Around L.A.: LACMA lecture: Danish architect du jour Bjarke Ingels will give a lecture at LACMA, in conjunction with the A+D museum. Ingels’ recent and current projects include the Danish…
Around L.A.:
LACMA lecture: Danish architect du jour Bjarke Ingels will give a lecture at LACMA, in conjunction with the A+D museum. Ingels’ recent and current projects include the Danish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, the Danish Maritime Museum and the recently-awarded Waste-to-Energy Plant in Copenhagen that doubles as a ski slope for the city’s residents and visitors. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $7 for LACMA and A+D Museum members, and $5 for seniors and students. Thursday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m.
9x9x9: Nine architects will present nine projects, one from each of the Los Angeles Community College campuses, in rapid-fire order. Afterward, there will be a panel discussion featuring Christopher Hawthorne, architectural critic for the L.A. Times, Ann Gray, publisher of Form Magazine and Chester Widom, senior architectural adviser for LACCD. The discussion will be moderated by our very own Frances Anderton. In view of the Los Angeles Times’ critical series on this bond-financed building program on the , this could be a lively conversation. Friday, March 4 from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. East Los Angeles College, Fine Arts complex.
LAMA auction: Property from the estate of computer billionaire Max Palevsky and works from the collection of James Byrnes, the first curator of Modern Art at LACMA will be auctioned off on March 6 at LAMA. Over half of the more than 500 items offered in the auction have never before traded hands on the open market. Highlights will include a number of Ettore Sottsass custom designs such as a marble entry table, a custom headboard with built-in nightstands, and a unique marble and steel coffee table. In addition to the Sottsass designs, four Murano glass windows, a selection of Venini glass, and a rare Carlo Scarpa vase for Venini will also be offered for sale. Sunday, March 6 at the LAMA showroom: 16145 Hart St. in Van Nuys, starting at noon. There is an auction preview from February 25 through March 5 daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Around the Web:
Playing (and building) house: Mattel has announced that Architect Barbie will be the latest vocational role model in their “I Can Be…” series. The decision was lauded by some female architects, who say the doll might help encourage more girls to become interested in design. The American Institute of Architects notes that only 17 percent of its members are female. [GOOD]
The micro-home: The New York Times has a story about the $200 micro-houses designed by Derek Diedricksen, who also has a lively YouTube series on the same topic. The houses are made largely out of scraps of wood and detritus rescued from broken washing machines, and they’re barely large enough for a person to stand up in. But Diedricksen sees them more as impromptu tent-alternatives, backyard escapes for alternative types or even dwellings for the homeless. [NY Times]
The Oscar goes to…the upholstery: The LA Times’ Christopher Hawthorne writes that many of the films nominated for Best Picture this year rely heavily on architecture to drive home their themes. “Quite a few of the films likely to pile up awards Sunday night are deeply interested in architectural symbolism, featuring buildings, rooms or spaces that serve in a fundamental way as proving grounds for their main characters.” An example is “The King’s Speech,” in which (director Tom) “Hooper’s central…aim is to humanize and even democratize the British monarchy, and if he succeeds it is entirely thanks to the goings on in that unexalted lower-level office, with its peeling paint, worn (but handsome!) carpets and glorious light, as if it occupied some forgotten corner of a Victorian train station.” [LA Times]