Storefront for Art and Architecture
OK, here we are back in the Imperial ballroom of the Fairmont hotel, downtown Chicago, for day 2 of the Vectorworks user conference. The keynote speaker is Eva Franch, who, it appears to me, combines art and architecture. In a few minutes we will find out...
Her's is to question: how do we build, how do we construct. She sees three types of architects. Those who just repeat what has been done before (not ones she would approve of), those who try to destroy what was done before (avant gardes, also disapproved of), and those who who have do what is new yet matches the needs of clients. "Sometimes we are driven by profits, sometimes we are driven by principles, sometimes by other things."
She worked on a project trying to understand successful architecture, producing a 1,200-page book describing 1000 projects by 200 firms. Architecture is not done by the star architects whose names we know, but by the staff in the offices. To document this, she had a film maker put a camera on truck that moved horizontally through many architectural offices, showing the staff at work.
But more than architecture, the organization has a storefront in New York City that never got a building permit and has so far survived 25 years in a narrow triangular shape. It has been rebuilt over the years in a variety of experiments. They have wondered about the problems raised by the Occupy movement, rape on campus, sustainability -- yet she admits they have no solutions to the problems, just questions. I am guessing she might vote for Sanders; I am wondering where the group gets their funding, as she says they are a non-profit.
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