2022 laureate of architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Architecture Prize is Diébédo Francis Kéré, known as Francis Kéré, Burkina Faso-born architect, educator, social activist, receiver of the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture and designer of the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion. Recognized for “empowering and transforming communities through the process of architecture”, Kéré, the first black architect to ever obtain this award, works mostly in areas charged with constraints and adversity, using local materials and building contemporary facilities whose value exceeds the structure itself, serving and stabilizing the future of entire communities.
“Through buildings that demonstrate beauty, modesty, boldness, and invention, and by the integrity of his architecture and geste, Kéré gracefully upholds the mission of this Prize,” explains the official statement of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Announced today by Tom Pritzker, Chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, Francis Kéré is the 51st winner of the award founded in 1979, succeeding Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. Praised “for the gifts he has created through his work, gifts that go beyond the realm of the architecture discipline”, the acclaimed architect is present equally in Burkina Faso and Germany, professionally and personally.
Cool, now I know how to answer the question "what's so important about Burkina Faso?"
DisruptedCapitalist on
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
0
Options
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
The Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo is to be demolished.
One of Japan's most distinctive works of contemporary architecture, the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo, will be demolished this month, according to the building's new owners.
The decision ends years of uncertainty surrounding the eye-catching structure, which once offered a futuristic vision of urban living but had recently fallen into disrepair.
Completed in 1972, the tower comprises 144 factory-built units arranged around two concrete cores. Each 10-square-meter (108-square-foot) "capsule" features a porthole-style window, with appliances and furniture built into the structure of each home.
They don't even have knee chairs or yoga balls. Absolute garbage chart. Zero stars.
+2
Options
Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
edited November 2022
today, the Eclectic style of architecture is unfortunately most commonly associated with the american McMansions: opulent conglomerations of disconnected shapes foisted together in too-large configurations to affect a certain bombast, a grandiosity implying a wealth of influence but flattening it down to disharmonic geometry
what is worth remembering, however, is that those are in fact neo-Eclectic structures; modernized, conformed, reduced. Whereas the original Eclectic buildings, the OGs from the 1910s-1920s, if lovingly cared for or restored, look like this:
The ideological "point" of the Eclectic is the combination of styles in a harmonic fashion, as the world started to become contemporarily global - arabesque, grecian, gothic, deco; there are even examples of incorporations of east asian influences . This is unlike the Bauhaus and International Styles which also flourished at the time and which sought to utilize the abundance of new and easily manufactured construction materials at the dawn of the 20th century, along with new avenues of thought, to create something wholly new and unique
now, I have
thoughts
about Bauhaus that I won't get into right now, but it is safe to say I greatly prefer Classical Eclecticism over it
I think we may be at a point (more like a very long line than an actual point in time) where our American eclecticism is reacting to Less is More and More is More all at the same time depending on the environment and the local culture. We've got the examples above that show a little restraint but then there's also trends in the opposite direction that lean hard into pulling from so many different styles that it really is becoming something new. So much of that is material driven, like it was in the Bauhaus too, based on what is available and what is affordable.
I'm very curious to see where we go from here both architecturally in big D "Design" but also in associated political movements for affordable housing and urbanism.
All this is to say that the current state of Style is very unsettled, but it sure is a fun ride.
My thoughts are very scattered right now but I'll probably be thinking about this all day, which I really appreciate!
I'm visiting NYC for the first time, and the way they combine old and new is so interesting. So far, I've only seen lower Manhattan, but looking past the Oculus and there is this old brick building that looks like it's a hundred years old. There is a burger king of all places in this little building off to the side that just looks adorable, compared to what's around it. I kind of got that in New Orleans, and I can't remember what exactly the European cities I've been to did. I think I kind of like it.
Posts
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
Pretty fascinating how they're able to reclaim water with the architecture. (And a very relaxing design too!)
https://www.archdaily.com/978446/francis-kere-receives-the-2022-pritzker-architecture-prize
https://www.kerearchitecture.com/work
First black architect to win the Pritzker
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/japan-nakagin-capsule-tower-being-demolished-intl-hnk/index.html
"The Centrist"
That’d go right at the top
what is worth remembering, however, is that those are in fact neo-Eclectic structures; modernized, conformed, reduced. Whereas the original Eclectic buildings, the OGs from the 1910s-1920s, if lovingly cared for or restored, look like this:
The ideological "point" of the Eclectic is the combination of styles in a harmonic fashion, as the world started to become contemporarily global - arabesque, grecian, gothic, deco; there are even examples of incorporations of east asian influences . This is unlike the Bauhaus and International Styles which also flourished at the time and which sought to utilize the abundance of new and easily manufactured construction materials at the dawn of the 20th century, along with new avenues of thought, to create something wholly new and unique
now, I have
thoughts
about Bauhaus that I won't get into right now, but it is safe to say I greatly prefer Classical Eclecticism over it
I'm very curious to see where we go from here both architecturally in big D "Design" but also in associated political movements for affordable housing and urbanism.
All this is to say that the current state of Style is very unsettled, but it sure is a fun ride.
My thoughts are very scattered right now but I'll probably be thinking about this all day, which I really appreciate!