Foster's New World ~ Architecting Slum Solutions

The latest Economist Intelligent Life issue includes a piece by J.M. Ledgard on architect Norman Foster's New World which includes interesting prospective slum solutions...

"In particular, the challenge for Foster is Africa. [...] Africa's population will double to 2 billion before 2050. Its urban population will more than quadruple. [...] I pressed him on the question of a new model of city for Africa, necessarily poor, without an industrial base, but youthful, vital, playful and verdant. "It is absolutely essential", he said, "to get that balance of greenery, vegetation, animals, space, silence, light and dark. We only appreciate urbanity when we have the opportunity to experience the opposite. Of course, if one thinks of wilderness, nature, safaris and biodiversity one thinks of Africa." He remains a firm believer in the transformative and lasting power of huge projects. [...] He is adamant that cities dependent on the car will fail. Rising fuel prices make this inevitable, he argues, as does the sprawl of the car-driven city. [...] What is needed in African slums", Foster ventures, "is the industrialisation of units that provide the sanitation, kitchens, energy-harvesting, run-off of rainwater, and a proper infrastructure of drains and sewers. That would be transformational, but that's a very different approach to the design-profession response to wipe it clean and superimpose another order, which completely disregards the fact that, notwithstanding the horrific deprivation, there is an underlying social order and an organic response to needs." [...] the cause of African future cities need not be philanthropy. There is plenty of money to be made from squatters. Most of the economic growth in the world in the coming years will be from the poorest bits of cities in the poorest countries. [...] instead of thinking as in the past that you have one authority talking about pylons, another rail, another roads, why not bring those together with tremendous economy and elegance? In a way, the Victorian tradition had the courage to imagine that. High-speed rail is still operating on the track Stephenson created for the Rocket. Olmsted laid out Central Park at the time when people were herding sheep, horses and carts. Now, bringing back a pedestrian-friendly experience, taking away the dependence on gasoline, why drive when you could walk, design with an understanding that these are very scarce commodities -- Africa has that opportunity."

Bold, but let's see if and how his Masdar City lives up to grandiose promises first.

Iconoclastic Swoopiness ~ Gehry's Architorture...

Delightful piece in the WSJ by Joe Queenan on An Architect's Blueprint for Overexposure about Frank Gehry and his artrocities, here quoting an anonymous philanthropist and art aficionado...

"Don't get me wrong, I like iconoclastic, swoopy structures that look like bashed-in sardine cans as much as the next guy," says the philanthropist, who wishes to remain nameless for fear of enraging close friends in the art world. "I like Czech dance halls that look like a 747 plowed right into the façade as much as anybody. I bow to no man in my admiration for an architect who can design an art museum that looks like a intergalactic recycling center."

Indeed.

New York by Gehry ~ Surprisingly Appealing...

While I think most of Frank Gehry's designs are fugly architorture -- and MIT's Stata Center is an unmitigated fubar artrocity -- I'm willing to admit his New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce is surprisingly appealing...

"At 870 feet tall, New York by Gehry is the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere and a singular addition to the iconic Manhattan skyline."

Cynic that I am, I suspect this has more to do with Ratner's construction discipline than FG's "lessons-learned" as a starchitect.

Carchitecture ~ Stunning Space in the Vital City!?

Hilarious to see Michael Barbaro's piece in the NYTimes, A Miami Beach Event Space. Parking Space, Too about carchitecture...

"...here in Miami Beach, whose aesthetic is equal parts bulging biceps and fluorescent pink, bridal couples, bar mitzvah boys and charity-event hosts are flocking to what seems like the unimaginable marriage of high-end architecture and car storage: a $65 million parking garage in the center of the city. They are clamoring to use it for wine tastings, dinner parties and even yoga classes. Or taking self-guided tours, snapping photographs and, at times, just gawking. Created by a colorful Miami developer and a world-renowned architecture firm, it appears to be an entirely new form: a piece of carchitecture that resembles a gigantic loft apartment, with exaggerated ceiling heights, wide-open 360-degree views and no exterior walls."

Aesthetic or artrocity? You decide;-)

Photonic Fetus ~ MIT's Latest Fugly Artrocity...

Why does MIT have so much architorture and artrocity on campus? Witness here our latest aesthetic abortion, the fugly Photonic Fetus...

Architorture Be Gone ~ Cal Poly Abandons Crap

Lawrence Biemiller writes in the Chronicle that Cal Poly Pomona will take the courageous move of abandoning crap architorture... The so-called "landmark" is Antoine Predock's 1993 Classroom Laboratory Administration Building which is so bad it apparently...

"...taxed operational budgets and personnel due to a number of construction flaws and mechanical-system failures. [...] Even after a major renovation, the CLA would remain difficult to navigate, waste internal space, be energy inefficient and subject to future mitigation issues."

MIT has its own unfortunate share of artrocities, including the disasterous Stata Center by incompetent starchitect Frank Gehry -- MIT had to sue for damages and repairs -- the unlivable Simmons Hall dormitory by Steven Holl and even more recent boondoggles such as the new Media Lab by Maki and the new Sloan building, both of which are tragically flawed. Maybe they too will be demolished in due time. Just like this other "Landmark"...

The MIT Titanic ~ Frank Gehry's Artrocity...

Even Doonesbury digs at Frank Gehry's artrocity @ MIT... ...a building so misguided, so over-budget, so poorly designed that MIT chose to sue the architect for incompetence.