Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography

 

 

 

 

No one captured the midcentury modernism of the Mad Men era better than Balthazar Korab. As one of the period's most prolific and celebrated architecture photographers, Korab captured images as graceful and elegant as his subjects. His iconic photographs for master architects immortalized their finest works, while leaving his own indelible impact on twentieth century visual culture.

In this riveting illustrated biography, the first dedicated solely to his life and career, author John Comazzi traces Korab's circuitous path to a career in photography. He paints a vivid picture of a young man forced to flee his native Hungary, who goes on to study architecture at the famed École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before emigrating to the United States and launching his career as Eero Saarinen's on-staff photographer.

The book includes a portfolio of more than one hundred images from Korab's professionally commissioned architecture photography as well as close examinations of Saarinen's TWA Terminal and the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. The photos documenting finished buildings and architects at work include iconic images of Mies van der Rohe's S. R. Crown Hall, Le Corbusier's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Louis Kahn's Kimbell Art Museum and Salk Institute, Minoru Yamasaki's World Trade Center, Richard Meier's Douglas House, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, and Jørn Utzon's Sydney Opera House, among many others.

Book: Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography
Author: John Comazzi
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

tags: photographs, modern architecture
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Carlo Scarpa & Tobia Scarpa - Dialogo sospeso

Carlo Scarpa © Svegliado and his son Tobia Scarpa © Riccardo Crosetta

Since 2003, the Museum of Decorative Arts of Bordeaux organizes regularly exhibitions of design. This year, the museum presents the work of the venetian architect Tobia Scarpa and the work of his father, Carlo, who died in 1978 and with whom he was first an apprendice, then a business partner. Tobia took an active role in the organization of this exhibition which gathers, for the first time, the work of both creators.

Carlo Scarpa - Monumental Complexe Brion, 1969-1978, San Vito © Alberto Vendrame, Studio Scarpa

More than thirty years after his death, Carlo Scarpa (1906 Venice–1978 Sendai, Japan) is still considered one of Italy’s more important architects. During his long career from the 20’s until the 70’s, most of his work is settled in Venetia. His name is renown due to the restaurations of historical buidings such as the Correr museum, the Castelvecchio museum, and the Querini fondation among others.

Carlo Scarpa - Sculpture Crescita © Alberto Vendrame, Studio Scarpa

One of his last projects, left incomplete at the time of his death, was completed in 2006 by his son Tobia: the Villa Palazzetto in Monselice. Besides the mentioned projects, Scarpa’s most significant works are the Gipsoteca Canoviana at the Canova Museum in Possagno (1955-1957), the Castelvecchio museum in Verona (1954-1956), and the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice (1961-1963) where his great awareness of the city’s history provides a new dimension. One of the most ambitious landscape and garden projects of his career is the Brion Sanctuary at San Vito d’Altivole in Veneto, realized between 1969 and 1978.

Tobia Scarpa - Carafe Moretta, 1990 © Tobia Scarpa

Tobia Scarpa, Carlo Scarpa’s son, has been working in architecture and design for almost 40 years. First with Afra Bianchin, then alone, he has designed objects, furniture, lamps, office buildings, houses, factories, museums, and showrooms –more than 400 realizations–. In all his work we find beautiful experiments of the potential of the materials, the change of the relationships between forms and functions, and a new understanding of the space where they reside.

The first design pieces of Tobia Scarpa dates back to 1957 at the Paolo Venini's glass factory in which his father worked during years. In 1957, he meets Afra Bianchin (Montebelluna, on 1937 - Trevignano, on 2011) at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia. For a test at the Istituto, he designs a prototype of a wooden chair, the armchair Pigreco, an example of simplicity, that is edited first by Santabona, then by Gavina. During almost 40 years, they imagined design objects: furniture, lamps edited by big manufacturers (Knoll, Molteni, Maxalto, Flos), while leading at the same time architect's activity.

Tobia Scarpa - Pigreco, 1959, for Santabona © Giorgio Furla

In 1970, their armchair Soriana was rewarded with the Compasso d'Oro. Generally Tobia Scarpa's seats are made by elements such as construction sets. The chair Libertà from 1989 is an assembly of two parts folded and screwed. Afra Bianchin and Tobia Scarpa drew tens of lamps, most for a new brand: Flos. Thanks to the manufacturing process Cocoon, they created the lamp Fantasma, then the lamp Jucker. In 1968, they designed the table lamp, Biagio, made of Carrara marble; they also designed the floor lamp Papillona, and created a large collection of silversmith objects for San Lorenzo.


Exhibition: Carlo Scarpa & Tobia Scarpa - Dialogo sospeso
Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Bordeaux, France
From September 14 2012 to December 31 2012 

tags: furniture, sculpture, Tobia Scarpa, exhibitions, modern architecture, Carlo Scarpa
designers: Tobia Scarpa, Carlo Scarpa
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Neutra and Eames house numbers from Heath Ceramics

Heath Ceramics and House Industries are launching Heath house numbers, three-dimensional clay tiles celebrating the legendary Neutra and Eames fonts.

The Heath artisans are uniquely qualified to create a three-dimensional ceramic representation of House Industries’ two-dimensional typographic world. Each clay tile is glazed in a matte finish with a raised, unglazed number. As with all Heath tiles, Heath house numbers are pressed, hand-glazed, trimmed, and kiln-fired. They fuse simple, crisp lines, geometric forms and rich glazes in bold and classic colors. The two companies designed the tiles to be modular and easily integrated within a Heath tile installation, as well as to be displayed on their own with the use of a beautiful, modern track system—available in either salvaged teak or stainless steel.

“Bringing the Neutra and Eames-inspired fonts to life in clay form is so exciting to us,” says Heath Ceramics Creative Director Catherine Bailey. “Forming these beautiful and refined type-shapes out of an imprecise material, like clay, creates a fantastic contrast. The finished piece becomes as interesting as what’s likely to be housed inside the homes where the numbers preside.”

Richard J. Neutra was a rare personality whose character combined an uncommon aesthetic ability with a profound sense of civic responsibility. His physio-psychic architecture linked living spaces to their surrounding landscapes, physically and intellectually enriching the entire being. Impressed with Neutra’s design sensibilities, House Industries consulted with his son and partner, Dion, to produce Neutraface—an extensive font family based on the lettering that adorned many Neutra buildings. Since first releasing Neutraface in 2001, House Industries has continued to expand the family of typefaces with alternative, condensed and slab-serif styles.

Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of this century. House Industries worked closely with the Eames family for over ten years to gain access to some of the more obscure archive materials, to seek approval for the designs and to get a feel for what Charles and Ray would have wanted in a font family that bears their name. The Eames Century Roman family has eight different weights, from a distinctively delicate thin to a bombastic extra black. Corresponding italics are on double duty with their subtle nod to Ray Eames’ handwriting style while also providing an accompaniment to the Roman styles. Keeping with the Eames philosophy of balancing form and function, House also developed a special stencil version of the heaviest weight of the text family.

The Neutra numbers (3x6 inches) are offered in museum black and mid-century white, while the more playful Eames numbers (4x4 inches) are available in bright yellow, paprika, and museum black.

tags: graphic, outdoor, ceramic, modern architecture, new products
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Abitare: 50 years of design

Abitare: 50 years of design: The best of architecture, interiors, photography, travel and trends 1961-2011

Abitare: 50 Years of Design is the first-ever compilation of the most innovative design magazine of the 1960s and 1970s. Launched in 1961, Abitare is a revolutionary lifestyle magazine, the source of all things hip, important, and avant-garde, covering a wide range of topics including contemporary design, lifestyle, and modern architecture.

Abitare was founded to cover the growing influence of Italian design but also to gather the most interesting trends worldwide, from the mod fashion in London, and the rise of alternative lifestyles in New York and San Francisco, to the development of industrial design in Milan. Classic articles from Abitare are reproduced in full, with their original English and Italian texts, while new essays by noted writers and past editors reflect on the influence of this avant-gardist magazine.

Contributors to the book, including senior curator of Design at the MoMA Paola Antonelli, are all former editors of Abitare, and are now considered arbiters of style and design worldwide. Their new essays, along with the classic original articles reproduced in full in English and Italian constitute an important milestone in the analysis and appreciation of design.

Book for sale on Amazon: Abitare: 50 years of design: The best of architecture, interiors, photography, travel and trends 1961-2011
Edited by Mario Piazza - Rizzoli New York

tags: furniture, magazine, photographs, lighting, books, modern architecture
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Ezra Stoller architectural photographs

Yossi Milo Gallery is announcing an exhibition of photographs by Ezra Stoller (American, 1915-2004).

Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bear Run, PA
Gelatin Silver Print - 1971

A pioneer in the field of architectural photography, Ezra Stoller was commissioned by architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Rudolph, Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Marcel Breuer and Richard Meier, because of his unique ability to capture the building according to the architect's vision and to lock it into the architectural canon.  His photographs convey a three-dimensional experience of architectural space through a two-dimensional medium, with careful attention to vantage point and lighting conditions, as well as to line, color, form and texture.


Seagram Building, Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, New York, NY
Gelatin Silver Print - 1958


Ezra Stoller was born in Chicago in 1915 and graduated from New York University in 1938.  He worked briefly with the photographer Paul Strand in the Office for Emergency Management before being drafted in 1942 into the U.S. Army, where he taught photography at the Army Signal Corps Photo Center in Long Island City.  During his long career, he also photographed factories and technical facilities as well as residential projects.  In 1961, he became the first photographer to be awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. His photographs have been exhibited internationally and belong to numerous museum collections.

TWA Terminal at Idlewild (now JFK) Airport, Eero Saarinen, New York, NY
Gelatin Silver Print - 1962


Ezra Stoller's gelatin silver prints include images of architectural interiors and iconic landmarks.  Based on his background in architecture and industrial design, Stoller used a large-format camera to photograph monumental 20th century buildings, including the Guggenheim Museum, the TWA terminal at Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), the Seagram Building, the Salk Institute, Yale Art and Architecture Building and Fallingwater.  In addition to well-known photographs of these locations, the exhibition will include lesser-known photographs of small homes and guest houses which provide a fresh look at the masterful eye that established Stoller as the preeminent photographer of modern architecture.

Yossi Milo Gallery 
525 West 25th Street - New York NY 10001
Exhibition from January 6 to February 12 2011

tags: outdoor, photographs, exhibitions, modern architecture
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The new Heng Shan cinema

A historical renovation by Naço Architectures.



Hengshan cinema was founded in 1951. It was the first new cinema after the birth of new China.
In the end of 2009, when Naço joined the renovation competition, this was the situation: after 60 years of use, although there had been some renovated in 90's, the space and front of the building were very old; the place was messy and unfriendly for the guests.



The style of the main architecture is Art Deco. The building facade has homogeneous vertical lines of GRC (Glass Fiber Concrete). Those straight lines not only reduce the overall impact of heavy/high facade but also make dramatical change in terms of day lighting/shadow.



To replace the old image of "enclosed" garden cinema, the old boundary and gate were removed accordingly and recreate a new open space in front of the main cinema.

tags: outdoor, modern architecture
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Chapel of the Assumption by John Doe

French Studio John Doe has designed the furniture of the Chapel of the Carmelites of the Assumption in Paris. The chapel was built in 1959 by Noël Lemaresquier (a disciple of Le Corbusier).

The team of architects 3Box focused on redeveloping the chapel by rethinking the reception and the movement of pilgrims, whilst the John Doe duo tackled liturgical furniture: pews, prie-dieu, altar, font, tabernacle and lectern; so many typologies beyond domestic design that John Doe handled very well for his very first large- scale building project.

Chapel of the Congregation of the Carmelites of the Assumption
17 rue de l'Assomption
75016 Paris
France

John Doe, design studio created by Grégory Lacoua and Jean Sébastien Lagrange.

tags: furniture, modern architecture, wood
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Emerson House

 

 

Douglas Rollins and Tim Boyle, founder and co-founder of brinca dada, design "toys that parents love to look at and children love to play with".

The Emerson House is a great home for the modern family. The home has six rooms including a living room, kitchen, library/office, master bedroom, bathroom and child's bedroom.

With its large, open floor plan and floor-to-ceiling windows, the modern house features many extras including mitered-glass corners, two fireplaces, sliding glass doors, solar panels, and recessed LED lights.

Finally, the house is easy on the environment with only non-toxic and lead-free wood stains and paints.

The living room set creates the perfect atmosphere for entertaining guests, reading a good book or relaxing with family.

 

Not just any doll would feel at home in the Emerson House. The Modern Family is sleek and minimalist.

tags: furniture, toys, modern architecture, kids
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Bouroullec at the Cité Radieuse

 

 

 

"It all started early this year when Jasper Morrison introduced us to the owners of one of the apartments in the housing block unit of the Marseille-based Radiant City. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© studio bouroullec & FLC/ADAGP Paris

The Apartment 50 is not a museum; it is a lived-in space that we remodelled – just for the time of the summer season. We decided to feature a selection of objects from our collection of designs which seemed to rightly fit in this apartment and match the way the owners are living in it.

© studio bouroullec & FLC/ADAGP Paris

As an echo to Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé’s original furniture of the space, it seemed natural to us to articulate the remodelling around the SteelWood collection, Magis – including a table, some chairs and a shelving system.

© studio bouroullec & FLC/ADAGP Paris

Additionally, while remembering that Le Corbusier had a special interest in tapestries, we felt comfortable with the idea of installing a group of Clouds, Kvadrat up on the wall. Finally, a Zip carpet, Vitra and two of our latest lighting designs, including Lampalumina, Bitossi and LightHouse, Established & Sons and Venini, complete this ephemeral remodelling project."

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

© studio bouroullec & FLC/ADAGP Paris


© studio bouroullec & FLC/ADAGP Paris
 
The open doors of the Apartment 50 featuring the exhibition will be held from July 15 to August 15 2010.
Cité Radieuse
Unité d’habitation Le Corbusier
Appartement 50, 5ème rue
280 boulevard Michelet
13008 Marseille
France

tags: furniture, exhibitions, modern architecture
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Greta Magnusson Grossman Retrospective exhibition

Arkitekturmuseet presents the first major retrospective exhibition on Swedish-American designer and architect Greta Magnusson Grossman. The exhibition includes architectural commissions in Sweden as well as Northern and Southern California and designs for the many companies she worked with including Barker Brothers, Ralph O. Smith and Glenn of California. The exhibition also includes exemplary pieces of furniture and lighting, prototypes and textiles, original drawings and photographs, film clips as well as a 1:1 reconstruction of an interior.

The exhibition is produced in collaboration with R20th Century Gallery, New York.

 

 

 

Greta Magnusson Grossman (1906-1999) maintained a prolific forty-year career on two continents, Europe and North America, with achievements in industrial design, interior design and architecture.

 

 

( Portrait c 1950)

In the late 1920s Grossman finished a one-year woodworking apprenticeship in her hometown of Helsingborg, Sweden and was awarded a scholarship to enroll at Konstfack (then known as Högre Konstindustriella Skolan), the renowned Stockholm arts institution. At Konstfack she excelled in her mastery of technical drawing and focused her original design work on furniture, textiles and ceramics. In 1933 Grossman received second place for furniture design from the Stockholm Craft Association , becoming the first woman to receive an award in that category.  In 1934 the Swedish Society of Industrial Design awarded her a scholarship to travel throughout Europe and she filed reports of her observations on interior design and architecture for the “Women and Home” section of the Swedish paper Nya Dagligt Allehanda.   

In 1933 Grossman and Konstfack classmate Erik Ullrich opened Studio, a store and workshop, at Sturegatan 12 in Stockholm.
From Studio, Grossman took on numerous commissions designing unique furniture and interiors, garnered abundant press attention and accolades and exhibited frequently at Galerie Moderne, a cultural mecca in Stockholm at the time.

'Good Design' chairs, USA 1954

The unique approach to Swedish modernism that she brought with her when she moved from Stockholm in 1940 proved to be incredibly popular in the United States. She opened a much-publicized shop in Beverly Hills in 1940 selling her own designs billed on her business card as “Swedish modern furniture, rugs, lamps and other home furnishings.” She attracted celebrity clients such as Greta Garbo, Joan Fontaine and Gracie Allen and began making connections that would lead to a number of projects both from her own shop and from Barker Brothers’ Modern Shop launched in 1947, for whom she was designing exclusive pieces and taking interior design commissions.

'Cobra' table lamp, USA, 1948-49

In the late 1940s Grossman designed a groundbreaking and successful line of lamps for Barker Brothers, later produced by Ralph O. Smith.

'Grasshopper' floor lamp, USA, circa 1947

Over the next twenty years she produced work for companies like Glenn of California, Sherman Bertram, Martin/Brattrud and Modern Line. The work for Glenn of California is arguably her most sophisticated and best known. These pieces were characterized by the materials she used, such as rich, colorful textiles and woods like California walnut paired in surprising and elegant combination with black plastic laminate and wrought iron. The uniquely petite proportions and asymmetrical lines of her furniture also set her work apart.

Desk, USA, circa 1952 - Designed for Glenn of California

Grossman’s most enduring work in Los Angeles came in the form of her built architectural commissions. Between 1949 and 1959 Grossman designed at least fourteen homes in Los Angeles, one in San Francisco and one back in her native Sweden. Of these, at least ten are still standing. The homes were often perched on stilts at the top of a hill, overlooking a canyon, with magnificent views through curtain walls of glass. The homes featured extensive built-in shelving and the uniquely open and free flowing floor plan popular at the time.  She worked several times with celebrated landscape architect Garrett Eckbo on the outdoor spaces. Grossman’s houses are designed to the diminutive scale of the Los Angeles based Case Study House program—most of them have a footprint of less than 1,500 square feet (ca 140 square meters).

Her architectural work, as well as her design work, was featured extensively in Arts & Architecture, the magazine edited by Case Study program founder John Entenza.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s Grossman’s designs were included in numerous international exhibitions and exhibited at institutions such as The Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, Sweden), Röhsska Museet (Gothenburg, Sweden), Museum of Modern Art (New York, United States), Museum of Industry and Science (Chicago, United States) and the de Young Museum (San Francisco, United States). Articles about her work were published during her career in American, British, French, Italian, Dutch, German, Polish and Swedish magazines and newspapers. In 1952 the United States Department of State distributed an article about her in 75 different countries to present “a true picture…of the American way of life.” In the 1950s Grossman taught industrial design courses at the University of California, Los Angeles and at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. She retired from design and architecture in the late 1960s.

Exhibition: Greta Magnusson Grossman
Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden
From February 10 to May 16 2010

All photos © R 20th Century

tags: furniture, outdoor, lighting, exhibitions, modern architecture
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The Third & The Seventh

A fascinating 3D animated film that illustrates architecture across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.
Directed by Alex Roman.
Watch the video (12 min) 

Via WalkingMen

Read More...

tags: outdoor, contemporary architecture, video, modern architecture
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angellightning
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