Classic Modernist architecture and design has been a signifier of hip for a few years now, thanks in part to the affectations/aspirations of Wallpaper magazine and its Lacoste-wearing acolytes in the business lounge at Dubai international departures (“darling, we simply must send the Barcelona Chair to be reupholstered…”). Miesian skyscrapers and Eames furniture have since formed the backdrop of many a fashion shoot and car commercial. But beauty products are something else. There may be much to commend the structural properties of hair gel, but we are a little more perturbed by the “false effect” of Lash Architect mascara.

A series on the appeal and popularity of all things architectural

Architecture is currently enjoying an immense popularity well beyond the confines of the profession. With the Bilbao Effect securely ensconced in every marketing expert’s lexicon, and cities clamouring for Starchitect attention, everyone, it seems, wants to be invited to the party.

Without wishing to claim primary ownership of good ideas, or snobbishly tap our watches as the undesigned legions discover the wonders of symmetry and solid materials, the following opens a series on the ubiquity of architecture in popular culture, from starchitects and fashion to the language of the media. A greater demand for beauty, well-made objects, and intriguing spatial experiences, after all, can only be a good thing.

Pop!1 The Architect of Everything

‘Architect’ is derived from the Latin architectus and from the Greek arkhitekton, meaning chief or master builder. The word itself is experiencing a resurgence in everyday parlance, or at least in the media, but not for things specifically architectural:

George W. Bush called Karl Rove 'the architect' of his re-election victory. Heinrich Himmler is the architect of genocide, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed of al Qaeda, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, is the architect of (...read more...)

zadcat

It is a strange thing to visit a place where one used to live, to observe the changes large and small that have taken place in your absence. There is of course the desire to say “in my day…” but there is also a certain nostalgia, a pang of sadness. Perhaps it is a feeling of things happening while we weren’t paying attention, of being left behind in the steady march always onward. Change and gentrification are facts of any city, and while there is much to be regretted, particularly the exclusivity that comes with higher rents, there are good things too. Returning to an old stomping ground is also driven by a need to reclaim ownership, to exclaim to the neighbourhood “I was part of you once! (Doesn’t anyone remember?).”

There is comfort, though, in the things that don’t change. At 6:30, the yet-to-be filled pool of Saint-Viateur Park is suddenly empty of kids on bicycles and a slow but gradual exodus occurs across the four corners of the park: dinnertime. Meanwhile, the otherwise ugly and characterless terrace of Café Olympico is full of people, stripping layers as they bake in the sun. There are certainly more people now; (...read more...)

This week the city of Montreal announced its big ideas for the future. The plan is called Imagining and Building Montreal 2025. The document that details the proposals is the usual swirl of propositions to bury unwanted highways and elevate the status of the city's less well off. Some good ideas (like adding 100km of bike lanes to the city, or improving the quality of city streets for pedestrians) can be found in the report, but you have to be willing to wade through statements like the following:

"Implementation of an integrated multi-sector revitalization
strategy by the relevant actors"

Apparently, the above means that the city will be helping out the poor by asking them what they want.

Also on the theme of language, in the 14 proposals for improvements to Montreal highways, there are lots of uses of grand modifiers like 'improve' and 'modernize' and 'integrate'. The proposal for the bike lanes is far less exciting: 'The completion of a bicycle beltway around Montréal'.

Admittedly, of the entire colour spectrum, on average 3 or 4 days a week with this group, my collar is of a cooler temperature (light blue), meaning I tend to side with these folks in most intense circumstances (ie: for political struggles).

The trials and tribulations continue between the City of Montreal (with the help of CTV, CBC, etc, etc,) and it's blue collar workers. After the hullabaloo a few months back over a handful of spied on pothole fillers it seems this guy has a big old rusty axe to grind in the form of GPS UNITS, and he probably didn't get the idea from here, but more likely from these tough guys....

Now, the news is that starting next year(probably in time for winter) some city vehicles & machinery will be equipped with those barely visible GPS units (that's all the rage) in Cote-des-Neiges/N.D.G as part of a little managerial "experiment" to survey efficiency and most likely to keep tabs on where the workers are during shifts(not very cool).

Sure Mr Tremblay, alienation is cheap, but how about a raise, or at least something like a negotiation?

Surely, there are a few people out there a billion times more (...read more...)

Nicholas MacMillan, Montreal's completely turned on & recherché underground music DJ will be dropping burning feel good jamz tonight(thursday) at Zoobizarre - 6388 St-Hubert, MTL (metro Beaubien). If this is too last minute, be sure to catch him the last thursday night of every month. Hopefully come summer time this gig won't to be so infrequent, because God only knows how bad society needs to hear tracks from this most important album of all time.

Jane Jacobs 1916-2006 an urban hero.

I know you don't really care about what we've been doing for the past two weeks. I wish we didn't have to care. But we do. And in a way, by making ourselves care about this process we are trying to turn it into something more than just the random reading of dollar amounts out loud for twelve thousand receipts while an electronic spread sheet grows like a tapestry in front of us. We're trying to make the task at hand an exercise in personal identification - what the cultural studies texts call the making of 'selfhood'.

That's right: we're filing our taxes as 'Self Employed' in this country and in this province for the first time ever.

Don't get me wrong - we have been filing our taxes here (okay, a few years late, I admit) - but never as Self Employed. While living in the UK for the past four years we laboured through their medieval system and wasted money on a bad accountant in order to fill out the labyrinthine (and fairly useless) paperwork that was part of what Inland Revenue called 'Self Assessment.' It felt more like self-immolation. Anyway, we still get weekly notices from IR about (...read more...)