Yael Reisner commenced with introducing the concept of beauty existing in the content as opposed to the container, thus rephrasing the idea of functionality of space. Will Alsop opposed to the idea, suggesting that space can equally be experienced outside its use. Traditionally beauty and functionality coexist notwithstanding that this is not always the case, taking as an example the early modernist movement where functionality was absent in a fundamentally innovative attempt of redefining the aesthetics of space.

Which lead the forum to explore the next concept of breakthrough innovation and how it may not be easily perceived as beautiful due to the lack of reference that can be traced back into our past memories. As Hernan Diaz Alonso eloquently puts it, innovation is disturbing. Its unfamiliar and surprising nature impacts on harmony, to use the alternative term used by  Gaetano Pesce to define beauty, and throws it off balance. Harmony in that sense appears to be a product of collective memory and experience through time and in this theory there is no space for innovation.

So could it be that the element that architecture seeks to address and define as beauty is in fact harmony? What happens when our experience grows to include a previously shocking innovative space which has now over time become familiar? How about the examples of the Eiffel tower, “Centre Georges Pompidou” or “Falling Waters” that were originally viewed with distraught yet grew on their audience and are now vastly accepted as beautiful and harmonious? And do they not each perfectly fit to their environment, thus fulfilling yet another definition of beautiful in architectural terms?

Will Alsop takes the concept of harmony one step further by adding the element of warmth and cosiness, which contribute to making space special. Peter Cook on the other hand suggests that beauty coincides with particularity and uniqueness, which could in fact extend to include the surprising, as it is inherently unique as much as potentially disturbingly unfamiliar.

As expected, there was no firm conclusion during this debate as there have always been a lot of different approaches on the subject none of which is necessarily more logical than others as beauty is one of the most subjective values. The discussion was further analysed in a more social context as the evening progressed over a glass of wine as was the subject of beauty and the hopeful expectation that the book, signed copies of which were being sold, will reveal more paths for the readers’ imagination to tread on while identifying with one or the other predominant theories or indeed creating their own.

“Architecture and Beauty, Conversations with Architects about a Troubled Relationship” is now available in bookstores worldwide including Amazon online.

The subject of architecture and beauty will be further discussed in the forthcoming related events:

“Architecture and Beauty, A troubled Relationship”: symposium held at Sci-Arc, (Southern California School of Architecture), Los Angeles in September 2010.

“The Troubled Relationship between Architecture and Appearance in the last 80 years”: an 8-week seminar which will be held during the Autumn term 2010 at the Architectural Association in London.

For more details please visit the author’s official website at http://yaelreisner.com/ nearer the time.

Keep up to date with upcoming events at the Royal Academy of Arts at http://www.royalaca...org.uk/architecture/

A few of us popped down to the London School of Economics recently to hear a talk given by Professor David Goldblatt on the inescapable connections between global sport and global capitalism. He summed up his argument in an anecdote from when he was studying for his PHD at Cambridge explaining that his tutor was insistent that to get an understanding of global capital and its movement he should read the Financial Times from cover to cover each day. Having a busy work life balance he argued it was just as plausible to only read the sports pages. 

He then went on to dissect the recent African Cup of Nations in Angola and to beautifully explain this principle. Starting at the initial decision to award the games and ranging from construction of the multiple stadia, through to the precise location of the individual games, he showed the consistent influence and manipulation by ‘global capitalism’. The full podcast of the evenings talk can be listened to here, and is well worth the consideration.

“Look at the numbers. The United Nations has 192 members. Fifa, football’s world governing body, has 207. Half the people on the planet watched Zinédine Zidane implode during this summer’s World Cup final. About a billion people play the game on some kind of organised basis, often without head butting opponents in the chest. There are 25 million kilometres of white lines on the Earth’s football pitches, enough to circle it a thousand times. This is world domination on the scale of a Bond villain’s fantasy.”  The Independent – By Chris Maume

“One of Goldblatt’s major criticisms of mainstream history is that football is ignored by `serious’ historians. He points out that anyone writing Twentieth Century history is omitting a great social development by doing so. Historians are happy to discuss literature, theatre, and even film – so why not football? Goldblatt argues that with TV viewing figures in the billions (estimates vary, but up to a third of the planet were watching) can events like the World Cup continue to be ignored by historians?” Amazon Review – By Jim-San

Having a passion for old buildings, his interest is to help his clients preserve and find a new use for them thus prolonging their life. This thought comes as a response to environmental concerns as it is a truly sustainable way to treat existing buildings and the delight in the distinct design opportunity each project offers. The case studies presented were varying in their degree of historic importance and architectural merit, but each showed a unique challenge to restoration.

There are many different approaches to restoration to meet a range of tastes and the English Heritage Agenda, whose current policy seems to be in favour of retaining and renovating original features without mimicking the past in the new build elements of the project. This gives scope for a clear juxtaposition of the modern against the original, which is George’s idea of restoration as encapsulated in the phrase: “I am not interested in creating living museums. The challenge is to give these historic buildings a modern twist and drag them into the 21st century by creating unique homes”.

All this can be done very cheaply -as George outlined many of the projects featured on the programme cost less than the average UK house price. However keeping the cost low may mean doing some of the work yourself or purchasing materials upon availability, even off ebay, as in one of the projects featured. However what seems to have on average resulted in more successful outcomes was the passion of some of the individuals in their single-minded determination to save a structure than its profit oriented counterpart.

To estimate the magnitude of any restoration challenge to be taken on, one would need to consider all restrictions associated with such a project, as dictated by the building’s “listing” and of course its original structure and condition. Restoration should not be seen as the panacea for all abandoned buildings out there that one can put their hands on. Some buildings are simply unsuitable for their new proposed use, they may be virtually uninhabitable with a failing structure, which again is not 100% prohibitive based on budget and the degree of alteration allowed by the local authorities, none of which is to be underestimated.

As an example, in one of the properties highlighted in the presentation, the living room was accessed via a trap door in the coffee table. Another one, a Martello tower in Kent, roughly illustrated by George in the sketch above, failed to deliver a reasonable accommodation layout for the client and with English Heritage being obstinate in their view of not accepting a modern extension to the tower, the idea of restoration had to be abandoned. The hidden cost behind “grabbing a bargain” is also commonly underestimated at the onset leading to early abandonment of an ambitious, maybe overly so, project.

Sometimes it is probably wiser to just let such buildings be: there is probably a reason why they have been standing there empty of use at first place… There are always some hidden gems, if one was to look hard enough, but it would be recommended to seek expert advise before judging the suitability of what seems to be a promising restoration project.

Many varied thoughts were exchanged on the subject while mingling over a glass of wine that the hosts kindly provided after the talk. We would like to read your views, so please take this opportunity to comment below.

Restoration man will commence on Channel 4 in April with a variety of intersting projects to spark one’s imagination so watch this space http://www.georgeclarke.co.uk/
If you would like further information about George Clarke and Bobby Desai’s studio please visit their website at http://clarkedesai.com/
A visit to the magical interiors and sacred gardens of Sir John Soane’s museum is also highly recommended for those who have not yet had the chance http://www.soane.org/

For the second year running Populous was shortlisted for the WAF awards in Barcelona. This year we saw many young and up and coming architects from around the world as well as many well-known faces , and as always,  some of our more tenacious competitors.  However there was no sense of rivalry, but rather a genuine atmosphere of engagement and interest in seeing and hearing about a huge variety of projects from just about every country you could think of.

Some of our current associate architects from Ireland were there also; and they helpfully piled into the seminar room for our presentation of the O2 Dublin Project.

This Project was shortlisted for the “culture” category. I got up to do the mandatory ten minute presentation just after Rod and Paul Westbury had finished their talk on the 2012 stadium (with sustained applause afterwards from said Rod and Paul Westbury showing their support!). The eventual winner of the “world building of the year”, Mapungubwe Interpretation Center in South Africa by Peter Rich Architects, was also in the culture category. Some of the other “big names” in this category were Miralles Tagliabue Embt, Grimshaw, Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM), UNStudio and Fosters.  Most of these guys were present in the room for the duration and so you really had a sense of presenting your ideas to your peers.

The next day it was Dale’s turn to present the Centre Court Project from Wimbledon. The room was fairly packed and Dale gave a thorough presentation of the history of the building and the challenges of creating such a large technically advanced roof in such a tight envelope. Before Dale was a small sports hall from Australia which became the eventual category winner. This Project was the Berry Sports Hall in NSW Australia by Allen Jack+Cottier. We all agreed it was an interesting small building and that the presentation was really enthusiastic and memorable.

So the challenge for next year is to focus on what makes our buildings so special and perhaps focus on one or two ideas and emphasize them. This is what most of the winners seem to have done.

The programme of events was split between formal seminars , including key note speeches from Foreign Office and Vinoly, and the various teams presenting their projects to the various juries. You could pop in and out from one room to another and it was great hearing architects speaking about architecture to other architects across a huge variety of project types and from many different countries. In addition the great and the good of the worlds of architectural theory/criticism and general academe were there on and off and so it was a good mix of that side of our culture and the many and varied practitioners- young and old – from around the world.

I bumped into old colleagues that I hadn’t seen for over 15 years, and I think we all saw some rising stars from many diverse countries in Asia and Eastern Europe amongst other places. Some architects came up and wondered if we could help them with their projects, and so it was also a forum for exchange and possible future projects.

It seems this event will continue to grow and, as we definitely have many projects coming up next year for inclusion, we hope to be there again.

Paul Westbury (Buro Happold) and Rod Sheard (Populous) at WAF

See New Civil Engineer article for more details

Most notably, German artist Demand http://www.thomasdemand.de/ stated that he doesn’t want to end up designing toilets. The architects in the audience notably repulsed. However, the collaboration between Adam Caruso, Peter St. John and Thomas Demand has been fruitful.  They again came together on the exhibition design of the current show of Demand‘s Photographs in the New National Gallery in Berlin. An icon of the modern canon, designed by Mies van der Rohe, the Gallery was finished in 1968. The initial exhibition designs consisted of fabrics rather than module walls, a strategy developed by Mies with Lilly Reich. This concept adapted from Mies earliest projects still works today. The textile surfaces offer a theatrical background for Demands’ pictures. Caruso St. John chose a fabric by Kvadrat http://www.kvadrat.dk/textiles/collection/ and also designed the dark wooden vitrines.  Interestingly the pictures could not be hung directly to the roof because of the deflection of the steel – it can be up to 100mm. The picture would not have lined up. Hence the re-invention of the fabric curtain wall. It frames spaces and guides the vista.

Another collaborative project between the two big names – Demand and Caruso St. John – has just won planning approval in Zurich West. http://www.carusostjohn.com/projects/nagelhaus/ It is an accessible sculpture, an analogy to a specific house in China that fell victim to a modern development. It reminds of the UCL library in Bloomsbury, London which appears to be as tall as a skyscraper just by playing with the proportions of window size and floor plates – a visual trap most of us fall into. Asked if one has to expect similar buildings playing with scales and images by Caruso St. John, Adam Caruso nodded enthusiastically. Demand was left out in the cold, he had provided the initial idea, now let’s wait for the next designs.

However, if you do not feel like booking  a flight to the German capital neither are fond of an artist photographing cardboard spaces, you still might want to check out the new art gallery by Caruso St. John in Nottingham opening in two weeks time.  It might be worth a visit of Robin Hood’s home town. The gallery can’t be missed as it is more of an icon than the usual Caruso St. John project and adjacent to the train line. Should you instead want to acquire your very own Thomas Demand, check out his gallery in London – Sprüth Magers http://spruethmagers.net/artists/thomas_demand.

Be warned, it might be out of most architects’ budgets.

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The project was intended to give students the opportunity to reflect the values and character of the company, as well as expressing the Populous brand. Tom gave a lecture on the work of Populous to start the project, followed by some mid-project crits and then a final review. Students were also asked to use Corian as the main material for the reception desk and the project included a briefing session from that company.

Designs by Banu Zhulumova and Michael Bielak were selected as most successfully capturing the character and personality of Populous, with honourable mentions for proposals by Vincent Jenkins, Sandreen Dawood and Naz Karahasanoglu.

Many thanks to Kaye Newman and Janette Harris from LMU for the invitation to help out with the course.

By William Hailiang Chen

Steve Shaw, deputy head of town planning at ODA (Olympic Delivery Authority), came to speak to the Olympic Stadium team to give a broad perspective about Beijing’s Urban Masterplanning.

His talk reflected on how the old city fabric relates to recent city development/transportation and how the Olympic Park fits into the future city plan; from the Olympic Park to the Athletes village and other venues; from public art sculptures to the consistency of design language on signage and detailing; from security issues to his personal experience of the paralympic closing ceremony.  As a Chinese person who used to live in China and is now working on the Olympic Stadium, I found that there are a number of interesting comparisons between the Beijing and London Olympic Masterplans.

1: Location of Olympic Park
The master plan of the Beijing Olympic Park continues the traditional north-south axis running through the Imperial Palace, with the Olympic Park located to the north of Beijing in what used to be a residential suburb. (See image: A group of golden colour buildings at the top of the image is the Imperial Palace; the Olympic Stadium (‘Bird’s Nest’) is located centrally).

According to the planners it will help elucidate the romantic charm of a long history and culture in the ancient city of Beijing. The future city has been divided into different zones: the west of Beijing is going to feature an ‘ecological belt’ in lush green surroundings and the east a ‘development zone’ with a string of industrial spotlights, such as the new CBD area.

Beijing boasts a long history of 3050 years, with its foundation in BC 1045 and selection as capital in AD1153. It has remained a comparatively intact ancient city through the evolution from Dadou in Yuan dynasty, the city of Beijing in Ming and Qing dynasties, Republic of China to new China today. The choice of site for Beijing provides a unique natural geographic landscape characterized by the mutual relationship between city and hill, alongside water. This also influenced the creation of the man-made water channel around the Olympic Park, which is meant to enhance the Feng Shui of the site.  While Beijing’s permanent infrastructure stands to be the biggest beneficiary of Games-related investment and the city continues the process of modernisation; London’s Olympic Park, located in a run-down part of the East End (a contrast to the much developed West End area) is more to do with the urban regeneration of that area and improvements to the ageing infrastructure. To avoid the white elephant structures that have troubled some of the recent host cities, London 2012 is designed more around the post-games legacy in terms of venue sizes, while Beijing has less concern about this.

However, the fundamental difference is the driving force and motivation from hosting the games: Beijing was determined to demonstrate ‘what they can do the best’ and provide ‘a modernised New Beijing’ with a focus on ‘spectacular’ and ‘big statement’ gestures; while London is trying to justify its status as a ‘world city’: with an emphasis on multiculturalism and more importantly hosting a ‘green’ and sustainable Olympics that can become a benchmark for future Games.

2: The function of the Olympic Park after the Games
Steve informed us that a new road network and transportation system had been built running though (and under) the Beijing Olympic park. This was closed to the public during the Olympic Games but was opened and integrated into the existing urban fabric immediately after the Games. Most of the major road networks have at least 8 lanes (see image) and the new infrarstructure was built on this scale. London, on the other hand, is maintaining movement on existing road networks and adding a separate loop road to the Olympic Park to provide service access to the venues.

Beijing has to rely on major motor ways (See master plan with its 6 circular ring roads – in comparison to the 2 main ring roads in London) to connect the large urban city blocks, which generates an enormous scale of roadways. In this sense, the Beijing Olympic Park will become a new urban block woven into the existing fabric by the new roads. On the other hand, the Olympic Park in London is intended to become the largest park completed in the city since Victorian times – serving as a public space and an important ‘breathing lung’ for East End urban redevelopment.

3: Public art and consistency of design language
From little fountains to public art, sculptures and signage for way finding, Steve was impressed with what he saw in Beijing and thought there was a consistency of design language. The modernisation of Beijing certainly seems to have achieved what the city authorities were looking for in hosting the Olympic Games, but I feel you will need to return in 5 or 10 years time to make a more accurate assessment, as the legacy of the Olympic Games is more important than the Games itself.

Photo Credit:
All photos are taken by Steve Shaw

Reference Reading:

http://uk.youtube.../watch?v=CDQzQPHfTYg

This youtube video gives you a guide tour for Beijing Master Planning.

Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning & Design (BICP) is an institution affiliated to Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning and responsible for the formulation of various urban and rural plans. As approved by the Ministry of Construction of China, BICP is a grade A planning and Design organization and aims to provide the services for Beijing municipal government’s macro decision-making on urban development and various construction projects.

http://www.bjghy....f_the_Institute.html

As many of you may already know, Yankee Stadium officially closed its doors a couple of weeks ago. The exact date the final game to ever be played there was Sunday the 21st of September 2008, which just so happens to mark my three year anniversary since moving to London from New York. And so with thoughts on my mind about the city across the pond, it gave me great pleasure to see a fold-out spread of the stadium in Saturday’s Guardian, as well as articles in other periodicals during the following days. While the closing of ‘The House that Ruth Built’ inevitably garnered much attention in the States, the fact that it did so as well in the UK speaks fathoms as to how famous of a venue this stadium had become world over. I mean, if they covered it so much here in England where they follow baseball almost as little as Americans follow cricket, well then the stadium’s 85 year life must indeed have been an exemplary one.

So what was it that made Yankee stadium such a notable place? It certainly wasn’t due to the architectural figure it cut. While the stadium stood as a recognizable landmark, sure, it never crossed anyone’s mind to try and preserve it for its architectural merits alone. The fact that it never burned down perhaps could be considered its most lasting achievement as it was located in a part of New York which at times resembled Beirut Lebanon. That it attracted more than 55,000 people to the South Bronx most summer nights can be considered downright remarkable.

While the stadium might not be much to write about architecturally, volumes have already been written about the legends which were made within its doors. Despite all its history it never felt like you were entering a museum, but more like a carnival or fairground. In many ways the stadium embodied the city’s best moments all under one roof: It offered an expansive release from uber-urban New York as does Central Park; it provided a destination for entertainment similar to Coney Island; there was a bit of Broadway razzle-dazzle every seventh inning stretch; one could find the hustle and bustle of Times Square inside any concourse; and the intersection of transportation infrastructure rivalled that of Grand Central station. But most importantly it brought people together in a way unlike any other place. It engendered a greater cross section of different cultures, economic strata, and backgrounds than most neighbourhoods do. Yankee fans are some of the most vocal, and when the team was underperforming they knew it. Likewise when they were winning you can hear it for miles around. Given the fans’ devotion to the game, it isn’t too much of a stretch to say that the stadium offers for many a catharsis rivalling New York’s most sacred places of worship.

While these features are all ones which many other world-famous stadiums share, there is one other thing which separated this stadium from the rest. It has to do with a mythology entirely unique to the Yankees. I never believed in ghosts until I saw the eighty-six year old Curse of the Bambino being broken before my eyes back in 2004. When the Boston Red Sox’s Johnny Damon hit a four-run grand slam to practically seal their final-game playoff win, not only did the spirit of every Yankee fan in the stadium die a sudden death, but palpable waves of disbelief extended out over the city all the way to the furthest corner of the country. With Boston’s pitcher Kurt Schilling’s ankle bleeding onto the mound the Red Sox finally found their spell-breaker. Yankee management tried to re-instate the curse again by buying Johnny Damon as they did Babe Ruth, but alas curses are as rare as the likes of Mr. Ruth himself.

I personally have two very distinct sets of memories from visiting the stadium which reflect different stages in my life, as well as the two distinct faces of the stadium itself. The first set comes from when my Dad would take us to a game, arriving by car from our suburban home without ever having to really set foot in the Bronx proper. As one approached the stadium one would catch different glimpses of the hulking mass while navigating a vertiginous network of ramps and fly-overs. From this perspective it appeared more part of Robert Moses’ infrastructure of roads, bridges, and airports than a building wedged within the urban grid.

 The second set of memories is from years later while living in NY, arriving to the stadium via subway. Once the 4 train enters the Bronx it emerges from underground, and if one paid attention you could catch a glimpse into the stadium while cruising by. Once at the station you would navigate down through the intricate cage-like structures of the elevated tracks, emerging into the shadowed streets which revealed mediated views of the stadium behind. From this approach the stadium had a more gritty aspect, and one which makes it feel authentically part of old New York.

I can’t say which ‘side’ of the stadium has more overall resonance, but I think it’s safe to say that any building of such size warrants sufficient scope to operate on at least two distinctly different levels. No matter which way you arrived at the stadium, once you entered inside and caught a glimpse of the field, or heard the roar of the fans you immediately shared in the unique experience of entering this place with more history than most baseball stadiums combined.

For a few years following the late 90’s the Yankees have been known as the Evil Empire, a dominating force backed by an unrivalled payroll and despised by millions of non NY cap wearing baseball fans. In an era where American cultural, military and now economic force have been subject to worldwide suspicion, being a Yankee fan has prepared me well for living abroad. Especially at a time when we have been losing foothold on the world stage, similarly the Yankee franchise seems to have suffered upsets which showed it required some new direction and clarification of motivating principles. The closing of the doors of the old stadium might very well signify an end of an era. But without a doubt the magic of the old stadium was a powerful one, and one which established a legacy which will insure even greater achievements in the future.

Link to the article
A visitor admires an 8m model of the Sydney Olympic Stadium rescaled to seat 1million spectators at an art show in the city.