National Building Museum - Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990

 

Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990
Exhibition open until March 10, 2014 at the National Building Museum in Washington DC.

 “Every city has had its boom, but the history of Los Angeles...should be regarded as one continuous boom punctuated at intervals with major explosions.” 
Carey McWilliams, Southern California: An Island on the Land, 1946



The exhibition traces the city’s transformation into an internationally recognized destination with its own design vocabulary, canonized landmarks, and coveted way of life. Organized by the Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum, the exhibition features hundreds of original drawings, photographs, and models drawn from the collection of the Getty and dozens of other institutions.

They were organizing this exhibition before I left the US and it is one to definitely see before March.
All multimedia available through the National Building Museum at:
http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/related-exhibition-resources/overdrive-la-constructs.html

Pierre Koenig (1925-) and Julius Shulman. Cast Study House No. 22 (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1960. Gelatin Silver. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute (2004.R.10)



Architectural photographer Julius Shulman (1910-2009) reflects on the growth and evolution of Los Angeles over eight decades. He discusses his photographic techniques and offers an eyewitness account of the myriad changes and developments in areas like Bunker Hill and Century City, as well as the opening of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Aliso Village public housing.

Tobias Horrocks - cardboard architect

Freefold stool

Tobias Horrocks spent 14 years working in architecture before leaving to set up his own practice, Fold Theory, which encompasses cardboard design, installation design, recycled furniture and interior design, as well as architecture.
http://foldtheory.com/about-tobias-horrocks/

Pictured above is the Freefold stool which assembles in less than two minutes from three identical pieces of cardboard: no tools needed. Each stool costs $30. The furniture is made with 100 per cent recycled cardboard, sourced from post consumer waste paper and sustainably managed plantation wood fibre.

Log Book Shelf

Bricktopia: contemporary crafts in EME3 Festival, Barcelona

© Manuel de Lozar + Paula López Barba

“Bricktopia”, by the architects of the international collective Map13, is the winning project in the “Build-it” Eme3 International Architecture Festival, held on June 27-30 in Barcelona. 

This intervention sets a new square which can house different activities, both under the pavilion and around it. Public spaces for bathrooms, sun, bar and stage for enjoying the summer 2013. It is a brick domed structure that employs the traditional construction system of a partitioned vault (or “Catalan vault”) computed with new digital tools for the structural optimization of the geometry.

 More information and images go to Arch Daily
 http://www.archdaily.com/444822/bricktopia-contemporary-crafts-in-eme3-festival-barcelona/

Sydney Architecture Festival around town

User Generated Architecture at the Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney. Comprised of two parallel projects, Raumlabor berlin and Not Quite Square, that both explore the legacies of 1970s architecture.

Raumlabor berlin is a contemporary architectural collective that draws on the utopian architectural experiments of the ‘60s and ‘70s to explore spatial politics in the urban landscape.

Not Quite Square is an historical exhibition that marks the 40th anniversary of the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin by documenting handmade houses of Northern NSW.  

Rural Habitat is an exhibition of photographs, multimedia and models of Mexican and rural indigenous communities within a purpose built pavilion on Customs House Square. 
Open until 26 January 2014

Sydney Opera House 40th Anniversary - 

David Moore Photography Retrospective Customs House Sydney Open until 26 January 2014

Esemplastic - moulding parts into one

The exhibition at the Grasshopper Bar in Temperance Lane,  showed an investigation of UNSW Master of Architecture students who divided George Street into small precincts and analysed these precincts in regards to their challenges and missed opportunities.

SAF Kids at Parramatta

The Sydney Architecture Festival came to Parramatta on November 2nd 2013 with kids joining in at the Riverside Theatre Courtyard for a day of drawing, walking, designing and building. It was a great way to discover and celebrate the heritage of Parramatta. SAF Volunteers included architectural students and graduates.


SAF volunteer Bernard helping a young participant to create an outdoor living space

The Architecture Walks, led by local architects, had kids searching for architectural features and completing a Passport to the Streets. Stops on the walk included the Old Kings School, Lennox Bridge and the Jessie Street Centre.

Making Monuments was a hands on activity in the courtyard and required participants to design and make a monument to honour Parramatta through a person, object or event.  Suggestions included Parramatta’s first farmer, Henry Dodd through to celebrating the Parramatta River. 

Then and Now asked kids to consider future plans for Parramatta.
To look at the city as it once was and how it is now. What was different, what was the same, what do they see for the the future?