Architecture...For the Feet Part II

My previous post on the wonderful Miniature structures that don our feet introduced me to a world of wondefully inspiring designs. So, like any good shoe enthusiast I thought I'd share them with you...Enjoy!

From Paris' Le Bon Marché (Summer 2008) Michel Tcherevkoff’s Photographs: “Shoe Fleur, A Footwear Fantasy”.

Bryan Oknyansky

Julian Hakes

Andreia Chaves

Marloes ten Bhömer  

Pavlina Miklasova

John Galliano  

Chau Har Lee

Alexander McQueen

Nicholas Kirkwood

Continuum Shoes

Tea Petrovic

Marloes ten Bhömer  

Marloes ten Bhömer  

Victoria Spruce

The LBD – The Ultimate Design Tool

One of the first projects I encountered in Architecture was to design a full-scale piece of furniture using only cardboard & cable ties; why? Well my take is that it encouraged us to think outside the box.

Forced to think about the limitations of our materiality, we all created quite wonderful forms of overlapping card that could actually support the weight of a person.

This was the highest marking studio project that’d I’d ever get in university; and I never quite saw the benefits of this project until I became more aware of the relationship between fashion & architecture.

Full scale projects make us think more, because we see the whole design we can see the flaws, we can see how form, function & materiality perform at a 1:1 scale.

This inevitably got me thinking more about how fashion could help us to become stronger architects.

Thus I give you the “Little Black Dress” or “LBD”. It’s fashions ultimate icon & the perfect tool for making us better designers. Why? Simple: It has one massive limitation, it can only be black.

With such a limitation we become forced to create interest using form & texture, using different materials to create contrast, detailing & weight (or lack of weight).

Left & Right: Alexander McQueen

For architects learning the importance of these aspects are key to success & for us nothing is better than working at full scale. I certainly believe that I could have benefitted from learning a little more about design back then so perhaps it’s time we through in a little bit of iconic fashion to help us create some iconic buildings…

Left: Christopher Kane    Right:Alexander McQueen

Versace for H&M

Left: Versace  Right: Alexander McQueen

Left: Victor & Rolf  Right: Versace

Discovery of the Day - Lego Architecture

While teddy bear shopping for my little nephew I came across these wonderful creations by Lego.
The Lego Architecture Series combines & celebrates some of the worlds most iconic Architecture with one of the world’s most iconic toys.

From Villa Savoye to Big Ben, there's instantly recognisable landmarks & some other pieces that ask us to call on our creative minds (the New York Guggenheim falls a little short in my eyes).
Lego Architecture is perhaps an obvious idea but it doesn't make it any less appealing, personally, I'd like to see some more architects on offer, perhaps a Mackintosh or two (I'd love to see the Art School immortalised in Lego) or how they would tackle a Gaudi.
Out of those included my personal favourite has got to be the Robie House, but while I dream of the endless possibilities here's a selection of what's on offer... 

Farnsworth House - Mies Van der Rohe

Guggenheim - Frank Lloyd Wright

Robie Houe - Frank Lloyd Wright 

Sydney Opera House - Jørn Utzon

Villa Savoye - Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret

Falling Water - Frank Lloyd Wright

All Images sourced from http://architecture.lego.com/en-us/

Architecture…for the Feet

 If ever there was a painfully (excuse the pun) obvious link between Fashion & Architecture those magnificent structures on your feet were it.

Particularly among women shoes are often most structural & form altering pieces of clothing that you’ll ever own.

Even in it’s most basic form (the classic black court), the architectural qualities of the humble high-heel are breath taking. The simple flowing form & single steel column support; the shoe is literally the foundation of wearer, the supporting element in maintaining an elevated position.

So imagine an architect’s delight when our eyes fall upon the architectural footwear of recent times, the sheer euphoria of seeing exposed structure, flowing forms & the design of miniature spaces that your feet do not wear, but gracefully inhabit.

Of course many make the mistake of assuming that Architectural footwear is simply crazy-shaped shoes (it is not architectural just because it’s shaped like a sandwich), but in reality it is so much more. They are shoes with clean lines & flowing forms, materiality & free from frills, truly architectural footwear makes you look at the shoe & the space in & around it.

Take Tea Petrovic for example, having designed a shoe collection inspired by none other than Santiago Calatrava, his creations are so removed from traditional footwear it almost seems wrong to disturb the space within them with feet.

In true Calatrava style we see an array of clean white lines with rib-like detail, Petrovic makes the most of the context of the foot, filling & playing with all the available space & drawing the attention away from the foot & instead to the relationship between the shoe & the floor.

The shoe unlike most forms of clothing is an ideal precedent for an architect; for a shoe to work it must be structured to support the load of the wearer, it must contain a degree of internal space, it must have a strong & solid relationship with its context (the ground) and it must be comfortable to inhabit. All we have to do is alter what Marilyn Monroe once said "Let an Architect design the right shoes, and they can conquer the world."

Architects of Man: Fashion vs. Architecture – Hussein Chalayan

 When exploring the links between the worlds of Fashion & Architecture, it’s almost impossible to exclude Hussein Chalayan.

Chalayan is widely recognised as being far more than a Fashion Designer; with his desire to span all design disciplines in his work, and from seeing the results that this desire produces, it would be a crime to pigeon-hole him into one category.

So what is it that makes him so vastly different?

He’s not like McQueen in the sense that he uses art & architecture to create controversial fashion, instead, Chalayan uses fashion to create miniaturised architecture. His work carries a real spatial quality; his collections create the effect of clothing that is inhabited as opposed to being worn.

Through exploring technology & space, the garments interact with their wearer, surrounding & enclosing them in a wealth of texture & materiality. He uses the architects palette of materiality to create his garments, his catalogue including a series of plastic, electrically wired & wooden garments; from light-up & moving dresses to his most famous wooden “table skirt” (so well-known that he himself is now tired of speaking about it).

To many Chalayan’s ideas could be viewed as crazy little quirks but to an architect his work is an incredible learning tool (Chalayan is often used in Architecture School curriculums), His clothing exhibits a great understanding of the human form & proportion, he knows exactly how manipulating space & light can drastically alter the human perception & emotion. He is so much more than a designer exploiting a shock or controversy factor, he is teaching us how to understand our interaction with the world around us, making us see how our decisions can & will affect the context of our daily lives.

He studies the world & its culture and by using form, materiality, space, light & context he produces a wondrous & technologically advanced structure that encases us to secure & protect us in our everyday. And if that’s not a true architect then I don’t know what is…

                         

Happy World Urbanism Day (Yesterday)

Yep World Urbanism Day was Nov 8th so here's a little something I'd like to see croppping up in our city scapes in the coming years...

Image Sourced from www.dezeen.com

A beautiful display by Wilkinson Eyre Architects at the Gardens by the Bay tropical garden in Singapore.

It could fit into Glasgow's George Square right?