no reason to have a parade one week, it seemed that they made up a reason to do so.  In America I’m used to traffic jams because of getting stuck behind a train, a car accident, etc.  In Oaxaca, it’s parades.  I saw one parade for “National Water Day,” another for a political cause, and a huge processional for Good Friday, to name just a few.  When there is a wedding, the family hires a band and people to spin around with double-life-size puppets for the groom and bride.  The family all gathers outside the church and in the street passing around bottles of mescal.  I loved the Mexican normalcy of celebrating. 

“Taking a siesta” was a new concept for me.  In the heat of the day, typically between 2 and 4, the whole city shuts down.  Shop owners go for lunch, workers roam the parks, and adolescent teenagers take that time to publically display their affections.  It was a really beautiful thing to be a part of a culture that takes a moment to breath and moves a little slower all together. 

Another thing I was positively struck by was Mexican modesty even in the face of a 110-degree heat wave.  Air-conditioning is practically non-existent in Oaxaca.  All the same, women would wear skirts and tops of modest length, and the men would wear pants year round.  When I have experienced the same heat conditions in the States, our society seems to use it as an excuse to walk around in the shortest shorts and barely there tops, quickly retreating to air-conditioned homes.  It was a humbling lesson to learn that one can remain modestly clothed in the heat and survive just fine. 

In the most practical sense, I was thankful to have the opportunity to travel to Oaxaca for two key reasons: I didn’t have to take out a loan to do so, and I am still on track to graduate in four years.  The program is unbelievably inexpensive, especially in comparison to other programs in Europe.  Mexico itself is affordable, as well, which made it possible for our group to have some fun without breaking our budgets. 

If I could do it again, the only thing I would change would be to pack even lighter and buy less.  Living minimally was refreshing and a great life lesson for me.