SAVOIR-FAIRE

Re-blogged from The Best Part.
Written by Jason Dean.
Originally posted October 31, 2010.

SOHO20 Gallery (a non-profit art space in NYC) are in the last week of fundraising for SAVOIR-FAIRE, their annual performance art series, and need all the help they can get to make it happen. Donations can be made through their kickstarter profile, so support the arts by giving what you can!

>> October 31′s daily design idea is funding is a wonderful (and much needed) form of participation.

This Week: The Rider Rebellion Rallies for Transit

Re-blogged from Streetsblog.
Originally posted October 25, 2010.

“After a successful demonstration of support for the Prospect Park West bike lane last week, livable streets activists need to rally again to defend the city’s transit system. Join Transportation Alternatives’ Rider Rebellion in Union Square on Wednesday to show elected officials that more fare hikes and service cuts aren’t acceptable.

• Tonight: DOT is working on a design for a new plaza at Pershing Square, in front of Grand Central Terminal. Participate in a public workshop to develop ideas for the new public space. 6:00 p.m.
• Also tonight: The first meeting of the Community Advisory Committee for Select Bus Service on Hylan Boulevard. This group will provide input to DOT and the MTA over the course of planning bus improvements for this Staten Island corridor. 6:00 p.m.
• Tuesday: The tour of PlaNYC “Community Conversations” comes to the Bronx. Tell the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability what should be included in next year’s update of PlaNYC 2030.
• Wednesday: Fed up with decisions from Albany that allowed transit service to shrink while fares go up? Rally to save public transit in Union Square. Transit riders from all five boroughs will join Transportation Alternatives’ Rider Rebellion to stress the importance of good transit policy as we head into next week’s election. 5:30 p.m.
• Also Wednesday: The Community Advisory Committee for the Nostrand Avenue SBS meets again, this time to discuss the results of the environmental review. 6:30 p.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.”

>> October 25′s daily design idea is take advantage of opportunities to directly engage with the future of public space and public transit. Furious that MTA fares might go up, again!?! Peacefully dedicated to the availability of public space in midtown Manhattan? Love buses?? Whatever your motivation, get involved!

October: a whole month of NYC design.

This post has been updated to reflect the first Architecture and Design Film Festival, which we will definitely be squeezing into our schedule!

In New York this coming month, there is an unbelievable amount of (affordable!) opportunities to admire, study, or generally be involved in the design world. Below in roughly chronological order is my own huge list of highlights, which is full of events that I also encourage you to attend:

Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement
free museum admission
4-8pm every Friday
exhibit open October 3rd – January 3rd
at MoMA, in midtown
“This exhibition presents eleven architectural projects on five continents that … signal a renewed sense of commitment, shared by many of today’s practitioners, to the social responsibilities of architecture.”

Party@theCenter
$25 in advance, includes open bar
October 7th, 9pm-2am
at the Center for Architecture, in Greenwich Village
“This festive Heritage Ball after-party, which features drinks, music and dancing, packs the Center for Architecture until late into the night.” 21+

Conflux Festival
$5 day pass ($3 with student ID)
October 8th – 10th
throughout the East Village
“The Conflux Festival turns the streets of the East Village into a laboratory for investigation, exploration and interpretation of the urban environment through art and technology.”

OpenHouseNewYork Weekend
100% free
October 9th – 10th
throughout the city
“Discover new neighborhoods, explore with friends and family, and experience NYC’s architecture and design in all five boroughs through special talks, tours, performances and family-friendly workshops – all free of charge!”

Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Week
free museum admission, specific events vary
October 9th – 17th
at Cooper-Hewitt’s Museum, on the Upper East Side
“National Design Week is held in conjunction with Cooper-Hewitt’s most visible public education program, the National Design Awards. Now in its second decade, the Awards recognize the best in American design across a range of disciplines.”

Architecture and Design Film Festival
$12 per program (about 90 mins/3 short films each)
October 14th-17th
at Tribeca Cinemas, in Tribeca
“The first US film festival celebrating the creative spirit of architecture and design will feature a dynamic selection of feature length films, documentaries and shorts. Plus, there will be lively discussions with filmmakers, architects and designers”

Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE!
$20 (donation) in advance
October 15th-16th
at the Center for Architecture, in Greenwich Village
“Now is the time to begin training architects to become community developers and leaders. At Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE! we will share the tools and knowledge needed to bring architects to the decision-making table.”

Design Trust for Public Space 2010 Benefit & Art Auction
$75 for emerging professionals (35 and under)
October 21st, 7:30-9:30
at Center548, in Chelsea
“The Benefit brings together New York’s leading urban innovators and thinkers for a dynamic evening of conversation, cocktails and community. The focal point of the event is an auction of works donated by prominent artists and designers, complemented by an exciting roster of emerging talent.”

photo by Flickr user Doudou

September 29′s daily design idea is make it a priority to go see (and celebrate) design!

Replay: Sukkah City

So unless you’ve been living under a rock (or you don’t really follow architectural news), you probably have already heard about Sukkah City. From their website:

“Biblical in origin, the sukkah is an ephemeral, elemental shelter, erected for one week each fall, in which it is customary to share meals, entertain, sleep, and rejoice… ‘Sukkah City’ is an international design competition to re-imagine this ancient phenomenon, develop new methods of material practice and parametric design, and propose radical possibilities for traditional design constraints in a contemporary urban site.”

Maybe you read about the 12 finalists in NY Magazine. Or, you know, the New York Times, Dwell, Core77, Architizer, Architectural Record, or Metropolis. Or maybe you discovered the competition through its Wikipedia page, a bizarrely legit form of signifying cultural value.

photo of Union Square during the Sukkah City event / by Benjamin Norman for the New York Times

Months ago, I began dreaming up my own design-build concept for Sukkah City, which was to be built of discarded materials found throughout the New York City streets and would honor our city’s own nomadic population – the homeless. Unfortunately, I found myself without the extra time and the creative team to put the submission together. Fortunately, Rael San Frantello Architects created the incredibly Sukkah of Signs, part of the firm’s larger Homeless House Project. Signs were purchased from the homeless throughout the United States in order to create this inspiring structure.

Sukkah of the Signs by Rael San Frantello Architects / photo by Gisela Garrett

In the end, the people’s choice award went to the visually arresting (and spectacularly documented) Fractured Bubble. I should admit that after Sukkah of the Signs, this design by Babak Bryan & Henry Grosman was my favorite. It was also one of the few whose final version was extremely close to its initial design.

piece of final competition board and one of many in-process photos from FracturedBubble.com; photo of final installation by Flickr user xpressbus

While the temporary structures have been removed from Union Square as of September 22, a free exhibit of the competition’s designs continues until October 30, 2010 at the Center for Architecture.

September 19′s idea is engage in what Sukkah City co-creator Joshua Foer calls “perhaps the world’s oldest architectural conversation.” How would you imagine the historic sukkah in contemporary context?

Fashion Week’s biggest makeover.

via Architect Magazine (September 14, 2010):

“This is the first year that the New York Fashion Week is being held at Lincoln Center instead of Bryant Park, so it’s only natural that the cultural institution’s architects of the moment should be involved. Diller Scofidio + Renfro, whose Lincoln Center work includes the recent redesign of Alice Tully Hall, the renovation and expansion of The Juilliard School, the Hypar Roof Lawn, and the Lincoln Restaurant (which opens later this month), have created an installation that serves as the entrance to Fashion Week’s tent-covered runways.

“The 50-foot-high volume—fabric wrapped about a structural support system—seems to hang in midair, touching the ground at a single, small point. What makes it striking, especially on first glance, is the print on the fabric, which mirrors the color and texture of Lincoln Center’s ubiquitous travertine cladding, giving the volume the illusion of solidity even as it floats a few feet off the ground.”

photo by Iwan Baan for DS+R

September 14′s daily design idea is is the power of illusion equally intriguing in both the architecture and fashion worlds?

The sounds of a place: bells.

via CREATIVE TIME:

“Stephen Vitiello’s new multi-channel sound installation A Bell For Every Minute is a site-specific work commissioned for the High Line. The piece will fill the 14th Street Passage, a semi-enclosed tunnel between West 13th and West 14th Streets, with sound recordings of bells taken from all over New York City and beyond. Sounds range from the iconic rings of the New York Stock Exchange bell, the historic Dreamland bell days after it was discovered in the water off Coney Island, the United Nation’s Peace Bell, and more everyday and personal sounds of bike bells, diner bells, and neighborhood church bells. Bells are used in our culture to mark the passing of time, act as warnings and alerts, mark celebrations, and memorialize those lost. While there are numerous conditions under which bells are heard in our city, they are universal sounds that all of us can appreciate as part of the auditory landscape of our lives.”

A Bell for Every Minute opens Wednesday June 23, with a talk by the artist at 7:30pm. The free installation is located on the High Line, in the semi-enclosed tunnel between 13th and 14th streets.

Photo by Flickr user ndnbrunei

June 18′s daily design idea is sound plays an important, but often overlooked, part in creating a sense of place.

Because of Shakespeare, we can be “traditional”.

In addition to writing “38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems,” Shakespeare also created a whole lot of words. I’ll leave it up to you if you’d rather peruse an incredibly extensive, alphabetized list of (most) of these words or read an over-the-top, mildly offensive, list of 10 of his words and phrases.

If you’re around New York City this summer, you can hear several of these words (and many more that weren’t coined by Shakespeare) in the Public Theater’s famous Shakespeare in the Park, which starts tonight and continues through August 1.

June 9′s daily design idea is sometimes creating a new word can help you best communicate your idea. And who knows? Maybe one day it could become a “household word.”