Ra Architecture Programme Spring 2011 894

8/7/2019 Ra Architecture Programme Spring 2011 894

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ARCHITECTUREPROGRAMMEJanuary May 2011


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Frontcover Eleven WomenHouse, Beranda, Chile 2007by Mathias KlotzPhoto by Mathias Klotz

Above Casa La Roca,Punta del Este, Uruguay,2005 by Mathias KlotzPhoto by Erietta Attali


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Curators CommentsArchitecture is one way o providing a common

culture, linking the world o ideas personal and collective with the physical condition. As one o the most publicart orms, we experience architecture every day. Evenwithout realising it, architecture connects our regularroutine with the potential or intellectual and imaginativeinspiration. By opening up subjects or debate, we hopeto deepen the appreciation o architecture and its place inthe cultural scene.

This seasons programme oers several perspectiveson architectures many meanings and wide relevance to ourlives. Events range rom the debate series Critics Choicewith writers, a lm director and a sculptor, to Will AlsopRA making the Architecture Space into an innovativestudio installation. In the RA Forums, we explore the

character, use and implications o memory or visual cultureand architecture, while lectures and an exhibition continueour investigation into the phenomenon o landscape.

For the rst time the RAs collection o architecturaldiploma works drawings and models given by RoyalAcademicians on their election are exhibited to coincidewith a new publication called Masterworks: Architecture at

the Royal Academy of Arts. This refects the importance orarchitects to represent ideas to their clients and the public ina meaningul way.

We hope this programme provides everyone with anopportunity to share the delight, intrigue and ascination oarchitecture.

Kate Goodwin & Jeremy Melvin


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CRITICS CHOICELONDONS MOST IMPORTANT BUILDING

Our critics propose and make a case for what they believe tobe Londons most important building. A panel of respondentsthen debate and discuss the chosen building, and encouragethe audience to share their own views.

All lectures: Geological Society, Piccadilly, W1; 6.308 pm12/6 reductions (includes a drink)

Above left Workmendismantle the Euston Arch

Photo courtesy EATAbove Stockwell BusGarage Conway Library,The Courtauld Instituteof Art, LondonLeft The Hayward GalleryPhoto by Richard Bryant/arcaidimages.com

Mike Leigh Photo by Eamonn McCabe Thin Man Films Ltd

Antony GormleyRA Photo by Oak Taylor-SmithWill SelfPhoto Chris Close www.chrisclose.comMonica Ali Photo by John Foley


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Mike Leigh: Londons Unnoticed GemsMonday 24 JanuaryFilm maker Mike Leigh discusses buildingssuch as the British Museum and itsimmediate contemporary, the old EustonStation, in relation to what he considers tobe the woeful neglect of Londons unnoticedarchitectural heritage.

Respondents include: Liza Fior andJonathan Glancey

Antony Gormley RA: The Hayward GalleryTuesday 15 FebruarySculptor Royal Academician Antony Gormleyhas nominated The Hayward Gallery asLondons most important building dueto its extraordinary skull-like character.He sees it as a complete structure in whichall the load-bearing pillars, lintels andoors are modulated into a building thatis cast in one piece. It becomes like a pieceof sculpture, like an Eduardo Chillida castalabaster block, out of which spaces havebeen hacked and hewn.

Respondents include: Piers Gough RAand Iain Borden

Will Self: Stockwell Bus GarageMonday 14 MarchAuthor Will Selfhas proposed the StockwellBus Garage designed by Adie, Button andPartners, with the engineer A E Beer for itsrevolutionary, beautiful and highly utilitarianform. When constructed in 1952 it was thelargest area enclosed by a single roof inEurope. The whale-backed roof made ofreinforced concrete, shows how shortages -in this case of steel - can produce aestheticas well as functional solutions. Havingpassed it everyday he has appreciated itas a working building, integrally connected

to Londons public transport.Respondents include: Adrian Forty,Elain Harwood and Will Alsop RA

Monica Ali: 19 Princelet Street,The Museum of ImmigrationMonday 16 MayAuthor Monica Ali contends that 19Princelet Street in Spitalelds is not one ofLondons grand buildings, and yet it is oneof the capitals most magical buildings, ofunique signicance architecturally, culturally,and spiritually. Many aspects of the countrys

past are written inside the walls of thisunrestored Huguenot master silk weavershome, and a rare surviving synagogue.It both reects on our past and raisesquestions about our future.


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Mathias Klotz

Tuesday 22 MarchChilean architect Mathias Klotz has gainedworldwide recognition over the past 15 yearsfor work that ranges from exquisite singlefamily homes set in dramatic landscapes,to inspirational public buildings. His work,inuenced by a European modernisttradition, is characterized by an intrinsicresponse to his native lands materials,techniques and traditions.

Geological Society, Piccadilly, W16.30 7.45 pm10/5 reductions (includes a drink)

LECTURES

Tham & Videgrd Arkitekter

Monday 18 AprilThis Swedish architectural practice led byBolle Tham and Martin Videgrd producesbuildings that are characteristically variedand unique, as they nd intriguing andinnovative responses to the specic briefand context. They discuss projects frominterior design and private houses toeducational buildings, art museums,and the recently completed Tree hotel.

Geological Society, Piccadilly, W16.30 7.45 pm10/5 reductions (includes a drink)

Eleven Women House,

Beranda, Chile 2007 byMathias KlotzPhoto by Mathias Klotz


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Swedish Museum ofModern Art, Malm, 2009by Tham & VidegrdPhoto: ke E:sonLindman


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Despite modernisms ambivalence, anobsession with memory ran through thelast century and has continued into thisone. The huge proliferation of museums,libraries and monuments, and the greatcultural and political importance attachedto them, bear witness to this.

Memory acts to mediate. All ourexperiences are continually reractedthrough the prism o memory. Yet memoryitsel is mutable: it can be moulded,

augmented, conditioned, repressed or lost;it is constantly in fux. We understand thenotion o memory dialectically. It oscillatesbetween polarities: the long and the short-term, the individual and the collective, thexed and the contested. Thereore how canwe take account o memory, which is in itsvery nature ephemeral and transient, whendealing with works o art and architecturethat operate in the physical realm?

Lying between art and architecture,monuments pose an interesting case inthis phenomenon, acting as lightning rodsor memory, conducting and inscribing inspace memories o an event, person or ideaor posterity. Yet in usually ocusing onone strand o memory, they can inevitablypropagate a selective memory. In the rstRA Forum event, we examine the unctionand political implications o monuments,

conceived both as object-based strategiesand spatial practices o procession and ritual.We consider how tactical replications or newstagings, like Rod Dickinsons re-workingo presidential-style press briengs, pose

new perspectives on the political role omonuments and remembering.

The second event examines the concernor preservation through the eyes o RemKoolhaas OMA, whose installationCronocaos at the 2010 Venice ArchitectureBiennale examined preservation anddestruction in the context o the increasinglyideological imperatives behind them. Likethe enthusiasm or monuments, preservationreveals a remarkable condence in the power

o physical objects to embody or act as atrigger or memory.The motives driving what, how and

why we preserve are noticeably fuid andoten little understood. OMAs installationshowed how vast swathes o the worlddeemed historic or signicant are beingpreserved, while other components o thebuilt environment, especially post-warpublic architecture, have been vilied and

are thus increasingly destroyed. They argue,The current moment has almost no ideahow to negotiate the co-existence o radicalchange and radical stasis that is our uture.

While the urge to preserve stemsrom anxieties about orgetting, it canbe questioned whether through preservingour physical environment we actuallynegate the need or memory. Could itactually be through the destruction o

our physical reality that we remember?How do we in the present, constructmemory or the uture?

Owen Hopkins

RA FORUMFUTURE MEMORY

Top The Spire of Dublin,Ian Ritchie ArchitectsPhoto Ian RitchieArchitectsMiddleCRONOCAOS,at the 12th InternationalArchitecture Exhibition La Biennale Di VeneziaPhoto by Marco Beck

Peccoz OMABottomWho, What,Where, When, Whyand How (2009), RodDickinson in collaborationwith Steve RushtonPhoto by Nicki Musgrave

Three RA Forum events address thecharacter, uses and implications omemory or visual culture today.


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Spaces of MemorySaturday 21 MayMemory continually mediates howwe perceive space. It allows us bothto navigate the familiar and to recalllong-buried experiences. During thisafternoon of discussion, we explorehow artists and architects have soughtto exploit these processes, and speculateon the implications of new scientic

and cultural understandings of memoryand space.

RA Schools; 2.305 pm12/6 reductions (includes a drink)

Monuments and ForgettingMonday 21 FebruaryMonuments, through their form oriconography, and the practices of ritualor commemoration that they foster,are designed as focuses for memory.Architectural historian Christine Stevenson,

architect Ian Ritchie RA and performanceartist Rod Dickinson explore the functionof monuments, both historically and incontemporary society, and considerthe ways they control and deect types of memory.

Reynolds Room, Royal Academy6.30 8 pm; 7/4 reductions (includes a drink)

Preservation/DestructionOMA CRONOCAOSMonday 28 MarchIn their 2010 Venice Biennale installation,Rem Koolhaas OMA addressed preservationand its consequences for how and what weremember. Through our respect for thepast, heritage is becoming more and morethe dominant metaphor for our lives today

a situation we call cronocaos. IppolitoPestellini and Kayoko Ota of OMA discussthe implications of preservation, exploringwhat the future of our memory will look like.

Geological Society, Piccadilly, W16.30 8 pm10/5 reductions (includes a drink)


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Above Casa Santa Monica,Punta del Este, Uruguay,2006 by Mathias KlotzPhoto by Erietta Attali


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THEARCHITECTURE

SPACEDaily 10 am 6 pm (until 10 pm Fridays)

Will Alsop RA: En RouteProper Behaviour in the Park13 January 13 March 2011Over the last 10 years, increased interest inpublic space has led to institutionalized ideasof design. With Grange Park, Toronto as acase study and focusing on behaviour inpublic space, Will Alsop works alongsidestudents from the Ontario College of Art &Design, to create an installation developing

ideas that uncover new clues as to how toprovide for the users of shared places.

Left Will Alsop RAin studioBelow Ontario Collageof Art & Design,Toronto by Will Alsopfor Alsop Architects,part of the ArchialGroup


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Constructed Landscapes18 March 12 June 2011This exhibition explores the ways that artistsand architects can reframe our perceptionsof, and relationship to, landscape. Featuringthe Rolex Centre in Lausanne designedby Japanese architectural practice SANAAand works by artists Jane and Louise

Wilson, Suzanne Moxhay and RachaelChampion, they illustrate the power to evokefundamental emotional responses thatconjures connections to history, memory,identity and belonging.

Top Highway 2009by Suzanne MoxhayCourtesy of the artistAbove Rolex LearningCenter, Lausanne,Switzerland, 2010,by SANAAPhoto by SANAA


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MASTERWORKSARCHITECTURE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY

The Royal Academys collection of architectural drawings and modelsis founded upon presentations made by the architect Royal Academicianson the occasion of their election. Spectacular examples of Georgian andVictorian perspectives by architects such as John Soane, Charles Barryand George Gilbert Scott are exhibited alongside works by post-warand current RA architects, including Hugh Casson, Norman Foster,Richard Rogers, David Chippereld and Zaha Hadid.

Tuesday Friday, 1 4.30 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10 am 6 pm (Closed Monday)Complimentary entry with a valid Royal Academy exhibition ticket. 3 without.

Right Photograph of

room with models, 1991,by Sir Denys Lasdun RAPhoto by PrudenceCuming AssociatesLimited RoyalAcademy of Arts

The Story of Architecture

at the Royal AcademyFriday 18 FebruaryThrough examiningdrawings by eminentarchitect RoyalAcademicians, fromWilliam Chambers andJohn Soane to NormanFoster and Zaha Hadid,Dr Neil Bingham charts

the captivating story ofarchitecture at the RoyalAcademy.

Reynolds Room, RA6.307.30 pm10/5 reductions(includes a drink)

Curators Introductory TalkTuesdays 1 February &1 March; 3.30 pm

The John Madejski Fine Rooms, 14 January 13 March 2011


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InterviewNeil Bingham, the RAs consultantcurator or architectural drawings,

is about to reveal how much he hasdiscovered about his subject matterover the last our years in a newbook, an exhibition and a lecture.

Theyre like my children, he says othe ascinating collection o architecturaldiploma works which members give to theRA on their election, picking out details thatsuggest an intimate relationship. His book

Masterworks: Architecture at the RoyalAcademy o Arts illustrates and explainseach o these works, while the exhibition bythe same name in the John Madejski FineRooms displays all those by living RAswith a selection o those most interestingor historically important. They dontshow the history o architecture, conessesNeil, rather they show the history oarchitectural representation; the techniques

that architects have used over 250 years toexplain their works to clients, public andposterity.

Until the 1990s, Neil comments,drawing was prevalent and there are manyne examples rom the exquisite but adedrenderings by the likes o James Wyatt,Robert and Sidney Smirke and the greatJohn Soane, rom the perspectives avouredby the Victorians and Edwardians to therational 20th century modernists whoocused on how their buildings were madeand worked. John Burnett, architect othe British Museums northern wing, may

have only used small photographs, but thatinnovation was the slightest harbinger othe invention and range which current RAsbring to the art o representation.

In 1991 Denys Lasdun submitted a

photograph o the numerous models madein his oce or the National Theatre anda drawing in his own hand on the wall.Three years later Michael Manser submittedthe rst model, to be ollowed by ChrisWilkinson and Spencer de Grey. Will Alsopand Ian Ritchie return to the traditionaltechniques o painting and etching, Alsopsbeing fanked by two architects who haveinfuenced architectural draughtsmanship

more than any o their contemporaries Peter Cook and Zaha Hadid.

Others explore the power o drawingitsel: David Chippereld shows theconventional architectural section stillhas enormous orce in conveying therichness o Berlins Neues Museum, whileJames Stirling encapsulated his entryor the Channel 4 headquarters in twoaxonometrics. As Neil points out, everyarchitect [in the exhibition] still draws.None really use computers.

JM


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Peter Rich and RCR Arquitectes may seemlike an unlikely pairing o architects. Whatcould possibly uniy the work o SouthArican teacher and practitioner Peter Rich with his handcrated masonry vaults thatpromote the sustained use o indigenousmaterials and techniques, with the hard-linedand site specic precision detailing deployedby Catalan trio RCR? The answer lies not inwhat they build, but rather in how what they

build responds to landscape, and last yearthe Royal Academy took the opportunityto curate a series o lectures, discussions andexhibitions launched by Rich and closedby Carme Pigem o RCR that wouldhelp broaden peoples understanding ohow contemporary architects respond tothe physical contexts in which they build:remote, rural or urban.

Peter Rich opened proceedings inSeptember while in London to superviseconstruction o the Earth Pavilion; atemporary masonry arch demonstrationproject commissioned as part o the Princeo Wales Start initiative. Straight talkingand cutting through much o the industrysenvironmental hype, Rich made a strong caseor digging deeper into both the social andphysical abric o the landscape, introducing

a number o his recent community projectsbeore ocusing on the 2009 WorldArchitecture Festival Buildingo the Year; the spectacular MapungubweInterpretation Centre, in which Rich

demonstrated how such projects can helpre-shape communities, by developing localskills to re-shape the soil into dramatic andcurvaceous vaults, domes, and arches.

The series ended with a lecture bySpanish architect Carme Pigem, in whichshe presented our projects that showedhow RCRs evocative take on humanisedlandscapes remains consistently ocused onthe creation o what Pigem reerred to as

atmospheres o lie. This ranges in scale roma remote country house with rusty steel boxesembedded into a steep blu, or the design oa large civic library set into one o Barcelonasrecently reclaimed courtyard blocks.

Be it through the creation o timelessearth structures in the Arican wilderness,or the addition o rusty steel sculpturalbuildings within highly manicuredCatalan landscapes, Rich and Pigemprovided excellent anchors to the RAsseason. Augmented by contributions romSANAAs Kazuyo Sejima, Eva Castroand Alredo Ramirez (both rom theLandscape Urbanism unit at the AA), andAmerican urban designer Diana Balmori,the series did much to divert attention awayrom the sometimes misleading targets osustainability, and ocused on the more

visceral, enduring and essential qualities othe natural world.

Rob Gregory, architect and Senior Editorof the Architectural Review Magazine

ReviewsInternational architects gave lectures in theautumn to inorm and build upon the Royal

Academys Architecture Programmes chosentheme o landscape. Recordings o the eventscan be ound at www.royalacademy.org.uk

Towards a wider feld o architecture


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In 2009, SANAA designed the SerpentinePavilion, allowing those o us living in theUK to nally experience the architectureo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawarst-hand and seducing us to the eortlessways in which they incorporatedthe surrounding park land into theirlightweight, aluminum-clad structure. InOctober 2010, we had an opportunity tobe entranced once again, as Sejima took the

audience through many o SANAAs mostrecent projects during an hour-long RoyalAcademy lecture entitled Architecture andthe Environment.

On that evening, Sejima began herlecture with the 21st Century Museum oContemporary Art, Kanazawa, completedin 2004, whose circular plan has no rontor back, and ended it with a new museumoutside Paris, still in progress, whose planshows a series o rectangular boxes runningparallel to each other, accommodating whatshe calls historical things.

Visually sumptuous, Sejimas lecturegave the impression o her work beingcrisp, clean and aultless. Projects werepresented with images o people occupyingthe completed projects, supplemented withplans, elevations, and conceptual diagrams.

We the listeners however were orcedto weigh her words as Sejima struggledwith her English, without much ado toanecdotes. Interestingly, her buildingssimilarly require more input rom users.

She told the audience: new possibilitiesmay be developed by users aterwards.

Sejima also described her work as ithey were literally the landscape itsel. TheSerpentine Pavilion was a small park ina big park; the Rolex Learning Center inLausanne had two hills, which divided thebuilding into three zones. Our gaze, alwaysrefected back in SANAAs buildingsthrough mirror and glass, picks up our

own movements. In her vision, it is theenvironment that makes us.

What became evident in the lecturewas Sejimas immense desire to pare downand condense architecture to almostnothing. The persistent whiteness inSANAAs work, or example, allows thedesigners to think about other things andincorporate them into their buildings,such as how people meet in architecture(the title o the 2010 Venice ArchitectureBiennale she curated). Most telling werethe reurbishment projects on the islando Inujima in Seto Inland Sea, Japan. Twodeunct traditional houses in the villagewere dismantled except or the roo and thepoles supporting it, the remaining structurescrubbed and cleaned so that people couldenjoy the nature o this island, rather than

the architecture itsel. Yuki Sumner, author ofNew Architecture in Japan

Sejimas phrase make the buildingdisappear into the landscape had directresonance with an installation I havebeen creating called Copenhagen Placewhich is an inversion o her statementas I attempt to make the landscapedisappear into the building.

Rachael Champion

SANAA Kazuyo Sejima


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In brieIn Autumn 2011 the Royal

Academy will be showingBuilding the Revolution:Soviet Art and Architecture191535, an exhibitionexploring the synthesis ofradical art and architecturereected in the work ofTatlin, Lizzitsky, Melnikovand others. Before coming tothe RA the exhibition will be

on show at the Caixa Forumsin Barcelona (3 February7April) and Madrid (26May18 September).

The Royal Academyhas just published Lines, abook ofpoems, aphorismsand etchings by Ian RitchieRA. These lines of thoughtare put to paper before

any designing beginsand provide an insight tohow one of Britains mostvisionary architects engageswith the built environment. Itis available now for 12.95.

Neil Binghams tourof local fashion houses

on the 29 January called

Architecture of the Body: Atour of Mayfair boutiques tocoincide with the exhibitionAware: Art, Fashion, Identityhas now sold out.

This years SummerExhibition ArchitectureRoom is being hung by PiersGough RA and Alan StantonRA. Up for grabs once again

will be the Bovis Lend Lease/Architects Journal GrandAward for Architecture(10,000) and Award for theBest First Time ArchitectureExhibitor (5,000). Entryforms will be available todownload from 10 January atwww.royalacademy.org.uk/summerexhibition

The Masterworksexhibition mentioned earlierin this leaet accompaniesa fully illustrated book byNeil Bingham, publishedby the Royal Academy,explores the history of eachof the architectural Diploma

Works in the RA collection.Masterworks: Architectureat the Royal Academy of Artsis available at the RA Shop,priced 35.

Max Dewdney andCheeKit Lai ofThe MobileStudio who spoke at the RAlast year about their SummerExhibition submission areholding a workshop forattRAct, the RAs programmefor engaging with A Level artstudents in London.

Date for your diary: the2011 Annual ArchitectureLecture has been conrmedfor 27 June, held as usual inthe Summer Exhibition. Staytuned for the announcementof the lecturer later in theyear.

Receive information andupdates on RA architecture

events, exhibitions andnews with the ArchitectureProgramme e-newsletter. Tosign up, email [email protected]

Mobile Studio

Summer Exhibition 2010


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Kalmar Museum of Art,Sweden, 2008 byTham & VidegrdPhoto: ke E:sonLindman


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AT A GLANCEDate Event Price

Mon 24 Jan Mike Leigh: Londons Unnoticed Gems 12/6*Critics Choice

Tues 15 Feb Antony Gormley RA: The Hayward Gallery 12/6*Critics Choice

Fri 18 Feb The Story of Architecture at the Royal Academy 10/5*Neil Bingham

Mon 21 Feb Monuments and Forgetting 7/4*RA Forum: Future Memory

Mon 14 Mar Will Self: Stockwell Bus Garage 12/6*

Critics ChoiceTues 22 Mar Mathias Klotz 10/5*

Evening Lecture

Mon 28 Mar Preservation/destruction: OMA CRONOCAOS 10/5*RA Forum: Future Memory

Mon 18 Apr Tham & Videgrd Arkitekter 10/5*Evening Lecture

Mon 16 May Monica Ali: 19 Princelet Street 12/6*

Critics ChoiceSat 21 May Spaces of Memory 12/6*

RA Forum: Future Memory

Royal Academy of ArtsBurlington House, Piccadilly

d

Programme devised byKate Goodwin and Jeremy Melvin

The Architecture Programmeat the Royal Academy is madepossible through the Drue HeinzEndowment for Architecture.

Entrance toRoyal Academyof Arts

Entrance toGeological Society,Burlington House

PICCADILLY

To book

WWW.ROYALACADEMY.ORG.UK/ARCHITECTURET: 020 7300 5839

Ra Architecture Programme Spring 2011 894

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Transcript of Ra Architecture Programme Spring 2011 894