Their recently published skyscraper-index (pdf) shows the link between the construction of the world’s tallest building and an approaching financial crisis. The report -written in the 42th floor of a Hong Kong office building- states that skyscrapers are not only the ultimate symbol of capitalism, welfare and power, but also a monument of hubris and megalomania. The development of the world’s highest building, so they say, is often representing a world wide construction boom: initiated in times of easy credit, rising land prices and excessive optimism, although completed when the economy has already slipped into recession.

The world’s first skyscraper -the 8 stories high Equitable Life Building in New York (1873)- is directly a textbook example since its completion went hand in hand with the five-year recession, known as the long depression. Many others followed. The Chrysler building and the Empire State building were completed on the eve of the 1929 Great Depression. The twin-towers opened their doors just before the oil crisis, the Taipei 101 when the Dot-com bubble popped and we don’t have to mention what happened around 2010 when the Burj Khalifa was completed.

Fortunately, there is currently no higher building under construction, but plans are made to reach the kilometer. At the same time Renzo Piano will this year top-off Europe, the Chinese won’t wait, and also Rotterdam’s high-rise ambitions and the forced construction of de Rotterdam does not predict a prosperous future. Maybe architects among us should think twice, before taking a commission for projects like these and watch out for the skyscraper curse. But well. Who trusts bankers now anyway?

If you happen to be in Luxembourg on February 3^rd, you should definitely visit the conference on Architecture, European Urbanisation and Globalisation at the University of Luxembourg. Wouter Vanstiphout will give a lecture titled Damn the Masters Plan!: Riots, Plans and Politics in Western Cities”. Do I have to explain more?

The conference is open to public and free of charge, however reservation is required: march@uni.lu For those who don’t speak Luxembourgish: The conference will be in English

Dear students of the Blame the Architect lecture series,
This is what you should do to get your grade.

Make a Youtube video of 5 to 10 minutes, describing an urban riot that could happen in a place you know. Incorporate the themes presented in the lecture series and project them on a fictional situation, giving special attention to the role of architecture and urban planning. Use images, texts, maps, diagrams, drawings, numbers or just use your hands. Be creative! Like the Danish.

If you need more inspiration click Here, Here, Here and Here. Still completely lost? Follow the Roadmap below:

1. Select a city you know well that holds the ingredients needed for an Urban riot
2. Describe the urban and political history of the city in so far relevant for the incidents
3. Describe the social, economic and political structure of the city relevant to the incidents
4. Imagine, describe and visualize a triggering event
5. Describe and visualize the ensuing riots
6. Describe the use of modern media
7. Describe the physical and social effects on the city
8. Imagine and visualize the role of popular culture
9. Imagine the possible role of architects before and after the riots
10. Use the story to demonstrate your opinion and analysis of the relationship between architecture and urban violence

Your deadline is March 15th. Students who cannot make it should send an email to: M.RelatsTorante@tudelft.nl and make a personal arrangement. This can be done until one week before the deadline.

Tomorrow Tuesday 10th January, 10.45-12.45, Berlagezaal 1

Program:
“Racaille!” The Banlieue riots, France 2005 -part II
“Broken city” The 2011 UK riots
Conclusions
Assignment description

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

Now that this Christmas thing is finally over, it’s time for serious business again: censorship. Meet Larissa Sansour, a Jerusalem-born artist with a passion, who found herself on the shortlist for the 2011 Elysee Museum Prize – which is sponsored by the crocophiles at Lacoste. Sansour was commissioned  to produce an artwork and she came up with a series of photographs depicting Nation Estate: a fictional high rise estate in Jerusalem which would house the whole Palestinian nation/state/people. Great. Right?

Not really apparently – according to the reptilo-people at least. Lacoste considered her artwork to be ‘too pro-Palestinian’ and told the museum to remove her from the shortlist, much to the outrage of the artist. Thankfully – and this is the brilliant part – the Musée de l’Elysée also values freedom of expression and sided (pdf) with Sansour on the matter, cancelling (here for French) the whole prize thing altogether. Art 1, Crocofascists 0. In a cover-up move, Lacoste now denies everything, which doesn’t leave anybody wondering at all: obviously a panic-induced attempt at censorship backfired. Big time. And now nobody in the art world will ever wear Lacoste polos again, even though they come in a gazillion fancy colours and are currently on sale. Wouter Vanstiphout has already burned his in front of the Lacostian embassy already, allegedly.

All this weirdly resembles this story, by the way. Or this one. And also, it’s not like Sansour didn’t attempt to claim the moon as a new Palestina in another artwork before settling for the Nation Estate building: she definitely went soft this time.

Yes, it does look like a pixelated explosion. And no, there is no such thing as bad publicity – but perhaps only as long as your designs don’t resemble a disintegrating World Trade Center. Because when that happens, Keith Olbermann is going to name you worst person of the day (Bill O’Reilly came in third), your apology is going to be featured in the Dutch News, and commenters on Archinect and Dezeen are going to conclude the link with 9/11 is farfetched and ridiculous but the design is ugly anyway. Meanwhile, some guy at GizMag is unfazed by all the commotion and just thinks the towers are awesome - but what will the client think? Also, this provides an interesting plot twist: the building might not be inspired on a terrorist attack, but on collapsing buildings in general, something MVRDV should probably keep silent if it were true. They better play the Lego-card.

Why, now, has this not caused nearly as much commotion?

More background stuff on riots – this week we speak French. It’s  October 2005, when suddenly a wave of violence and unrest sweeps the modernist suburbs of France. A story of two boys, a tragic accident, thousands of burning cars and a hardline politician who would become president very soon. Two movies, two articles, and some music this week.

The very first thing you should do is watch La Haine: a moving, amazing, and apparently extremely realistic depiction of life in France’s ghetto’s. Nice soundtrack, too. The movie can be watched on YouTube – in non-subtitled ghetto-French, which supposedly is quite hard to understand even for French people. If you like your French movies a bit more disturbing, try this: Themroc.

The riots themselves, then. The fact that all of the unrest occured only in modernist suburbs makes for an interesting debate on the relationship between architectural style and anti-social behaviour: both Christopher Caldwell and John Lichfield wrote about this, in the NY Times and The Independent respectively.

Lastly, the extremely culturally diverse banlieues have produced some of the world’s best hip hop. It’s the language. It’s so beautiful.

Note for those who want to attend the lecture tomorrow: it will be held at 10:45, in lecture hall C!

It’s procrastinate-o-clock again! This time, the most glamorous riot of them all: the Rodney King riots. Los Angeles, 1992. Lots of anger. Lots of guns. Lots of helicopters and cameras. And gangster rap.

Ah, Los Angeles. Design as Politics loves it, admittedly because Reyner Banham does too. His book about the city is amazing, but this is even better: watching Banham himself cruise through town for about an hour is indeed an hour well spent. But that’s enough reality for now: more than anything Los Angeles is a place of myth and media and fiction. The city of course stars in about half a million movies – this one is great because it has Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and lots of violence. Else, try Blade Runner. Interestingly, Hollywood has also produced quite a few movies in which Los Angeles gets destroyed completely.

Then, the riots. This is what started it. Then this happened – for about a week. Naturally, there is an incredible amount of footage from the riots: do pay attention to the awesomeness of 90′s fashion and hair styles. Only in LA do looters care about their appearance. Also, this oddity of a documentary is an interesting watch if you can sit through the horrific starting credits.

Lastly, there is music. Lots of it. And a white, British reporter talking about LA’s gang culture in 2008.

Note for those who want to attend the lecture: tomorrow’s and next week’s lecture will be held at 10:45, in lecture hall C!

We at Design as Politics love New Towns – urbanism rarely gets more visibly political than when governments start planning entirely new cities. Also, operating in the DMZ between policy and design ourselves, we like interdisciplinarity very much.

If you combine these two, you get a new INTI lecture series which will be held in the spring 2012 semester at both the University of Amsterdam and the TU Delft. I you’re a student of either university – or another one for that matter – and you got some (read: 10) ECTS to tackle next semester, do enroll asap: the program looks awesome, and even includes a trip to everybody’s favourite new town Milton Keynes. For a full lecture program, dates, etcetera, click here. Sounds amazing simply because it is amazing.

If you’d like to join, do two things: enroll via your own university (TU Delft course code: AR0265), and send an e-mail to s.vanginneken@newtowninstitute.org. Thanks.