Thursday Posting: Corporate Architecture

Productivity

"Silicon Valley's landscape of leased, glass curtain-wall or tilt-up concrete slab construction R&D 'parks' constitutes the extreme example [of corporate architecture]. In that archetypal IT-driven landscape, the buildings are differentiated only by their corporate signage.”

-       Peter MacKeith, Associate Dean of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.

Otten, Liam.  “Contemporary corporate architecture’s impact on communities examined.”  Washington University in St. Louis News & Information.  5 Oct. 2005.  Accessed 18 Feb. 2009. http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/5893.html

In his article Otten discusses the impact that corporate institutions, as well as churches, universities, and government buildings have had on the urban environment, since they stand for pillars that embody the values and culture of their societies.  Otten stresses the fact that now more than ever, corporations are deciding to locate on the outskirts of town, “distancing themselves from the means of production” while also contributing to urban sprawl.  According to Peter MacKeith, who Otten quotes, “The contemporary city of corporate architecture is constructed of standardized elements, homogeneous in their glass-enclosures, planned for maximum flexibility and insured for limited time periods.”  MacKeith also mentions that within these corporate headquarters, cafés, gyms, banks and day care centers are now provided for the employees, so that “daily contact with the external life of the city is no longer necessary.”  Otten then goes on to discuss the effectiveness of open-planned working environments, and whether or not they increase productivity or contribute to high employee turnover.  MacKetih notes that at Silicon Valley, the average length of employment is just eight months.  The rest of the article then goes on to mention sustainable development within the corporate world, and the key challenges that face architects today.  According to MacKeith, architects need to design buildings that create “a means of living and working, grounded in an ethical sensibility and in the natural world.”

The most interesting part of this article to me was when MacKeith mentioned that more corporate buildings are expanding to include cafés, gyms, banks, and daycare centers for their employees, all with the notion of increasing productivity.  Because of this the employees have less reasons to leave the building, and therefore less interaction with the real world.  It almost seems to me that corporations are creating their own tightly knit, private utopias.  While there is certainly nothing utopic about work, the fact that one building that serves various functions necessary to daily life, and the fact that it is exclusive to only employees speaks to the outermost ideas of a utopia.  

 

Monday Post: Peter Funch

Artist Peter Funch was born 1974 in Denmark.  He attended the Danish school of journalism where he graduated with a degree in photo journalism in 2000.  He has had many solo and group exhibitions around the world, and he is currently living and working in New York. Funch also does commercial work for ad companies, and according to Photographie website, “His work combines perceptive social commentary with a cinematic visual language.” While Funch has many prominent and distinguished series, I am really dran to his Déjà vu and Las Vegas series, for the way they employ architecture, color, and use clean lines.  Funch’s Déjà vu series is mostly wide-angle shots, collaged together to create one big horizon line.  The colors of the sky and ground play off each other, and the placing of the horizon line in the top or bottom of the frame really draws the viewer in.  In his Las Vegas series, Funch concentrates a lot on the architecture and environment of the settings, and really emphasizes the grandeur and bright colors of Vegas.  Although Funch’s work is very different from mine, I think we share some of the same aesthetic qualities.

Gallery representing artist:

http://www.v1gallery.com/artist/show/3

 

Artist website:

http://www.peterfunch.com/

Lecture # 3: Paul Shambroom

I really enjoyed artist Paul Shambroom’s lecture on his different photo series.  During the lecture he showed a variety of work that he has done, and while they are all different from each other, they are all connected with their focus on power.  While many of his photographs take place in mundane settings, they are still quite enthralling because we are getting a glimpse into the secret world of corporations and weaponry that make America so powerful.  It is evident in all of Shambroom’s series that he has a fascination with power—and what it is that makes us so formidable as a nation.  Shambroom credit’s this obsession with power to the fact that he grew up during the cold war era, with the constant threat of death and nuclear warfare.   In all of his photographs, particularly the ones dealing with political issues of nuclear weapons and homeland security, Shambroom emphasizes his stance on maintaining a neutral political tone, and photographing the subject matter from a very straight-forward perspective.  While at first I thought that this conservative viewpoint began to look a little redundant, I later started to appreciate thae fact that Shambroom is taking these photographs and then offering them up to the viewer to put their own spin on them.  

Thursday Posting: Defense Architecture: Moats

Barrier

“A deep, wide ditch surrounding a castle, fort, or town, typically filled with water and intended as a defense against attack.”

-Merriam Webster Dictionary

Colin, Chris.  “Sipping from a Utopian Well in the Desert.”  The New York Times.  16 Sept.

            2007. 

In this article Colin discusses the ecological-friendly community Arcosanti, located right outside of Phoenix, Arizona.  Arcosanti is the design of Italian architect Paolo Soleri, a former Frank Lloyd Wright student.  Construction started in 1970, and has yet to be completed.  As Colin explains it, “With its radical conservation techniques and a brilliantly scrunched-together layout, Arcosanti was intended to reinvent not just the city, but also man's relationship to the planet: picture a 60s vision of a Mars colony, but with a cutting-edge, eco-friendly design. Evaporative cooling pools release moisture into the air. In winter, heat from the foundry furnace is collected by a hood and sent through the apartments above.”  This revolutionary community, referred to by Mr. Soleri as his “desert utopia” has yet to be finished.  Despite this, however, Arcosanti is home to about 100 residents.  Colin describes Arcosanti : “An educated, diversely aged and surprisingly international collection of residents rises early each morning for on-site duties: silt casting, or foundry work, or a general tending of the odd, gray structures they call home.”  Currently Arcosanti faces financial problems; funding to keep the place running is getting short.  In the plans for this utopian commune but yet to be built is an “energy apron around the perimeter, wherein greenhouses trap heat and disperse it throughout the apartments in winter months; there, enormous concrete armatures reaching out to one day support a canopy for the music center. A moat runs around the stage, cooling it.” You can experience Arcosanti yourself, with rooms running anywhere from $30 to $100 a night, depending on the view. 

I really enjoyed reading this article about a sort of failed utopia that still manages to serve a purpose, and a good one at that.  It was also the only article I found that mentioned a new and different use of a moat other than as a protective barrier.  But perhaps one can look at the use of a moat to cool a space as different kind of protection—a protection from increasingly hostile environmental changes.  

Monday Post: Robert Polidori

Robert Polidori is a French Canadian artist born 1951 in Montreal.  In the 1970s he produced avant garde films with the filmmaker Jonas Mekas.  In 1980 he earned a M.A. from State University of New York at Buffalo, and then went on to make very detailed large-scale color photographs.  According to Flowers East, an art gallery in London, Polidori “is fascinated by the remnants and traces of life that he finds scattered in hallways, left in back rooms and worn on facades. His photographs are simultaneously seductive and melancholy, portraying the rich colours and textures of neglected and estranged cities, including Chernobyl, Versailles, Havana and most recently New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”  There has been controversy over a photograph that he took of the aftermath of Katrina, which portrays a dead person in their own bed.  Polidori currently lives and works in New York.

Gallery representing artist:

http://www.houkgallery.com/polidori/polidori.html

Artist Interview:

http://www.nicooved.com/words/polidori.htm

 

Lecture # 2

The Dolls Live On: Eshu and Ibeji in Salvador Orisha Worship

I attended this lecture that was part of the symposium Yoruba Art: Continuity and Change.  The lecturer was John Mason, who is the director of Yoruba Theological Archministry.  In his lecture Mason explains growing up with these dolls while also explaining their background.  Mason grew up in Cuba with his mother and father who were both blind.  His mother made Eshu and Ibeji dolls, and because she could not see he occasionally had to help her with the finishing touches.  After explaining his background with these dolls, he discussed the process from which the dolls evolved.  To understand this process though he first had to explain how many women in Yoruba culture tend to have twins, but instead of viewing this as a miracle the women are shunned from society and their babies are discarded in the forest to die.  Often times the babies are put on the base of ‘sacred’ trees.  It is here that the process begins: the sacred tree, according to Mason, is the first doll.  From there the dolls can embody many different spirits.  Some of the dolls are seen wearing bands around their ankles. This is not just on dolls though, children and priests and priestess’s wear them too, to “keep them from flying away.”  Wearing these bands makes noise each time when the person walks, thus scaring away death. I found this lecture very interesting.  I have seen some of these dolls before but I didn’t know what they were supposed to represent, nor did I know anything about their background.  

Thursday Posting: Terror-proof buildings

Repellent

“Attempting to design a terror-proof building is the epitome of arrogance, a sense of hubris that deliberately ignores the boundaries of the human mind. We do this at our own peril by underestimating our enemies,” says Raymond T. Mellon, partner at a NY construction law firm.

Geoghegan, Tom and Casciani, Dominic.  “How to terror-proof shopping centres and other buildings.  BBC News.  15 Nov. 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7095884.stm

In this article Geoghegan and Casciani discuss the UK’s desire to terror proof public buildings after the attacks on Glasgow airport and car bombings in the West End of London.  The article is divided by categories of buildings.  The authors go into depth about plans of terror-proofing airports, sporting venues, railway stations, shopping centers and nightclubs, and of course key political buildings.  Although these different buildings all require unique protection, the concepts behind protecting them from terrorists remain the same.  After learning that terrorists were planning on poisoning beer and burgers at football games, the Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates Stadium in north London designed their new building with security as their top priority.  Geoghegan and Casciani state in the article: “Emirates' strength, say officials, is that it has limited access to vehicles. The stadium's apron is ringed with subtle obstacles that would prevent a car bomb from getting near. Concrete planters and benches are deliberately placed to prevent a car weaving through them to reach the stadium itself.  Giant cannons, part of the club's insignia, can stop a moving vehicle. The architects placed the club's name in dramatic giant lettering at a critical access point. Those letters are not just there for aesthetic effect - they could stop a seven-tonne lorry.” 

After reading about the security of all the different types of buildings, there are definitely similar concepts used to strengthen security.  Using barriers to reduce car access close to the buildings, using non-fragmenting materials to reduce shrapnel in the case of an explosion, and having security screening outside of the building to have a better opportunity of identifying a security risk without compromising the security of the buildings.  Not everyone is so sure about the idea of terror-proofing buildings.  According to the article, “Austin Williams of the National Building Specification believes it is contributing to the "death of architecture" because aesthetics are being sacrificed for the sake of precaution. Public buildings, he says, are becoming "fear of public" buildings.”

This article was very interesting to me in light of recently studying different types of architecture.  While I was aware that post 9/11 buildings are being designed to withstand terrorist attacks, I didn’t realize the scale on which this is being done.  Its not just skyscrapers that are being terror-proofed, its everything from shopping malls and grocery stores to airports and stadiums.  The subtle placement of planters and benches as a way of strengthening security really intrigues me, and I think I can incorporate this theory into my images.