Rem Koolhaas (Class notes)

Being an architect

OMA (largely based on process)

·      Writing

·      Research/diagrams

·      Models

REM KOOLHAAS :

Delirious New York (1978)

·      Manhattan’s grid led to important role of connections within the city?

PARC DE LA VILLETTE (1982)

·      Continuous field - non-plate diagram

photo taken from http://france-for-visitors.com/photo-gallery/paris/parks-and-gardens/parc-de-la-villette.html

IIT McCormick Campus center (1999)

·      Utilizing the common spaces to incorporate sensuality experience and the spatial reality

photo taken from http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EoeSLEIa2oL0TWD59ybIZw

Process of developing ideas and designs in architecture is generally “slow”.

OMA AMO 

-not about building>people density-space

CONTENTS

·      socio/political/cultural/economics discussions of the works he done over the years.

·      Importance/intensity of making models

Y2K House (1999)

Casa Da Musica (2005)

CCTV & OMA

·          Exposing rather than imposing iconic symbols onto the building by uncovering the structures that form the building by removing the redundant materials (steels) and those fundamental structural beams and steels are revealed as the cover of the building.

PRADA TRANSFORMER


GOVERNORS ISLAND (Rex architects) 2008

·         As a development strategy not landscape proposal?

Temporary Contracts: On the Economy of the Post Industrial Landscape, by Ellen Dunham-Jones

Temporary contracts are forming a worldwide pattern of post industrial landscape, in turn encouraging short term profit and minimal commitments. 

Post Industrialism:  “Information Age” and the “Service Economy.   Manufacturing is still important, but it has lost it’s dominant position in production, because hardware and software required for information managemenent epitomizes the temporariness of post industrialism. 

4 interrelated phenomena characterize post industrial economy which encourage growth in temporary contracts:

1)Reliance on telecommunication and information processing

2)More jobs in services than manufacturing

3)Globally integrated markets for production and consumption

4)Mobility of capital

Industrial economy promoted city building and centralization, post-industrial economy promoted urban function to transition from the core into decentralizing. 

Postmodernity in manufacturing economy means speed, efficiency, aesthetically pleasing as well as technological. 

Fordism: high volume mass production, before the post industrialist age. 

Post Fordism: high quality, consumer responsive, flexible production.  The speed of innovation and changing product became strategies for demand.  Prodct change keeps the interest of the buyer, but requires technology in order for this to be productive. 

It seems we’ve entered a non-committal nation since the the post industrial economy began.  Proof is shown in the divorce rate, public frequently moving households, leasing rather than owning.  This also occurs for large corporations who control a major part of our economy.  One third of U.S. employment is part time.  As well, many companies have seen benefits in moving head offices out of big urban developments and into smaller “edge cities”.   For large corporations, this means non unionized workers in smaller towns, that  don’t require long commitments, benefits, cheaper employment, cheaper rent, easy exporting to international market.  Cutting out the overhead and life cycle costs  of the big cities, and entering into smaller rural communities benefit the corporations immensely. 

Over the past quarter century, the industrial economy has changed from the downtown setting to suburban manufacturing, wholesailing, commercial back offices etc.  Suburbs have captured majority of job growth in manufacturing, and central cities have lost drastic amounts. 

Walmart is an example given of a temporary contract corporation.  They locate their stores in rural areas, eliminating distributors, and linking directly to computer controlled manufacturing and limiting advertising.  They in turn cut prises and expand market share.  They can destroy a small towns economy, but entirely taking over the regional market.  Typically, they buy land, and lease the building.  They use the strategy of abandoning the market once it has damaged the local economy and begin competing with the next Walmart closest to them. 

Temporary contracts  are based on consuming rather then sustaining relationships.  It’s encouraged to build fresh, instead of maintaining an existing structure.  This becomes evident in stock market statistics. 

How can we respond to this the popular trend of  temporary contracts in society.  Given these facts, what can we do to create or fight back to endure a sustainable landscape? 

Sustainability and Architecture.

San Francisco is designed in the worst place. An earthquake could happen at any moment and people are living in denial of the inevitable. An example of the disaster to come is the stadium. It is being pulled apart by a technique called creep showing the eventual quake signs. In 1906 in April an 8.2 earthquake was recorded and it led to 3000 dead, huge fires and left thousands homeless. City Hall was one of the buildings that was destroyed and rebuilt. This was one of the smart decisions of San Francisco’s architecture. It no longer rests on the ground; it was built with shock absorbers. The bridge was as well built with the latest earthquake technology to prevent a bridge collapse. The narrow chambers act as the structural expansion.

The main concern of San Francisco is the ordinary homes. The city was built wrong.  If an earthquake was to occur its estimated that 3000-5000 would die and all the homes would be lost depending on the time of day that it occurred. This disaster is certain, it will happen. When it happens is unknown, but it will happen and people live with a near certainty of the appending disaster in their daily lives. 

Image taken from http://unionstreetinn.com/images/sanfrancisco3.jpg

(Class Notes) Infrastructure and Hybrid Development

Pure land (soil) vs. building slab (hydro, pipes)

This is related to urban infrastructure.

Site/Non site: the in between is important, especially in terms of sustainability (highways).  The cloverleaf is the space used, which is equivalent in size to a small town – the bends in the road, the size of the structure depends on particular reasons.

 We are not typically conscious of these spaces.  These non-sites prove efficient transportation.

Think of the reality: We need to deal with better ways to deal with highays, malls and the in between structures.  We should understand this and create new ideas. 

Architecture is not fixed – infra, archi, structure, scape, land, tecture – they all relate and intermingle.

Living/desire (texture/pattern)

We need pattern and desire it. 

Patterns: dense proximity of urban infrastructure (street patterns)

Toyota green design example: The dancers created energy w/ “Pizas” to energize the music based on the movement.

Water importance

Artificial Landscape: Dams.  How it reacts to nature, it’s the precondition of our water.

Amsterdam example: The canals incorporate nature as well as transportation.

Think of the reality: We need to deal with better ways to deal with highays, malls, irregation and the in between structures.  We should understand this and create new ideas. 

Fluid Hybridities:

We are romantically connected to house living instead of high-rise living.

Temporal Conditions

Stadium example: town stadium, low density in urban environment – it’s own town.

On the opposite spectrum: tent in the middle of nowhere still using a TV dish to stay connected to the world.

The need: developers of educated sustainability. 

Hybridity/Identity

Buildings have access to energy.  We can tap into the availability. Many spaces are charged with excess energy potentials. (ex. heating ducts on exterior of building)

There is an importance in using the in-between spaces to create sustainability. 

-       Graveyard placed on a building

-       Driving school on top of building

Weiss Manifeld: Olympic Sculpture Park

-       makes a non site into a site

-       makes a new experience

-       maintains industrial, transport needs, stitching together land in layers.

-        

The bigger scenarios require staging through layering and linking the elements. 

Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas talks about his book "Content" with a theme of “Go east" with the exploration of European/Asian/Russia cultural activities and its influences on architecture. 


Question: Why European? Question on whether then America is not a place to be?

He chose not to participate the project “Ground Zero” but instead to build the Television Centre in Beijing. The possible reason may be the political condition in 2002 eventually change his initial doubt to build anything in China: the improvements based on Koolhaas of new organizations and government in China has refined the connection between China and other countries economically as well as architecturally.  

Bejing Television Centre - Rem Koolhaas
photo taken from http://innovativebuildings.net/2010/06/22/china-central-television-headquarters/

Koolhaas: “Architect is important but not influential”

• Is more critical to capture initiative rather than influential elements

The Highline

The high line was discussed in class and it is a 1 mile New York City park. It was constructed on an abandoned section of elevated freight railroad, which runs along Manhattan. The highline was designed and created as an aerial greenway. This urban railway park has created developments of condominiums that are built on top of the highline.

The highline was created for a public safety concern and opened to trains in 1934. Originally the train ran from 34th street to St. Johns Park. It was cleverly designed to be connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside buildings. This also allowed for much of the delivery and transport of manufactured goods such as milk, meat and produce without disrupting the traffic on the streets. In the 1950's rail traffic was discontinued through out the nation.

Some of the highline was demolished and it wasn't until 1999 when the High line was considered to be preserved and reused as public open space. With support from The New York Mayor, city funding and community support grew in 2004. By 2009 one part was completed and in 2011 the middle section has been completed. The northernmost section is still uncertain for development.

The park's attractions are natural planted landscapes of a variety of wildlife that grow on the unused tracks. The plants included 210 different species. They also have cultural attractions along the highline such as a temporary installation of 700 purple and grey coloured glass panes to match the Hudson river.

One of the great benefits of the height of the high line is there is virtually no crime because you are always visible from other buildings. And lastly the redesign of the park from an abandoned urban railway was cheaper then demolishing it. The highline is an inspiration to many other cities and is encouraging them to do the same to their abandoned railways.

Image taken from http://www.nomadicphotos.com/United-States/New-York/New-York-City/i-qpBwB76/1/M/P1270525-the-high-line-walkway-M.jpg

The Ecstasy of Communication (Class Notes)

Beginning of class, we discuss technology revolution and publication or monumental through media sense. 

• New Agenda 1 (New Material)
• Rural Studio
• Mason's Bend Chapel 
• Lucy's House (uses recycle material)

• New Agenda 2 (Productive Landscape)
• (NIMBY)- Not In My Back Yard 
• urban zoning regulations
• Wetland Machine of Bidwell 
• K Timberlake/ Natural System 
• Trash Track - SENsable City Lab, MIT 
• garbage consumes more energy
• Public Farm - WORK architecture 
• MFO Park Zurich (Raderschall Landscape Architect + Burchhardt)

• New Agenda 3 (New Neighbours)
• New Communities 

Hyper Modernism 

• Where there is an excessive amount of technology 
• Is it inevitable that surveillance occur constantly
• Is it possible to be alone in hyper modernism?

FREE SPEECH - What is most influential? 

• Baudrillard mentions that form(freedom) of speech decreases in this hypermodernism world
• Is architecture = free speech?

Obscenity = negative in communication (is it positive in architecture?)

If form follows function --> is that obscene?

Baudrillard: obscene- as an over exposure of the scene leaving nothing to the imagination, are we creating more scenes than before?

Roland Barthes 

• From subjective "logic possession and projection to "logic of driving"
• Value of possessions decreases instead the circulation/"driving" increases