February 11

BETWEEN TRADITION AND INNOVATION: A SUCCESSFUL BALANCE

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(By Angelica Di Virgilio)

New Technical Services Center building for the Perugia Municipality
HOF

In the very historically-documented Italian reality the relationship between new interventions and what is preexisting has always been particularily problematic. These theme has animated post-war debates, especially in the 50s, when the urgency to rebuild was replaced by the need to limit the damage and ugliness brought by building speculation in the name of that emergency. Despite the appeals of the conscious architectural class in favor of a rational balance between the need for “new” and preservation, this last current eventually prevailed and relegated the first to areas of new urban expansion, while leaving downtowns more and more exclusively bound to superintendences. The result of such “abandonement” is still an open debate far from reaching a solution.

The city of Perugia has nonetheless represented an exception in this national context. Right in its very artistically and historically connoted reality, between the end of the 40s and the 50s, we witness an opening to instances of “modernity” in full respect of historical continuity. This was mostly due to the municipality’s technical office and engineer Giuseppe Grossi’s work. Such opening is still visible today in the city’s fabric and is also exemplified by recent interventions like the Palazzo Grossi expansion project by the HOF studio.

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December 31

Interview to Nayyar Ali Dada & Associates

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(Interview by Aresha Gul to Nayyar Ali Dada & Associates, all projects and images © Nayyar Ali Dada & Associates)

What are your contemporary projects? How do you think these will sustain Pakistan’s contemporary culture considering that Pakistani architecture is mainly inspired by history?

Contemporary Architecture, if designed with appropriate values, must and will survive in any environment, let alone Pakistan. Nayyar Ali Dada has proven this assumption and his body of works over the last three decades gives evidence that any country of the world can accept such an approach.
Almost all our projects should be considered contemporary because they follow a certain thought process. The idea is to not forget our roots, culture, history and arts but also not get caught up in replicating the well-established imagery or repeating it exactly as it used to be centuries ago. We have to be forward looking without forgetting the general context. An architectural expression should embody inspiration and creative ideas that have risen from various elements in a society and are deeply engrained in its cultural and artistic practices, given that Architecture is no less than an art form itself – a rather complicated one too, since it plays a significant role in our built environment.
Another element is that of ‘Humanism’, which clearly puts the user in the centre of all things. Whether you talk about function, scale, history, or imagery for that matter, the idea of humanism guides us to keep things in perspective and stay real as such values contribute towards global and environmental issues eventually.
Amog our contemporary projects: Alhamra Arts Centre, Lahore (AKAA Winner); Habib Bank Regional Headquarters, Lahore; ABN Amro Bank, Lahore; MCB Headquarters Lahore; EFU Insurance buiding, Lahore; Grindlays Bank, The Mall, Lahore; Punjab House, Islamabad; The Expo and Convention Centre, Lahore; Serena Hotel, Islamabad.

Habib Bank Regional Headquarters, Lahore Read more

December 30

MCB headquarters in Lahore by NAYYAR ALI DADA & ASSOCIATES

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(Text by architect Omar Hassan, text and images courtesy of NAYYAR ALI DADA & ASSOCIATES, special thanks to Aresha Gul who collected and revised all materials)

The MCB headquarter building in Lahore is a seminal work of architecture. The design of this building faithfully follows the simple design premise developed for the Project. The design concept deals with notions of implied imagery and iconography, transparency, the framing of views to and from the building, orientation with regard to the sun and aptly responding to the site’s context.

Implied Iconography and Urban Context

MCB is the third largest bank in Pakistan and, like other financial institutions in the world, needed a robust public image. NAD had experimented with notions of grandeur and monumentality in the design of the EFU building located down the street from the MCB building. However, the architectural interpretation of this theme has really blossomed in a subtle and sophisticated way, in the MCB building in Lahore. Read more

December 29

Nayyar Ali Dada, portrait of a Pakistani architect

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(Text by Aresha Gul, all images and drawings property and courtesy of NAYYAR ALI DADA & ASSOCIATES)

The Mall Road of Lahore is a very busy road and is quite close to the Walled City of Lahore (the old Mughal Lahore). All along the Mall, the beautiful tree-lane road, there is a sprinkling of historical buildings dating back to the British Empire. The Lawrence Garden, now called Jinnah Garden or Bagh-e-Jinnah; the Gymkhana Club, with a superb 18 hole Golf Course; the Aitchison College or Chief’s College, that spreads over 800 acres of gardens and exotic buildings built 20 years ago for just 8 students more than a hundred; The Governor House. All are beautiful buildings dating back to colonial times. You cannot but simply admire the line this nostalgic historical journey into the past.

I am always mesmerized by one particular building each time I drive down the Mall, and though this is not an historical building, its modernity blends with the old architecture all around it. It is the Habib Bank Headquarters in Lahore. At first glance, you wouldn’t really guess that the building belongs to the present. This attractive building was designed by none other than Nayyar Ali Dada, the pride of Pakistan.

Habib Bank Limited project, © NAYYAR ALI DADA & ASSOCIATES, Lahore

When I reviewed Mr. Dada’s other works, I came to the conclusion that Mr. Ali Dada is a sensitive artist who knows exactly how to set up his ideas and, at the same time, to respect the environment surrounding them, without sabotaging the actual essence of history. Read more

July 21

L’Ozio – Castello in Movimento

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CARTOLINA

FESTA

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July 15

Under the Tower, interiors by Lorenzo Capobianco in Naples

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(Text by Francesca Capobianco, photos © Peppe Maisto)

Castello Aselmeyer or Castello Grifeo designed by Lamont Young, 1902

From a Scottish father and an Indian mother, Lamont Young was a particularly active architect in the city of Naples between the end of the 800’s and the first two decades of the 900’s. With an eclectic and visionary personality, certainly non conventional, he left the city an heritage of several neo-Gothic buildings notable in magnetism and originality, apart form a patrimony of projects for the infrastructure.

It is Lamont Young that must be thanked for the planning and construction of Parco Grifeo, the new roads that with hairpin turns cut into the tufa rock going up again to the hill of Vomero across an urban forest, joining them with the new centre designed by the occidental expansion of the city. And it is the proper valley of its first Neapolitan manufacture, in the base part of the Frigeo Castle, surmounted from a high volume of the split tower in which the ruinistic taste integrates the respect of the location with the rigorous use of natural material, in the apartment that we illustrate in this page. Read more

July 13

Master Course in Designing for the Historical City

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June 15

GABRIELE BASILICO: MONTEPULCIANO SITE SPECIFIC

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PRESS RELEASE

CANTINA ICARIO, MAY 16 – SEPTEMBER 30,  2009 OPENING: SATURDAY MAY 16, 2009 h. 11.30AM

Gabriele_Basilico__Montepulciano_2009_bassa(2)

Gabriele Basilico took a series of photos in Montepulciano on behalf of the Icario winery, which has been organizing several exhibitions on that territory. Basilico’s site-specific project is the third one, after the young italian artists group show “Bateau Ivre” and Eliseo Mattiacci’s solo show. Read more

April 17

Portaluppi Foundation presentation at Palazzo Litta

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(All images courtesy of Portaluppi Foundation)

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Study for S.K.N.E. skyscraper, New York, 1920.

The following days promise to be full of meetings and cultural spurs. Milan is in a state of ferment, not only for the 2009 Milan Salone del Mobile, for which people are coming from all over the world, but also because of the traditional National Culture Week, a yearly celebration promoted by the Ministry for the Arts and the Environment and taking place from April 18 to April 26.

The event, which first made its début 24 years ago, aims to promote national heritage through specific events and opening all public cultural institutions. This year’s tagline is Culture belongs to anybody: join in, well represents the spirit of the Culture Week: supporting popular attention on arts through exhibitions, lectures, workshops, concerts, shows, movies, guided tours and exceptional openings in every Italian region. Private institutions, local and territorial authorities, foundations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and abroad italian institutes for culture are all contributing.

Out of the many events, we’re particularly happy to announce the presentation of the Piero Portaluppi Foundation, taking place this monday April 20th, at 5 p.m, at Palazzo Litta, corso Magenta, 24, Azzurra Hall. Read more

March 4

Le Corbusier’s Cabanon
The Interior 1:1

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The Royal Institute of British Architects and Cassina present the exhibition Le Corbusier’s Cabanon. The Interior 1:1. Le Corbusier 1952 – Cassina 2006, which will remain open from the 5th of March to the 28th of April 2009 in the Florence Hall of the RIBA.
The exhibition features the reconstruction of the actual interior of the Cabanon that Le Corbusier planned and built in 1952 for his holidays at Cap-Martin. The Cabanon is an apparently unpretentious sea-side hut, comprising a remarkable example of micro-architecture, full of meaning. Read more

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