2008.07.31 16:48
I smell a Vorläufer
The notion of "having to know the rules in order to break the rules" is fast becoming a cliché.
2008.07.31 16:32
It rocked Eisenman on his chair...
"The servile crowd of the palace, who had so long adored the fortune of Stilicho, affected to insult his fall, and the most distant connection with the master.general of the West, which had so lately been a title to wealth and honours, was studiously denied and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple alliance with the family of Theodosius, might envy the condition of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son Eucherius was intercepted, and the death of that innocent youth soon followed the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her sister Maria, and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial bed. The friends of Stilicho, who had escaped the massacre of Pavia, were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius, and the most exquisite cruelty was employed to extort the confession of a treasonable and sacrilegious conspiracy. They died in silence: their firmness justified the choice, and perhaps absolved the innocence, of their patron, and the despotic power which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatise his memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial suffrage of posterity. The services of Stilicho are great and manifest; his crimes, as they are vaguely stated in thelanguage of flattery and hatred, are obscure, at least, and improbable. About four months after his death an edict was published in the name of Honorius to restore the free communication of the two empires which had been so long interrupted by the public enemy. m The minister whose fame and fortune depended on the prosperity of the state was accused of betraying Italy to the Barbarians, whom he repeatedly vanquished at Pollentia, at Verona, and before the walls of Florence. His pretended design of placing the diadem on the head of his son Eucherius could not have been conducted without preparations or accomplices, and the ambitious father would not surely have left the future emperor, till the twentieth year of his age, in the humble station of tribune of the notaries. Even the religion of Stilicho was arraigned by the malice of his rival. The seasonable and almost miraculous deliverance was devoutly celebrated by the applause of the clergy, who asserted that the restoration of idols and the persecution of the church would have been the first measure of the reign of Eucherius. The son of Stilicho, however, was educated in the bosom of Christianity, which his father had uniformly professed and zealously supported. Serena had borrowed her magnificent necklace from the statue of Vesta and the Pagans execrated the memory of the sacrilegious minister, by whose order the Sybilline books, the oracles of Rome, had been committed to the flames. The pride and power of Stilicho constituted his real guilt. An honourable reluctance to shed the blood of his countrymen appears to have contributed to the success of his unworthy rival ; and it is the last humiliation of the character of Honorius that posterity has not condescended to reproach him with his base ingratitude to the guardian of his youth and the support of his empire."
It wasn't enough that Maria remained a virgin consort to a 14 year-old Emperor, she then had to witness the only English Pope take her sarcophagus for himself. She's now writing The Plays of Nicholas Breakspear.
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2008.07.31 16:01
The Ottofest in Budapest
And the Baroness von Ow took this opportunity to hold a small family reunion. Who knew the "Koh-i-Noors" would be so entertaining.
2008.07.31 15:29
eisenman
...if you do intern at Eisenman, bone up on the I Ching before you get there, and then let it be known that the I Ching is one of your avocations via demonstrations of your meaningful chancyness. You'll have a blast!
2008.07.29 12:53
Pre-FAB 2.0: The Promise Not (Yet) Achieved
Generating lots of money is the key to cultural relevance these days. Antiques Roadshow, etc., etc. Even Obama.
Do Americans actually want more control over their urban environment? Probably not if it's just going to cost more.
2008.07.29 09:31
Pre-FAB 2.0: The Promise Not (Yet) Achieved
And what do the architects that "must lead with new pre-fab thinking" get?
An imperative is pretty useless without an incentive, isn't it?
Utopia is dead! Long live Utopia!
2008.07.29 08:40
I smell a Vorläufer
Ven Izsent, Architecture Exaggerated (Hypopolis: Universe of Overstate Press, +/- the future).
"It's like architecture as gaseous giant. And Izsent is a prick."
--The New Diminishing Globe
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2008.07.27 15:48
Making Plans
Ease versus difficulty is hardly a sufficient gauge here.
I learn from the history of all the plans that are ignored, along with the schematics behind the ignorance. Architecture Not Now indeed!
2008.07.27 11:43
I smell a Vorläufer
"What do you mean, Shock of the not?!?"
"You know, that energizing sensation when you ultimately realize that you're ultimately realizing there's this lack in your realizations. For example, any of the negative volumes of Architecture Not Now."
"You mean "the series of something like scraps" meets Learning from Lacunae?"
"Only for a start, but not now."
"It's good you changed 'frightening' to 'energizing'."
"Yes, 'frightening' is so inadequate."
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2008.07.26 19:30
I smell a Vorläufer
[free translation program sez] vielfache Wahl:
"Not exactly pulling a rabbit out of a hat, but it does the trick."
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2008.07.26 17:10
I smell a Vorläufer
How exactly can architects gain considerably from a- team and football tactics?
Oh, you mean like going beyond the platitude? I don't know if that's possible.
I'm secretly working on plans for a House of Platitudes. It's like one good turn deserves another, especially around the cellar door. Tasty client...
2008.07.26 09:18
I smell a Vorläufer
"A further study of the main house resulted in two radical options: a vertical and horizontal house, both based on the same configuration. ... By turning our initial proposal 90 degrees a vast potential was discovered in which each space can have its own personal relationship with the landscape. What used to be a conventional patio becomes a centrally located multi-level living space which gives the inhabitants an unprecedented special experience and at the same time fits the very specific demands of the program."
--description of OMA's Ascot Residence (2003).
Wonder what would happen (if anything) when the above "nine plans" are flipped up 90 degrees. For example, a flipped-up 21st Century Museum of Art...
...looks almost like this...
One easy way to conceptualize a new paradigm is to invert the "set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality".
...or just practice the twist in front of the mirror[-copy plan].
2008.05.19: "I'm secretly working on Plan Atypical"
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