Provocative Architecture?

In "Little Frank and his Carp", a 2001 video of a performance by artist Andrea Fraser, architecture, replete with its institutional frame, becomes a stimulus for masturbation. Is this architecture at its most provocative? No, unless this was part of the architect's design intention; something which only Frank Gehry can tell us for sure. Architecture can't take all the credit here: it takes two to tango.

NO a la LSP

#NOalaLSP

Spanish architecture is respected the world over, if the number of exhibitions, publications, Gaudí fans, and archi-tourists who visit this country are any indication. Yet the current Spanish government wants to de-professionalize professions such as architecture with its anteproyecto de Ley de Servicios Profesionales. If this law were to be passed, then an engineer would be allowed to design housing, schools, hospitals or museums.

The reason Spanish architecture is so respected is because its professionals are educated very rigorously; much more rigorously than in most other countries. An architectural thesis, or proyecto de fin de carrera, is not only comprised of a design and a theoretical treatise, but also a complete set of contract documents, i.e. a set of working drawings, structural calculations, details, specifications, etc. As a result, a graduate from a Spanish architecture school is competent in the art and science of building, and can be entrusted with a high degree of public responsibility. Given the complexity and density of Spanish cities, that is a good thing; not only for aesthetic reasons, but also for reasons of public safety, health and livability. We are what we build.

I have nothing against engineers. The only airplane I will set foot in is one designed by an engineer. But by the same token, I don't want my child attending a school designed by an engineer. There are good reasons for specialists in a technologically complex society. Why the current government of Spain wants to change this is beyond any comprehension whatsoever. The argument is that it will make Spanish professionals "more competitive". But judging by the record of Spanish architects who have won international architectural competitions, this argument is ridiculous. C'mon: what's the real reason?

Architects' Struggle

Today, I ran into a small protest: a squadron (herd? platoon? pack?) of young architects protesting dismal working conditions. Other than the obvious questions of 1. why the character emitting the speech bubble is a duck, and 2. what's with the set squares?, it was encouraging to see that young architects have finally decided to organize, and to do so with some humor and good cheer despite the dismal outlook here.

Architecture is one of the hardest and most rigorous fields of study in Spain, and to have to go through six years of sleep deprivation and humiliation--while the business students seem to be permanently drunk--only to work for peanuts upon graduation--whereas the drunken business graduates soon, for the most part, go on to make a killing--is not exactly the definition of a meritocracy. If that's not living proof of the old adage "it's not what you know, but who you know", then I don't know what is.

The Vancouver Model versus El Modelo Barcelona: Trevor Boddy talks, Francesc Muñoz responds.

The Canadian port city of Vancouver has entered centre stage of the global debate about future directions for cities in the sustainability era. Impressed with how increased residential density is used to create developer-funded public amenities there, American architects and urbanists first started speaking a decade ago of “Vancouverizing” their downtowns to make them more lively, sustainable and amenable.

The illustrated lecture separates the hype from the reality of the new Vancouver, also subject of his exhibition “Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City” shown at the London Festival of Architecture Boddy will visually introduce his city which frames high residential density with a ring of raw nature, arguing that Vancouver is but the latest of a string of “Portal Cities” that began with Hong Kong , then continued with Miami, Dubai, Panama City and arguably, post-industrial Rotterdam. These are service sector cities that verge on resorts, enclaves of connection and distraction, breaking all the rules of conventional city-building.

HybridCity

Boddy sees one of Vancouver’s most positive developments being what he has named “HybridCity” never-before seen combinations of building functions, laminates of social classes, fusions of Asian and European notions of city-building, and so on. The Vancouver critic asserts “The traditional European city, the Modernist separation of urban functions, the nostalgic vision of the American New Urbanists, and the hyper-modernity of Koolhaas’ celebration of scale, speed and size for its own sake have all failed as strategies for contemporary city-building. The astringent singularity of all these is the problem-if we did not rely on hybrids, we would all be eating potatoes the size of cherries, so with cities” He continues “Vancouver’s hybrids of Asia and Europe, its integration of social classes, its radical laminations of building function all point to a positive direction for the sustainable city, but one that is not without its own problems.”

Tuesday 9 April 19:30 AAAB Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 694

A Whimsical Water Tower in...Barcelona?

I spotted this fantastic water tower the other day while walking around Poble Nou, Barcelona's industrial graveyard. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (authors of a major public sculpture in this city) could not have done a better job than this. I mean, you just gotta love that corrugation detail! Judging by the looks, it seems to be a relic from a defunct cardboard box manufacturer whose logo was the Star of David, no less.

Having grown up in Montreal, I was instantly reminded of that city's famous Guaranteed Pure Milk Company water tower. But then North American cities are places one would expect to find these kinds of quirky pop-constructions (the Orange Julius, a chain of roadside juice stands in the form an orange, is Montreal's answer to a Las Vegas duck). Barcelona, on the other hand, is not the first place that comes to mind when it comes to NON-pedigreed architectural whimsy, so it is very endearing indeed to stumble across something like this in my adopted hometown.

Fashion Victim

Plastic green wall at a fashion boutique on La Rambla dels Estudis.

You know green walls have become trendy when a major fashion label puts one up that's made of plastic. Kinda defeats the very point of a green wall, doesn't it? Silly me. I thought green walls were invented so that carbon dioxide-depleting vegetation could be cultivated in places otherwise impossible, like dense urban centers (which just so happen to produce far more CO2 than they can regenerate). But it looks like green walls have now become signage instead. Plastic signage, to boot.

It just goes to show the ease with which an effort designed with the best of environmental intentions can end up becoming an environmental problem in the end, thanks to its very fashionableness; which is to say, in our media-age, thanks to its own "success". Will we now see Made-in-China green-walls at shopping malls everywhere? I mean, the plastic ones don't need expensive irrigation systems or maintenance, and they still pull in the suckers. Oops, I meant to say customers.

Next time someone invents something that improves the environment, please don't publicize it, OK?

Construction as Spectacle: Mercat dels Encants

The construction of the new Mercat dels Encants / Fira de Bellcaire (Barcelona's flea market), by b720 Arquitectos, is not only spectacular but also quite unusual, as it is being built completely without scaffolding. Large sections of the building are first fabricated on the ground before being elevated and fastened into place, a process similar to the way the nearby MediaTIC building by Cloud 9 was erected. However, there is a marked difference here: the columns along which the market's roof segments slide up are incredibly slender, looking as though they might collapse at any moment under the loads they support. In the end, it is of course the very roof structure that will finally provide lateral stability to the building. But until that moment, this site remains an unnerving sight.

Was it Frank Gehry who famously said once that buildings are generally more interesting under construction than finished? It will be interesting to see if that holds true in the case of this building.