Sunday, May 31, 2009
Coast Modern: A Documentary Film
Coast Modern Film Trailer from Coast Modern on Vimeo.
Vancouver, Canada based filmmakers Michael Bernard and Gavin Froome are creating a documentary that will take us on a journey through three generations of modern architecture on the West Coast of North America.
From the early 20th century, through to the second wave of post-war America, to today’s current modernist renaissance. This film speaks with the architects and their patrons, and asks if Modernism’s time has finally come or did it ever really go away.
Via: Contemporist & Coast Modern Website
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Construction begins at Abu Dhabi's new cultural beacon
A ceremony attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan marked the start of construction yesterday at the site of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the first universal museum to be built in the capital city. In recognition of the importance of the event, the two world leaders accepted a time capsule for the museum from children of both the UAE and France.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is sited at Saadiyat Island's new Cultural District, developed as the world's largest single concentration of premier cultural institutions.
“Abu Dhabi’s ultimate goal in creating the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and indeed the entire Saadiyat Island Cultural District, is to build a platform for deeper and more meaningful exchange among people from our own region and from all parts of the globe,” stated Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates. “We move forward today with warm gratitude toward the people and government of France for joining us in the unprecedented cultural partnership that is creating the Louvre Abu Dhabi.”
Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the Louvre Abu Dhabi will be a 24,000 sq m complex of pavilions, plazas, alleyways and canals 'evoking the image of a city floating on the sea'. Hovering over the complex will be a form inspired by traditional Arabic architecture: a vast, shallow, perforated dome—some 180 metres in diameter.
A presentation of Nouvel's design, an illustrated talk and a guided tour of selected artworks to be displayed will be presented through 2 July in Gallery One of Emirates Palace. The building is set for completion in 2012/13.
Via: WAN
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Amazing Visualization of the Future of London by GMJ
For the UK readers this is old news...but for us yanks these images of future London are simply amazing. UK edition of Wired magazine features an impressive 3 part cover visualizing London in the present, near and far futures. Created by UK visualization specialists GMJ, the cover brings an incredibly detailed futuristic reality to the reader. If you haven't seen these you should definitely click the link below.
Frank Lloyd Wright at the Guggenheim: From Within Outward
This year, we not only commemorate the 50 years of Frank Lloyd Wright’s death, but also the 50 years of the opening of one of his masterpieces: The Guggenheim Museum.
The museum will celebrate with the exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. On view from May 15 through August 23, 2009, the 50th anniversary exhibition brings together sixty-four projects by F.L. Wright, including privately commissioned residences, civic and government buildings, religious and performance spaces, as well as unrealized urban mega-structures. Presented on the spiral ramps of Wright’s museum through a range of mediums — including more than 200 original Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, many of which are on view to the public for the first time, as well as newly commissioned models and digital animations — Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward illuminates Wright’s pioneering concepts of space and reveals the architect’s continuing relevance to contemporary design.
The exhibition takes place between May 15 and August 23, 2009 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
You can also visit an online version of the exhibition.
via: Arch Daily
Sunday, May 3, 2009
I am not a “3D Guy”.
THIS MADE ME LAUGH...There are days when I can certainly relate to this...An open letter to anyone introducing me at events, client calls, industry parties or the likes:
To whom it may concern,
Please do not ever again refer to us as “3D guys, THE 3D guy” or the particularly nauseating “3D Guru”. It’s dismissive, degrading, and just sounds fucking dumb. Those titles always seem to be delivered with a subliminal dismissive tone that insinuates that when these robots speak you probably wont understand a single word they say, so if your smart you’ll tune them out. It’s like your buddies are over and your Mom is making you include your noisy little brat brother. “Mom says, we have to include Bobby”. Well fuck that, we are designers/artists that just so happen to be able to work in one additional dimension. Besides, we aren’t anyone’s “guy’s” and some of us might not even be guys (although lets be honest, that is rare). Oh John, he’s our 3D guy, he’s a faceless, nameless vessel of indecipherable techno-garble, there is no way he could be creative. He doesn’t even look like a Jonas Brother.
Why is it that 3D artists/designers get the prefix of “3D”, yet 2D designers are simply, “designers”? Wouldn’t this insinuate that somehow the 3D designer is limited in some fashion? As if he is only capable of designing in 3D? Well most of you that read this blog know this to be the exact opposite. In fact, it is the simply named “designers” that are in fact limited to mainly two dimensions or the occasional 2.5D. Interesting huh? I believe there is an inevitable trend growing that will unite us all. More and more 2D artists/designers are picking up 3D and it is my hope that we will all shed the prefix of a dimension and become simply Aritsts/Designers.
So please drop those phrases from your vocab. Unless you plan on referring to everyone with the postfix of “guys”. Like here’s Stan our 2D guy, over there is Hank, he’s our Producer guy, and way back there is Russ our Janitor guy. We are not action figures.
Sincerely,
Artists/Designers who happen to be good at 3D
Via: cgpov
Friday, May 1, 2009
Snøhetta's Work lectured by Craig Dykers
Here is a lecture by Craig Dykers of Snøhetta that I went to in October at Copper Union. Unfortunately this is only a small portion of a really great lecture.
October 28, 2008
Craig Dykers co-founded the architecture and design firm Snøhetta in 1989, the same year the firm won the international competition to design the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. Snøhetta established a New York office in 2004, the year it was awarded the commission for the National September 11 Memorial Museum and Pavilion at the World Trade Center. The international practice emphasizes site-specific and environmentally responsible design solutions that “enhance …
qualities of place and create diverse and rich architectural experiences.” Recent and current work includes the Lillehammer Winter Olympics Art Museum, Norway; Norwegian Embassy, Berlin; and the Wolfe Center for the Arts, Bowling Green State University, Ohio.
In this podcast, Dykers presents the Norwegian National Opera, Oslo.
Via: The Architecture League
