condenCITY_109 density1 UNDERGROUND

Density

For some time now I have been meaning to return to what this blog had initially set out to do a few years ago- and to a certain extent it has- perhaps more explicitly now however, in considering density as beneficial to cities. In particular, the ones I have been fortunate to have lived in for extended periods of time. There is much discussion today about the benefits and drawbacks of urban density. 

I tend to think of density as  beneficial in ways of opportunity,  resource sharing, as well as social fulfillment. Although the later is perhaps most open to criticism.  I'll get to that more later as I continue to post on this topic. I will suggest now though that the observations to follow will reflect upon the hyper-density that is part of my daily life and perhaps model examples for the positives of urban density.

Underground is relevant 

Dense cities are often that by restricted necessity and determined by the very nature of available land areas. Space is a premium at any level and below ground becomes just as viable as at or above the surface of city streets. Cities under cities as they subsist in Seoul, extend and wind through artificially lit corridors for kilometers at a stretch. Guided by signage, our only sense of direction comes from the words and arrows, visual cues that guide our steps and train transits to our places of destination. 

Underground is a place of needed efficient passage, a provisional space for moving millions of urban dwellers annually. Underground has relieved the cities street surfaces of severe congestion that would otherwise paralyze a ground -surface only- transit. Underground is an economical component of a thriving and diverse economy. 

Daylight remains for the dreamers above. Down here, we are opportunistic shoppers and commuters on route to someplace else. Yet, these tunnels are a life's link.  

condenCITY_108 Cities of Nowhere

From Gangwon Environmental Artist Exhibition/ 
'Nowhere City Gangwon' Jan Koechermann 2013

I met an Artist recently who reminded me much of an Architect- or one having an Architects mindful craft in approach- but really, Jan Köchermann is an Artist who builds.  And builds intelligently well he does at that. During the recent month of August, the Gangwon-do International Artists Environmental Exhibition took place in rural Gangwon province. The exhibition brought together 37 artists from 5 countries. The work was carried out of a period of 6 days and culminated in a region wide event and  opening upon installation completion. 

Working revelations

Our journeys always carry us someplace, and in this we bring our personal memories, recollections and experiences of past places and honed preconceptions. Jan Köchermann recasts these experiences in sharp and distinctive contrast alongside the here and now. Place finding can be a matter of pre-planned choice- as our preconceived notions lead us- but chance can be just as rewarding. 

Jan Köchermann's approach presents conflicting perspectives. Familiar architectural forms are set against pastoral scenes. Colorful interruptions and precariously suspended materials are pause for contemplation. Taking sides we find thoughtful distinctions between front and back, arranged against the contradictory terms of polar environments. History is suspended and we may recognize that placeless-ness has become the familiar expectation today.  Truth is, we often seek it in our common, everyday lives.

To do is to contemplate

Hands-on working is primary for Jan. Through the actions of craft and execution, his work negotiates possibilities in discovering place, apparently- at least on this occasion- a willingness to be flexible in siting. Nearing completion, creative process renders decisive clarity of architectural model placement and in an outcome which deviates from initial intentions.

Caught in our individual dislocations, the result is beautifully disparate in response to being local, even as we are so far removed from our personal roots. 

Un-condensed Rural 5.0

Walter de Maria 1936- 2013

Death, often sheds light on past experiences. We come to remember through experiential associations the landscapes and impressionable vistas open to the vast expanses of America's west, as is the case for me. Though, having not been to The Lightning Field specifically, I've constructed my own personal and mental images of it's place from conversations with friends who have been there and a familiarity with the environment and landscape having traveled by car through that part of the New Mexican region on numerous trips. It's sparseness is serenely beautiful, at times overwhelming in a petrified calm and at other times ravaged by the natural forces that perhaps played a role in de Maria's choice in this particular spot- giving inspiration and clear conception in what would be called 'The Lightning Field' in rural western New Mexico.  

Organized Wilderness

The Lightning Field 

Walter deMaria was a man of the city and its constructed and organization influences. DeMaria also had an uncanny eye for conceptual integration within the expanses of a high desert plateau. It was a curious pairing of urban vision, oddly and meticulously placed against the randomness of unfettered wilderness. The Lightning Field (1977) installation is of a scale challenging to comprehend. It stands at 1 mile long by 1 km wide- arranged as a grid of stainless steel rods, 2 inches in diameter each. The 400 rods in total were carefully spaced equally apart at a distance of 220 feet. In total area, they establish a preceptively level plane at top elevation, consistent, even though the land covering this vast distance has slight terrain variations and by necessity the slender steel poles were varied in lengths to make up for the lands rise and fall. 

The Lightning Field will remain there certainly for decades to come- if not longer by the will of dedicated organizations ensuring its longevity. It waits for those of us still eager for a visit but who have yet to set aside the time essentials for such an extended journey in finding its place in the isolated wilderness. 

In its timelessness, it succumbs only to the whims of personal anticipation; waiting and longing for the next storm and in death we remember its continuation, conceived in both city and nature. 

condenCITY_107 cities and words

Cities are built of words.

ideas surface and take form, from the very illusion of word

it is words, after the fact, that are used to deconstruct

take apart 

to analyze

to critique the very places then built 

an odd conundrum it appears

words provoke actions

words, surface from memory 

words can be regret 

architecture and words.

livingINDUSTRIAL

livingINDUSTRIAL opens July.2.2013 at the Mullae Art Space in Seoul's Yeongdongpo district. In collaboration with Kuhn Park and Jeff Nesbit (of Texas Tech University), the exhibition examines interlaced perspectives on industrialization and its impact and germinal influence on the city. Seoul has been uniquely shaped by industrialization over the past 80 years. Its rapid transformation continues to reveal complexities of creative industrial formation (and contrasting conditions) within the density of Seoul.

condenCITY_106 contrasts in time

photo credit: Wiki commons (Sungnyemun), Dongdaemun Design Plaza (e.reeder)

I was recently reminded of 'Seoul time' for two reasons- the first being the drawn-out and ongoing construction of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza project by Zaha Hadid. Under construction now for more than 4 years and still with seemingly much to be done (and without the benefit of inside information on the interior completion status). I asked myself "what in Seoul today takes more than 4 years to construct" and the answer is nearly nothing- except for the recent completion of Sungnyemun (Seoul's historic South Gate). The South Gate was under construction for a little more than 5 years after having sustained severe damage in an arsonists attempt to burn it down. 

These lengthy construction times seem the exception in Seoul now. Perhaps here are where the similarities end- as I recently watched for a moment, workers at Dongdaemun Design Plaza shuffle precariously across scaffolding. Pieces that have been erected with today's technologies and tools and the benefit of industrialized know-how, so-to-speak. Yet, the irregularity of regularity has drawn out time in Dongdaemun. Its missing 'facade teeth' revealing the intensive calculating process of fitting together a shapely 'future,' to the detriment of vast resource consumption. It's concealed steel skeleton testament to this. 

At odds is the South Gate having been rebuilt with hand labor and traditional technique. Stones, hand-split with hammer imprecision. The ancient times of building remembered in low tech and resource efficiency. Five years of labor in reconstructing 600 years of history. 

Both Architectures are Seoul in today's time, at opposing polar corners of the city.

condenCITY_105 suburb

When suburbs come to mind we often think of sprawling, low lying expanses rarely breaking three stories in height, if that. Admittedly, this view is a narrow American perspective, one that resonates in my memory at least. Suburbs the world over have different projections and forms. Cast off's of dense urban conditions and unattainable economics (for some). Suburbs now reach new heights at thirty floors up and counting- home to the new and rising middle classes of the far east. The tabula rasa of western expanses have extended upward. 

Sky is the next frontier.

condenCITY_104 opposing cities

A city built on preserving its yesterday time, one with little waver from the past and its roots deeply entrenched in memory. Expectations and demands suspend it as a place of permanence- if there ever was such a thing in the modern metropolis. 

A city opposite, constructed not of yesterday but only of progress. A stations stop away yields more of the same replicated identity. Haste has no time for quality- after all, the notion of build quick and rebuild faster are now foregone conclusions. The new city is more temporary than ever before. This is the future of manufacturing cities. 

The products we now live in. 

Gallery MOA 2013 Exhibition

 Eric Reeder

 re: PUBLIC 2, 50x50 cm,  

 Mixed paper, Acrylic, Graphite, Ink on Bristol Board, 2012

Our public (space) is personal. We construct and reconstruct it daily in our lives of experience. This in turn informs our work as architects of the built environment. Public in Seoul is something different; malleable, more so than most other cities. Public loses ground to private claims and is neither public nor private- lost in a evolutionary state of murky gray. Public is compromised, negotiated and forever curious.

Exhibition dates:    2013. 3. 1(금) - 3. 30(일)

Opening Reception : 2013. 3. 1(금) 오후 6시

Gallery MOA 3월 전시보도자료
www.heyrimoa.com 
Heyri Art Valley, Kyunki-do
Korea

.................................................................................................................................

2013 국제 건축가 드로잉전 “ESsense_감각의 본질”

전시기간 :    2013. 3. 1(금) - 3. 30(일)

Opening Reception : 2013. 3. 1(금) 오후 6시

전시분야 :    드로잉 

참여작가 :    김미상/Kim Mi Sang, 정수진/Jung Su Jin, 임지택/Lim Ji Taek, 

제갈엽/Jeagal Youp(Eric), 최두남/Choi Du Nam, 박준호/Park Joon Ho, 

문훈/Moon Hoon, 우경국/Woo Kyung Kook, 방철린/Bang Chul Rin, 구영민/Koo Young Min, 전인호/Jun In Ho, 김인철/Kim In Cheurl, Eric Reeder, Santiago Porras Alvarez

기획       :우경국

코디네이터 :  전인호

후원 :  한국건축가협회, 새건축사 협회,

협찬 :  하우징 플러스, 온맘건설, 제이엠건설,

갤러리 MOA 에서는 2013년 3월 기획전으로 ‘ESsense_감각의본질“ 이라는 주제로 국제 건축가 드로잉전을 개최한다. 이번 전시에는 국내 유명 건축가 13인, 그리고 스페인, 미국 등 외국건축가 2인을 초청하여 건축가들이 평소 표현하던 건축의 개념적 스케치가 아니라 주제와 같이 본질적인 감각을 바탕으로 사물의 현상은 물론 각자의 철학적 사유를 새로운 형식의 드로잉으로 표출 해 내고 있다. 이는 기존의 미술이나 조각에서 보여주는 밑그림과 는 달리 현상에 대한 건축가들의 또 다른 시각을 체험할 수 있는 좋은 기회라 생각한다.

전시 기간 중에는 2회에 걸쳐 세미나를 개최한다. 세미나에서는 Essence(본질)+sense(감각)에 대한 의미론적 해석과 그 영향이 미술과 건축 등의 장르 속에서 어떻게 해석되어 지고 변화 되어 왔는지를 발표하고, 주제와 관련하여 건축가 개인이 표현하고 있는 드로잉 기법과 의미, 그리고 새로운 가능성에 대한 토론의 장이 될 것이다.

특히 감성이 서로 다른 국내외 건축가들이 다수 참여함으로서 보다 풍부하고 다양한 드로잉의 차이를 경험하게 될 것으로 기대한다.

갤러리 MOA

관장  이양호

전시 서문

제2회 국제 건축가 드로잉전의 주제는 Essence(본질) 와 Sense(감각)을 합성한 “ESsense/감각의 본질”로 기존의 구상과 코드화 되어있는 현상으로서의 예술로부터 벗어나고자 하는 취지에서 시작한 것이다. 인간에게는 5감(시각, 청각, 후각, 미각, 촉각)이 있다. 이러한 감각은 신체의 적합자극에 의해 흥분하고 작동한다. 다시 말해 인간의 자극 인지는 이 오감에 의해서만 일어난다. 기존의 예술이 재현의 논리에 주로 의미를 두었다면, 이번 전시는 감각의 본질을 통한 재현, 즉 비가시적 힘과 생성을 표현하는 “감각형상”을 표출 시키고자 하는 것이다.

질 들레즈의 회화론에서도 감각형상에 대하여 프란시스 베이컨의 작품을 대상으로 하여  “감각 자체를 그리는 것” 또는 “그림의 대상으로서의 감각“으로 설명한 바 있다. 이는 추상도 구상도 아닌 새로운 표현형식으로 리오타르의 figural(형상성)를 통해 분명하게 표시하고 있다. 즉 신체에 의하여 조건 지워지고 또한 이러한 흥분과 히스테리의 힘에 의한 창조적 발작현상은 새로운 예술 작품을 태동 시키게 된다는 것이다. 굳이 들레즈의 이론을 바탕으로 하지 않아도 우리에게 내재 되어있는 감각을 기본으로 비재현적 형상개념의 작업들을 건축가들에 의하여 자유롭게 표현될 수 있도록 기획한 것이다.

글 _드로잉 전 기획 건축가 우경국 

Press Release:

MOA Gallery March 2013, the international Architects drawing exhibition opens, “ESsense: sense of nature” as the subject for the special exhibitions gallery. Thirteen domestic architects and two invited foreign architects will participate. The exhibit challenges common illustrative expressions practiced by the Architect and the construction of conceptual sketches. Within this an exhibition identifying the intrinsic sense of self, as well as the phenomenon of philosophical reason expressed within new mediums of drawing. A seminar will be held two times during the exhibition period. Seminar ‘In Essence’ (essence) and sense (sense of) for semantic interpretations and its impact has been identified in the genre of art and architecture. Open interpretations with respect to the subject matter, drawing techniques and meaning, will be presented for discussion. Different sensibilities with respect to ‘drawing’ reveal diverse approaches from participating architects.

condenCITY_103 standing in wait

Rare
empty without alteration
out of place it seems without
occupation.

Like a life sealed up and hidden
-and maybe there is truth in that-
in contrast to the exhibitions
next door
down the street
pervasive
as it is everywhere

to open is to become stuck
in a daily exposure of routine.

Seoul is rarely so pure in
face.