Posted inArt

Remaking the City with Architectural Collage

From a standpoint of cohesion, the architecture of the 20th century was a mess. Brutalist monoliths were constructed alongside shimmering aluminum waves, while some architects clung to scraps of classicism like life preservers in a swelling sea of modernism. However, it was this mishmash of styles and ideas that resulted in some of the most visionary designs, and not surprisingly the use of collage became a central medium for experimentation.

Posted inNews

NYC Culture Shed, a Permanent Space for Temporary Events

The possible future site of New York Fashion Week and hundreds of other arts and culture events resembles a futuristic, moving building more than a Barclays Center for the arts. The so-called Culture Shed, a structure slated to be part of the Hudson Yards development, will occupy West 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, and promises to provide a home for large-scale temporary arts events, which currently lack a permanent site in the city.

Posted inArt

How Comfortable Are You in the City, Really?

Can anyone ever be truly comfortable in New York? I’ve lived here my whole life and still feel the daily stresses of subway rides, traffic, overcrowding and of course insanely high prices (tickets to MoMA cost $25 now?). These Manhattan blues are part of the reason I was both intrigued and skeptical of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a pop-up event space in the East Village that will present a series of lectures, film screenings and interactive programs all based around the idea of confronting comfort in our cities and urban development. With corporate sponsoring shoved right into its very title, I wondered if the Lab would stick to a privileged, glossy view of urbanization or actually offer legitimate “solutions for city life,” as the program’s website states. Even the word “comfort” suggested to me that these solutions would be targeted only towards a particular social class who has the resources to take advantage of them.