blablablarchitecture is talking buildings. In Soundbite 3, we learn about talking to a building. Maori architecture offers European architecture a  unique perspective. In maori culture the whare whakairo, the carved meeting house, as per 072hin_Hinemihi, transcends the European construct of representation in the sense that it is not, as Michael Linzey has written, “like an ancestor, it is the ancestor”. The whare whakairo being the ancestor, means it has a gender: Hinemihi is a woman. The whare whakairo is spoken to and the Maori comportment of ‘speaking to architecture’ is “alien to European-educated ways of thinking. Europeans are permitted to speak to one another, but may only talk about architecture. The respective linguistic comportments, ‘speaking to’ and ‘talking about’ are distinctly different ways of seeing and understanding architecture.” Furthermore Linzey states that Europeans dare not to speak to objects, such as buildings, for the fear of looking, like Dr Doolittle who spoke to the animals, of completely ridiculous…

Radio blablablarchitecture is talking buildings. In this show, we listen and talk about the idea of a building as an instrument. There’s an invisible architecture, a sonically perceived space that is not necessarily dependent on the visual stimuli. In that sense, sound design is not just about matching the supposed acoustic characteristics of a visual space, but also a way of altering the narrative and emotional aspects of a story by actually altering the space itself in terms of a character, a circumstance, a specific event or a certain sense of place. In that way of resolving the subjective-objective and diegetic-non diegetic dynamics, there’s in fact so much creative possibilities, an architectural process of sound available. It is not just about accompanying the visual, but establishing alterations and new perceptions of the spatial dimension, getting into a virtual sonic architecture, an imaginative conception of space that is not just physical in terms of the context, but audible, perceptual; aiming to be open to different notions of the space itself either acoustic or acousmatic and actually creating a space between both conceptions in order to develop a game between fidelity towards the visual, causal or narrative, and the expansion of those elements itself by adding its own characteristics, as a way of altering the landscape from the soundscape.

Radio Blablablarchitecture is talking buildings. In this show, we listen to buildings. ‘Blindfold Critique’ is a new way of ‘looking’ at architecture. Or rather not looking at architecture. This architecture disengaged from the visual field and reconsidered in the aural. The architect (you, me, critic, man in the street…) is blindfolded and taken to a space where they are asked to give their response as they are led along an sonic architectural promenade. These soundings have been recorded and edited by Joshua David Lynch and are presented here as audio files (and best listened to through headphones). Blindfold Critiques where done as part of the 2013 Sydney Architecture Festival and were presented as part of the Expanded Architecture at The Rocks Exhibition.  

This video was created by The Architecture Foundation as part of Doughnut: The Outer London Festival

All we hear is Radio Blabla…  

En la preparación para el próximo libro el Juego de Arquitectura que pasar las páginas hacia atrás a un proyecto seminal realizado con Gerrit Grigoleit, hoy de P.arc Berlín

  New Zealand is in the news for reasons other than sport. The country is going through an identity crisis and resolution will be determined, following Scotland and Greece most recently, by public participation. The NZ Government, lead by PM John Keys, is holding a referendum as the country seemingly needs a new flag although this argument for change has been bubbling beneath the cultural landscape, much like a Rotorua mud pool, for some decades now. There are three historic reasons for change: firstly, that the current NZ flag which dates from 1902 appears too similar to the Australian; secondly that the nation considers its colonial heritage as being anachronistic today; thirdly that the flag does not recognise Polynesian indignity. New Zealand is part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a group of countries that seek governance to be more accountable to its citizens. Interestingly, the OGP’s four principles include: transparency, accountability, participation and innovation / technology. The first two principles seem to have been successfully delivered given NZ’s top two rating in Transparency International’s index which consolidates the government’s puerile ‘100% Pure’ brand building / tourism budget. The last two principles are of interest to the Game of Architecture research field: participation and innovation in relation to national identity brand building through the waving of a flag. To facilitate participation in the flag debate, the Flag Consideration Panel asked NZers to share their views and values as well as suggest alternative flag designs. The nationwide engagement programme included:

• a national road show with 25 workshops and hui across the country
• visits to busy shopping malls, libraries and markets
• over 700,000 visits to our websites, and more than 1,000,000 people reached via social media.

The Game of Flags is has the goal of producing a simple iconographic image to be flown at ‘commemorations, celebrations and times of mourning’ yet ideologically weighed down by ‘unity, symbolism, citizenship, culture and identity’. The consultation process reminded me of those we encounter in 012hil_rooftop nursery and 069hil_cowley st lawrence whereby the stakeholders are the designers. In the end one might ask, in relation to ‘mistaken identity’, is this really such a problem? Look at Europe: one could open a second hand flag shop and sell faded flags from of one state to another: Belgium to Romania, Netherlands to Luxembourg… Japan? You’re sorted. But if you had colonised the US it would have resulted in ‘spots and banners’.

In response to a recent tweet from Wallpaper*regarding “a boutique hotel with a rocker’s soul”, the writer seems to be acutely  unaware of Keith Richard’s interior design skills: televisions lobbed from balconies;  Or is it that the omnipresence of aspirational designer lifestyles trumpeted by glossies has meant that even today’s rock ‘n rollers are more concerned about plush furnishings and an ergonomic mattress rather than destroying a hotel room. Maintaining the increasingly risk adverse, Health and Safety soft rock ‘ n roll chic has it’s natural conclusion: the American Gladiator Bandstand has a ‘Battle of The Bands’ whereby the competition is not musical, rather architectural: hotel room thrashing.

Line up as at 23 July