Rafael Moneo's new building for Columbia University

Notes taken from a lecture by Michael Bierut (Pentagram) on clients. You can see the lecture on vimeo here:
http://www.vimeo.com/9084072?ab

Aldo Rossi and Sketching

"Refusing imagination means eluding what there is within us of supreme justice" --Aldo Rossi

Rossi held the art of sketching in high regard and it's interesting to looks at some of his sketches because they're not necessarily "pictorially correct". It's not as if he lacked any skill in drawing detailed images I think it was more of search for an impression/emotional identity to a project that would guide further investigation. This aspect is difficult to achieve if one is focusing in on the minute details of a mullion system. I love the almost surreal nature of his drawings. Some examples below:

'Monument to the Resistance' 1962: I was reading an Aldo Rossi monograph and found the simplicity in this project to be beautiful. I may have taken some artistic licence with the color.

"The monument is designed to be a part of the town in which it lies, to serve as a raised, enclosed, piazza, and to be seen as a tower or a piece of triumphal architecture related to the fabric of the city." Aldo Rossi

jotted down some notes from an article I read today on fastcodesign site: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663605/why-the-telephone-has-never-been-topped