In 1925, German art critic Franz Roh formalized the notion of Magic Realism (magischer Realismus)... more In 1925, German art critic Franz Roh formalized the notion of Magic Realism (magischer Realismus) as a celebration of everyday life. In Ital-ian literature, the same notion was explored in the works of Massimo Bontempelli. But it was the architect Friedrich Kiesler who imported the notion into architecture, stating that 'Magic Architecture ... holds the balance between the two extremes of man', his 'desire for the machine' and technology on the one hand, his 'denial of science' on the other. This paper follows the development of the notion of Magic Realism throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, tracing its re-emergence in works as varied as those of Carlo Scarpa, Billie Tsien and Tod Williams.
Confabulation is a drawing together through storytelling. Fundamental to our perception, memory a... more Confabulation is a drawing together through storytelling. Fundamental to our perception, memory and thought is the way we join fractured experiences to construct a narrative. Confabulations: Storytelling in Architecture weaves together poetic ideas, objects and events and returns you to everyday experiences of life through juxtapositions with dreams, fantasies and hypotheticals. It follows the intellectual and creative framework of architectural cosmopoesis developed and practiced by the distinguished thinker, architect and professor Dr. Marco Frascari, who thought deeply about the role of storytelling in architecture.
Not knowing what architecture is should be the most pressing challenge of architecture. It could ... more Not knowing what architecture is should be the most pressing challenge of architecture. It could be thanks to this confusion that a new environment of questioning and creative challenges could flourish. Architecture could once again become the basis for a meaningful tale within cities, weaving together material and immaterial heritage. Buildings constitute places that people inhabit from within and not as something outside of their realm. Spatial and temporal realities are inherent to the design of buildings while they are not necessarily inherent in the design of objects. The most valuable tool for architecture or design students is therefore the encouragement of critical, imaginative and independent thinking through his/her own discoveries in making.
In 1925, German art critic Franz Roh formalized the notion of Magic Realism (magischer Realismus)... more In 1925, German art critic Franz Roh formalized the notion of Magic Realism (magischer Realismus) as a celebration of everyday life. In Ital-ian literature, the same notion was explored in the works of Massimo Bontempelli. But it was the architect Friedrich Kiesler who imported the notion into architecture, stating that 'Magic Architecture ... holds the balance between the two extremes of man', his 'desire for the machine' and technology on the one hand, his 'denial of science' on the other. This paper follows the development of the notion of Magic Realism throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, tracing its re-emergence in works as varied as those of Carlo Scarpa, Billie Tsien and Tod Williams.
Confabulation is a drawing together through storytelling. Fundamental to our perception, memory a... more Confabulation is a drawing together through storytelling. Fundamental to our perception, memory and thought is the way we join fractured experiences to construct a narrative. Confabulations: Storytelling in Architecture weaves together poetic ideas, objects and events and returns you to everyday experiences of life through juxtapositions with dreams, fantasies and hypotheticals. It follows the intellectual and creative framework of architectural cosmopoesis developed and practiced by the distinguished thinker, architect and professor Dr. Marco Frascari, who thought deeply about the role of storytelling in architecture.
Not knowing what architecture is should be the most pressing challenge of architecture. It could ... more Not knowing what architecture is should be the most pressing challenge of architecture. It could be thanks to this confusion that a new environment of questioning and creative challenges could flourish. Architecture could once again become the basis for a meaningful tale within cities, weaving together material and immaterial heritage. Buildings constitute places that people inhabit from within and not as something outside of their realm. Spatial and temporal realities are inherent to the design of buildings while they are not necessarily inherent in the design of objects. The most valuable tool for architecture or design students is therefore the encouragement of critical, imaginative and independent thinking through his/her own discoveries in making.
"Reality is a wall with two sides. The drawing interprets the moment in the story when the Fat Wo... more "Reality is a wall with two sides. The drawing interprets the moment in the story when the Fat Woodworker is knocking on the door of his own house and Brunelleschi from the inside, mirrors his identity confusing the Fat one. This double-sided reality appears in the drawing as a construction of a section that places the spectator as a viewer of both realities. The wall section was collaged and transformed from Sebastiano Serlio’s wall section drawings present in his architectural treatise. Keeping in mind the Fat Woodworker social rank, the wall section chosen was the most modest one. The Fat one and his Double (Brunelleschi) are characterized through a reconstruction of the male figure in Albert Durer’s etching “The Cook and his Wife.” The entire drawing intends to gather fragments of work crafted by artists and architects interested in perspective, such as Durer and Serlio. Emphasizing the cleaving nature of a wall, that joins and separates two worlds, the interior world was constructed through one point perspective, from below and from above, expressing Brunelleschi’s control of the situation. The exterior world, constructed with many horizons and perspective points, through photographic fragments of the city of Florence, expresses the Fat Woodworker confusion. Working with many layers of paper and traces, the drawing is an interpretation of the play between reality and fiction intrinsic to the story as well as to the architect’s imagination."
Ceilings and Dreams: The Architecture of Levity (Routledge), edited by Paul Emmons, Federica Goffi and Jodi La Coe, 2020
For the contemporary architect, the appearance of condensation on building surfaces is a nightmar... more For the contemporary architect, the appearance of condensation on building surfaces is a nightmare. Often resulting in mold, rot and poor indoor air quality, a case of condensation is challenging to investigate and extremely expensive to remedy. A direct result of the modern dream of total control over interior climate, condensation is the consequence of an engineered environment gone wrong. Hidden inside walls, collected on window frames and surfaces and dripping from ceilings, it seems that not enough can be done to rid architecture of this nuisance of nature. This wasn't always the case. In the era before air conditioning and heavy insulation, building envelopes could absorb and release interior moisture through porous wall and ceiling assemblies. As buildings became more insulated, they were increasingly viewed as isolated from their exterior conditions, thus creating a need for engineered moisture solution under the control of the architect. Armed with moisture barriers and mechanical ventilation, architects could only view condensation as a problem to be solved. In examining the potential of condensation to enliven the imagination, however, we find an equal potential in architecture to express the remarkable qualities hidden in saturated air.
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