Art visual np2

Spatiology is a book written (and drawn) by Vittorio Giorgini , former teacher at the Pratt Institute who exposes among other fields, his interest for the geometrical and physical construction of topological thin shell structures. The book is rich of various drawings illustrating the geometrical processes applied to simple surfaces in order to achieve topological characteristics. This research matches with Giorgini's obsession for the minimal impact of a building on the ground. We can observe this obsession through the Casa Saldarini (Italy 1962) and the Liberty Center (done with Pratt's students in New York 1976) but also in other projects designed by the Italian architect which are using a more "industrial" architectural vocabulary. A video is available on youtube showing Giorgini in the garden of the Casa Saldarini talking (in Italian) about his small scales shells but also about the house itself (starting after the 5th minute) Casa Saldarini Liberty Center

Subnature is a pretty interesting book written by David Gissen that attempts to gather a body of architectural works that take their essence in the consideration of the non-romantic (at least not in the classical meaning of it) elements of nature whether the latter are atmospheric, material or living entities. The best way to illustrate the content of this book is probably to insert its contents' page: PART ONE (Atmospheres): - Dankness - Smoke - Gas - Exhaust PART TWO (Matter): - Dust - Puddles - Mud - Debris PART THREE (Life): - Weeds - Insects - Pigeons - Crowds All those elements can be the motor of a narrative that ends up into an architectural project such as developed by R&Sie(n), Eyal Weizman, Philippe Rahm or Jorge Otero-Pailos. The interesting thing here, is that nature is considered, not anymore as the docile entity that capitalo-ecology want to "save", but rather as the component of all things, continuously evolving and liberated from any subjectivation....

Almost as a sequel of the article I wrote about the notion of Urbicide, here is a invitation to read Andrew Herscher 's essay, Violence Taking Place. The architecture of the Kosovo conflict which attempts to illustrate the role of architecture destruction in the second conflict of the Balkans in the 90's (the first one being the Bosnia war). In fact, destructing buildings in an asymmetrical conflict is not anymore a strategy of diminution of the enemy's forces but rather a symbolic negation of the otherness' culture and to a broader scale, the otherness' existence. Herscher thus recounts the three phases of the Kosovo conflict which all dramatized this perspective on architecture assassination. The first one (1st and 2nd images) is the 1998 series of attacks, massacres and profanation from (Christians) Serbians towards (Muslims) Albanians in Kosovo. The second one was the surgical bombing of Belgrade by NATO (3rd image) targeting not only political objectives but al...

Noriko Ambe is an artist who magnificently excavates books to create troglodytes landscapes within them. The physical landscapes thus dialogue with the imaginary landscapes created by the books' content in an almost inversion of form and substance. A tremendous multitude of other works are visible on her website . Thanks Biayna

The third issue of Beyond (see previous post 1 & 2 ) has been released. This journal edited by Pedro Gadanho (read his manifesto for boiteaoutils) is smartly investigating current issues by means of essays and short stories, coherently gathered around a specific theme. This third opus is entitled Trends and Fads and attempt to question the factors of influence of the current architectural scene. The contributors to those essays and short stories are: Ole Bouman, Martha Cooley, Mockitecture, MOOV & DASS, Oren Safdie, Georg Simmel, Giovanna Borasi, Valéry Didelon, Krunoslav Ivanišin, Kieran Long, Marcosandmarjan, Ines Weizman, Jimenez Lai, Vanessa Liaw.

I am kino-eyes. I am a builder. I have placed you, whom I've created today, in an extraordinary room which did not exist until just now when I also created it. In this room there are twelve walls shot by me in various parts of the world. In bringing together shots of walls and details, I've managed to arrange them in an order that is pleasing and to construct with intervals, correctly, a film-phase which is the room. Dziga Vertov, 1923 Film Architecture. From Metropolis to Blade Runner is a beautiful book about the relationships between Architecture and Cinema. It was edited by Dietrich Neumann in 1999 and includes essays by Donald Albrecht, Anton Kaes, Anthony Vidler and Michael Webb. I already posted an article about the Blade Runner's part (see previous post ), but other movies are depicted in this book which magnifies the beauty of their settings as an hyper-representative and expressive architecture. Film Architecture. From Metropolis to Blade Runner . Edited by Diet...

Underground is an incredible children book published in 1976 and drawn and written by David Macaulay . It is supposed to be a didactic and schematic explanation about the urban underground (foundations, sewers, subways etc.) but thanks to superb axonometrics from below and without the earth, this book acquire a beautiful artistic dimension. One would have then noticed the humorous touch of placing characters on those drawings' ground which fits with the lowest level of the buildings' foundations. Underground by David Macaulay. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1976 Other books by Macaulay are available on google books (to some extents) including Unbuilding

Architecture of Aggression: Military architecture of two world wars is a very interesting book written by Keith Mallory and Arvid Ottar in 1973 which proposes an inventory of military architecture during WWI and WWII according to their typology and location. The two example I chose here are camouflaged bunkers in the United Kingdom and a mobile sea fort also in the UK (the Maunsell Towers are obviously in this book as well --> see former article ).

Cyclonopedia is one of those books that drives you ecstatic for being so different from anything you have ever read so far. In this book, Iranian Philosopher Reza Negarestani elaborates a beautiful narrative of the Middle East seen as a sentient and alive entity. Following the tracks of Deleuze & Guatarri's Thousand Plateaus , Negarestani go far beyond them by granting an alive autonomy to every entities composing the Middle East (sand, dust, oil, plague, rust, war, bullets, rats, corpes, Zoroastrian divinities etc.) except maybe human being themselves. The text is very obscure and sometimes even esoteric, but the feeling of being lost in it provides even more jubilation when a paragraph becomes vivid for the reader. Here are some beautiful excerpts (and there are so much more in the book): “Everywhere a hole moves, a surface is invented. When the despotic necrocratic regime of periphery-core, for which everything should be concluded and grounded by the gravity of the core, i...