a thoughtfolio

"Here they discuss and talk"

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Thu, 27 May 2010 06:15:00 +0000

Moments from Godard's La Chinoise (1967):

"Whereas here they discuss and talk. It's very clear for me. Yes. Stalin's death has meant real freedom for research but also a fever causing certain people to rush into philosophizing about their feelings on liberation and their taste for freedom. What Stalin gave us is the right to count exactly what we own, to call wealth and nakedness exactly by their real names, to think and talk aloud about our problems, and to undertake serious research ... to recognize the existence of others outside of ourselves, and seeing this exterior, begin to see ourselves better. The task is to simply ask and face these problems if we want to give some existence and consistency to Marxist philosophy ... where do ideas come from? They come from social interaction, from class struggle, certain classes are victorious, others are defeated, that's the history of all civilizations. (Lenin showed) Class struggle doesn't disappear under proletarian dictatorship but takes on other forms. To work is to fight. And you must seek truth in the facts: facts are things and phenomena as they exist objectively. Truth is the link between things and phenomena, which is to say, the law that governs them. Find the internal ties in the events occurring around us.”

On Nanterre: "the University is surrounded by slums - worker housing or rabbit cages. In the mornings, I meet Algerian workers and the mechanics from Simca ... we stop in the same cafes, we're at the same station together, suffer the same rain and nearly have the same job. And that's where I understood the three basic inequalities of capitalism, and especially of the Guallist regime in France. First, the difference between intellectual and manual work. Second, between town and country. I see those differences here (in Nanterre) all the time. Third. between farming and country. That pushed me to study Marxism-Leninism."

"Analysis is seeing inherent contradictions. To analyze is to study situations very carefully, starting from objective reality, not from our subjective desire."

Blame it on April!

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sun, 09 May 2010 04:13:00 +0000

As with this time last year, my blog was not left unattended. It was simply not updated with new posts due to academic work and allied commitments. However, the [micro.updates] section was alive and kicking!

The Emerging Voices Winter 2010 Series

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:44:00 +0000

Winter 2010 Emerging Voices (poster designs by J. Keily)

The Planning and Architecture Research Group (P+ARG) at the Taubman College will be hosting three speakers for the Winter 2010 "Emerging Voices" Lecture Series. Designed as a symposium, this series is intended to bring outstanding scholars to Ann Arbor to give one formal lecture, and to lead one informal working session with current doctoral students. Last year, P+ARG hosted Yanni Alexander Loukissas, PhD (MIT 2007) as the opening speaker. Yanni gave a talk on the subject of computational culture in architecture (Video).

-Winter 2010 Schedule-

Speaker 1: Sonit Bafna, PhD (Georgia Tech. 2001), Architecture

Research interests: Spatial morphology, theories of aesthetics, relation between thought and design in architecture (Speaker Bio)

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Lecture Title: "The Visual Performance of Marcel Breuer's Atlanta Public Library"

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March 11: Lecture, A&A Auditorium, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

March 12: Seminar, The Center Room, Pierpont Commons, 10:00am - 1:00pm

Speaker 2: Sanjeev Vidyarthi, PhD (U-M 2008), Urban + Regional Planning

Research interests: City building processes, how ideas travel across planning contexts, what happens to them, and why? (Speaker Bio).

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Lecture Title: "Interpretations of the World-City debate in Secondary Indian Cities"

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March 25: Lecture, A&A Auditorium, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

March 26: Seminar, The Center Room, Pierpont Commons, 10:00am - 1:00pm

Speaker 3: Zeynep Celik Alexander, PhD (MIT 2007), Architecture + Art

Research interests: History of Modernism, Space, Early Cinema, Gestural Expression, Occultism (Speaker Bio).

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Lecture Title: "Architecture and Knowledge circa 1900"

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April 1: Lecture, A&A Auditorium, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

April 2: Seminar, The Center Room, Pierpont Commons, 10:00am - 1:00pm

The organizing team would like to extend an invitation to all. As a Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop (RIW), the series this year will be complimented with student colloquia to help facilitate conversations about ongoing work within the two programs and with each of the invited speakers.

Intertextuality

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:46:00 +0000

Cover: Bell, D. (1995). Mapping Desire: Geographies of Sexualities. London: Routledge.

Yesterday, I attended a fantastic presentation by O. Segal, PhD Candidate in Near Eastern Studies at the University. Segal's talk was a comparative essay on two recent exhibitions (2001, 2007) on Independence Park, a cruising place in T. Aviv. Both works were attempts to challenge the conventional representations of this park as a dark cruising site, and critique the everyday reduction of sexuality to sickness, something unnatural and illicit. Specifically, the 2001 exhibition aimed to present the park as a beautiful place – showcasing the site in broad daylight (emphasis edded), with identifiable actors, in their everyday wear and beautiful postures. It sought to legitimize the space by describing it as a site where gays openly exercise their sexuality. The 2007 work, in comparison, exhibited the park as a natural site with emphasis on its flora, animal life and colorful sunsets. It downplayed the sexual context of the park only to universalize the space, and place it in the context of natural (read normal) geographies. Segal's close readings of the images, however, revealed an interesting trap. By way of intertextuality, he argued that despite each exhibition's attempts to "depoliticize" the park, the exhibits referred back to queer culture and made implicit references to sexuality and its deep embedding in space - both physical and social.

The trap notwithstanding, I felt, Segal's critical use of art history to illuminate the queer context ultimately also helped historicize, naturalize, intellectualize, militarize, and regionalize the park and its spatio-sexual dialectic. The exhibitions in and of themselves might have failed in naturalizing the environs, but Segal's work offered a perfect rethinking of the park with all its contradictions. I was particularly drawn to the idea of the socio-sexual embeddedness in space. From a spatial perspective, however, I ask, is this embedding only representational? Or is it also formal? To think of both would imply situating the park in the larger geography of the city, and examining its connectedness at the level of the everyday - not just identifying the actors and their histories but also their patterns of occupation and/or appropriation within the park - including movement and moments of pause, what happens where and when? In summary, seeing the park as an event space, and identifying the spatial nature of these events.

Tasteful Interruption

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Source: Guerilla Poster (Via Grafik)

This is supremely delicious. A simple act of biscuit eating doubles up as guerilla tactic, however unintentionally, and interrupts stardom. Truly the beginning of a new era in architecture. Mark this day!

The Discussion Thread

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:39:00 +0000

What seemingly began as an introspective look at the rapid death of journals and magazines in recent times enlarged into a critical retrospection of architecture texts in the 'ought' decade. The twitter-verse was alive during holidays with critical exchanges on the changing role and meaning of publication and production in architecture.

The conversation thread continues to grow, quite in the spirit of the maxim, "community and communication are advanced by simply recognizing what lies in common (c,o,mm,n)" (J. Maeda). #endofarchitecturetexts

[micro.updates]

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Micro-updates are carefully sifted dispatches from my micro-publishing site, speaking to the experiences of my doctoral journey on spatial dialectics.

SS10

- Also, using full range of meanings, denotative/connotative: l'espace denotes place, L'espace does not mean just space - Shields #Translation 081410
- As w/ Latin spatium/extensio, Hindu philosophy defines Akasa as space/ether, an imperceptible substance/a principle of extension. #Etymology 081410
- (...) Lefebvre, Fraser (on) Habermas, D&G, Foucault, de Certeau, the '68 generation (arch.) 081310
- (...) Yep, it's here as well. While each discusses the relation betn space/society, HL is explicit on space; others issue correctives. 081210
- (...) As for definitions, yes, one has to be an archaeologist & dig into things. I like it. 081210
- (...) Agreed! After all, different disciplines have laid claim to different dimensions of space, often confounding the discourse. 081210
- It's all about surrendering to the feeling that something unique and interesting is emerging, always, right Koolhaas? 081110
- Experiencing sanity in the company of a schizophrenic, a cultivator, and a midwife. 080810
- The commodification of sense of community or why people don't litter their surrounds.
- **"What if the AIA/NCARB disappeared tomorrow? What would happen to education? Graduates would do other things besides making bldgs." ~ Kazys 080610
- **Jean Renoir 080110
- Renoir's the then harsh comment on architects needs to be recalled when thinking about the current climate of contradictions. 080110
- (...) Sadly, communication-in the realm of collective political agency-is a topic we haven't yet made sense of. Binaries abound. 073110
- (...) *This demands dialogue, a space for oppositional interests to at once form and generate new strategies. 073110
- (...) Gentrification of activism may be turning into another kind of war thanks to the absence of *collective reflexivity. 073110
- Kane Race's commentary on "counterpublics" or the oppositional public sphere is superb, thorough & wonderfully articulate to say the least. 073010
- November 31, 1968 - Over 115 books are published on "May '68." 072910
- **The late 60s imperialism debate criticized drawing & its "creator," the economist, demographer & sociologist. 072910

- "Capital, technology and information flattens, but also raises barriers and accentuates differences." And then? 072810

- "We stop in the same cafes ... we suffer the same rain & nearly have the same job" ~ Veronique on social contradictions, La Chinoise (1967). 072610

- Proletarianization of the profession or the last of the three postures. Interesting! 072510

- (...) The projected shift from didactic tone to everyday ramble is every bit delicious. 072310

- "Engagement, retreat, and restlessness." 072010

- What happens to architecture when globalization is seen as a "spiritual" affair - G8, naughty politics and an organic manifesto. 071910

- (...) On Design Imperialism: Nussbaum's article has touched a raw nerve w/ many (...). 071510

- (...) And we're back to our discussion & your triad: ethnographic (dialogic), informed, co-directed design approach. 4/4 071510

- (...) In design terms (i.e. design as language) asks, what is meant by humanitarian design? Or social architecture? 3/4 071510

- (...) Points to the role of communication: how not to be deaf/dumb, how to understand what we're doing, what people think of us. 2/4 071510

- (...) Wow! A brilliant link. I think Illich's statement, "work among the poor who can tell you to go to hell," sums it up well. 1/4 071510

- (...) Whereas we're interested in the idea of authority in/around dialogue & it's redefinition. Again, ref. Teddy Cruz, no? (2/2) 071510

- (...) Nussbaum's article is interesting but also limiting. Imperialism carries w/ it the notion of authority as an imposition. (1/2) 071510

- (...) Or what Teddy Cruz calls, "enabling the intelligence of local dynamics to come to surface."071510

- (...) Love the triad! On co-direction, the role/meaning of Mahila Milan comes to mind ... (see brownie points). 071510

- (...) Especially the section, "Questions, I did not ask." 0715010

- (...) Re: Humanitarian design. My post on "producing goodness" might complicate the debate or so I think (...). 071510

- They are drivers in so far as they bring to light social contradictions. Risk is shared, consumed (...). 070910

- work as catalysts in producing new economics. They transform sites through design dialogue & tactical calibration of emergent differences. 070910

- enduring concern only if seen as some kind of a monster external to/produced by the project. Activist architects recognize social capital & 070910

- (...) Nice series of tweets! Your proposition, "radical/creative risk management," is particularly interesting. Added note: cost is an 070910

- Can't seem to relate calculated risk to unsolicited practice. Or is this a problem of pragmatic versus activist lens? 070910

- Purifying violence, then, is an act of "channeling obedient bodies along predictable paths." (BT) 2/2 070810

- Violence - "as a metaphor for the intensity of a relationship between individuals and their spaces" - is fundamental and unavoidable. 1/2 070810

- *Pinkwashing. Also, thanks to Netto/Hillier <--end note, kaleidoscope blog, new post. 2/2 070610

- Orig. words...replaced w/ words in italics in order to remove the *concept from its geog. embedding & treating it as a "thing in itself" 1/2 070610

- (...) Gay identities emerging from the social geographies of NY streets is amazing: Village, Harlem (70s), Park Slope, Brooklyn (late 80s). 062310

- Gay Space: (...) "The streets were like mica...paved w/ diamonds." 062310 - The Mellon seminar on "interpretation & the rhetoric of critical discourse" ended offering a superb space of cross-disciplinary exchange. 062210

- "How Montezuma's career as a physician afforded him a space to work as an activist and a writer." - Kiara (love it!) 062110
- What a fantastic hour and a half long discussion with fellow seminarians on my work, today. 061510
- Phallic orientation, cardinal sin and male character of architecture: I might have just added another layer to the ongoing debate. 061310
- *spatialists: Art & Design, French/Women Studies, History, American Studies, and me. 061110
- Spent a terrific eve w/ *spatialists at aut. We discussed male space, native space, biographical space, space of privilege/communication. 061110
- "My purpose was not to challenge expert culture but specific kinds of expertise that were actually quackery" ~ Jane Jacobs, always a delight. 061010
- (...) I think it's more crucial to work with space and something: eg: space and experience, space and time, space and cognition etc. 060910
- (...) As you can see, I'm still hung up on the spatial explosion in the 80s and 90s. 060910
- (...) Space syntax continues to produce new research but of late focuses more on tool/method/application than theory. Netto would agree. 060910
- Crucial is a difficult descriptive. Good reads: Charles Rice, "Emergence of Interior" ('07); follow-up: "The Inside of Space" ('09). 060910
- Discovered a gem in the library and now eager to make connections. After all, didn't *s/he say, "I write spatially." 052710 *s/he: Rendell (2006), Tschumi (2003).
- "For the same reason that a fish would not question water." (Tschumi on "why space") 052710
- "La Chinoise" <-- the much awaited, finally! 052510

- Abstract equals male: "Phallic erectility bestows a sp. status on the perpendicular proclaiming phallocracy as the orientn. of space." ~ HL 052210

- "The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think." ~ Edwin Schlossberg 052210

- Not determine but choreograph: the ability to "choreograph (...) into productive relationship." 052110

- **(...) where knowledge = grasp of content, understanding role/meaning of dissemination/audience. 052110

- **(...) Elements of grade A book then: graphic design, clear writing, knowledge, image res. 052110 - "Beneath the pavement, lies the beach." 051110

- (...) It's immensely challenging, I agree, but it's an ongoing inquiry so let's see. (3) 051010

- (...) On designing new systems of communication, making different arrangements if you will. (2) 051010

- (...) I'm more keen on problematizing the relationship between the "genius" and "cooks with agenda." (1) 051010

- (...) Would you consider participatory design approach or the inability to make sense of plural consciousness a problem? 051010

- Everyday transcription/semantic encounter; active markings/distanced cognition; appropriative negation/counter domination; texture/text: (2) 051010

- Keeping busy with motility/mobility; pleasure/work; use/exchange; performing/recording; differential/heterotopial: (1) 051010

- In a completely different world or am I: Reading the making of Christianity & Judaism as well as A. Frank on S. Tomkins. My bit: I. Borden. 050810

W10

- "I bought this chair in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine" ~ HL (linguistic, practical, social). 041910
- The previous two thoughts continue the thread of my criticism of last night's lecture/post-presentation Q/A. 041410
- Also, to live below poverty line in a first world economy is not the same as living below poverty line in a third world economy. 041410
- Food, clothing & shelter might be core universal needs but the question is what kind of food, what kind of clothing & what kind of shelter? 041410
- Aravena's lecture tonight returned to the structure-agency binary (unfortunately). The questionnaire seemed to be the central problematic. 041310
- "It is beyond the scope of this work to rehearse the concepts during this long history, except to note that it was ..." - what this is not. 041210
- "... and we have people like Lefebvre's grandson in the room." 040510
- Mosaic versus Kaleidoscope: that sums up the evaluation. 040110
- Tonight's preoccupation: agency in reinterpretation or rethinking subversion, appropriation, localization, participation & communication. 032110
- Paul Schilder on space and it's relationship to "instincts, drives, emotions and actions," or simply IDEA. 031410
- (...) But then again, his notion of moments is not based in ontology, right? (...) 022410
- (...) I think HL's theory of moments is a good place to begin (?). My interest in lived-space is leading me there. 022410
- (...) HL's "dialectical thinking" brought together space and time, although his notion of time is complex (ref. rhythmanalysis). 022410
- On philosophy and architecture, "one may already be figuring in and thus would already be present within the other" ~ A. Benjamin. 022310
- "Lost in transposition," or what would have happened if 1991 had immediately followed 1974. 022110
- The Q'n is not whether critique but what kind of critique, also the Q'n is not whether radicality but what kind of radicality. 021210
- Most certainly: "There is nothing innocent about space" ~ HL. 021110
- To assume is to fix meanings. 020710
- To assume what architects mean by space when they enthuse about it is the same as to assume what feminists mean by rights when talk about it. 020710
- Each paragraph requires an extensive yet careful elaboration. That's the only way forward. 020510
- Not about a return to architecture without architects or about glorifying the bottom-up or about romanticizing the pre-modern. 020310
- It's not about fetishizing contradictions. It's about challenging passivity. 012510
- To reveal is to dwell in possibility. To conceal is to destroy the possibility itself. The former is challenging. The latter is convenient. 012410
- Just shared my space of conversation, conflict and collision. 011910
- Heuristic device and quotidian procedure, the need for "contamination" as suggested or simply, to reveal the obvious. 011710
- (...) And through this, expose conflict and devise strategies toward newer modalities. (2/2) 011310
- (...) Re: Critical thinking and design. (...) The point is to view critique as a material for design. (1/2) 011310
- Transcribing a criticism to the architecturing of objects - the geometry of certainties, the era that 'was' & the conflict that 'is'. 011210
- Not take tools to the site but purchase tools from the site, in other words, social capital and the architecture of mediation. 010810
- (...) True. Wittgenstein's manuscript of reality, a heuristic device, is a significant source. The Q's also link to Hegel, Marx. 010510
- (...) Little wonder, then, in 2009: "To have an architectural theorist use twitter as an exclusive vehicle to communicate is totally conceivable" (2/2) 010510
- (...) The return of your $10,000 question. Does he twitter? Answer: Apparently he did, in 1975 (...). (1/2) 010510
- Is the theorizing of architecture 'exclusively' in terms of architecture an attempt to rubbish the evidence of complex relationships? 010310

F09

- Practice conceals contradictions. 122309
- (...), "Explain." (...), "It's not about 'space of flows' or 'space of place' but about both & their continued conversation." (2/2) 122309
- (...) "What's wrong with privileging?" (...), "It destroys possibility in 'everyday' conversation." (1/2) 122309
- Architecture in its conventional sense seen as one transforming from a mere response field to now an action field. 122109
- Texture as a field in which actions of everyday practice are expressed/acted vs. text where they are explained/read. 122109
- Lefebvre's distinction between text and texture comes to mind. 122109
- The inner point of view as a form of communication with the "other": both the perceived other and one's history as the other ~ Bataille. 122109
- My night-long ruminations on absolute - abstract - differential packaged neatly in a series of early morning exchanges w/ SM. Nice. 121109
- (...) India is a Third world in true Lefebvrian sense- elusive, alive, magical & defined by dialectics of abstract:differential space. 121109
- (...) Self-discipline? What's that? Accountability? Never heard of it. This defines the new age poverty. (3/3) 121109
- (...) whose newly acquired wealth in some quarters adds to poverty - moral & social poverty. (2/3) 121109
- (...) Indeed worrisome. Between the binaries of rich-poor, India also has a fat new middle-class, the neo-urban less urbane janta (1/3) 121109
- Everyday architecture is where 'this' belongs. Delighted. 121009
- "Space is always striated. You cannot have smooth space" ~ D. Massey reflects upon spatial-turn + other videos. 120709
- Third World - Third Space - Third Moment: An ineffable experience, beyond the binaries of ideal-real and always in flux. 120509 - To scrutinize theoretical propositions and examine dichotomies in the light of moments and not situations. 120509
- Intellectual elitism and the element of subversion in an intellectual inquiry. 120309
- From architecture as the "creatress of space" to university as a "feminine referent," this document has it all. 112809
- Graffitti: "Consume more and live less!" (May 1968, France). Very apt. 112709
- Addressing and acknowledging the contradictions of abstraction. 112509
- "(...) the attempt to get us both to think space and time differently, and to think of them together," that's HL and his prolific work. 112409
- Between desiring symbolic intervention & actually working w/ it: the aim is to critique the paradox & dig deeper into dialectical thinking. 112109
- "Your work is in search of something elusive. It hints at the limitations of language, is non-formulaic, hence difficult & interesting." 111809
- London always feels like home: abstract-real, academic-familial and new-old juxtapositions abound. 110809
- Provocation helps construct an argument so much better. 110509
- Myths, legends, Levi-Strauss: Human behavior is based on logical systems, which vary from society to society but possess a common structure. 110309
- Moving from one presentation to the next and hoping to give thought to some disease and its role in design in between. 102709
- Complex arguments and logical argumentation versus experience and its concrete description. 102509
- Parkinson's, parkinsonism and the parkinsonian being (...). 102409
- Working towards a "... full consciousness of the abstract in order to arrive at the concrete" (HL). 102309
- Ben Nicholson's lecture and endnotes last night paired perfectly w/ my work. The questions are growing and for good. 101609
- Abridging is challenging, yet useful for sharpness and clarity. 101509
- Alphaville is great but I need something more. There is also a need to examine the nature of Hays two poles, and their relationship. 101109
- "To have an architectural theorist use twitter as an exclusive vehicle to communicate is totally conceivable" ~ Bernard Tschumi. 100809
- A local time and an evolutionary time. 092809
- I've just complicated my research argument or have I? In the end, 'would be lovely to see it render evidence both simple and obvious. 092709
- Discovered a treasure trove, which has some very very early writing by Hillier. Excited! 092509
- A sense of critical durability helps define an inquiry/distinguish it from noise over long periods of time" ~ E. Moss. 092409
- "Six Memos for *this* Millenium." After all, it's about our ongoing quest for deep knowledge. Thanks Calvino. 092309
- Revisiting my fundamental argument via L. Groat's critique of, what she calls, the theoretical cul-se-sac in architecture. Excellent. 091509
- Lacan argued that our subjectivities were never direct but mediated by the symbolic. The 'lived' is then distinct from the 'lived-in' (?). 091309
- Dana Cuff is a real treasure. 091209

SS09

- Trying to build an argument from two sets of weekly notes. The first set ends w/ a brilliant Q'n. The second set discusses the background. 082909
- Excavation makes sense only when early writings are (re)visited. After all, it's about findings. 082909
- Schizophrenic existence is desirable. 082809
- (...) The role of psychology in design is indeed fascinating. At one level, I see my work gravitating towards it. Let's see. 082809
- (...) Translates to binaries: space-place, descriptive-prescriptive, syntax-semantics, formal-representational, concept-percept (3). 082609
- (...) However, I am interested in the Cartesian rule, its impact on design thinking/practice vis-a-vis relational dialectics (2). 082609
- (...) There are diff. schools of Hindu philosophy. The Yoga school for example seeks union between ind. and univ. consciousness (1). 082609
- (...) Re: On cognition. The mind-body relation both fascinates & baffles me. I hope my interest in the "lived" takes me somewhere. 082609
- There is a difference between bridging the gap & seeking a connection. The former is assimilative. The latter is associative. 082409
- "I am not so courageous or foolhardy as to deliver a disquisition on Hegel" (Canter, 1988). 082409
- "I repose the Qs & they become complicated. I don't try to reconcile my works w/ each other. They're part of a process of rediscovery" (J.B). 082109
- How symbolic: Merleau-Ponty died of a heart attack but had the coronary while preparing for a class that he was giving on Descartes. 081909
- (...) when Habermas met Lefebvre, and Derrida argued to keep meaning in play. 081709
- It's all about reconstructing the habitus: the global needs to be brought down, the local needs to be brought up, demystified (Hannerz, '96). 081609
- (...) The Q. was simply an extension of my research interest in third space beyond the Cartesian dualism of mind-body. 080409
- (...) By that, they argue that the nature of human mind is shaped by the body. They oppose Cartesian dualism/any distinction (2/2). 080409
- (...) According to GL-MJ, concepts are embodied at neural, phenomenological and cognitive-unconscious levels (1/2). 080409
- (...) Have there also been similar advances in psychology or does it continue to worship the divide? (5/5). 073009
- (...) It focused on exchanges, relations, appropriations, subalternity & what have you within and between the worlds (4/5). 073009
- (...) Which is not to say, that western-nonwestern disappeared. Additionally, the third space got institutionalized (3/5). 073009
- (...) Late 20th c. saw the emergence of scholarship of plurality i.e. attempts to challenge, subvert & transcend the binaries (2/5). 073009
- (...) Re: Western. Interesting. Architectural historiography traditionally suffered from western-nonwestern divide (1/5). 073009
- Juxtaposing unrelated arguments in the hope of developing a well crafted critical project of relevance to embodied practice. 072809
- Reading a consideration of the concept of fetishism or the dialectical interpretation of commodity (= Marx). 072809
- Bachelard's Poetic of Space is a delightful (re)read. His dialectic of experiment-experience continues to offer valuable food for thought. 072709
- From Parisian flaneur-flaneuse to Manhattan traceur-traceuse, the interplay of space-movement both captivates & continues. Thanks Mitchell. 072109
- (...) is currently somewhere between word-concrete object and discourse-reality. 071309
- Wandering in bodily space with Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, somewhere between the lived body and the material body. 070809
- Dualisms could be resisted by critiquing the stability of two terms, arguing against their distinction or proposing a thirding. Great! 070709
- Careful crafting of an argument enlarges a debate and turns it into a dialogue. Watching M. Kishwar speak just made this clear. 070509
- Realizing how ideas-you-think-with determine what you sense, how you sense it and what it continues to generate. 070309
- (...) However, I do sense temporality in something like the "lived space" (2). 070109
- (...) Scholarship has traditionally separated the dialectic(s) of space-society & space-time (1). 070109
- Can and should the dialectic of space-society be seen as being separate from the dialectic of space-time? 070109
- When put on the agenda, space - as a common denominator, provides new ways to see the world in which we live (3/3). 062609
- The turn is primarily driven by the intellectual restlessness of ind. seeking to review the nature of their discipline (2/3). 062609
- Foucault made a declaration two decades ago, "the present epoch will perhaps above all be the epoch of space" (1/3). 062609
- An added note: Critical self-reflection is a form of intellectual restlessness, but one that helps strengthen the core. The gaze is inward. 062609
- While the former indicates an intellectual restlessness, the latter is a mode of critical self-reflection (3/3). 062609
- The "-turn" either implies a change in the direction of a discipline's growth or a re-turn to thinking closely of its preserve (2/3). 062609
- The term "spatial-turn" is intriguing (1/3). 062609
- (...) Fraser, N. (1992) "Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy." Cheers! (2/2) 062209
- (...) Yep, that's her...I find her concept of publics (ref. Habermas) thought-provoking (1/2). 062209
- Wondering what makes me return to Fraser's notion of "subaltern counterpublics" over & over again? 062209
- (...) An attempt towards achieving theoretical clarity may lead to new theoretical building. Oh logical argumentation. 061909
- Meaning is neither purely semantic (representational) nor purely syntactic (non-representational). It is both. Hence, I and my project. 061809
- The lived space is slowly taking center stage. This is going to be difficult. 061709
- If LA is an 'idea' representation of Rowe's Collage City, Bombay is its 'real' description. 061509
- The protagonist of the film, "The Mirror" is incredible. The city, through her eyes, is one big family: relational & lived. 061409
- Determinism, Dialectics and Deconstruction: currently moving from one to another but returning again & again to the second of the three. 061109
- Filled with narrative, space, dichotomies, thirding, project, consciousness, experience, meaning and gravitating towards description. 061009
- "One of the most harmful habits in contemporary thought is the analysis of the present as ... unique or irruptive point in history" (Foucault) 060909
- Lived space makes mind/theory/academic and body/practice/person separation impossible. HL loves this tension. 052509
- Critical theory is normative in that it attempts to provide norms for criticism and change of current social problematic. 051309
- "Ambulatory movement is one in which the vision moves from focus to awareness" (DL). 051009
- (...) Politics, conceptions & representations of space along with Tschumi? (...) the core of my current work. 050809
- Critique is the central problematique. Let's see where it leads me. 050309

**phantom posts

Ecology as Lived: Paper

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:07:00 +0000

Theory Forum Poster: Click to enlarge.

I am very excited to be part of "Theory Forum '09: Ecology" at the Sheffield School of Architecture, The University of Sheffield. My talk is entitled, "Ecology as Lived: Interrogating space and its relationship with experience."

In my paper, I refer to ecology as a worldview through which to understand relations, interconnections and forms of communication between concrete and abstract, world as perceived and world as conceived, their foundation and production in the notion of lived. Ecology as lived draws upon the notion of phenomenological ecology and posits an understanding of ecology as one, transcending the aforementioned dualities through emphasis on their constant interplay. My paper discusses the notion of lived, its relation with space and opposition to Cartesian binaries. Through a close examination of space as lived, I explore the conflict between architectural designer and experiencing subject and discuss the role and meaning of lived in architectural design (key concepts: existential phenomenology, critical philosophy, space syntax, dialectics, design).

Here is the event schedule:

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Friday November 13, 2009

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9:30 - Ecologies: Limitations and possibilities, Irenee Scalbert, SAUL, Ireland

9:50 - The Potential of the Empty House, Catharina Gabreilsson, The London School of Economics

10:10 - Ecology as Lived: Interrogating space and its relation with experience, Kush Patel, The University of Michigan

11:20 - Ethics vs. Aesthetics, Steve Parnell, The University of Sheffield

11:40 - Pictorial Ecology, Nigel Dunnett, The University of Sheffield

12:00 - Urban Homeostasis: Counterbalancing Urban Disruptions, Ruxandra Berinde, TU of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

13:45-14:45 Keynote - Territorial Ecologies, Neeraj Bhatia & Maya Przybylski, InfraNetLab, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo.

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Saturday November 14, 2009

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10:20 - Design Ecologies of Access, Lisa Tilder, Ohio State University

10:40 - States of Change: Transformative Shanghai, Rosalea Monacella, RMIT University

11:00 - Education for Sustainable Architecture: Qualified Architects with Insufficient Knowledge? Bing Chen, The University of Sheffield

12:10 - Urban Space and Models of Sustainability, Mick O'Kelly, National College of Art and Design, Dublin

12:30 - Ecology and the Art of Sustainable Living, David Haley, Manchester Metropolitan University

12:50 - Critical Ecologies, Jon Goodbun, University of Westminster, WAG Architecture

The talks are complemented by workshops, film screenings and more.

On Visibility or Women and Practice II

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:25:00 +0000

Documenting architecture: Plan and section of Udaipur Palace, Jain, K. and Jain, M. (1994) Indian City in the Arid West. AADI Center: Ahmedabad, India.

This post introduces one such practitioner, whom I regard as my hero and mentor, architect-academic Prof. Minakshi Jain. It continues from my previous post on visibility or women and architectural practice. Minakshi Jain is a faculty in School of Architecture, CEPT University and a partner in Jain Associates, Ahmedabad. At CEPT, she has taught for over 30 years in both undergraduate and graduate programs - led design studios, guided thesis projects and taught seminar courses on architectural and urban conservation.

In professional practice since the early '70s, she has several noteworthy projects to her credit. These range from design of award winning private residences and urban housing projects to interior design, historic conservation and architectural publication work. Educated at MS University, Baroda and The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, she has worked with Charles and Ray Eames in Ahmedabad and Louis Kahn in the US in different capacities. She had met Kahn when he was designing IIM - Ahmedabad, and was later encouraged by him to pursue her Master's in Architecture at UPenn. In her words, "(Kahn) told me that if I wished to learn more about architecture, I should come to UPenn and so I did for a year to complete my master's degree. It was an interesting experience as everything was strange and new to me. My association with Kahn taught me that integrity was essential in your work and if you are passionate in what you do, then rest is easy." Ever since, her professional practice and academic teaching have intersected in interesting ways.

My association with Prof. Jain started in the year 2000, when I had interned at their firm Jain Associates as an undergraduate student in architecture. I was involved in on-site exploration and study of historic water-system of Ahhichatragarh Fort, Nagaur, Rajasthan. It was a unique experience in terms of the project's unconventional nature and hands-on learning. All along, her discipline, strong work ethic and the innate ability to reach out to people were clearly evident. Later on, she was my first studio instructor in the Urban Design program at CEPT. Here again, her professional experience coupled with excellent pedagogical skills informed my learning immensely and in newer ways.

Defying the binaries of softer/harder and their patriarchal origins, Prof. M. Jain is one such practitioner, whose passion for architecture is visible at all scales. It has not just shaped practice but also rendered it a human meaning. It is founded on formative principles that weave connections and bring to fore the social dimension of architecture. She may not have an extensive web-presence, but her work is well acknowledged in many parts of the world. Needless to say, her simplicity and dedication to work, creativity and the tenacity to tide over oddities continue to inspire and guide me in my pursuits, both academic and personal.

Thank you, Prof. Jain!

On Visibility or Women and Practice I

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Cover: S omaya, B. and Mehta, U. (eds.) "Women in Architecture"

This post parallels my current discussion with Prof. Fernando Lara on gender inequality and "women in architecture." It is in two parts. The first part summarizes our most recent exchanges on this subject in his blog "sharing walls." The second part, my next post, fondly introduces one such practitioner whom I continue to regard as my hero and mentor.

In his blog, Prof. Lara - an architect-academic and a father of two daughters, revisits an otherwise seldom-discussed yet significant problem of gender inequality and/or the apparent lack of visibility of women in architecture. He says that despite a large representation of women students and educators in architectural schools, there are very few women leading the profession. He asks, is architecture profession largely sexist and internally divisive or does the fault lie with clients, and their continuing perception of women architects as "kitchen remodelers," and male architects as "master builders"? To many outside of our discipline, and to those from within but in denial, this may read like a non-issue. But the fact remains that architectural practice, and its projection are both fractured. They need closer examination in terms of a. how do we understand contemporary practice, and b. what keeps women practitioners from being visible in the field?

I would begin by arguing that the traditional view of practice is limited, in that, it tends to be governed by patriarchy, and its assigning of softer portfolios (interior design, landscape design, architectural conservation) to women, and harder counterparts, (urban design, architecture, architectural engineering, construction) to men. Over the years, such value-laden notions have helped produce a mythical "mainstream," where men and "their kinds" of practices have enjoyed greater visibility. Contemporary views however differ from this divisiveness, and M. Malecha's thought-provoking comment best exemplifies this. In one of the academic conferences he argued, "(I)t is time we re-termed architecture as architectureS (plural): meaning there are practiceS in architecture, and nothing like mainstream and alternative" (emphasis added). In my opinion, this could be a valuable step in the direction of (re)recognizing different practices that define contemporary pluralism and through which to help make visible all the actors, including women in practice.

On the notion of visibility - Visibility is not about presence alone. It is also about the presence of absence, where absence is not what is not visible but what is not given thought. Malecha's comment gives critical thought to the traditional binary model. It seeks to remove the dominant model (read softer-harder) from its traditional patriarchal embedding, and argue for re-envisioning of practice around actors, performances, connections and their interplay in architecture. Seen from this perspective, not just the discourse but also the profession of architecture can be described as one that is alive with individuals of all genders, sexualities, and ethnicities. Hence my claim: in contemporary times, women in architecture is no longer a question about who/where they are but about, what keeps them from being visible?

Stay tuned for my next post on the work of a multi-faceted practitioner, whose creative spirit and work ethic is a continuing inspiration.

Added note: How does the notion of visibility intersect with "current turns" (spatial, cultural, computational, digital, aesthetic) in architecture and allied disciplines? Also, how does Foucault's argument, visibility is a trap, relate to my hypothesis?

The Current Turn (?)

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:38:00 +0000

Last month on Twitter, I asked myself and to those I follow a simple question: If the deep recession in NYC in the late 1970s was also a moment when lot of architects turned to paper architecture, what is the current turn? By 'turn' neither did I wish to suggest a deterministic cause-effect outcome nor a clarion call. I chose to define the term as an otherwise less visible path but one that is intensified, institutionalized and/or brought into prominence by conditions of crisis. On recession, I recall Sean Griffiths' (1) opening comment in his 2007 lecture in New York City. He said, "We look at architecture in a slightly different way. We were fortunate enough to start our practice in the midst of a terrible construction recession, which basically meant nobody could give you a job, which meant you could do whatever you liked. (This) is actually a really good thing for architects because they don't have to hang around developers anymore."

Notwithstanding the present time, it is all too often argued that the "profession" of architecture remains enslaved by client and budget. Add to this, the specifics of site and the architecture program, and what you get are, what the Office of Unsolicited Architecture (OUA) (2) calls, the "four pillars" of professional practice. The OUA (2007) premises that architecture is a response profession and that the only way to turn it into an action profession is by liberating it from at least one of those four pillars (Neat!). Rory Hyde in his recent post discusses their approach in the light of several examples from around the world. He also makes a distinction between the practice of unsolicited-architecture and that of paper-architecture. He argues that while the strength of unsolicited work is its potential to become a realized project with support from public, political and/or financial sector, that of paper-practice is its ability to inspire, if at all, a tangible realization. His supporting list of various examples helps further delineate and make distinct the two models.

In the realm of practice then, 'unsolited architecture' could be seen as one such significant 'current turn.' My only contention is that works of OUA and the like not be considered as alternative models of practice because the notion of "alternative" reinforces the existence of a mythical "mainstream." On an added note, I am interested in examining the relationship of the ongoing 'turns' in professional practice with the contemporary discourse of 'turns' in academia (in particular the "spatial-turn") (3). I am tempted to start a discussion on Tschumi and his theory of architecture as a trigger for social change but shall hold that thought for now.

(1) Sean Griffith is a partner in the London-based art and architecture collective F.A.T. (Fashion. Architecture. Taste).
(2) The Office of Unsolicited Architecture (OUA) is a studio founded by Ole Bouman and students of MIT in 2007.
(3) In academic discourse, the term 'turn' has come to attract the attention of nearly every discipline in humanities and social sciences. Notions such as "spatial-turn" and "cultural-turn" are significant markers of a shift from the grand and universal narratives in twentieth-century scholarship to a more nuanced work on plurality and difference, specificity and essences in contemporary times.

Calcutta Calling!

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:43:00 +0000

Must read narratives on Calcutta. See below for links.*

In its little over three hundred years of history, the city of Calcutta has been called at different times, the City of Palaces for its neo-Victorian and eclectic urbanscape, the Paris of the East for its intellectual and artistic cultural life, the City of Dreadful Night for its supposed oppressive weather and more recently, the City of Joy for its humanity and hope.

Having been born and bred in this wonderful city, any and every reference to its urbanity conjures up beautiful memories. Hence, while recently watching Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's new film Antaheen,** it was but obvious to experience great nostalgia. The essence of the film lay in its portrayal of the quintessential modern day Bangali cosmosexual - an intellectual and a keen urban observer, searching for eternal love yet wanting to be fiercely independent. My Calcutta is home to such social tensions and contradictions. It is where dialectics are hailed, valorized and fiercely argued. I am alluding to the city of my memories and lived experiences. I realize that in so doing, I run the danger of what S. Dastidar calls, "not bringing the representation up to date." But again, my city of memories is not one of picture postcards or those moments of picture perfection. It is a city of lyrical imperfections, one continuously formed by its quintessential sociality of contradictions. It is in this spirit that I resist calling it Kolkata. Cheers!

*Links:

1. The Parlour and the Streets (Sumanta Banerjee)

2. City of Joy (Dominique Lapierre)

3. Past Continuous (Neel Mukherjee)

4. Corridor (Sarnath Banerjee)

5. Born into Brothels (Zana Brisky)

** An endless wait

Take the Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:06:00 +0000

Writer, editor and publisher Michael Kubo is currently working on a research project entitled "Publishing Practices" to be exhibited at Pinkcomma gallery, Boston in September 2009. As part of this project, he has designed a research survey to study the influence of architectural publications for those who have received an architectural education and are currently involved in its practice. The survey asks to list five books that have been important to education and/or current practice in the field. Following this are a series of questions on the significance of architectural publications today.

In the end and with all the responses, Kubo hopes to produce "a set of information graphics on the role and impact of architectural publications, for exhibition in September and possible publication thereafter." Responses are confidential and needed by August 1. It takes no more than 15-20 minutes to complete, so take the survey here (without delay!).

I loved this sample survey, particularly because I am working on a similar project but one focusing exclusively on International Publications (journals/magazines). Additionally, I commented that it might be helpful to survey say, 5 thinkers/architects/theorists/philosophers whose works have influenced practitioners and the practice of architecture. The inquiry would then focus on knowledge dissemination but align it to specific types of knowledge, its production and dissemination viz-a-viz both traditional and new media. This is something that I am increasingly becoming interested in examining (more on this to come).

Not whether Critique

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:22:00 +0000

Noted architectural theorist, J. Ockman makes a profound argument to help reposition the role of critique in architecture. On [globalization + criticism] she asks,

"(...) There are those who have suggested that we are living in post-critical age, (of) temporal and spatial compression characterized by the closing down of distance and the speeding up of time - the time that previously seemed necessary for genuine critical reflection as well as the phenomenon of cultural relativism, which makes us aware how impossible it is to find any archimedean point from which to do criticism. (As noted by Fred Jameson, the current times denote) the becoming economic of the cultural and the becoming cultural of the economic or the thorough contamination of every sphere of life, including the intellectual one, by capitalism (...). Is there then an antithetical relation between globalization and criticism?" [Ockman, J. (2003) Panel Chair: The State of Architecture at the beginning of the 21st century. Academic Conference. Columbia U.].

Deeply suspicious of fashionable formulations such as "post-critical," Ockman makes a case for understanding critique not as an architectural fad but as a descriptive cultural practice: essential to contest the otherwise uncontested and challenge the otherwise dominant forces of abstractionism. She says the important question is not whether critique but what kind of critique: an inquiry akin to an iterative process that attempts to reveal contradictions endemic to globalizing capitalism.

This makes me return to my work, which in part seeks to examine critical theory in the light of the current "spatial-turn." First formalized as a school of thought to expose the dialectical tensions in modernity, Critical Theory has since then drawn many social movements towards it. "Marx too had formulated a critical theory on material production, the labour process, and the workplace as the site of exploitative social relations." However, while the social formed a central argument in the Marxian critical thought, the spatial was not asserted until the inter-war years. "The work of the Frankfurt School, the Hegelian Marxists and the surrealists of France (including the young Henri Lefebvre)…created a new critical (spatial) tradition in what came to be called Western Marxism" (Soja 1998, p.67). Ever since, critical debates on the social and the spatial have expanded in extraordinary ways.

Guided by its very nature, architecture extended this debate to temporality, practice and the realm of the material. But in this light (and as Ockman reminds us) to ask from within the discipline "whether" critique is needed, is also missing the point. "What kind of critique" should focus on rethinking architectural practice, in other words, the relationship between the spatial and the social, the descriptive and the normative and on redefining what is material. Along these lines, it may also help to revisit the originary definition of Critical Theory as formalized by Horkheimer (keywords: explanatory, practical, normative).

And so the inquiry continues.

Berlin (Re)Visited

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:29:00 +0000

[Film Series:] Berlin Babylon is a 2001 film focusing on the changing urbanscape of Berlin after the fall of the infamous Wall in 1989. The film opens with the following text:
“The future of Babylon was in the hands of craftsmen who were not afraid to tackle a burden of any dimension. They were determined to finish what they had started even though their tongues became confused during construction (…).”

This opening text outlines both context and spirit of this beautiful photo documentary made by Hubertus Siegert with industrial music by Einstürzende Neubauten. The film is a collage of sites, conversations, nostalgic memories, people, aspirations, concerns and general hullabaloo concerning tonnes of new projects on the once touted longest and continuous construction site in Europe.

The overall sequence is non-linear, moving between sites with time-lapse photography of post-war demolitions. The actors include local builders, developers, construction workers and site managers standing as equals among and around notable architects like I.M.Pei, Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano and Helmut Jahn. What's appealing about this film is that it does not seek to profile individual architects through their winning projects. Instead, it weaves together the popular with the everyday, the persona with the real, and the grand conceptions with the on-ground challenges: creating a rich and a rather melancholic tapestry of urbanism, both conceived and lived.

The film is loud and yet for most part, seemingly quiet. Einstürzende Neubauten's music adds to this paradox - moving from construction noise to more elegant compositions and back. The camera and the sounds help enliven the moment when the Wall fell, and the prospect to build a bigger and a brighter tomorrow, arose. It captures the spirit of architecture and its inherent responsibility of building hope and aspiration. Siegart has produced a masterpiece of a documentary. A collectable and a must watch!

[Know more: Berlin Babylon homepage and pdf. interviews with actors (in German)].

Character, Category or Both?

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:50:00 +0000

My fabulous twitter pal, Barbara Hui likes to call herself digi-flâneuse - a title that emerged (perhaps!) during the course of one of our ongoing exchanges. When I first read the term flâneuse, I was both happy and curious. I began wondering if flâneur was then essentially an all male character and if there was a need to tweak and appropriate it to flâneuse. As always, my intellectual restlessness had to be tweeted and below are the tweets of thought on flâneur/flâneuse and everything in-between with friends, barbarahui* and carlacasilli**.

kshpatel: (thinking aloud) Baudelaire's flâneur was a "gentleman," a male stroller but Benjamins' was akin to a tourist, a dabbler. Based on that distinction, flâneuse is Baudelaire's flâneur appropriated because Benjamin's flâneur is a gender-neutral urban category (?) Hence, my question: Does the "digi-flâneuse" then relate herself more closely to Baudelaire's flâneur?
barbarahui: (I) Am going to have to look into strictly Baudelairian (?) notion of the flâneur since I am much more familiar w/ German variants i.e. Georg Simmel and Benjamin. I'd say both are gendered *male*. I suspect there is something too disruptive about the notion of woman-on-the-move for her to be compatible with the definition of flâneur. "Flâneuse" is simply a contradiction in terms. Such a woman cannot be; her very corpora would run up against binary definitions, although Weimar Berlin where Benjamin lived/worked was in some ways extraordinarily gender-bending. It's a great question!
kshpatel: Excellent perspective. There's something surely to be said about woman-on-the-move & her lived spatiality as an urbanite.
carlacasilli: Was listening in & couldn't help but wonder how the boulevardier compares to the flâneur (One reminds me of the other).
barbarahui: Hm, not familiar with the boulevardier at all. Tell us more?
kshpatel: (let me try) A boulevardier is a connoisseur-on-the-move whereas a flâneur is a perceptive-individual-on-the-move. If social class, wealth & taste make up a boulevardier, it is a perceptive mind that helps define a flâneur.
carlacasilli: I am quite taken with your subtle distinction between the boulevardier and the flâneur.
barbarahui: Brilliantly clear explanation, as always! Who talks about the boulevardier? Does it have a typical context?
carlacasilli: Not sure that the boulevardier has a literary pedigree like flâneur does.
kshpatel: I think so too. The term Boulevardier originated in the late 19th century with specific reference to "man," an elegant dresser frequenting Parisian boulevards. I don't think it has any derived meaning.

In the end, this exchange helped intensify my thinking in terms of spatial-sexual-social dialectic or ways in which the spatial consciousness of sexual beings get formed and/or can be derived from different social surrounds. .

*Barbara Hui is a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature at UCLA and my daily dose on twitter. **Carla Casilli is an MA student in Media Psychology at UCLA/Fielding University and among the most recent additions to my list of followers on twitter.

Thank You!

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:47:00 +0000

This post is difficult to pen. It attempts to record a moment of happiness and a simultaneous sense of loss. Today, a small group of Ph.D. students gave a farewell lunch to our much loved, respected and valued faculty advisor Prof. Fernando Lara, who will now be joining the Faculty group, Doctoral Program in Architecture, University of Texas at Austin.

Anyone who has ever worked with Prof. Lara (or been his student) will recognize and vouch for his commitment to architectural education, scholarship and practice. His humility and kind demeanor coupled with intellectual excellence and academic rigor made him one of most sought after faculty members in our Program. At the Taubman College, he taught Design Studios and courses in Design Studies and Peripheral Modernisms. He was also one of the few faculty members from within the Doctoral Studies to seek connections between architectural design and research. He achieved this and more through studio teaching, his own interest in design theory, and his collaborative work with students from both professional and research programs.

An alumnus of the University of Michigan, Prof. Lara's architectural career is built on prolific design and research work. As a design practitioner, his professional work ranges from design of private residences to public buildings to active participation in international ideas/building design competitions. As a research practitioner, he has written and published extensively on Modernist spatiality, architectural theory and architectural design methods. His most recent work, "The Rise of Popular Modernist Architecture" (2009): University Press of Florida, is a development of his doctoral dissertation project at U-M. In this, he investigates how and why modern architecture became so popular in Brazil, "tracking the path of the dissemination as well as the economic, cultural, and political conditions that made it possible. He views it as a direct extension of the optimism and relative stability that spread throughout the country beginning in the 1950s" (University Press of Florida). Currently, his work includes an analysis of housing markets in Brazil and a comparative inquiry into architectural practices of the South.

On the one hand, I am extremely happy for him but on the other hand, I am sensing his move as a huge loss for the Program. He has been a superb advisor and a fantastic mentor. And despite the fact that my association with him is just a year old, I must say that it has been an absolute honor to work with him and in different capacities. I am certain that our working association will grow in the future. Cheers, Fernando! and here's wishing you all the very best in your new University surrounds.

Among a range of other things, Prof. Lara writes a blog both in Portuguese and in English (Parede de Meia/Sharing Walls).

Production

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:34:00 +0000

This space was not left unattended. It was simply not updated in the last few weeks due to academic work and intense intellectual production.

Emerging Voices: Speaker One

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:58:00 +0000

"Emerging Voices" Winter '09 Lecture Poster, designed by Nicholas Senske of DLB fame.

The Planning and Architecture Research Group (P+ARG) is hosting Yanni Alexander Loukissas, Ph.D., to be the opening speaker for the "Emerging Voices" Lecture Series that begins this Winter term. The brainchild of Prof. C. Zimmerman, fellow doctoral student D. Westhuizen and I, this series is intended to bring outstanding young and emerging scholars to Ann Arbor to share their work with Doctoral students in Architecture.

Our first speaker, Yanni Alexander Loukissas, holds a Ph.D. in Design and Computation from MIT, Master of Science in Architecture Studies also from MIT, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell. His lecture at Michigan is entitled, Conceptions of Design in a Culture of Simulation: Socio-technical Studies at Arup. Yanni teaches design studio and theory in the Cornell University Department of Architecture. He also practices as a design and technology consultant. For more information on the lecture, visit P+ARG features here.

Also see: Lecture Video

Conservation Matters (Getty)

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Before: Baradari, Ahichhatragarh Fort, Nagaur (1993). Photo: Prof. K.B. Jain

After: Baradari, Ahichhatragarh Fort, Nagaur (2005?). Photo: M. Arya
Photograph source: The Getty Center Events March 2009.

The Getty Conservation Institute will be presenting an open lecture entitled "Conservation of the Ahichhatragarh-Nagaur Fort in India" on March 19, 2009. Prof. Minakshi Jain, architect and director for the conservation of the Ahichhatragarh-Nagaur Fort in northwest India, will explain how the previously dilapidated fort became a model for the conservation of historic sites.

Marked by a rich palimpsest of history, this 35-acre complex with its numerous palace buildings, pavilions, pools, fountains and water systems is situated in the hot and arid region of Rajasthan India. In this desert region, water was always a scarcity and a major challenge; yet it was tapped and dramatized throughout the complex in unique ways. The conservation project included a detailed documentation and restoration of water and hydraulic systems.

I have had the opportunity to work under Prof. Jain on the Conservation of Water Systems Project at Ahichhatragarh during my undergraduate years in Architecture. Minakshi Jain is a partner in the firm, Jain Associates in Ahmedabad. With Prof. K.B. Jain, she has authored "Indian Cities in the Arid West" (1994); "Architecture of the Indian Desert" (2000) and "Thematic Space in Indian Architecture" (2002). She also teaches at the School of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad.

Reservations are required for this lecture. Please visit http://www.getty.edu/ for more information.

Also see: On visibility or Women and practice II (October 2009).

Small Detail

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:22:00 +0000

Just a small detail that caught my attention at The Pierpont Morgan Library Extension designed by architect, Renzo Piano. My sketch to the right of the photograph, shows the floorscape detail around an indoor tree in plan (bottom) and section (top). It is an interesting weave of thin long wooden members enframed in a metal rim and set in panelled hardwood floor. I loved it. [NYC hangover II].

Situation and Room

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:43:00 +0000

"Situation Room", Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC, February Feb. 20, 2009 - Mar. 31 2009.

The Storefront for Art and Architecture is currently a site of occupation and action by the visiting French Exyst group, a community of 11 people working on principles of play and appropriation of Guy Debord. Their 02'09 NYC project, entitled “Situation Room” entails transforming the Storefront gallery into a habitable space for their everyday use. In this they have assembled a series of ready-to-use cardboard boxes to redefine the gallery space as an event-space with changing programs – each attempting to engage the public and blur the distinctions between public-private and spectator-actor. The modular box is a physical element that helps create and augment the social space.

While fascinating and engaging, I am critical of their confining of event-space to physical boundaries of the gallery (a.k.a the room). How I wished to see some of their modular boxes spilling onto the sidewalk, taking over the urban space, enlarging the canvas of events and facilitating the birth of unanticipated situations. This would have strengthened their idea of redefining boundaries and challenging the correspondence of space and use. Nevertheless, an interesting act! [NYC hangover I].

Exyzt was created in 2003 on the initiative of five architects. The 02'09 “Situation Room” live-exhibit is conceived by an even bigger group of creative individuals comprising lighting designer, graphic designer, music composers, photographer, painter, video-artists and architects.

Storefront for Art and Architecture is a platform for creative action, exploration and display for architects, designers and artists. Active since 1982, it has been the site of works of innumerable creative individuals and groups attempting to challenge conventions. The current façade was commissioned and built in 1993 by artist Vito Acconci and architect, Steven Holl. It is a remarkable experiment of space design. It redefines the urban edge, challenges the conventional understanding of the inside and the outside, and leaves the passersby with intrigue and inspiration. A must visit!

For a peep into the world of the Situationists, Guy Debord and their work around conceived-perceived-lived, click here.

Mapping the City

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:12:00 +0000

The Boys and the Subway (July 2008) NY Times

New York Cheat Sheets (October 2008) NY Times

While I am all excited to be in NYC during the spring break, I am also thinking of ways to navigate and explore the city using its quintessential subway. I know there are maps, drawings and abundance of online information to describe the system, but nothing beats Cristoph Niemann’s absolute fun illustrations aptly entitled “The Boys and the Subway.” A storyboard of subterranean lived experiences of 2 boys, this one is a must for those who love this locus of urbanity (or simply the NYC). Also fun, are the “New York Cheat Sheets” that illustrate what Niemann calls his “tightly guarded secrets” in and about the city.

A sure inspiration (via DLB).

Christoph Niemann is an artist, illustrator and author currently living in Berlin. Website: c hristophniemann.com

Continuum

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:18:00 +0000

This past week, David Leatherbarrow’s lecture and talk* with Doctoral students was illuminating, particularly the manner in which it magnified and qualified each term and relations between them. On one hand, while this allowed for a close thinking of architectural terms and their embedding in traditional philosophy, on the other hand, the resulting whole seemed to warrant a sense of an overall, a definition and a completion. The latter could be attributed to his philosophy that seemed to value movement over destination, relationships between parts over parts in and of themselves, and what he referred to as “divergence and its coexistence with crossings and landings.**” As I observed, it was this argument for a continuum - a stream of consciousness coupled with his relatively slow paced and soft manner of speaking that made most of us in the audience pay close attention to what he said and how he said what he said.

To sum up and in his words, “the hardest thing to do is to put the pencil down and say I am done.”

Touché.

*David Leatherbarrow is Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and Chair of the Graduate Group in Architecture. The lecture and talk (February 5-6) were part of the Architecture Doctoral Seminar Winter 2009 at TCAUP, The University of Michigan.
* *David Leatherbarrow’s essay “Landings and Crossings – The Lewis Glucksman Gallery.”

Project 'a'

noreply@blogger.com (Kush) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:38:00 +0000

I am formed in education and I am proud of it.

Most of us are formed in architectural education, and yet there are many who blame the academia for being an ideal intellectual cocoon - disconnected and detached from the real world. Underpinning such argument is the belief that theory is separate from practice and that academia, if at all, contributes to building up a discourse, which is intellectual and often outside the realm of practice. In this space I will discuss the context and content of several educational institutions that are attempting to challenge these notions and through it, redefine and emphasize the connection between theory and practice of architecture.

The objective of this project is to search and catalogue organizations, academic programs and think-tanks around the world that are working towards reexamining the way architecture is taught, understood, learnt and above all practiced.

I am calling it Project 'a'rchitecture or simply, Project 'a'.

More to follow.