Conscientious

A nice page with lots of photos. Not even close to being really there I guess.

"Architecture is frozen music," said German philosopher Schopenhauer. "Music is molten city halls," replied German comedian Max Goldt about a century later. Regardless of how you look at it it's tempting to connect architecture and music - and only because it's fun.

German electronic musicians To Rococo Rot (also see this earlier entry) composed music for an architectural project called Kölner Brett. Read a review of the result here.

(this entry was inspired by Scores for Stores which I found thru 990000.com)

PS: Amazon.com doesn't carry To Rococo Rot's "Kölner Brett." If you live in the US use mail-order through the fabulous forcedexposure.com.

"Architect Pierre Koenig, a leader in the Modernist movement that became emblematic of progressive postwar America, has died." - story
(links thru thingsmagazine.net)

"Since 1995 synagogues that were destroyed by the Nazis in 1938 have been reconstructed on the computer in the Department CAD in Architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The project stems from a student initiative in 1994, a year in which hostility towards foreigners and anti-Semitic commentaries noticeably increased."

I'm going to be visiting Frankfurt - one of my favourite German cities - in not quite two weeks; and I just came across a website that describes how Frankfurt was rebuilt after WWII. Unfortunately, it's in German only. The photos are here, and it's more or less straightforward to look through the photos, given the dates next to the links. There are also links that show some of the places today. For that, click on the yellow links next to the photos that say "heute".

Highlights: Reconstruction of the city center (with drastic photos of the destruction and the replacement of those destroyed quaint houses with hideous 1950's blocks), technical reconstructions (with cool/weird 1950's technology), the shopping district, and - especially cool: "modern" architecture 1949-53, 1954-59, and 1960-66.

"Most people think of Boston as a dense city, and it is, especially by American standards. Today’s city is, however, a pale shadow of the medieval maze that was Boston before large-scale modern planning and spatial concepts entered the picture." Have a look at photos showing Boston's change. Just imagine what kind of charm Boston would have today if they hadn't destroyed the old center to replace it with those architectural monstrosities. This is particularly ironic in the light of the awe expressed by Americans when they come back from Europe: If Europeans had given their own cities the same treatment, all the old stuff wouldn't be around there any longer, either.
(seen at thingsmagazine, which contains more links for this topic)

"'Deutschlandscape' – may well confound preconceived notions of the contemporary architecture scene in Germany. The fresh overview of over 38 built projects throughout Germany dating between 2000 and 2004 is a deliberate shift in focus away from metropolitan urban centres to the more peripheral areas on the urban fringe."

In An Anatomy of Megachurches, Witold Rybczynski looks at and discusses large, contemporary American churches - and let's really call those places churches and not "places of worship", because there are so many more "places of worship", which, officially, are not churches at all.

Here's a treat of a special kind: Listen to Ian Parker's narration about Dubai's new architecture and watch breathtaking photos by Robert Polidori. When I saw one of the photos in the magazine, I first thought "Hey, that's a cool illustration" - until I realized that it was a photo.

It seems Germany's Deutsche Bahn changed the original plans for Berlin's new main train station a bit too much. This being Germany, it almost goes without saying that there's a lot of fuss generated about it. No surprise really for a country that contributed words like weltschmerz to the English language.

I'm filing this under architecture even though strictly speaking it's "just" a car factory. But then have a look at VW's new Gläserne Manufaktur (Transparent Factory), where the workers wear white overalls. Larger photos can be found here.

For people who love "best of" lists - don't we all, as cheesy as they might be? - here is C.C. Sullivan's The World's 12 Best New Buildings; some more images can be found at Ed Winkleman's art blog.

I hate to tell you this but this page was the only one I could find that shows some of Frederic Chaubin's photos of unusual architecture in the former Soviet Union.

"With its dramatic angles, Daniel Libeskind's new art gallery is lighting up Denver. There's just one problem: you can't hang much on those walls." - story

"These photos are from a small book called 'Bauten der Arbeit und des Verkehrs' (buildings of work and transport) 1925, one of 'Die Blauen Bücher' (the blue books), a series of thin paperback books on art and architecture. Apart from depicting interesting expressionist or mordernist architecture, the pictures also seem to have a great 'Neue Sachlichkeit' appeal." - link

"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has filed a negligence suit against world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up." (story)