Synopses & Reviews
The fourth issue of Verb looks at two related processes: the conditioning of architectural environments and the conditioning of behaviors. On the one hand, studies of luminosity, sound, atmosphere and temperature expand the range of techniques available to the discipline, allowing the production of ever more extensive effects with increasingly minimal means. On the other, the rise of commerce, theming and the manufacturing of identity produce a different set of effects, directing users and their emotions for maximum financial success. What are the real potentials of conditioning? Do these new environments merely replicate the existing with increasing accuracy and sophistication, or can they generate qualitatively new atmospheres capable of stimulating not just new effects but also new forms of living? Featured works: The Venetian in Las Vegas, Spanish Pavilion in Aichi by FOA, New Milan Trade Fair by Fuksas, Arup SoundLab, Décosterd and Rahm, Arakawa + Gins, Enric Ruiz, Tomihiro Museum by Makoto Yokomizo, and texts by Norman Klein and AUDC.
Synopsis
In its latest issue, Conditioning, the groundbreaking and visually engaging architecture boogazine (It's a book and a magazine ) Verb investigates the ramifications of architectural signification. As our ability to control the production of form and the creation of environments begin to parallel that of natural processes, architecture is not only conceived as a platform for the development of human activity, but more and more as its generator and possibly also its limiting framework. To investigate these bracing notions, Verb spans the globe, exploring the entertainment recreations of a Las Vegas casino and the hermetic communities of Biosphere 2 and Grimshaw's Eden project as well as the experimental environments of Enric Ruiz-Geli (Villa Nurbs) and Makoto Yokomizo's soap bubble inspired Tomihiro Hoshino Museum, a square containing 20-odd cylindrical spaces. As in other industries ranging from computer applications to car manufacturing, mass-customized theming in architecture infiltrates the way buildings are conceived and used. If this trend is inevitably linked to commercial success, how will that affect the discipline? The thoughtful, cutting-edge Verb Conditioning will keep you on your architectural toes.