Tuesday, April 30. 2013
Competition of Competitions
Following the previous post about Strange Utility: Architecture Toward Other Ends, the sympoisium organized in Portland, here is an interesting call for proposals that adresses similar questions, by Storefront fr Art & Architecture (for the AAA) in NYC: a competition of competitions.
As explained on Storefront's website:
"Given competitions operate in a confined space for experimentation, they have perpetuated and sometimes repeated ad nauseam a series of programmatic and social needs – from Museums to Concert Halls - without actually asking what needs of society architecture should aspire to serve.
This competition claims that the true desires of our present society are outside of the current taxonomy of competition briefs and that architects should be participants in the construction of the questions they are asked to answer."
And while we are speaking about NYC, another event that promiss to be interesting in the city: Ideas City 2013 with this year's theme Untapped Capital (organized --among others-- by Storefront for Art & Architecture, The Architectural League NY, The Cooper Union and The New Museum).
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Via Storefront for Art & Architecture
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COMPETITION OF COMPETITIONS
Redefining Briefs, Clients and Agents.
by Storefront for Art and Architecture for the AAAI!
Throughout history, competitions have constructed a relationship of servitude between architects and the structures of economic, politic and cultural power.
The competition brief has served as the initial document for the manifestation of desires either through programmatic, economic or formal needs. Often, the role of the architect has been reduced to answer a question that someone else has asked. In exceptional occasions, the architect’s ability to reinvent and produce new desires has occurred in the form of rebellion against the brief. In an act of bravura, architects have broken the rules, driven by the pure belief that the real needs were contained outside of the given principles.
Given competitions operate in a confined space for experimentation, they have perpetuated and sometimes repeated ad nauseam a series of programmatic and social needs – from Museums to Concert Halls - without actually asking what needs of society architecture should aspire to serve.
This competition claims that the true desires of our present society are outside of the current taxonomy of competition briefs and that architects should be participants in the construction of the questions they are asked to answer.
If a competition is the articulation of society’s desires in space, what new desires should we consider? What are the questions of our time that we should be asking to architects, urban planners and policy makers to redefine the way in which we build our cities and territories? What underrepresented spaces, individuals or collectives need to be explored? And, what are the agents, authorities or organizations from which the competitions should be promoted?
The intention of “The Competition of Competitions” is to provide and deliver new and relevant forms of engagement and content to the economic, politic and social systems that currently act as the voice of authority for the development of our cities. “Competition of Competitions” asks architects, artists, economists, philosophers, writers, and citizens at large to create interdisciplinary teams to formulate the questions of our time and define the agents that should pursue the task to ask and commission the visions for the future in the form of a competition brief.
We encourage participants to rethink the format, content and agent/s that constitute the basis for the way competitions and commissions are organized.
SITE
This is a conceptually based bureaucratic competition. The scales or sites of operation that each submission might choose to engage has no limits and should be specified by each participant in the brief.
DELIVERABLES: How to write your brief.
Each entry will be able to define the necessary elements for the articulation of the competition brief. Each submission should not be longer than 10 one-sided pages, including text, images and/or drawings.
The following points summarize the general parameters to be addressed throughout the brief. When not applicable or appropriate, applicants might decide to respond differently to the following requirements.
1. Title: List the title and, if desired, subtitle of the competition.
2. Political Agent: Describe the individual, corporation, organization or collective (real or fictional) in charge of organizing or commissioning the proposed competition. Please provide the CV or mission statement of the organizing entity or individual.
3. User-Subject: Describe the individual, corporation, organization or collective (real or fictional) to whom the competition brief is addressed.
4. What: State a general description of the competition. This might include, but is not limited to, ideological, programmatic, material or formal principles.
5. Scale: Delimit the competition site (physical or conceptual)
6. Deliverables: Enumerate the necessary documents to be produced to establish a proper judgment of the future possible entries.
7. Temporality: List the start date, deadline, phases, schedule, etc.
8. Economics: Outline the prize[s] and budgetary constraints, if any.
9. Rules/Laws: State the competition rules. Briefs might respond to current laws or might assume the creation of new laws, rules or regulations of existing or fictional governing authorities. Submissions should specify, if necessary, the applicable rules the brief needs to obey.
10. Eligibility: State entrant’s eligibility. Requirements for entry need to specify who can and cannot participate. Please, specify conflicts of interest or any other policies applicable.
11. Jury members: Indicate individual names or generic categories with brief descriptions.
12. Evaluation guidelines: Indicate the criteria used to evaluate the entries.
13. Questions: Establish formats of communication between the organizing entity and the entrants.
14. Registration: Define the protocols of subscription and entry.
15. Anonymity: Address the notion of authorship, recognition and identity by identifying the mode in which authors might or might not be identified.
Once payment and registration form have been received, entries must be submitted in 2 formats:
1. Through an online platfrom (link provided after registration)
2. By sending a pdf file of no more than 10 pages to coc@storefrontnews.org
SCHEDULE:
Competition launch: February 22, 2013
Early registration: March 22, 2013, 5pm EST [50 USD]
Late registration: June 22, 2013 [100 USD]
Relevant Questions: Answers will be published periodically
Final Submissions: July 22nd, 2013
Announcement of Winning Entries: September 15, 2013
AWARDS/PRIZES
First Prize 2,000 USD
Second Prize 1,000 USD
Third Prize 500 USD
7 Honorable Mentions
1 Storefront Special Prize
The jury will select 10 projects (3 Prizes and 7 Honorable Mentions) and a Storefront Special Prize: “The Competition of Competitions of Competitions Prize.” All selected projects will be publicized and given support to reach the pertinent agents and authorities.
The Special Storefront Prize “Competition of Competitions of Competitions” will be awarded to a Competition Brief that resonates with Storefront’s mission. The recipients of the Special Storefront Prize will be commissioned to organize and run the submitted competition as part of the 2014 Storefront for Art and Architecture program calendar.
RULES
1. All submissions should be sent in English. Please, provide translation footnotes if native language is deemed necessary at points within the submission.
2. There is no limit to the number of submissions a given organization, team, or individual may submit, but each submission must be registered separately and be accompanied by a unique Identification Number and separate registration fee payment.
3. No entrant shall receive or be entitled to receive any payment as a result of a submission or for granting the promoters any right here in or associated with the competition except an award pursuant to the rules herein.
4. All registration fees are non-refundable and nontransferable.
5. Ineligible participants include any staff or directives of SFAA (Storefront for Art and Architecture) or of AAAI*, any jury members and direct employees or relatives.
6. Storefront for Art and Architecture has the right to publish without prior consent all materials submitted to this competition.
7. Submissions shall not be published or made public until a final decision by the jury is made public.
8. By entering the Competition, any and all entrants, and where applicable, their predecessors, successors, assigns, heirs, officers, directors, attorneys, agents, affiliates, parents, subsidiaries, employees, shareholders, and any other person or entity similarly situated, agree in full to these Rules and Brief.
ELIGIBILITY
1. All submitting teams must be at least formed by 2 people (real or fictional).
2. Each submitting team must have at least two people from the following disciplines: economy, philosophy, architecture, anthropology or art history.
3. Additional team members from other disciplines, ways of life and expertise are encouraged.
JURY
The decision of the jury shall be final and binding on all parties, and no disputes shall be entertained.
The jury might declare the competition deserted and reject any and all proposals received in response to this competition.
The jury might waive or modify any irregularities in proposals received or any other aspect of this competition.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
· Difficulty: Originality, innovation and risk.
· Style: Thoroughness, clarity and consistency.
QUESTIONS
All questions should be e-mailed to COC@storefrontnews.org. Relevant questions and answers will be posted on the “Competition of Competitions” webpage found on the www.storefrontnews.org periodically.
REGISTRATION:
Competitors are required to register their intention to enter. This registration must be received by June 22, 2013 before midnight, by sending the registration form [Annex 1] to COC@storefrontnews.org, which includes a $100 registration fee payable via PayPal. Projects will not be juried without valid registration. Upon receipt of payment and registration form, each entrant will be emailed further instructions and a unique Identification Code which must be used to identify the project on each page of the submission.
ANONYMITY
Competitors must not communicate with the jury about the competition in any way until a public announcement of the winners is made.
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“Association Against Architectural Irrelevance!” is a fictional association still to be founded that defends the role of architects in contemporary society. Via Storefront
A Smarter Algorithm Could Cut Energy Use in Data Centers by 35 Percent
Friday, April 26. 2013
‘Strange Utility: Architecture Toward Other Ends’ Symposium
Via ArchDaily
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Taking place April 26-27, the ‘Strange Utility: Architecture Toward Other Ends’ Symposium will explore the following provocative questions: How is architecture’s use value defined, and by whom? How can turning to other disciplines’ unexpected utilization of architecture expand our perception of its utility? And what are the future utilities of architecture? Today, the idea of architecture’s utility is perhaps more diverse than ever, as architecture commonly mingles with other disciplines, and as new typologies of building design emerge almost daily. Organized by Portland State University School of Architecture, three keynote speakers—Philippe Rahm, Jimenez Lai and Jill Stoner—as well as eleven notable architects, artists and academics will participate. More information after the break.
Grouped into three sessions, the symposium begins on Friday, April 26 at 4 pm in Shattuck Hall Annex with an exploration of architecture and the arts, with a keynote speech by Jimenez Lai, Leader of Chicago-based Bureau Spectacular, an architect and graphic novelist. Discussions of the role of art and design in the alternative utilization of architecture will follow. The evening concludes with a reception to celebrate the work of MacArthur award winning artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. The reception for Manglano-Ovalle’s exhibition, entitled “Always After (The Glass House)” will be held 7pm to 8:30pm at the Littman Gallery in Neuberger Hall. This exhibition will feature Always After (The Glass House) (2006), a film shot entirely on location at Crown Hall, Mies van der Rohe’s school of architecture on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus. The film-based work explores the complex legacy of Modern architecture through the artful manipulation of footage from the 2005 dedication of the building’s renovation, when the architect’s own grandson broke the windows of the iconic building with a sledgehammer.
The event continues the next day, April 27, at 9am with a session on the origins and history of utility in architecture, with a keynote presentation by Jill Stoner, Associate Professor at University of California, Berkeley, an architect, author and editor of Toward a Minor Architecture and Poems for Architects: An Anthology. The third and final session focuses on the unexpected utility of architecture in the urban setting, culminating in a keynote presentation by architect Philippe Rahm. Based in Paris, Rahm’s firm is internationally recognized and praised for their innovative approach to sustainable energy in the built environment, often to unexpected and artful ends.
Strange Utility: Architecture Toward Other Ends begins at 4pm Friday, April 26 and continues until 5pm Saturday, April 27, in the Shattuck Hall Annex at SW Broadway and Hall Street, Portland, Oregon. Tickets ($15 advance; $25 from April 23 onward) are available through the PSU Box Office.
For a full schedule, to register, and more information, please visit here.
Personal comment:
Very interesting symposium today and tomorrow in Portand, about "stange utility" in architecture.
Wednesday, April 24. 2013
Archaeology of the Digital
The Lewis Residence by Frank Gehry (1985–1995), Peter Eisenman’s unrealized Biocentrum (1987), Chuck Hoberman’s Expanding Sphere (1992) and Shoei Yoh’s roof structures for Odawara (1991) and Galaxy Toyama (1992) Gymnasiums: four seminal projects that established bold new directions for architectural research by experimenting with novel digital tools. Curated by architect Greg Lynn, Archaeology of the Digital is conceived as an investigation into the foundations of digital architecture at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s.
Watch an introduction to Archaeology of the Digital by curator Greg Lynn here.
Watch a conversation between Peter Eisenman, architect of the Biozentrum and Greg Lynn here.
The vernissage for Archaeology of the Digital is 7 May 2013.
On 8 May, from 2 pm to 6 pm, Greg Lynn discusses the foundations of digital architecture with Peter Eisenman, Chuck Hoberman and Shoei Yoh.
Personal comment:
Though we are not really in this line of thinking regarding what digital technologies means/will mean for architecture, an interesting "archeological" exhibition next May at the CCA about the rise of computation and algorithmic tools in architecture back in the late 1980ies and early 1990ies.
And an interesting discussion as well between Peter Eisenman and his former "apprentice", Greg Lynn.
Monday, April 22. 2013
A new way to report data center's Power and Water Usage Effectiveness (PUE and WUE)
Via Computed.Blg via Open Compute Project
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Today (18.04.2013) Facebook launched two public dashboards that report continuous, near-real-time data for key efficiency metrics – specifically, PUE and WUE – for our data centers in Prineville, OR and Forest City, NC. These dashboards include both a granular look at the past 24 hours of data and a historical view of the past year’s values. In the historical view, trends within each data set and correlations between different metrics become visible. Once our data center in Luleå, Sweden, comes online, we’ll begin publishing for that site as well.
We began sharing PUE for our Prineville data center at the end of Q2 2011 and released our first Prineville WUE in the summer of 2012. Now we’re pulling back the curtain to share some of the same information that our data center technicians view every day. We’ll continue updating our annualized averages as we have in the past, and you’ll be able to find them on the Prineville and Forest City dashboards, right below the real-time data.
Why are we doing this? Well, we’re proud of our data center efficiency, and we think it’s important to demystify data centers and share more about what our operations really look like. Through the Open Compute Project (OCP), we’ve shared the building and hardware designs for our data centers. These dashboards are the natural next step, since they answer the question, “What really happens when those servers are installed and the power’s turned on?”
Creating these dashboards wasn’t a straightforward task. Our data centers aren’t completed yet; we’re still in the process of building out suites and finalizing the parameters for our building managements systems. All our data centers are literally still construction sites, with new data halls coming online at different points throughout the year. Since we’ve created dashboards that visualize an environment with so many shifting variables, you’ll probably see some weird numbers from time to time. That’s OK. These dashboards are about surfacing raw data – and sometimes, raw data looks messy. But we believe in iteration, in getting projects out the door and improving them over time. So we welcome you behind the curtain, wonky numbers and all. As our data centers near completion and our load evens out, we expect these inevitable fluctuations to correspondingly decrease.
We’re excited about sharing this data, and we encourage others to do the same. Working together with AREA 17, the company that designed these visualizations, we’ve decided to open-source the front-end code for these dashboards so that any organization interested in sharing PUE, WUE, temperature, and humidity at its data center sites can use these dashboards to get started. Sometime in the coming weeks we’ll publish the code on the Open Compute Project’s GitHub repository. All you have to do is connect your own CSV files to get started. And in the spirit of all other technologies shared via OCP, we encourage you to poke through the code and make updates to it. Do you have an idea to make these visuals even more compelling? Great! We encourage you to treat this as a starting point and use these dashboards to make everyone’s ability to share this data even more interesting and robust.
Lyrica McTiernan is a program manager for Facebook’s sustainability team.
Personal comment:
The Open Compute Project is definitely an interesting one and the fact that it comes with open data about centers' consumption as well. Though, PUE and WUE should be questioned further to know if these are the right measures about the effectiveness of a data center.
I'm not a specialist here, but It seems to me that these values don't give an idea of the overall use of energy for a dedicated task (data and services hosting, remote computing), but just how efficient the center is (if it makes a good use or not or energy and water).
To resume it: I could spend a super large amount of energy and water, but if I do it in an efficient way, then my pue and wue will good and it will look ok on the paper and for the brand communication.
That's certainly a good start (better have a good pue and wue) and in fact all factories should publish such numbers, but it is probably not enough. How much energy for what type of service might or should become a crucial question in a close future, until we'll have an "abundance" of renewable ones!
fabric | rblg
This blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research.
We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings.
Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations.
This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
