posture.
2
The first issue of posture called for submissions dialectic in nature, considering Sic et Non. The second issue shifts focus from the sides, inwards and towards the singular or the linchpin. The dative; indicating the indirect object. Within the sentence, the dative denotes a case of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that indicate or identify the indirect object or recipient. Without the dative, the sentence will wait patiently, speaking to itself of other things. Without the sentence, the dative infers relation and reason, the tangible and the abstraction. Pictures have been drawn, prose written, much scrawling, and a fair amount of conversing has ensued. Verbs and objects were chased around cups of coffee until they become lost amongst their descriptors or found by their recipients. posture continues to be an excuse to do something; to adopt a pose; take a position; to behave with intent, be it to impress or mislead. These are pages with good posture; a posture slowly modifying itself through new experiments and modification of details. They may not all stand straight, with shoulders squared and hips aligned, but to see how they stand is to see poses adopted and approaches taken; to see intentions. This is an experiment; continued. And anything goes. So long as it has good posture. pp.
3
Frog gifts a pinecone to Crab. According to the laws of grammar, here Frog is the subject, the pinecone the object, and Crab the indirect object. Walt Whitman epitomized a statement within the act of giving with “When I give I give myself ”. Taking this literally, for the receiver, the gift becomes a tangible symbol of the giver. This sets up a reversal of the above, where for the subject Crab, the object pinecone becomes symbolic of the indirect object Frog. Thus Crab’s new gift, regardless of its particular aesthetic or formal worth (it’s a pinecone), gains a wonderful symbolic value to Frog and the relationship they share. To amplify this value, Crab places the gift on a bust, replacing the position of the head, thus affirming the iconic significance of the gift. Crab places this bust proudly in his living room. To his visitors, Crab is clearly celebrating someone through this display, but who it may be is as obscure as placing a pinecone on a bust.
4
paper
Around 1929, in a room on the hills of Poissy, an architect proceeded to carefully fold a sheet of paper into the form of a paper ship. On completion, the paper ship was launched upon the surface of a puddle, forming in the centre of a room. The architect, having completed the launch, said “Au Revoir� and headed for the door.
By following nine steps, laid out by the ancient Japanese art of origami, it is possible to reconstruct the paper ship of 1929.
6
ship
Approximately 580km southwest of Poissy sixty-two years later, another architect, another ship “launch�. Despite the portholes, confirming its character of nautical architecture, the Floating Box of Floirac and Neutra beam serve to form puddles upon which a flotilla of paper ships may be launched in the hills.
We are unsure whether it is the paper ship or the puddle that is the dative for the architecture at Floirac. But either way, we like them.
7
A date with cake An alfajor is a small cake, typical to Spain and Latin America, usually consisting of two round biscuits sandwiching a layer of dulce de leche or other filling. A common English translation of the Spanish (Castilian) sentence “Me gusta la alfajor” would be “I like the alfajor”; but literally, this is not the case. In this instance the Spanish personal pronoun “me” means “to me” or “at me” and the verb “gustar” does not mean “to like” but “to be pleasing” or “to give pleasure”, thus, the literal translation (keeping in mind the reverse order of words) is: “The alfajor gives pleasure to me”. Unlike the first English translation, in the Spanish sentence the small cake is the subject; the cake is the one doing the pleasing. The speaker is the indirect object, completely passive while, through no fault of their own, the cake is actively giving pleasure to them. Thus, the subtle switch in grammatical cases allows the speaker to take no responsibility whatsoever.
8
In Sanskrit the dative translates as an act of giving.
Porno /
Full frontal?
If it ’s ever y thing at once...
It’s just a window.
10
So the question then might be, what do you want your architecture to give you?
Peepshow.
or Something more?
If it takes you too long to get there. If it ’s devious and beautiful, If it’s a slow, selective, seduction and you want more....
It’s probably architecture.
11
“-a Shadow of a Doubt.”
Violet to Red Then you turn again In the confusion And after the dark Its left Was something else? Filling up the room When only the walls Outnumbered us?
________________________
with a notion of dropping design in Ever since the early nineties the metaphors which have yet to do his favour of creating from love. contingency of the everyday has played work any favours, equally viewed deep an increasing role within architecture, mapping and porosity as the antidote to either as attempt to oust the banality of the strictures of a surveillance society. Living the functionalist paradigm or dislocated Excitingly, Goodwin’s explorations upon The second theme kicked off with reality of post-modern contextualism. the public private interface of corporate Chilean Alejandro Aravena giving architecture, albeit disguised in an a Harvard sharpened analysis of Under the creative directorship of Mel Armani suit, are slowly writing their deductive modelling applied to the Dodd, the 2010 national conference way into urban design policy. mass housing market. Arguing the set upon itself the admirable task of square to outperform the rectangle, “bringing architecture down to earth”. London’s Sam Jacob from the art- Aravena, convincingly deployed a hyper A task which it approached, not architecture collaborative practice FAT, rationalized approach to the largely through heavenly utopia, but rather an upheld their reputation by commencing dismissed architectural potential of the emphases on rejecting the detached with the paradigm “Taste Not Space”, mass market as a means to resolve the increasing societal divisions of property gaze, the, by now default, attitude of spelt out on a slide full of spaghetti ownership and equity in Latin America. ‘no big names in architecture’ and a letters, as precipitating culture before lexicon of embracing, initiating and proceeding to unleash a Woody Allen The conundrum of the masses was innovation. An antidote against the fuelled “2000 Years of Non-Stop further unfolded, this time upon the incessant abstraction of globalization, Nostalgia” based on timber; culminating the quotation of the everyday, collated with a FAT designed font constructed Australian landscape, by Richard Weller’s ‘Boomtown 2050’. Despite the customary under - People, Living, Things and Cites on Tudor symbolism. metabolic metaphors Weller was at his - and collected under the title of extra/ most atypical and convincing when he ordinary, promised to be, just that. Viewing narrative as a way to rethink outlined an argument in which suburban function, Sam illustrated a “New sprawl, not the densification of the Pop Moralism” through an aray of metropolitan masses, would save the day. People architectural and design projects that Launching the initial session via willfully and deliberately distort the Frustratingly, neither speakers appeared satellite, Liza Fior, despite the nine hour narrative. Not even an accusation of interested in the richly antagonistic irony latent within culture that Jacob’s time difference, proceeded to unveil a narrating “Toy Town” from the panel uncovered a session earlier. Their range of projects undertaken by MUF, could rattle Jacob’s projects, rooted from illustrating the power of deep space their inception upon people who would architectures proliferating only through demographics, unadulterated growth exploration. Ousting the broad strokes ultimately live in them. and deductive power seeking to firmly of the historic master plan in favour of suppress the plastic art within. mapping existing built and social fabric, Peter Corrigan rounded off the Fior’s investigations underpinned the entertainment by unveiling a lifetimes Urban Splashe’s Tom Broxham, delivered increasing role of site specificity within worth of theatrical works. Deploring a polished presentation of an anything an abstracted global arena. any crossover between architecture and but ordinary developer portfolio. theatre, Corrigan proceeded to state the Showcasing the retrofitting of industrial Richard Goodwin’s following argument theatres’ superiority both in etiquette Victoriana up and down country, to and cultural tendency to imbibe and for a healthy architecture, despite being upside down town houses, and the fornicate, before leaving the audience persistently drawn upon parasitic recladding of Britians’ post-war towered
14
extra/ordinary in review: 2010 National Architecture Conference, Sydney
landscape, Broxham gave an insightful glimpse into the role of developer as curator of space.
“Architecture of Consequence”. The forefather, Buckminster Fuller, as apocalyptic world initially portrayed, Buckie, Edmiston finally managed to categorized under the seven deadly argue for the future viability of the CNC crashes, thankfully lifted to reveal the milling of plywood as a means for massThe pitch reached fever point with their customization; apply demonstrated Dutch typical tenants of monumentality much acclaimed New Islington. Lauded and detailed refinement. Proposing through their prototype prefab house Britain’s worst housing estate, Urban outlandish yet plausible solutions, at MoMA’s BURST 008. Splash set about delivering a mixed use Martine illustrated projects, such scheme in collaboration with residents as AMO’s proposed Zeekracht; a Things concluded with PHOOEY and well-known architects, Alsop and renewable energy infrastructure FAT included. Alsop, his usual willful Architects Peter Ho, despite admirable encompassing nothing short of the ambitions of carbon neutrality, self, playing on the strength of place, entire North Sea, far exceeding delivered ‘Chips’, a residential building appeared bent on reinventing the kitsch standard piecemeal solutions to the of pop via the off-cuts of construction. playfully immersed in the culinary issues of climate change. traditions of the Midlands. While FAT constructed traditional terraced housing units complete with a riot of colored and Cities patterned facades in a scheme that makes Stupendous? Teddy Cruz, via satellite link from new urbanist appear banal. New York, entered the Cities debate Ironically, climate change appeared on by exploring new strategies for the the conference radar thanks only to the best efforts of Iceland’s volcanic gods. troubled San Diego-Tijuana border Things zone. Cruz, initially charted the flow Unveiling the technically extraordinary Standing in for absence of scheduled and subsequence inventive use of dismissal of the digital age to deliver an African Diebedo Francis Kere, New international lineup in the first instant. garbage flowing south through an Zealand’s Rewi Thompson’s filial piety arguably lead to the architecture of ambitiously large photographic project, The final resolution of the conference proceeded to unfold a mapping of the his “difficult house”. Its all consuming fine urban grain associated with the did however reveal other extraordinary seriousness leaving scant room any of promising and exciting points of note. stream of cheap labour flowing north; the playful narrative distortion of cultural The deductive powers modelled by facilitating the infiltration and critique symbolism enjoyed in the previous two sessions. Perhaps the conference the American’s, collaborating with of banal North America zoning laws pairing of People and Things, Living with creative appropriation, demonstrated Cities would have better facilitated the Specificity within the generic was again that hyper rationalism need not lead discussion of this at best difficult topic. reiterated through Kerstin Thompson’s to sterility. Or the eccentric whimsey of the Pom’s, constructing playfully thoughtful “miniature city” strategy for By the second half, distortion resurfaced Melbournian police stations; rethinking distorted narratives grounded upon the again with New York’s SYSTEMarchitect specificity of revitalized communities. the typically insipid architecture of civil Jeremy Edmiston tracing a connection enforcement. between the Baroque profile and With the increasing shift towards a abstracted programmatic relations. bottom up, or “help grow it yourself” Martine Zoeteman, stepping in for the Proceeding to deliver a somewhat less approach, architecture, it seems, is Netherlands Architecture Institutes than short history of the structural best enjoyed with an extra helping of director Ole Bouman, delivered a properties of plywood, all the while ordinary fun. final barrage of images entitled the affectionately referring to its modern
15
16
17
The other was so reliant.
As he spun on his chair to retrieve the pencil he had absentmindedly left on the table located directly behind him he knocked one of the lines. This concerned him. It was not so much the displacement of the line, but rather what that meant for the other.
How I gave youยน 18
LET’S FORGET STYLE...
AND LET’S CREATE SPACE. For the length of the twentieth century, an ideological war was fought among those in the crucial role of architectural intelligentsia (having reached this role in many cases through the catalyst route of being avant-garde). Those architects (and their admirers) began a century-long debate that continues to this day: that of the importance and direction of architectural STYLE. The ideas spread throughout that century and beyond have become the foundation of study at architecture schools and philosophical debate among architectural circles. The suggestion that we must pursue an ideal manifestation of STYLE has permeated through into the very depths of architectural criticism, technique, design, and intent. It seems that without a prescribed STYLE (or pursuit thereof ), an architect is devoid of purpose, idealist strategy, and forethought (READ: any architectural significance entirely.) This ridiculous stream of thought has become our basic framework from which we, as designers, subjectively decide what should be objective and how we can strive towards this paradoxical set of inane strategies. But what about space? Architecture can be described as the delineation of space to create new realities. When did the STYLE of that space become the subjugation of the result?
In many contemporary architecture schools, students are taught to be Howard Roark, but in a very literal and contradictory sense. We are encouraged to pursue an early modernist style that has long been over-thought, rehashed, dismissed, reexamined, dismissed again, and subsequently confused. We are taught that noteworthy architects of the last century became so after developing, adhering to, and perfecting a STYLE. But STYLE can limit us when it is perceived as the goal. This misdirection leads to placing architectural value on the extent to which a building reaches an idealistic manifestation of a STYLE. We seem to forget the contradiction that often occurs in the careers of architects who devote their lives to a STYLE and either realize or exemplify the faults of such pursuits. Le Corbusier’s contradiction from Villa Savoye to Ronchamp, Mies’ inclusion of ornamental steel beams on the Seagram Building, the commonly agreed failure of 1980s Postmodernism, and the self-serving creations of many contemporary “Starchitects”. Instead, can we not simply devote our pursuits to the creation of spaces that create intrigue, potential, inexistent realities, and make the user exalted over the architect…or STYLE? Let’s forget style, and let’s create space. Zachary Meade
19
20
21
Contributors. p12-13. Phil Mark. extra/ordinary. 3 typefaces. Wellington. philmark01@hotmail.com +64 [0] 21 0684123
Cover image. Katherine Roberts. A camera and a pencil. p2. Andrew Just. Frog (pinecone) Crab. Christchurch. andrew@valhalla.net.nz
p14-15. Katherine Roberts. The other. Plaster, wire, rimu, a camera & a computer. Wellington. roberts.a.katherine@gmail.com
p3. c.v. postu[re]late. photographic montage+autocad+photoshop. Wellington. kog_transmission@hotmail.com
p16. Daniel Davis. Untitled. Processing and nine beds. Melbourne. nzarchitecture.com
p4-5. Phil Mark. Paper ship. Illustrator. Wellington. philmark01@hotmail.com +64 [0] 21 0684123
p17. Pristereo. Let’s Forget Style... And Let’s Create Space. Australia for the moment. www.pristereo.com
p6. Jack Delgado. A date with cake. Graphite & digital. Wellington. www.jackdelgado.com
p18-19. DKJP. an indirect reference to an object. Graphite & ink. Wellington. roberts.a.katherine@gmail.com
p7. Frances Vessey. Four words to stand on. Ink & letraset. Wellington. Frances.Vessey@gmail.com p8-9. Meals Guise. porno/peepshow. Photoshop hackjob. Auckland. p10-11. Byron Kinnaird. “–A Shadow of a Doubt.” Drawing (graphite, digital text & chart, & layering). Melbourne. byron.kinnaird@gmail.com
Art direction and editorial by Katherine Roberts. For information and enquires, posture can be contacted at posture.publication@gmail.com
22
posture would like to extend a kind word of thanks to the growing number of you supporting, and contributing to this, the second issue. posture is looking forward to making more new friends and conversing with you again soon. All with good posture. 65
Number 2.
The dative; indicating the indirect object.