There is something beautiful and labyrinthine about medieval cities, be they Gothic and Christian or Muslim Medinas. These two examples should not be mistaken for one another, as they both represent unique ways in which culture and religion embed themselves into building patterns and neighborhood forms, I once compared the city of my father's childhood... Continue Reading →
A few high resolution photographs to celebrate the holiday.
It took me a while to accept the concept of 'noise pollution', that noise can be a difficult to control nuisance which can lower the quality of life for those exposed to it. I try walking down Walnut Street Bridge while listening to music and I find myself unable to hear anything other than tire... Continue Reading →
Down at the edge of West Philly where University City meets the Schuylkill River two cities exist. The first is a bright world of Penn students power walking across the Walnut Street Bridge to their morning classes. Below them union member park at PennPark and head over to the AFSCME Local 33 building, dodging Postal... Continue Reading →
The following is an excerpt from an assignment for a theory class taken at the same time as the Co-Lab studio. The assignment was an 'analytical description', essentially an in dept case study or 'precedent study'. I had chosen to analyze the site in Olde City by way of advertisement and visual communication, and I... Continue Reading →
Back to the Co-Lab project, and the use of precedents. I had looked at other Co-Lab arrangements to see how to organize program concerns. For the building elements, I looked towards projects that took an active role in framing views, both from within and from without. These photos were taken at the Bellevue Library... Continue Reading →
This evening PennDesign had an opening for an exhibit focusing on the works of a few young Colombian (men) architects and examples of their civic works, mostly libraries, some athletic facilities, with an odd Chamber of Commerce building to keep things ideologically mixed. The exhibit, which includes photography, process drawings, video and models, is open... Continue Reading →
The project mentioned yesterday involved the design of a co-lab or co-working space in Old City, Philadelphia. We were introduced to Alex Hillman of Indy Hall (read a good interview with him here courtesy of Philadelphia Magazine), and were told of spaces like 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. These organizations work off of two principles, firstly that independent... Continue Reading →
Professor Tom Morton of Swarthmore College came to the Penn Museum today to give a talk about his efforts to document and digitally reconstruct Roman settlements in North Africa. He spoke on Timgad and Carthage, in present day Algeria and Tunisia, respectively. Both sites are UNESCO world heritage sites, and he and his students have modeled... Continue Reading →
For the next week these posts may simply resemble a vacation slide show as I battle against the ULI Competition. Up today is a snowy visit to Renzo Piano's Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, from February 2011.
Adam Achrati 