High-Rise

Extract from Brazilian documentary High-Rise (2009), directed by Gabriel Mascaro

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El Claustro : Penique Productions

Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro, Mexico. (2011)

Penique Productions

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Hausa House : Kano, Northern Nigeria

Ernesto Oroza : Architecture of Necessity

He lived with his mother in a space that was so small that it couldn’t legally be considered a house. He expanded into the hallway, built a kitchen and refurbished the bathroom. He changed the status of the property and acquired a title for it. He got his hands on a permit to build on the roof, as he thought about moving out on his own. In order to do this he had to build an exterior stairway. He set to work on the structure indoors and started the paperwork to divide the property. The appearance of an exterior stairway before the process of dividing the house was finished could be considered a violation, and he could be fined or even lose all property rights to the house he had built.

He understood that the description of the house and its parts depends on the cultural understanding that we have of it, that laws depend on this understanding.

Then, what is a stairway? How does one describe it? Could he build a structure in front of his doorway that looks nothing like a stairway but serves the same function? Maybe just objects stacked in such a way that one can climb and descend them? Or an object by Ettore Sottsass, a stack that includes all of Feijóo’s books, a Franz West sculpture, anything?

He decided on a conceptual shortcut: he built the stairway and waited to be fined. In this way, he gained time. The Law demanded that he cease building the stairway until the paperwork needed to divide the property was finalized.

Years went by. He used the unfinished stairway.

What’s a finished stairway?

Ernesto Oroza, from his online project Architecture of Necessity

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Scarpa : Tomba Brion-Vega

 

Tomba Brion-Vega, San Vito d'Altivole, Italy (1970-72)

Carlo Scarpa

I'm on a bit of a Barragán and Scarpa binge at the moment... brilliant.

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Barragán House

Barragán House, Mexico City (1947–48)
Luis Barragán

Lesley Vance

Lesley Vance, Untitled (2011)

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Andreas Gursky: Copan

Edifício Copan (1966), São Paulo, Brazil

Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012)

Photo by Andreas Gursky

Alan & Gretchen : Disappearing Act

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R.I.P. Lebbeus Woods, 1940-2012

Einstein's Tomb (1980)
Lebbeus Woods passed away last night, surrounded by a New York City still submerged in the floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy. He was a great visionary who's writings, opinions and incredible drawings I only discovered recently but have found inspiring and provocative. It was with great shock and sadness that I learned of his passing.

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Alexander Brodsky : Rotunda

Rotunda (2009), Kaluga region of Russia
Alexander Brodsky

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