Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED, open 05.08.11 and 05.15.11, 11:00am-5:00pm
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
On view February 10 – May 21, 2011
On view April 14 – June 25, 2011
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
On view February 10 – May 21, 2011
On view April 14 – June 25, 2011
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
On view February 10 – May 21, 2011
On view April 14 – June 25, 2011
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
On view February 10 – May 21, 2011
On view February 14 – March 31, 2011
On View November 11, 2010 – March 26, 2011
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
On view February 10 – May 21, 2011
On view February 14 – March 31, 2011
On View November 11, 2010 – March 26, 2011
Exhibition: “Jugaad Urbanism: Resourceful Strategies for Indian Cities”
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.10-05.21.11
Exhibition Curator: Kanu Argawal
Exhibition Design & Graphics: Popular Architecture; Omnivore
Organizers: AIA New York Chapter; Center for Architecture Foundation; India China Institute at The New School; Indo-American Arts Council; Society of Indo-American Engineers and Architects
Sponsors: Grants: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; Underwriter: Duggal Visual Solutions; Lead Sponsors: Hitachi; Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Sponsors: Grapevine Merchants; Society of Indo-American Engineers and Architects; Supporters: Bittersweet NYC; CetraRuddy; Kingfisher LGER; Friends: Arup; Benjamin Moore; IBEX Construction; Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; Perkins Eastman; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Jugaad Urbanism in the Center for Architecture’s Hines Gallery.
Courtesy Center for Architecture
“Jugaad Urbanism: Resourceful Strategies for Indian Cities,” the first U.S. exhibition of Indian urbanism, presents strategies for incremental improvement within an existing framework. Along the way, it tells a story about the dynamics of life in the India’s mega-cities. Perhaps it is a result of what curator Kanu Argawal calls the “sheer impossibility” of Indian urbanization, this strategy of insertion may be partly a matter of pragmatics, but it also presents an argument for the role of planning in a democracy.
Organized by resource categories (water, energy, land, and transportation), each project featured in the exhibition is a result of dialogue between the everyday efforts of urban residents to deal with resource scarcity and design interventions by architects, planners, artists, and activists. Going beyond the provision of service, each proposal demonstrates how resources are woven into the social and symbolic fabric of its community.
For example, the “Sustainable Community Toilets for Shahpur Jat Village” improves sanitation and environmental quality by both preventing ground water contamination and separating solid from liquid waste for reuse in irrigation and fertilization. Within the category of energy, a solar powered street lamp integrates LED lights in a traditional Kalasha form. Benches at the base of the lamp pole feature a knife-sharpening wheel that is used to further charge the lamp. The “e-Charka” project harvests energy from yarn spinning to power a lamp and a transistor radio, providing both a means of income and public information. Under the category of land, projects such as the “Incremental Housing” strategies conceived by the Swedish architects Urban Nouveau and the NGO SPARC (Society for the Promotion of Area Resouce Centres) aim to “preserve and incrementally upgrade” informal settlements, rather than start from scratch.
The spirit of jugaad, defined by Argawal as a “resourceful and innovative bringing together of disparate parts,” is expressed throughout the exhibition. The projects on display clearly go beyond “making do” and improve and reveal new possibilities within the existing realities of urban life. Each project “thinks beyond the object,” stated Argawal. They engage with the surrounding “urban milieu” to harness the energy of the street, which is perhaps the most critical resource of all.
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
On view February 10 – May 21, 2011
On view February 14 – March 31, 2011
On View November 11, 2010 – March 26, 2011
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
Opening February 10, 2011
Opening February 14, 2011
On View November 11, 2010 – March 26, 2011
Event: Design for Decades: Spaces for Learning
Location: Center for Architecture, 01.19.11
Speakers: Daniel Heuberger, AIA, LEED AP — Principal, Dattner Architects; David Helpern, FAIA, LEED AP — Principal, Helpern Architects; David Holowka — Senior Project Manager, New York Public Library; Sergio Silveira, RA — Assistant Commissioner, NYC Department of Design + Construction; Bruce Barrett, RA, LEED AP — Vice President of Architecture & Engineering, NYC School Construction Authority; Stephanie Gelb, FAIA, LEED AP — Vice President of Planning and Design, Battery Park City Authority
Moderator: Ned Cramer, AIA — Editor-in-Chief, Architect
Organizer: Center for Architecture
Sponsors: NYC Department of Design + Construction; NYC School Construction Authority; New York Public Library; Battery Park City Authority; Dattner Architects; Helpern Architects; Artek; Bentley Prince Street; Knoll
Installation view of “Design for Decades” in the Margaret A. Helfand Gallery at the Center for Architecture. Pictured is the St. Agnes Branch of the New York Public Library.
Sam Lahoz
A supergraphic of the word “imagine” adorns the wall of the restored St. Agnes Branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL). This text describes the lofty aspirations of the architects, clients, and communities of both the St. Agnes branch, designed by Helpern Architects, and P.S./I.S. 276, designed by Dattner Architects. These two projects, though different in their evolution, location, and function, required a similar imaginative vision to become realized.
Built in 1906 on the Upper West Side by Babb, Cook, and Willard, St. Agnes had fallen into disrepair following a series of ill-advised architectural interventions. The local community and the NYPL were dedicated to restoring the building to its initial grandeur and hired Helpern Architects to design a gut renovation. Since previous remodels had altered the original detailing and natural lighting of the library, Helpern focused on reintroducing daylight into the building. The firm uncovered fan lights on the street façade, as well as a glazed extension at the rear of the building. The community was so enthusiastic about these and other changes, according to Principal David Helpern, FAIA, LEED AP, that it supported construction progress with significant cash donations.
In contrast to St. Agnes, the local community of Battery Park City played a more political role in the construction of Dattner Architects’ P.S./I.S. 276. Pressure imposed on elected officials by neighborhood parents resulted in the city permitting an unusually rapid design and construction process. Further complicating matters, the site was spatially constrained. Dattner Architects proposed a vertical scheme in which a series of shared spaces in the middle of the building would separate elementary school students on the first floors from middle school students on the upper levels. Additionally, the firm designed the school to the Battery Park City Authority’s sustainable design guidelines as well as the SCA’s Green School Guidelines, resulting in a building that also serves to teach students about green design and construction, noted Principal Daniel Heuberger, AIA, LEED AP.
The Design for Decades initiative, which operates at a national level, highlights significant built work designed by AIA members. St. Agnes and P.S./I.S. 276 have been selected as part of the showcase. Projects are primarily exhibited online, but both projects are also on view at the Center for Architecture until 01.29.11.
Center for Architecture Gallery Hours and Location
Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: CLOSED
536 LaGuardia Place, Between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC, 212-683-0023
On View November 11, 2010 – March 26, 2011
