Charlie Rose

Axel  08/03/2008 07:51 PM Report

What a dreadful and boring group of people in a thoroughly uninspired discussion.

These folks' building creations are monuments of their pompous and boastful egos - no concern for people - and architecture should first of all have people in mind.

If the building does not welcome us, embrace us and invite us with warmth - the architect has failed.

Send these creatures into retirement.

erik r.  08/01/2008 01:51 AM Report

budget has not always created the problems(and in fact today one can call it result, or effect) that exist today in architecture and film for example, and elsewhere in general. The Lautner buildings were built by small often same crew and in the case of chemosphere one carpenter(delavaux) almost completed the place by himself, which brings me to think about people like Bergman and Nykvist, or even the Pope and Michelangelo, well, no. Let's say Michelangelo and the Pope. There's never been any possibility for architecture to become art, and this is due to a huge misconception by both architects and the people who understand it. again this is very similar to for example in film when simply the budget kind of wrestles to extinction what it all began and (conditionally) would never end with: emotion.

Rose you are the greatest but in my view the only one who could have been asked that question whether or not being an artist was Albert Frey. Somehow, that man afforded, emotionally, a link between emotion and a gas station which was quite artistic in a kind of Michelangelesque level. the greatest example of architecture is it's fantastic submission in front of art, as for example, in the palazzo ducale in Urbino Italy, one of the greatest buildings to look at and yet a building that contained from the beginning great art, such as a little secret chapel where the portraits of the sponsors(the duc freddie and his wife)famously painted by piero della francesca were hidden. Well, i'd just say this: art is as difficult to accomodate as it is to imitate, and I salute Z Hadid for making her honest point. E.R.

Aaron Moran  07/21/2008 06:09 PM Report

This interview happened to be pretty interesting, I have had the chance to attend lectures of all of these stars but Mr. Piano and I've been at Gehry's and Piano's buildings which have a great architectural intelect and I must say that I was pretty impressed by Piano's buildings and what he says about be able to live 200 years is true, as the time passes you mature and you realize how you can make it better; LA Concert Hall to me had pretty interesting architectural thinking and some others were not that clever and Stata Center ar MIT seemed to me cartoonish, a Sketch Up model, but I appreciate the risks that these brilliant people take. On the other hand Hadid for me is a very clever woman but her buildings doesn't reflect what she often talks about which is layers, cities, linear spaces and so on and I must say that her lecture at UVA last year was pretty poor, just a bunch of renderings and conceptual images that I'm pretty sure she doesn't even do by herself. Nouvel, I've heard all kind of things around him and a professor once mentioned (which reminds me about what Gehry says about a building which doesn't pay the price) how poorly done the Arab Institute in Paris is. And I'm sure I can't agree or not because I haven't been there but his lecture had pretty interesting points.

I must say that Louis Kahn's Salk Institue has been the most beautiful building I've ever been and its values, its architectural way of thinking for me today has been lost in this so called signature architecture which happens a lot, so I guess architects should persue that instead of political interests and money and all this...

Florence Henri  06/10/2008 03:49 PM Report

I am in awe of Charlie Rose. You can see him pumping the hand of JZ commiserating about ghetto life, next up grilling U.S. military generals and as a finale, revving up an elderly civil rights leader to spit up some race vitriol, and yet here, with famous architects he gingerly steps around any discussion of class (luxury buildings are a fat ruby worn by Capitalism's Harlot, truthfully), urban poverty (race riots in areas nearby Gehry's LA Disney and Zaha's CAC in Cinci), the effects of war on high gas prices (ordinary citizens paying for gilded Arab Emirate splendor) race (architects are still a bunch of boring white guys and Zaha) or any other issues that might lend some critical light to the onslaught of designer buildings by famous architects.

It's great a handful of archtiecture stars get to build thrilling buildings, but Is it really all positive?

katherine  06/10/2008 12:57 PM Report

The only slip of potential critical discussion was Gehry who noted that these designer buildings never pay for themselves.... Charlie Rose chose not to follow that one up.

Zaha was the only one to take charge and speak about her technique of formulating ideas in terms of diagrams and urban space: Charlie was clearly lost during this slightly more sophisticated discussion.

Instead he relies on psychotherapeutic questions: â??how do you feel about architecture today, what worries you, what encourages you?â??

The rest of the talk was so much backslapping and aren't you guys wonderful because you are famous - typical Charlie Rose fare.

Who are the Clients for luxury buildings? - the same as the ever were Charlie. Read some history in your spare time, rather than the front page of the NY Times....

'Why are you guys so competitive?' was the funniest: its big money and big business, Virginia. This of course cracks the remaining facade that architects have any real social interest in urban life or democratic institutions. Abu Dabi says everything about the direction of architecture: palace design for prince and princesses, while the rest of the world starves or is murdered by the U.S. military industrial complex. radical thinking? not really, basic facts, read any World Atlas of economic statistics.

Charlie Rose is slightly better than most late night talk shows, true, but still itâ??s about stars, blockbuster success and the lowest common denominator of popular entertainment - America as generated by the media at its shining best.

Charles Higueras  06/09/2008 04:50 PM Report

The exceptional architecture that is the result of the efforts of these designers may seem removed from the built environment that surrounds the majority of us, but it is in fact highly relevant. These people are at the forefront of how all architects think about creating space, the "frozen music" that aptly describes architecture done well. They are representative of how architects approach their own projects, however modest, with thoughtfulness, creatvity, daring and aplomb. The public should expect no less since what's at stake is the firmness, delight and commodity of our built environment, essential to enabling the quality of place too often lacking in the American landscape.

lee malone  06/09/2008 11:01 AM Report

Fantastic segment. It was pretty clear to see Zaha and Frank on one page theoretically and Renzo and Jean on the other. Your questions really hit on lots of points. That said, I really like Frank Gehry's attitude towards his work and the work of others. Zaha's take on art was sorta strange due in fact that her buildings are pretty much objects of art in and of itself - no matter what engineering feats it took to get it done. Thanks Charlie for bringing this to the table and I hope the new presidential administration will pick up where Patrick Moynihan (sp?) left off.

saman  06/07/2008 11:23 PM Report

Charlie's is the only show that gives architecture its due. I think the points regarding architecture for the wealthy is well taken - it would be nice to see a program on the difference architecture has made for the common people. Many great architects have done affordable housing projects.

I am glad that at least on of the four was not dressed in all black - thanks Renzo.

elizabeth merrill  06/06/2008 08:20 PM Report

I meant Thursday evening.

elizabeth merrill  06/06/2008 07:57 PM Report

Thank you for Tuesday evening's show w/

Piano et cie.

The glimpse of these brilliant architects on the same stage batting their ideas around was a privilege.

Thrilling, really!

MotherLodeBeth  06/06/2008 07:17 PM Report

When I tuned into the show Thursday night I watched for ten minutes and then watched something else. Why does he do these artsy fartsy shows? Most of America lives outside of NYC. And with the economy being what it is I want more shows about what middle America thinks. Although I did read an interesting article on an MSN site about rich men in NYC who are worried their wives will leave them since their incomes have shrunk from ten million a year to two. How sad.

Wilbur Collins  06/06/2008 01:30 AM Report

As usual, I feel exilerated and informed. I want to thank Charile Rose and his staff for the enlightenment they leave to a world plagued by ignorance, bigotry and war. Thank you!

Wilbur Collins

RE Mant  06/06/2008 12:51 AM Report

Design, including architecture, to repeat what I wrote recently, aims at what is good, truthful, beautiful, useful, etc. In that sense it is found, like natural law, not willed (like positive law). In other words it is a science or craft, not an art. It is clear that no matter what one might like to think about ancient or medieval cities, their architecture is mainly, like Brunelleschi's dome or even Gothic cathedrals, a result of solving physical problems, and not simply a matter of chance. Hovever, taken to its extreme design ends up looking like Gropius, a container rather than the thing itself. And that is the problem of all science. I am not surprised, then, to see modern architecture creating imitation mushrooms and sailboats. But I think it is detached from reality even more than the glass cubes, like modern music detached from folk songs and dance, or painting from portraiture, and become self-conscious, concerned now with creating feelings, like some stage set or revivalism.

brokeland  06/05/2008 09:41 PM Report

Is Frank gonna talk about this stuff?

http://www.dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=1414