Week 3 - Tuesday 10/08/2010

Projection of a short-film about the Villa Barbaro by Palladio. I suppose it was a striking difference with Week 2 where 2 films were projected: The Jean Prouve's House and the Glass House (La Maison de Verre) by Pierre Chareau.
All where taken from the Arte Video by Frederic Compain, a collection  by Richard Copans and Stan Neuman
2 texts:
-The Growthing by Bruce Sterling originaly taken from Visionary in Residence: Stories inviting us into an aging facility design by Greg Lynn
-The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista originaly taken from Vermillon Sands by the excellent J.G. Ballard

A quote from BLDBBLOG concerning Ballard.

"We have more to learn from the fiction of J.G. Ballard … than we do from Le Corbusier. The good city form of tomorrow is a refugee camp built by Brown & Root; the world’s largest architectural client is the U.S. Department of Defense. More people now live in overseas military camps than in houses designed by Mies van der Rohe — yet we study Mies van der Rohe." Geoff Manaugh


It was a good beginning, Ballard is always a good starter for an architectural meal especially after a very quiet and soft Palladio,  a little drop of Bruce Sterling was there to spice the morning. We had a very interesting conversation about traces and memory, an idea I want to focus on as each Case Study have the very strong presence of their owner or their architects. We hope to emphasis on the dramatic aspect of architecture dwelling, as a vehicule of strong fantasies. Maybe next time we could have extracts from the cynical and colorful "Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World's Most Colorful Despots" by Peter York and Douglas Coupland?
I am of course not suggesting that all architectural clients are dictators, but dictators have usually the power for unrestrain architecture folies. Which can be a double sword conceptual challenge for the sublime.


The afternoon was dedicated to presentation by the students of their Case Study House:

Hugh Buhrich House 
studied by Susan Jin-Young Yu and Aristotle Marc Go

Susan and Aristotle introduce the myth surrounding Hugh Buhrich's House and the architect's career in Sydney as a misunderstood talented constructor. Indeed Hugh Buhrich could easily fit into the cardigan of a 60's cult hero, the underground figure of the "Sydney School".

Their method of analysis seems to take the path of an architectural archeology, a very ecxiting investigation hopefully.

It is documented by a mix of Revit modeling and archival pictures.