One Plus One Equals Three

Architect Kisho Kurokawa dies

Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa died of heart failure in Tokyo last Friday, aged 73. He was known for his revolutionary Nakajin Capsule Tower, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the Tokyo National Art Centre and a new wing of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Kurokawa "led a style known as the Metabolism Movement, advocating a shift from 'machine principle' to 'life principle' in his work and architectural designs based on themes including ecology, recycling and intermediate space". That quote from the IHT. More at Japan Today.

Kurokawa is a favourite architect of this blog. Here's a couple of photos of the breathtaking Nakajin Capsule Tower (here and here) and my fleeting impressions of the beautiful KL International Airport (complete with internal rainforest). Here's the National Art Center in Tokyo, and here's Kurokawa's practice.

Thanks Ray Kinnane.

Sockless in KL (Again)

Whilst I'm discussing things Malaysian and architectural, Kuala Lumpur International Airport deserves a mention. Designed by Kisho Kurokawa (he of Nakagin Capsule Tower fame) in conjunction with local architect Akitek Jururancang, KL's airport knocked my socks off too. Stunningly designed, featuring a lovely curved timber ceiling and a 'Malay forest enclosure' (complete with waterfall), KLIA was a pleasure to frequent (although the dining aspect of KLIA was pretty ordinary).

There's much happening with Asian airports, and this region probably leads the world in contemporary airport design. Read an earlier post on that subject at this blog here. Norman Foster has also designed the world's biggest and most technologically advanced airport in Beijing (more at The Guardian).

Read more about Kuala Lumpur International Airport at Architectural Review and Archidose. There's a few shots of the airport in this Flickr set too.

I Lost my Socks in Kuala Lumpur

I had been looking forward to seeing Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers for quite some time (panoramic image here, image gallery here). I'm quite familiar with skyscrapers in the Western world (the largest of which are in the US), but what of the Islamic side of things? (Malaysia is a Muslim country). Until recently the Petronas Towers were the tallest building(s) in the world. Taiwan's 101 Tower is currently the world's tallest skyscraper, and Dubai's Burj Dubai looks set to gazump them all, once they figure out how big they want it to be (more here).

But whilst tallness alone is impressive, an interesting, captivating design of a tall building is even moreso. And one that intrinsically relates to the culture it's amidst – moreso again. That's what kept drawing me back to the Petronas Towers in KL – their astonishing, downright beautiful, theatrical and dare I say, haunting 'Islamic' presence.

For me, these towers are the most gob-smackingly impressive skyscrapers I've yet come across. Repeated viewings, especially at night when the two shiny steel clad towers are extensively lit – knocked my socks off completely. So I then took to wearing sandals (which are much better for KL's heat anyway).

Zaha Hadid to Rise Above Docklands 'Shlock'

Zaha Hadid is set to design a landmark Melbourne building in Collins Street in the Docklands precinct. According to Royal Australian Institute of Architects Victorian president Philip Goad "Docklands could do with a much greater degree of architectural sophistication ... It needs to rise above the developer schlock we now have." The building will be Australia's greenest – and our most expensive housing and office development. Read more at The Age.

It looks as though Bruce Armstrong's imposing (and very handsome) sculpture Eagle, (centre of image on dark plinth), instead of keeping a watchful eye over the harbour, will now have to stare at his own reflection. Then again, its nickname is 'The Big Budgie' after all.

An Image of its Former Self

This has been covered on a few blogs, and originated on Core77. It certainly sets a startling and perhaps innovative precedent in downtown Melbourne...

In Tyson Street Richmond (an inner suburb of Melbourne), Jackson Clements Burrows Architects have designed a house that is most unusual. Or rather, it's not the house per se that's so unusual – it's the large photo of the older house that was demolished to make way for the new one that is unusual – it occupies much of the street elevation of the site, with the new dwelling located behind this semi-transparent photo-facade.

The Tyson Street house "provides a response to the difficulty of making of architecture in heritage zones. The site was controlled by a Heritage overlay which favoured the retention of existing dwellings. In response to the clients desire to demolish the existing house, we proposed a strategy to replace the dilapidated cottage with a new house integrated within a supergraphic image of its former self".

The local council have either an amazing sense of theatre and an appreciation of 'the radical' – or this was approved late on a Friday afternoon. I have to admit to really quite liking the idea and can actually imagine this happening a whole lot more often. Recording and retaining fragments and aspects of our communities and built environments via permanent images displayed en situ on screen (or via other methods) is a nice idea and a whole lot more interesting than merely bulldozing memories away. But try telling that to a property developer.

More at World Architecture News.

Happy Birthday Coathanger

The Sydney Harbour Bridge will be 75 years old on March 19. There are bigger, longer and higher bridges around the globe (although the Harbour Bridge is the "widest long-span bridge in the world"). Some bridges may have equally as scenic a location, but few will have such a connectivity to cultural-related events as 'The Coathanger' does. It's very much the peoples' bridge.

Put simply, it's our bridge. We love it, we walk it, we climb it and we celebrate with it. It's a bona-fide icon of Australia (especially when coupled with its neighbour, the Sydney Opera House). Sydney would be unimaginable without 'The Coathanger'.

Interestingly (as mentioned on By Design – see below), in the era of its opening, it was customary for a visiting member of the British royal family to open our significant public buildings. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened by Australians, no one seems to know why. Perhaps the royals realised that this was a significant milestone for Australia and that the construction of such an imposing structure was significant to our sense of nationhood? Perhaps they were holidaying in the Cotswolds? Who knows?

The Museum of Sydney has launched Bridging Sydney, an exhibition celebrating the bridge's 75 year history and the ABC's ever-interesting By Design radio programme recently (as usual) did a terrific report on the bridge's history as well (QuickTime 25MB file). It's worth the download.

Oh, and nearly forgot: someone's recreated the bridge in LEGO. Of course.

Home Uncomfortable Home

"Most people, in choosing a new home, look for comfort: a serene atmosphere, smooth walls and floors, a logical layout. Nonsense, says Shusaku Arakawa, a Japanese artist" ... Reversible-Destiny Lofts "feature a dining room with a grainy, surfaced floor that slopes erratically, a sunken kitchen and a study with a concave floor. Electric switches are located in unexpected places on the walls so you have to feel around for the right one. A glass door to the veranda is so small you have to bend to crawl out. You constantly lose balance and gather yourself up, grab onto a column and occasionally trip and fall."

A new and deliberately not-so-comfortable way of living emerges in Tokyo. Link via BoingBoing.

If you have questions on what kind of housing you really want we can help. Find information on manufactured homes, as well as exotic home styles and home design at Homesight.org.

Malouf on Murcutt

A highlight of the year for me – and a confession. One of my favourite designers is not a graphic designer/visual communicator. Nor is he/she an interactive designer nor a typographer. He's an architect, and for me, one of the most interesting around - anywhere.

Glenn Murcutt is a celebrated Australian architect and the 2002 Pritzker Prize winner. Here (RealPlayer file*), one of Australia's greatest writers, David Malouf, reads his (very lyrical) contribution to Kenneth Frampton's new book on Murcutt.

Simply wonderful stuff. (*The Malouf section of this file is about half-way through it).

But, for an architect who professes to create architecture that "touches the earth lightly”, this new book, at $1650 a copy and weighing in at seven kilograms (it's a big book) – lightness, subtlety and perhaps eco-friendliness have been tossed aside in favour of a big, bold, trophy-statement. How odd.

The Cryptic Message of Centreway Arcade

Back in the 80s, architects Cocks Carmichael and Whitford renovated Melbourne's venerable Centreway arcade in a fashionable architectural style of the day. I have wandered through Centreway many a time, had noticed the wall of brass Helvetica type at one end, and always thought it to be mere decoration using random letters. How wrong I was. I should have taken the time to read the somewhat cryptic message (actually it's not really all that cryptic – there's just no wordspacing). The message reads "we live in a society that sets an inordinate value on consumer goods and services". Which of course is hardly ever noticed by the throng of busy shoppers passing by underneath...

Well spotted (and originally reported) by 64 Melbourne. Here's Centreway arcade in the 60's.

The Zero Yen House

On our recent trip to Japan it was fascinating to see, well, just about everything. But one thing that really surprised us (that you definitely won't see in the tourist brochures) was the dwellings constructed by some of the homeless in Tokyo. These homeless people seemed to be quite unlike other such communities that one comes across. This is no doubt a generalisation, but being Japanese also means that one may be congenitally neat and tidy – you're hard-wired that way – even if you are on the streets and without proper accommodation. Neatness and orderliness seem to be national traits. Many (but certainly not all) homeless Japanese that one encountered had constructed shelters vaguely similar to the one above which were tucked away under highway flyovers or in back corners of parks. Most were constructed using a ubiquitous blue tarpaulin and were generally – and impressively – neat, clean and orderly. (My experience of these shelters was in Tokyo – things may be quite different elsewhere).

I'm certainly no expert on this matter, but in Japan, like many Asian countries, there is little or no social welfare for such people and there's no doubt that life on the streets is very, very tough indeed – but the 'Zero Yen' houses featured in Kyohei Sakaguchi's gallery display an ingenuity, a resourcefulness and a 'bugger it - I'm down and out but I still have my dignity' attitude that impressed. Here's hoping these people find a real house soon.

Via designboom. Read/hear more at the ABC.