RAIMUND ABRAHAM

RIP. It's so sad that he died on his way after his lecture at SCIARC. DTLA is a killer. Austrian architect Raimund Abraham, best known in this country for his knife-thin 2002 Austrian Cultural Forum building in Manhattan, was killed in a car crash in downtown Los Angeles early Thursday morning, according to a report from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

Eric Owen Moss issued the following statement: "Earlier in the evening Raimund delivered a powerful lecture at SCI-Arc, re-stating his enduring love for architecture and his willingness to fight for the design discourse as he defined it. That unique and powerful Abraham advocacy for architecture is irreplaceable. Raimund, We miss you."

Born in Tyrol, which is located in the Alps, Abraham credited his understanding of architecture to his time growing up in the mountains. In 2002 , he told NYTimes this beautiful statement: “When you are a skier, you have to read the snow - it is not some romantic white mass; it is a material. If you want to glide faster than anyone else, you have to understand the crystals. This was my education, not the school of architecture.”

Think about that. Don't think about building as building.. but the crystals behind it.

BIKE WALK RUN

How does downtown exist as a hub for MTA riders and bicyclists in the city?

Celebrate eight weeks of mapping and conversations during the final night of HABEAS LOUNGE: A PLURALISTIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES. This event is the last in a series of DTLA explorations building a framework for ideas and exchanges about our shared city, conceived by artist Linda Pollack.

Art Walk night will be all about bicycles and public transportation. We want to hear first hand how transportation plays a role in life downtown! Pricey parking lots, scarce street parking, the threat of being towed...bicycle, metro and bus are alternative ways to get around without the trouble!

Advocates will be on hand to share their experiences and visions for transportation in LA, as well as challenges, from proposed master bike plans to everyday commuting.

Ride up 7th Street from the Art Walk to dialogue, discuss, debate, and learn ways to connect to the carless city.

A bicycle valet service will be provided by the LA County Bicycle Coalition.

During the event, check out the HABEAS LOUNGE, designed by Ilaria Mazzoleni: a cardboard sofa built from bike boxes by architect Nina Marie Barbuto, projections of classic / contemporary DTLA films selected by Linda Pollack and Maryam Hosseinzadeh, maps and bottled specimens from workshops by Katie Bachler, urban placemaking by James Jones, film footage of LA shot from a helicopter and a Pontiac G6 by Italian artists/architects ERGOT, an oversized Metro map, and more.

Plus SNACKS and a DJ too!

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ART WALK SCHEDULE

5.00 - DTLA Resident DJ Emilio

5.45 - You Have HABEAS
About HABEAS LOUNGE, Its Design and Mission

6.00 - Re-Designing How LA Moves
including a feasibility study for a pilot bike sharing program in Wilshire Center, produced by the Critical Mass class at SCI-Arc (Prof. Ilaria Mazzoleni) and CICLO a bike sharing plan proposal for USC

6.30 - Pedaling The Path
Open Discussion on Current Bike and Public Transportation Experiences/Issues/Challengs in LA With Advocates and Users

7.30 - Tracing Our Path
Discussion-Based Mapping Exercise On The Gallery Wall

8.00 - HABEAS LOUNGE Artists Talk About Their Work and The City

8.30 - DJ Emilio Dance Party

For more information, visit: http://www.habeaslounge.org/

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PERSPECTIVE GROUPS are part of "A Pluralistic Downtown Los Angeles Investigation", a series of explorations through maps and encounters, which will build a framework for the ideas and exchanges about our shared city.

Events are free and open to the public.

The HABEAS LOUNGE is in 7+FIG at Ernst and Young Plaza, located adjacent to the 7th + METRO Red Line stop. Validated parking in 7+ FIG parking structure, entrance on 7th and 8th Streets, west of Figueroa.

Collection and growth

Recently I have been working projects that contribute to my idea of the inhabitable organism. I origianlly broke it down in to certain steps.
Level One consisted of
1. Noise Recycled into the System
2. Nesting/BioMimicry/BioMimetics
3. Existing/Exploration of Materials
4. Pattern Recognition and Accumulation

This latest endevor has been focusing on Level One part 4. (It also works with Level One part 1 to a degree. )

I have been having "happenings" during lunch time in Los Angeles. The project "Mass Collection 1" is about well that. Mass collection! The medium is chewed gum and plexi glass. I stand in a specific spot for 3 hours and ask people to come and chew a piece of gum and place it where ever they feel it belongs on the plexi. If some one is passing by with gum already in their mouth, I ask them to place that piece on the plexi and I give them a new piece. The gum is a Mexican brand of Chicklets and come in a variety of flavor and colors. This piece also is about mark making and territory. So far, I have had 2 of these happenings.

The first site was Downtown Los Angeles by the Public Library. There, the demographics of the crowd was mainly people in suits, bike messengers, and some homeless. There were even some tourists in the mix. Here are some of the photos of the piece and the making of it.

This is the final composition for that session::
The other site in front of a coffee shop in the Arts District in Los Angeles. The accumulation was completely different. People were more apt to changing and adding to previously placed pieces. This piece was more graffiti like. People also felt compelled to draw and be creative with it, saying "I don't know what to draw/I don't know what to make." The only direction I gave (for both pieces) was to place the gum where ever you saw fit, preferably on the plastic. This piece was also more 3dimentional, where people would add to each others mounds. People were also bringing up a precedent gum wall in Northern CA.

Here are some images from the wall in San Luis Obispo::

The next stop is Chinatown. Other sites are heavy pedestrian places... I might be in Venice Beach tomorrow doing it so come on by.