Photos of the Day

Right across the road from the SHA studio is a polluted canal.


The Moma residential towers, where the office is located.


The front entrance... it was actually meant to be for ground-level condos.


Inside the office (there are actually many more rooms).

The Value of Things

Recently, I've been interested in the monetary value of things. What makes one car worth $200,000, while another only $20,000? What drives the real estate market? What is the value of the shirt that you're wearing? Why does a stock price soar and drop? I am no economist, but I feel that monetary value is artificial- although it can be influenced by market forces, it is something assigned by human beings, and is dependent on a human-created system. Joel Achenbach says this about a Picasso in his latest blog:

There's an anecdote about Picasso, possibly apocryphal, that illustrates the phenomenon. An art dealer was trying to sell a painting by Picasso to a potential buyer. The buyer said he wasn't sure of its authenticity, and wanted the artist himself to vouch for it. Picasso was summoned. He looked at the painting and said it was a fake. The buyer left. The dealer was perplexed. He turned to Picasso and said, "Didn't you tell me yourself that you painted it?" "I did," said Picasso. "I often paint fakes."

____________

Also, I remember an interesting experiment started last year that examined the value of art. The artist, Sala, set a pricing system for 1000 paintings (of the numbers 1 to 1000) which gave incentive for people to buy early. He created artificial demand. The site also has links to other related experiments.

First Day at Steven Holl Architects



Today was my first day at SHA. And it was, perhaps, the first time I realized that I was working in an extraordinary environment- where architecture was not copied or emulated but, in fact, invented. One of the partners- Chris McVoy- flew in from New York, and gave a lecture during lunch. A lecture! He talked about the philosophy at SHA- about idea and phenomena- and talked for more than an hour about the recently completed Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. It took 8 years to complete this project, but wow, was it ever worth it. Over dinner at an old Beijing restaurant, Chris was remarking about how light is so infinitely complex. It behaves as a both a particle and wave. And one can never fully understand it. In the Nelson-Atkins, light is honored. It is reflected and refracted through "lenses" that "bend" light in. There are new structures- like the wavy roof structure for the garage, or the light wells that flutter north and south light in, new details- like the bent steel railings- and new materials like the perforated concrete and acid-etched glass.

Nicolai Ouroussoff says this about the museum:

Working on theoretical proposals and the occasional house commission, Steven Holl emerged as a rare, original talent in the 1980s. The strength of his vision was rooted in a desire to reconnect architecture to the physical world — the shifting nature of light, the reflective surfaces of water, the texture of materials — and an atavistic love of craft.

He went on to design plenty of good buildings, like Simmons Hall, with its porous steel-grid facade, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the angular forms of the art school at the University of Iowa. But missing was the kind of project that cements an architect’s place in the pantheon: a building in which his special gifts, the full support of a client and the qualities of a site magically fuse into a near-perfect work.

The waiting is over. Mr. Holl’s breathtaking addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, opening here on June 9, is his most mature work to date, a perfect synthesis of ideas that he has been refining for more than a decade. By subtly interweaving his building with the museum’s historic fabric and the surrounding landscape, he has produced a work of haunting power.

Read the full article here.

Also see an excerpt of Steven Holl on PBS.

Oh, and you must see the new bridges!

Plumbing Theology

This Sunday at the BICF (an international church in Beijing), there was a great sermon by a Colorado Springs pastor who spoke on "plumbing theology." What he meant was that there are two kinds of Christians. Those who are "buckets" and those who are "pipes". Those who are buckets are those who just want to get filled each week. The gospel doesn't transform their lives, and there's an overall stagnancy to their spiritual life. Then there are the "pipes" (which are like buckets with the bottom blown out), who let God's living water run through them, who respond to the gospel, and transmit God's love to the people around them. The Pharisees- the spiritual leaders of Jesus' day- are like buckets- they follow the law precisely yet they would never do what Jesus would do- like hang out with the most despised in society- the tax collectors. The pastor refers to the prodigal son story and how through grace, there is no limit to forgiveness, that we need to care for the marginalized and welcome the lost, be the desperate and broken people that can be pipes for this generation.

Gehry's Flawed Design

Lots of talk this week about the MIT lawsuit against Frank Gehry. Apparently, the university has spent $1.5 million towards problems like drainage and cracking at the recently completed $300 million Stata Center. Some of the online articles don't tell the whole story. According to the former director of planning at MIT, the problems were not just due to a poor detailing, but also a rather amateur project management team, who had no idea what they were getting into.

As we are taught in school, the architect is always the first one liable for problems with construction. However, I think there must be some bad blood between MIT and Gehry, because MIT should have been aware that such an avant-garde design will have inherent issues. They commissioned Gehry to produce a Gehry building, so they should live with the consequences of that. Snow and ice falling from the building due to accumulations on horizontal faces is not a flaw- it's a result of a unique design. Old Victorian buildings with steep roofs have the same problem. I feel that the fallout from such publicity will be that clients will be less inclined to embrace innovative designs. Innovation in architecture in North America (N.A.) is being stifled by the threat of these kind of lawsuits, as well as special interest groups, an overly conservative building code, and planners. As a result, N.A. cities are built on time, on budget, and code compliant, but with little else to excite the spirit.

When certain restrictions and fears are lifted, architecture crosses into fresh territory, and new and interesting relationships form within the city (see this article about OMA's CCTV tower in Beijing). I don't advocate irresponsible architecture. But I think that, at least in N.A., we need to ask ourselves if we want an urban environment that is able to inspire and question, or one that just depresses us even more. It is a false assumption that the stringent building code makes the built environment safer. It does not. It creates a complacent society. We need to have more faith in ourselves and use our natural capacity to adapt, to navigate, to climb, and to watch out. MIT should be grateful for having an otherwise spectacular building, and should find more creative ways to adapt to problems rather than simply laying the blame on the architect.

Today, the API index for air pollution in Beijing reached 253. For most cities, 100 is already considered very serious.

___
Interesting online MoMa exhibition of Richard Serra's work.

Global Warming Tip: Did you know that...

Every dryer machine load uses roughly 5000 Watts and 50 cents?

Start hanging your clothes.

Just reading up on some old material. From Koolhaas' Greap Leap Forward back in 2001:

"Chinese architect: the most important, influential, and powerful architect on earth. The average lifetime construction volume of the Chinese Architect in housing alone is approximately three dozen thirty-story high rise buildings. The Chinese Architect designs the largest volume, in the shortest time, for the lowest fee. There is one-tenth the number of architects in China than in the United States, designing five times the project volume in one-fifth the time, earning one-tenth the design fee. This implies an efficiency of 2.500 times that of an American architect."

"Factory/Hotel/Office/Housing/Parking: The status of all floor space in the PRD (Pearl River Delta) is generic. Each programmatic function is provisional, and every occupancy is only temporary."

I don't think much has changed since then. If anything, the numbers must be even more staggering now.
_______

Alex Pasternack, a colleague, has a good article about the state of "green architecture" in China. In essence, not many buildings being built today meet basic sustainability standards, and the industry and government is still vague on green strategies.

I just accepted a job offer from Steven Holl Architects!

Steven Holl's architecture tends to be whimsical and playful, using odd juxtapositions, strange forms, and new materials. He has been practicing for probably 25 years now, and recently he has forayed into China. His projects here seem to all be very large in scale, but the intellectual and poetic density of his earlier work still exists. His first project- a high-end residential complex- is currently under construction in Beijing.

In all his work, the main material is light itself, which manifests itself in all sorts of ways. In the St. Ignatius Chapel, several light "bottles" cast tinted light onto the whitewashed walls below. In the MIT dormitory, light is crystallized into chambers of public space. In his most recent museum in Kansas City, the buildings themselves become lightboxes that cascade down the hill.

______

Interesting student competition just finished at the Mall in Washington D.C.- the 3rd biannual solar decathlon. The German team won with a very elegant box solution. Although Cornell didn't win, their website is very useful if you want to learn more about ecodesign.

Herzog and De Meuron unveiled a design for the old Police Station in HK. If you're asking where's the project in this photo, I'm thinking the same thing.



______

Architecture as casino/ eco-architecture.

My boss gave me the day off today after I worked the whole weekend. The project has been dragging on well past the contract, and this deadline was a final push to satisfy the client.

The office manager, who I speak mainly French to, calls such projects as "l'architecture comme casino." Architectural design can be like gambling.. you never know how the client will respond. Best case is that they'll love it. At worst, they'll use your 1:1000 model as kindling for their fireplace.

I don't blame my firm. It's a fact of life in design and the result of scant communication with the client. As long as the designer and client are two different human beings, there is a tendency for disagreement. But to say that architecture is the same as playing craps kind of illegitimizes the whole profession.

_____

There's still all this talk about ecodesign. It's here to stay. But, at the end of the day, architecture could never be eco-friendly. Sometimes, architecture is most eco-friendly if nothing is built at all. Like some of the projects I've worked on in the past.
_____

The swindle?

In response to my post about Al Gore, Lat wrote:

Ever see "the great global warming swindle"? I personally think that human contribution to global climate change is minimal at best, but we still have a huge environmental responsibility regardless, and there are plenty of other reasons to change habits for the sake of the environment.

There is a small but dedicated group of people, mostly on the far right, who'd like to keep saying that the human causes for global warming is a myth. [But I do agree with Lat that we should take global warming in context of other environmental issues.] Paul Krugman has a good commentary about what he calls the Gore derangement syndrome. I've been following this viewpoint as well, and I strongly question their motivations. Their films and websites contain too much vitriol to be credibly scientific. [Coincidentally, Joel Achenbach has been thinking the same thing.]

After living in Beijing for nearly a year, it is practically impossible to deny the human impact on the environment. The air here is thick and brown. On the worst days, I can't run for more than 15 mins without gasping. I've also been monitoring air quality every day for the past month, and in terms of particulate matter (soot) in the air, Beijing is among the worst. The best days for good air is only after it rains, or if there are strong winds. Without that, the air progressively gets worse. Then there is the issue of cloud seeding. When important events take place in the city, the sky is guaranteed to be blue because they had triggered rainstorms during the night. The sky was deep blue at the 1 year mark before the Games, during National Day, and now for the Party Congress. Winter, like in Canada, is becoming warmer and warmer. Beijing used to enjoy significant snowfall, but now, during the whole year there might be 1 day of snow, which then quickly melts away. As I witness the environmental catastrophe happening here, there is no doubt in my mind that humans are to blame for climate change.

Shenzhen Biennale

This Saturday, Urbanus hosted a little shindig for some young architects participating at the HK/Shenzhen Biennale, coming up in January. It is a fantastic group of people, from Ma Yansong to Liang Jingyu. Although I cannot reveal specific ideas, I was intrigued by a comment that Laurence Liauw made about the current relationship between architecture and planning in Hong Kong. The key diagram for urban planners in HK is a colored plan that shows land value for each parcel of land. This plan drives development and dictates the type of architecture that will be built. The city (and the architectural profession) is a kind of a slave to this system, as architecture is produced with a certain degree of inevitability. But, Laurence remarks, architecture is not inert. Design can subsequently affect land value in the area in a positive (and negative) way. Sometimes, it can dramatically affect land value (ie. Bilbao effect). If there is this very obvious feedback loop, why is it, then, that planning and architecture continue to be mutually exclusive?

Climate Change

Al Gore is making headlines today by winning the Nobel Peace Prize. What an amazing story for a man who lost the presidency to Bush by 500 votes. It is encouraging to know the truth behind the teaching "the last become first, and the first become last."

But what I'd really like know is- so what have YOU done since seeing last year's An Inconvenient Truth? Most likely, you're one of the many who simply reverted back to a lifestyle of consumption. Documentaries, profound as they may be, tend to fail as agents for social change simply because the movie medium is overwhelming fiction. Authentic moral messages and entertainment become indecipherable. It woud be interesting to know your thoughts on this..

_____

Nothing's cooler than reading about yourself in someone else's blog.

This is my latest tbj article, with edits, featured here:

Adult Playgrounds

At the park inside my apartment complex, there is a playground filled with multi-colored tubular contraptions. Every time I walk past these rather bizarre constructions, I can't help but notice elderly men and women scratching their legs and their backs against them. At almost any hour of the day, there seems to always be a crowd milling about them. Not wanting to miss out, one uncomfortably warm evening, my roommate and I decided to escape the sticky apartment and see what all the fuss was about.

Outside we found not only senior citizens but people of all ages soberly making use of this "outdoor fitness centers," which are essentially adult playgrounds. A pregnant woman slowly paced from one side of the park to the other. A group of boys flexed their muscles with the pull-down machine. Two teenage girls perched on another machine, not actually using it, but typing messages on their cell phones. A five-year-old girl tinkered with the biceps curler, and after much difficulty, hopped off and ran back to her mom. A group of women, toddlers in tow, gossiped away on the bench.

These playgrounds and impromptu gathering spaces, ubiquitous in Beijing, have become both an essential piece of the country’s recent fitness craze and a fixture of the Chinese urban landscape. Their popularity began about twelve years ago, when the Chinese government created "The Nationwide Physical Fitness Program" to promote the health and well being of the general population. Proceeds from the state's sports lottery helped with funding this project, and as a result, fitness machines have been installed everywhere—in public parks, within residential complexes, and even along narrow alleyways.

"They might not be so effective, but at least you're moving," my roommate yells while gliding away on the air walker, legs swinging back and forth. "Even if you're an old lady, you can still use this." These machines would certainly not satisfy the needs of, say, the Chinese Olympic weight-lifting team, but are designed rather for those of us who normally don't exercise. I attempted the row machine, which lifts me up against my own body weight, and realized that it does (to a certain extent) work out my biceps and back muscles. I imagine that if I came here every day to use each of the machines, I just might get something approximating a workout.

One manufacturer puts it quite matter-of-factly on their website: "Even when factors like pollution and accidental injury are taken into account, the outdoors has more to offer than the gym…The vitamin D gained from natural sunlight, plus the fresh air and freedom of movement, beat the strip lights [and] air conditioning of the gym any day." Or of the office, for that matter.

While it’s hard not to question the science behind these machines, they seem to be catching international attention. Just recently, Berlin added a series of public adult playgrounds of its own, with dimensions adjusted to fit a taller European demographic. And instead of the gorgeous color scheme of bright red, yellow, and blue found here in China, the Germans preferred a more subtle brushed steel finish.

Whatever the color, in the context of the rest of the world’s cities, the potential for these play spaces looks big. Could this be the modest, urbanist answer to reclaiming the great outdoors? A solution to childhood obesity? The key to bringing back neighborhood life? For now, they remain a quaint but useful part of the Beijing cityscape—and give some weight to the argument that spending time outside can be good for your health.

National Day Holiday

The whole country went on vacation this week to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China.

More Edmonton Photos

Chase, our family dog.


View out Jocelyn's window.


Downtown Edmonton.


My favorite Chinese restaurant (situated in a seedy part of town).


West Edmonton Mall.


Galaxyland inside the Mall.


Gabe.


Uncle CK.


Roger, who gave a great wedding sermon.





Edmonton Chinese Alliance Church.


At the rehearsal dinner.

Wii Wedding

My sister and Tim are now happily married!

Basically, they reinvented the wedding. Like, what if we could do just modern worship music during the ceremony? And what if Tim suddenly took out a camera after the kiss at the ceremony, and took a photo of themselves? What if we didn't have a wedding car? What if, instead of a first dance, we would play Wii tennis in front of 215 people? What if the wedding favor was actually practical? They gave these cool heart-shaped gel hand warmers that become hot when you bend it- and they're reusable too!)

The end result: a truly personalized, practical, and memorable wedding.

Here are some photos that I collected on Facebook:

One Week in Vancouver

CCTV

The CCTV tower is already a major presence along the 3rd ring road. Looks to me like the structure for the two towers is almost finished. Notice the gigantic steel framing at the top, possibly to take the shear for the cantilever. The effect of the skew is strange and fascinating, especially from a distance.

Great Wall Photos
(Thanks to Susan and DyAnn for the photos)

Farmer Suen, who took care of us during the weekend.


DyAnn and Calvin posing as we slept on the Wall.


We woke up to this unexpectedly stunning vista.


Sunrise at 6AM.






Notice Alli and I on the left, and Calvin doing his devotions in the tower on the right.


Group Shot


Climbing the steepest part of the wall.






Alvin and Anita.