condenCITY_101 manufactured city 2.0
Seoul's foundations are horizontal in contrast.
Outstretched in courtyard configurations, bound by activity and the passing, progressing city. The neighborhood factories of post war boom are fading- but there are few that remain as patchwork, still stitched in a quilt of worker districts such as Seongsu-dong. They are wrapped and tangled within and guided by the very productions that sustain them. They may disappear in the not so distant coming years, perhaps displaced to remote borders of the cities edge, while some will just disappear.
Foundations to be covered in vertical sameness.
condenCITY_100 stick-on city
At surface, the faces of rising eastern capitalist cities are peel and stick:
Facades quick to arrive and disappear under false hopes and dematerialized dreams.
Patterns mesmerize in slight deception and upon closer inspection the mask comes off.
What remains solely are shells of anticipation...
and the emptiness of borrowed time.
Remembering Lebbeus Woods
Rising Waters_ departing lives ---Oct 2012 NYC
Remembering Lebbeus Woods
1940-2012
I first remember meeting Lebbeus Woods in 1995 at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the College of Environmental Design. He had been invited to give a public lecture in Boulder and studio critique for forth year students in the college. Like a few of my classmates at the time we were impressionably arrested by his gift for making the impossible- in brief, his drawings were mesmerizing and beyond static visions of our world and the architecture we assume daily. His visionary 'Architecture' indeed had boundless possibilities, both in how one speaks of it- as Lebbeus did- and how we render it as conflicting extensions of our tangled world; political, social, poetic, and beyond.
His ungrounded creations captured what it meant to 'make' and for me an essential example I still impart on my students today in lectures that I give. His work was deep, inspiring and cross generational.
"..Maybe I can show what could happen if we lived by a different set of rules.” LW, New York Times interview, 2008.
His works will continue to cross generations uncharted, well past these lives we have now.
Other tributes
Steven Holl remembers Lebbeus
bldgblog: Lebbbeus Woods
NY Times tribute
Personal in Public
Recently, 'Public Contact' was staged live in the Posco corporate headquarter lobby in central Seoul. The performance was timed to coincide with the busy noon lunch rush, as office workers poured from the towers above, making their way to the streets outside of the main public lobby of the Posco headquarters.
As the performance artists write- "the memory of touch" are aptly considered words; curious (and in this setting) perhaps an inappropriate juxtaposition of uncommon closeness within a place of definitive social boundary. The half hour long performance of spontaneous positioning and comings together of man/ woman- posed in comfort and discomfort- played out against the wariness of public eyes. The public space of the lobby is only that at fixed times. The lobby is both public (in classification) and yet wholly under private control. Acts of close human contact remain strangely out of place here.
'Public Contact' was a beautiful reminder of connections (and contrasts) within semi-public corporate places, suggesting that such 'public' urban space carries the weight and burden of expectation. Actions outside of this stand in stark defiance. Personal in public lives momentarily.
condenCITY_99 manufactured city 1.0
The small alley way streets of Seoul (go-mok-gil) are the support systems for micro-industries, once randomly dispersed throughout the northern half of the city. Scaled to compact urban conditions, these production networks sustain neighborhoods and working communities. Shops such as the one above are large enough only for the solo-working man, specialized in his or her daily routines (like the sign maker pictured here). His shop, in tern, connects to the plastics distributor- with links to the paint specialist, delivery man on motor bike and so on; a web of light industries production preserving a microcosm of connectivity, activity and ultimately compact urban forms. A city in my mind has never seemed so small.
Boundaries between daily life and production are intertwined at street side shops facing passers-by. Distinctions between zoned places here and there remain overlooked.
Industry as the foundation of Seoul.
condenCITY_98 speculation ruin
Back in late 2001, I would gaze out my apartment window and wonder when this building, seemingly at a momentary standstill, would be completed. Since that time years back, having left and returned to Seoul to live in the same place- this building still stands frozen, as it has for more than a decade. Paralyzed in speculative debate amongst landowners in one of the wealthiest districts in the city.
Standing testament to indifferent government policies- at least with respect to the urban public condition- one must wonder how it is possible for such inactivity to remain in a location of desire? Where is the neighborhood outrage and call for action condemning this place? How could owners of private property be allowed to maintain such a decrepit stance with back turned?
Standing testament to indifferent government policies- at least with respect to the urban public condition- one must wonder how it is possible for such inactivity to remain in a location of desire? Where is the neighborhood outrage and call for action condemning this place? How could owners of private property be allowed to maintain such a decrepit stance with back turned?
The ruinous demise has unfolded in a front of tatters, shocking as it is the city remains quiet spectator- or so it seems. Seocho- tied in speculation ruin.
condenCITY_97 time
Space is collapsed and expanded in cyclical rhythm.
Repeating daily in a precise, machine like cadence.
Seoul breaths in and out, exposed at the seams. Where at once memories were made, they become irrelevant daily, covered under the weight of a morning car park. Tables, chairs, conversation are at the center of darkening evening skies; if only for a brief moment in reoccurring time.
condenCITY_96 speculation city
You are here... or somewhere, as speculative chance amongst a city of muse.
Viability is measured in paces from subway entrances and district identifiers- its all in a name after all. A city of speculative deals- one after another. Advertisement is the standout formula attempting to seduce and build distance from close by neighbors. The reality is there is little difference to be found and distance itself elusive. There is a certain mythology here- one of a different city (as in the rendered image above) in contrast to the one that exists in the reality of Seoul.
A city built on speculation.
condenCITY_95 Futures uncertain
"Tsunami" effect.
It is easy to make knee jerk analogies to Seoul's newest civic addition and its formal implications. Driving home the other night with two colleagues it was quickly agreed upon the failures this newly exposed addition lends to the cities public face. However, its formation as a monumental architecture- projecting the future and recognizing the cities tumultuous past- to me as a missed opportunity, is more confounding.
A strained attempt to unify a city and country?
Our constructed public environments represent cultural outlook in progressive society. The progress under which, we are brought together in common visions and destinies (for better or worse). It is no secret that the design and construction of the Seoul city hall took a maligned route to completion- with competing factions in both government, construction companies and the designing Architectural firms. The worst of it seems to be that to this day there is no agreement or accountability on the part of anyone- while everyone sits and points fingers regarding the failures in design, budgets, and methods just to name a few. What has emerged though is a need for professional solidarity in the Architecture ranks here in Korea. Coming together as a professional body in order to instill safeguards of ownership, copy-write and legal matters of accountability. While these do exist to some degree one has to wonder then how so many of these issues could be blindly overlooked over the course of such a significant project.
I ponder the future of this building 20, 30 years form now encumbered by the expression of its already dated, parametrically patterned skin. How will it weather time- both in a physical and formal sense? How will city hall become one of the significant faces of Seoul?
For now, embracing history and celebrating the future, this project today appears to obliterate both.
Remembering Marker
La Jetee 1962, Chris Marker, Image source wikipedia commons
1921-2012 Chris Marker
Forever remembering time travel in black and white.
Un-condensed rural 5.0
Western Lines
Androgynous-scape
Tethered to the past
unrealistic futures ahead
It is vista
that feeds imagination
and blurs recent memory
This road is a place of endurance
My roots
A reflection of constant
in Motion
Time has ancient wisdom here
Crosscuts before man
And after death
A series of lines
Carved in and suspended above earth
Structuring our west
condenCITY_94 temporary foundations
World expositions are an odd way, if not superficial method, of generating\ regenerating cities and urban areas in decline; a form of instantaneous urbanization and in the case of Yeosu, South Korea- the site of the 2012 World Exposition- it appears at face value as simple as adding water. A maritime overture is interesting in reflection of the areas history but has repositioned the industrial waterfront for an uncertain future. Suggestive materializations today are the temporary foundations for tomorrow.
condenCITY_93 modern perspectives
In 1986, the father of Korean modern Architecture passed away during the peak of his career at the untimely age of 55. Last year (May-July 2011) a retrospective exhibition of his works titled 'Dense Modernities' opened in Germany to the question- would Swoogeun Kim ever become globally known for his transformative contributions on the Korean peninsula? Perhaps in time the answer will emerge more definitively but for now, his aura remains predominantly domestic.
Swoogeun Kim completed over 200 works in Korea and abroad. His fledgling practice began controversially at Buyeo (south of Seoul) for the design of the national museum seen in the above images. The museum stirred controversy in its reflectance of what critics saw as Japanese influence. Having less than two decades separation from the end of Japanese colonial rule, the suggestive, if not symbolic design of the museum was enough to raise discontent. Still, Swoogeuns vision prevailed and today it stands testament to willful evolution.
The impassable homogeneity of Korean 'architecture' as it was, prior to modernizing efforts- Swoogeun forged a broadening vision- metaphorically and experientially. Carving away at the 'mass' he commanded views beyond borders. Swooguen looked to the outside and in doing so, brought a sequestered culture and population with him. His architecture remains to this day a model for resonant perspectives.
The impassable homogeneity of Korean 'architecture' as it was, prior to modernizing efforts- Swoogeun forged a broadening vision- metaphorically and experientially. Carving away at the 'mass' he commanded views beyond borders. Swooguen looked to the outside and in doing so, brought a sequestered culture and population with him. His architecture remains to this day a model for resonant perspectives.
Un-condensed rural 4.0
In Time
The crevice accepts the water freely
Feeding the undoing of everything
Beautiful.
Wood remains in decades wake
Hands Mark- stained by touch
Foot steps
deepen
In time
The house of aristocrats
The house of passing glances.
condenCITY_92 preservative measures
photos: b.oicherman\\ e.reeder
Recently I have been collaborating with color and light expert Boris Oicherman, a visiting artist in residence at the Chungdam Institute- supported in part by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Seoul. We have been experimenting with a material he has become quite familiar with in his studio- cellophane- and together have begun to consider the effects of site specific installations in the dense, aging neighborhoods of Seoul's industrial urban center.
Some of our first documented installation 'tests', seen here, are from my perspective an attempt to preserve 'city' via material interventions that promote heightened awareness through diverging contrast. Time will end for these dense network alleys, as Seoul moves forward- in blind obliteration- away from its tumultuous past. We can manage however to capture, with serendipitous effort- images, reflections, saturations otherwise overlooked- as measures preserved for time immemorial. Perhaps similar in the way we have become accustomed to preservation; wrapped and sealed.
Un-condensed rural 3.0
Heyri art valley is located to the north west of Seoul, just shy of the DMZ border. Planned as an artists live-work village it has become something of a commercial spectacle. Actually, suburban theme park comes to my mind, the more I return and experience the ebb and flow of 'customers' who visit in high volume on weekends and holidays- it is a place defined by being open and being closed, figuratively speaking. Heyri's North American suburban like planning, with meandering roads circling back to a single gated-community-entry, is dotted with modernist galleries, restaurants, residences, working studios and a few other out of the ordinary functions. Natural landscapes permeate vacant lots and surrounding hillsides- all appearing in wait for the next architectural surprise- but one has to hope that some of this remains 'open' to dormant speculation.
In Heyri, the sum of its pieces detract from the spirit of its whole. As place of creative discovery one is constantly distracted by competing architectural folly- even in recognizing the masterful results as some individual architectures have come to be. Beauty may lie individually, but excess can be blinding. Sometimes restrained silence is necessary: but what does this mean for the future of Heyri.. and after a decade of development and change has Heyri lost its way?
condenCITY_91 convenience
Accessible convenience is now pervasive in the modern metropolis, to the extent that chance has become harder to find.
Cold, hard light cuts through night street, striking and erasing color. Everything is rendered neutral in the florescent brightness of ubiquitous convenience. Stores littered across Seoul - on each block in multiples- equally unchanged they are, in accessible 24-hour instant communities. The new market for exchange, has conveniently supplanted diversity and repetitive expectation has stopped at just that- knowing exactly what you will find and what you get. That sweet, constant smell of preservative.
practice_ collaborative
Design practice defies time. The formative gestation over recent years have produced milestone accomplishments, successes, failures and the ongoing will to endure the challenges of what it means to be a designer in the environment. As a side note to all of this, CO|RE has officially launched online as of 04.2012.06 and the profiled works of our group can now be found here, in our pilot preview:
CORE collaborative
Beyond Geometry_ MOA Gallery
Drawing works by :
Kim Misang_ Korea
Kim Incherl_ Korea
Maria Fullaondo_ Spain
Moon Hoon_ Korea
Park Joonho_ USA
Park Taehong_ Korea
Bang Chullin_ Korea
Back Moonki_ Korea
Santiago Porras Alvarez_ Spain
Ciro Marquez_ Spain
Woo Kyungkook_ Korea
Eric Reeder_ USA
Jun Inho_ Korea
Peter Farman_ Australia
Gallery MOA Heyri Art Valley, Korea
Public Opening- 06 April 2012---09 May 2012
condenCITY_90 white
" The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. "
- William Gibson, 1984- Neuromancer
condenCITY_89 erased
At the time I took these photos, it was early 1998 and the fate of Currigan Exhibition Hall had already been set. These are the building as it was, in its last years- much unchanged since it's completion in 1969 and for the most part as you can see here, well preserved in it's nearly 30 years of operation. Currigan Hall, for Denver, represented progress in structural ingenuity and spatial opportunity- refined in its restraint and early modern form. Designed by the late William C. Muchow and Associate Architects, it was one of the first space frame structures to afford a column free space of 100000 sf. It's spatial equivalent unequal anywhere in the western US region.
Sadly, its demolition became final in 2002 and in its place a new convention center hardly worth mentioning here. The appeal of Currigan was its tectonic clarity; with structure (inside and out) and exterior facade material, woven tightly in functional expression. Currigan was transformational in its bold, rhythmically repetitive contrast to the historic revival structures surrounding it. Yet remained intricately delicate (in visual dialogue) as experienced up close via exposed connective details. According to city records, it was too new to be deemed worthy of saving- not 'historical' enough, in other words.
Erased, but worth while in memory.
Lautner's LA
photos-ereeder 2000
It was no secret that John Lautner was appalled by LA's appearance. He once commented that he wondered how anyone could have created such a dreadful environment. Yet, through his unrecognized, albeit maturing career Lautner made LA home. And he made it an impressionable 'home' for the fortunate clients to have commissioned his work to design their domestic retreats. It has been more recently that his life's achievements have come to light in the eyes of the architecture community however, few architects even today, can measure in spatial experience, what Lautner was able to accomplish in his time- sans computational tools.
It was early 2000 when I visited the only Lautner residence I have ever seen. It is is perhaps one of the most memorable architectural experiences of my life, having the rare opportunity to step foot inside of his Sheats-Goldstein Residence in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. Our small group was invited on that bright Los Angeles afternoon, with late day sun casting deep shadows. I remember clearly upon arrival, the house had no distinctive point of entry- it appeared camouflaged within the heavily forested hillside. Unlike so much architecture, predisposed to what that first image represents in style or form. Lautner's residence, on the other hand, was about succumbing to the dense landscape of the steeply sloped hillside- the facade, a series of low, interrupted walls defining the entry, was nearly invisible in a disguise to make environment the forefront spectacle.
It is interesting to recall such experiences from distant years. In part because the mental reconstruction is inaccurate to a large extent, slanted to a personal bias and honed to what the senses reveal in ones memory. I re-create my visit in words, searching for description of loosely connected spaces- each segmented room experientially independent from the previous in generously specific attempts to connect indoor living with the outdoor forests and distant city skyline. And so it was, the house that pulled you into its folded entry, disguised in obscurity, appearing determined in its interior-exterior play. Was it inside or outside that we crossed into the vaulted living area? Affixed with permanent furniture- a space appearing of a futuristic tomorrow, ironically conceived in years past with it's vast concrete ceiling capturing sky and directing shadows. Infinity floor, looking to city skyline, I wandered to the edge of Lautner's LA.
condenCITY_88 forgotten cities
798 Beijing, China
Industry represents the seeded beginning (and inversely at times, the cataclysmic end) of a cities life. As we look into the 'The Forgetting Machine: Notes Toward a History of Detroit'- definitely worth reading by the way- in regards to the industrial miscue of what Detroit, Michigan has become.
Not everywhere though are places, so defined by industry, as ill-fated or so forgotten. Shouldn't we in the very least hold ourselves accountable for the invariable damage inflicted upon the very environments of such places? Remembering must therefor be part of the equation.
Remembering must overcome how we have chosen to forget.
condenCITY_87 south of somewhere
Beige
caught between sky
and
vacancy
Where manufactured lives
and packaged dreams
Assembled
In production like
Perfection
Weight rises
and always falls
Here time
is covered
In atypical fashion
South of somewhere
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)