places & spaces

Petra Blaisse of Inside Outside has been dividing and damping and shading harder spaces with softer interventions (as in curtains, drapes, wall hangings) since 1991. Sometimes all that daylighting can blind and all those reflective surfaces can scramble an ear. Petra’s drapes could be a second-day rescue or an anticipated element for practical and aesthetic relief. “Blaisse lives on the topological surface that separates and connects inside and outside.” shown: Maison a Bordeaux (OMA)

… compiled on Spotify by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda. Starts with “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” but in the hands of your elders it would have started with “Eve of Destruction.” Whatevs, music in the ear alleviates the incessant pain of dread!

The Spring 2017 product lines of resin and cast glass panels include new metallics including a technique to represent rust without the rust (Forge and Oxide), expanded metal (Weld) and fabric-textured whites or colors (Swept, Hem and Junction). Apply your favorites to LightArt fixtures for a statement. shown: Wisp in copper

Here’s a fun, free point for all you AIA members who want to rack up a few extra early in the year. It may not be admissible for NYS but you are sure to get a kick out of all the wacky techniques people are inventing and reviving for working with humankind’s most reliable building block. shown: Chi She Gallery by Archi-Union

April 2017 / The Form issue: the diagram as “analytical and projective tool;” H&dM’s Elbphilhamonie is a “symphony of PoMo”… by Charles Jencks of course; typology report is airports: “NY has three of the world’s worst airports”; buildings within buildings like Zumthor’s Kolumba Museum and the “sarcophagus” encasing Chernobyl; new OMA library in France; tasteful restraint is pandering to the public.   

Treasure in the Trash is an ad hoc museum that a (now) retired sanitation worker, Nelson Molina, established to salvage both curious and pedestrian items that ended up on the curb in Manhattan. The 50s green hard plastic ganging chairs alone make me swoon. Urbanologists, environmentalists and former readers of Gene Zion’s Dear Garbage Man will appreciate the impulse that Mr Molina was able to indulge.

Rainscreen cladding systems for slate shingles? It sure is handsome and the freeze-thaw thing is no problem. Cupaclad specializes in non-fading dark dark gray slate which is hand-split and can be hung in several ways with exposed or hidden hardware. All those in the slate fan club need to investigate this.

There’s a new tile supplier in town which has access to dozens of top tile manufacturers in the US, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc. CMC can evaluate what you are looking for a find a match or a close cousin. They have a Spring collection and a Fall collection every year, influenced by the two big tile shows. shown: Blendure distressed concrete look

If you’re in the mood to spec cement tile but are wary of what the client will say about upkeep, XO, a porcelain with a handmade look, carried by High Style, may be a solution for you. Colorways are Oceano, Fango and Amaranto (marine blue, forest green and maroon).

April 2017 / Some architects are eager to collaborate with the Trump administration to build that wall; architects must demonstrate leadership on the environment (for one thing “It’s time to end our collective passion for all-glass buildings.”); Detroit and the damage done/undone; a cast concrete museum in China clad in a “bricolage of recycled brick, tile and stone” (Amateur Architecture Studio); the new Lascaux Museum (Snohetta) where visitors encounter a replica of the famous caves, down to the temperature and humidity; design in the public realm.

The rabbit holes you can fall down when you are grooming a materials database… Rohlf’s Stained Glass Studio led to this essay from January about some fairly obscure factoids about GCT. I shall rush off and go look for the uncleaned section of the ceiling, shall you? shown: GC before it got spiffed up

Fireclay has a brilliant new marketing campaign for color curation: match it to a luscious painting. In this case (will there be more of these painting-based palettes?) the “Dutch Masters” still life with blowsy, semi-wild flowers, fruit and bugs by Jacob van Walscapelle. Makes you see a color in a new way and helps you pick companion colors.

A Swiss by the name of Daniel Korb has designed a new benching system for Kimball Office with matching tables, really cute carts for markerboards/ media, etc. Among the finishes are a plywood veneer with exposed Baltic Birch edges: so Brooklyn! Power options keep devices charged and functioning and the colors are quite Swiss/Corb. They have a mobile standing-height table so of course I heart them.

Horizontal, vertical, or fire rated Class A, B or C, Lightblocks was started by an artist who needed a polymer that “required exceptional strength, beauty, color, and permanence-criteria that no material on the market possessed.” They “are expert at the ins and outs of fire ratings and always deliver exactly what you need, complete with test results and certifications as required.  Custom colors, opaque and translucent designs and visual images are available in LIGHTBLOCKS [FR].”

March 2017 / Breuer’s Weaver Building in DC: “brutalist beauty or ten floors of basement?”; the public access/private property puzzle by Karrie Jacobs; the unbuilt and reputations; remaking a rural Chinese village (Amateur Architecture Studio); Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston reinvigorates the outdoor realm (Page and SWA Group).

Sometimes no posts for months but lately, BLDGBLOG is on fire. Go for the geometry, stay for the book suggestions, essays on obscure typologies, the politics of organizing space, urbanism, whatever interests Geoff Manaugh, which is quite a bit: “architectural conjecture::urban speculation::landscape futures.”

… and where they come from is a webposter provided as a sweet service from a company that sells pre-made sheds. Thanks, Alan’s Factory Outlet! Quite an investment and quite a nice quick reference for us all. Stylized grain, natural color, endangered status, it’s all there for your eyeballs. Only one species of oak, though. That’s kind of disappointing. shown: white oak, left, and red oak FYI