July 29th, 2009 § Jack
Over the past two years 3six0 Architecture has been participating in the mentor program of Providence’s Met school. The Met School, short for Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, is a state-funded school district that serves 690 high school students. The school was created under the direction of Doctors Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor who were given the opportunity by the state of RI to create a “school of the 21st century” that would involve “hands and minds.” The Met is divided into six smaller schools, with four of them sharing a campus on Providence’s South Side. The schools are intentionally kept small at 120 students and the curriculum focuses on “Authentic Experiences”.
“Education research tells us schools need to be smaller, with more parent involvement and more personalized curricula. Brain Research shows people learn by making sense of information, by connecting things, and learning by real context. Learning theory asserts the value of hands-on experiences. Development psychology says kids are fragile and must be nurtured by adult mentors to thrive. Gang research tells young people need to feel a part of a culture, something larger than themselves. The Met incorporated all of these notions and opened its doors in the fall of 1996 with 50 freshman in the Shepherd Building in downtown Providence.” The Met School
Alejandra Vidal, Met school junior, interned at our office this past January to June. Brandee Lapisky, her Met advisor, introduced Alejandra to us when she expressed a desire to learn about green architecture practices. Alejandra and I decided to divide her internship into two parts, with the first part focusing on research into passive methods of heating, cooling and shading used in the design of structures to create comfortable environments and reduced dependence on energy. The second portion of the internship would be her own design proposal involving both a real client and a project that would be ultimately constructed.
Jack Ryan and Alejandra Vidal at 3six0 office (center photo)
The mentoring experience has proved to be a rewarding experience for both Alejandra and 3six0.
To learn more about the Met school or about becoming a mentor, visit: www.themetschool.org
April 7th, 2009 § Manuel
Allison Paschke, a local artist, is awaiting the start of construction of a 3six0 designed residence (see model of wall design below) at her loft in the Jewelery District in Providence.
Jewelery District Loft Wall
But, she’s not waiting idly. She has organized and curated an exhibition of nineteen artists (see the exhibition images) that aptly explores the themes of architecture and ‘deconstruction’. In anticipation of the demolition required for the renovation, the artists were given free license to paint, nail, drill and even tear open walls. The result is widely varied and immensely engaging. There are colorful murals, mysterious miniature constructions, and entrancing translucent glass panels that enliven the space with color and curiosity. Walls peal back to create new paths through the space. There’s several installations that seem to grow on the walls: a sticky wallpaper that has become fuzzy from collected dust, elegant little paper shelves that have colonized a wall, and an pixelated topography that floats a few inches off the wall and casts shadows.
Together it gives the visitor the sensation that they have stumbled into an abandoned space where the curious has replaced the quotidian. As if, while nobody was watching the space was colonized by creative little creatures of re-invention. In that sense, it is easy to imagine this installation expanding to other abandoned, foreclosed or otherwise unoccupied spaces in the city. It may just be the little bit of magic that is needed to enliven spaces at the edge of oblivion.
The show is open from 12-5pm until Sunday April 12, 2009.
March 6th, 2009 § Karynn
For those of you familiar with John Maeda, you may know that since he became president of the Rhode Island School of Design last June, he has been upping RISD’s profile and expanding its presence both offline and online. As an outside observer (I go to school up the hill), I can’t help but envy RISD’s tech renaissance and wish that my school would follow suite. The school’s latest project involves Posterous.com and RISD’s brilliant faculty. The new blog was started by Daniel Pelz with Maeda’s encouragement, and 3six0’s very own Kyna Leski is among the first contributors. Continue to check back to RISDspeaks for more insights on design and the world.
February 20th, 2009 § Karynn
On December 17, 2008, the AIA New York launched its Not Business as Usual initiative in an effort to unite the architecture and design community around issues relating to the current economic crisis: a slowdown in new projects, downsizing of firms, current projects put on hold, a lack of positions available to recent graduates. An “Opportunities Fair” to be held on February 25 will bring together representatives from community organizations, non-profits, schools, and training programs to share information about volunteer opportunities, continuing education, and other opportunities. This made me think, how can architects and architecture firms contribute to our communities during this economic crisis? Certainly we can offer our professional services pro bono, but we can also offer non-professional skills that would still greatly contribute. Might we volunteer at a food bank or repair a rundown school? Could we clean up our parks or run for the cure? Could we get inventive and create volunteer opportunities that might also draw on our skills as designers and experts of materials?
January 28th, 2009 § Chris
From the New York Times, January 28, 2009
And in Florida, not far from the Palm Beach clubs where Mr. Madoff wooed some of his investors, George L. Theodule, a Haitian immigrant and professed “man of God,” promised churchgoers in a Haitian-American community that he could double their money within 90 days.
He accepted only cash, and despite the too-good-to-be-true sales pitch, he found plenty of investors willing to turn over tens of thousands of dollars.
“The offices were beautiful, and I was told it was a limited liability corporation,” said Reggie Roseme, a deliveryman in Wellington, Fla., who lost his entire savings of $35,000 and now faces foreclosure on his home.
This brings to mind the question of authenticity. Ponzi schemes, shams that we can believe in, until the truth comes out, prey on our desires and weaknesses. Our willingness to rely on appearances for signs of authenticity (The offices were beautiful) points to questions about architecture’s role in such deceptions.
It’s been said that ”Art is a lie that tells the truth” . The history of architecture, reflects an ambivalence about “truth”. Architecture operates like language, representing but not necessarily embodying, and architecture is a constructed embodied, materialized phenomenon that is primarily experienced. We read and experience architecture simultaneously. Geometry, space, materials, tectonics order form, form an order which we would hope is revelatory, engaging and celebrating our humanity , rather than deceitful, obscuring and controlling.
The predominance of vision has effected the way we think about materials. As more and more communities employ “stampcrete” and if they can’t afford that, “stamphalt” in public spaces, the erosion of values is painfully obvious. The attitude of “as long as that stuff looks like brick, it’s OK” is exactly what got the ponzi scheme victims into trouble. Actually all the use of fake materials is sort of like a ponzi scheme–you simply put the day of reckoning off until the whole thing fails and at great expense you end up doing what you should have done the first time around. Materials carry memory, and the replacement of materials with facsimiles destroys memory, with it the hard won truths and values of our society. As an example I’ve posted two images of bricks one of painted stamped asphalt and the other of 19th century brick pavers.
The inadvertent marks of the makers, of the hands that handled the wet clay can be seen in the lower image, the memory of the lives that made these bricks. The moss growing between each brick reveals an unanticipated symbiosis of inert and living matter. the bricks, slightly uneven gently accommodate the pushing of tree roots below without cracking or failing. The stamphalt has none of this capacity to hold time and life–no capacity for memory and for that matter, imagination. The fact that it is unsustainable and unrecyclable is no coincidence. Whenever we remove the dimension of time and the capacity to remember from materials, we fall prey to appearances and hidden costs, not only economic and environmental but cultural and societal.
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January 20th, 2009 § Karynn
A few hours from now, America will swear in its 44th president. Millions will watch him and never know that this day might not have been if instead of taking to the law books, Obama had decided to take drafting classes. A recent tip from Arch Daily, revealed that Obama once wanted to be an architect. You can hear Obama say it himself in this YouTube video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNOp2VaUoQ4]
Some of you might be wishing that he had taken this path, while others are just as thrilled that he did not. Setting aside the politically motivated opinions, my colleagues and I at 3six0 think that being an architect is one of the best professions out there even if it is not as high-profiled as the presidency (you might remember our post on architects being among America’s happiest workers). Even in these challenging times, we still love our profession and take pride in our contribution to the world.
January 9th, 2009 § Karynn
As you may know, both Kyna and Chris are faculty at RISD in addition to being the principals of 3six0. Recently, the Shepherd of the Valley project was featured on RISD’s blog, which is written by RISD president John Maeda and staff.
Maeda was also recently interviewed by Dezeen, a magazine featuring architecture and design. Click below for the full interview.
December 15th, 2008 § Karynn
While researching architecture and design publications a couple weeks back, I stumbled upon the occasional defunct site: “current” stories marked for 2006 and footers bearing the words, “last updated January 31, 2000.” I didn’t think anything of it at the time, except recently I came across the exhibition A Few Zines: Dispatches from the Edge of Architectural Production. The text for the project says,
In the 1990s, zines such as Lackluster, Infiltration, loud paper, Dodge City Journal and Monorail subverted traditional trade and academic architecture magazine trends by crossing the built environment with art, music, politics and pop culture—and by deliberately retaining and cultivating an underground presence. Much has been made of that decade’s zine phenomenon—inspiring academic studies, international conferences and DIY workshops—yet little attention has been paid to architecture zine culture specifically, or its resonance within architectural publishing today.
A Few Zines: Dispatches from the Edge of Architectural Production does both. Rather than attempting to present an exhaustive retrospective of architecture zine culture, it highlights complete runs of several noted zines that began in the nineties. The exhibition also features contemporary publications that continue to draw inspiration from the self-publishing tradition, such as Pin-Up, Sumoscraper, and Thumb.
The zine movement has come and gone, but in its place has arisen a vibrant culture of blogging – not quite as underground as the zine but still in the vein of self-publication. It is still too early to say what influence the blogosphere will have on architecture, but its influence is growing and 3six0 is glad to be a part of it.
For those interested, A Few Zines runs January 8-February 28 at Studio-X in New York.
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November 21st, 2008 § Karynn
One thing you may not know about our firm is that we have very close ties to RISD, the Rhode Island School of Design. The majority of our architects are RISD alumni and for everyone else who isn’t, they teach at the school. Current students also regularly intern in our offices during RISD’s winter session to help construct architectural models.
3six0 realizes how important students are to our firm and to the architecture profession as a whole, so we wanted to highlight a scholarship that is for them:
What: 3rd Annual IIDA New England Student Scholarship
Who: Rhode Island Interior Design Students
When: November 28, 2008
November 14th, 2008 § Manuel
Circa screen @ Eddy and Westminster
I just found out that Providence Art Windows (PAW) is seeking proposals for 2009. For those of you who are not familiar with PAW, it is a program that exhibits art and art installations in several empty and occupied retail spaces in Downtown Providence. The juried exhibits change three times a year and feature a variety of local and national artists. In the past the installations have varied a great deal in their materials and engagement with the street.
But the most exciting prospect of this program is that is seeks to engage citizens, flaneurs and tourists alike, bring art down from its soapbox, and at the same time activate Providence’s streetscape. I have often wandered down the all too familiar downtown streets on my way home or just grabbing some food, when out of the corner of my eye something peculiar grabs my attention. The ever changing PAW streetfronts challenges the blandness that stems from the quotidian…
SO…
Proposals are due by December 12, 2008, which is plenty of time to prepare…(suspense builds)…
A 3six0 proposal!!!!
What better way for our third story office to establish a street presence on Westminster.
Check out the link below and the teaser below that:
http://providenceartwindows.blogspot.com