We visited one commercial arcade that is in direct dialogue with Brazilian architecture. Le Corbusier This dialogue
The Tower of Shadows continues LC battle with Brazilian architecture
the unmovable brise soleil.
We have to thank Mayor Bloomberg, or is it Bloomberg LLC, for the fun! We were emphatically reassured of this by head honcho from Bloomber LLC on Thursday June 24 at the press opening of the new architectural pavilion at MoMA PS1. This ludic construction made of windsurfing poles, pastel colored abdominal exercise balls, and a net , woven into an array →
Yesterday (April 21, 2010), Brazilian architecture was showcased in New York at Columbia's GSAPP under the title: YOUNG PRACTICS IN BRAZIL moderated by Angelo Bucci. In his introduction, Bucci loosely revived the concept of "the generation" to frame the group of young architects presented at Wood auditorium. He did so however, without a clear discourse of who or what is →
Lutyen’s apparently classicizing city plan – axis connected through roundabouts – is heavy on vehicular circulation, with little consideration for the pedestrian. The dimension is set by a vast monumental measure imposed on the landscape. This abstraction, constructed through geometry is actualized through circulation and the preference for the car. The Haussmannian militarization of the city is complete by eradicating →
Above (center right) is the Ambani house, the world’s most expensive single-family residence. At a price tag of $2 billion dollars, it was designed to house a family of 6, with a staff of 200. Bellow this, is a single-family unit in the slum-redevelopment housing complex at Oshiwara I, which holds about 6 family members in 250sq feet. The units →
Our second day in Mumbai (Friday, March 12), we met with representatives of SPARC. They showed us several slum rehabilitation projects. I was most taken by their very first project, Milan Nagar, constructed to resettle pavement dwellers from Byculla. The project started in the early 1990s. It took around 10 years from land allocation to final building, for a total →
Just out is the volume COHABITAR, edited by Anna Nufrio in Barcelona. This book gathers the experience initiated in 2004 in the international seminar INSIDE LA HABANA which I organized with Anna, with the help of my great Cuban friends. The intent of this international seminar was to present architecture students with a first approximation to the city. It involved students →
At Clemson University I had the opportunity to engage in design build practices. The work of the Rural Studio in Alabama, Mockbee's relation to Clemson, and the generalized condition of poverty and need in small communities in the South after decades of neo-liberal economics and conservative politics, I thought, could guide design pedagogy. In long debates and discussions with then →
When I visited Havana in 2000 I was fascinated by the andaminos, the scaffolding that populated the city, particularly in old Havana. Locals then used to call Havana "La Ciudad de San Lázaro" (St. Lazarus' City), because of all the crutches supporting its buildings preventing them from falling. Behind this ruinous reality hid the barbacoas, which for many were but →
In 2000 I became interested in contemporary vernacular building practices in Havana, Cuba, known as barbacoas. Since then I have been slowly researching them and developing a theoretical position on these experiences. One can find these types of interventions just about anywhere in the world. I'm interest in the Cuban case because these are set within a Socialist context were →