FOCUS V

Crack @ Tate Modern, 27/10/2007

Doris Salcedo Shibboleth. Anywhere else this would cause serious concern. Architects, Surveyors, Engineers would be desperately trying to fix this massive structural fault... But it's in a gallery so people just trip and fall over it.
Tate Modern here


S333 @ NLA, 29/10/2007

Dutch architects practice with a heavy lean towards urbanism. Interesting to see there approach to analysis and how they represent it.
S333 here
NLA here


Forms Of Inquiry: The Architecture Of Critical Graphic Design @ the AA, 29/10/07

(AA facade)
How far can a story be expressed, changed and animated on a sheet of paper? Can Graphic Design aid Architects? Well, yes, however this exhibition didn't engage with me. Some of the pieces were too abstract and dare I say it felt as if I've seen it before. I guess its a delicate balance between information and design.
Forms Of Inquiry here


Vladan P. Lighting Designer, Kardorf, 29/10/2007

(reso-net)
Light as a material? A great glimpse into what Lighting Design has to offer. Interesting how stories can be told and experiences affected by lighting. Nocturnal landscapes given depth by picking out elements within the vista.

ERCO provide engineering hardware and software for architectural lighting. Check out the guides section for some 'illuminating' information...
Speirs and Major Associates are a big UK firm with some interesting projects.

(Lumiere at the serpentine pavilion)
Two big questions the industry is asking itself:
+ How are we can we be sustainable in the 21stC?
+ When is lighting design light pollution?

Professional Lighting Designers Association here
ERCO here
Kardorff here
Speirs and Major Associates here
reso - net here


In-House Trend Meeting by The Future Laboratory @ MLT Knights Park, 30/10/2007

The job of The Future Laboratory is to bring the future to you.
A great presentation by Chris Sanderson the creative director of The Future Laboratory. He covered several areas that the company had been investigating, areas that particularly interested me were, Slowtopias and the Design Notebook.

Slowtopias

(Tino Schaedler airship concept)
The idea that we are changing our attitudes to travel. We want to shrink our carbon footprint and rediscover the joy of travel. What does this mean to Landscape? Creating destinations, transition zones, remediate areas polluted by extravagant 20thC travel, new routes for as yet unrecognised forms of travel...

Design Notebook.
Speculation on trends in design for the next few years (according to The Future Laboratory). Three themes coined by the future lab -

SUPER SYNTHETIC
SUPER SURREAL
HYPER - NATURAL

these are the umbrella under which the following subdivisions exist.

+ Tranplastic: mixing synthetic & natural materials.

(Transplastic by the Campana Brothers)

+ Neo Nonsense: surrealism the return...

(Dutch Embasy in Berlin by OMA)

+ Tribal Tech: oversize, pattern.

(Facade Art Academy, Boxtel, The Netherlands by FAT)

+ Prime Eval: fresh subversive organic guts.

(Tea Pot by Wieki Somers)

+ Metallica: weight, lustre, metal!

(Link Table by Tom Dixon)

The Future Laboratory here
Tino Schaedler here
Campana Brothers here
OMA here
FAT here
Wieki Somers here
Tom Dixon here


The Serpentine Pavilion 2007: Olafur Eliasson & Kjetil Thorsen, 31/10/2007


The 'spinning top'. For me this structure did have the immediate wow impact when first seen. This is rectified when you climb the first section of the ramp and enter the internal area/cafe. Light, theatre, tectonics and views all mix to form a great experience. Continue up the ramp and look down from the 'Romeo, Romeo' balcony and observe movement bellow of people and above through the sky light. Well worth a look.
Olafur Eliasson here
Kjetil Thorsen @ Snøhetta here


Mathew Barney: Drawing Restraint @ The Serpentine Gallery, 31/10/2007

?I mean what the f**k?
Drawing Restraint here
Serpentine Gallery here


The Stirling Prize @ RIBA, 31/10/2007

Don't go the exhibition is not worth it, just look on the web.
The Stirling Prize 2007 here


Richard Kelly: Selected Works @ RIBA, 31/10/2007

Pioneer in architectural lighting. I particularly liked the sketches on display. Always interesting to see initial thoughts.
ERCO here


Shell Wildlife Photographer Of The Year @ Natural History Museum, 31/10/2007

(Ice Creation by Robert Knight)
I find amazing photographs of our natural world truly inspirational. I left this event wanting more than ever to leave the UK and go on an adventure.
Shell Wildlife Photographer Of The Year here
Natural History Museum here


The Wildlife Garden @ Natural History Museum, 31/10/2007

Looking a bit tired, it is October and 12 years old. A great resource for inner city education. Also provides scientific data on pollution levels since it was constructed in 1995.
Natural History Museum here


The Turner Prize: A Retrospective @ Tate Britain, 31/10/2007

(Anish Kapoor, Untitled 1990)
Cool. I wouldn't have thought beforehand that some of the best pieces there were moving image.
Tate Britain here