4 | LIVING WINTER 09 LIVING is the fourth issue of MAS Context. This issue explores how LIVING is unique, complex, mutable, rough, trendy, and enjoyable. It ultimately defines who we are. LIVING diagrams trends, explores transforming cities, interviews film directors, reflects on cinema, showcases typologies, portraits social conditions, and visualizes the future. Discuss, Enjoy, Participate. Issue Presentation Contents 01. LIVING FACTS 02. SURVIVOR MARACAIBO 03. ASSEMBLY REQUIRED 04. SELLING LIFESTYLE 05. A FRAME OF MIND 06. LIVING IN CABRINI 07. PLACES, NOT SPACES 08. POINT CLOUDS CASE STUDY #1. NAKAGIN CAPSULE CASE STUDY #2. WALDEN 7 CASE STUDY #3. THE UFO HOUSES CASE STUDY #4. THE WHALE CASE STUDY #5. LINKED HYBRID DOWNLOAD ISSUE 4 ORDER A COPY OF ISSUE 4		YOUR LIVING IS NOT MY LIVING, AND THAT IS FINE IKER GIL Ever since I started in the architecture field I was more interested in exploring and understanding user needs and social issues surrounding the project than the formal solution of the building itself. Don’t get me wrong, I am interested in the formal exploration but, in the end, it is the user who has to benefit from that effort. Users have individual needs and interests, and what works for one person does not necessarily have to work for another. When we take that to another scale, what works for one neighborhood, city, or country is often unable to be directly exported to another context. This thought seems to state the obvious but it is surprising how many times it is overlooked. MAS Context LIVING gave us the opportunity to explore some of these variations, contradictions and complexities. We chose five projects that we love as case studies. We love them not just because of our fascination about the building itself, but because they are the built representation of strong social and cultural ideas. Built in different decades since the early 70s, they responded to issues of their time while giving a possible solution to those in the future. Unfortunately, some were ahead of their time and their appreciation came too late. The UFO Houses were demolished earlier this year and the Nakagin Capsule Tower House, a fantastic example of the Metabolism movement, might be in danger of following in its steps soon. Others, like the Walden 7, the Whale and Linked Hybrid Complex are as relevant as ever and point toward new living options. Lifestyles and living ideas are implemented in society through visualization more often than by directly experiencing physical space itself. We looked into the different ways living is represented, from constructed photographs, to real or fictional stories in films, futuristic storylines in comics, or data visualization. We interviewed Eric Bricker, director of the film Visual Acoustic that celebrates the life and career of the late photographer Julius Shulman, a “salesman” of Modernist architecture and its lifestyle. Through the world of films, Writer Paul Mougey explores various relationships between life and films. Architect Jimenez Lai explores realities in architecture and urbanism through his graphic novels that often become physical realities in his installations. And designer Andrew Clark catalogues images from IKEA and the assembly required to construct their living proposals. We explored the living conditions through the eyes of residents of different areas of the world, from a city in Venezuela, to a region in Italy, and a neighborhood in Chicago. Architects Karla Sierralta and Brian Strawn share their experience living the last two years in Maracaibo, where informal inventions address social and economical conditions. Architect and painter Maya Brittain examines the transformation of the Veneto region in Italy during the last 30 years and the influence that it has had in the urban fabric and its citizens’ lifestyle. James Lockhart, a former resident of Cabrini Green, shares his memories of growing up in this infamous neighborhood of Chicago. Ever since I moved to Chicago, I have been interested in its public housing, and among those developments, Cabrini Green was the one that caught my attention for its prominent location, history and stories, whether real or mere urban legend. This summer I visited it with James and my friend Andreas to understand what “real” life was like in the development, beyond the stories of gangs, violence and drugs. Without denying those issues, James shared stories of community, friendship, education, and respect. Part of the neighborhood has already been demolished to develop a new, mixed-income housing area, and one with undetermined future due to lack of funding. New buildings replacing the old ones will not create a sense of neighborhood Cabrini Green serves as a reminder of the failure of oversight and underappreciation of the needs of the user and abandonment of context and individual expression in living. The work, ideas and thoughts of Karla, Brian, Andrew, Eric, Paul, James, Maya and Jimenez probably don’t portray your or my type of living, and in the end, that is very fine.