Trip to Puerto Rico

Everyone in Hong Kong dreams of living in a private villa, however, in Puerto Rico, single family houses are cheaper than high-rise apartments. High-rise can easily maintain a higher quality of facilities management. Most importantly, those high-rise mansions are built along the beaches (the coastline). They have plenty of lands but a good view facing Caribbean Sea or Pacific Ocean is limited. Most old buildings in Puerto Rico are in Spanish style. Three-story building with colonnaded façade, small central courtyard with fountain occasionally, French balcony and wrought iron bars, stucco finishes and colorful paints, cobblestone streets … the first glance to the streetscape of Old San Juan reminds me of Macau. For those modern buildings, I can see many Corbusian followers. The descendants of Villa Savoye and Maison Citrohan are everywhere. Besides, the major design features are big balcony and elaborated façade treatment. They seriously consider the orientation of buildings and articulate the four facades with different shading devices. Some of them, I think, are too overwhelming that they have gone beyond their practical aims. However, they all look beautiful. Every time I mentioned shading devices, I would think of Brian Sullivan! Image is an interesting casa in San Juan.

Rem's leading to nowhere

Few years ago when I was in Shanghai, I found that a local literature magazine allocated its whole issue featuring Mr. Rem Koolhaas entitled ‘hugging Koolhaas’, in which the illustration started from his life as screenwriter, delirious NY to the latest competition for CCTV headquarter. Yesterday I was waiting at Gate 85A of John Kennedy Airport in San Francisco and found that Rem was invited as guest editor in the June issue of Wired Magazine. He presented 5 feature articles and 30 spaces for the 21st century. It becomes no surprise that Rem’s face would appear in the coming issue of Forbes or Cosmopolitan... When I picked up that magazine, I was confused. What’s wrong with that? Why am I feeling so insecure? Is Rem so charming that makes everyone interested in architecture? OR, is Rem no longer talking about space anymore? Had Rem been silently betraying architecture and turning it upside down? OR, had Rem never thought of doing something for architecture but picking architecture to do something for him? Looking back the exhibition for deconstructivists in 1970 (although they would not claim this term now), Zaha, Peter, Daniel, Bernard and Frank are still building their castles. Only Rem has radically produced much more ideas and directions over the last 30 years. He is ‘shaking’ as well as ‘shaping’ architecture. From this, his act is truly deconstructing.

My Modern Men

Corbusier, Khan and Barragan all impress me. Let's make an analogy: If Kahn is a master of architecture; Barragan is a poet; then Corbusier is a visionary. Besides, I can see that they tend to apply the same techniques to series of projects. For Khan, I do not think that it is copycat; rather these are valuable exercises for designer to sharpen his sensibility. For Barragan's projects, they can never be fully illustrated by PowerPoint presentation; we can only understand his buildings until we are actually inside. Contemporary architecture is no longer about building itself. Rather, it is solely for visual consumption through representation or photography. We are no longer enjoying space but consuming those images. We are satisfied with those fictions in magazines but neglect our gut feelings. It is ashamed that I did not know much about Barragan in my schooling. Same as Gaudi, his work is not really attractive in books. I love Gaudi not until I visited his works at Barcelona. I was moved not until I was wandering around his buildings; not until I smell his vibrant mosaic walling. That experience can never be captured by a 35mm SLR camera, or be illustrated by any thousands of words. So I think I should stop now.

Stylish and Turkish

Turkish guys are stylish. No matter how fat or slim; tall or short, they are really aware of their appearances. They have stylistic shaving, side bunds and haircutting. Hong Kong youngsters are stylish also. However, they are only sensitive to the prevailing fashion and simply dig into the same prototype. Turkish guys are stylish as they know how to express their own characteristics.

城中城

位處寸金尺土的尖沙咀黃金地段的重慶大廈，其複雜的空間張力，儼如一座建立在城市中的城市。在此我們借用城市的基本理論（元素）作類比，換一個角度去理解重慶大廈。 一個城市最特出的公共空間，是供市民聚集或舉辦大型活動的廣場，只是重慶大廈的廣場不在地面而在天台，那裡是最廣闊開揚的空間，與樓下的擠迫形成強烈的對比。重慶大廈是由5座組成，其中4座是兩兩相連的，遂形成3個獨立的天台，天台與頂層（17樓）只由一條「貓梯」連接，一般人要攀上天台並不容易。在秋冬時份陽光普照時，這裡是休憩小聚的地方，也有父母帶同小孩在此嬉戲耍樂。一個城市獨特的街道景觀，往往是構成人們對這個城市的印象。重慶大廈最低的兩層是商場，食肆大都將桌椅放於走廊，就好像街邊的食檔，將熱鬧的氣氛滲進每個角落。可能是那佈置不一的商舖陳設，又或是不規則的立面及地磚裝飾，使人遊走其中，就如走在街上，穿梭往來。遊人或坐或立，或聊或逛，或拉著行李四處張望。走進重慶大廈很容易迷失，但城市會提供不同的線索讓我們識別方向。重慶大廈商場的走廊便是道路，走廊相交形成路口。有些路口是升降機大堂，大堂裡的告示牌顯示了各層單位的功能，並起著地標的作用。有些招牌非常獨特，好像一間在C座3樓的印度餐廳，便刻有長春藤的圖案，令人印象深刻。