tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post4836974210196782336..comments2024-03-07T12:57:35.296-05:00Comments on Varieties of Unreligious Experience: erstarrte MusikConrad H. Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-50457665746447544022008-12-08T01:50:00.000-05:002008-12-08T01:50:00.000-05:00My favorite works in concrete: the Mercer Museum (...My favorite works in concrete: the <A HREF="http://www.mercermuseum.org/mercer_museum.htm" REL="nofollow">Mercer Museum</A> (dedicated to pre-industrial American tools) and <A HREF="http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/fonthill.htm" REL="nofollow">Fonthill</A>, Mercer's home.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-46827257901989419512008-09-11T09:27:00.000-04:002008-09-11T09:27:00.000-04:00When I lived in a NY we had a fire escape we used ...When I lived in a NY we had a fire escape we used as a balcony. We grew a tree on it. Even in Oslo I remember seeing people sleeping on their fire escapes one hot summer. A tiny balcony, big enough for breakfast, is a fantastic luxury in some cities.<BR/><BR/>Music is the greatest art for me because it's the most visceral. It has the best potential for understanding and enjoyment by lots of people and on lots of levels (more so than literature, I'd say and certainly more than architecture). In it's own way it's a deeper means of communication. It's no big theory, in other words I don't grade all the other arts downwards on this basis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-71858456575198636752008-09-10T21:50:00.000-04:002008-09-10T21:50:00.000-04:00Very nice post.I'm a huge fan of Ando's bu...Very nice post.<BR/>I'm a huge fan of Ando's buildings & this is perhaps one of my favorites.<BR/><BR/>http://www.pulitzerarts.org/<BR/><BR/>The exhibits are all specifically designed to interact with the buildings architecture. Their Minimalism show was particularly beautiful. The videos on the website are a touch pretentious but worth watching. The Richard Serra looks great in the context of their courtyard & apparently Ando made changes to the design (window size & placement) so there would be a real dialogue between the sculpture & building. If you've never seen one of his sculptures in person ~ they are frighteningly monumental & yet extraordinarily sensuous for rusted steel.M.W. Noldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09196301119957236731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-46147316328374208302008-09-10T19:11:00.000-04:002008-09-10T19:11:00.000-04:00I don't know, Paul. I would. Why not? Perhaps Arth...I don't know, Paul. I would. Why not? Perhaps Arthur can tell us. By the way, Arthur, I have to agree about Goethe's saying--it isn't terribly clever or enlightening. Why do you think music such a superior artform? (Proof or not.) Being an anti-Romantic, I tend to place it on the bottom of the hierarchy.Conrad H. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-68905580617153314082008-09-10T18:55:00.000-04:002008-09-10T18:55:00.000-04:00That is an appealling building—at least, it gives ...That is an appealling building—at least, it gives the sense that interesting people live in it. <BR/><BR/>I should take the chance to settle a question I've been harboring about buildings with such columbarial fronts: do people ever actually sit out on those balconies? Or do they only serve to prevent vertigo when the residents look out their windows?Paul M. Rodriguezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925737399903171837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-31679325888545331272008-09-10T17:16:00.000-04:002008-09-10T17:16:00.000-04:00Peony, thanks for the link. The Ando building seem...Peony, thanks for the link. The Ando building seems a bit unusual for him, no? As far as I can recall, his work tends to be all straight lines and minimalism.<BR/><BR/>Paul: I can enjoy nature overtaking concrete too! The Barbican often has this quality, when algae coats the lake and the plants hang down from the flats surrounding it (imagine, if you can, a wintry and less spruced version of <A HREF="http://www.beautifuldaze.org/photos/barbican%201.jpg" REL="nofollow">this</A>). I understand the force of your distinction now; in which case I was not making any claims about 'architecture as artifact', simply saying that most people find the campus ugly from an architectural point of view.<BR/><BR/>Arthur: Many thanks; I'm flattered and somewhat surprised that you think my ideas are new. This post is in fact distilled from a longer paper I wrote on the campus, and once submitted to <EM>Architectural History</EM>; they rejected it. I couldn't think what else to do with it, to be honest! Do you really think the AA would have any interest in this? Please do not hesitate to contact me (my email address is on the right there). And, yes, the Ando centre and Frampton buildings do look fine--I should go have a look at the latter! (The only other work of modern architectural curiosity in that area, to my knowledge, is the amusing but grotesque <A HREF="http://www.londontoolkit.com/Images/paddington_spire_house.jpg" REL="nofollow">Spire House</A>.)Conrad H. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-64319117394443429042008-09-10T14:53:00.000-04:002008-09-10T14:53:00.000-04:00Something else, Conrad. It's a good point that ar...Something else, Conrad. It's a good point that architecture reveals itself so much more slowly than sculpture. One problem with <I>erstarrte Musik</I>, with all due respect to Goethe, is that it reminds me of when I lived in Hamburg and natives would call it 'the Venice of the North' because it has a couple of canals. You have to tell them that if there was any real similarity, then Venetians would call Venice 'the Hamburg of the South'. Similarly, if architecture is frozen (actually, it's more like 'solidified' <I>auf Deutsch</I>) music, then music is melted or ethereal architecture, which it pretty clearly isn't most of the time. Myself, I think that music is a greater form of art, but I can't ever prove it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-560269601747881422008-09-10T10:23:00.000-04:002008-09-10T10:23:00.000-04:00YES! I love that Alexandra Rd Estate. I had only s...YES! I love that Alexandra Rd Estate. I had only seen it in a film before now, I think it was "Notes on a Scandal", so it's good to have your link. It is great for two reasons. First, it's designed in section (and so is lots of modernist housing, from Le Corbusier on, but in this case it's very evident on the outside). Second, it's a unique modernist idea that also manages to be contextual (what Ken Frampton called Critical Regionalism) so I love the way the vertical rhythm of the facades along that curve imitates the rhythm of a Victorian London terrace.<BR/><BR/>Frampton himself has done, unfortunately, only one big building and that's some housing in Lancaster Gate that has a great interior section. You can see it here: http://www.corringham.eu/index.html<BR/><BR/>There's an Ando picture that I thought you might find interesting in relation to non-hierarchic spaces, it's from his Hyakudanen terraced, chrysanthemum garden at Awaji Yumebutai (the site where they took the earth to build Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay)<BR/>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Awaji_yumebutai01s3872.jpg<BR/><BR/>It is so remarkable for someone to be able to write both well and knowledgeably with new ideas about architecture, that I think if you had any interest in making money from it you should contact the magazines and the AA (the Architectural Association, not the car people) and give them a link to your writing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-85695171752634527312008-09-09T19:52:00.000-04:002008-09-09T19:52:00.000-04:00Unfortunately, I'm a mayfly among shutterbugs. And...Unfortunately, I'm a mayfly among shutterbugs. And as this kind of structure tends to occur between rather than in places, I can't look up pictures.<BR/><BR/>But these may be two distinct phases of concrete's appeal anyway: mine when nature overtakes it, and yours while it defies nature.<BR/><BR/>By <I>architecture as architecture</I> I meant architecture as the subject of the discipline of architecture—a building representing a certain answer to the question of what a building should be, how it should be used, &c. By architecture as artifact I meant a building as a <I>thing</I>, with a particular history, and having a value which must be measured through its associations with other things—some architectural: its place in architectural history, how it fits into its city; and some otherwise: what happened there, did someone noteworthy draw it, was something filmed there; did I experience something there, accomplish something, meet someone, &c.<BR/><BR/>Of course, your ideal of architecture may not admit the distinction.Paul M. Rodriguezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925737399903171837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-91599157922667884732008-09-09T19:35:00.000-04:002008-09-09T19:35:00.000-04:00Conrad, you can read more about Chandigarh here if...Conrad, you can read more about Chandigarh <A HREF="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9904E6D71E39F936A15757C0A964948260" REL="nofollow">here</A> if you're interested. I have never been to Brasilia so cannot really say, but the pictures of your university just struck me immediately of Chandigarh-- and just like you say of York, Chandigarh too hits a nerve with people as people seem to love it or hate it.<BR/><BR/>Regarding pretty, I wish I had read your other Post before I commented as with regard to that post, then yes, I agree. <A HREF="http://vunex.blogspot.com/2006/10/architecture-sculpture-and-natural-form.html" REL="nofollow"> that Post of your's</A> was extraodinarily well-done and I plan to go back and re-read it more leisurely. Bravo.<BR/><BR/>Finally, as to concrete-- I am also a great fan and find it can be beautiful as well. Ando's concrete is famously "smooth as silk"... I am a very big fan <A HREF="http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/t_marufuzy/36760364.html" REL="nofollow"> of this building by Ando </A> which is not all that far from my place. It's part of the Gunma Insect World and I believe Ando designed the tropical butterfly house, the library and the outdoor patio. It is pretty incredible actually. <BR/><BR/>CheersPeonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15418037102755683814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-18493533935029125992008-09-09T17:33:00.000-04:002008-09-09T17:33:00.000-04:00Peony, thanks. Chandighar sounds fun; like Brasili...Peony, thanks. Chandighar sounds fun; like Brasilia possibly? And do you not think that the majority of people expect their architecture to be pretty?<BR/><BR/>Paul: as much as I like concrete, I'm not sure I'd ever describe it as 'pretty'. I'm not sure it has that potential, except possibly in disguise. Concrete <EM>as</EM> concrete is essentially unpretty, and appealing concrete has to be appealing <EM>because</EM> it is unpretty. Why don't you show us some photographs of your ruinated concretes? And perhaps you could expand on this:<BR/><BR/>"disliking the architecture as architecture, yet loving it as artifact."<BR/><BR/>which I find a little too gnomic.<BR/><BR/>Mr. Crown, good to see you here. I have been to St Paul's but not for ten years. I should go back and check it out, shouldn't I? Sad to see a Waterhouse go down: his Prudential block in Holborn is astonishing. What you say about CLASP's selling point is of course true, and the York team were able to knock their buildings up with amazing speed and cost-predictability. I did see Taliesin (brief post on that <A HREF="http://vunex.blogspot.com/2006/02/taliesin-west.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>), but not Hollyhock. One of my favourites is the <A HREF="http://www.nicebuildings.com/alexandra/frames.htm" REL="nofollow">Alexandra Road estate</A>, not too far from where I grew up.Conrad H. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-53325378684143740152008-09-09T08:34:00.000-04:002008-09-09T08:34:00.000-04:00I suppose that living in the West you must have se...I suppose that living in the West you must have seen some of Wright's concrete work, like the Hollyhock House in LA and the rubble and poured-concrete walls at Taliesin West. And I think you must like Louis Kahn's concrete: the Salk Institute, for example.<BR/><BR/>A good example of a CLASP system building fairly close to you is St Paul's School in Barnes, in W.London. Although the hammered-granite prefabricated concrete skin is pretty nice, I think it's fair to say everyone loathed the building from the outset (I was there when it opened in '68). For one thing, it replaced an amazing Victorian red-brick building in Hammersmith, by Alfred Waterhouse, that they razed-- the old school was allegedly in the Guinness Book of Records for having the longest uninterrupted line of urinals in the world (Victorian symbolism was more visceral). CLASP tends, as you say, towards non-hierarchical planning. In this case, the siteplan had an arrangement of classroom-sized shoeboxes surrounding two small inaccessible courtyards. One of the CLASP selling points was its modular flexibility in the event that the school's needs changed (nobody had discovered yet that, except in the case of earthquakes, a flexible building is an oxymoron). Another selling point, for some odd reason, was that the fabric would have a very short lifespan: thirty years may have been mentioned. Well, time's up, and they are replacing St Paul's with something equally hideous, but more permanent. My school was one of the buildings that provoked me into becoming an architect; not just the blandness of the building itself, but also the discrepancy between the promotion and the prosaic reality -- that's still the biggest problem for architects to overcome, I think.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-78012468172510079172008-09-08T23:27:00.000-04:002008-09-08T23:27:00.000-04:00Conrad, I really enjoyed this post-- from the desc...Conrad, I really enjoyed this post-- from the description of your first date with Lily to the black and white illustrations, it was truly a pleasure. <BR/><BR/>Reading about York, Chandighar immediately comes to mind. That city too dates from around the same time and is also constructed largely of concrete. Divided into sectors and based on an "anthropomorphic plan form"-- it too feels more organic and "open" (to the elements)but at the same time self-contained. People love it or hate it but a grand city it is!<BR/><BR/>Like you, though, I feel that it is perhaps a mistake to view architecture in the same way as sculpture-- not because people expect it to be pretty (because I don't necessarily think that is true) but because sculpture stands alone as complete work of art, doesn't it? In Chandighar, there are rose gardens and sprawl and chaotic traffic and art exhibits and well, the city is lived-in in a manner that sculpture never could be-- and that is the difference, I think, regarding aesthetic judgements-- since I think this ought to matter as much as the formal aspects.<BR/><BR/>I am always a sucker for a covered walkway too!<BR/><BR/>Cheers.Peonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15418037102755683814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-57500940301489252702008-09-08T20:00:00.000-04:002008-09-08T20:00:00.000-04:00Concrete is often pretty. There is a great deal of...Concrete is often pretty. There is a great deal of very appealing concrete in the US—dating largely from between WWI, when the coasts were fortified extensively in concrete, through the labors of the WPA. As these were the first essays in concrete as a construction material, the composition of the concrete and the technique of the pour were imperfect. The structures have since cracked and discolored like decaying frescoes. This is the closest that one can come in the US to the beauty of ruins; and since much of it is neglected and overgrown, viewing it is perhaps a purer form of this pleasure than can be found in genuine ruins in this age of curation.<BR/> <BR/>Why do you oppose hostility to the style to appreciation of the place? I have often admired a building while still believing that it was a mistake—disliking the architecture as architecture, yet loving it as artifact.Paul M. Rodriguezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925737399903171837noreply@blogger.com