African Words

African literature

African literature refers to literature of and from Africa. As George Joseph notes on the first page of his chapter on African literature in Understanding Contemporary Africa, while the European perception of literature generally refers to written letters, the African concept includes oral literature.

As George Joseph continues, while European views of literature often stressed a separation of art and content, African awareness is inclusive:

"Literature" can also imply an artistic use of words for the sake of art alone. ... traditionally, Africans do not radically separate art from teaching. Rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society. Indeed, an object is considered beautiful because of the truths it reveals and the communities it helps to build.

Oral literature

Oral literature (or orature) may be in prose or verse. The prose is often mythological or historical and can include tales of the trickster character. Storytellers in Africa sometimes use call-and-response techniques to tell their stories. Poetry, often sung, includes: narrative epic, occupational verse, ritual verse, praise poems to rulers and other prominent people. Praise singers, bards sometimes known as "griots", tell their stories with music. Also recited, often sung, are: love songs, work songs, children's songs, along with epigrams, proverbs and riddles.

Precolonial literature

Examples of pre-colonial African literature are numerous. Oral literature of west Africa includes the Epic of Sundiata composed in medieval Mali, The older Epic of Dinga from the old Ghana Empire. In Ethiopia, originally written in Ge'ez script is the Kebra Negast or book of kings. One popular form of traditional African folktale is the "trickster" story, where a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with larger creatures. Examples of animal tricksters include Anansi, a spider in the folklore of the Ashanti people of Ghana; Ijàpá, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare found in central and East African folklore.

In Islamic times, North Africans such as ibn Khaldun attained great distinction within Arabic literature. Medieval north Africa boasted Universities such as those of Fez and Cairo, with copious amounts of literature to supplement them.

Colonial African literature

The African works best known in the West from the period of colonization and the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789).

In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write in those tongues.

African literature in the late colonial period (between the end of World War I and independence) increasingly showed themes of liberation, independence, and (among Africans in French-controlled territories) négritude.

Postcolonial African literature

With liberation and increased literacy since most African nations gained their independence in the 1950s and 1960s, African literature has grown dramatically in quantity and in recognition, with numerous African works appearing in Western academic curricula and on "best of" lists compiled at the end of the 20th century. African writers in this period wrote both in Western languages (notably English, French, and Portuguese) and in traditional African languages.

Ali A. Mazrui and others mention seven conflicts as themes: the clash between Africa's past and present, between tradition and modernity, between indigenous and foreign, between individualism and community, between socialism and capitalism, between development and self-reliance and between Africanity and humanity. Other themes in this period include social problems such as corruption, the economic disparities in newly independent countries, and the rights and roles of women. Female writers are today far better represented in published African literature than they were prior to independence.
 

in Gabon, in Libreville

Museums in Gabon
The Museum of Arts and Traditions at Libreville is a general interest museum. The National Museum of Gabon is also in Libreville.
Encyclopedia of the Nations

National Museum of Gabon (Gabon)

Telephone: +241 (0)17 614 56

The Museum of Arts and Traditions (Gabon)
Telephone: (+241) 76 14 56     
Email: museegabon@numibia.net

to Laminate Wood

The deforestation rate of a country describes the annual destruction of its natural forests. Confronted with this acute challenge this high-rise is a prototype for the usage of wood in a sustainable and innovative manner through the combination of research and tourism. The project introduces the novel technology of laminated wood construction as load-bearing material and as a space partitioning thick lattice.

Located in Coari, Brazil, at the heart of the Amazon forest, this conceptual tower would be constructed in several phases. The idea of the skyscraper is to create a sustainable skyscraper that allows tourists to explore the Amazon forest while creating global awareness of its alarming destruction rate.

First, conventional shipping containers are prefabricated and equipped according to the specific requirements and technical systems. Second, punctual foundations with minimal footprint are built on site, providing the basis for elevators and staircases. Afterwards, a thick-latticed three-dimensional framework consisting of prefabricated laminated titan-wood elements is erected on site and floor plates are attached into the exoskeleton.
 

to Reconnect Nature and Architecture

Here is another Kengo Kuma’s project that speaks of the continuous interest in reconnecting architecture with nature or, to quote the architect, the need “to recover the place”. Using architecture as a frame of nature, the project seems to echo a need for experiencing built space through its interaction with the elements and transformations affected by the passage of time. The faceted wall is populated with plants, creating an impression of two tectonic forces, the natural and the artificial, fighting for supremacy.

The multi-purpose building is located near the railway station in Odawara, Japan.The façade, achieved by using decayed styrene foam, encompasses the building, leaving the ground floor transparent and accessible. The first floor facilitates a clinic and pharmacy while the upper floors are used for offices. The planters are comprised of aluminium die-cast panels, made in monoblock casting. Each panel is slanted, and its surface appears to be organic, of which cast comes from decayed styrene foam. Equipment such as watering hose, air reservoir for ventilation and downpipes are installed behind the panels so that the façade can accommodate a comprehensive system for the building. The piping delivers rain water to the aluminum die-cast planters, keeping the whole structure organic and alive.

the Flowers of Hiroshima

Edita Morris started her literary career with short stories published in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Bazaar and other publications. In 1943 she published her first novel, My darling from the Lions. During the 1930s and until his death in 1943 in New York she shared much of her life with the Swedish painter Nils von Dardel. She figures on many of his paintings from 1930 onwards.

She is mostly known for her novel The Flowers of Hiroshima (1959). The novel was partly influenced by the experiences of her son, Ivan Morris, later a distinguished japanologist, as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy visiting Hiroshima immediately after the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city. The book has been translated into 39 languages. In 1978 she published Straitjacket: autobiography which was followed in 1983 by a second volume, Seventy Years' War, published in Swedish only under the title Sjuttioåriga kriget.

With her husband, who came from a wealthy family background, she founded a rest house in Hiroshima for victims of the bomb.After her death, the Edita and Ira Morris Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture, usually known as the Hiroshima Foundation, was established.The purpose of the Foundation is to promote peace by supporting efforts in the cultural sphere to favor peace and reconciliation. The Foundation presents awards to women and men who contribute, in a cultural field, to fostering dialogue, understanding and peace in conflict areas. Edita died in Paris in 1988. She is buried, with her husband and her son, in the village of Nesles.
 

to Open Research

BIG + Paris-based architects OFF, engineers Buro Happold, consultants Michel Forgue and environmental engineer Franck Boutte is the winning team to design the new 15.000 m2 research centre for Sorbonne’s Scientific university Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.
The new multidisciplinary research centre, Paris PARC, located between Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe and the open green park of the Jussieu Campus will become a significant addition to the campus, strengthening the international appeal and openness of the leading French University for Science and Medicine. The facility will bring together academic scholars and the business community, while re-connecting the university physically and visually with the city of Paris. The winning team was honored as the best design among proposals from MVRDV, Lipsky Rollet, Mario Cucinella and Peripherique.
Paris PARC is located in the visual axis of the Notre Dame Cathedral in a dense context of university buildings from different historical periods. BIG proposes a building geometry that adapts to the specific conditions of all adjoining sides, optimized for daylight, views and accessibility. The three-dimensional envelope retracts from the neighboring facades, opens up towards the square of Institut du Monde Arabe and the park, and folds into a publicly accessible rooftop landscape, resulting in an adapted sculptural building volume situated between the emblematic architectural monuments of the university.
“As a form of urban experiment the Paris PARC is the imprint of the pressures of its urban context. Wedged into a super dense context – in terms of space, public flows and architectural history – the PARC is conceived as a chain of reactions to the various external and internal forces acting upon it. Inflated to allow daylight and air to enter into the heart of the facility, compressed to ensure daylight and views for the neighboring classrooms and dormitories, lifted and decompressed to allow the public to enter from both plaza and park and finally tilted to reflect the spectacular view of the Paris skyline and the Notre Dame to the Parisians.” Bjarke Ingels, Founder, BIG.
A central canyon provides daylight and a visual connection between laboratories and offices. In the atrium a cascade of informal meeting spaces lead to the public rooftop terrace and faculty club. A public stair to the rooftop offers glimpses into the activities of the laboratories which are divided by transparent walls throughout the building to ensure visual connections between the working spaces. The upper levels have panoramic views towards the Notre Dame and the skyline of Paris.
“We propose a building that creates the optimum conditions for encounters and exchange among the academics and visitors of Paris PARC. Like a scientific incubator the new building will provide the physical environment for nurturing growth of cultures and sharing of ideas – through the internal mix of laboratories, research facilities and informal meeting spaces, and through a reunification with the public life of the city.” Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.
The Paris PARC becomes the interface between campus life and city life by reuniting the Jussieu Campus with the city of Paris. The iconic view of the Notre Dame Cathedral is brought into the daily life of the building through the large panoramic windows while the façade towards the entrance square is slightly tilted, hence, a mirrored image of the Cathedral becomes visible at eyelevel on the square, connecting the building to its iconic location.

a Parametric Analysis

The Devoid Tower, design by Daniel Caven at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, explores the passive systems that can be incorporated into high-rise design. The design is influenced by a set of design rules, and tested using parametric and environmental analysis.

The tower is composed of a central volume that is pierced by a void. The void’s placement and movement is designed around Chicago’s environmental conditions, i.e. wind speeds and sunlight. Energy and wind testing had shown that the void slows down wind speeds, giving the tower the option for natural ventilation through each of the floor-plates. Through the use of the void, the tower also allows for maximum sunlight onto floor plates as well as allowing for even more scenic views to the exterior.

Located in the River North area of Chicago, the tower is graced with a large of amount views (Loop, Lake Michigan, Chicago River), and pedestrian activity. The void extends to the entry way presenting a experiential view up through the tower and framing a view to the sky. On the interior users are greeted with an openness to the space and an open floor plate due to the dia-grid structure suspending the floor-plates. The tower’s form is derived and translated by the movement and form of the void.

The tower’s program includes: Retail space on the bottom three stories looking off towards the river/lake, as well as restaurant space incorporated into the walkway along the river. The larger portion of the tower is programmed for office space. The office floor-plates are arranged for an open plan and operable spaces. The top portion is a five star hotel with a sky lobby disconnecting the office space and hotel, as well as an observation deck near the top of the tower.
 

a Field of a Library

The project is a proposal by Italian architect Tommaso Casucci for the new library of the school of architecture, located at the limit of the old town of Florence. It is part of a renovation plan of a large area used until recent times as convent and later penitentiary. Pre-existing spaces are converted in archive, the new addition provide study areas, meeting spaces, auditorium, exhibition spaces in a continuous varying experience.

The project explore the emergent qualities derived from surfaces modulation in an intensive fields, aiming to equilibrium states of program, structure and function trough morphodynamical processes. Form, structure, function and decoration are emergent qualities of the same coherent system strictly related to his environment.

At a global scale the system explore how the modulation of isosurfaces, based on intensive field from site analysis data, can achieve highly differentiated spaces and performative structures. The research uses a generative methodology to test multiple solutions based on the same process from which was selected the one that represent the best compromise between structural performance, program and connections.

At finer scale, surfaces porosity is based on triply periodic minimal surfaces structures to define a performative interface of bioclimatic regulation where irradiation values on the surface are used to module light perception in the interior spaces of the library.

a Backdrop Of Learning

The School of the Arts in Singapore marries two distinct design tendencies: the existence of a safe and tranquil learning environment and the idea of stimulating communication with the public and wider arts community within the city. Two visually connected spaces encompass a public communication area, achieving a functional porosity that encourages interaction between different types of users. The two parts are called “the Backdrop” and “the Blank Canvas”.

The backdrop is the podium that contains a concert hall, drama theatre, black box theatre and several small informal performing spaces. It is envisioned as a heavy pedestal, a gargantuan mass of stone which has been carved out and chiseled to reveal volumes in various proportions. This exciting multi level space will be open to public as a tropical urban plaza, covered yet breezy.  Stairs and platforms create a diverse set of spaces where spontaneous and planned performances can occur.

The blank canvas, the secure upper stratum is where Making, Interpreting and Communicating happens between individuals and groups within the school. This level is controlled through a single point of access, yet is visually connected to the public areas below. The academic blocks are three long rectangular blocks with class rooms and studios. The rooms are designed in a module with adjustable end walls for flexibility. Other facilities such as gymnasium and resource library are suspended between these blocks. The pockets gardens are provided to link the blocks together and encourage interaction between students.

symbolically Towns

As the first joint project of Rapperswil and Jona in Switzerland, symbolically announcing the merging of the two towns, Janus Project transforms the existing museum premises into a publicly significant stopping point. The project was designed by :mlzd Architects. It won the competition for the renewal and restructuring of the Rapperswil-Jona Municipal Museum, held in 2007.

The project to put up the new building has been sensitively integrated in the historic town. The view from the north, which is important for the overall visual impression of the town, is to remain unchanged. The building fits discreetly into the background of the historic picture presented by the narrow town-centre streets. With the new terrain situation and the tasteful bronze facade, the building imposes a new emphasis on its immediate surroundings and can easily be read as the main entrance to a modern museum complex.

The shape of the new building has been developed out of the lateral façades of the old buildings. Its façade and roof have been designed in such a way that the existing windows and doors of the old buildings are not intersected anywhere.

The newly created rooms are extending the museum’s spectrum in terms of space, operations and the possibilities available to the curator. Many different rooms are also available in addition to the main one and are appropriate for a variety of exhibition purposes. The way that different types of natural light are brought into play adds another interesting dimension to the building in the course of the day and the succession of the seasons. Illumination of the building through its roof and the transmission of light from floor to floor deliberately create a stark internal contrast with the legacy buildings. Firstly, that makes it easier for people to find their way around the whole complex and, secondly, the new is clearly offset against the old, heightening awareness for the threshold to the latter. Stepping into the legacy buildings thus becomes an eventful journey in time, back into the past.

an Emerald Flower

With Love to S.M

Matsuo Basho (c. 1680)
Spring:

A hill without a name
Veiled in morning mist.

The beginning of autumn:
Sea and emerald paddy
Both the same green.

The winds of autumn
Blow: yet still green
The chestnut husks.

A flash of lightning:
Into the gloom
Goes the heron’s cry.

a Lava for Coral Caves

Chris Bosse of Laboratory for Visionary Architecture [LAVA] has created a window installation for the famous Italian department store la Rinascente for its Contemporary Christmas Art windows. LAVA’s window installation is an origami coral reef using 1500 recycled and recyclable cardboard molecules that explores the intelligence of natural and architectural systems.

The sculpture plays with space by climbing up walls and arching over to create coral caves. Based on the geometrical structures of sea foam and corals, the colourful reef comes to life through dynamic lighting and sound. Bosse, director of multinational LAVA, is one of seven designers from around the world to be commissioned to create a window – others are Kirsten Hassenfeld, Gyngy Laky, Andrea Mastrovito, Satsuki Oishi, Richard Sweeney, Margherita Marchioni and Tjep.

The store windows are at la Rinascente’s Piazza Duomo store, in the centre of Milan, design capital of the world. This is the first time la Rinascente have commissioned artists to do Christmas windows. The installation shows how a particular module, copied from nature, can generate architectural space, and how the intelligence of the smallest unit dictates the intelligence of the overall system.

Ecosystems such as coral reefs act as a metaphor for an architecture where the individual components interact in symbiosis to create an environment. Bosse says: “In urban terms, the smallest homes, the spaces they create, the energy they use, the heat and moisture they absorb, multiply into a bigger organisational system, whose sustainabilty depends on their intelligence”. Current trends in parametric modeling, digital fabrication and material-science were applied to the space-filling installation.

to Build a Skin, to Harvest Salt

Born from unique environmental conditions, GEOtube is a new kind of urban sculptural tower designed by California-based Faulders Studio. Gravity-sprayed with adjacent Persion Gulf waters, its building skin is entirely grown rather than constructed; is in continual formation rather than fully completed; and is created locally rather than imported. The world’s highest salinity for oceanic water is found in the Persian Gulf (and the Red Sea) – local salt water is supplied to GEOtube via a new 4.62 km buried pipeline and misted onto the tower’s exposed mesh. As the water evaporates and salt deposits aggregate over time, the tower’s appearance transforms from a transparent skin to a highly visible white solid plane. The result is a specialized habitat for wildlife that thrives is this environment, and an accessible surface for the harvesting of crystal salt.

recreating Manhattan

Welcome to Formiscucity, Manhattan’s premier recreational P.A.R.C. tower – where a new way of life is taking shape!

Formiscucity, located just west of Times Square in Manhattan’s new and most contested real estate, occupies a single city block as an uber-special island within the man-made islands of the city’s 200’ x 800’ block grid system. The 50-story tower reaches up 600 feet, with a footprint covering 25% of the site to achieve the super density characteristic of Manhattan. This extreme density promotes diverse interaction as a microcosm of the city itself.

The remainder of the site begins as a horizontal green space on 11th Avenue, continuing up vertically through the tower’s 50 stories. Four core biozones (jungle, arctic, mountain, and desert – each with their characteristic fauna/climate) are utilized as a vertical recreational park space, density generator, and internal climate moderator for energy conservation. For adventurous climbers, the mountain service and structural core additionally provide vertical climbing access to the top.
Surrounding the biozones are 600 privately occupied generic lofts. Lofts may be flexibly inhabited by market-rate and 30% below market-rate housing, commercial/retail, and/or office space as driven by economic demands, such that Formiscucity never ends up as a vacant office tower during an extreme economic downturn.

Whereas typical skyscrapers intensely consume, Formiscucity uses no more energy than the neighboring 6-story brownstones. This is achieved through a double-skin structural façade with solar and waste water collection, a grey water system, geothermal pumps, and organic light emitting diodes that actively re-dress the tower in response to Times Square and Manhattan’s ever-changing imagery.
Formiscucity spatially embodies and psychologically projects the extreme “uber-specialness” of Manhattan’s island density, diversity, and variability to residents, workers, recreation seekers, locals, and tourists. Additionally, effort to formally and programmatically re-conceive Manhattan’s skyscraper typology in response to current city conditions sponsors a tower ecology of community, ecosystems, populations, and behaviors.

Ultimately, Formiscucity aims to simultaneously address Manhattan’s extreme social and political climate of divergent community, developer, resident, and architectural desires through form, program provision, energy consumption, economic sustainability, and quality of life.
Formiscucity… Inhabit Variety!

ethnography in Bangladesh

Bangladesh National Museum, formally inaugurated on 17 November 1983, is one of the largest museums in South Asia. Dhaka Museum, formally inaugurated on 7 August 1913, was its forerunner. Bangladesh National Museum is devoted to archaeology, classical, decorative and contemporary art, history, natural history, ethnography and world civilization. Bangladesh National Museum has splendid collections which range in date from prehistory to the present time. Both in number and uniqueness, the Museum is extremely rich in stone, metal and wooden sculptures, in gold, silver and copper coins, in stone inscriptions and copperplates and in terracottas and other artifacts of archaeological interest. The Museum has one of the largest collections of arms and armour in the Indian subcontinent.

Quite fascinating are its collections of decorative art, especially of woodwork, metalwork and embroidered quilts. It has items of natural history and ethnographic interest. The Museum is noted for its collection of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and works of other contemporary artists. The Museum also illustrates the freedom struggle culminating in the liberation of Bangladesh.
 

the Heart of a City

The designer of the “Monument to Civilization” asks you to reconsider what constitutes ‘spectacular.’

Skyscrapers are meant to wow, to impress. But other things within cities are also impressive, the designer says: “New York, for instance: If we put its annual garbage on a area of a typical tower footprint, we’ll get a 1,300 meter high landfill tower, which is about as three times tall as the Empire State Building (450 meters). Isn’t that spectacular?”

As landfill possibilities surrounding growing metropolises disappear and cities fight waste management issues, the power of trash needs to be reconsidered. The accumulation of waste, for example, actually creates potential energy-recycle opportunities, such as when gas is emitted during decomposition. The Monument of Civilization proposal suggests locating trash vertically in a tower and using the energy generated from its decomposition to help power the surrounding city. By locating the tower in the heart of the city, energy is provided in immediate proximity, and money is also saved in transportation costs when garbage no longer needs to be shipped out of town.

It also able to serve there as a loud reminder of society’s wasteful ways: “The ever-growing Monument may evoke the citizens’ introspection and somewhat leads to the entire city’s waste-decreasing and better recycling,” the designer says. Seeing the tower as an “Earth-Friendliness Meter,” the designer says, means the shorter the tower, the friendlier the city, as that means less waste is made and more is recycled. “Perhaps all metropolitan cities would inverse the worldwide competition from being the tallest to the shortest.”

Underneath the structure lie recycling and wastewater processing facilities, gas and power stations, a temporary dump and wasted water tank. The tower consists of a garbage brick wall, gas transmission pipelines, and a solid-waste tank in the center.

to Restore a Mountain

Industrialization and mining are destroying China’s natural settings, especially mountains, which are excavated to the point of destruction in man’s search for minerals. These processes don’t just devistate regions’ ecologies; they also displace whole populations of people, separating them from their homes and also their means of living, as many in these rural areas work as farmers. The “Mountain Band-Aid” project seeks to simultaneously restore the displaced Hmong mountain people to their homes and work as it restores the mountain ecology of the Yunnan mountain range.

This is achieved with a two-layer construction project. The outer layer is a skyscraper that is built into and stretched across the mountain. By building the structure into, and as part of, the mountain, the skyscraper helps the Hmong people recover their original lifestyle. It is organized internally by the villagers to replicate the traditional village design they utilized before they were displaced. The building’s placement on the mountain means that its height is mainly determined by the height of the mountain. The design as a whole is one of “dual recovery:” the Hmong people living on the damaged mountain can keep the unique organization of space in their village, recreating it within the skyscraper, but they won’t be contributing to the mountain’s degradation. Instead, they help the mountain’s environmental restoration by recycling domestic water for mountain irrigation. It is this irrigation system that comprises the project’s inner layer: an irrigation system is constructed to stabilize the mountain’s soil and grow plants.

The skyscraper is constructed in the traditional Chinese Southern building style known as Chuan Dou. Small residential blocks are used as the framework: The blocks are freely organized as they were in the original village, but the framework controls this organization of blocks into different floors, acting as the contour line in traditional Hmong village.

where Tigers live...

When Eléazard Von Wogau dusts off the stuffed bird spider that he keeps on his desk he accidentally damages it, unleashing dozens of baby spiders from its womb, which will wreak havoc on his house in the months to come and this on the day when his housekeeper is leaving him for good. It is a negligible incident, but it is an example of the unintended consequences that abound in Where Tigers Are At Home (Là où les tigres sont chez eux), the kaleidoscopic novel by the French author Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès.

Where Tigers Are At Home tells the story of Eléazard von Wogau, a foreign correspondent in the northern regions of Brazil, who is working on an annotated translation of a 17th century biography of the maverick German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680); his ex-wife Elaine, who is on a jungle expedition in Mato Grosso in search of some rare fossils; his drug-addict daughter Moéma; Moreira the corrupt governor of Maranhao and his alcoholic wife; Loredana, an Italian journalist who ends up befriending Eléazard; Roetgen, a student who falls in love with Moéma; and Nelson, a legless boy from the favelas on a mission to avenge his father’s death.

In alternating chapters and paragraphs we learn of the fortunes and misfortunes of each of the novel's main characters. Much of the novel consists in a retelling of the biography of Athanasius Kircher that Eléazard von Wogau is translating. During his life Kircher was a celebrated scholar who devoted his considerable intellectual energy to everything that aroused his interest, from hieroglyphs to geology, biology and medicine. He was also an inventor of numerous machines and automatons. His attempt to construct a flying machine is one of the motifs that will return in a rather surprising fashion towards the end of the novel.

While Von Wogau is working on his book we learn that the ship on which Elaine and her companions are traveling is attacked by cocaine smugglers. One of the expedition members is killed during the attack and another is mortally wounded. The ship is heavily damaged and the members of the expedition are forced to continue on foot through the jungle looking for help. They are taken hostage by an Indian tribe who recognize the messiah in one of the scientists.

Moéma, in the meantime, descends into an orgy of sex and drugs. Blas de Roblès accurately captures the delusions of an addict who constantly promises herself to get her life back on track but betrays everyone around her to get another dose of cocaine. As a consequence I felt at once empathy and anger with her.

I admit that some of the passages about Athanasius Kircher are a bit hardgoing, also because the storylines about Moéma and the expedition in Mato Grosso are so compelling. Of course, if you want to, you can just skip the parts about Kircher, but then you would miss the parallels that Blas de Roblès has woven into the novel.

Where Tigers Are At Home has won several literary awards in France, including the Prix Medicis. I enjoyed reading it and if you like the work of Umberto Eco and David Mitchell you'll love Where Tigers Are At Home.

We, the People Of...

As a part of the 2012 New Museum Triennial The Ungovernables currently on exhibit is artist Danh Võ’s deconstruction of the Statue of Liberty. WE THE PEOPLE is a gesture of installation using architecture and sculpture as an underpinning for a more unsettled experience. Copper sheets were assembled in an exact replica of the originals weight and scale, placed in sections on the floor in an undetermined state. The panels are hammered using the same technique as the original statue to the same tolerances. Taken from a larger collection of more recognizable pieces the series of parametric copper plates read as though they are part of a contemporary façade or pavilion. The pieces allude formally to modernist sculpture such as the work of Richard Serra, where form and materiality is the subject .

The initial abstraction of the installation gives way to interpretation on the context and value of the gesture. The deconstruction touches upon aspects of formal design, history, and national identity without expressing alliance to any of these qualities. Perhaps the ambiguity is born from Võ’s complex personal past, a child of South Vietnam but raised in Denmark and settled in Germany. The panels could be presented as before final assembly of a reconstructed and renewed Statue. Or Võ’s message can be one of protest to a loss of freedom, an impending disassembly of an ideal. The symbolic gesture, without a guide, adds tension to the presentation, leaving the viewer to assemble the statue and its meaning with their own expectations.

Photos: ©Benoit Pailley
 

into the past of Iranian architectural Models

The project seeks to provide the Benetton Group with a site specific building prototype able to give material consistence to such a renewed model. It is designed by ecoLogicStudio, a firm mostly oriented towards combining new computational technologies with natural principles and ecosystem processes. The initial idea for the project was found in the “recycling” of past Iranian architectural models and prototypes that are still deeply rooted into the culture of the place and are, at the same time, providing solutions that perfectly fit local microclimatic conditions. However the contemporary business models demand an architectural and material reinvention of those traditional models to accommodate the new spatial and per-formative requirements as well as communication/ branding potentials.

The main local models recycled in the project are: the geometric Islamic patterns and ornaments, employed as organizational principles for the plan, facade and structural systems; passive cooling techniques, turned into an innovative system of solar control and screening as well as passive ventilationand ground cooling; thermoregulatory systems using the thermal mass of the building envelope and the ground, reinvented in a new “deep facade” system using water as thermal storage and heat regulator.

The hybridization of this new model into a new proto-system has been achieved by introducing a set of new components/technologies: fully developed parametric and associative modeling of the entire building, allowing a direct real time manipulation of form and internal organization in relationship to microclimatic, structural and programmatic requirements; an innovative approach to materials and systems engineering, where thermal mass, radiation control, cooling and on site carbon sequestration and renewable energy generation has been embedded in the architectural fabric of the building; this has been achieved by introducing the technology of algae farming directly in the facade and partitioning system of the building. This technique allows for real time adaptation of the skin properties; the facade will be an ever changing living system negotiating seasonal weather patterns and interacting with programmatic and socio-economic developments.

between Aggression and Elegance

Life Will Kill You is an installation designed by Molly Hunker and Greg Corso for the Revolve Clothing showroom in West Hollywood. To stand in contrast to the high-fashion clothing of the boutique, an everyday industrial material – the zip tie – is aggregated to create a floating volume that nestles below an existing soffit. The design is intended to explore the edge between aggression and elegance through material sensibility, overall form, and visual effect.

The cloud-like volume is created by a double-sided surface composed of over 100,000 zip ties. The exterior surface of the volume is an aggregation of longer, wider white zip ties while the interior is comprised of shorter and finer colored zip ties. The resulting bulging form offers ever-changing glimpses of blurred yet vivid color combinations as the zip ties layer on top of one another in the predominantly black and white store interior.

our Lady of Angels

The concept of this design by Xiaofeng Mei and Xiaotian Gao is based on the deconstruction and restructuring of Bionics as well as the supernatural spirit of re-designing a church.

The idea is based on two starting levels and extraction elements. One is the derivative and evolution of fish’s bone and texture. Specifically, from fish bones, fish gills, fish suko, and other various important parts, I can extract the geometric elements and then sort out the logic of formation of biological body, which would become the primitive of main structure and mode. Second is the religious beliefs of church and spiritual of space. The exploration of the spirit of building is the basic method and necessary mean to study how to combine the modern architecture and ultra-modern architecture together.

External prosperity of Architectural appearance, but in fact, requires careful logical constitute of inherent physical units to support. In this project, I mainly studied the formation and variation of single cells as well as a series of gradually combined into a system derived from logic. At all stages, a power expansion of the complexity has been formed from the body itself, the logic of variation and composition. Meanwhile, I also sought to control the hierarchy of overall complexity and coherence in order to achieve complicated and orderly aesthetic coexistence of interaction scenarios. This is the original intention of bionics or architectural aesthetics that are tending to nature because nature is the most complex biological interpretation of synthetic organisms.

At any one area, theory would be far beyond the practice, which is the prerequisite for everything to constantly update and evolve, also in the architecture field. The imagination of future architecture and utopian city continued to the present from the last century. Here, the architecture abandoned the totalitarian and inherit the anti-totalitarian utopian tendencies, focusing on the nature and the spirit of liberalism.
 

iconic Kaohsiung City

With a short list of ambitious designs by Akihisa Hirata, Studio Gang Architects, Yves Bachmann and this featured design by Mack Scogin Merill Elam Architects (MSMEA), its fair to say the Kaohsiung City Public Works Bureau did not have an easy choice to make when they decided on a final design for the Kaohsiung Maritime Culture and Popular Music Center. Although MADE IN’s design was ultimately chosen for the Center, many of these other entries are still worth their mention.
With possibly the most “out there” design for the Center, MSMEA sought to create a 24 hour, iconic attraction for Kaohsiung. The eclectic design for the larger component, the Pop Music Center, and the concept for the Center as a whole for that matter is “founded in the vibrancy of Kaohsiung City and its maritime culture, and in the energy and phenomenon of popular music”.

The two main components, the Pop Music center and the Marine Culture Exhibit Center are placed on either side of the Love River and joined by a bridge spanning the mouth of the river.

Of the positioning they said “The Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural and Popular Music Center is not shy. Like a giant vessel moored at the quay, the Center announces and guards the mouth of the Love River and is a gateway to Kaohsiung City and the nation”.

But the placement of the Center is not only to create a cultural landmark for the city, the placement also allows for the remaining 87% of the site to be reserved as open public park space. This would connect to existing surrounding parks and provide a pleasant waterfront for residents and visitors alike.

MSMEA also wanted to create a flexible space to accommodate the various types of performances and events that would be held at the Center. By separating various components, MSMEA created the possibility for audience capacities ranging from as little as 3,500 to as many as 17,000. Floating stages and barges allow for marine performances.

cities Of Pain

For the purpose of consciously evoking society’s reaction, an architectural object is inserted into the main recreational zone of New York – Central Park Jovile Porvaneckaite. Moreover, social and cultural phenomena inspired by the innovative form are discussed. The aim of the project is to analyse the process of form modelling and, consequently, perform a research of the form as power, based on an experimental project carried out by the author. The article aims at establishing the influence of the volume deficiency formed or shaped in the city’s planning system on the suggestibility of the building’s form.

In the project concerned, the term volume deficiency is used to describe the stress environment in the city structure, formed on the artistic, planning, volume, stylistic, value or historical base, and programming continuity of the above processes after integration of the newly proposed object into the environment mentioned.

The artistic value of the volume influenced by the stress environment and adapted into it provides the suggestibility characteristic of the object of mass attraction to the form. The form designed in such a space obtains all the features characteristic of an architectural sign, the city’s dominant. The form of the City of pain project is created as a connective bridge between a narrow city system and a large area of artificial recreational space. The building as a sign is formed as a corridor for social provocation and a laboratory for the modern society’s behaviour
 

into Latvian Museum of Art

Collection of artworks by Alexandra Belcova consists of more than 2500 items, including paintings, painted porcelain objects (dishes from Baltars workshop), ink drawings, pastels, watercolor paintings, sketches for book illustrations and dishes. Collection provides quite complete overview on art of Alexandra Belcova, her accomplishments in each of her domains and illustrates every period of her creative work. The largest group of her artworks is original graphic art - drawings and pastels.
The collection of the entire museum is based on approx. 4500 artworks by Roman Suta and Alexandra Belcova, as well as several thousands of memorial items and archive materials which belonged to artists' daughter Tatjana Suta and which were given to the Latvian National Museum of Art in 2006 according to her will.It is possible to get acquainted with the memorial collection of Roman Suta and Alexandra Belcova in the National Joint Catalog of Museums www.nmkk.lv
 

Vocabulary Vienna

Historically Vienna is known for its operas and concerts for music lovers. Designing a concert hall in this place is challenging and inspiring.

Ketham Santosh Kumar challenge was to deign a concert hall not only as a single architectural building but also as experiencing spaces through urban transition, At same time the design is unique from other music halls, in terms of architectural esthetics, vocabulary and tectonics. The site is located at center of Vienna adjacent to MAK museum in stadtpark. Music house composed of main concert hall is in centre of park and archive bridge connects to MAK museum and other two small theatres are: one in lower level of stadtpark and another on university. And in addition to, it also accommodates a music archive along the bridge and other ancillary facilities. The double core sphere shell, melting species acts as structural system and thermal insulation to music house.

It evolves as if painting and sculptures are melting and flowing out of existing MAK museum, Crafting and blending in surrounding landscape of stadtpark, and creating a new music house.
 

a Fame, a Fame of Sofia, to BE

Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, grew rapidly after the fall of the communist regime. It is the most enticing for business and living city in the country. Unemployment rate is less than 3%, comparing with 12% for the state. About 20 years ago, together with the building of the subway line, the boulevard T.Aleksandrov was laid out. The idea is to connect the center with less developed west areas. Boulevard in words, more correctly to say road, generally flanked by old, almost ruin-like housing fund. The building of new structures is impending, the dispute is how dense and high. Sofia used to have fame for green city. The parks and the gardens have been neglected. The asphalt has conquered the grass, almost no new trees have been planted.

The plot, 5800 m2, predetermined for hi-rise, is municipal property, situated close to the formal government square, between T.Aleksandrov and the pedestrian a hundred years old street Pirotska. Archeological remains, the ancient city wall, pass through. There is open public space, between the plot and the boulevard.

The main question is haw to insert the skyscraper into five story banal environment. One of the answers is to replace the building with “something else” without typical architectural tectonics and elements, something without scale. The similar things can bi compared, the disparate not.
The proposal is to cover the whole building with greenery, creeping on metal web. Ever changing natural double skin filters the air, produces oxygen, protects from heat, cold, noise. Deciduous plants will let the sun in, when is needed and stop it in summer time. In chilly weather, the creepers and the web could be sprayed with water and the frost would create air cushion, preventing from overcooling. A few “sky courtyards” are placed randomly. Every one planted with different trees – blooming and evergreen. Tropical conservatory will keep the green color all the seasons.

There are two ways to preserve the archeology. The first is to be museum exhibit, the second – to be part of the real life. The second is chosen. One can be in touch with the remains accidentally.
The third goal is to let the people to stroll freely in the spot. The open area (without passing through doors) is five sixths of the plot – sidewalk, sunken patios, roof garden smoothly connecting the vertical greenery with K.Boris street.

The scheme of the tall body is simple and straightforward. The central core, almost symmetrical, is very suitable for the earthquake conditions in Sofia. Around – office spaces for routine activities. The bottom floors are open for public, where the archeological remains are integrated. Below parking, accessible from the two existing ramps.

a Living Ocean, in Manifold Ways

Architectural studio SOMA has finished the design of the thematic pavilion for the 2012 Yeosu World Expo. The project was selected in late 2009 and is expected to begin construction during the next couple of months.

As a major and permanent facility the thematic pavilion embodies the expo’s theme ‘the living ocean and coast’ in manifold ways. The ocean is experienced in two ways, as an endless surface and in an immersed perspective as depth. The plain duality of the ocean motivates the building’s spatial and organisational concept. Continuous surfaces twist from vertical to horizontal orientation and define all significant interior spaces. The vertical cones induce the visitor to immerse into the thematic exhibition. They evolve into horizontal levels that cover the foyer and become a flexible stage for the best practice area. Continuous transitions between contrasting experiences also form the outer appearance of the pavilion. Towards the sea the conglomeration of solid vertical cones define a new meandering coast line, a soft edge that is in constant negotiation between water and land. Opposite side the pavilion develops out of the ground into an artificial roof landscape with gardens and scenic paths. The topographic lines of the roof turn into lamellas of the kinetic media facade that faces the expo’s entrance and the ‘digital gallery’.

The building will be erected in a former industrial harbour along a new promenade. Bridges will connect the pavilion to the expo site. after the expo and the aspired improvement of water quality the promenade will be transformed into an ‘urban beach’ offering leisure activities to the public. The main entrance is situated on ocean plaza, which is partly covered by the pavilion to achieve a shaded outdoor waiting area. The space boundaries of the open foyer are defined by the twisting surfaces of the cones.Tthe interstitial spaces between them frame the view onto the ocean and create niches for the visitors to take a pause from the exhibition.

an Occupy movement

Moved by the economic disparity in the United States brought to light by the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, the designers of the Occupy Skyscraper propose creating a building that can further empower protesters and accelerate the Occupy movement. The temporary Occupy skyscraper can be erected on any protest site to provide shelter and meeting spaces for dissenters. By providing a means for protesters to take their movement from a horizontal plane to a 3-D vertical reality, the Occupy skyscraper strengthens and bolsters the event as a whole, but amazingly, it does so only using hemp rope and canvas.

The skyscraper’s construction begins as soon as a protest takes place: Ropes are woven into a vertical web by attaching to and climbing nearby buildings. The webs are woven thicker and thicker until they form nets that can support weight. At this stage, the “building” can be used for climbing, hanging flags and supporting sleeping bags in the vertical spaces, and can be used for gatherings on the horizontal plane. Canvas is then attached to create solid paneling to segregate space uses within the building. The designers envision several designated areas: orientation spaces, and other spots for recreation, sleeping, workshops, conferences, rallies and large meetings.

As the movement gains in strength and more people join, the masses will continue to build out the skyscraper, adding space as needed. The height of the skyscraper reaches its peak, however, when the heights of the surrounding buildings that are supporting the ropes are met. As the protest dies down the building is deconstructed, and after its over, its remains can be removed completely, restoring the urban fabric to what it was before the event.

to Protect the Romans

The building designed by Atxu Amann, Andrés Cánovas, Nicolás Maruri is essentially a cover protecting the remains of a Roman assembly (thermal baths, forum and domus) in the archaeological site of Molinete Park in Cartagena, Spain.

This cover is certainly another piece in the urban area of Cartagena whose main architectural challenge is to reconcile very different architectures, from the roman times, passing through baroque to contemporary architectures, making them vibrate together in the neighborhood. It is a transition element, between very different city conditions, in size and structure, from the dense city centre to the slope park.

The primary goal of the project is to respect the existing remains, using a long-span structure, which requires the least amount of support for lifting the cover. The intervention unifies all the remains in a single space, allowing a continuous perception of the whole site. The cover also generates a new urban facade in the partition wall.
The project also pursues a sense of lightness and is conceived as an element that allows light. The inner layer is built with a modular system of corrugated multiwall translucent polycarbonate sheets. The outer layer, constructed with perforated steel plates, qualifies the incidence of light and gives a uniform exterior appearance.

Besides to the steel structure, the project proposes an elevated walkway parallel to the street. It is a very light structure hanging from the steel beams. Conceived as a glass box, with a faceted, partially visible geometry, it builds the street façade and allows a view of the ruins from three meters height. It is also accessible for disabled visitors. This high path permits an overall vision of the roman remains.

an Avatar Pallet

Avatar Architettura is a multi-disciplinary Italian office for architecture and industrial design founded in 2001 by Nicola Santini and Pier Paolo Taddei. The office research is oriented towards the identification of design strategies which privilege ecology, flexible systems, biodiversity and recycled materials in urban context. Their Recycled Pallet Pavilion is a temporary structure acting as a versatile art space. It can host different kinds of events and offers space for a wide diversity of production forms.

The pavilion is located in the garden of Villa Romana, the German Institute of Culture in Florence, Italy. The demountable structure of 100 square meters is made of precast diamond shaped wooden pallets and custom made joints. The assembly process takes four days. The wooden structure is wrapped by a continuous PVC membrane, opaque for the roof and transparent for the walls.

whispers Ice

The first artwork I “met” by Charles Stankievech, a Montreal/Dawson City multimedia artist, was his delicate, subtle work Whispers (for WB) at the Parisian Laundry (Montreal) in 2005. For this piece, Stankievech set a series of speakers attached to long, rambling wires along the floor of a skinny concrete hallway. The speakers exuded a wash of overlapping whispers in multiple languages, mixed from 12 channels.

The audio effect was either spooky or soothing, depending on your mood. Visually, it was spare yet also inviting, since you could pick up the speakers if you wanted to listen more closely.
Since then Stankievech has continued to work with overlaps between architecture, acoustics (connecting more broadly to communications technologies), and visual art (most frequently sculpture and video). He’s on year three in Dawson as an instructor at the School of Visual Arts (SOVA).

And ice has begun to appear in – or literally around – Stankievech’s geographically northern art on a regular basis. Pale landscapes add to his minimalist aesthetic, and the North is definitely a place where sound travels farther and feels thinner. But even more importantly, Stankievech is currently contemplating boundary issues in remote places – places where international defence systems install themselves. The North provides the specific history of the DEW Line plus the current US HAARP project.

to Intel Alexandrina

Intel Bibliotheca Alexandrina Science and Engineering Fair 2012

The BA Planetarium Science Center (PSC), in collaboration with Intel Co., is organizing Intel Bibliotheca Alexandrina Science and Engineering Fair (Intel BASEF) from 10 to 12 March 2012.This competition prepares students from all over Egypt for participating, competing, and winning in the national competition. Intel BASEF top three winning projects will represent Egypt in the International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) competition that will take place in USA.Intel BASEF brings together students, 14-18 years of age, from all over Egypt to train, research, innovate and compete in preparation for the Intel ISEF, the world’s largest international pre-college science competition.

a Helicoidal to Save a City

The ‘City Respiration Skyscraper’ designed by Czech architects Pavlína Doležalová and Jan Smékal is a helicoidal  240 meter-high structure designed to clean the air of the most polluted cities worldwide. Its primary structure is a concrete ribbon covered by air-cleaning algae. The outer cellular structure is a three-dimensional cluster of individual concrete three-spike units inspired by sea sponges. 

This helicoidal structure acts as a chimney where warm and polluted air is captured at the bottom and  filtered and oxygenated by the algae and a specialized water-sprayed system. A network of these skyscrapers strategically placed in the most polluted areas could clean a city in a couple of weeks.