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Now since I am not traveling anymore daily to the office, but only switch location within 10min from my apartment to work, I realize how much energy I used before. I don’t sleep more (rather less with the heat these days), but I feel less tired in the evening, I am more relaxed, I feel like I have more time, also in the morning. You don’t’ realize it when you do it, you get used to it, it develops as a habit. The contrast or the difference to the experience then now reveals the effort taken before. You best realize something when you see it from a different point of view. The difference makes the difference.

Well, time’s moving fast. I spent the week-end mostly with furniture shopping, my apartment takes shape. Piece after piece…everything carried home. It’s like a personalizing process with your apartments. I draw plans, I am trying to find out what fits to create what I think of, and then finally I need to find it. A long process.

Along the way, I saw installations of James Turrell in a Gallery in Santa Monica. I only knew of it because one of our clients buys a creation of him for his new home. They only guided you through the gallery. One Space at on face wall implied a screen, like in a cinema. But approaching it disappeared, you couldn’t tell where it is starting or where it is ending, no distances, no reference, no shape, nothing. Pure. It’s one of the most pristine installation I can think of. Related to an exhibition of Sizas work I visited before around the corner from the gallery, I was thinking about the architects these days who reduce there work on surface expression – decorator. It’s all about the finish – not less, not more. Everything in between disappeared. Imagine James Turrell I think it’s poor, especially since you limit yourself in a very hard way. Always talking about materials and finishes doesn’t go anywhere, it’s relative: Some people like it, some don’t. But if you are able to create more coherence, more profound relations forming a logic line, it’s beauty and perfection in itself. That’s what’s missing some much in most of the projects you see around: they are limited, the longer you look at them the more the focus extracts from the rest and leaves you with little more than nothing. It’s not really relevant.

“You don’t win silver, you lose gold.” A statement mentioned in an article of the NZZ about the past Olympic summer games in Atlanta. The author suggested an American commercial and economical driven unethical relation to these games. Participating is more important than winning, it should read. That is the European way to see it. You win silver. I stopped comparing. Americans are different from Europeans. The culture, the mentality, ethics in some ways are different. One is not better than the other, it’s just different. Why is it so difficult to accept the difference instead of comparing to justify the one or the other? People here are more self-confident, optimistic, open but on the other hand less concerned and critical about things. As European you think twice before you do something, an American takes the chance because he won’t get one a second time. Competition is higher, you are harder on your own, you have to proof yourself, you have to put yourself in a position before people even notice you. It’s different than growing up in a society taking care of you. They pay for your education, for your social security, they pay for your health care, rent and taxes, if you can’t afford it anymore. You’re save. This creates a very different culture. You notice it in details. There are bumper stickers on cars here like ‘proud parents of the student of the year 1998’. Don’t do that in Europe, probably with no exception it would be an embarrassment everywhere. I don’t need to point the finger on one or the other. It has nothing to do with tolerance. It’s a way of understanding. I am not interested in one being better than the other. I am interested in the difference to understand. Me, the people, the world, live. The perfect world doesn’t exist, and it would be much less interesting if culture would express the same everywhere.

16 July 2006

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. It is engaged in a large number of projects in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America.

For a number of very important architectural projects, OMA has an immediate need for outstanding technical architects with a proven track record in an international environment. Candidates should either have a very creative and innovative approach to materials, details and technique or have high expertise in standard technical issues along with project management experience. Candidates must feel confident in a complex, stressful and chaotic context. Further requirements:

– Master Degree in Urban Design or Architecture
– Excellent AutoCAD, Photoshop, Illustrator skills
– 4-7 years experience in an internationally-oriented office through Construction Documents phase
– Fluent in English (please list other languages also)
– European work permit
– Be able to start immediately or in very near future

These positions are located in OMA’s offices in Rotterdam, New York and Beijing.
Please do not respond if you are not fully qualified.

Applications with CV, references, letters of recommendation and a pdf portfolio of work (email is preferred) may be sent to the address below. All applications must include a full portfolio to be considered. Portfolios which are mailed in will not be returned.

Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Jolanda van der Reijden (HR)
Heer Bokelweg 149
3032 AD Rotterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 10 243 82 00
F +31 10 243 82 02
E HR@oma.nl
W www.oma.nl

I thought about this for a while. I don’t particularly like his music, maybe it’s too sentimental. But I thought it’s very sincere, leonard cohan seems to be this kind of person, honest, without attitudes, modest in a way. His songs have all of that, lyrics expressing what he wants to say, what he feels. The way he appears in this movie. I was also wondering to what extend you could manipulate a character, showing only elements in support of what your ideas are. Music is expression, very personal, so is film.

I painted the apartment white. It was in a olive-green-brown color when I moved in. Americans don’t like white – apartments are painted in colors, mostly pretty intensive. Not purist European white. The living room yellow-beige, the bathroom light blue, the bedroom reddish, and so on…At least partly it’s the play with the animation, everything needs to be defined and determined by function, nothing is left to your own imagination and creativity. It’s not easy to imagine there is more behind white than white, it seems. Whereas colors are colors.

Table. I was going to see a table for sale on craigslist, fitting my kitchen. An address in Silverlake. The house was built in the 40-ies, on a steep sloped site, with fantastic view to the south-east, direction Pasadena. The house is on pilotis, two massive beams on four pilotis supporting the house, about one floor above grade. The slope passes unobstructed underneath the house. Sabrina, the owner, was very excited about me being an architect. She’s interested in modern architecture and was introduced to Frank Escher. He built a house himself in a similar way on pilotis above ground, hillsode, and was obviously interested in this house. I like it too. It is a very simple wood construction, but it responds in a very precise way to the site. I was wondering what’s more expensive: extensive excavation to put half of the house below ground or put it on pilotis. Anyway, I bought her table, a 60-ies formica piece. Her aunt bought it in New York when she was 68 years old. She died recently, 100 years old! And all her furniture was shipped from New York to Los Angeles. Here it goes…

Pink. It a hot dog stand on La Brea and Melrose. Again just yesterday I realized: probably the most overrated place. Always a huge line waiting to get a hot dog. I joined the line once – and never again. You think it must be something, the best hot dog ever or something like that, there must be a reason for the line. I was waiting almost one hour, the hot dog totally overpriced and not particularly good. So my conclusion: a huge line for the sake of the line, nothing else. Either 95% of the people in this line are there for the first time, or they are all…..I don’t know.

I live in a big city, 15 Mio people? There is the story of my two co-workers, friends of LJ and Elena from New York: I met them in the office when I had my interview, I didn’t know about them. Wil was working with Susan at NBBJ before he joined Maltzan about the same time as me. And today a young lady had an interview, I forgot her name. When I moved, I bought the bed of her roommate. She asked me where I was working and I said for Michael Maltzan. Surprised she told me about the interview she had. And about a month ago she was at the front desk of the a&d museum when I went for an exhibition there. You can’t disappear.