Another Mark

This blogs' fave architecture mag is now bi-monthly, and out with a fabulous new issue that doesnt seem to be designed by the lovely people at Machine but it's still good. The issue includes an extensive article on the utterly wacky Eugene Tsui which must rank as the weirdest piece of work seen on mainstream architecture press, some cute tube apartments by the fantastic Arakawa + Gins, earthquake-proof housing in Mexico, a hotel made of concrete cylinders thrown in the park (!)
and oh, a piece on Cloud House along with a quote from "Worlds" a text I wrote in Textfield 2 years ago, and seemed to fit nicely with their piece on virtual communities like second life et al.

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Frederic Chaubin: Soviet SF Style

Frederic Chaubin, who was born in Cambodia of a French father and Spanish mother, is chief editor of the French magazine Citizen K, and also a photographer who has been attracted by strange architecture in the former Soviet Union. The photos he takes in countries like Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Georgia, reveal an extraordinary, almost sci-fi world. Today, PingMag takes you to the world of Soviet style architecture with Frederic Chaubin himself. via BLDGBLOG

Goodbye Summer

I'm totally in a goodbye summer mood but not yet in the Hello Winter Season. Here's some pics taken some time ago around this time of year, very GS:

A sunken palm tree somewhere in Krete

The Sunken Forest, Fire Island NY, September 2001

the unreal view from Richard and Todd's house in West Cornwall, NY state

Journey towards the End of Architecture

Seems I can't stop looking at Superstudio these days, and propably because their work is just so bloggable. Here's some excerpts from their "Life without Objects" book. These images come from the "Superexistence" project, which was their participation in the 1972 MOMA exhibition "The New Domestic Landscape, Achivements and Problems in Italian Design" curated by Emilio Ambasz. SUPEREXISTENCE was supposed to be 5 films (Life, Education, Ceremony, Love and Death) 2 of which were realised and shown, while the others exist as storyboards. In these films architecture is replaced by a SUPERSURFACE, a mirrored grid that extends all over the planet and upon which everything takes place. The iconic stills show a super relevant techno hippie but also cute existence, a party and life and death and kids type of thing. I guess they were just predicting the future, and this SUPERSURFACE where everything takes places is just the INTERNET.

Terraforming is the new Building

This is a little house I made in Second Life, to test drive a piece of land I was thinking of renting. The area was full of normal looking houses and I was a bit lazy so I just terraformed the land a bit, like there was something underneath the grass pushing it up. The I added some patterned balls on the various plateaus, and a little lake-jacuzzi by the beach. Was nice to spend a few days there. Later I forgot that I had built this and that I was supposed to say wheather I was renting or not so it all got deleted, which is definetly not the first time that I loose a building on one of these worlds. Anyway the land was on a island in the middle of a void, which meant when you tried to go swimming or walking on water, you bumbed against an invisible wall, because the area towards the horizon had not been assigned disk space. So you could look at it but it didnt exist. What was the pooint of paying for beachfront property if you cant enjoy the water?

Venice Leftovers (and Milano Misc)

Here's some leftover images from my venice visit last month.

How big can a boat get? Big Boats look even Bigger in Venice,because everything else is human sized. This was the Norwegian Glamour or something like that, parked right outside the Giardini.
Cute 80's (1880's) looking cabinet from some local furniture maker. Looks kind of like 1980's too
A still from the brazilian pavilion showing the SESC Pompeia by the fantastic Mrs Lina Bo Bardi. I waited for ever to get a better frame, of this great building. When I went to visit it in Sao Paolo it was closed and I could only peek through the heavy gates. I suppose I just have stay with the books.
The Tree Pavilion outside the Giardini. A very popular spot with the locals but maybe too cute for architects?
A passage way roof in Milan
some trees

and a haunting piece of the Castello Sforzesco

86theonions by Ralfy n' Nicky

According to Rafael who made this with Nikola, this is a website for an ad agency, and probably it's the coolest ad agency website ever. You take objects from the screen (a shark, a stereo, a shirt or a shoe ?) and you throw them in the pot, choosing your desired cooking level and/or result. Then you get an animation where the shark eats the stereo which eats the shirt which eats the shoe, looped for ever and ever until you decide to share it with your friends. or you get a Dreamburger, of course.

The Changing of the Avant Garde

Visionary architectural drawings from the Howard Gilman collection. Yes it's saturday so it must be Book Day. I've had this book for quite a while, seems like a super nice collection. Have a look:

Cedric Price: from the Generator: White Oak, Florida series, 1978-80 Massimo Scolari's total Pink Floyd metaphysical fantasy Addio Melampo,1975
Ettore Sottsass' The Planet as Festival: Gigantic Work, Panoramic Road with View on the Irrawaddy Rivel and the Jungle 1972-73
and The Planet as Festival: Study for Design of a Stadium to Watch the Stars 1972-73
Superstudio's super Continuous Monument: New York Extrusion, 1969
Paul Rudolph's Elements of the Vertical City, Rome 1965-67

and naturally Ron Herron's Walking City series.

It's funny how the works from this period have gone from seeming very important to looking a bit pretentious or even simplistic and then now they seem hyper-complex, political and very fresh indeed.

Athens9 = Athens Update

Athens9 is a new network of architects working on projects that could suggest a better future for the larger Athens area. These projects range from site specific proposals to large scale research. Check out the site and the blog that just we just lauched a couple of minutes ago. The first "project" of Athens9 is called Athens Update, and itself it is a network of project statements all based on the athens area. My initial statement is focused on the architecture of schools, one I've always been fascinated by. Greek schools are for the most part based on a pre-fabricated concrete system that I first wrote about 10 years ago in a piece called Alt:Pre-Fab published in Purple (then called Purple Prose). For that piece I went back and photographed my old highschool, during summer time when kids where just hanging around.

Sexy Gay Blogger

Apparently I'm Sexy Gay Blogger of the day according to Mark. Can't think of a better way to start my week!

Anger Mountain, Log House and two Trees that look like Dicks and Rockets or maybe even Ghosts

These dont' realy relate to each other in any particular way, other than the way things immediately start to relate when they're together.


This was from an advertisement about something that doesnt matter too much, but looks promising, maybe for a rustic version of another neen world.
I saw this tree early one sunday morning on my bike ride. Looks kind of like a dick I guess.

this is much more spooky and better, looks like a sad person, a ghost or a traditional norwegian troll.