Open Form Architecture Blog

Bet­ween 12pm on Sep­tem­ber 22nd and 12pm on Sep­tem­ber 23rd, Open Form Archi­tec­ture will par­ti­ci­pate to a 24-hour, non-stop, Surf-a-Thon or­ga­ni­zed by Make a wave pro­ject to help sup­port Oceana and their ef­fort to clean and pro­tect our world’s oceans. I will be sur­fing the event Sa­tur­day, Sep­tem­ber 22nd from 3pm-6pm and Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd from 9am-12pm with Team Sandshark. You can ex­pect two days of mu­sic and fun in the sun and sea.

Our friends from De­bon­naire were re­cently hi­red by a yoga com­pany to re­cons­truct their image. Debonnaire’s bran­ding re­flects sim­pli­city and qua­lity. The way the let­ters are grou­ped and in­tert­wi­ned to­gether, com­bi­ned with the way the in­for­ma­tion is cen­tra­li­zed create a clean and sim­ple pat­tern — a light de­sign that re­minds us that yoga is a dis­ci­pline that pro­mo­tes the con­trol of the mind (the let­ter M of da­li­Mama) and the body (the A of yogA) th­rough a se­ries of pos­tu­res. The MA sym­bol clearly ex­pres­ses this idea.

Thom Mayne, archi­tect, and 2005 Pritz­ker Prize lau­reate, in in­ter­view with Char­lie Rose

Ja­mie Re­si­dence. Photo cour­tesy of Escher Gu­ne­War­dena Architecture

Cul­ture in Los Angeles

In the Los An­ge­les me­tro­po­li­tan area, the image and iden­tity of the archi­tec­tu­ral lands­cape is not only as­so­cia­ted with the di­ver­sity of cul­tu­ral in­fluen­ces, but also de­fi­ned by the com­plex, ex­ten­sive free­way net­works that criss-cross the still fast-growing region.

Along with the beaches, palm trees, and mo­vie stu­dios, the free­ways of Southern Ca­li­for­nia –and au­to­mo­bi­les– create the or­ga­ni­za­tio­nal lo­gic of Los An­ge­les. To­gether; they re­pre­sent one of the main tra­de­marks of the me­tro­po­li­tan re­gion. “Vi­si­tors to Los An­ge­les most of­ten re­mem­ber its free­ways, either with ad­mi­ra­tion or dis­gust. The free­ways (rather than in­di­vi­dual buil­dings, or grand ave­nues or pu­blic spa­ces) re­main ine­ra­di­cably as­so­cia­ted with Los An­ge­les. Be­cause the free­ways create the to­tal con­text of Los An­ge­les and be­cause they con­di­tion the per­cep­tion of Los An­ge­les,” ex­plains the his­to­rian Paul Zy­gas. Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Ja­mie Residence’