Category Archives: Art & Design

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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Still lifes by Ben Nicholson

Architectural Education, Art & Design, Painting, Travel

Still lifes by Ben Nicholson. Recently, I was delighted to rediscover the British artist Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) whose paintings I had so much admired while studying architecture. For some reason, I lost touch with his oeuvre despite my growing interest in the art of painting, especially the still life genre that I so much cherish. There are two reasons for my renewed interest in the still lives by Ben Nicholson. 

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Cities and memory

Architectural Education, Architecture, Art & Design, Travel, Urbanism

At the age of five I moved to Vienna, Austria—the heart of the Austro-Hungarian political, economic, and cultural Empire—and ever since then, I have been fascinated by urban environments.  Simply stated, the bigger the better, although that doesn’t capture the complexities that I have come to enjoy when living in or visiting metropolises around the world.

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Raimund Abraham

Architectural Education, Art & Design,

Prior to talking about Raimund Abraham, let me set the context. During my year abroad at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (I.A.U.S) in New York City—an inspirational time studying under Diana Agrest, Peter Eisenman, Mario Gandelsonas, George Ranalli, and Anthony Vidler—the city became a natural extension of my academic interests and, of course, a palimpsest to discover and experience first-hand what it meant to be at the center of the world.  During the 1980s, the Big Apple was a city in deep transition, and living there was nothing less than crazy, particularly relative to the tameness of my home country Switzerland.

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Memories of The New York Sunday Times

Art & Design

Memories of The New York Sunday Times. There is something rewarding about the world wide web (www), it is instantaneous and research resourcing can be done in the snap-of-a-finger from the comfort of any prosthetic digital device. Fondly called in the early 1990s, the World-Wide Wait (as the new superhighway of cyberspace), I remember when searching was nicknamed “surfing,” to be rapidly replaced by to Google or googling as in “to use Google, the internet search engine, to find information on a person or thing . . .”

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Hubert Robert: Painting as a source of knowledge

Art & Design, Painting, Travel, Urbanism

Hubert Robert: Painting as a source of knowledge. I will admit that my passion for painting is equal to my passion for architecture, although I have practiced and taught architecture for many years and, for fear of embarrassment, never taken my personal attempts in the art of painting seriously. During my own architectural studies, a faculty member who was also a graphic artist, introduced me to the foundation of the science of color. She enticed me to learn how the subjectivity of color could trigger sensations; this would become the source of a lifelong astonishment and appreciation of color and painting.

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Door Locks in Corripo, Switzerland

Art & Design, Travel

Door Locks in Corripo, Switzerland. North of the Ticinese city of Locarno, Switzerland, high up in the Verzasca valley, is a picturesque 13thcentury vernacular village called Corippo. It seems to be built at the end of the world (the first official access road was only constructed in 1883), and, while not much has changed over the past centuries, it is a must to visit. With only 12 inhabitants in 2018, it is the smallest municipality in Switzerland, however, it is better known for its use of stone. Throughout the village, paved granite paths, granite walls, granite stairs, and steep slate roofs create a visual harmony that is both striking and overwhelming.

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