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bstina
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Name: Christina
Gender: Female
Interests: Cooking, running, music, piano, yoga, drawing, going to museums, architecture, watching good movies, learning new languages, traveling
Expertise: Structural Engineering
Occupation: Student
Industry: Structural Engrg & Architectur
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/21/2006
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| Some more stuff we're doing in school. It's pretty fun! All the forms were generated through programming in MEL & Maya. I still can't wait until the summer though. Norah Jones concert this weekend! Yay. I haven't gone out since...uh...I don't even remember...
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| An excerpt of an interview from one of my most favorite architects -- I love the way he thinks about architecture. It isn't just formmaking or functionality for him at all. He is so poetic and inspiring to me. He has the humility to deeply consider a site, the culture, the client, the users, the spirit of the project, its mission, the vernacular context...rather than impose a signature style to make his mark on a landscape.
"Architecture is not an art independent from
reality. Real architecture, real painting, real poetry, real music is
never detached from physicality. In architecture, that’s it.
Architecture is at the edge, between art and anthropology, between
society and science, technology and history. Sometimes memory, too,
plays a part. Architecture is about illusion and symbolism, semantics,
and the art of telling stories. It’s a funny mixture of these things.
Sometimes it’s humanistic and sometimes it’s materialistic."
"I like fighting gravity. Magic is essential
in architecture. Working in Manhattan, I love the idea that we accept
the clear and simple geometry of a building. We accept that logic. But
complexity comes from texture, from vibration, from the metamorphic
capacity of the building to transform, to change, to breathe. Sometimes
buildings even make sounds. You know, in New Caledonia we learned from
the local culture that buildings sing. And we were actually able to do
that, to make our building [the J.M. Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nouvéa]
make a sound when the wind blows. So the complexity doesn’t necessarily
come from geometrical complexity. The building is actually very simple.
But the complexity comes from the skin, the surface of the building
actually vibrating, working with the weather. In Manhattan, I think the
Times building will be tough when it touches the ground and then become
more light, more vibrant, more metamorphic as it disappears in the
clouds."
AR: When you accepted the Pritzker Prize in 1998, you described
architects and yourself as explorers. Do you take an idea or a line and
rework it or are you always looking for the new?
RP: I think it’s important to note the difference between style and
coherence. If you’re talking about coherence, I love it. If you’re
talking about style, then I start to be more suspicious. Coherence is
about the experience, about using what you’ve been learning and
reapplying it. It’s not about making yourself recognizable. But
architecture is necessarily about exploring. Every place is different,
every client is different, every society is different. Culturally,
historically, psychologically, anthropologically, and topographically,
every job is different. So the real risk is that as an architect you
end up imposing your stamp before you understand what is the reality of
a place. I never take a new job without visiting the place, without
trying to understand, without trying to get a basic, fundamental
emotion. Because that’s what it’s all about—building emotion. I try to
understand what is the real nature of a place, what is the context. My
goal is not necessarily to integrate with the context. Sometimes
architecture should not integrate but should make a contribution to the
context.
Piano comments on the WTC disaster
Asked what should be built on the WTC site, Piano said, “Whatever is
built, there should first be a great deal of thought and reflection.
It’s not only an economic issue but a cultural one. What is at stake is
saving the soul of a city, its spirit.”
-Renzo Piano | | |
| 2nd day back in Boston. I don't know why my body gets all tense and achy as soon as I get here. I'm like a Pavlovian dog that associates this place with the stress and sleep-deprivation of school. I need to reassociate this place with something more positive! I love it I love it I love it... Looking forward to the new Wong Kar-Wai movie My Blueberry Nights with Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, and Rachel Weisz. It often takes him forever to finish a film though so I'm not holding my breath ;p My little sister works on the set of Heroes so I'm trying to get into the show. Hmm...it doesn't captivate me as much as Grey's Anatomy or Will and Grace =) | | |
| I've been in NYC most of this week but unlike the last time I was here when I had the money to explore the restaurant scene, I'm a student, so exploring has been limited to window-shopping, museums, and coffee shops. I've had a lot of coffee since most of time consists of looking for free wi-fi so I can do work. So here is my list for places to get a good cup of cappuccino: Via Quadronno on E 73rd St bn Madison & 5th Ave. Italian fare. $4 cappuccino ($$$!) but very good. Joe's http://www.joetheartofcoffee.com/ 141 Waverly Place (& 6th Ave) in the West Village. Intimate and warm setting. I saw a great exhibit called Design Life Now at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in the upper east side. Several of my profs work was displayed. Other displays consisted of fashion (Narciso Rodriguez ;p), costume designers, textile designers, lighting designers, etc. I had a good time :) Check it out if you're into that stuff. | | |
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