Design is the desire for intelligence...

Vincent | Clyfford

Now on view through January 20, 2013
Hugh Grant and Merle Chambers Gallery | Clyfford Still Museum

"To call the show a revelation is an understatement."
- The Denver Post

Although Clyfford Still's work and thought have been linked to many other artists, one name is largely absent from the roster: nineteenth-century Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh. In conjunction with the Denver Art Museum's landmark presentation Becoming Van Gogh (October 21, 2012-January 20, 2013), Vincent/Clyfford explores the connections between Van Gogh and Still.

Special Exhibition Tours:
Private tours of Vincent/Clyfford will be offered through January 6, 2013.  Please visit our Tours and Group Visits page for more details.

Read the review from The Denver Post.

Design is 'how it works'

"Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." - Steve Jobs

Pecha Kucha Night Denver: Volume 15

From our inbox today:

Join us November 13th at  Buntport Theater Company for "All Things Edible!"

PechaKucha Night Denver Vol 15
November 13th
8:00pm - 10:00pm
$5 Suggested Donation

Buntport Theater Company
717 Lipan Street, Denver, CO
www.buntport.com
Space is limited!

Adam Brock: Urban Permaculturalist; www.thegrowhaus.com
Buntport Theater Company: www.buntport.com
Charles Carpenter: Graphic Designer; www.wigwamcreative.com
Viviane Le Courtois: Artist; www.vivianelecourtois.com
Andrew Novick: Artist, Wacky Chef, and Asian Pop Culture Proprietor; www.gimmegimmepilowtoast.com; www.isaveeverything.com
Brandon Proff: Our Mutual Friend Malt & Brew; www.omfmb.com
... more coming online!

---

Interested in presenting, hosting, or sponsoring a PKN? Send us an email and lets make it happen!
Are you a social media guru? Join our PKN team and help keep these events going!
email us at pechakuchadenver@gmail.com

---

PKN Vol 15 Poster designed by Charles Carpenter of Wigwam Creative

yellow light, blue shadow

‘What is the shadow of white light?’

Gabor had a habit of repeating what you say, ‘White light…White Light…I don’t know.’

And I said, ‘Black. 

Don’t be afraid, because white light does not exist, nor does black shadow exist.’

I think that it is a time of our sun on trial, of all our institutions on trial.

I was brought up when the sunlight was yellow, and the shadow was blue.

But I see it clearly as being white light, and black shadow. 

Yet this is nothing alarming, because I believe there will come a fresh yellow, and a beautiful blue,

and that the revolution will bring forth a new sense of wonder. 

Only from wonder can come our new institutions…

They certainly cannot come from analysis.

-Louis Kahn, Conversations with Students: Architecture at Rice 26

forgotten memorials

An absolutely stunning photo documentary on neglected WWII memorials built in the 60s & 70s in eastern Europe.  The daring feats of structural and formal exercise evoke some raw emotions and the sheer magnitude of scale are enough to make one pause and stare endlessly...

From RETRONAUT:

 ‘During the 1960s and 70s, thousands of monuments commemorating the Second World War – called ‘Spomeniks’ – were built throughout the former Yugoslavia; striking monumental sculptures, with an angular geometry echoing the shapes of flowers, crystals, and macro-views of viruses or DNA. In the 1980s the Spomeniks still attracted millions of visitors from the Eastern bloc; today they are largely neglected and unknown, their symbolism lost and unwanted. Antwerp-based photographer Jan Kempenaers travelled the Balkans photographing these eerie objects, presented in this book as a powerful typological series. The beauty and mystery of the isolated, crumbling Spomeniks informs Kempenaer’s enquiry into memory, found beauty, and whether former monuments can function as pure sculpture.’

bjarke in venice

"...lots of people are born, live, and learn in buildings.  That is why architecture is too important to leave to the architects to decide how we live.  As architects, we have the responsibility to get everyone else on board..." [paraphrasing]



Bjarke Ingels: High Riser

on Nowness.com.

Denver Film Center: 2012 Architecture & Design Film Series

2012 Architecture + Design Film Series
Presented By The Denver Film Society And Design Onscreen

Films And Events In Program...

• 

  Architecture + Design Film Series PASS

  Purchase the Architecture + Design Series Pass and experience all 11 screenings plus 5 receptions at a rate that can't be beat! Save over %40! $110 for Non-Members and $90 for DFS Members This Series Pass gets you in to as many of the Architecture + Design films, many of which are Colora... more
• 

  Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island

  USA , 2012 , 86 min. 
  Director: Jake Gorst Colorado Premiere! Thursday, Sept. 6 @ 7:00pm Reception to follow at mod livin' Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island explores the work of the region’s best postwar architects and designers, including Albert Frey, Wallace Harrison, Herbert Beckhard, Frank Lloyd Wright,... more
• 

  Coast Modern

  Canada , 2011 , 56 min. 
  Director: Michael Bernard , Gavin Froome Colorado Premiere! Friday, Sept. 7 @ 4:30pm Filmmakers Michael Bernard and Gavin Froome will take us on a journey from Los Angeles to Vancouver, from 1922 up to the present exploring modernist architecture on the West Coast. A core group of architects embraced the Coast with its particular ... more
• 

  The Gruen Effect: Victor Gruen and the Shopping Mall

  Austria , 2009 , 54 min. 
  Director: Annette Baldauf , Katharina Weingartner Colorado Premiere! Saturday, Sept. 8 @ 2pm In The Gruen Effect, an architect’s life, work, and critical humor become a means to make sense of the cities we live in today. The Viennese architect Victor Gruen is considered the father of the shopping mall. His ideas about urban planning... more
• 

  Unfinished Spaces

  USA , 2011 , 86 min. 
  Director: Benjamin Murray , Alysa Nahimas Thursday, Sept. 13 @ 7pm Reception to follow As the codirectors of Unfinished Spaces, Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray spent ten years chronicling the fate of Cuba’s National Art Schools, a cultural experiment 60 years in the making. Through a combination of archival footage, interv... more
• 

  Kochuu: Japanese Architecture/Influence and Origin

  Sweden , 2006 , 52 min. 
  Director: Jesper Wachtmeister Friday, Sept. 14 @4:30pm Kochuu is a visually stunning film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in the Japanese tradition, and its impact on the Nordic building tradition. Winding its way through visions of the future and traditional concepts, nature and concrete, gardens an... more
• 

  The Architecture of Carlo Scarpa

  USA , 1996 , 57 min. Colorado Premiere! Saturday, Sept. 15 @ 2pm DOUBLE FEATURE INCLUDES both The Architecture of Carlo Scarpa and Unfinished Italy! Venetian-born Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) was radical in his approach to remodeling historic buildings, showing tremendous confidence in combining the ... more
• 

  Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line

  USA , 2012 , 54 min. 
  Director: Muffie Dunn , Tom Piper Thursday, Sept. 20 @ 7pm Reception to follow Diller Scofidio + Renfro has long been at the forefront of design. The interdisciplinary design firm first stirred interest with its provocative exhibitions of theoretically based projects that blurred the boundaries between art and architecture.... more
• 

  The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History

  USA , 2010 , 83 min. 
  Director: Chad Freidrichs Friday, Sept. 21 @ 4:30pm When it was built in the 1950s, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis was a model example of affordable urban housing, providing an alternative to the slums and a home for low-income families in exodus from rural blight. But by 1972, the area had declined and... more
• 

  Mission Statements: The Architecture of Dutch Diplomacy

  Netherlands , 2011 , 77 min. 
  Director: Jord Den Hollander Colorado Premiere! Saturday, Sept. 22 @ 2pm In 1991 the Netherlands Foreign Ministry decided to promote Dutch architecture abroad. All over the world prominent Dutch architects, including Rem Koolhaas, Bjarne Mastenbroek and Dick van Gamere, Lafour & Wijk and Claus and Kaan, designed new em... more
• 

  Detropia

  USA , 2012 , 90 min. 
  Director: Heidi Ewing , Rachel Grady Colorado Premiere! Thursday, Sept. 27 @ 7pm Reception to follow at ignite! Restaurant Digital presentation - Detroit's story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century— the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing ...more
• 

  Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life

  2011 , 60 min. Colorado Premiere! DOUBLE FEATURE INCLUDES both Biophilic Design and Passive Passion! IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE US PASSIVE HOUSE CONFERENCE Friday, Sept. 28 @ 7pm Reception to follow Biophilic Design is an innovative way of designing the places where we live, work, and learn. ... more

PKND: Volume 14

In my inbox:

Join us September 14th at TAXI for "Let's Get Tactical!" co-hosted by Architecture for Humanity Denver and the Congress for the New Urbanism Colorado.

PechaKucha Night Denver Vol 14
September 14th
6:00pm - 11:00pm
(presentations begin at sundown)
Admission is free!

@ TAXI Community
3507 Ringsby Court
http://www.taxibyzeppelin.com/
Parking available north of the Freight building.
Please note, this venue is outside.

Presenting:
Justice League for Street Food: www.denverstreetfood.com
Denver Cruisers: www.denvercruisers.com
Better Block Jefferson Park: www.betterblockjp.wordpress.com
JOLT Guerilla Garden: www.guerillagarden.blogspot.com
Grow Local Colorado/Pop-Up Picnics: www.growlocalcolorado.org
Architecture for Humanity Denver: www.denver.architectureforhumanity.org
Congress for the New Urbanism Colorado: www.cnucolorado.org
Gypsy Farm Bus
Better Block Pikes Peak

Pecha Kucha Denver: Volume 13

In my inbox today:

PechaKucha Night Vol 13 | August 15th August 15 8:20 pm (20:20) http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/denver/ @ TAXI Community 3457 Ringsby Ct http://www.taxibyzeppelin.com/ To celebrate the TAXI community we have selected presenters from the TAXI and RINO district and will be presenting outside in the courtyard between the Freight and Taxi building. Bring a chair, grab a drink, and come listen to this thriving creative community! Presenting: Sabin Aell - www.sabinaell.com Bob Blair - Fuel Cafe - www.fuelcafedenver.com Frankie Bushell - Cirro - cirrously.com Terra Krieger Mazzeo - www.4240architecture.com Tony Mazzeo - GroundWorks Design, LLC  -  groundworksdesign.net Yoshitomo Saito - Ironton Studios - www.yoshitomosaito.com Ivar Zeile -  Plus Gallery  - www.plusgallery.com more presenters coming online Interested in presenting, hosting, or sponsoring a PKN? Send us an email and lets make it happen! Are you a social media guru? Join our PKN team and help keep these events going! email us at perchakuchadenver@gmail.com

Denver Re:imagine Play Competition

We wanted to share some news on a design competition we are finalists in...
Here is the press release from our team leaders AECom:
Root Down & Reach Up!
AECOM and Carve team selected as a finalist in the international design competition for an innovative $5 million playground in Denver, Colorado.
Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) has challenged top design teams to re-think the current definition of play as a unique, multi-generational, multi-faceted experience in Denver’s Historic City Park. The goal of the design competition titled Re-imagine Play is to build an iconic playground unlike any before that will promote healthy living in an urban public space.

The AECOM office in Denver assembled a team of experts to take on this challenge including Carve, a creative and innovative design and engineering firm from the Netherlands that specializes in play in public space for all ages. AECOM and Carve’s concept is inspired by a desire to reach up into City Park's tree canopy and to reach outward to engage the adjacent urban neighborhoods. At the heart of the concept hills and canyons frame three otherworldly interconnected tree structures that reach more than 50 feet skyward. These trees are fully accessible, climbable play structures that provide a multitude of play experiences and exhilarating views. Beneath the trees, roots s pread out into four themed play areas that draw their inspiration from the surrounding park and community. The project is partially funded by the Colorado Health Foundation, which supports numerous health-oriented programs around the state. One of the Foundation’s goals for the Re-imagine Play project is to increase access to active recreation for underserved children and families, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, geography or other limitations. The competition began in March with the request for proposals, attracting firms from around the globe. Eight semi-finalists were selected to develop design concepts that were displayed publicly for one month. The public was invited to vote for their favorite entries which guided DPR to choose the three final concepts including AECOM and Carve's submission, "Root Down & Reach Up!" The three finalists present their concepts to the public on July 24th. Shortly after, one team will be chosen to lead their winning design concept into reality. AECOM's design team includes: Laurel Raines, Elger Blitz (Carve), Gretchen Wilson, Hannah Schubert (Carve), Kaia Nesbitt, Dru Schwyhart (Semple Brown Design), Brandon Sobiech, Suzanne Serna, Thomas Groenstege (Carve), and Tracy Flecky. Zoom, scroll and explore our concept Read our concept narrative Visit the Re-imagine Play competition website  On Tuesday, July 24th at 6PM, the 3 finalists will elaborate on their submissions in a public presentation given at the Colorado History Museum.  Come and give your support and ask each of the teams questions or if you're just curious to know more.  Hope to see you there!

jonathan segal: architect as developer

a recent documentary on san diego architect | developer | builder Jonathan Segal which highlights his latest development projects and acts as a teaser to his popular lecture series Architect as Developer, which aims to empower architects to act as their own clients. now available as online video seminar:


Jonathan Segal Documentary // 13mns from BREADTRUCK TV on Vimeo.

Museum of the Roman Theater of Cartagena, Spain

Raphael Moneo's Museum of Roman Theater in Cartegena, Spain looks like a place of wonder--an elegant intervention of contemporary design in order to preserve the memories of an ancient civilization.  At first glance, the solution appears overtly elementary, but upon closer inspection, the colors and textures and subtitles of the architecture intend to become a visceral and intensely haptic experience.  The new architecture is not overpowering though, choosing to recede into a a role of being a backdrop and allow the spirit of the place to shine through.  Enough words... just watch the pictures and enjoy!

plaza level plan

amphitheater level plan

upper gallery level plan

addition elevation

street level view

aerial view

  In Cartagena, Moneo seems to have been conscious of a city formed by memories, as well as a city shaped by the present. He opted to restore the 18th-century Riquelme Palace and allow it to form a dialogue with the town hall of Cartagena, a building begun in 1900. His new addition to it, which houses the first part of the Roman Theater Museum, while clearly modern in materials and form, is recessed to allow the palace a prominent place on the square. The museum’s exhibition galleries are located in a second building that respects the scale of the city, but its textured stone facade, punctuated by relatively few windows, is clearly a 21st-century building. The restoration of the Roman theater itself, the result of the difficult and delicate strategy of adding new to old, does not compromise the old—with additions that are capable of being reversed, if need be. Throughout, visitors can move easily and honestly between past and present.

portion of the new gallery

bridge over the protected ruins

light well