More Architectural Tourism - A Field Trip

We were so fortunate to be able to take a trip to see works from two of the most significant american architects of the 20th century: Frank Lloyd Wright and I. M. Pei. I found it interesting that all the students recognized the buildings we visited - they had "seen" them, but few had visited or really delved into the heritage on their doorstep. Both the Civic Center and the Buck Institute are such visible parts of Marin's highway landscape. So it was a real treat to be able to enter, tour, and to really get acquainted with these two important architectural campuses. 

Our first stop was the Buck Institute for Aging; our guide was Ralph O'Rear (VP, Facilities and Planning). Pei had a hand several buildings that have played a part in my personal architectural experience: the Hancock Tower, and the Kennedy Library. The Tower was particularly familiar as I worked next door to it for many year, spent many a lunch hour in Copley Square absorbing the geometry and the reflections of Richardson's Trinity Church.

The Buck Institute had many familiar I. M. Pei design features: stark geometries, clean surfaces, and acute angles. Wandering around the lower passages, with long halls and 60-degree turns was a true mouse-in-maze experience - very disorienting, but saved by amazing, framed views out to the landscape.

I have an even more personal connection with Wright, having grown up in Madison (my parents were married in, and I attended school at the Unitarian Church), and visited several on more than one occasion: the Guggenheim, Falling Water, the Robie House, and the Unity Temple in Oak Park. I particularly recall seeing an exhibit called "Designs for an American Landscape", which showcased several intimate, unbuild projects that underscored his unconventional imagination and poetic vision.

The Civic Center was in amazingly good shape, and also had lots of familiar Wright design cues: dark passages and entries, taller and brighter public spaces, rhythmic details, and warm tones. The building was much longer that I had imagined, and balconies on the upper levels were surprisingly narrow.

Strange that when I was in architecture school, Wright had fallen out of fashion, and was derided for his "space ship architecture" by the faculty - who seemed to be more aligned with the post-modernist movement at that time.

In any case, I suppose you might think of these two facilities, or any remarkable piece of architecture as "being from another place". Or you can visit and reach into these places, and find the value that each designer can bring to a building.

More photos here: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A2G6XBubG6We8c

Tinkering with Tinkercad

When I first started out as an architect, personal computers were just hitting the practice; small offices were just starting to give CAD (computer aided drafting/design) a try. Now, we have 3D modeling in the cloud. It's rather astonishing.

Even more astonishing, modern CAD software now outputs to 3D printers. I made this little test house to see how to link and embed a model made from geometric primitives in Tinkercad. I then exported the model as an .stl file and printed it.

Jony Ive Talks About Care and Value in Design

A great interview, followed by an even better Q&A session with Jony Ive - a couple of highlights:

• I was struck by his explanation of Apple's design process, and how he said the process shifted gears when the design of a product got three-dimensional: "as soon as there's an object ... it really galvanizes and provides a focus to an entire team, and very often when they're struggling with these abstract, tentative ideas, suddenly you've got a flag";

• I enjoyed his description of a Braun food "mixer" (processor?) as "extraordinarily, achingly beautiful";

• I got a little rush, as did the audience, when he described copy-catting as theft, and copy-cats like Xiaomi as "lazy";

• I appreciated that Jony expressed his disdain for Augustus Pugin in the context of making products with care, and that that care can be made tangible within a product.

Here's a little bonus - also from Vanity Fair: 

Moshe Safdie: How to reinvent the apartment building (TED Talk)

A kind of "blast from my architectural past", it's great to hear from Moshe Safdie - and architect who I used to see around Harvard Square and the Boston area a way long time ago. I think he had an office in Cambridge or Somerville at the time. Always a bit of a hero of mine. He's bringing his Habitat 67 ideas up to date in China. A short but very interesting presentation.

And here's another on the state of the art in 3D printing. Yep. TED Talks are always good for a few blog posts.