Étienne-Louis Boulée, 1784.

Konrad Wachsmann, Untitled (detail), 1963
Lithograph

In 1945 Wachsmann developed a mobile aircraft hangar for the Atlas Air Corporation (the design of this lithograph is most likely based on this structure), and he then worked with Walter Gropius in Boston, developing the prefabricated “Packaged House System”.

We believe this lithograph to be the only print he produced.

It seems like there’s a great story here.

Such drawings (and many he has made are in this category) cannot be directly translated into buildings, nor, I imagine, are they intended to. They are not prescriptive and illustrative of some next step, but formulations of principles, grammar, methods of thinking and working. They have much to teach in an explicit way, as I think they have taught architects like Ando, but are impossible to imitate. They have the best kind of influence in that they challenge other architects to find their own integrity, while at the same time showing that this can be achieved in architectural terms.

Noah Sheldon’s photographs of Biosphere 2.

The circular temple according to Vitruvius, from Ten Books on Architecture.

Designed by Rene Paul Chambellan, these gates led to the private offices of Irwin S. Chanin.

Wikipedia says “Chambellan studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian in Paris and with Solon Borglum in New York City. Chambellan specialized in architectural sculpture. He was also one of the foremost practitioners of what was then called the French Modern Style and has subsequently been labeled Zig-Zag Moderne, or Art Deco.”

He also designed the Caldecott and Newbery medals. My question is are all these brass gears and lightning bolts Art Deco motifs, or was this guy just way ahead of the curve on the Clockwork Gothic/Steampunk Moderne tip?

Edgar Martins captured images of the real estate bust for the New York Times Magazine.

Photograph by Marcus Buck.

Pullman Car, “Two Bedroom” Master Configuration, from Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command (1948).

Genetic Stair was designed, fabricated, and installed by Caliper Studio.

Under construction architecture studio. Its like architects are setting themselves up for their own Sokal Affair. Also, beautiful concrete work. Not.

If you’re in London this Friday, be sure to check out Thrilling Wonder Stories: Speculative Futures For An Alternate Present. A free symposium exploring the intersections of science fiction and architectural design.

In this symposium we will hear stories from such foreign fields as gaming, film, comics, animation, literature and art. These speculative practitioners present alternative models as test sites for the deployment of the wondrous possibilities or dark cautionary tales of our own architectural imaginings. And so we wander off the map to embark on a future safari into the brave new worlds that may evolve from our own. The symposium will be a collection of presentations, interviews and group discussions chair by Geoff Manaugh.

The event page mentions that it will be streamed online, but I’m not sure if that is going to be live or uploaded after the fact. I’ll update this post when I find out.

Stills From AC37 by Eleanor Duffin.

Another book for the People Haven reading list.

See also: Cave Sleepers.

Algirdas Steponavičius, “New Construction Works II” (1968).

...mad man doom of the wards of the madtowns of the East, 
Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid 
halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, 
rocking and rolling in the midnight solitude-bench 
dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a nightmare, 
bodies turned to stone as heavy as the moon...

Back in the 19th Century, one Thomas Kirkbride penned a treatise entitled On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane.

Kirkbride intended to treat the mentally ill with architecture:

Kirkbride developed his requirements based on a philosophy of Moral Treatment. The typical floor plan, with long rambling wings arranged “en echelon” (staggered, so each connected building still received sunlight and fresh air), was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients. The building form itself was meant to have a curative effect, meant as “a special apparatus for the care of lunacy,” and Kirkbride wrote that their grounds should be “highly improved and tastefully ornamented.

–Kirkbride Plan, Wikipedia.

Perhaps predictably, the insane asylum fan community on the internet has done a great job collating information about these buildings. The hospital pictured above is Greystone Park, the local freaky place for kids to smoke a J near my highschool. I don’t know if its funny or sad or what that as far as I can tell, the modern legacy of Kirkbride’s efforts is the embedding of the “Spooky Victorian Insane Asylum” trope in our popular culture, from Ginsberg on down to Scooby-Doo.

Jätkäsaari is the target of a new planned district of Helsinki. Originally several islands, it was reshaped and reattached to the headland by way of land reclamation. They are in the process of relocating the current harbor industry to the eastern side of the city to make room for the construction.

Jätkäsaari is not a suburb, but occupies 100 hectares (about .4 square miles) along the southwestern coast. The plan calls for a dense urban neighborhood with housing for 15,000 that combines “top technology, ecological considerations and the centuries-old traditions of city life”.

Let’s hear it for the pedestrians:

Jätkäsaari will run counter to today’s constant growth in the number of cars; this will be a district designed primarily for pedestrians, with excellent public transport. It will have up to three tram lines, and the Helsinki Metro already runs close to the northern edge of the area. Cycle paths are being planned with great care to serve those living and working in every part of the district. The area will have very few streets allowing vehicular access, and every residential street will be a cul-de-sac. Through traffic will thus be minimal.

All that is old is new again:

The principle of minimizing motorized traffic will also apply to waste management. A process has been designed in which sorted household waste will go straight into a pneumatic conveyance system leading to a central underground collection point. This means that residents will not need to avoid garbage collection trucks navigating the narrow streets.

Read more here.

A sketch from Lebbeus Woods for an imagined wall that would protect Bosnia where others failed.

The wall would be built very high, with a vast labyrinth of interlocking interior spaces, creating a structurally indeterminate system that would be extremely difficult to bring down by demolition charges or artillery fire. Tanks and mobile artillery could not be brought through the wall. Foot soldiers could not climb over the wall in large numbers, but would have to go through it. Once inside, they would become lost. Many would not be able to escape. They would either die, or, as it were, move in, inhabiting the spaces, even forming communities. Local farmers from the Bosnian side, could arrange to supply food and water, on a sale or barter basis. In time, they would move in, too, to be close to their market. Families would be living together. The wall would become a city.