Discussion // Big Green Machine

A friend of mine sent me a posting today from a politics/culture blog predicting that new "heroic architecture" - the kind that makes careers, awes the public, defines a city, becomes the topic of documentaries, etc. - will eventually spawn from the fledgling (but intensifying) Green movement.

^^^One Bryant Park, NYC (Rendering) by Cook+Fox Architects. First LEED Platinum Skyscraper in the US...first truly heroic Green building?

Discussion // Is there room for religion in Modernism?

I came across some interesting quotes in the local county newspaper this week from a young playwright, Olgethorpe University student Will Carter, who recently won first prize in the Agnes Scott College Writer's Festival. He describes his winning play "Line Please" as "an absurdist comedic critique of modernity," sourcing Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground as his literary inspiration. Carter goes on, "I hate that in the modern world, we have to know everything; we must have a manual for life. I think mystery is a beautiful thing. As a Christian, I believe in a mysterious God, which I think is absolutely fantastic."

School // USC Graduate School of Architecture

I recently shared a course synopsis from my future graduate school with some people from the office...it reads something like this (definitions below):

Lecture: Swarm Intelligence - Scripting Workshop

The Scripting Workshop examined the role of agency within generative design processes. Algorithmic techniques were utilized in the development of a computational methodology grounded in swarm intelligence. Scripting formed the basis for algorithmic models that enabled localized interaction of agents to generate emergent topologies in the design of proto-architectural forms and urban structures. 

Discussion // Pixar: The New Heralds of Modernism?

Film - animation in particular- has long been, forgive the pun, a staging ground for architectural expression since the days of the first silent films. The advantage of practicing architecture through mainstream animation is, especially with the sophistication of current rendering techniques, limitless creativity and imagination without the constraint of a construction budget. Disney is world-famous for taking images from their films and transforming them into reality (theme parks), providing their customers with an architectural experience that today one achieves virtually through 3d visualization technology.

So I was watching Toy Story 3 the other day, and naturally, the geniuses of Pixar (which Disney purchased in 2006) have taken it upon themselves to create a whole new world of design - one that incorporates a ton of iconic imagery from American Modernism. Furthermore, the company hired excellent Pennsylvania-based firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson to design their facilities in California, and the result is a light, airy, and wholly modern studio space that reflects the technical brilliance of Pixar's work (I will definitely try to make it out there once I'm in California). I am not sure if Pixar hires architectural or interior design consultants to ensure the buildings are accurate, but given the quality and level of detail involved, they must.

(Above) Eichler home, ca. 1960
(Below) The Parr Home from Pixar's The Incredibles, 2004

Icons of Modernism // Glass House

[All photos courtesy of Laura Diiorio (UMD '08, Tulane '12). Nice pics Laura, and good thing you took them, because I doubt I'll be in the New Canaan area any time soon!]

Glass House
Location: New Canaan, CT
Architect & Owner: Philip Johnson / National Trust of Historic Preservation
Year Built: 1949
Related Works: Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe

An allusion to the ideals of European Modernism, and a rather obvious nod to an architect Johnson greatly admired (Bauhaus master Mies van der Rohe), the Glass House is an archetypal example of glass-and-steel minimalism that, at the time, was revolutionary for American residential architecture. Unlike Mies, however, Johnson was far more eccentric in his use of form and allegory, as indicated in the numerous follys that populate the remainder of his 40+ acre estate.

For more information, check the visitor's center website and this recent feature in Time Magazine.