People’s Park Complex in Singapore-Part 3. Re-invention is what has always interested me professionally and as a teacher of architecture. Perhaps seen through a conceptual lens, the sketch below shows the simple yet straightforward transposing of a colonial morphology into a new modernist ideal of the 1970’s urban renewal program.
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People’s Park Complex in Singapore, Part 1. There are some buildings that at first do not strike you. In fact, their demeanor reflects your preconception of what is good or bad architecture—an attitude that is far too often spontaneous and not rational enough to constitute a meaningful critique. For me, this was my dislike of the People’s Park Complex in Singapore.
“…a brutal high-rise slab on a brutal podium,” that is “in fact a condensed version of a Chinese downtown, a three-dimensional market based on the cellular matrix of Chinese shopping —a modern-movement Chinatown.”
Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau, S,M,L,XL
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The People’s Park Complex in Singapore, Part 2, (called the Grande Dame of modern Chinatown or an Emblem of Asian Modernism) was part of the experimental architectural megastructures described by architectural historian, Reyner Banham and was built in two stages.
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After investigating the historical origins of the Speicherstadt (blog) and its use of the neo-Gothic style I delved into how they functioned with an eye toward the future.
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“The distinguishing feature of great beauty is that first it should surprise to an indifferent degree, which, continuing and then augmenting, is finally changed to wonder and admiration.”
Montesquieu
Speicherstadt in Hamburg. Part 1. For reasons that I have yet to rationally pin down, I have, during my numerous travels to Germany, ignored the city of Hamburg. Other cities, such as Berlin and Leipzig (where my father had lived and studied), Cologne, Dessau, Frankfurt, Munich, and Weimar, along with the towns along the famous Rhine Valley, have frequently been part of my travels for both pleasure and work. Each of these visits arose from my interest in architecture, history, and culture, and, I will admit, have been slowly checked-off of an endless ambitious list of places that I wish to learn more about. Perhaps selfishly, I am trying to create my own set of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, which of course, will never happen.
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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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Segovia, Spain. I remember arriving on a sunny mid-November morning at the outskirts of the town of Segovia, Spain, and seeing for the first time the magnificent Roman aqueduct there. The warm winter light bathed the imposing arches, accentuating the majestic masculine stone features (Image 1 below). The structure serves as a symbolic gateway to the old medieval city to the north, and the gridded Roman encampment to the south, with the Cardo and Decumanus arteries that define any Roman military settlement.
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Final architecture presentation drawings. In past blogs, I have emphasized the importance of sketching as integrative design process. While these learned skills never fail to assist a student’s ability to investigative their project, this blog emphasizes the other end of the spectrum; namely the need to create a successful final presentation.
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