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Chandighar, City of Tomorrow, part 2

Part 1 of this post can be found here Chandigarh was a project taken on by Le Corbusier in 1951, after the original architects Matthew Nowicki and Albert Mayer (of Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass of New York) ended the project following Nowicki’s death in a plane crash. The city was planned as the new capital of Punjab, following Partition in 1947 (when India was divided by the British into India and Pakistan – Hindu and Muslim). It was a city for the generations to come – a very optimistic 1950s industry-fueled venture as stated by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharal ... More » »

Chandigarh, India’s City of Tomorrow

We arrived in Chandigarh two days ago. This means we’ve been traveling officially for 11 days in India- my and my boyfriend’s first time, our friend‘s second time, and we have another 4 weeks ahead of us. I’d been looking forward to seeing Chandigarh, an masterpiece in architectural and urban planning by Le Corbusier, for awhile now, but I can’t really explain how extraordinary it is without first explaining our experience so far in other cities in India.

IYARE! at the Penn Museum

Post by K-Fai Steele Map of modern-day Nigeria, showing the location of Benin and Benin City I went to go see IYARE! Splendor and Tension in Benin’s Palace Theater at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology a week ago, an exhibit that deals with the historical roots of the Benin culture today by looking at its golden period in the past. Close to 100 objects from Penn’s collection of Benin artifacts are on display. The Benin, or Edo Empire stretched from 1440-1897. Iyare! – May you go and return safely! is shouted by onlookers as Edo nobles head for Benin’s ... More » »

Rem Koolhas CCTV tower on FIRE!!!

Breaking News from K-Fai Steele A building located next to the construction site of the new China Central Television is seen on fire in Beijing, February 9, 2009. REUTERS/China Daily. Here is the reuters report. Hi Roberta and Libby,  I don’t know if you heard about this yet or not, but part of the CCTV building complex in Beijing is on fire. The TVCC, or the Television Cultural Center, is a public structure housing a state-of-the-art broadcasting theater, cultural facilities, and The Mandarin Oriental, a five-star hotel. It was designed by Rem Koolhaas, head of the OMA (Office of Metropolitan ... More » »

Delirious architecture at MoMA

Post by K-Fai Steele The Dreamland show in the Architecture and Design Drawings Gallery (third floor, MoMA) celebrates the 30 year anniversary of Delirious New York, written by Rem Koolhaas in 1978. The show features drawings and models dedicated to utopian experimentation since the 1970s. Unfortunately, the show was lacking in explanatory text, so one had to either have some knowledge of Koolhaas and architecture history, or be able to gumshoe information out. Koolhaas (b. 1944) founded the OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) in 1975 with his wife Madelon Vriesendorp, and another husband and wife team, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis. ... More » »

Hello Fashion! Kansai Yamamoto at the PMA

Post by K-Fai Steele Kansai Yamamoto, Bodysuit, 1971. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Hello Fashion! Kansai Yamamoto 1971-1973 show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is hidden in the Costume and Textile Study Gallery on the 2nd floor of the Perelman building. Yamamoto, a Japanese fashion designer known for his bold, extravagant stylistics, can be described with the Japanese colloquial word hade, meaning gaudy or something that stands out. He draws inspiration from Japanese national culture and tradition, specifically Kabuki theater, kimono, art from the Azuchi-Monoyama period (1568-1603) and marries it with Western (as in Amero-European) ... More » »

Each One Teach One at PIFAS

Special Report on the lecture/discussion series organized by The Temporary Department for Academic Research (TDAR)  By K-Fai Steele  TDAR, The Temporary Department for Academic Research is a collective of Sarah Jacoby, James Weissinger, and Oliver Wunsch. For August 2008 they are PIFAS’s Artists-In-Residence. The Eric James Johnson Memorial Artist Residency coordinated by PIFAS faculty member Constance Mensh, has brought both national and international artists to Philadelphia since 2007. TDAR is the first group to hail from Philadelphia itself. The front of the dioramic classroom: Richard Davis, Oliver Wunsch (on screen), Brandon Joyce, James Weissinger, and Sarah Jacoby (all with name ... More » »