The theme of the work of Georg Küttinger, architect, is the representation and construction of space and time in the two-dimensional medium of photography. Motifs are photographed according to different aspects from different points of view and are re-assembled and re-combined.

The positioning and the conceptual context of the separate images to each other illuminate diverse aspects of the theme space and time by directing to forms and possibilities of design and montage. These make spaces and periods of time visible and create a thematic construct.

The context-less single picture is given a new context by the concept of montage, and a new synthetic concept is constructed.

a-matter related 24

Where is it Amazon!!

Inszenierte Naturen (= Nature Set in Scene).
Zeitgenössische Landschaftsarchitektur in Europa
(= Contemporary Landscape Architecture in Europe)
by Thies Schröder.
Published in 2001 by Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel.

Abandoned industrial sites and inner-city "deserts" need to be re-appropriated. Where new buildings are erected, planning of a garden is acquiring increasing importance. Landscape planners are working with the vocabulary of the region in order to re-establish or secure our identities. "Landscape", after all, is still the epitome of a cultural, socio-political definition of a space, of a picture. a-matter

Asian big cities in the spotlight:

Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Shenzen, Taipei. A handful of cities - summarized below under the heading "transit cities" - have in recent decades produced unequalled economic growth accompanied by explosive municipal expansion and an dramatic increase in population density. The speed of these changes is based on a condition specific to Asia: a surplus of human capital, which represents an inexhaustible reservoir of productive and innovative energy.

a-matter related 12: City without keeper.
Transit, turbo-capitalism and the east-asiatic megacity

Seems the Dutch are not infalliable and have their moments of insecurity as the rest of us.

Soeters seethed with contempt. And there the discussion changed completely. Not entertainment, not the Delta Metropolis, but architectural education and the reveries of the architectural elite came under scrutiny. Soeters advocated an education that addresses serious problems. And to him, serious problems are urban problems. He echoed Vittorio Magnago Lumpugnani, who in the foreword to the Prix de Rome catalogue criticises 'the reality of the embalmed city centres and the bleak peripheries'. 'Why should we suck the life out of the cities and move activities to peripheral locations such as Halfweg?' he asked rhetorically. It seems to have become something of a tradition: older architects who seize competitions for young designers to vent their spleen.


ArchiNed News: Prix de Rome architecture competition

Live view of the construction of the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, Edinburgh.

CamVista Ltd. Client Cams Scottish Parliament Building

Government attempts to lure people back to live in city centres are failing, according to new research published today.

The research shows the majority of those moving house still like to live "the quiet life" in the suburbs, preferring private gardens and parking to shared space.

AJ from The Architects’ Journal. Architecture news and information. Companies, buildings, design, products, jobs Suburb dwellers snub lure of city centres - report

A gift of Archis 02/2001 would be much appreciated:
A detailed documentation and discussion of Toyo Ito's Médiatheque at Sendai, Japan, with the emphasis on the duality between the virtual and the material. Two photoessays reveal the extraordinary feat of structural engineering involved and the way the building is used.
Archis

Mediatheque in Sendai '01

An essential text now available online...

It is more and more widely recognized today that there is some essential ingredient missing from artificial cities. When compared with ancient cities that have acquired the patina of life, our modern attempts to create cities artificially are, from a human point of view, entirely unsuccessful.

RUDI: Christopher Alexander: A city is not a tree part

FAT has a little polemic tirade about modernism in which some recent projects are mentioned...

High architecture regards space as its medium. It attempts to make meaning through the manipulation of abstract space. Taste, however, is the mechanism by which architecture engages with its audience and its market. Taste communicates and locates the social, political and economic meanings of architecture. It connects architecture with a wider cultural sphere in ways which are accessible beyond both the academy and the profession. Taste engages the contentious issues of quality and value, which are matters of subjective deliberation, which raise the awkward issue of class. An interest in taste offers an alternative to the cul de sac of abstract geometries and spatial gymnastics that obsess contemporary architecture.



We Realise Things Have Changed and Want to Know What to Do Now

Zaha Hadid lets rip. Unfortunately she seems to be standing up for [Lord] Rogers...

But in London - as in Britain as a whole - shamefully little public architecture is built today. Go to Holland and there are weekly competitions for architects who submit designs for schools and hospitals and bridges.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Wales loses a landmark

Ah you just have to love the American attitude...


Density Debate's Large Stakes (washingtonpost.com)

"No, we don't want a city here. It'll be like big, tall buildings, like in Chicago. You cannot stop growth. We don't want to stop growth. But we don't want to be overwhelmed."

Results of Europan 6 were recently announced:
In conjunction with twenty-one European countries EUROPAN organises a biennial thematical competition in the field of architecture. In this way EUROPAN aims to give shape to a Europe in which young highly-promising architects can contribute to innovations in the field of architecture and urban design. One distinctive feature of EUROPAN is that the organisation does not limit itself to a competition, a design phase, but that in the second phase, the winners are given the opportunity of realising their project if at all possible.

ok, now I've just about got the hang of it. Front end looks ok I think. Maybe. Anyway, enough of the medium and on with the content.
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