HTC Experiments

A fantastic month here for experiments in history and theory — very fortunate for the generous support this work has received and I am happy to relay some recent adventures: I recently returned from a trip to Malmo, Sweden for a series of lectures on nature, environment and history in architecture and landscape. One lecture [...]

As an enthusiast and collector of wine, it was a great pleasure to finally see the SFMOMA exhibition “How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to Now”, conceived by curator, historian, and critic, Henry Urbach and with the exhibition design and curatorial collaboration of Diller/Scofidio, and Renfro. I can’t remember the last time I’ve [...]

I’m impressed with two projects (one being built) in New York City that suggest less techno-scientific interpretations of material, visualization, and assemblage. The authors of these projects are new to me, but I think they relate to many of the attitudes I hoped to capture, historicize, and theorize in the Subnature book. We are intellectually [...]

For better or worse, this site continues to transform into more of a news site than a content-driven site (although news items often have commentary!). Having come clean, from now until the beginning of school next year I will participate in many excellent and (frankly) challenging projects and events. Here’s a sample of the more [...]

I just returned from beautiful Princeton University where I gave a lecture with Minsuk Cho of Mass Studies at the School of Architecture. The lectures were part of a series curated by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood – principals of Work AC architects and professors at the school. Within their lecture series Andraos and Wood [...]

Monday night, CCA will hold a mini-symposium for the recent Territory issue of AD; description of the event: TERRITORY: ARCHITECTURE BEYOND ENVIRONMENT COLLOQUIUM Monday, October 11, 7 pm CCA San Francisco campus Timken Lecture Hall 1111 Eighth Street (at 16th and Wisconsin) Participants will include Peter Anderson, Javier Arbona, Ila Berman, Nicholas de Monchaux, Nataly [...]

A positive review of the recent AD Territory, is a good excuse to further explore recent iterations of the “territory” concept and its relations to earlier ideas. The theme of Territory appears to be moving through several publications these days, but with many different variations rooted in earlier uses of the term. For example, Foucault’s [...]

Oma exhibits its ongoing interrogation of preservation as urbanization at the 2010 Venice Biennale: Information here and here too.. Koolhaas’ writing on the subject (“Preservation is Overtaking Us”) can be found here. One of their first projects in this area – The Dutch Parliament Extension (1978) – is shown above. For those interested in this [...]

I was once a curator of architecture and design at the US’s one, dedicated architecture museum; but I have not curated an exhibition in over five years. Here are three exhibition ideas that I hope some ambitious curator will mount; I certainly would like to see these shows in the near future, and I think [...]

The issue of AD Territory that has just been published contains many provocative projects, photographs and drawings; but one of the best things about this issue are the essays – the writing. As this issue was taking shape, the editor of AD wrote me, stating that this issue contains some of the best writing that [...]

Here’s the reading list from the experimental history course that I taught this past spring to CCA undergraduate students. You will see many people, concepts, and works discussed on this site. COURSE DESCRIPTION In this seminar we explore recent forms of “experimental practice” in architectural, urban, and spatial history — considering the future possibilities of [...]

An event celebrating AD’s 80 years (part of the London Festival of Architecture) will be held tomorrow (June 29) at The Jarvis Suite, RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London. It’s quite exciting that our AD Territory issue is just out at this time, and coincides with this event. Details about the event (snatched from the Sesquipedalist) [...]

An image above of the ‘Clone’ chair ( Julian Mayor, 2005) next to an English side chair. The chair was featured in the exhibition “Telling Tales” at the V&A; curator’s description below: “The shape of this chair is broadly that of a mid 18th-century Dutch or English side chair. Using software, Julian Mayor mapped the [...]

My short essay on dankness from a recent issue of Domus is included in the “Essay” section at right. It’s essentially a super-condensed version of the chapter of the same name from Subnature. If this essay spurs someone’s interest, I would be most curious to see any visual reactions you may have to the “historical” [...]

A professor of mine recently read Subnature, and reminded me of Hundertwasser’s “Mold Manifesto” and its absence from my study. What a huge oversight of mine. Hundertwasser’s 1950s critique of functionalism and architectural professionalism (included in Ulrich Conrad’s overview of Modernist writings) fits so well into the themes explored in the introduction of Subnature. Perhaps [...]

In typical American academic fashion, I’m writing about Marxist literature after experiencing new-found job security. It always struck me that the opposite phenomenon occurs for my British academic colleagues: There’s a certain unstated pressure on them to work within Marxian methodologies until promotion, and then, inevitably, come out of the academic closet as some type [...]

The issue of Architectural Design that I guest-edited “Territory” is now published in the UK; it will be released in North America in early June. For a larger image and explanation, click the image above. In concert with Subnature, Territory will provide the reader with an overview of contemporary debates, methods and theories regarding architecture, [...]

Running through archeology, the historical interpretation of buildings, the study of landscapes, and the explorations of new territories are images, traces, and the after-effects of scaffolds – skeletal structures within which to study some-thing. Scaffold structures appear on buildings and sites under construction and as staging areas for repairs, but I’m interested in them as [...]

For those that may be interested: Here’s a link to my latest attempt to think past “neo-materialism” , especially in its environmentalist form. This is part of Arcade’s special guest-edited journal on “Air” – curated by Kiel Moe. Additional articles by William Braham, Hillary Sample, Steven Moore, and Sean Lally flesh out the theme.

As part of Glacier/Island/Storm I’d like to write about the “neutral” nature upon which the exceptional natures of the G.I.S. studio are based. In other words, the world building, terraforming natures of GIS suggest a background of all those neutral natures that are unperformative, average, and boring: a dull grey sky, a sand dune, a [...]