9 July

1669 Wren's Sheldonian Theater at Oxford was opened

1764 birth of Louis Pierre Baltard

ideas
2000.07.09     5300e

EXQUISITE CORPSE
2002.07.09     4708

Re: petition
2002.07.09 13:49     3770g

Re: the art and architecture of fashionism
2002.07.09 13:56     5140b

Re: NeoClassical Chili
2005.07.09 15:34     e2607b e2749c e3063 8210o

The Power of Architecture
2008.07.09 18:01     3333l

Help on Wall label or object label in a museum
2008.07.09 18:24     3333l 3770t

9 July
2013.07.09 13:13     3303v 3726d 3746c 8210t

9 July
2015.07.09 19:40     3311g 3710o

Cubist ICM
2015.07.09     3730x

The Circus [of Maxentius], nearly as big (520 yards/meters long and 92 wide) as the Circus Maximus, is worth taking time to visit since far more of the grandstand is visible than at the Circus Maximus. Although most of the tiers of seats have collapsed, the supporting structure is plainly apparent. Here 18,000 spectators once cheered the charioteers--or at least their favorite--in hopes he would win the 7- lap race and they would go home rich.

"As so often in late antiquity the imperial residence was accompanied by a circus, which is estimated as having held about 15,000 spectators, and which offers an unusually detailed picture of one of the racecourses that played such a large part in the social, and frequently also the political, life of later antiquity. The architectural niceties were many. Here one can see, for example, the ingenious irregularities of plan which ensured a fair start for the competitors in the outer lines; the starting-gates (carceres) set between the traditional pair of flanking towers (oppida); the two turning-points (metae) at either end of the central barrier (spina), which was placed well off-axis so as to allow for the crowding of the initial lap; the imperial box, overlooking the finishing line, and a second box near the middle of the opposite side for the use of the judges and organizing officials; the entrances and exits for the ceremonial parades of the contestants; and on the central point of the spina, in imitation of the Augustan obelisk in the Circus Maximus, the site of the Egyptian obelisk which Maxentius brought from Domitian's Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius and which Innocent X in 1651 retransported to the city to adorn Bernini's fountain in the Piazza Navona [which was the Circus of Domitian, also in the Campus Martius]. Constructionally the building is of interest for its bold use of alternative courses of bricks and of small tufa blocks, and for the large hallow jars used to lighten the mass of the vaulting that carried the seating, both characteristically late features which are discussed in greater detail later in this chapter."
--Ward-Perkins

1669 Wren's Sheldonian Theater at Oxford was opened.

"The paradox is that architects work so hard at not working, sacrificing evenings, weekends, retirement, and even old age. The architect is a piece of equipment that is always on, with a screen saver of routine activities that represents action when nothing is happening. Every casual look when walking down the street or into a room is turned into an analytical, dissecting gaze."
--Wigley


Exquisite Corpse

Perhaps Mussolini's greatest artistic execution was his entire oeuvre of reenactments, from the personal level right on up to the world political level.

Caligula, Nero, Elegabalus, Mussolini--all tremendous reenactors of the human spirit when it fully comprehends the ease of disposability that comes with absolute control. The New World as it morphed into the Corporate USA reenacts that same human spirit.

The question was "if there will ever be a full review of the academic system the same way that Enron, Worldcom, Arthur Anderson and others in the business sector are being checked-and-balanced?" One way to review the academic system is to purposely reenact it. The strengths and weaknesses of any operation inevitably become clear via its reenactment, thus enabling the reenactor to make well-tailored decisions (where the real art in reenactment occurs) that better (or worsen) that which is being reenacted. Once a system becomes thoroughly understood via reenactment, it is then a matter proper timing for its reenactment to manifest the fullest surpassing effect.

Does this maybe sound like steps in a voluntary evolutionary process, or does this more or less just paraphrase the instructions to an acting class? Actually, I think it voluntarily reenacts steps of the evolutionary process, and that actors are more precisely professionally trained reenactors.

I know what you mean.


06070903.db

Krautheimer published an essay, "Mensa-Coemeterium-Martyrium" 1960, where he earnestly speculates about the very real possibility that the early "Constantinian" basilicas (aside from St. John Lateran and St. Peter's Vatican) acted as covered graveyards where funeral banquets were held. He also noted how the shape of these basilicas was circus-like. When I read this essay (early 2005), I immediately though of the connection to the 'munus' ritual as related by Tertullian. And, after finding out more about the Mausoleum of Romulus/Circus of Maxentius complex (also early 2005), the "pieces" quickly fell together, particularly the connection of Eutropia to all this.

The Circus of Maxentius has been an unanswered question in my mind for a few years now, and now I think I know why Piranesi 'secretly' printed two different version of the Ichnographia Campus Martius--the Circus of Maxentius is the 'key' to the inversion of the pagan Roman Circus into the Early Christian 'basilica'.



2002.07.09 13:49
Re: petition
I know what you mean.
I'm worried that some hot-shot, world-class designer will decide that reenactment is the best solution and thereby propose two huge towers that are predesigned to dramatically implode after 30 years.
You never know what crazy ideas are out there.
OOPS!
I'm sorry. I mistook Ground Zero for Crowned Nero, and thus thought the petition competition was for the next wave of Las Vegas Casinos.
Gosh, is nothing sacred anymore?


2002.07.09 13:56
Re: the art and architecture of fashionism
Perhaps Mussolini's greatest artistic execution was his entire oeuvre of reenactments, from the personal level right on up to the world political level.
Caligula, Nero, Elegabalus, Mussolini--all tremendous reenactors of the human spirit when it fully comprehends the ease of disposability that comes with absolute control. The New World as it morphed into the Corporate USA reenacts that same human spirit.
The question was "if there will ever be a full review of the academic system the same way that Enron, Worldcom, Arthur Anderson and others in the business sector are being checked-and-balanced?" One way to review the academic system is to purposely reenact it. The strengths and weaknesses of any operation inevitably become clear via its reenactment, thus enabling the reenactor to make well-tailored decisions (where the real art in reenactment occurs) that better (or worsen) that which is being reenacted. Once a system becomes thoroughly understood via reenactment, it is then a matter proper timing for its reenactment to manifest the fullest surpassing effect.
Does this maybe sound like steps in a voluntary evolutionary process, or does this more or less just paraphrase the instructions to an acting class? Actually, I think it voluntarily reenacts steps of the evolutionary process, and that actors are more precisely professionally trained reenactors.

06070901 Romaphilia Philadelphia model   2360i13   b
06070902 Romaphilia Philadelphia model   2360i14   b
06070903 Romaphilia Philadelphia model   2348i17   b


2008.07.09 18:24
Help on Wall label or object label in a museum
"The paradox is that architects work so hard at not working, sacrificing evenings, weekends, retirement, and even old age. The architect is a piece of equipment that is always on, with a screen saver of routine activities that represents action when nothing is happening. Every casual look when walking down the street or into a room is turned into an analytical, dissecting gaze."
--Wigley
You often find such topical caricatures of architects within the essays of Wigley from the last decade or so.


13070901 Palais des Congrès site plans plans   2198i15
13070902 Palais des Congrès elevations   2198i16

150709x1 Cubist ICM 001 NNTC 2200x4400 grid   2413i25
150709x2 Cubist ICM 002 NNTC 2200x4400 grid   2413i26
150709x3 Cubist ICM 003 NNTC 2200x4400 grid   2413i27
150709x4 Cubist ICM 004 NNTC 2200x4400 grid   2413i28
150709x5 Cubist ICM 005 NNTC 2200x4400 grid   2413i29
150709x6 Cubist ICM 006 NNTC 2200x4400 grid   2413i30
15070901 CI01 plans   2436i12
15070902 CI02 plans   2436i13
15070903 CI03 plans   2436i14
15070904 CI04 plans   2436i15
15070905 CI05 plans   2436i16
15070906 CI06 plans   2436i17
15070907 CI07 plans   2436i18
15070908 CI08 plans   2436i19
15070909 CI09 plans   2436i20
15070910 CI10 plans   2436i21
15070911 CI11 plans   2436i22
15070912 CI12 plans   2436i23
15070913 CI13 plans   2436i24
15070914 CI14 plans   2436i25
15070915 CI15 plans   2436i26
15070916 CI16 plans   2436i27
15070917 CI17 plans   2436i28
15070918 CI18 plans   2436i29
15070919 CI19 plans   2436i30
15070920 CI20 plans   2436i31
15070921 CI21 plans   2436i32
15070922 CI22 plans   2436i33
15070923 CI23 plans   2436i34
15070924 CI24 plans   2436i35


16070901 IQ64 full plan   6464i01
16070902 IQ64/01 Campo Rovine District Q Silent Witnesses Zany House 001 House of Shadows Bye plans   6464i02
16070903 IQ64/05 Campo Rovine District Q Houses under a Common Roof Maison l'Homme Zany House 001 Zany House 002 Ludi for Schinkel Cut & Paste Museum Palais Savoye plans   6464i03
16070904 IQ64/06 District Q Houses under a Common Roof Burden House House for KFSchinkel Museum of Architecture plans   6464i04
16070905 IQ64/07 Pennypack Creek Retreat House plans   6464i05
16070906 IQ64/09 Campo Rovine District Q Housing for La Villette Ideal City Reenactment Palais Savoye Complex Religions plans   6464i06
16070907 IQ64/10 District Q Fruchter House Goldenberg House Vanna Venturi House Housing for La Villette Museum of Architecture plans   6464i07
16070908 IQ64/13 Campo Rovine Villa Appositional Complex Religions plans   6464i08
16070909 IQ64/15 Fisher House plans   6464i09


17070901 Nunnery elevation   2290i03
17070902 Maison à Bordeaux plans sections elevations   2291i02
17070903 Nunnery Maison à Bordeaux elevations   2290i04


18070901 CCTV elevations work   2332i10
18070902 Plus All Three House plans Zany House 001 Zany House 002 Green Enfilade House   2475i01


...having a bachelor pad party.

...investigating all the things the Altes Museum, Villa Stein de Monzie, Villa Savoye, Electronic Calculation Center Olivetti at Rho-Milan, Palais des Congrès, Olivetti Headquarters at Milton Keynes, the Museum for Nordrhein Westfalen, and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum have in common.

"Michael Wilford became an associate with James Stirling in 1965. In 1971 he became a full partner and prepared the parti for a Headquarters for Olivetti on a greenfield site at Milton Keynes."

"Although Michael Wilford led the design he points out that it was a collaborative effort. 'Although I was driving that one, it was the result, as all our work was, of a dialogue with Jim. This is why it's so difficult to say who did what'."
--Baker


19070901 Museum for Nordrhein Westfalen site plan roof plan   2226i38
19070902 Museum for Nordrhein Westfalen elevations   2226i39
19070903 Villa Shodhan model work from 18102303   217si06



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