Newgrange Winter Solstice shared online for all to enjoy

Newgrange Tomb
Ireland
Friday, December 21, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
8.30am local time

Heritage Ireland will share an online broadcast of the illumination of the Newgrange passage occuring on the winter solstice. The Newgrange burial site was designed and built with a special opening that would allow sunlight to penetrate the main chamber on the shortest days of the year, around December 21st. As the sun rises higher the beam widens to illuminate the whole room. The entire event lasts for only 17 minutes.

Newgrange is documented as having been constructed over 5000 years ago, before Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids.

Weather predications for tomorrow say that the skies will be clear.

Resources:
Newgrange.com

Does Kent State have the stomach to compete as an architecture school?

Yesterday the New York Times reported that Robert Stern has been appointed to his third term at Yale. Named as Dean of Yale School of Architecture in 1998 Mr. Stern has since overcome the reputation of a traditional "comfort" architect to a Dean with a acceptance to varied, multiple styles and as an educator that "encourages risk and experimentation at Yale..."

While still a practicing architect Robert Stern is best known for his traditional style buildings where the concentration is on client needs, expectations and fine detail instead of the current (starchitecture) emphasis for iconic avant garde form. Stern comes from an educational background which was rooted in the importance of understanding history and architectural precedence of multiple cultures, not just the traditional Eurocentric views concentrated on by many current educational institutions.

Currently Kent State University shall begin another search for the Dean of Kent's College of Architecture and Environmental Design as Steven Fong, the most recent dean, has left the school. This leaves the college in quite the predicament. For the second time in as many years the college falls back under the control of an interim dean while precious resources are allocated to finding a new figurehead to shape and mold the curriculum of Kent's architecture department while still attempting to create a pathos for the current flock of students to follow. The question haunts the city closest to the institution. Will Kent be able to discover a strong willed and bold figure willing to guide Kent's program to face the challenges of the new millennia, or will the school flounder in indecision and what may be described as complacency?

As a Kent graduate and someone with close ties to the city my concern is that the program may not be up to the task of cultivating the intent and thought necessary to capitulate a design culture in this shrinking city, where creative and bold ideas are more than necessary to turn Cleveland's path around, where it is all too easy to give up and leave for the greener pastures of other cities saturated with design talent and the will to brandish it.

I would hope Kent takes this opportunity to re-examine the CAED's intent and whether they have the tools and the will to achieve their goals. If they find the tools lacking, I suggest they do all they can to rebuild their educational foundations (design theory and history), if they lack the will, I ask that they (the school) concentrate on what they have a passion for instead of over saturating the profession with contemporaries who have never been exposed to a desire to explore design. There are plenty of fine technical schools out there where one can learn to draft a window detail, a Master's degree seems a touch overkill.

Green Architecture is apparent, sometimes obvious, this time wonderful thanks to Mass Studies

Despite all the 'green washing' that one gets to experience this holiday season and the resultant 'funk' I find myself in regarding environmental architecture I was extremely happy to stumble across the Ann Demeulemeester Shop by Mass Studies on the Designboom website. While one could easily argue that the application of "green" building technology is pure applique, I would like to counter with a "Yes, it could only be an applique, but it is a rather sensational one."

Unlike the addition of a wind turbine or solar array the wrapping of the entire skin of the structure seems so integrated, so intentional and so rigorous that I find myself grinning at how the soft skin substance (in this case plantings) so perfectly compliments the soft forms of the building. While I don't know Ann Demeulmeester's work that well, I will probably give her styles a second look if there is a depth of thought akin to her shop in her clothing.

Regardless, I would like to complement the design of the store. Not only is the skin extremely interesting I am so highly intrigued into how the interior spaces are laid out, how movement through is shaped and accomplished by the street to stair to bridge level and then the simple street entrance which I assume wraps you up to the bridge or down from the bridge or someway to get through this building via a series of level changes and thresholds and wonderful interior to exterior or interior(?)/exterior(?) spaces.

If you found that as confusing as I did writing it you should probably just check out the pictures and save yourself some trouble. It will all become crystal clear when you do.

Resources:
Mass Studies Website*

*seems to be down currently.