National Museum in Singapore, Part 1. Over the past decades, art museums have outgrown their spatial footprint; be it an 18th or 19th century heritage facility or a contemporary addition. I mention these centuries, as during that period major modern museums were founded.
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Hong Kong: the history of Central Market. Since ancient times, public markets—coined mercatus in Latin, which means trading, dealing or buying, as well as the physical place where those activities occur—have served as the identity and social lifeline for countless cities and towns. Food markets in particular have played a significant role as community-gathering places.
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Thoughts on architectural education. Part 2. Architectural schools have long been a vibrant place for innovative ideas and radical change. Today, at a time when contemporary modes of thinking are challenging the idea of change itself, architectural educators are discerning the outline of the future architect’s mind: one like ours, yet profoundly different, and not yet clearly defined.
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Chipperfield’s Kunsthaus in Zurich. During a visit to the latest addition to the Kunsthaus in Zürich, Switzerland—an extension that opened October 2021 more than doubling the museum’s exhibition space and making it the largest cultural institution in Switzerland—I was first and foremost enthralled by the magnitude of the art collection.
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What gets us safely up or down a staircase is a matter of law and engineering, the architectural uses of the staircase are a different issue altogether and the one cannot be replaced by the other—both are necessary. [1]
How to design a stair. Even though I have taught architecture students for over three decades, I still enjoy presenting them with this task. Not simply because the project brief calls for a building with several stories, but because stairs are never easy to design, especially for students, who need to first understand basic principles in order to make a stair comfortable AND to code. Designing prerequisite fundamentals (the stair) seems a natural way to engage students in a creative endeavor that is deeply anchored in pragmatism.
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To design a project, Part 2. I have always liked to draw and more importantly, sketch conceptually. I was trained to think visually, and for me there is no better way to convey ideas than by drawing; from conceptual thinking to plan development.
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To design a project. Part 1. When teaching—at least where I stand today in my academic career—I think of countless blogs that I should write about architectural education. This is particularly true given that year after year, I see students struggle with similar topics.
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Giuseppe Terragni, Casa Rustici. After visiting the Casa Lavezzari, followed by a delectable apricot-filled croissant and Italian espresso at a local Bar-Tabacchi (coffee bar that sells tobacco and stamps in addition to drinks of all sorts), I located a nearby metro entrance and rode to the Domodossola station in the western part of Milan.
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Giuseppe Terragni, Casa Lavezzari. I feel conversant with key projects of Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni (1904-1943), particularly those built in Como; a provincial city on Lake Como just an hour north by train from Milan. The Casa del Fascio (1932), Sant’Elia nursery (1937), Novocomum (1929), and the Casa Giuliani-Frigerio (1939)—the latter two being apartment projects—are emblematic of Terragni’s oeuvre and continue to be observed, researched, and used since his early death at the age of thirty-nine.
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An Architecture travel abroad program (i.e., field trips), historically coined the Grand Tour, were established in the 17th century and tailored to British aristocrats in pursuit of refining their liberal arts education through a visit to continental Europe. For students tutored under a mentor, favored destinations such as Italy and Greece introduced the Classical world of antiquity to those who were expected to be leaders of their country, especially in that time of the beginning of “greater political or economic cooperation among states and nations.”
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