Wednesday, September 19, 2012

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.’








Tuesday, September 18, 2012

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.

Monday, September 10, 2012

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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

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