Regional and Urban Design Committee

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  • 1.  Is big Architecture Good Architecture? Example Winy Maas

    Posted 04-04-2014 08:13 PM

    Friday, April 4, 2014

    Architecture Outside the Box: Small footprints. Big Ideas. For Example Winy Maas

     "Architecture is too important to leave it to architects" (Title of an interview with the late Giancarlo De Carlo, Italian Architect)

    Architects have a split public image. They get cool roles in the movies but in real life, there is suspicion abound: Aren't those the guys who just want to build monuments for themselves? Who care about being published in glossy magazines, who want to talk about everything and know little about anything? The folks that dress like artists and have fouled up the world with a whole bunch of buildings that most everybody would not consider art but rather see bulldozed? Let those guys do something real big and disastrous consequences seem inevitable. If it has to be big, let Dubai build it, or the Chinese. Just don't let them to it in our cities in the US.

    Maybe this split image of architects and the general aversion of the American public to anything that smacks remotely of avant-garde has let 



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    Nikolaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 2.  RE:Is big Architecture Good Architecture? Example Winy Maas

    Posted 04-08-2014 11:36 AM
    What the 21st century seems to show is that size does make a difference, design good or bad. That seems to be where the economy is headed. With that, the size of firms that could accomplish the work is growing. China sets an example for the economy with the scale of their projects, and and another in their supporting architectural firms. The state owned architectural firms are behemoths, and very little need for anything else. The question of quality, the direction that we should be heading, still needs to be examined. The size of the package would have no direct link to the quality therein.       

    Allen E Neyman
    Rockville, MD

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    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 3.  RE:Is big Architecture Good Architecture? Example Winy Maas

    Posted 04-21-2014 03:13 AM


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    Glenn Coleman AIA
    Glenn Eldric Coleman AIA
    Santa Rosa CA
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    My memory banks bring to mind what Prestini said to me in 1959 @ College of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkely!....."if you can't do it Wright...do it BIG"!



    Original Message
    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 4.  RE:Is big Architecture Good Architecture? Example Winy Maas

    Posted 04-21-2014 01:58 PM
    For a Regional and Urban design Committee discussion, there seems to be precious little discussion of regionalism and urban design - certainly at a fundamental and philosophic level.  Is it possible that the structure-centric perspective of architects gets in the way?  Does anybody seriously wish to make the argument that well-designed buildings are the essence of urban design?  I hope not.

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    Gary Collins AIA
    Principal
    Gary R. Collins, AIA
    Jacksonville OR
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    Original Message
    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13