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© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

Lebbeus Woods is well known for his conceptual drawings that bring new worlds and spaces into the eyes of their viewers.  In four decades, Woods has shared his imagined worlds, expressing ideas about spaces, inhabitation and technology, and outlined alternate futures.  Through April 6th, Friedman Benda Gallery will be exhibiting Lebbeus Woods: Early Drawings from the 1980s, many of which have never been displayed before. The gallery is located 515 West 26th Street in New York City. A preview of the exhibit after the break!

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

Many of Woods’ drawings evoke a sense of deconstruction alongside construction.  The structures are at once falling apart and rising up again, amalgamating parts of the environment, growing organically out of what is left behind.  They are reminiscent of Giambattista Piranesi - bringing a sublimity of ruin and rebirth into the scenes.

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

The early drawings in the exhibit reveals interests in Romanticism and in the landscape which offer an introduction to projects such as Centricity and A-City, each of which infuse a political idea into the organization of architecture and its relationship to social order.  Woods explores and develops ideas about existing metropolises such as Paris and Berlin and works out machines and mechanical structures.

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

The gallery also includes Woods’ proposal for the New York Penn Yards, focusing on the reuse of abandoned space which serves as a preface to the direction in which his work began to develop in the 1990s.

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

From Friedman Benda Gallery:

Lebbeus Woods was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1940. The son of an accomplished military engineer, he worked with Kevin Roche at Eero Saarinen and Associates before turning decisively, in the mid-1970s, to independent, conceptual work staged through drawings, models, and installations. He co-founded the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture and is a Professor of Architecture at the Cooper Union as well as a lecturer at the European Graduate School. The author of many books and subject of many exhibitions worldwide, his writings and drawings have inspired architects, film directors, story-writers, and dreamers of all kinds. Woodsʼ drawings are held in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Carnegie Museum of Modern Art; the Getty Research Institute; and the Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

Friedman Benda Gallery is located at 515 West 26th St in NYC, NY.  The gallery is open Tuesdays to Saturdays 10am – 6pm.

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

Lebbeus Woods is well known for his conceptual drawings that bring new worlds and spaces into the eyes of their viewers.  In four decades, Woods has shared his imagined worlds, expressing ideas about spaces, inhabitation and technology, and outlined alternate futures.  Through April 6th, Friedman Benda Gallery will be exhibiting Lebbeus Woods: Early Drawings from the 1980s, many of which have never been displayed before. The gallery is located 515 West 26th Street in New York City. A preview of the exhibit after the break!

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

Many of Woods’ drawings evoke a sense of deconstruction alongside construction.  The structures are at once falling apart and rising up again, amalgamating parts of the environment, growing organically out of what is left behind.  They are reminiscent of Giambattista Piranesi - bringing a sublimity of ruin and rebirth into the scenes.

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

The early drawings in the exhibit reveals interests in Romanticism and in the landscape which offer an introduction to projects such as Centricity and A-City, each of which infuse a political idea into the organization of architecture and its relationship to social order.  Woods explores and develops ideas about existing metropolises such as Paris and Berlin and works out machines and mechanical structures.

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

The gallery also includes Woods’ proposal for the New York Penn Yards, focusing on the reuse of abandoned space which serves as a preface to the direction in which his work began to develop in the 1990s.

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

From Friedman Benda Gallery:

Lebbeus Woods was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1940. The son of an accomplished military engineer, he worked with Kevin Roche at Eero Saarinen and Associates before turning decisively, in the mid-1970s, to independent, conceptual work staged through drawings, models, and installations. He co-founded the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture and is a Professor of Architecture at the Cooper Union as well as a lecturer at the European Graduate School. The author of many books and subject of many exhibitions worldwide, his writings and drawings have inspired architects, film directors, story-writers, and dreamers of all kinds. Woodsʼ drawings are held in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Carnegie Museum of Modern Art; the Getty Research Institute; and the Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna

© Lebbeus Woods | Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery

Friedman Benda Gallery is located at 515 West 26th St in NYC, NY.  The gallery is open Tuesdays to Saturdays 10am – 6pm.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

Architect: Claudio Sat, Unipessoal, lda
Location: Gaeiras, Óbidos, Portugal
Project Team: Pedro Cancela, Gisela Ferreira, Ricardo Porfírio
Final design: Ana Duarte Pinto – João Manuel Alves, arquitectos lda
Project Team: Diana Parracho, Mariana Pimentel, Nuno Amaro, Manuel Vacas
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

With a covered area of 6,408 m2 this complex is located on a prime site for its landscape and environmental value with a view of the dam on the River Arnóia. The proposal tries to get the right implantation so as to minimise the impact of the intervention, formed by the grouping of constructions and of patios placed in terraces over the landscape. The bodies assume the proportions of parallel bands set out in an East-West direction, facilitating an unimpeded view of the landscape, which is also the case from the interior, where most of the spaces offer a panoramic view of the River Arnóia valley.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The control of the entrance, to the South, and the control of the pavilion, to the North, define the limits of this typology, the centre of which is the access atrium, placed equidistantly within the grouping. It is from here that the circulation that connects all the spaces starts, running in a North-South direction. We arrive at the main atrium by passing below the resource centre, through the access area, the institutional character of which defines a central and unifying space, not only within the building, but also for this sector of the district of Óbidos. Around this are the dining hall, the buffet and the multi-purpose and music room, all of which have the possibility of an independent entrance for the local population and of expansion into that open space.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The dentist’s room is also situated near to the main atrium which, duly equipped, can be transformed into a waiting room, with the secretary’s desk functioning as a reception counter for users, who may, alternatively, remain in the buffet. The multi-purpose and music room has a stage which can be extended into an outdoor stage. A series of glass doors can open up, meaning that shows can be put on expanding onto the surrounding open-air terrace, which considerably increases its spectator capacity.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

Finally, and among the covered spaces on level 0, is the services sector of the school, concentrated around the services patio. There is a kitchen, the boiler room and the maintenance workshop and general storage. On level 1 we find the other spaces of the administrative system, besides the science laboratory, visual and technological education room, the computer room and the resource centre, all with excellent views and exposure to sunlight, besides a group of four classrooms and playground, in a more secluded position than those on level 0.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The resource centre, with a central location in the group, is characterised by an ample glazed area which leaves equipment such as shelves with books, tables and computers visible, announcing the activities that characterise and define this type of building. Near to the resource centre are the reprographics room and stationer’s, with easy access for the public through the stairs of the main atrium. To the North, the double pavilion and games field conclude this sequence of spaces and simultaneously relate the activities of the complex with Gaeiras Stadium.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

Besides the access area mentioned, the other outdoor spaces include the area around the complex, where there is a series of spaces for playing and informal walks which, due to the disposition of the land, overlook the valley and the profile of Óbidos’ town walls, the playgrounds in the various outdoor patios of the school, and the car parks at the South end of the site.

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Engineering: GPessa, Projectos de Engenharia
Acoustic performance: Ábaco, projectos
HVAC: I2DP, Ideias, Inovação e Desenvolvimento de Projectos de Engenharia, lda
Electrical, safety, telecommunications and intrusion installations: Prodinâmica, lda
Outdoor landscaping: Carla Silva, Arquitectura paisagista, lda
Constrution Company: José Coutinho S.A.

Courtesy of Stevn Holl and Lars Müller Publishers

ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1 will be launching NY-based architect Steven Holl‘s newest books published by Lars Müller. These two luminaries of architecture and design will engage in a conversation about their respective projects as well as the collaborative publishing process on March 4th from 3:00pm – 4:30pm. Following the discussion, Holl will sign his two new publications, Steven Holl: Color Light Time and Steven Holl: Scale. More information after the break.

Switzerland-based publisher Lars Müller began his career as a graphic designer and has been a partner of Integral Concept, an interdisciplinary design group, since 1996. He started publishing books on typography, design, art, photography, and architecture in 1982 and has since published more than 300 titles. A passionate educator, Müller has taught at various universities in Europe and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design since 2009.

Considered one of America’s most important architects, Steven Holl is recognized for his ability to blend space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to utilize the unique qualities of each project to create a concept-driven design. Holl has been recognized with architecture’s most prestigious awards and prizes, and he is a tenured professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He has lectured and exhibited widely and has published numerous texts including, most recently, Urbanisms: Working with Doubt (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) and Hamsun Holl Hamarøy (Lars Müller, 2010).

Siza sketching at Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1995. © Andreia Soutinho

In 1995, Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza packed a few changes of clothes, some poetry books and a single sketchbook as he set forth to Peru. These few items were all he needed to record and interpret his voyage, allowing him to integrate his investigations into his architecture. More than a half a century earlier, Peruvian photographer Martín Chambi ventured into the peaks of Macchu Picchu were he captured a famous series of portraits of the ancient Inca ruins. His project was more political, it acted as a re-appropriation of the site by its locals, but the tools of Chambi and Siza are the same: the production of images to define a reality.

The Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA) presents Alturas de Macchu Picchu: Martín Chambi – Álvaro Siza at work – an exhibit featuring thirty-five original sketches by Álvaro Siza alongside the historic 1920s photographs by Martín Chambi, now on view at in the CCA’s Octagonal Gallery until April 22, 2012. Continue reading for more information.

Martín Chambi, Partial view of the Ñusta Palace, showing an alley and entrance on the left and the staircase leading to the Torreón on the right, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1927. CCA Collection. © Archivo Fotografico Martín Chambi

“The images shown in the exhibition are, on one hand, accurate site documentations. However, they are nonetheless filtered through the aesthetic and political inclinations of their creators. Ultimately, both Siza and Chambi present Macchu Picchu as a landscape of their invention.”

Álvaro Siza, Sketch from notebook #399, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1995. © Álvaro Siza, Architect

A selection of poetry books, suggested by Álvaro Siza himself, are featured at the exhibit. Included is Pablo Neruda’s Alturas de Macchu Picchu, the second part of his Canto General of 1945, from which the exhibition borrows its name.

As a further investigation into the Pritzker Prize architect’s use of sketching both to record reality and as a design tool, the exhibition presents a third component that documents Álvaro Siza’s Quinta da Malagueira social housing complex on the outskirts of Évora, Portugal. The project, started in 1977, was the first for which Siza used the simple black notebooks that he continues to sketch in to this day. The housing at Quinta da Malagueira displays typological features and an interest in the vernacular reminiscent of what Siza later draws at Macchu Picchu. Selected photographs by Gabriele Basilico, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Roberto Collová and Jean-Louis Schoellkopf, depict the complex through the lens of contemporary observers—a final representational layer.

Martín Chambi, Partial view of the King’s Group showing the courtyard, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1927. CCA Collection © Archivo Fotografico Martín Chambi

Martín Chambi (Coaza, Peru 1891 – Cuzco, Peru 1973) was born into a Quechuaspeaking peasant family and learned photography in his youth. In 1908, he apprenticed in the studio of Max T. Vargas in Arequipa and in 1923 established his own studio in Cuzco, becoming a favoured commercial photographer for the local élite. Chambi’s documentation of pre-Hispanic Andean cultures were a key component of Cuzco’s Indigenista movement, which sought to recover an autonomous aesthetic and expressive language for the regional population.

Álvaro Siza, Sketch from notebook #399, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1995. © Álvaro Siza, Architect

Álvaro Siza (Matosinhos, Portugal 1933 – ) emerged in the late 1950s as a leading protagonist of the Escola do Porto, a group of architects attempting to reconcile the experimentations of modern architecture with the conditions of production in Portugal, at that time under dictatorial rule. After the return to democracy in 1974, Siza created a significant series of social housing interventions and smaller private commissions. The scope of his work soon became international, with later designs realized in Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy, Japan, Brazil and South Korea, as well as global recognition culminating in his winning of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1992.

Original Sketchbook: Alturas de Macchu Picchu: Martín Chambi – Álvaro Siza at work. Installation view at the CCA. © CCA, Montréal

Curator: Fabrizio Gallanti is Associate Director, Programs at the CCA. Gallanti trained as an architect at the University of Genoa, Italy and received his doctoral degree in architectural design from the Politecnico di Torino. He has worked in professional partnership with Francisca Insulza and was a founding member of Gruppo A12, a Genoa- and Milan-based collective dedicated to architectural design and art. Gallanti has practiced architecture in Santiago, Chile, and taught architectural design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago and the Politecnico di Milano in Piacenza, Italy. Architecture consultant to the editor in chief of Abitare magazine between 2007-2011, Gallanti was also editor of the Abitare website. His writings have appeared in magazines including 32, A+U, Abitare, Domus and Il giornale dell’architettura. Gallanti curated the Triennale di Milano lecture series “Multiplicity, a Collection of Sites,” 1999-2000, the Festival Urbania in Bologna,2009, and the international seminar ”ArchiLiFe, Le LiFE” in Saint Nazaire, 2010.

Reference: The Canadian Center for Architecture

Alturas de Macchu Picchu: Martín Chambi – Álvaro Siza at work. Installation view at the CCA. © CCA, Montréal

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

Architect: Claudio Sat, Unipessoal, lda
Location: Óbidos, Portugal
Project Team: Luís Moreira, Catarina Madruga, VF Arquitectos
Final design: Ana Duarte Pinto – João Manuel Alves, arquitectos lda
Project Team: Diogo Zenha Morais, Ana Rita Diniz, Pedro Teixeira Melo, Eva Grillo
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The construction of two parts of the group of the New educational spaces, the primary and lower secondary school and the sports pavilion, became the first complex of Óbidos, called the Complexo dos Arcos, with a covered area of 6,015 m2, and which responded to the program described above in the Escolas D´Óbidos–Schools of Óbidos. It is around the main atrium that the diverse systems of the complex are organised: pedagogical, social, administrative, services and sports. This also houses the functions of reception/information and control of the school and of the pavilion.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The spatial distribution permits its division into two quite different systems: the social and pedagogical systems. The social subsystems overlook the public space, potentially forming permanently functioning sectors. The pedagogical subsystems are backed against the quietest and furthest sector from the Stadium Terrace. There are, without a doubt, more exposed pedagogical subsystems, like the resource centre; the visual and technological education room and the multi-purpose and music room, which can merge with the open spaces.

sections

At the top of the first band there is the resource centre, which includes areas with different functions, such as the reception, cataloguing, loan and consultation of books, magazines, videos, audio and computer material. Above, on the first floor, the computer room can be used as an extension of the resource centre. At the end of the second band the science laboratory and visual and technological education room share identical criteria of complementarity as the resource centre/computer room.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

At the top of the third band there is the multi-purpose and music room, the more isolated location of which seeks to minimise the propagation of sound to elsewhere. Here an entrance from the outside also facilitates the use of this space by independent groups. In the social sector we can enter the dining hall and the buffet from the main atrium and, alternatively, from the outside. The administrative and education support sector is concentrated into level 0 and level 1, the main office here being that of the general secretary, comprising a counter which functions as the reception desk of the school and, occasionally, of the pavilion.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The installations of the pavilion and respective shower rooms can be used by the inhabitants of the district. It was decided to support its impressive volume over the also grandiose group of pine trees on the site, now framed from the interior by an ample glazed opening facing North, which offers a regular distribution of the light, convenient for playing sports. On the West façade, another extensive window allows the activities inside to be watched, to a degree attenuating the lack of seating for spectators.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The proposal shows the empty spaces of the Stadium Terrace, of the Largo do Aqueduto and of the Park on the Slope are shown, where a natural park is proposed, designed as a continuous scenographic backdrop which takes advantage of existing paths to define maintenance circuits, equipment, belvederes and areas of shade that consolidate the land and reduce its degradation and erosion.

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The Stadium Terrace is the unifying spatial element of this proposal. Flanked to the East by the building and to the West by the wall of the Municipal Stadium, it has no limits in a North-South direction, as in this direction it is proposed to continue a walkway that comes from the town, goes around the stadium and passes other sports spaces before returning in the direction of the historic centre.

Engineer: Soprest, lda
Gas Distribution Network: José Carlos Cardoso Ferreira, lda
Acoustic performance: Ábaco, projectos
Electrical, safety, telecommunications and intrusion installations: Prodinâmica, lda
Outdoor Landscaping: Carla Silva, Arquitectura paisagista, lda
Tile panels: Sónia Sapinho
Construction company: José Coutinho S.A.

© Liao Yusheng

An independent private foundation, the Vitra Museum was founded in 1989 by the CEO Rolf Fehlbaum. Focusing mainly on furniture and interior design, the museum features work from Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Alvar Aalto, Verner Panton, Dieter Rams, Richard Hutten and Michael Thonet. The modern architecture which houses these collections was the first building of Frank Gehry in Europe, and included the museum for Rolf Fehlbaum’s private collection, production hall, and gatehouse for the factory of Vitra.

More on the museum after the break.

© Liao Yusheng

Easily recognizable as the architectural style of Frank Gehry, the deconstructive sculptural building differs only slightly than his usual designs in that he limits his materials to white plaster and a titanium-zinc alloy. As said by the architect, “I love the shaping I can do when I’m sketching. And it never occurred to me that I would do it in a building. The first thing I built of anything like that is Vitra in Germany.

© Liao Yusheng

At only 8,000-square-feet, the two-story Vitra Museum is one of the world’s largest collections of furniture, with pieces from most periods and styles beginning with the nineteenth century and continuing into the modern era. A functional mix of towers, ramps and cubes, the volumes of the building are determined by lighting and programmatic necessities.

Courtesy of Newsbuilding

At the rear end of the building, the factory hall relates to the adjacent building by Nicholas Grimshaw in both size and height. A formal link between the museum is found in the towers and ramps, which bridge together the production areas, showroom, test laboratory, cafeteria, a multi-purpose room and offices.

© Liao Yusheng

Paul Heyer, an architecture critic, described the visitor’s experience as “a continuous changing swirl of white forms on the exterior, each seemingly without apparent relationship to the other, with its interiors a dynamically powerful interplay, in turn directly expressive of the exterior convolutions. As a totality it resolves itself into an entwined coherent display…” Surrounded by a meadow of cherry trees, the museum is also nearby to Claes Oldenburg’s sculpture Balancing Tools, as well as a conference pavilion by Tadao Ando.

Architect: Frank Gehry
Location: Weil am Rhein, Germany
Project Year: 1989
References: Vitra Design Museum, Paul Heyer
Photographs: Liao Yusheng, Newsbuilding

© Bruce Damonte

Architect: David Baker + Partners
Location: 365 Fulton Street, San Francisco, California, USA
Project Team: David Baker FAIA LEED AP (design principal); Peter MacKenzie AIA (principal-in-charge); Amit C. Price Patel AIA LEED AP (project architect); Brit Epperson LEED AP Homes; Amanda Loper AIA LEED AP; Sara Mae Martens LEED AP; Angela Thomason; John Thompson, AIA
Clients: Community Housing Partnership, Mercy Housing California
Project SquareFootage: 65,419 sq ft
Site Area: 18,906 sq ft/0.47 acres
Completed: September 2011
Landscape Architect: Andrea Cochran Landscape Architects
Photographs: Bruce Damonte

© Bruce Damonte

David Baker + Partners worked with Community Housing Partnership and Mercy Housing California to develop the Drs. Julian & Raye Richardson Apartments, which will provide permanent supportive housing for a very-low-income, formerly homeless population.

© Bruce Damonte

The building is named in honor of Drs. Julian and Raye Richardson, local activists and founders of Marcus Books, the oldest black bookstore in the country, founded in 1960.

Richardson Apartments includes 120 permanent, supportive residential studio units for adult residents coming out of or at risk for homelessness. Each unit is approximately 300sf and is provided with basic furnishings, a full kitchenette, an accessible or adaptable bathroom, and a secure telephone line to the front desk.

© Bruce Damonte

The residents’ entrance on Fulton Street features a spacious, secure lobby with a custom reception station. Beyond the lobby, the south-facing courtyard frames an expansive existing mural—a paint-and-glass mosaic of dancers adorning the side of the adjacent Performing Arts garage. Connected by an open-air stair, four levels of fully equipped studio apartments sit atop neighborhood-serving retail and surround the private landscaped courtyard.

© Bruce Damonte

Other supportive uses include an on-site medical and counseling center, a residents’ lounge, and a prominent flexible-use community room.

first floor plan

The rooftop deck includes a living roof, allotment garden plots, solar arrays, and City Hall views. The corner retail space is slated for BakeWorks, a bakery featuring a work-training program for residents, and other ground-level retail spaces maintain an active street edge and connect the building to the busy Hayes Street retail corridor.

second floor plan

Construction began in February 2010, with substantial completion in August 2011, and the building opened its doors to tenants in September 2011.