“[bracket] is an annual publication documenting issues overlooked yet central to our cultural milieu that have evolved out of the new disciplinary territory at the intersection of architecture, landscape, urbanism and, now, the internet. It is no coincidence that the professional term architect can also now refer to information architects, and that the word community can also now refer to an online community. [bracket] is a publishing platform for ideas charting the complex overlap of the sphere of architecture and online social spheres.”

and

“The first edition of [bracket] is centered around the theme of farming. Once merely understood in terms of agriculture, today information, energy, labour, and landscape, among others, can be farmed. Farming harnesses the efficiency of collectivity and community. Whether cultivating land, harvesting resources, extracting energy or delegating labor, farming reveals the interdependencies of our globalized world.”

Submission deadlines were yesterday! Hope everyone got theirs in on time! I am so excited for the first issue.

Exhibition in the main galleries of the Royal Academy of Art from the 31st of January until the 13th of April.

+ 19/1: Lars Spuybroek of NOX, Lecture @ AA, 6pm, “The Radical Picturesque”

+ 20/1: EmTech M.Arch II presentations @ the AA, all day, Lecture Hall
Briger Sevaldson of OCEAN, Lecture @ AA, 6pm, “Research by Design” (recent work)

+21/1: SED M.Arch II presentations @ the AA, all day, Lecture Hall
Mario Cucinella, Lecture @ AA, 6pm, “Recent projects by MCA in Italy and China”

+22/1: DRL M.Arch II presentations @ the AA, all day, Lecture Hall
David Erdman and Clover Lee of amass, Lecture @ AA, 6pm (recent work)

+23/1: AA + GC Building Ruins Forum meeting, 11am, AA Bar (come one, come all?)

+24/1: “Zones of Conflit: Uneven Geographies”, UCL Cruciform Theater 1, Gower St. (free!)

http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/

About NLA (from the above link: About):

New London Architecture is a vital addition to the public debate about the future of London. The capital is undergoing a period of massive change and NLA is a place where everyone – professionals, politicians and public – can find out and get involved in what is happening to their city.

A great link for daily listings of architectural events in London!

The Architectural Association will be presenting a lecture entitled Blurred Vision: Architectures Of Surveillance From Mies To SANAA to be given by Beatriz Colomina, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University.

The lecture will look at the history of the modern window as history of communication, a theme still present in today’s glazed architecture where the designer endeavours to pen corporate headquarters that are “open”. 

Examples to be explored include Le Corbusier’s iconic horizontal window, the Eames House in California with its huge amounts of glass, and the picture window at mid-century. 

The lecture takes place at 6PM on Tue 13th January 2009 at The Architectural Association, 36 Bedford Square, WC1B 3ES

Le Corbusier’s horizontal windows:

Eames House in California:
 

The piercing eye of Mies van der Rohe:

SANAA:
  

‘What Benjamin’s reading of the Angelus Novus involves can be described in the following words: Once the storm of progress is associated with the myth of ‘paradise’, the task of the historian turns to deconstruction of the ‘chain of events’, and uncovering the catastrophe. A distinction can be made between natural catastrophe, such as flood and earthquake, and the historical catastrophe. The temporality entailed in history necessitates distinguishing the ruins of the past from the wreckage that is left by the storm of progress. The ruin is not just the effect of time; rather, it involves the decay of material and of course a sense of aesthetic appreciation that is bound with that sense of transitoriness that is essential to modernity’

From the essay ‘WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY?’. I found the last sentence of this quote to be a nice illustration to the temporary project name Building Ruins…