* Note that both media outlets and BP have stated that actual oil leaked may be 10 times more than these output estimates.

This took place the other night. A 60′s era Cadillac making its round through the amsterdam canals and providing entertainment for the street corner gatherings. A scene and a crowd gathered but concurrently traffic and life proceed as they can. Yet how do you make your way through the narrow lanes when the person in front of you stands on their vehicle roof to document? Yet no one panicked, no one became upset, all simply smiled and enjoyed the moment. And after a few songs, the caravan proceeded on to another location.

For many of us, there is no finality in a topic that is eternally evolving, and as the title indicates, continuing. It would be very easy to wipe our hands clean, claim its completeness and move on. But with the excitement of the process and its result still fresh in our memory, we still look for ways to continue the dialogue this journey incited.

The project of Al Manakh collects narratives over the year. And with a year of research comes a year of data. The intention now is to engage an alternative vantage into the making of Al Manakh.

What we present is a series of visualizations – a quantitative appendix to supplement the qualitative publication – in hope that from looking back, and the reader looking forward, we can enhance the conclusions that represent this schism in time of a continuing Gulf.

The forthcoming blog series focuses on the sources, content and relationships that develop through its making: From Process to Production.

For more information or to pre-order your copy visit volumeproject.org

This first post is something I have been developing over the last few months. As a team coordinating from multiple time zones, the most effective way to collect and distribute relevant articles into the pool of collective research was to use the online bookmarking service Delicious as a universal reference location. By the conclusion of research in March 2010, we had over 1200 articles and 143 different tags. This by no means qualifies the entirety of the research but presents a cross-section of materials utilized to the research community. Delicious provides a simple means of collection, but lacks the ability to view the material from an alternative perspective. The Al Manakh Research calendar is the first step in the development of a tool to investigate these relationships, a way to understand the volume of our research database. While still in its infancy of development as a research tool, it prompts insightful questions about both the content and our individual research activity.

Viewbook

Download PDF version

Jonathan Hanahan and Rory Hyde

From Volume #22 The Guide:

In 2002, Volume’s predecessor Archis presented a ‘Psychogeographic Bicycle Tour of Aldo van Eyck’s Amsterdam Playgrounds’.1 Included were two numbered maps of the location of the playgrounds in 1976 and 2002, a list indicating their current status, and a series of before and after photos showing how they had stood up to the test of time and encroaching urban development.

First designed by the 26 year-old van Eyck in 1947 for the Department of Urban Development, the playgrounds from his hand – and those replicating it – are beautifully simple, inspired by the artistic likes of Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. Their minimalist forms, such as steel framed climbing domes, circular sand pits and horizontal bars of varying heights quickly spread throughout the city to form a familiar recurring element, and an important part of Amsterdam’s collective childhood memory.

As this issue of Volume presents a comprehensive exploration of the concept of ‘the guide’, we thought we would test their credentials by re-revisiting these playgrounds with the magazine as our guide. Please join us on this journey.

Find the rest of the article here (As Published):

http://issuu.com/jhanahan/docs/v22_hanahanhyde_archisasguide

Not Just because it took place in my hometown, and not because its sponsored by one of my favorite museums, but because there is a beautiful undertone behind asking a neighborhood ‘how would you like the world to see you?’ When I run for Mayor I claim that as my slogan…

A Street With A View:

Making of ‘Street with a View’

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A collection of beautifully candid photographs introduces each designer in their youthful prime. They are both humorous and ironic, but also eerily parallel to notions we may have instilled of these kings as young jokers like ourselves.

Aldo Rossi

Rossi

Andrea Branzi of Archizoom

Archizoom

Renzo Piano

Piano — Thesis work

Toyo Ito and Friends

Toyo Ito

Bernard Tschumi

Bernard Tschumi

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron

The original Swiss Playboys…Then

…and Now

These images are accompanied by drawings, models, and images of first works, as well as commentary from friends, colleagues, and former students. These examples display that while some designers have maintained a continual progression in pursuit of their initial ideas (Libeskine and Ito), others — Piano especially in regards to his pursuits of form — have went on to other things, only to return to their initial inquiries later in their career. The book displays how our inspirations never really leave us, only sometimes shelved for a brighter day.

To read Jesse Reiser’s remarks and respect for his former teacher (Libeskine) at Cooper Union provides great insight not only into the context and inspirations that lead these figures down their storied careers, but also examples the primary role of a design professional. (We hope) they are teachers first and designers second, and much of this book demonstrates that though many view these ‘star-chitects’ as ego-driven, individualistic entrepreneurs, their role as ‘guide’ was once, and hopefully still is, true (almost every portrait shows these individuals with others, in collaborative environments). Yes maybe it is a bit of a naive stretch — a world of unselfish teachers and students — as many of our educational experiences have experienced the wrath of the opposite. But I hope that these notions may be at least somewhat based in truth, and that the icons we respect may also reciprocate that respect for a next generation of jokers turned heroes.