of Anonymous Saint in Bikini While Jesus is Walking on Water
2005.07.21
2005.07.26 10:40
abracadabra, faia
Land of Reenactionary Architecturism
Two days of silence 2005
Death of Flavia Julia Helena Augusta
24-25 July 326
2005.07.26 13:13
Dear Abra
No mandatory leave, just a reenactment of the law of silence Constantine issued 24-25 July 326.
A similar reenactment happened at Design-L and Architecthetics exactly two years ago.
2005.07.26 13:31
Do you know your neighbors?
I've lived on the same block since 1957, and I've found that connections come and go as each year goes by. My immediate next door neighbor has been the same person all these years, so Jean and I definitely have a connection. In the 'old days' there were a number of close relatives also living on my block, so there was a real connection there. Right now, I love how most of my black neighbors call me "Mr. Steve" and I'm sure virtually all my neighbors actually wonder what the hell I'm still doing here.
Before the "white man" came, the valley I live in was a sacred burial place. There's no record of this, I just feel it. I can still remember when Diane moved here (she's the one that started "Mr. Steve"), she right away mentioned how quiet the street is. I said, "Yeah, it's always been quiet." I didn't tell her why though.
2005.07.26 14:54
we all live in america
Oana, please write a new Elements of Semiology someday. Any pictures of Romanian Chinatowns?
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2005.07.26 16:08
architecture school and suicide
I only knew one person, Neil Shepherd, who committed suicide within a month of the bad review he received at his thesis project presentation. That was June 1979 at a not-at-all elite school.
Maybe it's a good thing I don't 'teach' architecture. For some reason, when it comes to architecture, I see no reason to show any mercy.
2005.07.26 16:25
architecture school and suicide
The last time I was with Neil was giving him a ride in my new Toyota Corolla Liftback. Neil was working with my friend Ron, but Ron wasn't there when I came to show him my new car, so I asked Neil if he wanted to go for a ride. Neil was a rare black architecture student back then, and thus I think a whole bunch of issues that most architecture students don't have to deal with were there for Neil.
2005.07.26 16:39
architecture school and suicide
Neil died in an engine-running car within a closed garage.
In this exercise it is presupposed that the study of history is a source for direction towards the future. It necessarily demands an acknowledgment of man's fallibility and misjudgment. The concept of removing past mistakes (by whatever action necessary) for the enhancement of an urban situation is truly responsibility and progressive. To be able to admit that new is not always better, and, more importantly, that history must not be viewed as sacred or irreversible is a significant achievement. The Victor Emmanuel II Monument was at one time new in an ancient city. It was not designed to mess with the existing context, but to dominate it, and it was successful in that respect. In neither scale or color nor function did the monument accept its responsibility towards the Roman fabric.
In terms of physical form, there exists the recurrent question of what should be done in the end. It is more appropriate to replicate the spaces and surfaces of the surrounding buildings or to derive an attitude and a method which employs the scale and character of the surrounding structures?
This scheme proposes an attitude of building which will evolve over time. It rejects the concept of the grand design which will transform the site in one complete step. As Rome is/was an accumulation of buildings of diversity and individuality, so should this site be developed. However, diversity and individuality at the expense of respectful coexistence will not suffice for a site of this importance, both in location and in historical significance.
This project reflects the first stage massing analysis and the second stage schematic layout for a philosopher's academy.
--Neil Shepherd
HISTORY: MEANS AND ENDS
To remember, lest we repeat
To study, lest we forget
To clarify and integrate and recover those threads which bound divergencies together
To be conscious, lest ends be confused with current means. . .
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2005.07.26 17:06
architectural language
"The only ire I experience over the mistaken understanding of the Immaculate Conception is when I find the mistake in (architectural) texts published by academic presses. Aren't academic presses supposed to represent the highest standard of editorship? I have compiled what is a growing collection of instances where the mistake occurs, and Peter Eisenman and his related publishing entities account for at least three examples."
--excerpt from "killing two birds" in A Quondam Banquet of Virtual Sachlichkeit: Part III.
2005.07.26 17:54
public / industrial spaces turned domestic
The Circus of Domitain turned into the Piazza Navona. Legend has it that where St. Agnes was jailed in a brothel within the Circus of Domitia (which was rebuilt by Alexander Severus and renamed Circus Agonalia) is now St. Agnes in Agone on the Piazza Navona.
2005.07.27 15:00
what do archinects look like?
Here's me 2001.07.24, pic taken by my then museumpeace assistant Anna DiCicco; we were playing hooky that day.
I was thinking, "Strike a pose praying in the garden of Japanese I really think so."
2005.07.27 18:33
What is the Best Design Ever?
Among other things, because it made a lot of 20th century architectural theorists and architects write and say completely wrong things about it.
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