Category Archives: Architecture

Towards a new studio environment

Architecture, Art & Design
detail of the drafting board room where the titanic was conceived

Context

Towards a new studio environment. I imagine that sooner or later the current studio environment where architecture students work mostly—or even exclusively—at their desks will become obsolete. Over recent decades, architecture schools have made a conscious effort to provide students with desks as part of their architecture design studios (belonging to the student for the semester) that are generous in scale and accommodate activities ranging from a response to program briefs and desk crits to conducting digital research, completing homework, viewing videos, listening to music and podcasts, making models, and occasionally enjoying a quick and often not so healthy snack. 

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The nature of IDEAS

Architectural Education, Architecture

I believe that there is always the need, a desperate need, for a world inspired by ideas. The Covid-19 pandemic interrupted many of our dreams, and while long overdue attention to pervasive societal inequalities has finally taken center stage, I fear that ideas, modest or radical in their outreach, are desperately missing in our daily discourse. 

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Inventing versus re-inventing

Architectural Education, Architecture, Travel

Inventing versus re-inventing. In past blogs, I stated that my academic and professional interest favors re-invention over invention. Working in the creative field of architecture surrounded by colleagues and students who thrive on furthering their art form, I always find it curious when reviewing student work, how many of them claim to invent a site strategy, to organize domesticity, or state a position in architecture that wants to be new.

“The distinguishing feature of great beauty is that it should surprise to an indifferent degree, which continuing, and then augmenting, is finally changed to wonder and admiration.”

                                             Montesquieu (1689-1755)

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Simone Martini: three principles of settlement

Architecture, Painting, Travel, Urbanism

Beyond the sublime postcard-like views of Switzerland, there are few European landscapes that have moved me more than those I have encountered while traveling in Italy. One of the most scenic and memorable parts of the Italian countryside is located in the north east, a region called the Veneto, which spans the medium-sized cities of Vicenza, Verona, and Padova, ending with Venice.

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Questions of the moment

Architectural Education, Architecture

Questions of the moment. During two long years struggling to find meaning while living with the Covid-19 pandemic, so much happened beyond confinement, social distancing, washing one’s hands, and wearing masks. While we lived in a homebound microcosm, we were simultaneously made aware of the very same problem striking across the globe, and of the inequality of our ability to respond to the crisis.

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The idea of the enfilade

Architectural Education, Architecture

Both the practice and the teaching of architecture have led me to appreciate the idea of type; type as in building type (e.g. circular temple such as the Pantheon in Rome) or enfilade as space type. However, I will admit that this was not always the case. As a student at the EPF-Lausanne, I abhorred any thought about designing architecture that had anything to do with the idea of type. This was for two reasons. 

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Why Model Sketching, Part 4

Architectural Education, Architecture

Model sketching, Part 4. After rereading my blog Architectural Education: A question of section. Part 2, I located drawings of that undergraduate project, as well as a collaborative sketch between one of the students and myself created during a desk critique. The three drawings (Image 1, below) show a progression by the student following my suggestion to focus on a detail, which pushed the project forward with more precision and clarity. 

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Carlo Scarpa Gavina Showroom in Bologna, Part 2

Architectural Education, Architecture, Travel
Façade (collection of architect Bill Blanski FAIA)

Carlo Scarpa Gavina Showroom in Bologna, Part 2. When I wrote my initial three blogs (1, 2, 3) on the work of Italian architect Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978), in the back of my mind I had planned a sequel to the earlier Gavina Showroom blog which would analyze how its façade was conceived and erected. The topic might seem obvious or redundant since Scarpa’s oeuvre has been studied from so many perspectives.

“The material, detail and structure of a building is an absolute condition. Architecture’s potential is to deliver authentic meanings in what we see, touch and smell; the tectonic is ultimately central to what we feel…”
Steven Holl  

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