Category: Inspiration

Building for humans.

8/4/2018

Cinémathèque Franḉais, March 2018, Paris.

Standing in front of the Cinémathèque Franḉais, I realize that I am finally seeing one of Frank Gehry's buildings up close and in person. While certainly not the most well known of his works (see: Guggenheim Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles, Weisman Art Museum Minneapolis, and Dancing House Prague), it features the multi-faceted flow of form that comes to signify a Gehry creation. And it reminds me of why I respect this artist so much.

Gehry reduces every shape to a movement. It is very primitive, almost like being in a womb. You see the start and the end, and when you step back you see the big picture: from birth to the larger life.

There is a transparency to his buildings. You are always looking through glazed surfaces to the internal structure, and it is very revealing. It doesn't hide much. It is honest in its depth. You see its purpose and how it all ties together, and it is beautiful.

At the same time, I also see how his architecture can be superfluous and unnecessary. With all the curving surfaces, there is a lot of material used up. In a way, its efficiency becomes inefficient.

Detail of Guggenheim Bilbao. Image courtesy of ArchDaily.

But the reason I appreciate his art the most is that I can relate to who he is as an artist/architect/creator. He strives for simplicity by utilizing organic forms and shows you how they are held in balance with one another. He designs buildings for people, like a well-fitted piece of clothing. Not buildings just to be buildings. His buildings serve the humans.

Enjoy this short film recently produced by Nowness, where Frank Gehry discusses his more recent Parisian work, the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

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Rediscovering Early American Architecture: a Visit to Hopewell Furnace

7/29/2017

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At Hopewell Furnace, a look beyond the stables to the building housing the 22'-diameter oak and chestnut water wheel

Nestled in the Schuylkill River Valley watershed of Chester and Berks Counties, Pennsylvania, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site preserves and interprets one of America's finest examples of an early ironworks plantation. Operating from 1771-1883, Hopewell Furnace played an important role during America's fight for independence from Great Britain by helping establish self-reliance on iron and the smelting process for the production of goods and ammunition.

In its time, Hopewell Furnace was a bustling community that consisted of furnace workers (both men and women), tradespeople and their families, and - as was unfortunately so often the case - many enslaved people. In 1780, builder of the furnace, Mark Bird, was recorded as having "owned" 10 men, 4 women, 3 boys, and one girl, making him the largest owner of enslaved people in Berks County at the time.

The visit to this site was inspiring in many ways. There is an incredible tactile sense to the experience. One can wander into the bowels of what remains of the original smelting furnace, touching the stones, and finding bits of slag just about everywhere in the surrounding woods.

Seeing so much traditional joinery of the many wooden outbuildings gave me an immense appreciation for the craftspeople that made them. There is a simplicity, yet intense focus on efficiency and purpose, qualities worth emulating in my own work.

Beautiful quartersawn oak handrail overlooking the water wheel

Inside the main blast furnace, what we assume is a ventilation chamber.

Openly walking through the outbuildings of the industrial complex, though quiet and peaceful today, there is still a hint of the hub of activity and community that must have once breathed together here as a functioning machine.

But don't take my word for it. Go see for yourself! The National Parks Service who now operates the site does a great job of educating the visiting public, and there are many beautiful walking trails in the surrounding woods and in French Creek State Park.