Nottingham Contemporary

This week a brand new contemporary Art gallery has opened in my old stomping ground of Nottingham. It sits on the crest of a hill which has provided the Caruso St John architects with a unique site that they have taken full advantage of. They play with its various aspects and levels; framing the appealing views with carefully placed windows as well as carving out some new rights of way for any pedestrian. Unlike the design of many contemporary art galleries the architects have not been brazen with its form- it sits comfortably within the existing skyline, yet not too comfortably that it is not intriguing. I especially loved the lace imprint made onto some of the exterior concrete panels, a little nod to its site on the edge of the old lace market.

All in all I can hardly criticise any initiative that adds exciting new architecture to the city skyline, let alone free Art to the residents of that city... a resounding thumbs up!

Quote of the Day

" A building should be to a city as a brick is to a brick wall"

- Mamdar Puranik

Radical Nature @ The Barbican

I trekked across London last week to catch this exhibition before it closed. Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a changing planet was to me a bit of a disappointment. I don't want to be too harsh as individually there where some exciting pieces; instead my dissolution rests with the organizers of the exhibition, who put together something that was shoddily presented and with no real narrative to drive the spectator through the space. Dealing with such a relevant issue of the relationship between nature and architecture it failed to make any clear statement- most of the pieces being highly conceptual and unable to relate to contemporary life. The curators chose pieces that were not subtle about their chosen subject, In fact many seemed to shout "Im an artist dealing with nature!", an example of this poster art being the section of rainforest tipped on its side in Henrik Hakansson's Fallen Forest (2006). Having been to so many wonderfully exhibitions of late that employ a meaningful narrative that enhance the spectators experience, it was hard to feel that they had got the most out of this topic at the Barbican.

Serpentine Pavillion 2009

I went to visit the new serpentine pavilion last week with Ricardo and Beefy in a rare moment of sunshine across London town. It is designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA. By reading the information available I learnt that the intended effect of the thin aluminum sheets that forms the piece, was to blend into its surroundings - almost camouflaged. Although on first arrival you are met by an apparent airiness, as my friends pointed out, the low sheets and haphazard arrangement was somewhat imposing.

Alcoholic Architecture

In a little shop off Carnaby street, Bompas and Parr - two predictably eccentric englishmen (pictured above) have created the first walk in cocktail! Once you arrive at your designated time slot, you are channelled into girl/boy changing rooms where you are given white jumpsuits (this in itself was very exciting to me). You proceed through the bar and down the stairs into a mirky basement where you enter a sticky room which is supposed to be like walking into a giant glass of Gin and Tonic- a solitary green light, a giant slice of lime and a big straw are within to add to the effect. The alcoholic vapour inside the room was definitely potent, though we couldn't be entirely objective as we had had some gin in liquid form a little earlier- dooogh! Although we were in an adventurous mood we didn't actually manage to stay down in the room for too long as it became quite claustrophobic and everything became sticky, which was not helped by the particularly humid weather outside. Alcoholic Architecture is really an interactive art installation that relies more on causing a stir then actual substance, however, I have to confess a weakness for a gimmick and this certainly fulfilled my sillyness quotient for a while.

(Photos provided by Fung Boy Ltd.)

An Atlas of Fabrication @ AA

The current exhibition at my school shows the work of the Barkow Leibinger Architecture firm which is based in Berlin. It demonstrates the experimental nature of contemporary practices who spend a lot of time researching structure through materiality. The small exhibition reads like a catalogue of textures, rather than the integrated design of spaces - still, quite an interesting little show to fill up my lunch break today.

Le Corbusier @ the Barbican

Until June a retrospective of the architect known as the father of modern Architecture is being held at the Barbican, which according to my tutor is a "truly atrocious space". Whilst trying my best to ignore the vulgar surroundings I observed his vast canon of work. I have nothing really to criticize about his actual buildings, not only because this would be blasphemous to any architect, but simply because they embody a theory that is still deeply engrained in the architecture of today. What struck me most poignantly was how his work encompasses so many different fields from poetry, writing, painting, photography through to furniture design. I love the idea that an architect must absorb themselves as much as possible in the culture and arts to understand the society that they are designing for.

"I am an acrobat of forms

 creator of forms, player with forms.

 Forms means to express all plastic emotion.

 Form, expression and style of the mind."

- Le Corbusier

Boom @ Royal College of Art . . .

This is the RCA's work in progress show before the final graduation show in june. The Architects were all dealing with themes of Boom and Doom: tackling how to design for a new rather depressing world of limited space, deforestation, lack or resources, etc. There was some interesting work in the Art and Animation sections, although I could not easily understand their development, as there was very limited information available. It seems that I am consistently drawn to work that clearly shows a process, which I find to be more accessible - at the RCA; this seems to occur most frequently in the work of the architecture students.

Palladio @ Royal Academy

16th Century Architect . . . nuff said!

AA Funkyness

Here are some cool temporary pieces that have been round the AA and are designed by some of the students in the school. The pavilion outside has been dismantled now, but I had my lunch on the cool polystyrene chair today. (photos from my phone - so apologise for the bad quality)