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Today Secret Soviet Cities

[Images: From ZATO: Secret Soviet Cities during the Cold War at Columbia's Harriman Institute; right three photographs by Richard Pare]. Speaking of Van Alen Books: earlier this week, they hosted a panel on the topic of "Secret Soviet Cities During the Cold War." These were closed cities or ZATO, "sites of highly secretive military and scientific research and production in the Soviet Empire. Nameless and not shown on maps, these remote urban environments followed a unique architectural program i…(more)

Today Perhaps it is not a city

[Image: Michael Maltzan's Inner City Arts building, Los Angeles; photo by Iwan Baan]. I'll be speaking tonight, May 17th, at Van Alen Books with architect Michael Maltzan about his book No More Play: Conversations on Urban Speculation in Los Angeles and Beyond, edited by Jessica Varner, previously discussed on BLDGBLOG here. The book includes interviews with Matthew Coolidge of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Charles Waldheim, Qingyun Ma, Catherine Opie, Edward Soja (who quips that "arch…(more)

Papercraft

[Image: Wifi-blocking wallpaper from the Grenoble Institute of Technology]. 1) A collaboration between the Grenoble Institute of Technology and the Centre Technique du Papier has produced wifi-blocking wallpaper: a printable electromagnetic shield that "only blocks a select set of frequencies used by wireless LANs, and allows cellular phones and other radio waves through." As The Verge explains, the wallpaper uses "conductive ink containing silver crystals" printed in an otherwise innocuous abs…(more)

Mega City Soundtrack

[Image: A map of fictional mega cities, via 2000AD]. A short review in the most recent Wire discusses a new album by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury: a speculative urban soundtrack to Mega City One, a "post-apocalyptic sprawl covering the eastern seaboard of the United States" from Judge Dredd. "Portishead's Geoff Barrow and BBC soundtrack composer Ben Salisbury's instrumental interpretation" of the city, The Wire writes, "evoke[s] the gunmetal grey of life in Mega City One, its multilevel labyri…(more)

Water vs. World

[Image: Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; courtesy of the USGS]. In Charles Fishman's compelling exploration of water on Earth, The Big Thirst, there is a shocking statement that, despite the apparent inexhaustibility of the oceans, "the total water on the surface of Earth (the oceans, the ice caps, the atmospheric water) makes up 0.025 percent of the mass of the planet—25/10,000ths of the stuff of Earth. If the Earth were the size of a Honda Odyssey minivan," he…(more)

Lost Lakes of the Empire State Building

[Image: Sunfish Pond]. Something I've long meant to post about—and isn't news at all—is the fact that there is a lost lake in the basement of the Empire State Building. Or a pond, more accurately speaking. After following a series of links leading off from Steve Duncan's ongoing exploration of New York's "lost streams, kills, rivers, brooks, ponds, lakes, burns, brakes, and springs," I found the fascinating story of Sunfish Pond, a "lovely little body of water" at the corner of what is now …(more)

Astrobiology and Drowned Nations

There's a lot going on again this week at Studio-X NYC. Two quick things to put on your radar, in case you're near New York: [Image: NASA astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild measures solar radiation, via NASA]. 1) Tonight at 6:30pm, we've got NASA astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild coming in to discuss her work, from extreme environments here on Earth, where scientists test for the limits of life, to the irradiated landscapes of Mars. We'll look at the nature of biology, the possibilities for synthetic l…(more)

Performing Mars

[Image: Image via Karst Worlds]. An ice cave in Austria was recently used as a test landscape for experimental spacesuits and instrumentation systems—including 3D cameras—that might someday be used by humans on Mars. The Dachstein ice cave was chosen, Stuff explains, "because ice caves would be a natural refuge for any microbes on Mars seeking steady temperatures and protection from damaging cosmic rays." [Images: (top and bottom) Photos by Katja Zanella-Kux; middle photos via Karst Worlds…(more)

Subtopia

Russian Military Raining Churches-in-a-box from the Sky (Priests Included)

[Image: Photo: Russian Airborne Force via Phuket News .]"Airborne priests and flying churches are set to fortify Russian soldiers’ spirits. Now priests who serve in the Russian Army will have to learn basics of military training to deal with an extraordinary device.A unique hi-tech air-dropped church will be introduced in the army. The church consists of a usual army tent and a life-sustaining module (a diesel power source, air conditioner and fridge).The chapel is put on the ground with an a…(more)

Decoding Military Landscapes: #demilit

Tomorrow morning, Javier Arbona, Nick Sowers and myself will be convening at UC Berkeley to conduct a workshop for the Towards a Just Metropolis conference that is being held there over the weekend. The conference itself looks pretty good, lots of excellent presentors and topics coming together to further break down the tangled relationships between justice, spatial practice, and the city. If I had more time (and more money for an all inclusive conference registration ticket…oh the irony!) I…(more)

Subtopia Lecture: Ruin Machine

Dear all. It’s been way too long for the eerie subtopian silence to not finally come to an end, I know (and appreciate your patience!) but I’m afraid you will need to appreciate the drippy echoes of our sealed bunker here a bit longer. But, I have several updates coming in the near future as soon as I have time! There was a trip to Detroit that was more than fascinating, and I just returned from a truly excellent and inspired weeklong workshop in Graz, Austria. There have also been some pub…(more)

Peripheral Milit_Urb 30

[Image: Baghdad From the Air [Baghdad Bureau Blog]]Members of U.S. Army Plead Guilty to Role in Scheme to Steal Equipment from the U.S. Military in Iraq // KBR Got Bonuses for Work that Killed Soldiers // Halliburton profits down by a half [BBC] // Pratap Chatterjee, "Cleansing Halliburton" [Tomgram] // Iraqi Seizes the Chance to Make War Profitable [NYT] // As Iraq Marks ‘Sovereignty Day,’ the Violence Continues [Danger Room] // Maps of U.S. Troop Deployments in Iraq [NYT] // Michael Schwa…(more)

Subtopes B-lining to San Diego

[Image: Woodbury University, San Diego School of Architecture. Photograph by Hewitt Garrison]So, part of the reason it’s been so quiet on Subtopes as of recent is due to some big news I’m excited to share here. As it turns out, I’m heading down to San Diego to teach for the Fall semester at Woodbury University’s School of Architecture at their new campus in Barrio Logan down by the shipyards where the Navy constructs its sea arsenal. As you can imagine I’m pretty fired up about this,…(more)

Hutong Cemeteries

[Image: Area around Gulou Dajie subway station | July 14, 2009, Photo by Bert de Muynck.]A nice three-part series of posts over at Moving Cities draws our attention once again to the rapid disappearance of the Hutongs in Beijing, which seems to have somewhat vanished from the conversation now that the attention brought to them during the Olympic Games has elapsed. What is a follow up to a previous publication written by Bert de Muynck for MUDOT, (Making mince meat of memory) he asks, “where h…(more)

Over the Siege 2: Recycling the Wall

[Image: Rafah, southern Gaza. Wastewater treatment plant. ©ICRC/M. Greub/il-e-01749.]Real quick, continuing on the topic of Palestinians finding ways of transcending the Israeli siege by utilizing the rubble of their own destroyed infrastructure – or what I guess I have referred to as acting “over the siege” rather than “under” it; “over” in this sense signifies that the Palestinian people are acting in plain view using the ruins wrought by the siege as resource for reconstructio…(more)

Over the Siege

[Image: Gaza's new mud homes, BBC]This is hardly breaking news by now but needs to be mentioned here as we try to return to our own temporarily abandoned excavations at Subtopes. Forgive the two month silence; breaks were needed to tend to other business, and for some exciting reasons that I will be relaying shortly. For now, we’re rolling up our sleeves and activating the bellows to our air hoses again – it’s time to surface with our tunnel gear and get Subtopia sinking down below agai…(more)

A daily dose of Architecture

3 days Heading to D.C.

I'm off to Washington, D.C. for the AIA Convention, so posts will resume early next week, and my weekly page will be on hiatus until the Tuesday after Memorial Day. …(more)

3 days Six Days for sLAB Costa Rica

The deadline for NYIT's sLAB Costa Rica Kickster campaign, a project I featured previously, is six days away (May 21). As I type this they are ~$7,500 short of their new goal of $24,000. Below is a video about the project, which will result in students from NYIT helping to build a recycling facility they designed for Nosara, Costa Rica. …(more)

3 days Today's archidose #585*

Fondation Vuitton, originally uploaded by JP2H. Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris France by Frank Gehry (expected completion 2014). Per the Fondation's website: Like a floating ship in the trees; wide opened to nature, the building imagined by Frank Gehry expresses the spirit of the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création, ever in state of becoming. It was conceived to be continuously reinvented with the passage of exhibitions and events. In exquisite harmony with the environment, its inte…(more)

Monday, Monday

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates: This week's dose features Mini-Studio in Mexico City, Mexico by FRENTEarquitectura: The featured past dose is the Azteca Multimodal Transfer Station in Mexico City, Mexico by CC Arquitectos: This week's book review includes three journals: Boundaries #3, City Limits #5, Log 24: **NOTE: The next weekly dose will be 2012.05.29.** american-architects.com Building of the Week: BSA Space in Boston, Massachusetts by Hӧweler + Yoon Architecture: Unrela…(more)

OMA + MAI

[Photos by John Hill, unless otherwise noted] Last week, a bunch of press folks squeezed into MoMA PS1's Performance Dome to listen to artist Marina Abramović, architect Shohei Shigematsu (of OMA's New York office), and others unveil the design for the Marina Abramović Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art (MAI) in Hudson, New York. The unveiling kicks off a fundraising effort on the part of the artist, who aims for an optimistic completion of the project in 2014. The design,…(more)

Today's archidose #586

Here are a few photos of the Conrad Hotel in Beijing, China by MAD Architects, 2012. Photographs are by Willian Veerbeek, who has many more photos of buildings new and old in his Beijing/CN, 2012 set on flickr. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or :: Tag your photos archidose…(more)

Half Dose #105: Salon 94 Bowery

Behind this unassuming facade two doors up from the New Museum of Contemporary on the Bowery is the Salon 94 Gallery. While I don't see mention of the project on their website, the gallery is designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, according to a helpful gent at the New Museum and the NYC BIS. Upon entering, one can walk left to a small desk area or descend a straight-run stair to the cellar. Two linear pieces prevail in the stairwell: a steel beam running from the front door to the double-h…(more)

Going Viral

Mark your calendars: On Monday, May 21, Going Viral, a panel discussion organized by the AIANY Global Dialogues Committee that explores the impact that social media and technology have on design, will take place at the Center for Architecture. One component of the evening is the Voices Going Viral Exhibition, of which this blog is a part. The exhibition and inclusion of my blog are news to me, so I'm curious to see how the exhibition presents mine and other voices "going viral." Some informatio…(more)

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Kerb 20

It's that time of the year again when Kerb sends out another call for submissions. Overseen once more by an editorial staff of students at the RMIT University School of Architecture and Design in Melbourne, this year's theme is Speculative Stories: Narratives in Landscape Architecture. Speculative narrative and the potential of imagination are important factors in creative production. It is considered that a multitude of small stories are the “quintessential form of imaginative invention”…(more)

Harvesting at the Biogas Farm

(Image via Sohu.com.) In one version, it's a woman from Binzhou in China's Shandong Province carrying a large plastic bag inflated with natural gas, tapped from a pipeline near some oil and gas wells. It's an illicit hack with “many latent dangers.” (Image via Sohu.com.) In another version, it's a woman from the coming era of radical sustainability carrying a large plastic bag inflated with methane gas. Filling for about a week or so at the Biogas Farm Co-op, a puffy orchard of wind-flu…(more)

A New Anti-Tsunami Archipelago for Japan

(Image courtesy of Sako Architects.) Instead of protecting Japan's coastal cities from tsunamis with massive seawalls, a strategy hardly foolproof as evidenced by the spectacular failure of the country's flood barriers during last year's disaster, why not concentrate all that concrete into tower blocks and resettle everyone on top? Instead of moving to higher grounds, you create higher grounds on the low-lying plains where people are too entrenched to consider a mass exodus. That at least see…(more)

Image of the (Leap Year) Day

(While incarcerated for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a Nazi architect used to garden here.) …(more)

What is (non-)essential knowledge for (new) architecture?

For the next 306090 book, guest editor David L. Hays wants to know, “What is essential knowledge for architecture?” This frequently posed question targets fundamental principles of design, those basic criteria and priorities through which disciplinary stability is ensured. Yet, insofar as relevance is a core value of architecture, in both theory and practice, the contingent nature of the future guarantees that some forms of knowledge not presently considered essential will eventually beco…(more)

Where is Alloura Zion?

(Where the earth is the sky is the earth, where is Alloura Zion? Image courtesy of NASA. Source.) Read more » …(more)

Gravity Base Stations

(Possibly outdated data sheet for a gravity base station in JFK International Airport. Image courtesy of NOAA. Source.) When I first stumbled upon these poorly scanned data sheets of so-called gravity base stations, I thought they were actual “stations,” that is, actual gravity sensing devices that are constantly taking measurements of local geodetic conditions. Compact machines like those humidity monitors you see in museums and galleries that are sometimes mistaken for art installations…(more)

(Im)possible Chicago #31-40

((Im)possible Chicagos is a series of hallucinatory joyrides through one hundred and twenty five asynchronous Chicagos.) …(more)

Archis

The Good Cause: Architecture of Peace

Click here for the photo set on Flickr! On Thursday June 16 director Mirko Zardini and Phyllis Lambert (founding mother of the CCA) opened the exhibition ‘The Good Cause, Architecture of Peace’ at the CCA. Some 300 people attended the opening and visited the show curated by Saskia van Stein (NAI), Arjen Oosterman and Lilet Breddels (Archis). The Good Cause shows the thin line between an architecture of war and an architecture of peace. It shows the complexities of a post-conflict …(more)

Architecture of Peace

Two-day conference, 3 and 4 May 2010, NAi Rotterdam With Jolyon Leslie, Kai Vöckler, Sultan Barakat, a.o. Time: 9.30 am – 5 pm (Mon) – 10.00 am – 5 pm (Tue). Language: English. Location: auditorium of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), Rotterdam. Click here for the full program of the conference. Click here to register. Architecture of Peace is an international long-term research and action project in which a large number of stakeholders are involved. The project wi…(more)

Archis SEE Network

a network of independent urban initiatives in South Eastern Europe In cooperation with local initiatives launched by architects, planners, artists, urbanists, sociologists and other professionals engaged in the process of improving various political and social dimensions of the urban environment, Archis Interventions intends to establish a network in South Eastern Europe (SEE) and thereby to foster the exchange of knowledge and best practices, to integrate the issues discussed in international …(more)

The Program – RSVP#13: After the Crisis

ARCHIS in cooperation with Abitare, Netherlands Architecture Institute and the College of Architecture and Design at Lawrence Tech are holding an RSVP event in Warren, MI, February 20-22, 2009 focused on finding pragmatic answers to how we can move from crisis to project within the current real estate crisis. The upcoming RSVP event will focus on the communities in the City of Warren with the highest rates of foreclosure. Participants will explore approaches to residential housing in an attempt …(more)

INVITATION TO: BEYROUTES GUIDE PROJECT

2nd Workshop Beirut, Lebanon, 1 – 8 February 2009 BEIRUT: Walk its streets, visit its hip quarters, check the destroyed but completely resurrected city centre, talk to the armed soldiers at the street corners, listen to the old and not-so-old war stories from the cab driver, explore its old, new and upcoming neighborhoods. Only a few cities in the world offer so many layers of hidden meaning as Beirut does. In the public realm of this town there seems to be merely suggestion, projection and di…(more)

RSVP#13: After the Crisis

Macomb County, U.S.A – February 2009 – with Abitare and NAI Macomb County, one of the suburban counties surrounding Detroit, is currently undergoing a process similar to the economic devastation that the Motor City has been experiencing over the last 40 years. Tax foreclosures, social fragmentation, budget crisis at every level of government, the fragility of the auto industry and a dearth of leadership have intersected to create a growing state of emergency. The current real estate cri…(more)

Archis in Zagreb

A bit last notice, but better late than never. Archis Intervention’s Kai Voeckler (who recently published Prishtina is Everywhere and Arjen Oosterman will be in Zagreb present at the conference: The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies (from 4 till 7 dec). The conference is part of the Operation: City 2008 program. The Neoliberal Frontline is an international conference aimed to reflect on transformations of cities, urban landscapes and urban governance in C…(more)

RSVP#12A: Connecting Naples

Naples – February 2008 In a globalized world Europe is often seen as a homogonous block. Yet within the continent there are amazingly large contrasts and differences. Moreover, this is not just true regarding the newcomers to the ‘European family’. Worlds of difference exist even among the oldest occupants of the European house. Take Naples, Italy’s fourth largest city. Of course it’s an old culture with a Roman and even a Greek past (Neapolis), later ruled by Os…(more)

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Subtopia

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