RIAS Convention

[aland]

RIAS Convention was in Aberdeen on FRIDAY 7th May. Big deal here if you don't already know

Heneghan Peng gave the most inspiring and thoughtful design presentation. Beautiful images too. Thought you Irish guys would like to know

Most Entertaining: Peter Cook
Most Up it's Own Arse; Alex de Rijke
Most Boring: Tony Fretton

Best in show: Richard Weston on Utzon / Sydney Opera House

[space_invader]

Fretton was mind numbingly boring.

Weston was a bit of a Stephen Fry/David Mellor hybrid

Alex de dutchman was indeed entombed within his ain arse but his scheme was very, very good.

Peter Cook has done one two many crits

heneghan and peng - like a scrap book of innovative ideas gathered from others over the last ten years. Bigfoot, their first project was the best thing they've done.

Tagliabue: seems to be invoking Gaudi's spirit more frequently than that of her deceased partner these days. Curves replace angles, riotous colour in place of muted tones, crushed ceramic instead of granite 'curtains'.

Lars Gemzo: good thoughtful stuff from a danish urbanist

[aland]

Well at least there seems to be a consensus with Fretton, eh?

[Hugh]

Rejoice! Some good architects don't have PR skills and Tony Fretton, an excellent architect, does not understand the meaning of the word "presentation". I think that's a good thing. Mind you, I wasn't there so I didn't have to endure the talk.

Surprised about Alex de Rijke, though: when I've seen him lecture, acerbic humour has been to the fore. Must have been an off day. He shares that if nothing else with the gloomy Koolhaas.

[space_invader]

Ales de Rijke was very good - his whole style and tone however, is of the kind that many in Scotland, particularly the west of Scotland, have little time for. It's an irrational, petty prejudice - it's to do with pronounciation of words, stance, gait, etc. - nobody stands a chance against this attititude really!!

Anyway.......De Rikje dispensed with the usual lecture format and focused on just one project, the remodelling and refurbishment of a run-down state school in the English capital. His lecture was presented within an alphabetical framework, an A to Z, so F, for example “was about facts, endless facts. It’s about fear. It’s about food and how there was nowhere within the school to sit down and eat it.” De Rikje was full of snappy informative statement such as this. He wanted to design a “school without corridors, a school without hierarchy” but he chose to do this through thoughtful new builds and “strategic demolition” – basically his firm gutted the central courtyard of the existing school, inserted a new information resourse space and roofed over the zone with ETFE pillows which modualte the amount of light ingress through the deployment of ‘moire’ patterning.
_Also presented was a time-lapse movie of site progress – the new essential tool for architectural presentations.

[aland]

Interesting comeback S.I. though I think everyone in our office would take exception to being labled irrational or petty. Communication is fundemental part of what we do as architects, surely. No good saying that it's the viewers fault for thinking it's pretentious.

[phil]

I asked this already on the Carlisle Pier thread, but I was wondering if Henegan.Peng discussed their plans for the Pier at the conference at all?

[space_invader]

aye - they did.

was not overly impressed with their work. (although bigfoot stadium was excellent)

part of what they suggested was the creation of a crooked path based on the coastline of Ireland, which they mapped in linear fashion along the pier length - like many of their design decisions it felt as if the idea had a lot further to go before it was a valid concept - to be honest i felt much of their work mimicked the babble that is a 4th year design project.