2020/05/10 Brussels Archiweek - https://archiweek.urban.brussels/fr/interviews/alain-simon
2014/02/13 Martine De Maeseneer, 'Aphasia and Atopia’, lecture at the Faculty of Creative Industries,
University of Saint Joseph, Macau, China
‘The sequins turned up again like a leitmotiv. Philip
Steadman and I drove to Kansas City to find Goff. His office was in a
well-rounded brick building by John Root. The door we were looking for was
occupied. Through the opaline could be seen a shadow of an arm high up. The
shadow moved closer and a sequin sparkled through the glass. Goff was at work
decorating his own door. A large table was covered with trays of sequins and
other decorative materials. He continued to work as he talked.’ Lionel
March
Aphasia and Atopia I’ll
talk about ‘calligraphy’ (i.e. the art of drawing beautiful letters) and
‘transcendentalism’; give a brief insight in European philosophy. I’ll do this story wise using Bruce Goff’s
architecture, René Magritte’s painting, develop things in three steps into a
most improbable plot. (I’ll talk about American issues but I hope not to
disappoint the Chinese).
2014/02/07 – 14/02/14 MDMA is invited by Ole Bouman Creative Director Urbanism\Architecture Bi-City Biennale Shenzhen 2013 for the Value Factory Architects in Residence program as part of the 5th Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.
As an Architect in Residence MDMA is assigned to guide the Value Factory Academy workshop that takes place from February 7th until February 14th and to give a public lecture on Sunday February 9th.
The 5th UABB Architects in Residence program has several objectives: to contribute to the exploration of architectural qualities in industrial heritage; to activate the Value Factory as UABB venue; to help testing the Value Factory Academy; and to teach Chinese Academy members how to translate architecture observations into design actions
MDMA ‘s residency focuses on the following theme and objectives: Development of new future visions for the Shekou industrial area, with the focus onto the future opportunities and the intrinsic spatial qualities of the glass factory as cultural/economic motor of the surrounding Shekou site. During the workshop week different teams will investigate several scenarios for the Shekou site and how this can develop in an interesting future urban community. As an 'architect in residence’ the Brussels office MDMA l Martine De Maeseneer Architects (Martine De Maeseneer & Laure Vandenbroucke) will, in collaboration with the local Hong Kong office Ereka Design (Annette Chu & Gabriel Lee), steer a research process of 10 teams (50 value factory academy members) put at their disposal for the Value Factory Academy Workshop.
“Any kind of design education should give students a conscious awareness of constraints – both beneficial and harmful, chosen and imposed – and provide them with the critical skills to assess the relevance and importance of the constraints and to explore the possibilities presented by the array of constraints that characterise a given design project. The limits of the thinkable, the makeable, the affordable, the acceptable, the saleable, the defensible, and the communicable define the boundaries of the multidimensional space of possibilities navigated by the design process.”
