FICTIONAL FRIDAY: HANDRAILS OF MIDDLE-EARTH

An architectonical observation from the incredibly funny Youtube channel Cinema Sins in the video counting the sins of the first Hobbit film (which by the way contains loads of cool fictional architecture and urbanism).

But what is the explanation for this? Why no handrails? Might just be because it looks good, but that doesn't explain how no one would try to prevent the thousands of casualties which inevitably would be the result of this policy. Visual pleasure vs. security is a debate in this world as well (just think of the organisations for people with impaired vision, who wants there to be gigantic glowing yellow arrows and stripes absolutely everywhere), but it's quite easy to see who won in this one.

Why not include the whole video:

PRUITT-IGOE

A younger man than myself helped me remember this beautiful piece of music, written by Philip Glass for the film called Koyaanisqatsi (1982). The title derives from a scene in which the failed housing project named "Pruitt-Igoe", designed by Minoru Yamasaki (mostly known as the architect of the Twin Towers), is being demolished.

Although frequent attempts have been made by architects to blame the failures of the project on other aspects than the architecture, it has remained a symbol of  how ideology-driven, de-humanizing thinking in our craft can result in horrible and uninhabitable places. The famous architecture historian and theorist Charles Jencks has even claimed that the tearing down of Pruitt-Igoe nailed the moment where Modernism's optimism on behalf of the future and itself ended, and post-modernism started.

The site is now mostly empty, but suggestions have been made for it to be rebuilt in completely different ways, for example in the charming and thought-through master plan developed by architect Samuel Lima. He suggests applying traditional architecture, extracted from examples in the nearby area, and is firmly planted within the New Urbanist approach.

MEDIANERAS

This is a strange and wonderful little film about people living in the city, and how architecture interacts with their daily lives. Great pictures and good music.

EUROPEAN TIME-LAPSE

Yesterday I found this really cool time-lapse video of the map of Europe and the different countries that have existed there since the year 1000 up until present day. It's very fascinating to see how many countries have at one point been large and important and then and then vanished, how the other ones have grown and shrunk or even completely moved from one place to another.

It seems to me that architectural variations are mostly regional, not national, and I guess this map illustrates how nationalism in architecture (and politics, for that matter) is a slightly absurd exercise. In Norway, a country with an enormous coast and most of its population living less than two hours away from the sea, national romanticism in architecture deemed coastal vernacular traditions in building to be much too influenced by foreigners, and emphasised interpretations of inland architecture and building from the great valleys. Very strange. It's not that I don't find a lot of this romanticist architecture to be beautiful, with its crisp detailing and great craftmanship, but I still think it could have been even richer and better if it included more regional traditions. I don't know how this would work in other countries, but I suppose it's similar.

ARCHES

I've been thinking a lot about arches lately, especially in connection with building brick walls, an increasingly interesting construction method for new architecture. If you have an ideal of the true construction of a building being visible, as I do, you have you use either arches or lintels to cover any spans, for example for windows and doorways. You could of course, as many do, fake the whole thing by using hidden steel lintels, covered by the bricks, but that is in my opinion a cheap trick, unworthy of an architecture with ambitions beyond a certain wow-effect. A Norwegian example here, from the otherwise rather tasteful Bøler church, by Bjørndal/Hansen Architects A/S:

*Sigh* Back to the arches. There are many kinds of arches to be found, and they're all suitable for different situations.

Parable or catenary arches may be good for a gateway, or a building you want to look soaring and strange,

a semi-circular arch may be suitable for a solid and classic look,

the segmental arch is good for informal red-brick architecture,

the right-angled flat arch or jack arch (there's also a variant called french arch) can be used in architecture with a geometric or minimal expression,

and the four-centred ("tudor") arch may be fitting if you're a hardcore romantic, 

perhaps combined with some sort of pointed ("gothic") arch. 

Still, I think one of my favourites (What's your "favourite arch"? God, I'm such a geek.) is the three-centred arch. This gentle shape creates good vibrations all around, feels earthbound and yet poetic, and doesn't require great height. 

The first place I thought of that uses these, is my former school, the eminent Nansen Academy in Lillehammer.

The old school building, originally a private residence built in 1918, features three-centred arches in the ground floor windows of the entrance facade. There's also a tiny side building, connected to the main volume via a very short arcade made up of a couple three-sided arches. 

It seems this shape was very popular in early 20th Century Norwegian architecture, but it seems to have more or less vanished around 1925. Now, how do you construct this three-centred arches, you ask? You already love them that much? That's good. Here's a youtube video with a very simple explanation:

Now, go ahead and design your own!

(Picture credits:

Arcade with yellow arches - Wikipedia
Bøler church - Anne-Beth Jensen/bygg.no
Catenary arches in Gaudí's Casa Milà - Wikipedia
Marble Arch - Wikipedia
Insula with segmental arches - Wikipedia
Georgian row house facades with flat arches - PhotoEverywhere
King's College Chapel - Wikipedia
Hogwarts' Great Hall - Warner bros, I guess
Nansen Academy entrance facade - Nansen Academy Facebook page
Nansen Academy side shot with people holding flags - asylmarsj.no)

SIMPLE

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. - (Probably) Albert Einstein

AVANT-GARDE/COMPLEXITY 1929

He apparently saw this before anyone else:

Plan Voisin, which tearing down a large part of central Paris, replacing it with a highway and huge tower blocks. 1925




"The real effect of M. Le Corbusier's proposals is an over-simplification of the city(...). M. Le Corbusier's solution is to do away with the complexity. This complexity, however, is part of the subject of civic design. The modern great city is like a large orchestra wich often plays an inferior piece of music, and in which the instruments themselves may occasionally even be out of tune. It is the business of a reformer to improve the music and the instruments, but not to cut down the range of the orchestra, nor the number of musical effects that are aimed at by it. M. Le Corbusier has not the patience to attempt this, but substitutes for this orchestra a single tin whistle with about five notes, with which he plays a perfectly rythmical tune. But it is not enough."

- A. Trystan Edwards, The Dead City, in: The Architectural Review, vol. 66, 1929, pp. 135-138

Plan Voisin, model






Why didn't you listen?

A QUESTION FOR FRANK

Question posed by Dhiru Thadani, thanks to Christine Franck for sharing on Facebook.

(Is this Comic Sans? If so, why?) (Oh, why?)

BEFORE THE CARS

Yesterday, the bus gave up on getting us into the city centre and instead dumped us right outside of it. Nairobi is full of traffic and congestion, probably because of all the people driving in their of own cars instead of using public transport, and the fact that the CBD (the tall buildings in the background) has almost no apartments, so people who work there have to spend a lot of time travelling there and back again every day.

Anyway.

When we arrived, we saw that many people were walking towards and on this bridge. There were people selling fruit, and clothes, playing music, chatting, burning things (they seem to have an affinity for burning things in this country) and looking bewildered. We decided to follow, and it turned out that this is a highway that's still being built. In between all the others, there were people in yellow helmets trying to finish it. There were huge cracks every 20th metre or so, which I guess explains why the cars haven't arrived yet. Actually, I'm even sure they should finish it. Research shows that expanding roads only leads to more people using their cars, so that capacity doesn't really increase. Maybe it would be better to keep the life and the people, use it as a new urban space and build some houses and workshops or something on and under it?

GYPSY KINGS

Gypsy Kings from Sebastien Cuvelier on Vimeo.

What happens when kitsch is so kitschy that it's not just kitsch anymore? I mean... It's not pretty, that's quite obvious, but somehow,  it is a bit fascinating.

MICHELE BACHMAN'S HOUSE

HA HA HA HA HA HA

WHAT YOU'LL HATE IN TEN YEARS

(Maybe you already do?)

Military History Museum in Dresden, with an addition by Daniel Libeskind.


"The new façade’s openness and transparency contrasts with the opacity and rigidity of the existing building. The latter represents the severity of the authoritarian past while the former reflects the openness of the democratic society in which it has been reimagined. The interplay between these perspectives forms the character of the new Military History Museum" Ouch. Daniel... please, just... shut up.

NATURBETONG ("NATURAL CONCRETE")

Naturbetong - unequalled combination of industrial look and dust collecting since 1950!

Launched in 1950 by architect Erling Viksjø, but somehow still not very popular amongst most people, the technique of naturbetong has been used in several very important public buildings in Norway, including the government building, which was the main target and heavily damaged by the bomb in Oslo 22nd July 2011. Now we can never tear it down.

Picture from Jernbanetorget subway station, taken earlier tonight.

JERKITECTURE

When a building is being a jerk to its surrounding neighbours, that's jerkitecture. Look at the poor little mansion next to that big, brutal, attention-seeking hotel or whatever it is. The picture was taken in Cascais, Portugal, but jerkitecture can be found almost anywhere in the world, and I expect I will be posting more of it. I haven't been able to find the name of the buildings and their architects, so if you know, please tell me.

BEFORE/AFTER

Before:

After: 

(Click on the pictures!) Is this fair? And if so, why? I mean, the weather is different, the season is different... but still. It seems something went terribly wrong, and all I really have to say is this:

Thanks a lot, 20th century!

Pictures of Bergen by Marianne Skjulhaug, rector at BAS.

DIGNITY PT. II

So, who's doing a better job at ageing with dignity?

This old concrete column?

Or Brigitte Bardot?

TREES IN SUBURBIA

'Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them' - William E. Vaughan

Picture from the project "Stordammen Park" in my hometown, Drammen.

HIPSTER CALVIN

Somehow, I always had the feeling Bill Watterson was talking about contemporary architecture here. Or maybe Calvin's just another hipster.

PS. Wikipedia has a short article on the fallacy called "Appeal to novelty". Have a look.

A MACHINE FOR LIVING IN

"In modern architecture, every day is April Fool's Day" -David Brussat

(What's "modern" anyway? Oh, nevermind.) 

MOSTLY FUNNY IF YOU UNDERSTAND SWEDISH

The woman is yelling "Help, bungalows!", and in the car, someone's thinking "A soulmate!".

Found in a book by the Swedish artist Jan Stenmark.