Doing and Knowing. Usually the task at hand is trivial. While working, the banality of the task is quickly overcome and turns into a necessity of a spiritual nature: the need to build a thought. Making a project means indulging in the pleasure of constructing a thought.
Livio Vacchini
Capolavori, 2006[1]
Monthly Archives: August 2020
PROGRAM, function, and value of usage, Part 2
PROGRAM, function, and value of usage, Part 2. I realized in my early twenties—following a discussion with professor Raimund Abraham during my studies at Cooper Union—that to be happy, I needed to accept that my life was going to be that of a nomad; thus my unconditional need to travel. Since then, traveling is to push myself into a vulnerable position intellectually in order to explore and understand unknown cultures both near and far. As home became the place where I temporarily live, I tended to seek through my adventures transient comfort that translates into discovering hotels that serve as a microcosm of well-being.
Representing space, and the experiencing of space, Part 1
Representing space, and the experiencing of space, Part 1. Concepts, and theories of space (i.e., presenting and representing) and their role in place making, have been abundantly debated among philosophers, scholars, architects, and educators. From Kant to Hegel, from Giedion to Zevi, from Hejduk to Slutzky to name but a few, ontological, epistemological, and existential questions of what constitutes space, has given us (educators) much to think about, especially as we are trusted to impart fundamental notions of space, and more importantly architectural space, to students.
Carlo Scarpa and detailing
Some time ago, a friend of mine mentioned an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine on the work of Italian architect Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978). Her suggestion came at an auspicious moment as I was completing a second blog on the Venetian architect. Reading the article, the first paragraphs filled me with fond memories of visiting the featured apartment (Venice, 1962-63) that Scarpa had designed for his attorney Luigi Scatturin.