herbert muschamp of the ny times has an article today on the new nyc proposals for the 2012 olympic village. nyc is in the running for the 2012 olympics, alongside other cities such as london and paris, and takes a nice first step with these proposals for the residential olympic village from such notable architects as zaha hadid, mvrdv, smith-miller & hawkinson, and my personal fav…thom mayne of morphosis.

with only a few pictures to go by, the best glimpses of these proposals come from muschamps own descriptions of them. thom maynes design proposes a megastructure that ties together both planning and design. while many megastructures of the past combine mixed-use programs, maynes program is specifically the olympic village habitation. while this sounds like its channeling pruitt-igo, this olympic village expands horizontally and could forgo the failed trappings of a vertical one. mayne could also utilize his experience from the planning and design for the hypo-alpe-adria center that integrated the circulation paths of the complex with its surrounding area.

the other design muschamp highlighted was zaha hadids, who proposed the quintessential “towers in the park” layout. the images accompanying the article showed a series of blobby towers with tapered footprints amidst winding paths. i suppose they were feh. i personally like her more dynamic designs of the past…such as the (oft-cited) vitra fire station and not this digital biomorphic poop. muschamp noted the other proposals too by mvrdv (dutch), henning larsens tegnestue (denmarkian), and smith-miller & hawkinson. they were ok.

i suppose its odd to see design of this scale in nyc. i dont recall many large-scale urban planning projects tied so closely with architectural design in the past few decades (save maybe the wtc project). so in many respects, this would be interesting to watch if nyc were to win the olympics bid and one of these proposals pushed to completion. mebbe by the time the olympics are done with, i could even move into one of them. actually, i dont know how i feel about living in long island city…but hey, its 8 years in the future…

> olympic village proposals (via ny times)

thanks to marisol for sending this my way. on “exhibit” right now in london is the installation “dont miss a sec“, a glass-enclosed toilet in the middle of a sidewalk near the thames river. yea…in the middle of the sidewalk. the installation, which was designed by italian-born monica bonvicini, utilizes a special glass that is completely opaque from the exterior, but clear from the interior. it plays on the notion of the public voyeur and takes cues from jeremy benthams original idea for the panopticon, a prison layout where a central glass tower surrounded by the cells would be able to watch the inmates at all times. foucault expounded upon this in his book, “discipline & punish: the birth of the prison“. the idea was to strip privacy away from the inmates and to centralize authority in the “omnipotent” glass tower. the glass box, while similar in ideology, is actually a subverted form of benthams intention, where the power of voyeur is given to that which is usually voyeured. while most people would try and peer into the prominent box to see someone pee (sick bastards), its actually the person inside that can watch unobstructed everybody around them.

i think while the exhibit explores interesting notions of the public and private, i wouldnt be one to take a whiz inside the box anytime soon. its not necessarily the privacy issue (im sure its a 100% opaque from the exterior). its the fact that while inside, youre still staring at faces staring back at you thats unsettling. bathroom time for me is zen…undisturbed and sacred. strangers with their faces peering towards you (but not at you) is not zen. and whether they were staring specifically at you or not, your perceived notion while being able to see thru the glass around you is that its still very much public (albeit an internalized publicity). besides, the activities inside the bathroom arent purely a visual one. i hope they sound-proofed that thing…

> the panopticon loo (via msnbc)

ok…i dont really do enough architecture posts, do i? theres currently a total of two posts in the architecture category…not counting this one. its kind of embarassing actually, considering my parents paid $150,00 for a piece of paper to have the words “bachelors” and “architecture” printed on it and everything. so here…ill mention this. the lmdc just released for the public all the entries submitted for the wtc memorial competition that michael arad and peter walker won. some of the entries are pretty coo, and some are enormously stupid. there were even a few of my former professors from cornell that had some really odd (but interesting) proposals. shit, i even had a hand in the competition. my name isnt in the entries, but i did help a friend conceptualize his design, as well as design the presentation he submitted. feel free to search thru the few thousand entries and see if you can pick out the entry that i had a hand in.

ultimately tho, i quite like their choice of michael arad and his proposal. his design of the pools and stark minimalism is quite lyrical in its design. its muted and solemn, which is in contrast to the chaos it represents. there are still alot of people who have issues with his design, and probably the entire site as well. some of their concerns are valid, and some are just plain stupid and bitchy. but thats the way it works…everybody has their vision of what it should be. im sure arad will be fine. part of architectural training in school was learning the art of taking a mountain of verbal abuse.

> wtc memorial entries
> 5,201 ideas for the 9/11 memorial (via ny times)

current selection | sting – if i ever lose my faith
feelin’ | friday-like

wow…the proposed freedom (aka: french) tower by daniel libeskind and david childs looks alot less ass than i had anticipated. i personally think highly of libeskind…and while his initial proposal was merely a suggested design approach, i took to its fragmented shard form. when it was rumoured that david childs was fucking up the design of the tower, i despaired a bit. i dont know many architects who ever remarked how david child’s/som’s designs were highly evocative and beautiful. thats akin to saying how microsoft makes pretty software. aka, never. but the proposed tower, with the childs-suggested wind-farm lattice at the top of the libeskind-inspired asymmetrical tower, actually de-solidifies the mass of the tower…making it almost dissolve into the sky. i kinda like this approach. theyll hopefully have a render up soon to give an indication of the material use of the tower…since all towers look swishy in plexi-model form. hmm…the renderings make it even more swish. woo.

> tower design (via ny times)
> daniel libeskind
> skidmore, owings, & merrill

current selection | yann tiersen (amelie) – les jours tristes
feelin’ | moody

i had a dream last nite that i was in my hometown in texas again. i think i was on a tour or something…so i was sitting in a diner along the main strip trying to remember where everything was. i got to talk to this group of local girls, and whenever i pointed out a place and said that so-and-so used to be right there, theyd give me a funny look and tell me that it didnt. so when i woke up, i was wondering whether my actual memory was correct and that they were disagreeing b/c it was different in the dream reality, or that my memory really was that shitty. hmm…

a few of us caught a showing of my architect last nite at the film forum. my architect is a documentary of sorts by nathaniel kahn, the “bastard” son of prodigious american architect louis kahn. louis kahn died of a heart attack in penn station in 1974, and nathaniel didnt really get to know him that well as he was growing up. so by making this documentary, he went out on a search of sorts to “find” him. for those unfamiliar with louis kahn, he was an influential american architect whose works included the salk institute, the exeter library, the kimbell art museum, and his largest commission…the dhaka complex in bangladesh. he in turn also had a “complicated” personal life, resulting in not only a daughter with his “legal” wife, but also another daughter with his first mistress, and a son (nathaniel, the director of the documentary) with his second. nathaniel interviews a variety of people from kahns life, including many notable architects such as philip johnson (who outlived the dinosaurs), the charismatic i.m. pei, a brief talk with frank (swishy) gehry, and robert stern (dean of yale architecture). he also interviewed others such as a rabbi who knew his father, his own mother harriett pattison, his two half-sisters sue and alex, taxi drivers who took louis kahn around philadeplphia, and even people around the dahka complex in bangladesh (who mispronounce louis kahn as louis farrakhan). the documentary was pretty poignant and thoughtful…it hilights kahns numerous architectural achievements, as well as his failures with his own family(s). it also highlighted how ugly louis kahn really was. i did not know this prior. the documentary is in limited release, so definitely check it out before they stop showing it.