| curiously, the very same rhetoric | they use, to legitimate starChildren | as they did the present brood of | starArchitects, anyone care to dig-out | the media references from the moraine | of history circa 1980-85? | | not so curiously, of course, the | starChildren demographics reflect the | new centers (or hopes) of global | capitalism. we remember the spawning | of Euro/UK starArchitects in the 1980s | in the endgame(S) of the cold war.
Building Recognition The star system spurred insatiable global demand for serious architecture. Only the next generation can satisfy it now. .... So a new generation of architects is moving into the spotlight—not that they necessarily want to be there. What distinguishes many of them from their elders is not only what their designs look like—they tend to avoid a signature style—but how they work. They frequently collaborate and often blur the lines between architecture and landscape, urban planning and art. They collaborate with ease across cultures, too. Just look at Malaysian-born, London-based Chris Lee, who has partnered with fellow architect Kapil Gupta of Mumbai to design an ultracool shopping mall in Qatar. Or check out MAD, the team of Chinese-born Yansong Ma and Japanese-born Yosuke Hayano, who are based in Ann Arbor, Michigan—but are working in Guangzhou and Mongolia and just won a big competition in Toronto. "There's a shift away from the role of the heroic master creator," says Terence Riley, curator of MoMA's Spain show. Many younger architects emphasize the process of investigation and design, rather than committing to an idealized form—a strategy some attribute, ironically, to star Rem Koolhaas and his Rotterdam firm OMA. "This generation are perhaps more flexible and pragmatic," says Rosalie Genevro, director of the Architectural League in New York. "They're not worrying so much about the theory and meaning of it all. They have an attitude toward problem solving." For them, the computer is more a quotidian tool than an inspiration, and they naturally absorb environmental or social issues into their work. cont'd.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12667880/site/newsweek/ _______________________________________________ in-enaction mailing list http://mail.architexturez.net/mailman/listinfo/in-enaction + Architexturez collaborative at http://portal.architexturez.org/
