Cecil Balmond

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Cecil Balmond is a Sri Lankan - British designer, engineer, artist, architect, and writer. He has been hailed as "one of the most important forces in contemporary architecture today," [1] and in 2003 received the prestigious RIBA Charles Jencks award for Theory in Practice. He is also the recipient of the Gengo Matsui prize, one of the highest prizes for engineering given in Japan.[2] He teaches extensively and currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret chair at Penn Design as Professor of Architecture[3] where he is also the founding director of the NonLinear Systems Organization, a material and structural research unit.[4]

Contents

[edit] Philosophy

Balmond sees his work as an open-ended visual application of theory, following the principle that "structure as conceptual rigour is architecture". His approach to structure is derived by theories of complexity, non-linear organization and emergence. Through his research, Balmond investigates mathematical concepts and their influence on natural forms and structures, interrogating algorithms, fractals, rhythm and cellular structure.[5]

Cecil Balmond runs his own research focused practice, Balmond Studio. The studio is headquartered in London and is involved with consulting, architecture, exhibitions, installations, product design and art.

[edit] Life and work

Cecil Balmond was born and educated in Sri Lanka. He received his primary and secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy and later studied engineering at the University of Colombo. After living briefly in Nigeria he moved to Britain and continued his studies at the University of Southampton and at Imperial College, London.

Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners in 1968, where he became deputy chairman. In 2000 he founded the AGU, an experimental research and design unit. Bringing together architects, mathematicians, programmers, artists, musicians and scientists, the lab investigates structural systems, delving to the root of order and patterns, engaging with music, algorithms, and malignant cellular structure to create abstract concepts that inspire tectonic forms.[6]

Since its inception the group has been collaborating with artists and architects. Under Balmond’s artistic direction, it has designed some of the world’s most famous structures including the Metz Centre Pompidou with Shigeru Ban and CCTV tower with Rem Koolhaas.

Balmond has also been a creative force behind London’s Serpentine Pavilion programme. The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion, 2002 was crafted in glass and white-painted aluminium and featured a scatter of lines, the product of an algorithm designed by Balmond. The pavilion is now located at a luxury hotel in South of France.[7] Balmond also designed pavilions with Daniel Libeskind (2001), Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura (2006) and Rem Koolhaas (2006).

One of Balmond’s recent projects is ArcelorMittal Orbit a 120m high sculpture designed with Anish Kapoor for the 2012 Olympics in Stratford, London. Balmond also collaborated with Kapoor on Marysas a sculpture which was displayed in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern (2002), and also co-designed the giant Tees Valley art installations with Kapoor. Other key works by Balmond include a radical masterplan for Battersea Power Station (2006) and the Victoria & Albert Museum extension with Daniel Libeskind (1996).

Balmond’s own designs are numerous and include Weave Bridge, a bridge for University of Pennsylvania (2010), and the Pedro E Ines footbridge in Coimbra (2006).

[edit] Art

[icon] This section requires expansion.

Balmond designed an interactive art proposal for a college in the US, which transforms the often forgotten spaces of hallways, corridors and lobbies into community and learning zones, celebrating the students daily experience.[8]

He created a monumental light sculpture for a public government building in Alaska, which will be completed in 2012.

His first artwork will be installed in Canada this September. Called net_Work, it comprises two sculptures inspired by “several circuits of code, one line of ambition that turns every corner, extending its reach in leaps or closing down its trace in small cells of intensity....”

[edit] Teaching

Balmond has been visiting Kenzo Tange professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Saarinen Professor at Yale University School of Architecture and visiting fellow at London School of Economics Cities Programme. He currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret chair at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, PennDesign, as Professor of Architecture.

[edit] Projects

  • 1970 Carlsberg Brewery, Northhampton, UK. Architect, Knud Munk (1973)
  • 1975 Qatar University, Doha, Qatar. Architect, Kamal Kafrawi
  • 1978 Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. Architect, James Stirling (1984)
  • 1983 Royal London House, Finsbury, London. Architect, Sheppard Robson
  • 1985 1 Poultry, London UK Architect, James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates
  • 1988 Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Spain. Architect, Rafael Moneo (1992)
  • Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Architect, OMA
  • 1989 Congrexpo, Lille France. Architect, OMA
  • 1992 Abando Passenger Interchange, Bilbao, Spain. Architect, James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates (1999)
  • 1995 Portuguese Pavilion for Expo 98, Lisbon Portugal. Architect, Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souta de Moura (1998)
  • 1996 Victoria & Albert Museum, Spiral, London. Architect, Daniel Libeskind in collaboration with Cecil Balmond
  • 1997 Centraal station, Arnhem, Netherlands. Architect, UNStudio
  • 1997 Imperial War Museum, Salford, UK. Architect, Daniel Libeskind (2001)
  • 1998 Portuguese National Pavilion Expo 1998, Lisbon, Portugal. Architect: Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
  • 1998 Maison a Bordeaux, France. Architect, OMA
  • 1999 University of Graz Music School, Austria. Architect, UNStudio
  • 1999 Seattle Central Library, USA. Architect, OMA/LMN Architects (2004)
  • 1999 Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal. Architect OMA (2005)
  • 2000 Portuguese Pavilion Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany. Architect Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
  • 2000 Prada, Los Angeles, CA USA. Architect, OMA (2004)
  • 2001 Serpentine Pavilion, London UK. Architect Daniel Libeskind with Arup
  • 2002 St Francois d'Assise. Olivier Messiaen stage design and costumes. Daniel Libeskind with Thore Garbers. Artistic consulting, Cecil Balmond
  • 2002 Serpentine Pavilion, London. Architect Toyo Ito with Balmond
  • 2002 Marsyas, Tate Modern, London. Sculptor Anish Kapoor
  • 2003 Battersea Power Station Masterplan, London.
  • 2003 Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza, Cairo. Architect, Heneghan Peng Architects
  • 2002 China Central Television (CCTV). Architect, OMA (2008)
  • 2002 Installation of Louis Vuitton, Tokyo, Japan. Architect, Farjadi Architects
  • 2002 British Pavilion, Venice Art Biennale. Design Chris Ofili with AGU and Adjaye/Associates
  • 2004 Centre Pompidou, Metz, France. Architect Shigeru Ban, Jean de Gastines and Philip Gumuchdjian (2009)
  • 2004 St Louis Forest Park, MO USA. Architect Shigeru Ban with Cecil Balmond
  • 2004 Pedro E Ines bridge, Mondego River. Coimbra, Portugal. Design Cecil Balmond/AGU with Antonio Adao da Fonseca/AFA (2006)
  • 2005 Serpentine Pavilion, London. Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond
  • 2006 Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, Taichung, Taiwan. Architect Toyo Ito and Associates
  • 2006 Serpentine Pavilion, London. Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond
  • 2007 Tees Valley Giants, UK. Cable Net Sculpture, Middlehaven. Artist Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond
  • 2007 Hotel Le Beauvallon masterplan, Saint-Tropez, France. Architect Cecil Balmond and AGU
  • 2008 Institute of the Pen, Medina, Saudi Arabia. Design Cecil Balmond/AGU
  • 2009 Weave bridge, University of Penn. Architect, Cecil Balmond/AGU

[edit] Exhibitions

Balmond’s work and installations have been presented in a number of shows including Frontiers of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in Denmark (2007). It was hailed as a “revolution – rich, complex, sometimes baffling, often beautiful".[1]

Another exhibition was "Element", a show at the Tokyo Opera City in Japan where he presented various original artworks, including Danzer and H_edge.[9]

H_edge is a modular sieve-like sculpture, inspired by an “Indian rope trick”.[10] It was first unveiled at Artists Space in New York (2006), and has since been rebuilt in different guises for The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago (2009) and the Carnegie Museum of Art (2010).

Danzer is a giant, three-dimensional puzzle. Close examination reveals that it is made up of only four kinds of tetrahedrons, each of which is in turn embedded with miniature versions of these four tetrahedrons. It has been shown, in different hand-crafted forms, at various exhibitions.

[edit] Books

No 9, The Search for the Sigma Code (Prestel 1998)

Translations: Portuguese, Japanese, Hebrew
His first book, Balmond travels into a semi-mystical world to unlock a secret realm of numbers.

informal
the informal in architecture and engineering (Prestel 2002)

Translations: Japanese, Korean and Chinese
The definintive account of Balmond’s investigative approach to structure and form. It earned him the Banister Fletcher prize for the best book of the year on architecture (2005). Deyan Sudjic of The Observer says,“ its glimpses of a hidden order of things, of the occult properties of numbers and shapes, suggest it could be the next Brief History of Time, but with pictures” [11]

The book invites the reader to enter the dialogues between Balmond and the architects he works with, sharing the intimacies of the design process. Projects range from a Villa in Bordeaux to a large Transport Interchange in Arnhem, from a canopy in Lisbon to the V&A spiral in London and an Exhibition Centre in Lille, highlighting his collaborations with Ben van Berkel, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Alvaro Siza and Peter Kulka with Ulrich Konigs. The design, realised with Jannuzzi Smith, is inspired by mathematics books and children’s fiction.

Element (Prestel 2007)

Balmond looks through drawing and composition at a perception of space that has interconnected narratives. The narrative unfolds in three conceptual chapters - elements, pattern, nature - linked by two conceptual bridges, digital 'tectonics' and numbers.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Jonathan Glancey (2007-07-23). "Jonathan Glancey on radical architect Cecil Balmond | Art and design". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2007/jul/23/architecture.art. Retrieved 2010-06-07. 
  2. ^ http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/judging_judges_detail.cfm?officeContactId=2&eventYear=2008
  3. ^ http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/latestnews/050809.html
  4. ^ http://www.nso.penndesign.net/pdf/NSO_personnel.pdf
  5. ^ "A Return to Techne: On Cecil Balmond - Art Signal Magazine". Magazine.art-signal.com. http://magazine.art-signal.com/en/a-return-to-techne-on-cecil-balmond/. Retrieved 2010-06-07. 
  6. ^ http://magazine.art-signal.com/en/a-return-to-techne-on-cecil-balmond/
  7. ^ http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100606/Plus/plus_01.html
  8. ^ http://trib.com/news/local/article_306cd0bb-9af3-5236-9237-9e7545cd8618.html
  9. ^ http://www.operacity.jp/ag/exh114/e/introduction.html
  10. ^ Kabat, Jennifer (2007-02-07). "Thinking Outside the Box". Businessweek.com. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2007/id20070207_841153.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-07. 
  11. ^ http://www.jannuzzismith.com/informal/resources/presspack.pdf

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

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