Over the next few days members of the archinect community John Jourden, Aaron Plewke (AP), Enrique Gualberto Ramirez (Smokety Mc Smoke Smoke), Susan Surface (surfaces), and myself (Quilian) will join Postopolis! organizers and archinecters Jill Fehrenbacher, Bryan Finoki, Geoff Manaugh, and Dan Hill at Postopolis!

Postopolis! is a five-day event of near-continuous conversation about architecture, urbanism, landscape, and design. Four bloggers, from four different cities, will host a series of live discussions, interviews, slideshows, panels, talks, and other presentations, and fuse the informal energy and interdisciplinary approach of the architectural blogosphere with the immediacy of face to face interaction.
Full schedule:
http://www.storefrontnews.org/exhib_dete.php?exID=5

This thread will serve as a blog to put up-to-the minute images of different events during the week. Aaron, Enrique, and I (Quilian) will also cover and comment on those events either here or in our school blogs. Finally, Susan Surface will be putting images in the gallery section.

Moblog images from Susan:

6:30 pm: Geoff Manaugh (BLDGBLOG), Dan Hill (City of Sound), Jill Fehrenbacher (Inhabitat) and Bryan Finoki (Subtopia) in a back-to-back pecha kucha presentation followed by opening reception

Postopolis! Organizers:

Geoff:

The Organizers:

Dan:

Bryan:

Jill:

Some behind the scenes photos from the City of Sound Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofsound/

better link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofsound/sets/72157600282605661/

ack those images posted are hurting my eyes.

Would be great if there was a podcast for those of us further away.

I like those images... They seem very... I dunno, like a surveillance camera. I'm sure Finoki arranged it that way.

Nah, it's just the awfulness of my cell phone camera, no deliberation behind that! But I've got some proper photos coming later!

pictures from estimmel

So great to see these pics, please keep them coming, everyone! We Midesterners appreciate being able to see what we're missing!

(Storefront is such a funny building - the beat-to-heck anti-building that houses other buildings within it - but that's a discussion for another thread.)

quilian, don't forget to talk about vindpust/per and the mdler/tumbles soap opera! we want people to know what archinect's all about!

make sure you talk about the impact of archinect/breuer charrette!!!

mdler/tumbles may be a little to explicit for a general audience. Thats for the late night HBO crowd.

I am pretty sure Aaron, myself, and the rest of the archinect crew will talk about mapa.

what timing - I'll be in NYC for a wedding - looks interesting

anyone going to be talking about the new high rises sprouting up around the city? Seems like an exciting time to be building in New York

(here's a quick report, apologies for poor grammar, spelling and verb tense, it's early and i was up late hanging shelves. disaster. more to follow...)



i want to hold your blog...

i arrived last night at 6:45, hoping to catch the beginning of the 4-headed pecha kucha:

BLDGBLOG,
City of Sound,
Inhabitat, and
Subtopia

...fortunately, Michael Kubo of Actar was still up, fielding questions (with a bit of help from Geoff) about the nature of publishing (both books and blogs), and the inherent differences between the physical and virtual media.

standing in the back, it strikes me that i can barely hear Michael (even though he has a mic), and i definitely can't hear audience member's questions.

the immediacy [and reality] of face to face interaction...

as i scribble this realization in my sketchbook, Geoff says on cue, "In case people in the back didn't hear that..."

this session seems to provide a framework for the coming week's events. this new medium has obvious limitations and unique opportunities. and we've only just begun to realize its potential.

...

7:00pm Michael and Geoff answer a final question and the set up for the pecha kucha begins. i make my way to the front, take a chair within hearing range and quickly make the acquaintance of one Susan Surface...

after 15-20 minutes of set up, 6-packs of Grolsch start making their way through the audience. i'm pretty sure everyone that wanted a beer ended up with one...

at 7:20, Joseph Grima, Director of the Storefront, offers some comments on Postopolis, "the Woodstock of architecture blogging," and then introduces the 4 blogs that will lead the rapid fire pecha kucha presentations.

Geoff, Dan, Brian and Jill, in that order, each offer 400 second section cuts through their blogs. not only was it interesting to hear these attempts at condensing extensive thought and writing into 20 images and 6 minutes, it was also very telling of each blogger's personality.

after the pecha kucha no questions are asked of the bloggers. we immediately break for more beer and conversation. Susan introduces me to a guy named Bill who is covering the event for Icon magazine. we speek for nearly an hour on everything from dry sinuses and poor air quality to the shortcomings of criticism for its own sake. i depart just before 9pm.

[/report]


i look forward to meeting everyone that's coming tonight (including Geoff, Brian and others that i didn't have a chance to say hi to last night).

best,
Aaron

Nice recap, AP! London sure is feeling like an outpost this week ... !

thanks Heather! Dan from City of Sound represented the London outpost quite well last night.... here are a couple of his blogs from the first day's activities:

Robert Krulwich
Postopolis! Day One


*image credit - City of Sound

...i was curious about Finoki's wristbands (far right) until he took the mic and started beat-boxin...then it all made sense...

looks like all the guys broke out there nice t shirts!

Yes, excellent recap AP. I'm so glad you are now stationed in NYC!

Live images from Susan Surface...

as javier posted previously in the news--but right now you can see yesterday's pecha kucha's of geoff and bryan and others. GO!

how did I get dragged into this...

ooh la la

More images from Susan Surface...

guy with the green t-shirt [Geoff Manaugh?]: intended to match the beer bottles? [i think they're beer bottles] nice.

i love that pic of ss her entire seems covered by the size of that camera

those pecha kucha things are crazy!
still not sure what to make of them. fun, but frantically incoherent --
-- they make me talk faster than i do already!
really, i'm not on speed.
but just imagine being born an incredible hyper-babbler, and then being thrown into one of these!
i'm not even drinking any coffee this week.
anyway, you might think i'm destined to contract some future horrendous case of architectural touretes syndrome or something. just hope you don't get it.
YOU BORDER FENCE, YOU!!
b

The funny thing is that Bryan has been disappearing into the bathroom all week - after which weird, loud, and frantically incoherent rants about something he calls the "big bunker" start echoing throughout the Storefront...

Yeah, big bunker!

That's how I roll, big bunker!

Big bunker time!

The floor vibrates subtly.


Meanwhile, I will be dressed not to match the color of the beer bottles tomorrow night - but actually like a beer bottle.

hey Geoff congrats on the book dealy!

speaking to you live and direct from AP's living room in NYC (thanks AP!!!). The following are some pics from last nights activities with a few comments:

6:10pm: Paul Seletsky
Paul, who came from SOM, spoke at lengths at software tools they are creating to help designers know the implications of any move they make (energy consumption, etc...) from the very first sketch. His was a passionate presentation, he sees these tools as giving architects many new options to validate their designs, and go beyond the pre-defined role of the architect to better collaborate from a position of knowledge. He spoke about movements that SOM is making towards sustainable architecture of course mentioning the China tower project, among others. Among the most interesting discoveries (at least to me) was during the Q&A, Paul mentioned that there is a group within SOM that is actively looking at the effect climate change will have in their buildings and what they can do about it.

6:50pm: Ada Tolla & Giuseppe Lignano (http://www.lot-ek.com/)
The presentation went like this: Giuseppe spewed out words as an example: (I am not sure he said these) parasite, invade, penetrate, etc... while showing images from urban conditions that typified that word (at least to them). Then every once in a while Ada would stop and speak about a project LotEk had in the works. The CHK (Container Home Kit) project was the one that caught my attention the most. I think that it typifies their process the best, and asks an interesting question about architecture as commercial object. At the same time, the renderings (see their website above) shows these units in a detached single home position most often. I asked the question and they said that they envision these taking all forms from urban towers to... But I wonder if along with the individual product a big vision (that includes sustainable communities) needs to be sold with it.

This is cracking me up. At first I had no idea what was going on and then I decided that this was like a Star Trek convention, except for architectural bloggers, and suddenly the world makes sense again.

I saw a lecture a few weeks ago that I wish had been conducted in "pecha kucha" format.

Quilian, Paul Seletsky's presentation sounds like it was really informative. You didn't happen to catch what software he was talking about, did you?

Agreed on the Seletsky, it sounds amazing.

SO cool! I love architects, I love Archinect (the fact that Quilian is blogging from AP's living room is so archi-nected it makes me all warm and fuzzy!)

is that still happening today? and what's the time frame today on things if so...i need a serious break from stress...

here's the remaining schedule, going today through Saturday:

--Thursday, May 31--
1:30pm: DJ /rupture
2:50pm: Gianluigi Ricuperati
3:30pm: Monica Hernandez
4:10pm: Jeff Byles
4:50pm: Wes Janz
5:30pm: Lebbeus Woods
6:10pm: Robert Neuwirth
6:50pm: Jake Barton
7:30pm: Joel Sanders


--Friday, June 1--
1:30pm: Julia Solis
2:10pm: Andrew Blum
3:00pm: A panel on design, blogs, and the city with William Drenttel,
Tom Vanderbilt, and Michael Bierut
4:10pm: James Sanders
4:50pm: David Benjamin & Soo-in Yang
5:30pm: Kevin Slavin
6:10pm: Eric Rodenbeck
6:50pm: Laura Kurgan
7:30pm: Lawrence Weschler


--Saturday, June 2--
1:30pm: Conversations with Mark Wigley, Beatriz Colomina, and Keller Easterling
4:15pm: Randi Greenberg responds to questions about architecture
blogs, Metropolis magazine, and online media
4:40pm: A panel about Archinect school blogs with Quilian Riano, Aaron Plewke, and Enrique Ramirez, who will then be joined by Bryan Finoki, Jill Fehrenbacher, Geoff Manaugh, John Jourden, and Susan Surface for a conversation about Archinect
5:15pm: Blogger open house with George Agnew, Alec Appelbaum, architecture.mnp, Abe Burmeister, John Hill, Miss Representation, Aaron Plewke, Enrique Ramirez, Quilian Riano, Chad Smith, and others to be announced
7:30pm: closing party with food, drinks, and music, open to everyone

Thirty-five minutes to talk about Archinect?!? That's not enough time!!

If only there was a place we could talk constantly about Archinect all day and all night, how wonderful that would be...

7:30pm: Mitchell Joachim (Michael Sorkin was not able to make it)
http://terreform.org/
Joachim was truly just a delight to listen to. It may be that his work straddles the worlds of the scifi and the surrealist, which is something that I just happen to enjoy. But terreform is more than about grand visions, they speak about their futuristic-looking projects in ways that we can understand, speaking about real materials and building real prototypes in some cases.
Among other projects, Joachim spoke at length about the FAB TREE HAB. Joachim made a point about the project that I think is key to understanding it: mainly that "growing" a house may not a completely new idea, but that the real contribution of the project is that they used the latest in CAD CAM technologies to better control the design of such a growing. Finally, it seems like this project may not be theoretical for too much longer, a developer in CA wants to use the method, fusing it with more common building technologies, to build a few houses. Joachim says that the problem now is with the insurance companies, bond agencies, finding the appropriate contractor, etc... In short, as someone in the audience pointed out, our system seems hardwired to kill architectural innovation.

Some General Observations:

1. Sustainability Panel (Allan Chochinov, Susan Szenasy, Graham Hill, and Jill Fehrenbacher)



This particular panel started with some remarks about the amount of signal-to-noise in design blogs, especially when dealing with issues of sustainability. There was a consensus among the panelists that spoke to several unresolvable tensions. One the one hand was the idea that although design/sustainability blogs do focus quite a bit on products, they perhaps do not do enough to address issues of consumption. This is a tricky terrain to navigate -- although people like Chochinov, et al., do want to address issues of consumption, their reader responses seem to gravitate more towards reviewing specific products.

Chochinov made an interesting comment about not wanting to deal with people that do not incorporate ideas of sustainability into their designs. In other words, sustainability can operate as a barrier to entry. Although this is a problematic idea, it does have a cultural dimension. Only a month ago, Adriaan Geuze of West 8 spoke at Yale, and after he finished, a professor challenged him, asking if any of the projects were sustainable. What the respondent was really getting at was that Geuze never actually used the words "sustainable" or "sustainability." To which Geuze promptly replied that the idea of sustainable design is presumed. As in, "I don't have to say that our projects are sustainable, because it is assumed that any project you undertake at this level must be sustainable."

Chochinov also spent quite a bit of time name-checking John Thackara and Bruce Sterling. It's interesting because I saw Sterling at SXSW in Austin in March, and he brought up the same issue that started this panel. To wit: Sterling said something like, "There are thousands of video blogs out there, and they're all terrible." Sterling positioned himself as a type of cyber-Adorno, a person who takes the step to say what is good and bad in a world where a bottom-up approach is heralded and celebrated. I'm not sure how a system of peer review could ever be established within the blogosphere, but perhaps what the panelists were really aching for was a modicum of cultural stewardship. Only a modicum, though.

2. Scott Marble of Marble/Fairbanks



Marble lectured on a topic familiar to many architecture students: the elision between design and fabrication. His lecture reminded me of one I saw by Gregg Pasquerelli a few months back. Marble readily linked the elision I mentioned earlier to a changing conception of architectural practice. Using buzzwords like "rapid prototyping" and "design management", he sounded some of the same points that people like Michael Speaks like to promote. In other words, in today's economic climate, architecture practices must retool themselves to meet the protean demands of flexible capital, etc., etc., etc.. For Marble, this meant incorporating his firm within a network of different practices, all geared towards the execution of a single project. Showing renderings for the Art History slide library and School of Journalism student center at Columbia University, he emphasized the working relationships between Marble/Fairbanks and engineers, graphic designers, facade specialists, geometry consultants, etc. It seems that Marble was really getting to the idea of a design consortium. Think of what Airbus Industrie does, but apply it to architecture practices, and perhaps you'll get the picture.

3. Paul Seletsky (SOM)



Quilian has already written about this presentation, but I will only add that Seletsky's talk touted the idea of a "pre-rational" architecture. He focused on the idea that SOM projects worked on various levels of representation. In other words, their use of various programs and modeling software enables SOM to prefigure any discussion with environmental consultants, etc. More interestingly, Seletsky talked about how Microsoft Excel spreadsheets were used to create BIM's (Building Information Models) for specific projects. He readily distinguished the excel-generated BIM's from "real" and "actual" models, implying that these BIM's invoked issues of representation. Which reminds me of Friedrich Kittler's reading of binary code and machine languages, suggesting that, more than anything else, these computer languages are contemporary examples of the Lacanian "symbolic".

4. LOT-EK (Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla)



Theirs was one of the most entertaining presentations I had seen. LOT-EK used a clever call-and-response format to present four projects. Each project would start with Lignano reading something like 20-30 words, all beginning with a single letter, and each cued to a single image, whereupon Tolla would continue with a discussion of a single project that encapsulated the ideas expressed by the words. Very interesting to watch, very fun, engaging, and provocative.

more pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quilian/sets/72157600284832772/

guess the archinecters:

Write your own caption! ;)

wonderk, lb,
as enrique posted it seems like the beauty of what Seletsky is doing is that they are using pretty mundane softwares, linking them and making them work better. As far as I can remember they use ECOTECT, CATIA, and other very commonly used programs (like excel).

AP and Smoke?

Thanks for the answer Q - very interesting!

busted!

...

this whole collection of Postopolizing people - archinect members, lecturers, bloggers and casual passers-by - is really making for an informative and uplifting experience. it's truly a pleasure to attend these talks, and to participate in the loose conversations that take place before, after and between.

big thanks is due to the blogger-organizers (Jill, Dan, Bryan and M.C. Geoff) as well as anyone else lending them a hand (rather by taking video, handing out beer etc.). it's clear that a lot is going in to this.

if you're interested in following any particular presentation (remotely), check City of Sound. Dan is vigilant with his real-time coverage. he's also posting links to youtube videos of many of the presentations.

those pecha kecha presentations were like bad stoner art!

my proposed caption:

ap [texting]: hi smks, how r u?

smokes [texting back]: hi ap. want 2 get a beer?

The City of Sound coverage is great, thanks for the link AP.

There goes my ability to be productive today. wahoo!

COMBATTRE, care to expand on that comment? that was my 1st experience with it...

Bryan (Subtopia) and i had a brief conversation last night about the pk format. it would be interesting to hear your thoughts (and anyone elses) on pecha kucha as a way to present something.

And jeepers, Dan Hill catches the sense of space of Storefront perfectly!

Inside is a variable term here, as the gallery, which is almost transparent concrete through the incisions in the side of the building, merges into the city around it. It's a wonderful thing, it really is. An architect friend raises an eyebrow at some of the approaches to meeting building regulations, but I couldn't have wished for a more appropriate functional space for Postopolis.

Beautiful, how I wish I was there.

AP: "I'm going to call puddles and ask him if his refrigerator is running"

Smokety: "This T9 thing never works for me...."

HA! Actually, my phone will not let me use T9.

This message is for Bryan Finoki... Bryan, if you get this message, gimme a call. I tried to give you a buzz this morning. Yeah yeah I know you're busy.

this message is for john j.
john, forget about what i said yesterday, you 'can' have a beer..;.)

*this is turning into the message boards in woodstock. did someone said woodstock?

just one? shit man...

funny. so, i'm standing in line at a falafel stand, waiting to get my lunch, and puddles sends me a text, informing me that while his refrigerator is running fine, he has no internet, no address, and the bathroom lights didn't work this morning. so, considering that he has no internet, how was he aware of the non-text that WonderK proposed on my behalf? curious.

so, this message is for puddles...
i can't send text messages from my phone, so this will have to do: i laughed out loud when i read your message. thanks.

I was lucky enough to catch LOT EK and Terreform lectures on Wednesday. I am a landscape architect - ultra-light archinector on and off for a few years. I want to say thanks for putting together such a great group of informal discussions in an enjoyable location - a refreshing departure from the academic setting in which these things typically occur. Can't wait for today's events.

can we post questions here, and hopefully the bloggers can ask them for us?

that's a great idea, but how would it work in real-time?

now, if questions were posted here for a particular speaker, we could certainly use them in a post-presentation interview...

i saw that lo/tek presentation in indy in january. it was mildly entertaining. i don't think they were prepared for all the intelligent questions from us hicks.

are u guys calling each other???

or, if someone has a preemptive question for a speaker, we can use the computers at the Storefront to check before a presentation, and ask the questions during the q/a session. that could be very cool:

aml, an architecture professor located in Ecuador, sends this question via archinect...

Ap, and Q,
It's been ages.
Sounds like you guys are enjoying a quite thought-provokign event.
Wish i was there to share the time...
Hope all is well.
From the pits of the south.

More photos from Susan Surface posted to the Events section of the Image Gallery...

It's been a pleasure stopping by on my lunch break...DJ Rupture was excellent in his observations.

internet via blackberry handheld only,i.e., a crippling manner with which to maintain a web presence.

and, yeah, i get the "frdge runing" old joke now...makes the whole exchange that much more amusing...ooh la la

Hilarious!

Somebody at Postopolis should bring up the topic of "blackberry blogging"....


PS. puddles, do you have Prince Albert in a can?

ok,i can hardly believe this myself...but the power just went out here and my refrigerator is no longer running...so much for getting any work done, what a fucked up day...time to drimk the last two heinekins and the one carib beer before they go bad, skål!

i like the questions idea, but the problem is, not hearing the lectures, how would we know if the questions have already been answered? you would have to curate a bit and just not ask whatever's been answered already. still, we won't know what people are going to talk about, so it might just veer completely off topic.

many thanks to the organizers for getting this up and running, and to all those posting about the lectures- very cool to those of us far away.

i guess ideally the next time this event takes place [because i'm assuming there will be a next time!] maybe you'll find way to transmit the lectures on real time- then we could easily ask questions on a chat room or something...[until then, youtube is also hugely appreciated- don't mean to sound ungrateful]

wk, i don't know the punchline of the prince albert joke, please advise.

and this message is for anyone who is in attendence @ postopolis:
i understand that mr. manough has had some experience/interest in dj-ing...so...how is the noise at this event? are the sounds as pleasant as the views? where could i turn to reference a set list? mange takk & gratzi mille!

I second that aml, I hope this is the first of many and I hope that next time there is more interaction with the virtual audience. But for now you could stay informed with the Dan Hill's updates, if that works and you are interested, email me soon. I will only attend the event today from 4:30-6:30ish.

make sure you post everything to youtube!

quilian, i sent you an email. puddles, i don't know the code to prince albert either, i thought i was missing some inside joke. relieved.

watching youtube right now...

Prince Albert in a Can

I am a huge nerd. I apologize.

aml i did no get your email but I sent you one. If that does not work, just post here and I will try to check it as Wes Janz gets off.

P.S. I am posting from ground zero (the storefront for art and architecture) on one of the free computers they put out to check blogs out.

ok- emails being eaten by internet demigods. i sent directly to your gmail, weird. i haven't gotten yours either.

had not heard of wes janz work before and will obviously not hear the lecture until posted [or posted about] but for the sake of internet world connectivity and a question from another hemisphere at postopolis, did super quick google search on his work and read some of his abstracts. here goes [please edit or curate if it was answered in the lecture]:

the idea of building out of refuse material sounds practical and cost efficient, but in developing countries solutions are often needed at mass scale- this means the refuse needs to come in large quantities and standardized conditions. i read some of the research re. the pallets, which i guess in the us are widely available. i'm just thinking out loud, but i guess each country has their own type of refuse/garbage that they would need to tap into in order to make this cost effective. what are your thoughts regarding larger scale housing projects through refuse? [more houses, not bigger] is it possible? most housing projects in south america right now are very horizontal - small houses rather than apartments, because they're cheaper to build and people would rather have their own land, but urbanly devastating. are vertical solutions possible through refuse use?

...although this may not make sense. i keep on reading and there's mention of thinking and acting small. are his actions then intended to be a catalyst for more small growth rather than act at a larger scale?

Wes Janz interview by Bryan Finoki, March 23, 2006

ahh, cool. will read. [please don't ask my questions if they don't make sense.]

well, actually, scratch those questions. basically answered in the finoki interview.

Excdellent question, aml, and even if it has already been covered in other venues, I am sure everyone appreciates your efforts towards global internet archiconnectivity!

I knew Jake Barton from undergrad ... someone please say hello for me.

hello Jake from smokey.

puddles, what do you mean by "set list"?

i understand that mr. manough has had some experience/interest in dj-ing...so...how is the noise at this event? are the sounds as pleasant as the views? where could i turn to reference a set list? mange takk & gratzi mille!

Do you mean /rupture's upcoming set on Saturday night? Or something else?

maybe, but just as likely he's curious about the intermission and end of the day music...i particularly enjoyed the reggae at the end of Wednesday's program...


and to follow up on my day 1 report, i'm happy to say that when i arrived on day 2, a speaker was located in the back of the room on the ceiling. loud and clear.


also, i'm still interested in this notion of questions being posted here, either before, during(?) or after presentations (once readers have viewed them on youtube or read about them on City of Sound etc)...Javier or anyone else, share your thoughts (or questions).

...

Lebbeus Woods on teaching:

i don't like the term 'student'...students are just people, aren't they?

...ask the right questions...questions that you don't know the answers to, and arrive at the answers together...

First of all AP are writing these comments sitting side by side after a nice Italian meal. Good friends, good wine, good threads...

4:10pm: Jeff Byles
http://www.jeffbyles.com/

I was not there for the whole thing, but the question and answer session seemed to be dominated by a presupposed fear by architects for destruction. Byles pointed out that architects like Cedric Price not only saw it as natural but asked that buildings have expiration dates. The idea of disposable buildings is something that seems to have propagated, but the obvious question is what about the environmental damage? I can see a disposable building if all materials could be, to borrow an idea from Cradle to Cradle, upcycled.

4:50pm: Wes Janz
http://www.archinect.com/features/article.php?id=35227_0_23_C

So... thousands of abandoned houses in Flint Michigan (and many more in the rust belt of this nation) crime, dereliction, and whole communities disappearing or radically being changed... wow

Wes Janz's job: finding smart ways to destroy this derelict houses and at least save some parts of the communities.

5:30pm: Lebbeus Woods
http://archweb.cooper.edu/faculty/faculty/woods.html

The format for this session changed. Instead of a mini 15-minute blog-entry like lecture, Lebbeus Woods was interviewed simultaneously by the organizers of postpolis! Dan, Geoff, Bryan, and Jill.

the players:
Lebbeus Woods LW
Geoff Manaugh GM
Bryan Finoki BF
Dan Hill DH

the talk:
GM began by asking a question about the seemingly disappearing terrestrial plane and instability in LW's work. LW answered that it is part of his autobiography that his childhood as a military brat was unstable and that plays a large part in his work.

BF followed up by asking about the political stances of architecture today, how has the war on terror changed architecture from the times of the roman military camps and medieval castles?
LW said that in all reality architecture has not changed much, we still mostly big building for the elites of society. He says that the only hope for a real political change in architecture and to break the cycle of privilege is the brand new blogosphere and digital media. Archinecters, LW says that it is time to change the world! Well at least one library at a time.

DH then asked LW about the changing role of the architect from master builder to something more akin to a conductor, setting out the rules and letting things happen freely in the field.
LW answered that back in the 60's there was a move for the "advocate" architect. Architects thinking that they could help people design their own world. LW argues that it failed because these architects did not clearly lay out the rules of the game. The new role of the architect: rule setter.

the next question, by GM, dealt with how LW feels about his outside-of-architecture audience.
paraphrase: Architects are my audience, LW says, but if others want to pick up my work and learn from it I'm happy. He says that he wants to influence architects as they have an important responsibility to society.

A few other questions were asked and these are some of the highlights of the rest of the conversation:
-on other media: LW disclosed that he wrote a screenplay for a summer blockbuster that was distributed around Hollywood . Not picked up yet, Hollywood doesnt care about the designer anyway.
-on inspiration: TEXT, lots of philosophers from Sartre to Nietzsche.
-on the future for him: studying slums (not ready to disclose more, but when he is ready he'll contact the organizers of postopolis! first).

That's it folks, a really good format, LW was clearly excited to be there and supported our blogger friends completely. He is excited about the possibilities of a positive change in the architectural world by this our medium of choice.

at 6:30, Bryan Finoki introduces author/blogger Robert Neuwirth.

Squatter City, the blog
Shadow Cities, the book
@ the TED conference, July 2005

Robert opens his presentation with a 5 minute video of Lagos, Nigeria, focusing on the city's self-regulated informal economy. In the short film, four narratives illuminate the nature of this economic community:

a young guy who makes his living extorting money from bus drivers, a man who has climbed the ranks in the waste/scavenge/recycle industry (going from scavenger to weigher of scavenged goods, finally to scrap broker), a man and his two wives that make and sell soap (samples were passed through the audience) and a young girl that buys bags of 'pure water,' selling them at a huge mark-up.

at the end of the Q and A session w/Robert, an audience member asked a question about crime and violence in this type of economy. Neuwirth responded that although outright criminality (drug trade, for example) exists in an informal economic community, the threat of violence (seldom acted on) is more prevalent. pay your toll, be on your way...

very interesting content. Robert also wins the award for "best dressed" with his snazzy orange-ish suit and electric blue shirt...

i stayed for Jake Barton's presentation (and passed on your salutation, Smokety), but that recap will have to wait until tomorrow. in the meantime, check out his practice's site:
Local Projects

I know I proposed that whole 'throw an answer into the pot here'. But I should have seen how dumb that idea was, unless you really know the person's work or research and can pose an open-ended question if it fits into the talk. I did want to ask more about Robert Neuwirth, cus I am a bit put off by this whole idea, which is also a la Koolhaas, that Lagos has this sort of self-organized economy, as if saying in a liberterian voce that "we" have too many rules, too many constricting orders (meanwhile Leb Woods is saying that "we," the pro's, actually need to lay down more rules...?) Well, it just seems to me that there is a market economy in Lagos, but that's not to say that it is so improvised. Is it capitalism? Is it fair? Are we going to applaud it because it is just so "free" and those that lose out, well, so be it? Sounds a bit condescending, from my limited vanatage point over here at the other end of this computer. Now, the problem is that Neuwirth already presented and this is all over. So I guess it'll have to wait till next years postopolis.

hmmm...maybe "set list" was too formal of a word...i' was definitely more curious about what (if any) music/noise was infiltrating the cracks between speakers of this event. someone mentioned reggae and that definitely gives me a better sense of the atmrsphr...maybe some of this will translate via the youtube videos, i'll have to check that out.

On a similar note, how is the weather there? warm, yes? any humiditiy?

it is actually beautiful and warm, no real humidity yet. The Storefront can get a little stifling but once they open the doors a little more and draft comes in it feels awesome. On to other sensory news, the busy corner that the Storefront is in gives the event a constant soundtrack of cars, buses, trucks, and pedestrians walking by. It really is quite nice.

Well at least one library at a time

Thanks for the acknowledgment, Quilian.


Javier, I agree - the notion of "extorting" money being some kind of acceptable economics is not only questionable but outright wrong. Yes a subtler - or maybe blatant - type of formalized extortion exists in "legitimate" economies (I recently paid $3,500 for a historic committee review before we could even submit for a building permit), but at least in the US capitalist/democratic society we do have avenues to change what we see as wrong.

Sorry. More briefly, did Neuwirth take a stance on whether he thought extortion is a legitimate economy?

Pics of the snazzy suit?

Javier, you can certainly read all of that and more into what Neuwirth is presenting, but he doesn't seem to be (judging solely from the presentation and responses to questions) taking a position (at least not publicly...i'm sure he has one). he's really bringing this content forward more like a journalist...clearly facinated by the story he's covering, but primarily interested in communicating the nature of an economy that is different than those of the "developed" countries of the world...

on the extortionist, i should have mentioned that he and the bus driver both belong to a non-governmental mass transit union. they essentially work together. Neuwirth told us that the gov't stopped providing mass transit a while ago (years?) and this union and bus system was developed by the people of Lagos, to fulfill the need. as for having means to change, he did say that if a bus driver feels an agbaro is asking for too much money, he simply raises his concern within the union and things usually resolve themselves.

*i'm not taking a position either. i'm definitely intrigued by this conversation, but i don't know enough to take an informed stance.

otherwise, i think we should engage him (and probably others) with these and other questions in the coming week or so, via email perhaps. the Postopolis format is great for being introduced to a lot of thought in a short amount of time. that said, i think a lot of real learning will be done in the aftermath...once we've all had a chance to discuss these things at some length and clarify our initial reactions.

...

it's quite warm, but not too humid, puddles. the event is learning from itself each step of the way though...yesterday there were fans placed throughout the non-conditioned Storefront, definitely making the temperature more comfortable than the previous days.

and sorry lb, i took some cameraphone pics of his snazzy suit, but my service isn't set up for texting or sending the pics, so i'm not sure how to get them off my phone! maybe someone else reading tooks some...

one interesting implication of what you've wrote about Lebbeus's talk (and this is something he has been moving towards for a while) is that of the architect as rule-setter....and this is something that i've been thinking about for a while....and lebbeus would probably bite my head off for even implying this...but i think that to simply set rules within the academic is to undervalue the role of government and financial institutions in setting the rules that we follow and others in society use as a heuristic mechanism for decision making. could the most insidious form of disruption occur through creating a dialogue with tax lawyers and economists? as i see it these two factors most set the heuristic mechanisms that society operates under. tax law has a much more direct influence of personal and corporate spending habits and "values" than architecture can....and economist set the means of quanitfying and caculating value as was recently evidenced by the calculations for CO2 recently undertaken by the UN to drive sustainability initiatives and policy reform....could this be the future role of architects? as spatial consultants?

Thanks for the response, AP, that seems to explain a lot but I also only skimmed it as I have to run to a meeting - I'm going appliance shopping with a client and believe me I'm going to be thinking about the environmental/consumption issues in every single thing we look at today!

Which is related to why I'm posting right now - I just read this thread and City of Sound's wrap up and I took about 3 pages worth of notes re: how I need to incorporate some of this discussion into my two upcoming teaching gigs (one is an architecture class for non-architects). I am certain the work you all did putting this together is resulting in a massive germination of ideas and efforts, thank you again for making this event happen and be accessible to so many!

Postopolis Talk on U Tube
see video of M. Joachim for Postopolis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VWD3-07Us
or
http://www.youtube.com/storefrontgallery

maybe because i'm reading the nyt immigration piece at the same time, but i can't help but notice -- why is this thing so damn white?!

I guess you missed the part with dj rupture?

Having attended, I've seen a variety of races in the audience. I can also think of at least 4 non-whites participating on Saturday.