The art historical legend-making machine has yoked Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), he of the split-down-the-middle, half-Surrealist surname, with his “building cuts,” particularly the wood-frame house in Englewood, New Jersey that he bisected in 1974. This series of works ultimately led him in two different directions as he shifted his attention to the subterranean city—New York subway tunnels, Parisian catacombs—and finally, looked to the sky, where he imagined floating, sustainable cities. An eye-opening exhibition at New York’s David Zwirner gallery focuses on the ideas and trajectories that Matta-Clark pursued with tools ranging from a chainsaw to a movie camera in the final years of his life, which was cut short by cancer.

“With this show I want to emphasize how much there was to Gordon’s practice,” says independent curator Jessamyn Fiore, who co-directs the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark with her mother, Jane Crawford, Matta-Clark’s widow. “There are a lot of layers, but there is a lot still left to be uncovered and explored.” That much is clear upon encountering the first work in the exhibition, City Slivers, a 1976 film that fragments the screen with vertical stripes of footage, each showing a different perspective on bustling city life, yet always with a human scale that Matta-Clark, trained as an architect at Cornell, managed to keep constant throughout his disparate projects, all while fiddling with variables of space, time, and medium.

One of his most ambitious cut works, “Conical Intersect” (1975), in which he carved holes in two buildings that dated from 1690 on the eve of their demolition to make way for the Centre Pompidou, is shown in a sketch, film, and accompanying photographs—cibachrome prints made from collaged still photos, film footage, and jazzy bands of tape—along with a pair of clasped stone hands. Stolen from their pious owner several centuries ago, the hands were discovered by Matta-Clark in the midst of his Paris cutting. “This is what he held on to, as a personal memento in his own home,” says Fiore. “He always loved the idea that he was cutting through history, as if taking a geologic sample but of humanity, and revealing the layers of life lived in these structures.”

GORDON MATTA-CLARK “Conical Intersect”, 1975
Courtesy The Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark and David Zwirner, New York/London Read more…

Amidst all the post-Sandy commotion and the excessive media coverage, it was confusing to keep up with all that was going on, be it just a few blocks away or in the far reaches of the wide spread New York City. This was further compounded by media outlets scrambling to report properly on the unprecedented storm; their efforts were patchy, to say the least.

Last week when I sat down with Local Office Architects, Walter Meyer and Jennifer Holstad to discuss their projects, I was taken aback by their description of the degree of destruction on the Rockaway Peninsula. But I was also positively surprised to learn of the relief efforts they described (and were intrinsically involved with, having spearheaded some of them), and some of the initiatives to bring that beleaguered community back to life.

One initiative, PS1’s VW Dome 2, officially opens this Friday, March 29^th. The temporary dome (a slightly smaller scale version of the one installed at PS1’s courtyard, gifted by VolksWagen) aims to give the  Rockaway community a place to gather and be inspired, whether they’re hosting talks, watching movie screenings, or taking in exhibits.

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Palms reflecting on Glade Lake

As much as I have enjoyed New York and its famous urbanity in the years since I moved here, a recent visit to Miami (where I moved from) reminded me of the softening powers of nature. It’s easy to forget this primeval presence when we’re underground or walking in crowded canyons of grey stone and brown brick buildings.  By contrast, in Miami, I am soothed as I go about my day and catch a glimpse of unobstructed skies and expansive bay and ocean views, and the reinvigorating presence of lush flora year around and everywhere. On my last day there I went by the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden to get a good dose of that green paradise, hoping it would last for me through end of winter. The Fairchild does not disappoint!

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Even if you don’t know it, chances are you are familiar with the work of Alexander Isley. Alex’s design firm, Alexander Isley Inc., has worked on projects that are all across the board, both in terms of whom they work for, and the type of work they do. Anyone who has toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been guided by their signage. The team has also done logos for Central Park Summerstage, and the American Museum of the Moving Image, as well as packaging design for clients including Starbucks and Armani Exchange, among others.

Isley’s work is eye-catching and effective, which is why the firm has gained a reputation for creating memorable identities for the brands and organizations they work for. The packaging for Armani Exchange was covered in TIME magazine’s “Best of the Year” feature, and selected as part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. They have also worked doing book design, advertising, retail space, posters, videos and much more.

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Making Room, a new exhibit at The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) has struck a serious nerve with New Yorkers. The exhibit, which will be on view until September 15, shines a light on many of the city’s biggest housing problems, and puts on display several architectural proposals designed to alleviate them. Mayor Bloomberg has even gotten the city government involved, and is strongly pushing for many of the solutions it suggests.

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg tours the Making Room Exhibit on January 22, 2013. Photo Credit: Spencer T. Tucker.

The impetus for the exhibit was a set of figures uncovered by the Citizen’s Housing Planning Council (CHPC) that showed a disparity between the types of available housing in New York, which are primarily designed for traditional nuclear households, and the increasing demand for single and other non-traditional housing. Currently, only about 18 percent of the city’s population is part of a nuclear family household. Yet over half of New York is single, and the city lacks enough single bedroom and studio spaces to house them.

Coupled with this are decades-old city regulations that place restrictions on how and where people can live. For instance it is illegal for more than three unrelated adults to share a residence, or for someone to inhabit a living space smaller than 400 square feet. These restrictions mean that residents are resorting to their own improvised solutions, which are often dangerous or illegal, to be able to live in this outmoded housing stock. Topping it off, the city will need to absorb a projected increase of over 600,000 new residents in the next twenty years, most of whom will also not find the current housing stock appropriate.

Sensing this problem back in 2011, CHPC and the Architectural League invited five teams of architects to submit proposals for housing solutions that could alleviate these problems, keeping restrictive zoning ordinances a non-factor in their designs. The submissions took several different approaches, primarily focusing on flexibility of use, compact living quarters and shared spaces. One design, by Deborah Gans, proposed a series of conversions that could be performed on a single family home in Queens, which would allow the owners to rent out extra sections of the house when they no longer needed the space themselves.

A rendering of a street of converted single family homes in Astoria, Queens. The conversions would allow the original owners to rent space in their homes that otherwise be would underutilized, while still maintaining adequate space and privacy for owner and renter. Rendering by Gans Studio. Courtesy MCNY. Read more…

Mineirao sketch by Bruno Campos

Superbowl might attract North America’s largest TV audience, but the biggest sporting event is still World Cup Soccer. Like the Olympics, they happen only every four years, and involve massive logistics. What does this mean to the hosting countries? There’s no time to waste in getting the venues ready. This is just what’s happening in Brazil, the country hosting the 2014 World Cup. An exhibit in New York,  “Brazil + 2014: Sustainable Stadiums,” shows that Brazilians are hard at work to build spectacular buildings that are also sustainable.

Brazil and soccer are inextricably linked. The country can boast of being the home to legendary players and winning an unparalleled five championships. Now it will, once more, try to make history by making 2014 the greenest, most sustainable World Cup ever. To that end, the architects of the stadiums are putting forth their best creative efforts to make their buildings as functional and iconic as they will be eco-friendly.

Mineirao field and bleechers view, rendering courtesy BCMF Arquietos

Scattered throughout the country, in 12 cities, the stadiums are a mixture of new structures and comprehensive renovations of existing ones. One thing connects them all: the push to make sustainability taken to its highest standard, from traffic logistics to the smart use of water. All strive to deliver buildings that are in keeping with the country’s strong architecture heritage. Incidentally, among the well-known projects in the show, the Mineirao Stadium, is a renovation of a stadium adjacent to Oscar Niemeyer’s  early seminal project, the Pampulha Complex in the city of Belo Horizonte.

Mineirao birds-eye view rendering, courtesy BCMF Arquietos

The Mineirao, as it’s known, is a Brutalist structure designed in 1945 by Eduardo Mendes Guimaraes. The building is now protected as a historic landmark, thus its main shell cannot be altered. How, then, to make the massive concrete structure useful beyond the sporting events?

Mineirao plaza rendering, courtesy BCMF Arquietos

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With the excitement of Art Basel Miami Beach and DesignMiami behind us, we recall the stress of trying to see it all: the countless parallel fairs, special satellite exhibitions, the designer talks and, of course, the many parties where one had the chance rub elbows with the likes of Kanye West or Pharell Williams, who held the launch of his new book Places and Spaces I Been at the DesignMiami tent.

When it came time to check out this year’s offerings at the fair I enlisted the help of my friend and design connoisseur Marianne Russell, principal and owner at Miami’s renowned pioneer design shop Arango Design, recently named “Best Independent Retailer Globally” by the iconic design manufacturer Alessi. As we walked through the shows, here’s what caught her eyes.

R18 ULTRA CHAIR stood out at DesignMiami. This innovative and super comfortable chair is produced by the same machines and similar materials used in the production of Audi cars; it is designed for Audi by Germany’s Clemens Weisshaar and America’s Reed Kram in collaboration with the car company’s engineers. By using composites in a thin carbon sandwich on the seat with high strength folded aluminum legs, they developed a sturdy chair, with a comfort-flexible back, weighing just 77 ounces (4.85lbs) or 2.2kg! Audi plans to use the chair in their offices and showrooms. I wish it would also be made available for purchase by the public.

GLASS BOWLS, designed by the Danish, Tora Urup, are handmade in solid glass in a limited edition of five per color. The difficulty in making the bowls and their extraordinary beauty lies in their clarity, and a sensation of one bowl being suspended, floating, or nesting within the other (each with a price tag of 4,800 Euro).

PINKIE FLOOR LAMP, designed by America’s Wendell Castle, makes you smile. The large bubblegum pink lamp is made of fiberglass-re-enforced plastic coated with custom color auto paint. It stands 41 inches tall and uses just one bulb (meant for a serious collector at $35,000). Presented by R 20th Century, NY.

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One of this month’s fabricating duos, Jason Pilarski and Steven Joyner of Machine Histories, often works with fine artists to figure out how to bring their larger-than-life pieces into the world.  Their 2009 effort for artist David Schafer, Separated United Forms, was part of a 1% for the Arts commission for the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena and encapsulates the intricacies of their tech-meets-manual approach.  Schafer, an NEA-award recipient whose work has been shown at PS1 and De Vleeshal in the Netherlands, talks about the pair of sculptures:

Jade Chang: You and Jason taught a class together at Art Center?

David Schafer: Yes, it was a moment at Art Center where there was an opportunity to develop a new kind of interdisciplinary curriculum.  I was frustrated with Art Center because there was a Fine Art program, but no way to allow them to have access to the digital side of things.  Jason and I taught digital practices and sculpture. It was not market driven, instead, it was more or less taught from an art perspective. Students could bring in own conceptual ideas, they wouldn’t have to design a blender or anything, and they’d learn rapid prototyping machines and 3D modeling.  We had fine art-style crits—the kind that go on and on—to discuss their work.

JC: And how did you meet Steven, the other half of Machine Histories?

DS: The three of us came together in that class.  Steve was really brilliant.  They just had lots of energy, and the class became a platform for these things to evolve and develop.  It was great to have fine arts students in the class with transportation design students, product design, to discuss everything from product theory to appropriation. Steve is definitely the one that’s the most organized.  He does go to great lengths to make the greatest looking racking to hold something—he gets as excited about the case as the thing in it.

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Photo by Paul Clemence

It’s quite a challenge for young designers to break into the design world and establish themselves. But these days more and more manufacturers see the value of investing in fresh designs, both in new creations and the brand exposure that comes with fresh ideas sought by an increasingly sophisticated audience. One such opportunity is presented by the Design Performance projects of luxury manufacturer Fendi, at DesignMiami which, along with Art Basel is encamped in that Florida city til December 9.

This year’s choice is the up and coming Belgian designer, Maarten de Ceulaer. I met Maarten earlier this year at the international BoomSPdesign forum in Sao Paulo, where he presented his elegant work, backed up by inventive manufacturing techniques. For instance, he employs real balloons to create molds for individually made plaster bowls. Between his inventiveness and creativity, he couldn’t have been a better choice for Design Performance.  I caught up with Maarten as he was preparing for the DesignMiami opening earlier this week. Here is some of our conversation.

Paul Clemence: How were you selected for this project?

Maarten de Ceulaer: Fendi had seen some of my designs at my gallery’s booth at DesignMiami in Basel and thought it was interesting. Then DesignMiami (which collaborates with Fendi on projects) included my name on a shortlist and I was fortunate enough to be the one selected. I think they saw that my work had a connection with similar ideas their brand stands for.

Photo by Paul Clemence

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Earlier this month, Metropolis editors called out the top spaces, products, and ideas that we really liked at Greenbuild, in integrated social media coverage known as Metropolis Likes. We sought out design solutions and messages we deemed forward-thinking, useful, and meaningful; not necessarily a new product launch.

Our favorite concepts were awarded plaques, Metropolis Likes which are produced by 3M Architectural Markets using 3M Crystal Glass Finishes. The plaques became a visual guide to Greenbuild—helping attendees spot must-see spaces, products, and ideas.

Created with flickr slideshow.

The partnership between Metropolis and 3M Architectural Markets continues to celebrate the most forward-thinking ideas at industry trade shows; it generates an online conversation for the global design community around the creative breakthroughs. The program was so successful at this year’s ICFF and NeoCon that we decided to continue it at Greenbuild in San Francisco, where it has certainly kept up its momentum.

Design enthusiasts around the world followed our editors’ picks via  #MetropolisLikes as each selection was announced live with photos via Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Congratulations to all that Metropolis Likes from Greenbuild Expo 2012! And special thanks to 3M Architectural Markets for a great collaboration.

Alera: Micro6 LED Luminaire
The Micro6 LED luminaire reduces energy consumption through intelligent controls that are unparalleled in simplicity of use, flexibility of design, and ease of installation.

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