As highly visual types, architects often are aggravated by things we encounter every day that go unnoticed by most people. Believe me, it’s both a blessing and a curse. Only rarely, it seems, do we delight in something we’ve stumbled upon in the visual world.
Think about it. As we walk or drive around, we are continually assaulted by poorly conceived, disjointed, and downright obnoxious attempts to apprise, attract, direct, and warn us with various signs, marquees, billboards, and notices. In that wide-angle view, zoning regulations can only go so far, and it may be hard to imagine some overarching, draconian framework designed to bring ordo ab chao without heading toward an undesirable homogeneity. Variety is, after all, the spice of life, right? Read More »
May 1, 2012 – 3:34 pm
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Posted in Values
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My wife, Ann Thompson, and I spent a week last fall exploring Tokyo and environs while attending the conference of the American Institute of Architects Committee on Design in Japan. In our official capacities as Communication Chair and Web Tender for the Committee, we were privileged not only to enjoy the architecture of the city but also to hear the likes of Fumihiko Maki discuss his work. Professor Masami Kobayashi of Meiji University chronicled the history of Tokyo’s built environment and the role that architects are playing in the reconstruction efforts following last year’s earthquake and tsunami.
Here is a link to the posts we wrote for the Committee on Design website.:
http://aiacommitteeondesign.wordpress.com/
April 2, 2012 – 3:49 pm
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Posted in Culture
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U.S. Atlantic Seaboard at Night
Remember when grandma insisted that you turn the lights off when you left a room? And you thought she was dotty? She was just being green, old school green. In 1939, the price of electricity consumed nearly ten percent of the average annual wage. Today we spend less than one percent of our pay on household kilowatts – even though usage for the typical American home has skyrocketed 500 percent in 70 years. No wonder we leave the lights on all the time: it’s a pittance.
New York City and East Coast City Lights
Photos by Molly Hubbs
Designed by Heikki and Kaija Siren in 1957, the Otaniemi Chapel is settled quietly among the pine and birch trees on the Aalto University Campus in Finland. The woodland clearing contrasts starkly with the hustle of the main campus. As this was my first trip above the Baltic, I found all Finnish architecture enchanting. And so it was with the Otaniemi Chapel. Its simplicity of form and material impressed upon me the ideals of early modernism. Read More »
Porcelain Stoneware floor from Ceramica Atlas Concorde
Porcelain has a long pedigree, going back millennia to China, later Italy, and lately anywhere someone can generate 1,280 degrees Centigrade to fire clay. Dense, durable, fire-resistant, and non-porous, porcelain is a common material in our homes. For example, fine china is made of it, as are commodes and bathroom floor and wall tiling. Made right, it is made to last.
Recently porcelain manufacturers have introduced a unique component to the finish glaze process, so that the end product actually reduces air pollution and kills harmful bacteria. We are more familiar with materials inside buildings, such as carpets and finishes, which can degrade the quality of the air by off-gassing VOCs (volatile organic compounds). More on porcelain’s remarkable air-cleaning development further along.
In a world where nothing is static, porcelain is changing and assuming new roles. For one Centerbrook designed project, a new academic wing for a high school, we are looking into the possibility of using porcelain for flooring. This product has a particular glaze look: a natural wood grain pattern that can mimic oak, cherry, or any other wood surface. The tile sizes are designed as “planks” to further complete the illusion. The only way you could tell the difference is if you walked on it barefoot: porcelain is a wee bit colder to the touch. Read More »
Patrick's sap boiling rig
The weather is always a good topic of conversations in these parts. Last winter the water cooler chatter was about the record amount of snow we were getting, which roof collapsed, or whether ice dams were forming in the attic. The weather caused many construction projects to be delayed, but also meant that ski resorts and outfitters profited. Twelve months later all is reversed. The talk, often accompanied by sighs of relief, is about how mild it has been. Those industries that did well last winter are suffering and vice versa. Read More »
I am not an architect but nonetheless have built several passable forts. The log cabin my friend Willie Harmon and I fashioned in fourth grade would be standing yet, many decades later, had it not been built on property that didn’t belong to us. Read More »
Southern Connecticut State University
My six-month internship at Centerbrook Architects proved essential to my architectural education. The internship not only complemented my coursework, it also expanded upon that preparation by incorporating the real life consequences of dealing with colleagues, budgets, and clients. The collaborative atmosphere of firm work – between client, designers, and consultants – instilled a tangible appreciation for the integral role teamwork plays in architecture. Because of these experiences, and many others, my architectural education is far richer. Read More »
February 7, 2012 – 1:40 pm
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Posted in Process
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Albert Einstein was 26 when he published his “Special Theory of Relativity.” James D. Watson was 25 when he and Francis Crick discovered the architecture of DNA, arguably the greatest scientific achievement of our lifetime. Steve Jobs, another early bloomer, believed that you couldn’t trust people over 30 to come up with radical innovations.
Working for decades with Nobel Laureate Jim Watson and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on developing that renowned research campus, I also have learned that the road to scientific achievement is not a straight line between two points, but rather a meandering, eclectic journey that should encompass the arts and humanities, interdisciplinary collaboration and sociability, and even sports and outdoor pastimes, such as bird watching. Now in his 80s, Watson still plays a mean game of tennis. Science does not thrive in a sterile vacuum: the broader the interests of the inquisitor the better. Read More »
Photos: Jeff Goldberg/Esto
Picking colors totally freaks people out, from homeowners to Fortune 500 CEOs. Re-painting, even re-re-painting is common. Getting the six exterior colors right at the new Hillside Research Campus at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was critical to its success in blending in: both with the built and natural setting at the venerable institution and also with the character of the surrounding community. Re-painting was not an option.
The project was recently named one of six finalists in the World Architecture News Colour Awards. The jurors pared the international field from 79 to Hillside Campus, two schools in England and Slovenia, an office building in France, a residential tower in Australia, and a biochemistry building at Oxford University in England. Read More »
