Wang Shu - Update

Photo from archpaper.com

Wang Shu has stated that his wife and design collaborator Lu Wenyu should have been named along with him and shared in his recent Pritzker Prize.
Read about it here.
This is very interesting. And it is entirely a result of the system of "starchitecture" and the celebration of individualism in our profession. I blame Hoard Roarke. I should blame Ayn Rand! No matter who you blame, behind every single-named firm - if they are doing work of any scale other than single family -lies a team of collaborators who are also responsible for the work. But we'd rather give the big award to the individual. Especially if that individual is a man. Le sigh.

Facade Friday!

Here are some facades that give back, as they incorporate photo voltaic panels to generate solar energy. PV technology has come a long way and so has the aesthetic. Sadly, the price to do this (first costs) is still high enough that it's hard to get something like this incorporated into a project.

Manchester College or Arts and Technology, image from Design-Build Solar


Here, the panels act as functional screens to add shade and privacy to residential porches:

Paris Social housing by Pilippon-Kalt Architects, image from igreenspot.com

And here they act as windows - a nice feature of many of these panels is that they are transparent so light can be let in.

Images from Solar-constructions.com

And architect Simone Giostra has figured out how to project images from them. 

Very Cool. Image from 3rings.com

What I like about all of these examples is how the panels are used for multiple purposes. They harness energy, act as windows/screens/signage, and add interest and texture to their respective facades. 

Facade Friday!

In honor of my post yesterday, and of Earth Day - I am highlighting a facade that is from an adaptive reuse project.

It's the Scots Church in Sydney, re-christened (excuse the pun) as "Portico". The project included saving the original neo-gothic church including the assembly space on the interior. Then, after some structural gymnastics, they added an entirely new development of apartments on top.
The resulting facades are fantastic. The architects managed to find a way to extend some of the neo-gothic porportions up into the new residentail facades without mimicking them; instead they make for a new layered expression. And anyone who has followed Facade Fridays will know that I do admire a layered facade.

Images from Detail 360 and Architecture Media

The architects are Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, and the project is a great example of saving a fantastic historical/significant structure and making a compelling new building in the process. 

I love architecture

Image from jeffkreeftmeijer.com

I just heard of this campaign (I love architecture) even though it started back in February. It's kind of great, if you are an architect - it taps into one of the reasons I started really posting again to this blog - it's trying to get us architects to re-engage with the good about our profession. The stuff that keeps us putting up with all of the other crap that we already have heard about that is awful about our chosen profession (for some of that, see here,  here, and here...).

One of the things that I do believe, and it's touched on in many of those doom and gloom articles, is that the profession of architecture is going to have to move out of the old, patriarchal modes of operating, one way or another. We can embrace the change now, or we can be forced very painfully to adjust and re-emerge later. (I actually think that the later is sadly the only way it's going to happen - just look at how the AIA spent the last 3 years and you will be reminded of the old re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic story).

In the spirit of Glamour Magazine, I've done a little list of what I think should be OUT and what should be IN our profession as we remake ourselves:

OUT
Big egos
Starchitecture
Fetishism of architecture (hello Dwell, even after all of your "green"washing" you are still one of the biggest offenders)
Giving away free work to win the job (and creating a cycle of abuse, we do it to ourselves people)
Howard Roark
Culture of dues paying and abuse of interns
Accepting less because you "do it for the passion" (see also first item above)
Can the word "green" just be out? Like, forever?
Architecture for the 1%

IN
Collaboration
Client appreciation (I know, sexy, right?)
Recognition of work for reasons other than the final pretty picture
Fetishism of good design practices including REUSE, and ECONOMY
Adaptive Reuse
The Rural Studio
Getting paid for our services AND doing it for the passion
Architecture for the 99%
What would you want in?

I guess I'd better go order a T-shirt...before all those people who aren't actually architects "but always wanted to be" snatch them all up after seeing an ad for them in Dwell. Sigh.

Facade Friday!

Today let's look at facades that really say something. I like supergraphics, and done well they can be really great.

They help you understand the building's purpose:

Image from typeverything.com

They add a layered effect and interest to an otherwise regular or ordinary modern grid of fenestration:

Image from new.pentagram.com

Image courtesy of Hewitt Architects, Sternstein Photography 

(hey, I worked on this one!)

They might "hide" something less interesting beyond, and tell you where you are:

And sometimes they're just a great device to create interest and add an almost ornamental design element:

images from norococo.blogspot.com

Facade Friday!

Image copywright Cemal Enden

I came across this Cor-Ten facade this week. It's the Raif Dinçkök Yalova Cultural Center in Yalova, Turkey, by Emre Arolat.
When Cor-Ten is employed, with it comes (or should come!) the understanding that it will weather, and as a part of that weathering there will be some staining on nearby materials. What I like about this particular use of the Cor-Ten is that it is a direct reference to the industrial nature of Yalova the city, and patina-ed metals like what happens to Cor-Ten are a familiar sight on buildings in the area. I also like the architectural literalism of the parti: the cultural center is within the industrial arena, and this relationship is played out in the building when the cultural center program is arranged freely within the almost fence-like or screen-like walls built of the industrial Core-Ten material. This can be clearly read from the plan:

And experienced in these images:

Of course, this being Facade Friday -what's draw me here is the scrim-like beauty of the Cor-Ten as articulated on the facade:

Images copywright Emre Arolat