Category: architecture + urbanism

You really wish you could attend these conferences

You so wish you could attend these two conferences. But you won’t be invited. You’re more than 34 years too late. There’s “The Invisible City,” the theme of the 1972 International Design Conference Aspen. It promised to “address the implications of making the invisible city visible: of changing misuse into use and apathy into engagement.… Continue reading You really wish you could attend these conferences

Misfits and architecture machines

A few days ago, I wrote about some basics of cybernetics, concluding with a snippet from Gordon Pask’s “The Architectural Relevance of Cybernetics. “Let us turn the design paradigm in upon itself,” he wrote, “let us apply it to the interaction between the designer and the system he designs, rather than the interaction between the system… Continue reading Misfits and architecture machines

A network of constant interactions and communications

[This post is a part of a month of Cyborgs, a project started by Quiet Babylon’s Tim Maly. It’s the first of two.] To get to cyborgs, we need to start with cybernetics. Norbert Wiener. Image source: Complex Fields blog. Cybernetics is a network of constant interactions and communications. Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) coined the term in 1948… Continue reading A network of constant interactions and communications

as miniaturization becomes total…

Cedric Price, untitled & undated note. O.C.H. folio DR1995:0224:324:002, Cedric Price Archive, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. Found in Cedric Price’s Oxford Corner House (1965-66) archive: a mobile and miniaturized future. Also: cooking. “as miniaturisation + particularly [?] becomes total pocket T.V. & telephone etc. mail order congregation will only be valid +immediate [?] if comparison… Continue reading as miniaturization becomes total…

The future in the past and past futures

In June, I spent several days in Nicholas Negroponte’s personal archive from the Architecture Machine Group era up to the founding of the MIT Media Lab — working my way through hundreds of documents and taking some 1600 images. I also had the chance to interview him about the early years of his career. He was… Continue reading The future in the past and past futures

weeknote 13: greetings from montreal

Greetings from the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal! I’m here on a Collections Research Grant to use the Cedric Price Archive. There are about 30 scholars in residence right now from the US, Canada, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and points beyond, some younger, some more advanced, some traditionally academic, others less traditional like Geoff… Continue reading weeknote 13: greetings from montreal

Dissertation proposal! Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Intelligence: The Computer in Architecture, 1960–80

UPDATE: My dissertation proposal. I’ve completed my dissertation proposal! My dissertation is tentatively titled “Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Intelligence: The Computer in Architecture, 1960–80.” At noon, I defend it. Wish me luck! Here is the abstract: With the advent of the information age, architects in the 1960s and 70s found themselves contending with more complex design problems than… Continue reading Dissertation proposal! Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Intelligence: The Computer in Architecture, 1960–80

today, we operate on objects

“What, then, is the ‘object?’ Every object is the nodal point, the boundary point in the relationship between person and person. Whoever really grasps the object and designs, does so [grasps and designs] not only for the individual man and his desires, but rather grasps and designs the most important thing of all: the relationship… Continue reading today, we operate on objects

NYC pneumatic tube receptacle

NYC pneumatic tube receptacle Originally uploaded by maximolly. Everyone in the world knows of my fascination with pneumatic tubes. Here's one from the US Postal Museum. Read and post comments | Send to a friend