URBAN VISIONS exhibition

Organized by Image, and curated by Marco Brizzi, BEYOND MEDIA has been constantly observing, since 1997, the development of the systems of communication in the field of architecture by evaluating their impact on contemporary architectural production and by promoting their understanding and enhancing their quality. The festival offers its visitors an articulate and rich program of events.

The theme for the forthcoming edition of BEYOND MEDIA is VISIONS.

The exhibition aims at testifying the ability some cities had in seeing their transformations in perspective, in looking "beyond". The observed cities are Helsinki, Milan, Medellín, Zaragoza, Belgrade, Turin, New Orleans, Paris, Bologna and Mumbai, as part of a wider survey which considered, for example, the problematic case of Beijing. The exhibition will be open to the public for the whole duration of the BEYOND MEDIA festival (July 9-17).

The URBAN VISIONS exhibition opens on Thursday July 9 at 5 pm with an introduction by the curator, Michele Bonino. A first talk will follow, in which representatives from the participating cities will illustrate the projects to the public and will offer cue for the discussions within the Friday morning forum. On July 10, starting at 10 am, the forum will provide an important moment for the debate on urban development and on the possible, different directions it may take.

THE VIEW MASTERS

This year BEYOND MEDIA conceived a special program, which complements the video contest, which presents the works produced by 3 architecture offices that have demonstrated peculiar and fertile employment of video over the course of the years.

With THE VIEW MASTERS, BEYOND MEDIA is happy to offer its audience a unique opportunity for seeing and comparing the videos produced by MVRDV, UNStudio and Zaha Hadid Architects selected by Image ARCHIVE.

The screenings of the videos will occur during 3 sessions.

Thursday July 9 at 9 pm
THE VIEW MASTERS: MVRDV
in cooperation with Wieland & Gouwens: MetaCITY DATA TOWN, NL 1999, 10'30'' (short version); BRABANT LIBRARY, NL 2000, 5'00''; PIG CITY, NL 2001, 13'07''; MARKET HALL, NL 2007, 1'05''; SKY CAR CITY, NL 2008, 2'41''

Friday July 10 at 9 pm
THE VIEW MASTERS: Zaha Hadid Architects
Kartal Pendik Masterplan, UK 2006, 1'13''; Icone bag for Louis Vuitton, UK 2006, 1'27''; Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion, UK 2007, 1'02''; Lilium Tower, UK 2007, 1'56''; London 2012 Acquatics, UK 2008, 1'14''

Saturday July 11 at 9 pm
THE VIEW MASTERS: UNStudio
Möbius House, NL 1998, 5'35''; Datenprozess, Mercedes-Benz Museum, NL 2005, 2'00''; UNStudio, documentary, NL 2007, 13'16''; The Changing Room, NL 2008, 3'19''; Music Theatre, NL 2009, 8'11''

Experimental Media in Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, MoMA 1972

BEYOND MEDIA presents - thanks to the recent reinterpretation by Peter Lang, Luca Molinari and Mark Wasiuta - an exceptional selection of videos which were originally produced on the occasion of the exhibition curated by Emilio Ambasz at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1972. The exhibition "encountered the dynamic and complexly political Italian design context of the early seventies, which it examined and organized into a matrix of categories, differences and distinctions" and it consecrated the radicalism and anticonformism of Italian design, in the works of Sottsass Jr., Colombo, Superstudio, Pesce.

On Friday July 10, starting at 10:30 pm, the public will be able to watch, over 30 years later, these unique and precious documents which will be commented by Peter Lang (Texas A&M University).

Ettore Sottsass Jr. (directed by Massimo Magri), untitled, IT 1972; Superstudio, Supersurface: An Alternative Model for Life on Earth, IT 1972; Joe Colombo (directed by Livio Castigloni and Gianni Colombo), Total Furnishing Unit, IT 1972; Gae Aulenti (directed by Massimo Magri), untitled, IT 1972; Mario Bellini (directed by Davide Mosconi), untitled, IT 1972; Gaetano Pesce (directed by Klaus Zaugg), untitled, IT 1972; Alberto Rosselli (directed by Osvaldo Marini, with Ernesto Prever), An Idea for a Mobile House, IT 1972; Marco Zanuso, Richard Sapper (directed by Giacomo Battiato), untitled, IT 1972.

Related articles: UNDERTONE VISIONS: WORKSHOP FOR THE DIGITAL PRODUCTION OF VIDEOS

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Wallpaper for hard times

We aren't surprise to see that interior trends became more hair shirt. New wallpaper presented just last week approve this tendency.


The paper based wallpaper created by betontapete looks like real concrete but "still got the advantages of a wallpaper". For now pre-collection is shown at s.wert flagship store, Berlin. In order to promote "new look" s.wert reminded about the benefits of concrete:

Tadao Ando once called concrete "Marble of
the 20th Century ". Zaha Hadid thinks that concrete is "somehow sexy ".

However I suppose that such wallpaper will attract designers more then ordinary consumers...

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UNDERTONE VISIONS: WORKSHOP FOR THE DIGITAL PRODUCTION OF VIDEOS

IN/ARCH, National Institute of Architecture (master "the video and architectural communication"), in collaboration with BEYOND MEDIA, presents : workshop for the digital production of videos.


In order to celebrate the theme of the ninth edition of the festival, which this year is dedicated to VISIONS and to a reflection on the representation of the project, the workshop aims at exploring a renewed ability to understand reality so as to change the customary procedures by which we design and represent architecture. This is made possible by the intertwining of the different approached that graphic design, photography, illustration, music have.

The workshop will take place July 1-3, 2009 at IN/ARCH, via Crescenzio 16 in Rome. It is intended for students, architects, designers, and video makers who are interested in contemporary visual languages and in the new digital media. Participants are required to have a laptop with Abobe Suite CS4 installed.
Registration: UNDERTONE VISIONS

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3 types of advertising agencies

A lot of companies use to advertise via direct business contacts with site owners. But a great deal of companies have to choose an advertising agency because it means that they will have a deal with professionals.
If you are a novice you will be confused for sure because of too wide choice. But is it really so wide? Unfortunately it isn't. Let me explain why.

What do you find when you seek advertising agency

Looking for agency you have to consider that some agencies are only called "advertising". As a matter of fact their activity must be named "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization). It's OK if you have good site & excellent content manager. If not you will get for your money traffic without conversion or with very low conversion. Moreover there is a real risk that reputation of your site will be ruined because of "black" seo methods.
So I strongly recommend to start internet promotion with Google AdWords or Yandex Direct, analyze your income & your site & only afterward try another way & take a risk with seo agencies

Another kind of agencies I'll call the "Internet agencies". They really can create for you banners, press-releases or even articles. They really can place your banners, press-releases or articles on the web & report some sort of results. The main problem is that they mostly are trying to minimise the efforts & to maximise the price. Personally I've heard from managers working in such kind of firms only 2 questions: " How many visitors d'you have" & "How much it costs to place a banner". They prefer banner because of it is more easier to make it, place it and create some kind of report. They don't pay attention to the quality of traffic. They hardly can distinguish the good article from the bad one. Their Russian is as poor as my English & even worse. So if you have a large budget, you will get some effect, if not, you will not.

However there are some REAL ADVERTISING AGENCIES. With smart management, professional editors and talented designers. Later on I'll tell you what questions you should ask in order to recognise them.

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New football stadium project - GUP MNIIP “MOSPROEKT-4”

The architectural design proposes the creation of a new modern football arena which will preserve the main idea of the architect Nikolsky: a multi-level hill with atria, pavilions and cascade stairs.


The shape of the above-hill stadium (cone truncated by a slanted plane) reproduces the existing stadium cup with an increased height of the western stand. The shape of the stadium resembles a ship moving towards the Gulf of Finland. The upper level of the stadium is partially open, forming a gap on the eastern side in the direction of the main entrance and the Central Alley. Thus, the stadium space resembles a theater with spectators moving up the hill and then finding themselves on a stage of a giant amphitheater, situated in unique natural surroundings.
From the Central Alley the hill forms the dominant view of which the stadium’s transparent roof is a continuation directing the viewer’s attention to the sky. From the sea, the stadium appears as a huge, moving, dynamic ship.


Stadium capacity: 62.000 seats
Construction cost: 197.777.360 USD
Stadium height: 74.6m
Capacity of parking place: 5 200, including:
covered parking on stadium territory – 800
open air parking on stadium territory – 1400
New objects in the adjacent area:
 3.000 capacity parking
 2 training fields
 New “Neva Ring” track


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WA Community starts a new section

If you are interested in architecture and (or) promotion you are supposed to know WA Community Directory
Today Jonathan Budd sent me a letter:

We have decided to start a new section where scholars and academics can share their personal courseware (PowerPoint Presentations, Videos, Lecture Notes,..) with all humanity. What good is a true word if not spread infinitely?

The idea came from some Honorary Members who offered their videos to be freely downloaded from WA Portal.

Consequently we began to prepare full version presentations of the Winner projects for each quarterly cycle accompanied with full description files of each project. And here they are...

Please invite all scholars to download them for special lectures to inform their students about contemporary trends in architecture by discussing selected examples. More will soon follow.

And you can send to WA editors Ophelia Fletcher and Celine Dupret your own files and documents so that we can offer them in this section to a worldwide audience!

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Project “Golden Eye” - New football stadium, Krestovski Island, Saint-Petersburg

This architectural competition took part a few years ago, so I already have made some publications & even write the large article about Krestovski stadium & in particular projects of the new arena. Therefore now I'm going to publish only some renders & short project descriptions starting from “Golden Eye” (project design by Lenniiproject)
Short project description:The main idea – creation of a multifunctional sporting complex and active development of the surrounding territory.
Transparency is the main project theme. Things that occur within the stadium can be seen from the outside and those within the stadium have a wonderful view of the surroundings.
The circle is the most classical of shapes. The moldability of the stadium is due to the interaction between the wave designs of the upper and lower cups which connect at four points. Due to the wave design, four “Golden Eyes” are created through which spectators can view the surrounding area and, additionally, those situated outside can see what occurs within.
Stadium height: 70m
Capacity of parking place: 2800 – open air, VIP – underground parking, optional 1600 in Level -1
New objects in the adjacent area:
New “Neva Ring” track,
Multifunctional sporting complex:
 Swimming pool (50m)
 Covered skating rink
 2 playing rooms
 Athletics arena with football ground
 Training football ground
 7 open sporting grounds


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Introducing "Architecture & advertisement"

Well, here we go. I was waiting too long to create this blog. The main reason is my poor English, but there were some other circumstances: to tell you the truth I' m very buzy because of I have a large architectural site in Russian with a lot of visitors, questions , updates & so on. Later on maybe I'll show it. But maybe not. For now it doesn't matter: I'm going to publish some articles in English & all of them where never published at my own site.
I also want to share my thoughts about advertisement - in Russia & not only in Russia. You see I can't do it in my site because it is devoted to architectural & interior design only. I don't want to do it in Russian because I'm going to tell you things which are not always sweet. So probably somebody would ask me - who are you to comment arhitectural projects & who the hell are you to write about advertisement. Here is the short answer: I'm a writer, editor & site owner. I used to write as art critic but at the same time I wrote a lot of advertisement articles. Not only for money: I found it interesting & feel myself inspired when my work was successful & disappointed when it wasn't. I think now I do know why. If you are interested you are welcome to visit my blog next time. If you are not - thank you for your attention.

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