jiitz wotsch dr eric wider mitere macedonierin verkupplä....

ajajajaj...

liebi grüessli vom lernende lizi (weiss auso nid wi das wird mit dene prüäfigä.... mal luege)

guet nacht

I'm afraid I don't understand this at all....

I gave her the phone number, so I finished my "job" I have no idea what happened after :)

Thanx,Bojana_mkd

pascht uf, dr johannes kinnt schtaubig sii wenn net uf englisch gepostet wird ;-)
good luck with ur exams ... aLx

so i probably need to remind all the EASAsians to please post in english , again !
not giving the all too obvious reasons, though, not again ..

www.architactic.com
www.archguide.com
www.arplus.com
www.aiasnatl.org
www.acsa-arch.org
www.candarch.de
The last site is in german ... nontheless international competitions are mentionned (especially for students). And in case there would be language probs, I'm sure Johannes would be glad to help ;-)

btw: For those who speak german or at least who are not afraid of it: the bookmArchs are quite an interesting linklist ...

aLx_Be

www.architecture.com

this lists, European, American etc world competitions, both hypothetical design briefs and 'to complete' competitions.
ave a butchers...
LEWIS.

www.deathbyarch.com
www.deskcrit.com
www.uia-architects.org
www.archiseek.com
www.architecturefoundation.org.uk
www.archvoices.org
hope these are of use.
Lewis.

Doing a research on a political or any social problem is an interesting way to do the diploma, but it also has to end with architecture-urbanism project (that’s the way how the thinks work at least in my school). I am considering your idea. Too much politics in my country :) Thanx for giving your point of view, and also thank you Johanes for the architectureroom.

Bojana,nc,Macedonia

P.S. Dubi, we are starting to prepare our selves (in any sense) for Belgrade ;)

considering diploma works, what some people at my school are doing [including marija and jagoda, shopwork tutors] are transformation some old derelict factory into cultural center, sth like laCP... maybe u can search in that direction, and i know they would be happy to help... so if u need their mails, drop me a line.

btw glad to hear that people started preparing for incm!
dubi

@ Spuk (whoever you are): Bravo, your last change for your own thinking experience, welcome to the world of reality! And: how can you call a client be stupid, when it is you who fails to convince him? - and who is this koolhaas, this person seems very interesting. is he related to corb? where can we find this MLSXNL?

@ Bojana, you are right in a way. Defining/identifying your own social or political problematics for your diploma can take more time than solving the issue itself, and in the end you might (or should) only be judged on your architecture, as architecture schools mostly just are qualified for architecture and not for social or political sciences.

But the key to the most brilliant result lies in a proper definition of the real question, not only for the topic of your diploma project but also for the development of your own role in architecture (your A-fetish)! This is of course much wider than the description in a competition, and can be an inspiration for life... And yes (spuk is right), indeed diploma time is the perfect moment for that!

grandpa NL

ps: rem's diploma project was a competition entry too! so boljana go for it!

right ... some clients may be stupid ... to call them so right from the start on is pointing out a prob of many arks: believing they know it better ... and even if they do - it's neither smart nor good for architecture to be that .... arrogant. as arks we have to get smarter in communication wit the client: as well for the convincing as for the understanding of the client's needs and desires, cos' it's for him (and users in general) that we have to design ... not to "realize ourselves" in the first place ... imho ...

@jelk - right for the prob of the definition of the real question. but even if not "qualified" for social or political sciences, if designing a building that a group of people have to use and that peopple are passing by, then architecture _is_ a social and political act. and we have to address these issues somehow (even modestly) - that is part of architecture and not outside somewhere in realms to be left to scientist of social or political sciences ...

holding this in sight is -imho- important especially for a diploma work, where nonetheless quality of the design will be considered in the first place.

aLx_Be

@alx_be: i know we have to address those issues (which i have been doing in my years of my graduation project), but i am only talking about the sensible feedback (or the lack of it) when it concerns social/political issues in architecture (schools) - I know how it is, you are out there alone - even in our brilliant Delft University. So i am not asking for rejection of political/social issues but for the total integration of those subjects in our education! It is badly needed. and as a science of course, not as some superficial, random or unfounded opinion.

(as i have been stating so many times before)

jelk_NL

btw... how was ur project finally (wasnt it with real estate and social housing?) ...
right for the need in education - sorry if i possibly misunderstood the nuance of ur statement - go for a pivo ;)
dobro?
alx_be

@jelk(whoever you are)- Your reality is not mine. You seem to consider the world as a binary relationship client/producer..Welcome to the world of globalization. This situation makes the architect a frustrated and slaved guy, a pupett in the hands of people who have $$ and power. Its rather a confortable status for who is blind and weak.

Anyway, i still believe there is a way to produce another kind of architecture, that means an architecture which doesnt follow the wishes of the politicaly correctness of the capitalist society.
We need more activists to make architecture as 'inform' as possible -> cf Georges Bataille or Hakim Bay's TAZ ( Temporary Autonomous Zone ).

those interested in checking TAZ out, can read it whole @
www.hermetic.com

@spuk, anonymous friend

Mmm... i celebrate your citations and than you start to doubt them? - is that the most avant-garde form of anarchism or did i just misunderstood your statement?

Binary? digital data storage is binary, that is about it what I can think of. The rest is eitherway predestined or multidynamic polyparametric semirandomized - in my humble opinion - and globalized of course. I think you misunderstood this tiny bit of irony in my introduction.

Further I think everyone is a puppet in the hands of others with much power, I can see some similarities with the prehistoric era, unfair big dinosaurs eating tiny harmless fishes. Nothing changed even though no globalization, capitalism or $$ was there at that time as far as I am aware of. Use and existence of power in my humble opinion has nothing to do with globalization nor with frustrated architects. Architects have been frustrated since ages, as far I can understand. Maybe I am wrong, than please rescue me from the unawareness. Further I have no clue what you are talking about. It sounds a little frustrated, left-wing general story. Capitalist bad world etc. But maybe there is more? Can you explain your vision? For example, how does this "other kind of architecture" relate to this Koolhaas person? Is he one of the slaved guys, weak and blind? Or is he one of the "badly needed activists"?

@alx_be: hvala, dobro. ziveli! in short: the graduation project is about different needs in housing based on differences in people. the project is a search for useful reasons/ways for diversification in housing solutions, in order to make the supply in houses better match the demand and in the same time build a socially coherent, more healthy city. It is somehow became a vast project ;-). We (me and one of the co-owners of my company) are these days working on the final report, and finalizing the design, based on our developed design approach. So far we already gained some interest by municipalities, housing corporations, project developers and some other capitalistic institutions ;-). It should end in a double MSc diploma in the disciplines Architecture + Real Estate & Housing in december. It combines a lot of disciplines including demographic and social sciences and incorporates/touches some architectural theories. If you know any dutch you could try our website, but i must say, the site could use an update.

jelk NL


PS: for those who are unfamiliair with the phenomenon of irony, i tried my best to make this post as irony minimized as possible. after all, less is more ;-)

as we said, one attempt will be a lecture marathon at the beginning, 2 days with 3 lectures each (+/-) and time inbetween for discussion. as i heard during easa from idontrememberwhom, coffee breaks during lectures are a very appreciated mean to fuel discussions.

this starting period will allow people to get into the topic at a time when minds are still fresh and motivation probably there. we'll try to do our best to get high quality people that can give a real input.

any comments on that or other ideas? let us know!!!

flo_ch

p.s. i'll put that as a topic of its own to the main page, let's continue there...

hey flo

That sounds like a pretty good idea... Making sure that everyone has the general topic on their mind when they start doing the workshops...

Perhaps the coffeebreak-concept could be developed even further...i think it is very important that people get a chance to also develop their own little vocabulary about the topic, that they can use later to communicate in their workshop...

that was my 2 eurocents for the moment

Adam

...

i have the impression that this is a quite good example of what "branding architecture" can become if getting as superficial as postmodern "ironic quotation" of antique form-elements.

"Architektur muß brennen!"
"Architecture must burn!"
[COOP HIMMELB(L)AU]

but that branding here looks quite out-burned ...

btw: branding: "(...)it commonly identified the process of burning a mark into a stock animal with a thick hide, such as a cow, so as to identify ownership " [Wikipedia]

(...)directly linked to the entropic principle of disorder.

i'd be careful with "borrowing" notions (like "entropy") from "foreign disciplines" (like thermodynamics and|or information theory). It often turns out that terms are misused or made senseless - heard about Sokal's Hoax?

(...)Church or State speaks to the multitudes and imposes silence upon them. It is, in fact obvious that monuments inspire social prudence and often even real fear.

yep - architecture is communication ... in a way ... but "imposes silence" is a uni-lateral view or interpretation. No doubt about the fact that for some people the statement is true, nonetheless have cathedrals e.g. been a social and economic driving force for the cities they were built in. And if there are people feeling compelled to silence by a church, there are those who are inspired by e.g. the beauty of the palatine chapel in Aachen. Realities are indeed multiple (as u said). Moreover, monuments can be landmarks (a village might refer to its church, Montjoie to its castle).

I am not for "authority" or "estabishment" as u might understand it, spuk, but i am against un-nuanced "contra|anti" just because it "might be cool". I admit not having read "Against Architecture" ... but just for th title, i prefer "Architecture without architects - An introduction to non-pedigreed Architecture" (which is a "for something"-statement by Bernard Rudofsky), or "Architecture et Modestie" by Borruey, Desgrandchamps and Peckle (i dont know whether there's a english translation of that book ... but I believe modesty is a quite too often forgotten notion in architecture)

cheers ;)
aLx_be

a public and a private domain ... that sounds quite binary to me ;-)

imho, one has first to be able to play by the rules before bending them - meaning: before starting to steal concepts elsewhere, the person who does has to be quite tough in the understanding of the concept in the original context. Else it that borrowing|stealing is gonna end up in half-done analogies lacking the actual depth they could have.

We can observe that problem with so many notions that the so-called "sciences humaines" borrow from exact sciences [chaos, entropy, relativism, dimensions, ...] (especially french leftist intellectuals like to do that) ... if today we see chaos reduced to some computer generated mandelbrot-figures or folding reduced to some blob or multi-dimensionality reduced to some so called "hypersurfaces", that just makes me vomit ...

there's quite a prominent example of that: Mr Jencks ... appearently he discovered the "philosophie des sciences" some years ago:

“However, its colored syncopation also has a new, explosive rhythm. Past tense, presence and future are equally taken into account. Besides the fractal, there is another form language being developped -- an esthetics of the waves, folds and oscillations. This use of forms is frequently derived by analogy from undulation, on which solitons and the quantum world are based, and perhaps also from super strings -- those tiny, vibrating substance units on which the universe is based. In addition, the winding and bending belong to this new repertory, characteristic motifs of dramatic change which have been examined by the catastrophe‘s theory in so many areas.

It is no surprise to see these jumping forms occurring in an architecture which could be described as a nonlinear architecture (according to the nonlinear dynamics, a general expression for complexity sciences). A new common language
takes shape, esthetics of undulation, of crystals surprisingly blossoming out, of broken areas and spiralic growth, the wave forms, windings and folds, a language which correponds better than the rigid architectures of the past tense to a jumping cosmos in its unfolding.”

[ Charles Jencks - introduction to „The Architecture of the Jumping Universe“ URL: <http://www.baunetz.de/arch/archplus/141/p024c.htm> (20030802) ... sorry for any mistake in quotation - that's a translation of the german translation of an english original]

take some words and basic principles that sound good, mix and shake it, throw it in the air, when coming down take care to make it sound soooo intellectual that no one will doubt about it though it is complete none-sense ...

so far for borrowing|stealing from other disciplines ... if handled un-carefully ...

cheers

aLx_be

ps: y a pas de kwoi pr la ref :) - t kì au fait, on s'est vu à rbx?

interesting conversation, nothing to add for me so far, only to learn.

@spuk:
cant see u! have u been to roubaix? where u from?

i ve been with textile city and 1:1:10000 workshop there

regards from courios jost, german nc

good to see discussion here, sorry i dont have time to input yet, as v busy with work here in ireland

anyway
"EASA will be a political experience" says monsieur albatros
is a thread which includes much stuff relevant to this discussion
easa.antville.org

my 2pence is basicaly
i see art/arhitecture/politics/social/spirit activism all as the same thing
i believe we can improve things- its an open ongoing process
trying to become more responsible human beings- its tough, but it has its rewards

i feel easa had a super opportunity do interavct with city and people agian in roubaix, some did take up challenge but maybe for many easa is still the playground

still though easa rocks, thanks

have to rush to get a sambo

slán libh
dunk

ps- social forum and indymedia are the most progressive systems on planet today- both communication spaces and systems- both dont hold fisxed views on how all should think- merely provide a space
ill link capras quote later

we are in new age- net age

pps
urban play

www.indymedia.ie

"we have to believe that PLAY is an essential part of society for man the eternal child"

alvar aalto, finnish architect and anarchist- @ 1920

u'll tell me that u dont have the time to explain further i presume ...

u quote Aalto about PLAY whilst u seem to condemn

"but maybe for many easa is still the playground"

- how does that fit? Tell us about ur vision of PLAY?

art/arhitecture/politics/social/spirit activism all as the same thing

how is that? apples, sheep, ants, cow spew - all the same? ... maybe all god- or nature-made? whilst ur list might be all human-made? oki ... but where are the links _for you_ ? "All the same" is quite sad an idea, monotone ... nature needs the differences, society needs them as well as music (imagine a "symphony" with all the same tune and rythm, a forest with only firs, society with all the same individuals ... awful ...)

Cheers

aLx_be

"[...] interesting competition and to work on it as a diploma work [...]"

+

"[...] a diploma for who is temeraire enough [...]"

=
www.seamless-israel.org cheers
aLx_Be

if you understand french, you can listen to paul Virilio. he had some interesting comments, especially about israel security fence..

metropolitain

spk_fr

Personally i think it might be nice if u could give us a short explanation and summary of the stuff the links are related to. "New Urbanism" Theory? there are so many people claiming making new urbanism (i actually dont get that obsession of making _new_ stuff ...) Which do u mean? I.S. I presume stands for International Situationists? What's it about?

Sorry for my ignorance ... Will read through the Links when getting the time. Meanwhile it might be nice if u could give us/me a "preview" - just in order to make us a little more curious. [kinda amuse-gueule]

Moreover i think it might be nice to explain a little further that idea of continuity.

Merci

aLx_be

luschdig der spuk ... spuckt hier kaugummis durch die Gegend :) t'as enlevé ton dernier posting assez rapidement? Wie biste eigentlich hier gelandet, wenn du net in rbx warst? - ah oui ... et ce serait sympa si - outre venir avec de toujours nouvelles choses, tu engageais la discussion un rien? cheers

spuk and rimbaud, not sure exactly what conversation is going on here
this might help
found it on the IMC-radio network
radio.indymedia.org

Listen to an interview with Mohamed Omar, an independent Palestinian journalist from Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Mohamed is the creator of the independent news website Rafah Today, which documents life and death in the Gaza Strip. Mohamed, who's home was recently demolished by the Israeli military, speaks about the importance of an independent media movement in Palestine to document and uncover the often hidden realities of the Israeli occupation.

The interview outlines the current situation in Rafah, focusing on the constant Israeli Occupation Forces incursions into Rafah refugee camp, while also exploring the aftermath of the massive Israeli military incursion dubbed "Operation Rainbow" in late May 2004. The Israeli incursion made international headlines, bringing condemnation from the United Nations and the majority of nations throughout the world. During the late May incursion many Palestinians were killed, while hundreds of homes were destroyed, leaving thousands homeless until today.

-> To view Mohamed Omar's website Rafah Today visit:
www.rafahtoday.org

hope it helps
this is in relation to
easa.antville.org
virilio
im lost, perhaps you will enlighten the rest of us
dunk

@alex- i am not an IS specialist, but to be short :
The situationists wanted the transformation of the world into one which is in a constant state of revolution and newness (always changing ambiances). The two main tools to perform such a transformation, were detournement of pre-existing aesthetic elements (close to Duchamp's ready-made but applied to all domains of life) and derive through the city, searching for unpredictable events and various urban ambiances.
Constant's New Babylon is an attempt to apply 'unitary urbanism' ideas at the scale of a city (not 'new urbanism' as i mistakely wrote in the previous post) . Basically, that means the deliberate creation, by a collective organization, of ludic ambiances or particular moments of life.
PS: je n'ai fait que reagir a la citation de Duncan a propos du jeu. Ses precedents posts se referent implicitement a la psychogeographie (encore un truc situationniste)..

@Adam - I appreciate your idea to see buildings as an organism.
Too much architects consider their buildings as a 'nature morte', and dont support any kind of external interventions. They dont understand they act in a living environment which grows, copulates,dies, rebirth...
So, to follow this biological analogy, anti-monumentalism could be considered as a positive cancer which modifies initial building/organism setups through the free activities of its inhabitants, forcing the bulding to mutate into another and uncontrolled spatial paradigm.

spuk

@spuk - old 68er u r ;) - thx a lot for the explanations ...
"constant state of revolution and newness (always changing ambiances)." ... we already live in that kind of world - i've the impression that some people try to run into open doors ... i dont think we need a cancer to do that - but to learn to read the fact that it already is that way. Take ur room, when u first entered it, it maybe way empty, while time went on u made it "ur own", changing it, disposing it anew, making it change and being changed by it, it tells a part of ur story ... Same for the city ... urban development already _is_ unpredictable, uncertain (studies about chaos and urban developpment have already been made) ...

But I agree that architcture could stress that freedom more as it already does. What I mean is that the basic mechanism of evergoing change already exists and that we dont need no "big revolution" (the big and noisy ones mostly failed) ... but maybe one of little steps, becoming more sensitive to the fact that spaces live through us. So I'd me more for a R.Evolution ...

@adam - what u discribe is what imho fits into that notion of "modesty" ... I like the way u put it ...

... and monuments:

"(...)d'ailleur, ce jeu était en train de lui prouver tout l'intérêt qu'il y avait à construire des monuments, ouvrages qu'il estimait jusque là être des gaspillages d'argent et d'énergie. Les monuments créent l'identité culturelle du peuple. De plus, ils attirent les élites culturelles des peuples voisins et ils assurent la cohésion des mebres de la communauté autour du monument en tant que symbole."
"(...)moreover, this game was proving him all the interest to build monuments, works that he estimated to be wastes of money and energy until then. The monuments create the identity cultural of the people. Besides, they attract the cultural elites of the neighboring peoples and they assure the cohesion of the membres of the community around the monument as a symbol."

Bernard Werber: La révolution des fourmis, Éditions Albin Michel SA, 1996, Livre de poche, p. 133

Have Fun ! :-)

aLx_be

ps - could u tell us what u understand by a "spatial paradigm"? taken apart for Linguistics, "paradigm" is a notion out of epistemology [put forward by Thomas S. Kuhn: "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" University of Chicago Press in 1962 (ISBN 0-226-45808-3)]. Is that another "borrowing" of word to stress importance and use "good-|intellectualsounding" words? :-p cheers

for words ... it's just that especially that paradigm word is so often used just meaning a certain set of ideas (and even simpler stuff) that the "misuse" of it might even empty the word itself of its sense. I'll look up that Matta Clark.

colateral-damage .... we need more Bush ... O.o

modesty - lat.: modere - to measure (das Maß nehmen, prendre la mesure) ... its not humility i mean. if 'humility' is taking a small hammer for any size of nail, 'modesty' means take a small or a big hammer (with the right size and measure) if the nail needs to ...
as arks, we all have to measure, dont we? ;-)

ciao, aLx_Be

ah oui, cela dit:
« Ma modestie est grande. Quand elle se hausse sur les pointes, elle arrive presque au nombril de mon orgueil. »
Paul VALÉRY: "Ego" dans Cahiers I, p.79, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, nrf Gallimard 1973.
Pour ma part, ma modestie est mon seul défaut ;-) .


this last sentences reminded me of discussion i had with alex some time ago...
are the social & political conditions the same now as they were in 50ies and 60ie? instead of threat of war and strict division of world, now we have war [in different forms almost everywhere] and divison of world is blured. but imho i dont think that those points are crucial in defining diference. i think that what is different from the situationist times is position of power. @that time clearly power was in the material wealth in the cities, so the radical action whithin the city had effect on upsetting the power. after it revolution, process of creating multinational capital the power shifted, from `the streets` onto more conceptual level. the radical actions in the streets happen now also, but the power moved, so imho, it seems like they are pointing to the empty shell of what was known as power. situationists could pinpoint the `enemy` and fight it easy, how do u fight the enemy when there is a problem detecting it?

and why i think this is important issue to be raised in architectural disscusion [esp as this one is floating between so many of the burning topics of transitional process profession is nowdays or trying to redefine its position] is because i think that understanding of shift of power can be crucial to understanding the position of arks today. before when power was the buildings, architect was very important person who made power spatial, but nowdays, when buildings are just the shadows of power, architects are not so important. take for eg. all official buildings of eu. what should represent the growing power of eu, is set in quite mediocre commercial architecture.
some of this issues [on global city and denationalisation if power] can be found in work of saskia sassen.
those unfamiliar with work of gordon matta-clark, and anarchitecture movement, more info on freespace.virgin.net

i must agree with adam... unusual thread but great discussion. happy i can be part of it

back to studyng!
kiss. dubi

ps anyone has notes from that lecture adam mentioned? [and i missed because of `postponed` nc meeting]

@schnitzel people [and rest of u interested] interesting website of the art group interested in suveillance
www.appliedautonomy.com

That looks pretty cool! i'm in talks with the college at the moment about bringing the easa bar to ireland. my faculty won't give me any money for transport because they're tight bastards but im talking to the socities manager and I can get money of him, whether its enough or not I dunno, Jerome was saying you want to bring it back? Have you any funds? I'll talk to you soon once i srt out how much it costs etc.
Best,
Conor

intgeresting things going on in new york at present
check it out

hundreds of arrests for no reasons, lots of new creative ways of combinging art and activism
its all going on..now
see image
www.indymedia.ie


www.indymedia.ie
www.rncguide.com
for more info

listen live to the radio stations