‘Architecture is monstruous in the way each choice leads to the reduction of possibility. ‘
OMA, Moma Charette manifesto, 1997
(as seen during a talk between Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist – Interdependence: We Need to Talk about Community, The Stoller Hall, Manchester, 8th July 2017)
‘Architecture is building design under conditions of scarcity.’
Derek Bangle paraphrasing a popular economics textbook, Architizer, 2016
Here is a thought-provoking question: Can you imagine a world without places? None whatsoever? An infinite void?
‘Our lives are so place-oriented and place-saturated that we cannot begin to comprehend, much less face up to, what sheer placelessness would be like’
Edward S. Casey, Getting Back Into Place, 1939
There once lived a girl called Namai who had an unusual dream – to become homeless. She had a polka-dot dress on a blue hanger and a polka-dot house on the 7th Sky. All people in the Sky Kingdom were living happily ever after in their smart and pretty homes levitating in tall skies. Enchanted ladders lured them up and no one ever wanted to return. But Namai was different, she knew her house’s mischievous ways. Continue reading “Homesick”
I love beautifully wrapped Christmas presents, but looking at the big picture it is fair to say Christmas wrapping paper is a huge waste. Therefore, this year I decided to reuse some of it for origami. Check out the results:
Merry Christmas! Coconut and I hope you are enjoying the holidays as much as we are. 
These are our favourite buildings of 2016? What are yours?
From the bottom up:
To sum up – I love bricks and think Herzog & de Meuron are brilliant!
The New Architect’s Atlas by Martti Kalliala and Hans Park demonstrates that there are many places (disciplines) that an architectural graduate can explore. And I love travelling…
See the places that interest me the most at the moment on this adapted version of the ‘New Architect’s Atlas‘.
‘Although aesthetic appearance matters enormously in architecture and design, neither architecture as a whole nor its styles can be reduced to mere matters of appearance.’
Patrik Schumacher
(Patrik Schumacher made some controversial claims during his keynote speech at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin last week. I disagree with pretty much everything he said there and then. That is why this week I tried hard to find a quote by him that I can actually relate to.)
In contrast to most of my former university mates, I never thought architectural education should undergo a serious transformation. Of course, I agreed with them that there is a giant gap between architectural education and traditional architectural practice but always saw this as an opportunity, not a problem.
Continue reading “Architectural education – an introduction to everything?”
‘You can’t really say what is beautiful about a place, but the image of the place will remain vividly with you’
Tadao Ando
(I am not sure how I feel about the news that Tadao Ando’s Piccadilly Gardens wall in Manchester will be demolished – it is definitely an image of a place that remains with me. I wouldn’t call it ‘beautiful’ or ‘vivid’ though.)
Big City Little Monkey 