Lecturers
Peter von Bagh, Finland
The interior and exterior milieux of Aki Kaurismäki's films appear to be unplanned, as if they were ’architecture without architects’. On closer examination, they turn out to be painstakingly composed. The mood of the surroundings generates a peculiar tension between what is haphazard and temporary and the archetypal and eternal. Kaurismäki's most recent film "The Man without a Past" has been nominated for an Oscar as best foreign language film of the year (2002).Peter von Bagh (b. 1943) ’a bigger-than-life commentator’, is a person who has made an impact on films, a writer, a film and TV director and long-standing force behind the Sodankylä Film Festival. He is currently preparing a book on Aki Kaurismäki to be published in France.
Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk, Norway
Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk (b. 1958) studied architecture in Oslo and at the Cooper Union in New York. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and was a nominee for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 1996. He was awarded the Norwegian State Architecture Prize in 1998.Hølmebakk is famous for his many, cleverly detailed, small-scale works such as a private library in a wooden cube, a workshop in a brick tower, or the viewpoint platforms on Sognefjell. Although modest in scale and design brief, these structures attest in their own way to Louis Kahn's maxim what is has always been.
His work has appeared in:
· A+U 327
· A+U 359
Rick Joy, USA
Rick Joy (b. 1958) is a native of Maine (an East Coast state similar in climate to Finland) where he studied music and fine arts and also performed as a jazz musician. Since the mid-1980s, he has lived in Arizona, qualifying as an architect in 1990. He worked together with Will Bruder before opening his own office. Joy is a versatile craftsman, who has also worked as a general builder, a finish carpenter and an intern architect.
He has designed several private houses in Arizona employing a variety of materials: a rammed earth technique (Tucson Mountain House), hot-rolled steel (Tyler Residence, Casa Jax) and some cleverly detailed wood design (Greer Cabin).
During the last six years, Joy has taught at Arizona State University, Harvard, MIT and Berkeley.
Among other prizes, he has won the Progressive Architecture Magazine Young Architects Award and the Architectural League of New York Young Architects Award.
His work has appeared in:
· Domus 816
· Architectural Review 1253
· Architectural Review 1269
· A+U 382
Anne Lacaton, France
No pathos or large gestures, no French chic. Anne Lacaton (b. 1955) has a joint practice with Jean Philippe Vassal (b. 1954).
Both graduated in 1980 from the École d’Architecture in Bordeaux, where Vassal was also an instructor 1992-99.
Works of theirs that have been nominated for the Moniteur Award include the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), House Cap Ferret and the University of Arts & Human Sciences (Grenoble) - the last of these was also nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award.
The pair's production has the temporary feel of a provisional building made of everyday materials, corrugated metal, polycarbonate panels, standard hardware, as much as it does classical functionality, just like that of contemporary African folk architecture. Vassal lived part of his childhood in Morocco and later spent five years working as an architect in Nigeria.
Among the publications in which work by Lacaton-Vassal has appeared:
2G 21/2002
Luis Moreno Mansilla, Spain
Luis Moreno Mansilla (b. 1959) has had a joint practice with Emilio Tuñón (b. 1958), since 1988.Both architects worked a decade or so in Rafael Moneo's office, founded a monthly review of architecture ’Circo’ in 1993 and taught in Madrid, Barcelona, Frankfurt and Puerto Rico.
Among the works built by the partners are the Archeological and Fine Arts Museum in Zamora (1996), which won the Architécti-Centro Cultural de Belém Prize and was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 1996. Their most recent buildings are the Castellón Museum of Fine Arts (2000) and the Ciudad de León Auditorium (2001).
For us, ’boxes’ and ’potatoes’ are not so different in terms of their procedure.
Their work has has appeared in:
· El Croquis 103/107
· A+U 337
· Casabella 664
· Casabella 699
Hiroshi Naito, Japan
Hiroshi Naito (b. 1950) qualified as an architect in 1974 at Waseda University, Tokyo, and later worked in Fernand Higueras' office in Spain and Kiyonori Kikutake's office in Tokyo.The best known works of his studio, established in 1981, include Museum complex in Shima, Autopolis Art Museum on Kyushu island, and many private houses. A huge art centre is currently under construction at Shimane.
Naito writes:
Architecture resembles archeology in this endeavor. Archeologists assemble an overall picture of the past using small fragments from ancient times. Architects assemble architeture using fragments from the future. The design of architecture thus involves a paradox - it traces back to the future.
For more about Naito
· Japan Architect 46/2002
· Hiroshi Naito: Silent Architecture, Aedes, Berlin, 1997
Pekka Pitkänen, Finland
Pekka Pitkänen (b. 1927) is a master of concrete architecture whose work may be compared in Finland with the architecture of Aarno Ruusuvuori and internationally, perhaps, with that of Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
Pitkänen graduated from Helsinki University of Technology's Department of Architecture in 1953, and maintained a practice in Turku since 1954. He was awarded a national Building and Community Planning Award in 1982 and was made a professor in 1988.
His key work is The Chapel of the Holy Cross in Turku, completed in 1967. The concrete work in this case has an almost ethereal quality in which the uniform treatment of the material and refined details yield quietly to the grief of the bereaved.
More about the Memorial Chapel in Arkkitehti 5/1967
Rogelio Salmona, Colombia
While still a student, Rogelio Salmona (b. 1929) worked for nearly ten years (1949-57) in Le Corbusier's office in Paris, where he also got to know Aalto. He counts among the few assistants of Le Corbusier still alive.Salmona's architecture is based on the traditional method of laying bricks in Colombia which makes it timeless. His buildings could just as well have been built a thousand years ago as last year.
His key works include the Torres del Parque housing complex in Bogota (1964-70), which has points in common with Aalto's apartment towers in Bremen and Lucerne, and the President's Guest House, Casa de Huespedes in Cartagena (1981).
Salmona enjoys wide recognition in Colombia and elsewhere in South America, having won the ’Taller América’ and ’Premio América’ awards.
Tejeda writes about Salmona as follows:
Salmona’s architecture is more vital, important and valuable because of its universal dimension, its permanence and its roots in the past, than for its presumed regional character.
For more about Rogelio Salmona:
· Ricardo L. Castro: Salmona, Villegas Editores
· Tellez, German and Salmona, Rogelio: Arquitectura y poética del lugar, Bogota, Escala, 1991
James Turrell, USA
James Turrell (b. 1943) first studied experimental psychology and graduated with a B.A. in 1960. His interest in art led him to enrol at the University of California at Irvine, and he gained his M.A. in 1973 from Claremont Graduate School.Turrell became one of the leading figures in a group of artists who became prominent in the 1960s for working with light and space.
During the last twenty years, Turrell's works have been exhibited in key museums around the world and permanent installations of his works can be found in several cities.
The artist lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he is currently overseeing the construction of his most important project which is associated with Roden Crater.
My work has to do with perception - how we see and how we perceive.
You are looking at you looking.
For more about James Turrell:
· AU 7/2002
· James Turrell - Celestial Vault in the Dunes, Stroom, the Hague, 1996
· Air Mass - James Turrell, South Bank Centre, London, 1993
Discussion
Brit Andresen, Australia
Norwegian architect, Professor Brit Andresen teaches and practices in Brisbane, Australia. After completing her architectural studies in Norway she was awarded a scholarship to study housing in The Netherlands and subsequently began practice in Great Britain where she won the architectural design competition for the Burrell Museum in Glasgow with Gasson and Meunier. She has taught architecture at Cambridge University School of Architecture, the Architectural Association London and at UCLA and is currently a professor of architecture at Queensland University.
Projects from the architectural partnership of Brit Andresen and Peter O’Gorman include timber houses that explore the expressive capacity of eucalyptus and the potential for relations with the Australian landscape.
She was warded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2002.
Willim J. R. Curtis, France/UK
Willim J. R. Curtis is a historian, critic, writer and artist who has taught at many universities around the world. His better known books include Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms (1986) and Modern Architecture since 1900 (3rd ed, 1996). Among his recent publications are Abstractions in Space: Tadao Ando, Richard Serra, Ellsworth Kelly (2001), and the Nature of Artifice: Herzog and De Meuron (El Croquis, 2002); also Paìsajes Mentales / Mental Landscapes (2002). Last book being a catalogue of his paintings and drawings exhibited in the Circulo de Bellas Arts, Madrid, July 2002. In 1999 Curtis received an Honors Society Gold Medal in the USA.Nicholas Murcutt, Australia
Level 5, 71 York St, Sydney NSW 2000 | Tel (02) 8297 3590 | Fax (02) 8297 3510 | nmurcutt@iprimus.com.auC.V.
1964 Born London, UK 1984-1987 Studied Architecture University of Technology Part time Office of Terry Dorrough, Sydney 1988 Study tour to South East Asia, Scandinavia and Europe 1988-1989 Studied Architecture at the University of Sydney, Graduated 1989 1989 Tutor First Year Architectural Communications, U. of Sydney 1990-1991 Office of Forward Consultants, Tasmania | Registered as architect | Tutor Second and Third Architectural Design, U. of Tasmania 1992 Office of Studio Valle, Rome and Carl Pickering, Venice 1993 Office of Glenn Murcutt, Sydney. Projects in collaboration 1994 Office of Nicholas Murcutt Architect and Durbach Block Murcutt 1994 Tutor Final year U. of NSW 1994 Tutor Third year U. of Technology 1995 Tutor Third year U. of Technology 1996 Tutor First Year U. of Technology 1997 Tutor Third and Fourth year U. of Newcastle 1998 Tutor Third year UNSW 1998 Tutor Third year U. of Sydney 1999 Tutor Third year U. of Sydney and UNSW 2000 Tutor fourth year UNSW 2000 Co-ordinator and Tutor Este studio Italy | Tutor and co-ordinator UNSW Bundanon 2003 Tutor and co-ordinator USyd final year. Cowra remote studio
Selected Projects
1994 House Young, Seaforth 1995 House Lake Longueville 1996 Coffey Alts and Adds.Woollahra 1996 House Cook Gymea 1997 Saady Alts and Adds, Vaucluse 1997 Amenities Block at Bethlehem Ladies College with Rachel Neeson Design 1998 House Birrell 1998 Amenities Buildings at Olympic site, DurbachBlockMurcutt Architects 1999 "Box"House Charles Bega 2000 House Collopy, Port Stephens 2002 Fitout Shervington 2002 House Harrison 2002 House Reeve 2002 Council House Obrien 2003 Council House Nash 2003 House Williams
Selected Competitions
1987 Swift House NSW Merit Award N.Murcutt with Terry Dorough Architect 1987 Joint first place in the South Sydney Ideas Competition: N Murcutt, A Wilson, D Ostinga, D McDonald 1989 Antarctic Centre Sullivan's Cove: N Durbach, N.Murcutt, A.Wilson, 1989 First Government House Competition, second and third stages N.Durbach, H.Straatveit and N.Murcutt with JTCW and SOM 1993 San Francisco Waterfront Ideas Competition N.Durbach, N.Murcutt, C.Block, H.Straatveit, H.Margalit and D.Ostinga 1994 Selected Scheme Two Stage Competition for Model Urban Housing, St Clair N.Durbach, C.Block, N Murcutt 1995 Wagga Cultural Centre and Council Chambers N Murcutt, D Ostinga 2002 RAIA commendation in Wilkinson residential cetegory for 'Box House" 2002 TDA timber in architecture awards:winner best residential, winner best NSW entrant and finalist in overall winner for collopy house
Selected Publications
1988 Architecture Bulletin as Winner of South Sydney Ideas Competition 1995 Vogue Living Young House 1996 Vogue Living Hardeman House 1997 Oyster Magazine Profile 1999 Architecture Australia September 1999 'Olympics issue' 2000 The OCA 'games architecture' Patrick Bingham Hall 2001 Architectural Review 078 summer 2001 collopy and "box house" 2002 World Architecture England June 2002 2002 Domain Sydney Morning Herald April 25 2002 June 27 2002 awards issue 2002 The Bulletin magazine June 18 2003 House and Garden Australia April 2003 d’Architectures France February 2003 A+U Japan March
Markku Pätilä, Finland
Markku Pätilä, 55, studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1975-76) and the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna (1978-79). After several solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, he designed sets for various films and commercials.As a student, Pätilä earned his living by doing various kinds of renovation work. He regards as very rewarding and influential on his work as a set designer the years he spent in Vienna (10 in all) during which he worked on several Jugenstil dwellings to restore them after they were badly renovated in the 1960s. He is convinced that the mix of practical construction work and art training helped him develop his particular style as a set designer.
He has done sets for Ari Kaurismäki's films with Jukka Salmi from Karkkila, who likewise has an artist/handyman background. Pätilä has recently had success with work closer to that of an architect or interior designer. The challenge in this case has been "reinventing" disused factory buildings as office space.