AE25: Umbrellas

[The Umbrellas by Christo and Jeanne-Claude | image source]

In art and architecture the term "umbrella" makes me think of a couple things: 1-Christo and Jeanne-Claude's installation The Umbrellas in Japan in 1991 (above) and 2-abstractions of the term in building design, such as Eric Owen Moss's piece "The Umbrella" in Culver City, Brooks + Scarpa's Solar Umbrella in Venice, California, and the much-hyped Metropol Parasol in Sevilla, Spain by J. Mayer H. In the first, the installation looks like umbrellas but don't really function as such, since they arbitrarily litter the countryside. In the second, the buildings, or parts thereof, mimic the function of umbrellas without resembling them. Yet a couple recent projects come close to the appearance of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's artscape while functioning as umbrellas (providing shade and shelter).


[HTO Urban Beach, aerial photo by Tom Podolec | image source]

HTO Urban Beach was completed in 2007 to a design by Janet Rosenberg + Associates, Claude Cormier Landscape Architecture + Urban Design, and Hariri Pontarini Architects. The beach and the larger HTO Park are part of an even larger redevelopment of the city's waterfront, of which HTO is an early piece. The yellow umbrellas are found in the sandy area close to the water. From above they look like normal everyday beach umbrellas that people pitch into the sane in beaches from New Jersey to Nice, France, but from below...


[HTO Urban Beach, photo by Neil Fox | image source]

...It's clear that the umbrellas are permanent fixtures, mounted to poles that are anchored to the sand and the adjacent walkways. They stand straight up and look to be at least eight feet high, bold splashes of color that help draw people towards the water from the inland side of the park. I'm guessing that Claude Cormier is responsible for this element in the park/beach, since other projects on his web page utilize umbrellas of other colors. One is the Urban Beach at the Old Port of Montreal (below), currently in development.


[Urban Beach at the Old Port of Montreal, rendering | image source]

A rainbow of color is found in the umbrellas that cover the Centro Abierto de Actividades Ciudadanas (CAAC) in Córdoba, Spain by ParedesPino Studio (below). The umbrellas in various colors, sizes, and heights cover an equally colorful grid of paving that is used for recreation and commerce. Shade seems to be the driving consideration, as is the "fifth facade" seen by the surrounding buildings. Interestingly, Claude Cormier admits that the HTO Urban Beach is influenced by Georges Seurat's Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte; from above the CAAC's colorful dots also recall the pointillist masterpiece.


[CAAC, aerial photo | image source]

Yet from below the umbrellas are merely white. Perhaps this is so as not to compete with the quilt-like paving pattern or the people and colorful wares that will find their way into the space between the circles and squares.


[CAAC, photo by Jorge Lopez Conde | image source]

Spinning Wardrobe

The residential refurbishment of a house in London designed by storp_weber_architectural_design:





The inspiration:

Today's archidose #516

Here are a couple photos of "Woning V-C" in Belgium by Graux & Baeyens, 2011. Photographs are by Philippe Brysse.





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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

This week's dose features Drive Through Restaurant in Galway, Ireland by Paul Dillon Architects:


The featured past dose is Max Mara Soho in New York City by Duccio Grassi Architects:


This week's book review is The Structure of Light: Richard Kelly and the Illumination of Modern Architecture edited by Dietrich Neumann:


american-architects.com Building of the Week:

Bennie G. Thompson Academic & Civil Rights Research Center in Jackson, Mississippi by Duvall Decker Architects:


Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

ArchitectSummary.com
"ArchitectSummary.com finds all of the latest news stories related to your chosen architecture topic and presents them to you all in one place." (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Aggregate.)

Architopik.com
A "community database of contemporary architecture," en français. (Added to sidebar under Architectural Links » Guides.)

By Excerpt | CC:GSAPP
"A global report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation." (Added to sidebar under Architectural Links » Education.)

Digital Design and Fabrication
Just like the title says, with lots of images and videos. (Added to sidebar under Blogs » Architecture.)

The Secret Life of Buildings
"Architecture critic Tom Dyckhoff explores the impact the design of buildings can have on us - on our identity and self-esteem, and on relationships, our chances at school, and even our weight and immune system." Watch episodes at Channel 4.

Half Dose #92: Leviathan

Astute readers will know that I'm a sucker for large-scale art in architectural or urban contexts. A few projects I've featured include Christo and Jean-Claude's The Wall: 13,000 Oil Barrels, Felice Varini's Square with four circles, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh's The Upside Dome, and Ernesto Neto's Leviathan Thot. This last one, an installation in the Pantheon in Paris, comes to mind when I see images of Anish Kapoor's similarly titled Leviathan, which inhabited the Grand Palais in Paris as part of Monumenta 2011. Each installation places amoeba-like forms within old buildings; Neto responds to the Pantheon's stone by suspending a "creature" from the aisles and dome, but Kapoor squeezes an inhabitable megastructure inside the daylit Grand Palais. It's impressive.


[Photographs are courtesy Frédéric Beck]

I first heard about Leviathan in the New York Observer, in Adam Lindemann's coverage of summer art shows in Europe. He just loves Kapoor's "huge inflated stomach and intestine," saying "Mr. Kapoor’s installation will be the standard by which all future shows [in France] will be judged." He doesn't know what it means, and doesn't care, since "the strong emotions and amazement it evokes in the audience make it one of the most successful public works done anywhere by anyone."



In person, I only know Kapoor's sculptures from the highly successful Cloud Gate in Chicago's Millennium Park, as well as a few small pieces in museums. His vortex-like forms definitely say "Kapoor," but I think the power in his objects is twofold: the relationship to their contexts and the spaces created. At Millennium Park, the choice of a polished stainless steel makes "The Bean" reflect its surrounding, particularly the Michigan Avenue street wall. The fact the reflections are warped is probably just the result of the form, nothing deeper, but it lets people see the city in a different way. Underneath the sculpture, people can stare up at a vortex that appears to extend much further than the its size would indicate.



Leviathan fits into its context, a building rather than an urban space, by squeezing itself into the different arms of the Grand Palais. It's as if a viscous fluid flowed through the spaces and solidified into its final form. It creates numerous spaces outside of itself, both underneath the sculpture itself and between the sculpture and the building, an in-between space of a shape born from the curves of the roof. But this is also a sculpture that can be inhabited, and the character inside, as the photo below and others attest, is much different than outside. The PVC walls glow red, instead of the external eggplant color, illuminated by the skylights of the building. Obviously not all of the inside is accessible, a Kapoor trope, like the Cloud Gate, where space appears indefinite or infinite. He positions people and controls how the space of his sculptures is perceived, not varied like the outside, but a fixed perspective like Duchamp's Étant donnés.

Great Spaces Teaser

Great Spaces, coming this fall.

Today's archidose #515

Here is a brief tour of some 21st-century architecture in France's Lorraine region, as photographed by Alexandre Prévot.


[Les Jardins de Nabécor I in Nancy by Jean-Luc André, Olivier Bourbon, Francis Moulet (2008)]


[Le Carré Nature in Nancy by Jean-Baptiste Piétri (2008)]


[Hôpital Central - Stérilisation Centrale in Nancy by IN FINE Architectes (2011)]


[Centre National de la Fonction Publique Territoriale in Nancy by Lucien Colin, Dominique Henriet (2010)]


[Résidences Plein Soleil in Villers by Christian Zomeno (2009)]


[Médiathèque Jules Verne in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy by Pascale Seurin (2000)]


[Les Terrasses des Bateliers in Nancy by Bertrand de Mijolla, Jean-Christophe Monjardet (2008)]


[Résidence Rive Gauche in Nancy by Jean-Luc André, Olivier Bourbon, Francis Moulet (2007)]


[Maison du Département in Lunéville by Alain Casari, Thierry Mercier (2009)]

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