Understanding places as archetypes of development.
'How are thoughts made into things?' From detail to strategy and back again.
Idea of 'offering' something through architecture. Smithsons. see link:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PbT8SWIOHNgC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=peter+smithsons+offering&source=bl&ots=FPjGmX5sYh&sig=-ibZmcPXHZx5BNAMHD3NuMUenDk&hl=en&ei=iDH5TI6dO8G3hQfVlYCACQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CEsQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=peter%20smithsons%20offering&f=false
Alison and Peter Smithson: from the house of the future to a house of today By Dirk van den Heuvel, Max Risselada, Peter Smithson, Beatriz Colomina, Design Museum (London, England)
For a piece about Smithson's Pavilion and Patio:
'Henderson, Paolozzi and the Smithsons collaborated on Patio & Pavillion, an installment of painters, architects and sculptors at the Whitechapel Gallery...here too , the position of the visitor played an essential part in the definitive organisation of the installation. Thirty-four years after the exhibition, the Smithsons were to write: 'Our Patio and Pavilion answered a "programme of our own making, offering a definitive statement of another attitude to "collaboration": the "dressing" of a building, its place, by the "art of inhabitation".'
MUF's programme had to comply to the brief of 'People meeting in architecture', a tight budget and a shorter timescale.
Projects are funded by briefs and jobs, and hence are economically driven to a certain extent. 'You go over time on the programme... How do you make money?' personal attachement to projects mean that they are continued even when there's no time left for them 'our bank manager said we should have gone bankrupt 15 years ago...'
To address the factor of a tight budget, MUF tried to logicaly think and use it wisely, one cut being in transportation costs, so the project was hand made in Venice. (1:10 of olympic pavilion.)
I didn't go to Biennale, so can't judge first hand, but from the presentation, I felt that there were a few too many things going on. The creation of a salt marsh, a seemingly irrelevant 'puddle' that needed to be pumped everyday and refilled with fresh water. Even a journalist said that after studying it he felt he didn't know it at all. Were they almost apologetic for the fact that they didn't have enough time?
Hybrid - not a succesful one? The idea of children drawing is enough, Ruskin's books is another strand, collections of photographs another, childrens dens anoother...Territory that comes with handing over is that everything becomes a bit jumbled in nature?
Much study of Venice and use of its public/private spaces by adults and children alike. 'Take care of what you have as replacing it is very complex' in relation to their salt flat but applies generally. Playable landscapes are OK in Venice, so should be OK in the UK. The scapes of Venice showed a lot more life in the 'inbetween' of outdoor and indoor, in courtyards.
'2 way traffic', bringing back ideas started in Venice to projects in East London. Highstreet 2012. Collage takes a long time. What relevance does 'made here' have on the visitor - getting hands dirty is a good thing.
Economy of tension between exhibits, questions the way of currating to become far more propositional.
'Public'? Who are they? The exhibition wasn't open to the public. Exhibitions tend to be looked at differently when payed for. There's a need by the audience to take every detail in, to be, not just to pass by. So for 20euros I think I would sit for a while. And draw.
Example of how a relatively small practice can make a difference on a global scale, though these are very unique circumstances. Bringing people together can make good things. ie architect and planner??? Can an architect and planning policies get along?
Reconnecting communities in Hackney Wick 'Fish Island', is this what you call localism?
Very incremental approach to design and planning of space. But should this be the permanent method? Deconstructing economics to get the best out of the system, but we can't make do and mend forever. Should there be a clearer methodology of how we make better spaces from the outset? And are these places appreciated more because they've been saved? Melodrama.
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