Video: A Manifesto of looseness by Kazys Varnelis

It is no longer a secret for many of us: our cities are obsolete. At least, the model of the 20th century appears to be incapable of adapting to new challenges. For many, cities need new urban interfaces more flexible, responsive, capable of problem-addressing. This fact has been mentioned, quoted, and repeated in many blogs — here included — as well as newspapers and other books. As we are shifting from the post-industrial cities into the smart cities, more and more books, projects, discussions and other lectures are growing to either explain the mechanisms of this new model or to highghlits its limits, its complexity. Nonetheless, cities are slowly but surely engaging into this shift: these include Paris, Tokyo, Chicago, Berlin, London, New York, Boston, Dubai, Beijing, Osaka, Hong Kong, Shanghai, among others.
In this video, below, the historian and theorist of city and architecture, Kazys Varnelis goes back to one of many progresses over the 20th Century: urban mobility, precisely car as core element. This lecture is part of the Smart City Expo in Barcelona on December 2nd, 2011.
One aspect of cities of 20th century is vehicle, or more broadly transit. As people left rural areas for the city, mobility became crucial in city planning making private-vehicle ownership mandatory. This is the case of cities like Los Angeles with about 80% of car use. Even in cities with a highly use of urban transports — subways — such as Tokyo, car played, and continues to play an important role in city planning. As cities are growing over hundreds kilometers shifting into megacities, car becomes central, not only for residents of suburbs as well as for residents of center to commute inside/outside, from/to the city.
Yet car is now associated with fast-growing cities, environmental issues, resource scarcity, urban migration, energy issues (oil shortage), pollution, congestion and so on. And the list of issues is very long. While it is difficult to say whether or not this model of transit is obsolete, it, however, raises serious issues of pollution and congestion. Developed cities and developing cities are concerned with these issues with evidence.
This situation will not change soon even if propositions such as walkable communities are growing to become new trends, even if new types of transit will be invented such as electric cars. Indeed, while being downgraded car will still remain the core element of cities. Smart Cities may integrate cars. The invention of electric cars or smart cars are viewed to be the, if not, one of the solutions of the city in the nearing future. Perhaps. But would it be rather time to reconsider current urban interfaces to adapt to these environmental issues? Would it be rather time to pose the question of human technologies that generates failure? Human technologies in association with nature rather than versus nature? (Post-)Industrial cities are an example of failure. Or maybe resilience, which is interconnected with failure, may solve, at least address these complexities. But as a solved problem raises another problem to address, the question to ask is whether or not smart cities are the solution. Perhaps technologies may be a disaster. Perhaps smart mobility may raise a new type of pollution, of congestion. Perhaps not…

Suggested reading: Kazys Varnelis, The Infrastructural City, Actar Editorial, 2008

Anyway, Kazys Varnelis said not to have any specific expertise on this subject. Nevertheless as a historian of city, he posed in this video questions that will be more and more pertinent in regard with the emerging of the city of the 21st century — be it smart or not. These issues include: mobility and new types of transit in the era of post-oil, infrastructure, complexity, environmental protection, energy…
Here is the note that accompanies this video posted in his blog:

My thinking about complexity and the dangers it poses for us has been evolving fast lately and I am convinced that this is some of the most important work I've ever done.

According to Varnelis, the idea of complexity is a form of pollution and congestion. This may be considered as thought-provocative. This is at least what he aimed with this lecture. The best is to watch this video of his lecture below in case you have not watched it yet.



A Manifesto for Looseness from Kazys Varnelis on Vimeo.

Call for Applications: OneLab 2012: Future Cities by Terreform1 and One Lab

These next weeks, Posts will be slow here for many reasons.
Let's start with next week. On March 15th, I am planning to film the opening reception of the exhibition of Paris-based Périphériques Architects, titled 1200C 64P 10R at the Galerie d'Architecture, Paris. At least, I will take pictures of this exhibition. Périphériques Architects is of one of the most interesting French firms of architecture, in my view. I am also thinking of a videocast, as mentioned above, on a subject, a very important subject here in France on dwelling. Anyway I will say more soon as it is still unclear, in a blurry mode.
As for The Architecture Post The Conversation, my request of a conversation is still in a pending mode, so I can't say more for this moment. If so, it may be launched March 23rd or 30th.

For today, a call for applications for the ONE LAB 2012: Future Cities organized by Terreform1.

ONE Lab Summer 2012 on Future Cities will address the emerging discipline of global urbaneering by assembling a wide range of innovators from fields as diverse as, architecture, material science, urban design, biology, civil engineering and media art.

ONE Lab is designed for students who wish to engage with the crossover of design and science. This summer approximately 40 researchers will gather in New York City for 4 weeks of intense creative and scientific exploration. ONE Lab provides a unique opportunity for students to learn from internationally recognized scientists and renown designers and artists: Dr. Janna Levin, Dr. Nina Tandon, Dr. Dickson D. Despommier, Vito Acconci, Natalie Jeremijenko, Marc Forens and a host of TED Fellows.
ONE Lab consists of Design Studio, Future Cities Seminar and Future Cities Workshops. The studio will be offered in two levels - one for professional designers and students enrolled in professional schools or departments of design; one for students and individuals of various experience and background. All workshops are beginner level and no previous knowledge or experience is required.

More: Here.

The Architecture Post The Review second edition featuring Julia van den Hout and Kyle May, editors of CLOG Magazine

Today's edition of The Architecture Post The Review is this time on magazines, specifically on architecture magazines. Indeed, we discuss newborn CLOG Magazine with editors Kyle May and Julia van den Hout.

CLOG Magazine First Issue: BIG, 2011

CLOG Magazine, an architecture print publication is founded in 2011 by five editors: Kyle May, Human Wu, PlayLab Design, Julia van den Hout and Jacob Reidel. CLOG, explores, from multiple viewpoints and through a variety of means a single subject particularly relevant to architecture. Two issues is now released: first issue on BIG, second one on Apple. The third issue is under preparation. It is announced to be on data centers.

CLOG Magazine Second Issue: Apple, 2012

CLOG Magazine is a small format, nice low-key magazine, 5.5 inches wide and 8.5 inches tall based on call for papers. Contributors of these both issues are: for the first issue, Michael Abrahamson, Iwan Baan, Alexandra Lange, Oliver Wainwright, Human Wu, Stephen Melville Ying Zhou, Dan Clark, Janine Bounno, Graffitilab, Kibisi, among others; for the second issue: Kazys Varnelis, Michael Kubo, Kyle May, Julia van den Hout, Marcus Carter, Rachel Berger, Jimenez Lai, Philippine d'Avout d'Auerstaedt, Keith Burns, etc.

CLOG Magazine is available in your favorite bookshop.

The Architecture Post Conversation first edition featuring Gian Maurizio, director of Paris-based La Galerie d'Architecture

Today is the launch of The Architecture Post Conversation.
For this first edition, we visit Paris-based La Galerie d'Architecture to discuss with director and curator Gian Mauro Maurizio. The discussion focuses on architecture and exhibition.
We will also review Jean-Philippe Pargade Architects exhibition, closed since February 25th.

Based in le Marais area, Central Paris, La Galerie d'Architecture is a gallery committed to the advancement of innovative position in architecture and design. La Galerie d'Architecture has been founded in 1999 by two architects, Gian Mauro Maurizio, still director, and Olga Pugliese, who has quit La Galerie in 2005.

Jean-Philippe Pargade Architects Exhibition, La Galerie d'Architecture, Paris. Credit photo:
Annick Labeca/Urban Lab Global Cities

Over a large list of nationally and internationally recognized and emerging architects and designers have shown at La Galerie d'Architecture; these include Jean-Philippe Pargade Architects, Périphériques Architects, Nicolas Michelin Architects, Anne Demians Architects, Jensen Skodvin Architects, Helen & Hard Architects, Jean de Gaustines Architects, OMA, Bernard Tschumi and Manuelle Gautrand, among many others. A single subject: the curator, two subtopics: architecture and exhibition, and Jean-Philippe Pargade Architects exhibition, closed on February 25th.
Next Exhibition will be that of Periphériques Architects started on March 15th.

Tomorrow will be the second edition of The Architecture Post Review featuring Julia van den Hout and Kyle May of Clog Magazine.

* The conversation was initially in French. It then has been translated and dubbed into English.

Today's video: ORDOS 100, a documentary by Ai Weiwei

Ordos 100, a construction project curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei in inner Mongolia, China. The key to this project is to build a community in this part of China.

Ordos, a new city, a prefecture-level city, one of the twelve major subdivisions of inner Mongolia. Ordos's area is 87,000 sq. km (34,000 sq mi) with a population of 1,548,000 for a density of 17.79 pp/sq. km (46.08 pp/sq mi). Its topography is particular in that the region covers the larger part of the Ordos Desert. The urban area remains small. Main elements are hills, high plateaus, sandy desert and plains.

Originally appeared on A Daily Dose of Architecture

Launched in 2008, Ordos 100 is a construction project initiated by a Chinese client, Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd. Curator are Ai Wewei's studio FAKE Design in charge of the masterplan for the 100 parcels of land, and Herzog & de Meuron in charge of the selection of the 100 architects from 27 countries.

Ordos 100. Originally appeared on A Daily Dose of Architecture

2 phases: first phase consisting of developing 28 parcels; Second phase inviting the architects to develop the remaining 72. And each architects was responsible for a 1000-square-meter Villa.
I will not go back to this project as a large number of review have been written on Ordos 100. I suggest to read or re-read in case you just discovered this project: A Daily Dose of Architecture.

These selected architects were, at least for many of them, from the United States. Some, nonetheless, are from Switzerland, Israel, South Africa, Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, Chile. These architects are 'talented', to paraphrase Alejandro Aravena one of the architects in the video: from MOS, Keller Easterling, Toshiko Mori, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss/Normal Architecture Office, to Preston Scott Cohen, Lyn Rice Architects, Slade Architecture, Sou Fujimoto Architects, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Alejandro Aravena, F451 Arquitectura, Iwamoto Scott, among many others.

Below is a documentary directed by one of the curators, as mentioned above, Ai Weiwei/FAKE Design, showing three site visits made by the archictects from these '27 countries'. You have already watched this video on different platforms but I could not help but post here, too.

Ai Weiwei as usual did not make any concessions showing fully the articulation of this Ordos 100 Architects projects, including the participants' concern, misunderstanding about the investor's project, the organizers' misunderstanding of the architects' concerns, the issue of money, and so on. This video poses the question of a country that tends to enter in a sort of competition engaging in a frenetic urbanization of the totality of its very large-scale territory. And once again urbanization is used as an economical instrument. As China is becoming richer and richer, some clients want their own cities, their own communities paying architects, be they local or international, be they internationally recognised or emerging. Others want to contribute to the rapid economic growth, and urban migration developing large-scale projects for dwelling these new urban candidates. Others again, consider cities as the solution for a better living condition of the population… Yet most of these investors surprisingly avoid the crucial question: for whom are they building? Quoting Cedric Price, a city that is not built for its citizens is a dead city. This is, in my view, what this documentary partly shows: uncomplete, broken, or while completed, dead cities, cities that ignore completely their residents.
If so, let me put the question another way: what Ai Weiwei's documentary attempts to emphasize is to inviting China to shift from 'what cities for China?' into 'how to build human-scale cities?' Cities that are made for people to live in, that respond to people's specific needs. And of course I sum up.

And, unsurprisingly, we finally learned that Ordos 100, this ambitious, probably one of the craziest projects suggested by an ambitious investor, remains… uncomplete, namely a ghost community, or 'broken' community.

If you have not watched this video yet, I suggest to watch from the beginning since it is a very interesting documentary, particularly rare, on building in China, on China's urbanization, urban migration and rapid economic growth.



Credit video: Ai Weiwei. Initially posted on Youtube by iffrotterdam

Call for Submission: Adhocracy curated by Domus Editor Joseph Grima

Before sharing this announcement, I am hardly working on two audio editings Indeed, the second edition of The Architecture Post The Review will be launched on March 3rd, 2012. Two of CLOG Magazine editors, Julia van Hout and Kyle May, joined me to discuss this newborn magazine.
Friday 2nd March 2012 will be the launch of The Architecture Post Conversation which aim is to discuss with architects, editors, urban planners, engineers, curators, in few words, all the actors that help shape our urban as well as rural lives on a single topic. This will also be the opportunity to discover their work in case you don't know but I am sure this is not the case.
For the first edition, Gian Maurizio, director and curator of La Galerie d'Architecture, Paris as well as architect, will talk over the notion of exhibition in the architectural field, and will go back at Paris-based Jean-Philipe Pargade Architects solo exhibition that just closed its doors.
By the way, on March 15th, 2012: if some of you are in Paris or are planning to go to Paris, save this precious date: Paris-based Périphériques Architects will be on solo show at La Galerie d'Architecture. More soon.
Last important point: although repeating myself, for the moment, the two podcasts will be posted on Urban Lab Global Cities.

This aside, now a call for submission for a project curated by Domus Editor Joseph Grima for the Istanbul Design Biennial: Adhocracy.

Adhocracy is a project curated by Joseph Grima, editor-in-chief of Domus. This project is one of the two exhibitions comprised in the 1st edition of the Istanbul Design Biennial.

Since its inception as a discipline of industrialisation and modernity, design has come to influence — or even define — almost every facet of contemporary existence. From cities to typefaces via architecture, vehicles, objects, interfaces, and infrastructural systems, acts of design permeate our lives almost to the point of saturation. Design has become so ubiquitous as to have almost become invisible, subsumed into everyday life to point we forget it is also inevitably a political activity with far-reaching social implications. Today it stands at one of the most significant crossroads in its brief and conflicted history.

With the advent of the network as the dominant mode of social and cultural organisation, a fundamental shift is to taking place. Design is no longer the domain of a select few creating products of consumption for themany according to the top-down model of Fordist industrialism. It is evolving beyond its definition as the production of immutable objects for mass markets, its geogaphical center shifting away from the West. The convergence of instantaneously shared knowledge, the birth of countless transnational networks, new technologies of production, and a collective impetus towards culture of collaboration instead of competition suggest a new economic and political interpretation of the act of designing.

This new paradigm reveals an incipient role for design as an act of shaping society by enabling self-organisation, producing platforms of exchange, and empowering networks of grass-roots production. The emergence of the open-source movement; the arrival of affordable micro-manufacturing technologies; the explosion of hacker and maker culture; the democratisation of technology through projects like Arduino and participatory platforms such as Kickstarter — all point to an ideological shit away from established conventions of consumerism and the inception of a new understanding of design's role within society, one in which end-users are no longer merely passive consumers but active agents. For the first time, the prospect exists of an equivalency of individuals, and in response, established structures of power are quickly evolving. In many ways, design is now the theatre of a fast-moving conflict over society's future, and the search for a new language of design is the struggle for the establishment of a new, networked commons.

Welcome to the age of Adhocracy. As the opposite of bureaucracy, adhocracy cuts across accepted conventions and power structures to capture opportunities, self-organise and develop new and unexpected methodologies of production. It inhabits the horizontal, rhizomatic realsm of the network, in which innovation — resourceful, subversive, anti-dogmatic, spontaneous — can come from anywhere.
Adhocracy: Call for submissions

• We are looking for projects that empower others to design, self-organise, and collaborate.

• We are looking for projects that destabilise the traditional, balanced, triangular relationship between "designer", "producer" and "consumer".

• We are looking for projects that highlight the political implications of design as a practice.

• We are looking for projects that experiment with innovative methodologies of manufacturing and production.

• We are looking for projects that use design as a form of political activism.

• We are looking for projects that are born from or operate through networks.

• We are looking for projects that propose unorthodox economic models.

• We are looking for projects that push the boundaries of the open-source movement and its implications for everyday life.

• We are looking for projects that combine traditional techniques and know-how with new tools and technologies.

• We are looking for projects that have no author, or too many authors to be counted

• We are looking for projects that are anti-dogmatic.

• We are looking for projects that adapt existing designs to new uses.

• We are looking for projects that challenge the accepted definitions of design.

For submission, registration, and other important information: Here.
The deadline for submissions for the two exhibitions is 2 June 2012.

Today's Video: The Arsenal of Exclusion-Inclusion by Interboro Partners

The Arsenal of Exclusion/Inclusion, a video posted by Interboro Partners to announce the forthcoming book, with same title: The Arsenal of Exclusion/Inclusion.
As Interboro Partners says:

50 leading experts provide tools for analysing how the open city is made and unmade The Arsenal of Exclusion/Inclusion is a book about 101 "weapons" that architects, planners, policy-makers, ddevelopers, real estate brokers, com-munity activists and other urban agents use to restrict, or promote access to the space of the city.

As for the book, it will be out on March 2012.

Suggested essay: Excavating Lefebvre: The Right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant | Mark Purcell


The Arsenal of Exclusion/Inclusion from WebMaster ABPro on Vimeo.

Today's video: Megalomania, an unfinished city by Jonathan Gales

As I am working on another broadcast project that will focus on all these actors, contributors who work with architects and urban planners, I am listing names and activities. Earlier today I shared Factory Fifteen's video GAMMAR that the studio realized in association with Unknown Fields (I presented the video in the previous post). One of the founders of this studio Factory Fifteen, Jonathan Gales, has his personal website.

Megalomania - Video still, © Jonathan Gales

Megalomania, a city in total construction, a built environment explored as a labyrinth of architecture based upon a certaine dose of speculations, indeterminations.

Megalomania — Video still, © Jonathan Gales

This city is either unfinished, incomplete or broken. As Jonathan Gales says, Megalomania is a response to the state of infrastructure and capital, evolving the appearance of progress into the sublime.

Megalomania — Video still, © Jonathan Gales

The influence of science-fiction and/or video games is plausible in this video.

Megalomania — Video still, © Jonathan Gales

As incomplete, no presence of life, only a feeling of angst accentuated by the organic movement sequences, demolition as well as the colors, the textures and the audio design.

Megalomania — Video still, © Jonathan Gales

This film has been shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, a camera that becomes more and more appreciated by video artists and, recently, by some filmmakers. Scenes are first constructed with 3d Studio Max and then rendered with Vray accentuating the fascinating aesthetics of the video. The demolition has been produced using the software Rayfire.

Megalomania — Video still, © Jonathan Gales

From AutoCad to Adobe creative suites including Maya, Vray, 3d Studio Max or Cinema 4D, Architects students become more and more adaptable.

Megalomania — Video still, © Jonathan Gales

 This adaptability may offer new possibilities in city and architecture design and diffusion.

Megalomania — Video still, © Jonathan Gales

Megalomania is from his Masters in Architecture at the Bartlett, UCL.



MEGALOMANIA from Jonathan Gales on Vimeo.

Who is he?
Born in Jersey, Channel Islands, trained in architecture, First Class honours in B.A. from University of Brighton and Distinction in M. Arch from The Bartlett, UCL., Jonathan Gales creates short films and animations concerning architecture, design and speculative scenarios. Jonathan Gales is also one of the founding members of Factory Fifteen.

Todays' video: Gamma by Factory Fifteen with the association of Unknown Fields

Factory Fifteen, a UK-based film and animation studio, led by directors Jonathan Gales, Paul Nicholls, and Kibwe Tavares, just released Gamma, a documentary shot in Chernobyl (Ukraine) and Baikonur (Kazakhstan), in the framework of Unknown Fields 2011, a project led by Unknown Fields, a nomadic studio co-founded by Liam Young and Kate Davies who organized a visiting programm in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Baikonur Cosmodrome, last summer, 2011.
Unknown Fields, as presented by Liam Young and Kate Davies, will set off on an annual expedition to the ends of the earth exploring forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies.
Each year, the studio calls for participation to invite participants to visit a different global cross-section with the aim at mapping the complex and contradictory realities of the present as a site of strange and extraordinary futures.
Last winter (Winter 2011) was a road trip in Alaska with the Division, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. There, a community of climate scientists and Eskimos survey a changing landscape where supercomputers and ancient knowledge meet. Here, you will see the pictures of this road trip.
A trip is scheduled this summer, with the support of AA School, London. This will not be Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but the United States, specifically, a road trip to chronicle a series of extraterrestrial encounters from the borderlands, black sites, military outposts and folkloric landscapes of the United States. Consequently if you have nowhere to go, and nothing to do this year, sign up now to join the division this summer (Monday 20 August - Saturday 1 September 2012).

Suggested magazine: Icon #105, which cover story is "Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone."

And this project is fantastic. So is this video titled Gamma including in this post. Indeed, Gamma depicts a future in which numerous zones of the earth needs to be deradiated after a decade of nuclear war. I warmly recommend the read of The Funambulist/Léopold Lambert's analysis of Gamma on his website where I found the video. It is a short, though, well-analyzed text. According to The Funambulist, this kind of public health operations are achived by private actors, here a company called Gamma which developed a type of roots that would absorb radioactivity.

Suggested article and source: Gamma by Factory Fisteen (in Chernobyl and Baikonur) | The Funambulist


Credit video: GAMMA from Factory Fifteen on Vimeo.

Credit:
Directed by Factory Fifteen in association with Unknown Fields

Martin Ashley Jones
The Unknown  Fields Division 2011
Bryan Allen
Andrea Bagnato
Chris Hatherill
Oliviu Lugojan-Ghenciu
Jack Mama
Clive Vanheerden
Liam Young

Monologue written by Courttia Newland

D.O.P: Jonathan Gales

Concept development:
Chris Lees
Paul Nicholls
Jonathan Gales

Advert: Chris Lees

Advert Voice over: George MacPherson

Sound Design: Tom Hobson

End track: Worriedaboutsatan 'Heart Monitor' — Her.Eyes.Like.Static remix

3D Artists:
Paul Nicholls
Chris Lees
Kibwe Tavares
Jonathan Gales
Matt Townsend

2D Artists:
Paul Nicholls
Chris Lees
Jonathan Gales

SFX Makeup:
Sangeet Prabhaker

VFX:
Paul Nicholls
Jonathan Gales

Filmed in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan with the Unknown Field Division

Competition: 100 Mile House Open Ideas Competition

As I am working on the content of the second edition of the Architecture Post Review, I am particularly busy these days. However a competition for this forthcoming spring: 100 Mile House Open Ideas Competition.

Context & Brief
The Architecture Foundation of BC promotes BIG IDEAS that recognize sustainable design, architectural merit and innovation in order to advance the knowledge and practice of the design of sustainable buildings in British Columbia.
The AFBC invites the participants of this competition to explore, rethink, question and experiment with new ideas that will challenge the concept of the regional house and the way we live.
Historically, most houses were constructed as '100 mile' houses from caves, sod houses, log cabins and stone houses to the First Nations' indigenous cedar houses, tepees and igloos. People worldwide used whatever available materials were at hand to build shelters for themselves and their families. But is this possible in a modern 21st Century city like Vancouver? This competition will challenge all participants to rethink the way we live and select materials, systems and technology that reflect this reality in the world of computers, the internet, Facebook, etc… Participants are encouraged to challenge the logic of the present, formulate new questions, and explore variations that will allow new potentials for living.
Geographically, we have selected the City of Vancouver to be the focus of the competition for the '100 Mile House.' Participants are challenged to design a house to accommodate 4 people with a maximum area of 1200 square feet (111M^2) using only materials and systems made/ manufactured/ recycled within 100 miles of the City of Vancouver. A hypthetical flat, corner site of 33' x 120' (10.0 M x 36.6 M) will be used for the context. All city services (water, sewer, storm drain, natural gas and electricity) are available to the property line should the entrant choose to use them.
Affordability, while important, is NOT the focus of this competition. Competitors are free to propose any alternatives but the concept of the 100 Mile House should equally apply to luxury finishes and products. Being environmentally conscious is not always dictated by cost.
Similarly, zoning and building bylaws of the City of Vancouver are important criteria in reality but again are NOT the focus of the competittion. Competitors are not expected to know the bylaws and building codes of a specific area but general construction practice should be demonstrated. The applicability of the solutions to other jurisdictions will be important regardless of minor variances in building codes. It is hoped that necessity, as the mother of invention, will foster/create prototypes that could be modified and the ideas exported to any geographic area. All submissions should demonstrate the integration of local social, technological, economic and aesthetic sustainability into the final solutions.
This is a global competition. Architects, designers, artists, students and other environmentally conscious creators from around the world are encouraged to submit their ideas.

Registration, fees and information can be found here.