Le Corbusier in Berlin.

Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau is presenting the first comprehensive exhibition since 1987 of the wide-ranging work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The exhibition provides a chronological survey of his 60-year oeuvre. It’s divided into three areas – “Contexts”, “Privacy and Publicity” and “Built Art” – themes that are important to an understanding of Le Corbusier’s work.

Le Corbusier in his “Collection particulière” on the second floor of the Rue Jacob 20, around 1931, © FLC / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2009

Le Corbusier – Art and Architecture
9 July to 5 October 2009
An exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, in cooperation with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, and the Nederlands Architectuur Institut (NAI), Rotterdam.

My Bike Lane.

I am a cyclist and sometimes I am annoyed about cars parking / stopping at bike lanes. However, I could never have imagined a website dedicated to denunciate drivers who park on cycle tracks. Users of the service "mybikelane" are asked to post photographs and the driver’s license plate of drivers parking on cycle lanes. Bicyclists taking law into their own hands? Vienna (1122 posts - after New York with 4755 posts) comes in second in the website's user statistics.

Bike Event, Critical Mass, Budapest, source: zsoolt,flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/zsoolt/2428277565/

There might be better ways to reclaim the street - like 'Critical Mass', "a bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world."(source: wikipedia) Bicyclists gather to show the benefits of bicycle riding and to protest the monopolization of the street by car traffic. They celebrate cycling and assert cyclists' right to the road. Critical Mass has neither leaders, nor a central organization - it is an idea! 600 people participated Vienna's last Critical Mass event on June 17th. Reclaim the streets!

MetroBasel Comic.

Published in the form of a full-color comic strip, ‘MetroBasel’ is a comprehensive urban study and portrait of Basel and its surroundings. It is realized by the urban research unit ETH Studio Basel.

Basel’s metropolitan area is spanning across three countries, spread over nine administrative regions and consisting of more than 200 communities, each having their own regulations, planning guidelines, and development aims. Any coordinated effort for a regional plan and concerted urban development seems futile and is quickly dissolved in an intricate web of administrative obstacles and organizational incompatibilities.

The comic book’s goal is to tackle the unwieldy topics of urban research: What determines a city? What shapes its quality? What are the challenges for tomorrow’s cities? Whereas the comic book examines the metropolitan area of Basel, it raises problems comparable to other cities.

MetroBasel Comic (English/German/French)
conceived by Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron and Manuel Herz
by ETH Studio Basel

Villa Savoye's Mini-Me

photo copyright by anarchitecture, christoph wassmann

Poissy-sur-Seine, 33 kilometers north-east of Paris, features two buildings of Corbusier: the famous Villa Savoye and its "Mini-Me" – the gardener’s house at the site’s entrance. Likewise, the tiny building inherits the basic attributes of Villa Savoye: pilotis and ribbon glazing – the perfect mini-house.

photo copyright by anarchitecture, christoph wassmann

Mies van der Rohe's Basement.

The Tugendhat Villa in Brno, designed by the architect Mies van der Rohe, is an exceptional example of the international style in the modern movement in architecture as it developed in Europe in the 1920s.

Villa Tugendhart - the basement's entrance is prominently located at the front facade, photo by anarchitecture

The Villa Tugendhat was among the first to have central heating and central air conditioning. The basement contained a sophisticated air conditioning system next to the laundry and the darkroom, a combination of heating system, ventilator, and humidifier. [..] the large living area had an additional warm air heating system that could also be used for cooling on warm summer days. [..] A complicated filtering system cleaned and humidified the ait before it was forwarded to the vents in the living area.” (source: Dean Hawkes, The Environmental Imagination, p. 38)

Villa Tugendhart - air conditioning system, photo by anarchitecture

Remarkable, the building provides an example of a higher standard of living from the 20th century inter-war period showing the lifestyle of a cultured, wealthy and modern-thinking level of society. As in contemporary buildings, Villa Tungendhat’s technical features are well hidden: nearly the entire basement is occupied by building services.

Villa Tugendhart, the basement - a large part is dedicated to HVACR

Elections in the European Union. Vote!

Building Outline.

image by helmut k. lackner

Switzerland is the country of direct democracy. Citizens have the rights to challenge the government's decisions and may overturn parliamentary decisions. Likewise, it can be not easy to obtain a planning permission in some cases. People might have a say in the final result. As part of the approval process, the municipality can demand the construction of the building’s outline: a framework of steel tubes showing the estimated building height.
No chance to fiddle.

image by helmut k. lackner

Höhenrausch–High-Altitude Euphoria.

Copyright: Andreas Kepplinger Giant Wheel

From rooftop to rooftop via stairs and bridges, this lofty art parcours will feature an array of installations and objects by international artists.

The installation Höhenrausch is part of Linz 2009 – European Capital of Culture.

The stairway to heaven by Atelier Bow-Wow (in collaboration with Riepl Riepl) serves as a bridge into a different land. Stepping onto it, you leave everything else behind: the daily rat-race, job stress and anxiety.

Giant Wheel, Copyright: Luftbild Pertlwieser/StPL G

Collaborating artists: Pierre Bismuth, Shaun Gladwell, Inger Lise Hansen, Ricardo Jacinto,Shih-Yung Ku, Georg Lindorfe, Maider Lôpez, Mali Wu Taiwan,Paul Demarinis, Martin Music, Werner Pfeffer, Pipilotti Rist, Roman Signer,Serge Spitzer, Andreas Strauss, Fiona Tan, Leonid Tishkov and Erwin Wurm.

Dog's Toilet.

dog's toilet, photo by ute bauer

Made me laugh. (like this)

Blog of the Week. Design with Intent.

" [...] Our everyday lives are full of examples of products, systems and environments which have been designed to influence, guide or control – shape – our behaviour, using a wide range of techniques: technological, physical or psychological. [...] This is Design with Intent: strategic design intended to result in certain user behaviour."

Go to "Design with Intent" to learn some of these techniques.

Complexcity by Lee Jang Sub.

Paris, by Lee Jang Sub

The project "is an exploration to find a concealed aesthetic by using the pattern formed by the roads of the city which have been growing and evolving randomly through time, thus composing the complex configuration we experience today." See Complexcity by Lee Jang Sub.

Building Edges.

Two boxes, Ikea and OBI (a German 'Home Depot' store), hit on each other. (seen at IKEA Nord Vienna)

Blog of the Week. idsketching.com

Traditionally, architects do not have a recognizable sketching style or techniques, like e.g. industrial designer’s marker sketches: Anything goes, from quick doodling to watercolor paintings. Whether architectural design is shifting from pen and pencil to digital tools, it’s never wrong to learn some (simple) drawing techniques. "You can buy expensive software to help with this, but I find that the time spent mastering the learning curve of a new application would be better applied to learning to sketch simple little drawings. Everybody – especially clients – loves a designer who can actually draw." (from Achtung! Erik Spiekermann, Blueprint Magazine)

Need some drafting tips? IDSKETCHING.COM, "is a website dedicated to sharing free video tutorials on drawing and design sketching skills for industrial designers, illustrators and visual artists." The authors, John Muhlenkamp and Spencer Nugent share their passion for sketching, creating and teaching, and that’s what IDSKETCHING.COM is all about.

Out!

Masked out Interior. Pawel Althamer.

Pawel Althamer and others, Secession, 2009, photo: Wolfgang Thaler

For the exhibition at the Secession, "the Polish artist Pawel Althamer creates a tunnel-like corridor, accessible around the clock, that runs through the building straight into the garden beyond, where he initiates a public site for communication with simple means.[..] Instead of approaching the art via the entrance hall, set back from the everyday bustle of the street, visitors are guided right through the building. The exhibition space is rather masked out, and the place that invites visitors to stay a while is removed into a natural setting, an open situation that cannot be controlled. Continuous change, unpredictability and loss of control are inherent factors in Pawel Althamer’s works."

Pawel Althamer and others, Secession, 2009, photo: Wolfgang Thaler

Exhibition: Pawel Althamer and Others:
permanently opened
at the Secession