“My type of architecture is about trying to improve living conditions with architecture.”

-- Herman Hertzberger, RIBA Gold Medal winner. (Source)

Empty drink cartons come in useful

By NATALIE HENG

Empty drink cartons can come in useful after all.

BIG ideas often start small, and in the case of Edward Chew, it started with an empty drink carton. Sitting on the couch in his living room one day in February, he was sipping a packet drink, pondering the aftermath of a Chinese New Year visit from the family. >> Read More

Administrator: Ed's work has recently been selected as a finalist in the 2011 Bright Ideas Lighting Design Competition.

"The architect’s role is to fight for a better world, where he can produce an architecture that serves everyone and not just a group of privileged people."

Now approaching his 103rd birthday, Niemeyer continues to practise from his office in Rio de Janeiro

By Cristina Carrillo De Albornoz | From issue 218, November 2010
Published online 6 Dec 10 (Features)

Oscar Niemeyer in his studio (Photo: Harris Terry William-FTWP)

Oscar Niemeyer was born on 15 December, 1907, in Rio de Janeiro. At ten years old he would make shapes in the air with his fingers, prompting his mother to ask: “What are you doing, boy?” He would reply: “I’m drawing.” “I could picture the drawings in the air and correct them,” he remembers. In 1956 he was commissioned to design an entire city—Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil—which brought him huge international acclaim. He was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1988 and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 1989. Now approaching his 103rd birthday, Niemeyer continues to practise from his office opposite Rio’s Copacabana beach, in a circular building that echoes the curves that are emblematic of his architecture. He is currently preparing a book on cathedrals while overseeing the final stages of the Niemeyer Centre (El Centro Cultural Internacional Oscar Niemeyer) in Avilés, Spain.

“Seen as an open-ended activity, drawing is characterized by a line that is always unfolding, always becoming.”

-- Catherine de Zegher (source)

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century
November 21, 2010–February 7, 2011

Julie Mehretu. Rising Down. 2008. Ink and acrylic on canvas, 96 x 144" (243.8 x 365.8 cm). Collection Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, New York. Photo by Tim Thayer. © 2010 Julie Mehretu

MOMA's Statement:

On Line explores the radical transformation of the medium of drawing throughout the twentieth century, a period when numerous artists subjected the traditional concepts of drawing to a critical examination and expanded the medium's definition in relation to gesture and form. In a revolutionary departure from the institutional definition of drawing, and from the reliance on paper as the fundamental support material, artists instead pushed line across the plane into real space, thus questioning the relation between the object of art and the world.

"Beauty is a fact, and it can change with time. Something ugly in the morning can become beautiful in the evening."

-- Will Alsop (source)

Putting Colors Together: An Interview with Will Alsop

For Alsop, it is the act of painting, the state of losing control - its imprecision and intuitiveness - that best define his initial vague intentions - and what ultimately brings him close to the mystery of inventing new architecture.

By Vladimir Belogolovsky
November 30, 2010

Peckham Library, London (2000), by Will Alsop for Alsop Architects (Photo source: ArchNews.com

Color plays a significant role in perceiving architecture as a whole. The effect that buildings produce on us results from the interaction of all of the senses, and the influence of color cannot be considered a mere decorative addition to an architectural work. It was Theo Van Doesburg, the Dutch painter and one of the inventors of neoplasticism, who said: “Color makes visible the spatial effect towards which architecture tends...Color is an expressive material equivalent to other materials like stone, iron, or glass.” One of the most vivid contemporary champions of the use of bold colors in architecture is British architect and artist Will Alsop. He recently invited me to his London studio, where we talked about the role of color in his work.