Hi, my name is Federico and welcome to Representations of Architecture #3.
The title of this week’s newsletter is a reference to the opening of a famous tv series called Weeds. The characters live in a fictional gated community called Agrestic, in southern California. The opening really depicts in a perfect way the kind of lives that these communities host. Elvis Costello variant to the original opening down here:
It is fun how in the series Agrestic is burned to the ground in 2007 (spoiler), somehow anticipating the collapse of housing market that happened just one year later.
This newsletter has 4 different sections, that from now on will be more recognizable. Thanks to the power of color! Insights is Blue, Very beautiful Links is Yellow, Sweet IG pages is Green and Misc is Red. So you can visually skip any section that you are not interested in.
Cominciamo:
Insights
The Zollhof Media Park is an unrealized project by Zaha Hadid. It dates back to ‘89, one year before realizing her first built project. Hadid was creating these kind of images since her degree, but this one is really something. The horizon line is twisted behind a sort of hill, distorcing the space in different directions. The color pallette is just perfect. I guess this drawing was made on a really huge canvas, using acrylic colors.
This drawing is also on the cover of my favorite book on Zaha Hadid. It is relatively cheap, and it’s full of her majestic drawings.
Let’s get back on the issue of housing. In this drawing from the mid-50s by Josef Frank is depicted a modernist colorful house. Frank realized this drawing in the descending part of his career, looking for someone to fund his projects. It is a joyful drawing, but at the same time there is an hint of sadness hidden between the lines. This project is also the fruit of Frank’s ideas on composition. In this beautiful article you can understand better what the austrian architect was thinking.
Very beautiful links
The 2008 crisis hit Spain (and the whole Europe) pretty badly. But some Ghost Towns are coming back to life.
Some others instead are as ghostly and spooky as they can get. Probably you already saw it, but all these tiny castles in the middle of Turkey are something incredible. Probably my next travel destination.
If you are into exploration videos this guy visited abandoned McMansions in Branson, Missouri. The architectures are so bad that are better off abandoned then inhabited.
You probably heard about the Game Stop case. But how is it connected with the real estate bubble? Take a look at some of the comments on this extraordinary piece of cinema:
Other similar videos have the same comments. If you haven’t seen this movie. Please do it.
Sweet IG pages
French illustrator Clément Masurier in this drawing depicts a wave of houses being crashed down.
I don’t know why James Wines has not so many followers. I love SITE’s projects, but I love even more Wines’ drawings. High-rise of homes is probably one of his most famous drawings. I’d live in a house with garden at the 5th floor. Wouldn’t you too?
Misc
Less then a month ago started airing on Dinsey+ a tv series called WandaVision. It is strictly connected to the events of different movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I would say that if you don’t know anything about MCU movies you can lose almost 40 % of the experience.
Luckily the series is well-crafted, and it is a joy watching it, even if you don’t get most of the references. The reason is that the first 3 episodes (and maybe some others after the 4th, we don’t know yet) are shot in a perfect 50s, 60s and 70s sitcom style. That means that all the shots, the shadows, the colors and the acting are in line with the sitcoms of that period.
It is an ambitious and fun experiment. And I particularly enjoyed how the house of the two main characters changes with the changing of style.
In the first episode the house has classic 50s furnitures. This image is a photomontage of different movie stills just to show you the full enviroment.
Wanda and Vision live in a classic american home.
In the second episode the house changes. The structure is always the same, entrance door on the left, then the living room and next to it the kitchen. Upstairs the bedrooms.
The house is obviously changing according to the type of sitcom going on.
Technicolor—> ON
In the 3rd episode Wanda and Vision are in the middle of the 70s, and their house as well.
I am really curious to know what will happen next. Hopefully we’ll see something from the 80s and 90s. Edit: (Just saw episode 5, and yes, is set in the 80s and there is a huuuge plot twist)
RepsOfArch #3 is over. Next week we’ll admire in all its details an incredible book.
Exactly as one week ago I will leave you with a quote, directly from an interview to Toyo Ito that I was reading a couple of days ago (as you might get at the moment I’m into japanese architecture).
There is a word that I always repeat to my staff: “Ganbare!” that means: “C’mon guys, keep it up!”. To myself instead I always repeat: “Try to live cheerfully, please.”
That “please” at the end of the phrase is really the essence of japanese culture. When I read it I smiled and felt happy.
See you next week.
Ciao
Federico