deconcrete

^ William Morris green wallpapers. Google images search

Andrew Meharg has thoroughly researched about the terrific ‘killer wallpapers’. Conceived and produced by icon of pre-modern design William Morris within his Arts & Crafts movement (1860s-1910s), these wallpapers were largely used during the Victorian era in ballrooms and homes of accommodated British families. After his microscopic analysis of bits of original fragments, he concluded that the green pigment was based on arsenic. It was applied either to interiors or textiles with serious concerns for human health in living space. Walls would slowly release the poison into the air. Dyed clothing would transmit the poison straight into the sweaty body skin. The humidity in the air provoked by human activity in the room intensified enormously the effects of arsenic-based greens and their toxic fumes. Damp ambiences turned the pigment particles volatile.

^ William Morris Wallpaper via popular science

^ Arsenic green ink to print arsenic green textiles, 1848. via popular science

^ Arsenic-based clothing, 1850s via Dyeing to be fashionable

^ Cave Home_Broken Manual 2008, by Alec Soth via spaceframed

In this hyper-connected world of control technologies, the desire of hiding is still very human. Either as a result of social exclusion, marginal lifestyles, anti-mainstream behaviors, political statements, existential meditations, religious beliefs, economic difficulties or utopian experiments, it is always interesting to look at the shelters that house such aspirations of disconnection from the network society.

The mysterious case of that middle-aged Japanese woman who was living in the cupboard of a random person’s home for several months without him noticing perfectly fits in one of these life experiences. Even if the media do not agree on the actual length of the period she spent sneaking in and out of the cupboard, together with the dubiously believable choreography on the viral video and its different versions (probably fakes), it is stunning to see such waste spaces converted into dwelling environments.

The film Somewhere To Disappear featuring photographer Alec Soth’s visual approach to shelters from this world provides a brilliant journey into otherness and the way we create the boundary between normality and Foucauldian abnormality :

^ Stills from Somewhere To Disappear, a film by Laure Flammarion and Arnaud Uyttenhove with Alec Soth, 2010. 57 min.

^ Reconstructed map of sunken Dunwich, UK, by David Sear et al.

The sunken medieval town of Dunwich has been recently surveyed in the report Dunwich, Suffolk:Mapping and assessing the inundated by David Sear (UoS), Andy Murdock (GDI), Tim LeBas (NOC), Paul Baggaley (WA) and Gemma Gubbins (GDI).

The town collapsed in the 1400s due to storms that battered the coastline and flooded it with silt. DIDSON-DH acoustic imaging technology has allowed tracking the ruins of the buildings on the seabed with the help of divers. The reconstruction of the shoreline through the stone blocks provides information about the settlement itself, but also about the climatic, topographic and social features of the time.

^ Dunwich coast today via Wired

^ Yorkshire’s coastal erosion 2012_Image by Neil A White via The Guardian

After Charles Jencks proclaimed the End of Modernity on March 16, 1972 shortly after 15:00 (the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe Council Estate in St Louis), how can we situate more recent demolitions of similar failed projects? Can we read them as the End of another Modernity? May they rather be the Beginning of a new era? How long will expand Jencks’ End of Modernity into the present future or the future present? What implies that these demolitions provoke such joy amongst assistants to the spectacle? Are demolitions architectural tools for urban planning or rather a matter of planning ‘social cleansing’?

 


^ Red Road Housing demolition. Glasgow, 5 May 2013

^ Lasswade Road Housing demolition. Edinburgh, 25 October 2009

^ High Marnham Power Station demolition. Retford, Nottinghamshire, 15 July 2012

Fantastic article by Jan Loerakker at Failed Architecture on the role of architectural metaphors in the media.

as well as ‘Architects Talking Architecture‘.

^ Black Mirror series 2 episode 2: White Bear (UK, 2013). Director: Carl Tibbetts. Writer: Charlie Brooker.

An absolutely brilliant trip to hyper-mediatized space:

“Victoria wakes with a head-ache and bandaged wrists,pills spilled on the floor. A strange sign is flickering on the television but she can remember nothing. Outside she meets Jem, a young woman who explains that the signal on the television set comes from the White Bear transmitter. It has turned most of the population into voyeurs who do nothing but watch and sometimes film as a deadly elite known as the hunters kill those unaffected by the signal,such as Jem and Victoria. Escaping from a hunter they reach the White Bear transmitter,which they intend to destroy. However the White Bear set-up is not what it first appears and nor is Victoria.” [text> imdb]

watch White Bear

thanks, nerea!

^ In Ictu Oculi, by Greta Alfaro 2009. Single channel video (HDV, 16:9, colour, sound). Duration: 10’35

“From its title (meaning “in the blink of an eye”) onwards, Greta Alfaro’s In Ictu Oculi is concerned with the viewer’s experience of time: the eye is yours. The work’s title, which alludes to the brevity of human existence, is shared with a number of vanitas paintings from the seventeenth century, and, like them, Alfaro’s video treats the stuff that surrounds us as coded references to our own demise. A dinner table, laden with plates of food and wine bottles, its chairs waiting to be occupied, stands in a scrubby, semi-mountainous landscape, a breeze flickering its tablecloth. The table’s placement, in the centre of the frame (the shot is still), makes unmistakeable allusion to painted conventions – the Last Supper, the Supper at Emmaus. And yet the occupants, when they arrive, transform the table’s Biblical and epicurean suggestions into something nightmarish and deathly. The stilled moment of the painted meal becomes subject to cinematic time: movement is change. Vultures descend, from nowhere, their bulk and scrabble bringing instability to the implied order of the scene. Yet the meal’s duration, and its strange quietness (aside from the flapping of wings and chink of claw on plate) lend it a human quality: this might be the soundtrack to a medieval banquet. The birds here, like Hitchcock’s, act out repressed human desires (to gorge oneself): they’re us, with the mask off.”

Text by Ben Street via Saatchi Gallery

^ The cell room in each 4 Phases of Agema’s prison model. Images by Jonas Staal.

‘Closed Architecture’ is the 2004 Master’s degree thesis in Interior Design of right-wing Dutch politician Fleur Agema. Based on her sketches, concepts and descriptions, visual artist Jonas Staal 3D-rendered her visions for a phased prison model in the Netherlands.

Agema’s space for reintegration of prisoners into society aimed to toughen current forms of detention to an extreme. Her model consisted of four disciplinary phases: The Bunker – The Wait – The Habituation – The Light. The inmate would upgrade depending on his behaviour, thus obtaining more daylight, space and typically consumerist commodities in his living area. As penalty for misbehaviour within her prison model, the inmate would revisit previous stages, backwards towards a ‘dungeon’ condition.

Through his Foucauldian visualizations, Staal brilliantly unmasks the ideal of citizens and society behind Agema’s political agenda in real life. He manages to show how an early architectural mind evolves into a populist understanding and construction of guilt and punishment.

^ The buildings in each 4 Phases of Agema’s prison model. Images by Jonas Staal

Thanks, Luli!

^ Margaret Thatcher in the kitchen at 10 Downing Street. Above: ca. 1979. Below: 1989

Yesterday there were two fantastic articles on The Guardian about Thatcher. One about death etiquette with public (not private) figures and another about the possibility of privatising her funeral as a tribute to her legacy. As brilliantly narrated on CHAVS – The demonization of the working class, the whole dismantlement of the welfare state and social housing is something for which the world will remember her administration, amongst other issues. Unfortunately, the British privatisation model is ‘enlightening’ today south-European countries as a remedy to the crisis.

Today several sets of images of the kitchen at Downing Street residence are virally circulating. They compare the interior design of Margaret’s and Samantha’s kitchen in a fake domestic atmosphere. This iconography seems to be the means of representation for carefully staged ideal housewives. More or less spartan, the kitchen is still used as heteronormative propaganda for certain values in order to connect with wider ‘middle classes’. Apparently, this is the place where a powerful woman is expected to publicly inhabit if she wants to communicate closely with her citizens and transmit a feeling of ‘normal’ life. But who needs to believe still in this Ikea-catalogue plastic happiness? I wish Prime Ministers and/or spouses were a bit more Ikea-disobedients and were also photographed while a night out with Berlin’s mayor at Berghain: sweaty and vulgar.

^ James and Samantha Cameron in their West London apartment, 2010 via The Telegraph

^ Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama sitting at 11 Downing Street semi-open kitchen. Image released by the White House 2011 via bbc news

Source of plans and images below: Montague H. Cox & G. Topham Forrest (eds). Survey of London: volume 14. London, 1931. via British-History

^ Main Kitchen for the Downing Street residence

^ 11 Downing Street. Ground, First and Second Floor plan. 1846

^ Ground floor 10 Downing Street with 1781 alterations. Note that the drawing is South-oriented

^ 10, 11 & 12 Downing Street. Ground Floor plan. ca. 1931

^ 10, 11 & 12 Downing Street. First Floor plan. ca. 1931

^ 10, 11 & 12 Downing Street. Second Floor plan. ca. 1931

^ Elevation and section Downing Street. ca. 1931

^ Elevation and section Downing Street. ca. 1931

^ Empire II, as featured in Dubai-based Brusselssprout Curatorial Magazine #2 [Fall 2010]

‘Empire II is the continuation of Empire.

On Saturday 25 July 1964 (46 years ago) Andy Warhol and Jonas Mekas filmed the movie Empire.

Empire is a silent, black and white film that lacks a traditional narrative or characters. The passage from daylight to darkness becomes the film’s narrative, while the protagonist is the iconic building that was (and is again) the tallest in New York City. Non-events such as a blinking light at the top of a neighboring building mark the passage of time.

It was filmed from 8:06 p.m. to 2:42 a.m. from the 41st floor of the Time-Life Building, from the offices of the Rockefeller Foundation.’

Empire II is the continuation of the Andy Warhol work: creation of non-media as media, film as non-film. The film was shot on July 27th, 2010 by Andre Orione, David Payton and Lohra Ydna and presents Burj Khalifa (aka Burj Dubai).

Due to a growing decrease in parishioners, the Evangelical Church closed 340 temples in Germany between 1990 and 2010. It is estimated that 700 additional churches will be shut down in the following 10 years. [source> el pais].

In order to financially cope with their heritage, they have recently launched an internet website to promote and deal with post-religious real-estate [www.kirchengrundstuecke.de]. However, controversies concerning the metamorphosis of these empty buildings have arrived to the public opinion.

For me, the conflict is not about WHAT to do inside unused churches, but WHO has the authority to determine that. Who should decide on them being turned into luxury retail, hotels, restaurants and Muslim mosques (i.e. Kapernaum, Hamburg): the archbishop, local parishioners or the State? Is it the owner, the user/non-user or the government?

^ Gerhard-Uhlhorn Church for sale in Hannover. 1,276 m2. 410,000 €

^ Parchim Church for sale near Schwerin. 829 m2. 298,500 €

^ Church and parochial house in Stöcken, Hannover. 4,618 m2. 990,000 €

^ Church in Frankfurt am Main. 3,068 m2. Price upon request.

^ Church in Hannover. 4,161 m2. 640,000 €

[source: Out of Sight, Out of Mind]

‘Since 2004, the US has been practicing in a new kind of clandestine military operation. The justification for using drones to take out enemy targets is appealing because it removes the risk of losing American military, it’s much cheaper than deploying soldiers, it’s politically much easier to maneuver (i.e. flying a drone within Pakistan vs. sending troops) and it keeps the world in the dark about what is actually happening. It takes the conflict out of sight, out of mind. The success rate is extremely low and the cost on civilian lives and the general well-being of the population is very high. This project helps to bring light on the topic of drones [...].’

The following photo series, Gardens and Shelter, both by Henk Wildschut, illustrate the construction of domestic space for a limited and uncertain time lapse. Its fate at a micro-scale relies not on personal choice but on international law being applied to these extraterritorial settlements. These spaces are constructed by dwellers who know that they will leave them behind sooner or later.

The authors of the temporary gardens outside the tents of the Shousha Refugee Camp await for a decision by the UNHCR that prolongs their stay in the camp or returns them back to their country of origin. The authors of the temporary shelters in an area of Calais, France, known as The Jungle, await for the great crossing of the strait to make a life in Britain. If dwellers of the ‘formal’ tents use blue UN corporate plastics and empty bottles of water as available building materials, the ‘invisible’ dwellers of the tents in the French woods resort to urban waste, such as old clothes and market-plastics. The former scape from war and are housed in a military settlement. The latter seek to enter the consumerist dream and have to house themselves with the remnants of Lidl carrier bags. Both seem to be trapped in the materiality of the conflict they are trying to scape.

How should the UN deal with domesticity in the camps?  Could the ‘irregular’ waiting camps at European border crossings become humanized?

How comfortable or uncomfortable needs to be a transitory place to legitimize its permanence?

[images via Obsessive Collectors]

^ Gardens Photo Series, by Henk Wildschut 2011. Shousha Refugee Camp, Tunisian-Lybian border.

^ Shelter Photo Series, by Henk Wildschut 2006-2009. Tents built by dwellers awaiting to get to Britain in Calais, France.

^ Skyscraper Index. Booms and Crises throughout highrise buildings. Art After Democratism, Installation by Jonas Staal at Traffic, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional masonry wall with coral stones. Sharjah, UAE. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Urbanizing the desert, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Reconstruction of Traditional Architecture with palm branches. Bed for sleeping outside in the summer. Indian visitors at Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Reconstruction of a Wind-Tower (Yawani type) divided diagonally in four sectors for natural ventilation of the sleeping area to catch breeze at night. Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Reconstruction of a Wind-Tower (Yawani type). Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Cross-section of  a Wind-Tower. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ How to Inhabit a Wind-Tower. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Reconstruction of ancient wind-towers (Barajeel type) in old city of Dubai. A/C inside? Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional games for boys to ‘test their strength and endurance’ and games for girls ‘which reflect home life’. Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ The origin of Dubai economy: Pearl divers at the seashore, a job traditionally carried out by African slaves, when the Gulf Peninsula was a key site of the slave trade route between East Africa and West India (6th-15th centuries). Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Turtle-shell nose clips for pearl divers. Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Pearl divers in Dubai, a job traditionally carried out by African slaves. Dubai Museum. Children born from enslaved women, concubines of Arab citizens, were ‘born free’. Any trace of their mother’s heritage became obliterated as they took on Arab identities from their fathers. They constituted the Afro-Emirati society. [source> J.D.]. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Pearl diving areas in the Gulf. Sheikh Shaeed Al-Maktoum House Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^  Divers. The Waterfall at The Dubai Mall. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Palm branches Architecture. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Architecture of nomadic tribes. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ ‘Musical instrument made from goats hooves and worn around the waist’. Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Courtyard house. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ 3D collage of traditional Emirati architectures. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional House Elevation. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Emirati man standing in front of a traditional house. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Building techniques. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Building techniques. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Building techniques. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Building techniques. Heritage Architecture Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Old scheme for a staircase hidden under another staircase. Sheikh Shaeed Al-Maktoum House Museum, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Indoor Ski Slope, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Indoor Ski Slope, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Indoor Ski Slope, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Indoor Ski Slope, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Dubai Aquarium with the largest acrylic panel in the world (32.88 m wide × 8.3 m high × 750 mm thick and weighing 245,614 kg). The Dubai Mall. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Traditional Water tank, camouflaged A/C and vernacular masonry wall. Dubai Museum. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Power in Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Man rushing to a pop-up Mosque during prayer time in the Labour Camps Area, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013

^ Contemporary barracks at the Labour Camps for migrant workers, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Alphabetically-named barracks at the Labour Camps for migrant workers, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Downtown Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Telecom Palm Trees. Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Dragon-shaped floorplan of the Dragon Mart for Chinese goods, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Dragon Mart, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Dragon Mart, Dubai. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Restored/Reconstructed remnants of the 50-cm-thick Wall of Old Dubai. ‘City walls are one of the prominent architectural features of the urban context of old cities’. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Historic Tree in Old Dubai. Planting Date: 1960.  Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Rulers of the UAE. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ ‘The government is not a power on the people but the power to serve the people, so the success of the government is to what extend the people satisfy with the government’. In the United Arab Emirates, less than 20% of the population are ‘citizens’. Less than 1% of that 20% is allowed to vote. [source> Human Rights Watch, 2009]. Image by deconcrete2013.

^ Where Dubai ends. Image by deconcrete2013.