tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post1239237503956605774..comments2024-03-27T06:20:06.991+00:00Comments on fantastic journal: Books and ArchitectureCharles Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-37000209466973485582009-02-27T19:11:00.000+00:002009-02-27T19:11:00.000+00:00Confession - I sought out and was very excited by ...Confession - I sought out and was very excited by the Deconstruction books in the uni-library, back in first year. It explains a lot about me, I suppose.<BR/><BR/>I remember reading about one particular conference where Danny Libeskind and Eric Owen Moss were rattling on about Aristotle, and all that the chair (who might actually have been Frederic Jameson) could do was beg them to start talking about architecture again...<BR/><BR/>It's weird, architects generally don't have great taste in the aesthetic, and combining that with computers is bad news; I mean, look at what UCL's fine art department produce, and then compare it to the 'arty' work produced by the architecture students. There's definitely a point being missed somewhere, but this is a whole other story entirely...Murphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11658628800390775081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-69743507142115666272009-02-26T13:48:00.000+00:002009-02-26T13:48:00.000+00:00heh, heh. Deconstruction 1 and 2 i remember having...heh, heh. Deconstruction 1 and 2 i remember having a lot of that sort of thing, along with some dreadfully pretentious guff from Daniel Liebeskind. And yes, the AD conferences! I remember one with Kevin Rhowbotham failing to get his point across to a clearly befuddled Richard Rogers. Very painful.<BR/><BR/>Mind you, I found a lot of the late '90's computer driven stuff quite horrid too. Stuff like Marcus Novak which managed to be extraordinarily tasteless in an uninteresting way.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-14118963747535462352009-02-26T13:16:00.000+00:002009-02-26T13:16:00.000+00:00Tell you what: the architecture that is really bey...Tell you what: the architecture that is <I>really</I> beyond the pale is the mid to late '80s early computer stuff. Tschumi did a bit of it, among others, back when all computers could give you was a wireframe, usually an axonometric one. Some of the AD's I've come across from this period have the most hideous graphical style, the architecture is just horrid, and most of the magazine seems to be taken up with reports from interminable conferences, with the usual suspects all pretending that they've read something. (shudders).Murphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11658628800390775081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-18527964159001591682009-02-25T17:12:00.000+00:002009-02-25T17:12:00.000+00:00I went to school at UC Berkeley well after Charles...I went to school at UC Berkeley well after Charles Moore had left, but he designed the adjacent business school complex which made a big impression on me. The idea of getting architectural inspiration from out of date books reminds me of driving through many neighborhoods in Los Angeles where (due to the non-weather) the signage and commercial storefronts haven't changed since many of them were installed in the 1960s. It's like being in a moving display about popular culture over the past 40-50 years.Markasaurushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15066340136990177687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-56103635121572255272009-02-24T18:09:00.000+00:002009-02-24T18:09:00.000+00:00Yes, or Bernard Breslaw.Yes, or Bernard Breslaw.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-78358027938905037622009-02-24T17:56:00.000+00:002009-02-24T17:56:00.000+00:00It is indeed a revealing quote, from a man so bear...It is indeed a revealing quote, from a man so beardy that nobody would doubt his masculinity. I suppose the question is whether it's drag a la Candy Darling or as in Lily Savage...owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-40825539014273438922009-02-24T09:43:00.000+00:002009-02-24T09:43:00.000+00:00Yes Jennifer sometimes 'appears' to scold itineran...Yes Jennifer sometimes 'appears' to scold itinerant readers in the manner of Norman Bates' mother! <BR/><BR/>Banham's quote is revealing in all sorts of ways. It only serves to make post mod sound more interesting than it actually is. It also, of course, assumes some natural, unadorned, right and proper kind of architecture underneath, like a pair of sensible trousers that no one could mistake for displaying unorthodox sexuality. <BR/><BR/>There aren't so many pediments in Moore. Lots of fragmented plans, layered spaces and camp colour schemes though. Come back here!Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-27506536037848575262009-02-24T00:27:00.000+00:002009-02-24T00:27:00.000+00:00I had assumed that 'Jennifer' was a Rrose Selavy-s...I had assumed that 'Jennifer' was a Rrose Selavy-style female alter ego. Which considering the Reyner Banham jibe about pomo being 'architecture in drag' would have been appropriate.<BR/><BR/>Am confused as to which is the superior of Bofill or Moore. It's all pediments to me mate, etc (scampers away)owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-35385063943158131032009-02-23T23:13:00.000+00:002009-02-23T23:13:00.000+00:00yeah I think po-mo was a major gift for planners a...yeah I think po-mo was a major gift for planners and around about that time, it seemed to offer a completely different way of putting together towns and cities which was incredibly exciting - most of the early stars of po-mo seemed to do as many urban projects as individual buildings so it seemed that some kind of bridge was being built.<BR/><BR/>Then it was all fucked over within a few years by the magic wand of Thatcherism among other things. Now we laugh at it. Um.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-87057289223594128762009-02-23T21:55:00.000+00:002009-02-23T21:55:00.000+00:00Oh dear, once again I appear to have logged in as ...Oh dear, once again I appear to have logged in as my wife! (see comment above). Anyone would think that it's her computer.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-821440903649380652009-02-23T21:52:00.000+00:002009-02-23T21:52:00.000+00:00Blaize, that sounds fun you should do it. I was th...Blaize, that sounds fun you should do it. I was thinking of reviewing all the novels with round the wrong way titles. You know, like To A Lover, Kindly or, The Moon It Glows. <BR/><BR/>Willie, I think you're right. Urban design, or at least urban planning, tends to use a vanilla version of post modernism dressed up as statutory law. All the terms that are accepted as fact like context, appropriateness, sensitive massing etc. are derived from architectural theory from 25 years ago (or more). The fact that these terms are now used to stop architects designing what they want is no small irony. So, po-mo is only really apostatism within architecture. Elsewhere its da law!<BR/><BR/>Rob, Yeah it's damn good. Charles Moore shouldn't be considered in the same post as Bofil really. He was far too good.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10168343329972710061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-7943118971028112642009-02-23T21:07:00.000+00:002009-02-23T21:07:00.000+00:00Oof. I'm gonna have to get a copy of that Moore mo...Oof. I'm gonna have to get a copy of that Moore monograph.<BR/><BR/>Great post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-88474019868458818422009-02-23T19:26:00.000+00:002009-02-23T19:26:00.000+00:00Thanks for this but oh dear - I have all these jou...Thanks for this but oh dear - I have all these journals and more. I have the Moore, the Stern and the Gehry from Rizzoli. The spines have now faded to the point where they can't be easily read by the casual visitor so the true horror is concealed.<BR/><BR/>Most of these have proved to be really useful to me as an urban designer/urbanist or whatever over the past years. Perhaps urbanism as practised in the UK is now completely postmodern - which is why it will never catch on. Another trip to Poundbury anyone?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-21086822420471167692009-02-23T18:45:00.000+00:002009-02-23T18:45:00.000+00:00I snortled at the skinny jeans/1984 sentences. And...I snortled at the skinny jeans/1984 sentences. And at the concept in general. I have a new idea, which is to read all the books in my local library that start with the word "Against" and then write about them. A kind of self-limiting Junk Shop Books Will Get You Nowhere, engaged in on purpose.Blaizehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07033894901666324351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-31959576940074987852009-02-23T17:48:00.000+00:002009-02-23T17:48:00.000+00:00Perhaps I should have called it Junk Shop Books Wi...Perhaps I should have called it Junk Shop Books Will Get You Nowhere....<BR/><BR/>It's getting near Sesquipedalist territory but a blog reviewing only junk shop architecture finds (like Dalston Oxfam Shop too come to think of it) would be a good thing....<BR/><BR/>Congrats on the Sunday Times prop btw. Very impressive.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-39436703925807810442009-02-23T16:50:00.000+00:002009-02-23T16:50:00.000+00:00Like this post, even though I shudder at the names...Like this post, even though I shudder at the names of the architects in question. Charity shop architecture! Perhaps we are meeting in the middle after all.<BR/><BR/>I've picked up a few of those forlorn old AD issues from the Papadakis reign, but usually very different ones - those where Catherine Cooke gets to translate the theoretical writings of and write about Russian Constructivism, and lambast deconstructivists and Philip Johnson for their inadequate understanding of it. And despite the formal chicness of Constructivism for post-decon types, I tend to think the serious, techno-Marxist end of Constructivism that she wrote about is as neglected now as much as Michael Graves, whether Koolhaas namedrops Leonidov or not.owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.com