Brian Dettmer - Book Autopsies

Finally something I can say I like from the Explorations in Media Modifications or Altered Books world. Brian Dettmer's probably been around for quite a while, but just now I've started to discover him.


It's surreal, chaotic and organized like the flow of ideas, like my own imagination creating images from within the pages and the words of the books I read. I love, or maybe need (I am a visual kind of guy) to create these kinds of magical images in my head drawn from reading, that's why it takes so long for me to finish reading something. Multiple layers of overlapping imagery, sometimes I have to drop the book to be able to assimilate what I just read.


Congratulation to Brian for evoking and reminding...

Piel - Skin

Found this wonderful link over at MoCo Loco, and made me wish it was a little more extensive. Piel.Skin is an online publication about buildings skins and their evolution from facade to an actual skin, capable of much more than just covering up a structure and being beautiful. It also includes Google Maps links to all of the projects featured in the publication, a dream come true for us architectural tourists, I wonder if all these buildings are in MiMoA's database...

Zumthor's Vals Thermal Baths in Switzerland

I still haven't met anyone that doesn't love Peter Zumthor, his published books have the largest resale value of any architecture book I have ever seen. I love his work simply because his views on architecture are so similar to mine, phenomenologically speaking of course. He overloads your senses, not only with light, texture, and sound, but gives his buildings a personality, an ego, a history, that makes them feel almost organic, as if it was an organism that was here to learn a become better than when it was created.

I don't know who made these videos, but Offensive77 is hosting them in his You Tube page, along with many other architecture videos. Enjoy these, I sure did.

Cumayasa Project

On Monday a new project on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic was announced. As far as I know it is the first proposal within the tourism real estate industry that uses a globally recognized contemporary language for its architecture.

The location towards the booming eastern side of the island, between The town of San Pedro de Macoris and the already recognized Casa de Campo complex.

The complex lies on 1,400 hectares (14 million square meters or 3,459.5 acres) of land on the coast, and consists "of more than 3,000 luxury villas, 3 hotels, 4 golf courses and a marina, providing a place to enjoy a variety of water sports, tennis and ecotourism". These ideas of luxury and ecology bundled together are unprecedented on this scale in the Dom. Rep.


Joaquin Torres at A-Cero Estudio de Arquitectura claims that the project is to be green as this text taken from the World Architecture News website, and translated from A-Cero's own website says:

"The main idea was to create a settlement of high environmental quality and low density, which incorporates native vegetation. The landscape design follows a contemporary style that embraces the houses, scattered on a stair pattern, softening the impact of their presence and creating a dynamic appearance to the whole."

I can't help but wonder how a firm from Madrid can successfully design a project in the Caribbean, I surely hope that they have a tropical architect on their staff. Although they are on the right track, natural ventilation, a lot of open spaces, less use of glass exposed to sunlight, and lots of water to reduce temperatures and increase the "cool feeling" factor.

The extensive use of natural materials, of local craftsmanship, and tropical plant species helps reduce the impact of the project on the land.

Aside from the news article on WAN and the news feed on A-Cero's website, I haven't found anything else on this project on the web. So I have no info on pricing or exact location, and I understand that there are a lot of properties in Cumayasa that are having legal problems regarding titles and speculation, I'm assuming that this project is not included in that bunch.

Putting aside the secrecy and blurry areas I think that the designs put together by A-Cero are damn sensual, it could come out to be a nice Tropical Architecture example if they play their cards right.

Romanticism Store, Hangzhou, China

Romanticism flagship store in Hangzhou, China, by SAKO Architects. The architects "dressed" the building in a white organic net that flows to the interior creating all inside spaces by narrowing and widening.

Ocean Invasion

OK... Have we run out of land to develop in our countries, or have we become so self absorbed that we need the "prestige" of having an artificial island just off our shores.

Land reclamation is certainly not a new thing, the Dutch have been doing it since the late 19th century out of need to control and elevate their shores, creating who knows how many square kilometers of new land. Mexico city was built on a former lake, Texcoco, in the 14th century by the Aztecs. The list goes on and on, Helsinki, Washington DC, the Chicago coastline, Battery park city in Manhattan, and the famous Kansai Airport, all have been, totally or partially, created by putting more earth into the water to extend the coastline.

When in 1994 construction started In Dubai to create the Burj-Al-Arab Hotel on an artificial island as one of the most luxurious hotels in the world. It's definitely a beautiful piece of architecture, and a powerful symbol for the evolution of the Arab Emirates, just like the Eiffel tower is to Paris or the Opera House is to Sydney. It's true that the reasons for it being 280 meters offshore are somewhat justifiable, they nonetheless started a trend, an economic and Real Estate trend, to create new land with the lengthiest coastline possible so everybody has their own beach kind of trend. I won't go into details, but the frenzy started with Palm Jumeirah, then two other palms, each one larger than the previous one, then the World, and now The Universe. All of them in Dubai, and all of them within the length of about 45 kilometers, along the original coastline of course.

After Dubai proved that this kind of enterprise was economically viable, soon all the powerful developers of the rest of the world jumped in the wagon. Here's a list of the Islands of the World:


Dutch Tulip Island: After helping Dubai create the palms, the Dutch are using the newly learned knowledge at home, creating a new polder in the north sea to protect the coastline against rising sea levels.


Federation Island: in the Russian Black Sea is just an excuse to sell new land and new beaches as a luxury leisure development.

image from eikongraphia

Toronto Maple Leaf: West 8 won an international competition with an entry that includes this floating island off the coast of Toronto.


La Luna de Valencia: With the sole purpose of attracting tourism and investors to Valencia, the round shape is inspired by the moon.


The Pearl: this multi million dollar international development that creates more than 32 kilometers of new beaches is located in Qatar.

And of course, us, supposedly the healthiest economy in the Caribbean, and one of the top 5 economies in Latin America. The Dominican Republic couldn't be left behind. Back in 1995 an artificial island was proposed, with Ricardo Boffil as architect, for the coast of the capital city of Santo Domingo. It also was designed with the sole purpose of creating new, maybe more expensive, land for developers. The project was trashed because of the public's disapproval.

Back Again...

I think it's about time to make my lethargic brain do some exercise again. It's been a life changing 4 months...