Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

24
Sound of Silver Lisa and Leo’s Domesticity Museum by Fake Industries Architectural Agonism for DROOG Open House April, 23rd 2011 / Levittown / NY

description

A Fake Industries Architectural Agonism project for DROOG Levittown: The fragile images of everyday-life that kept suburbia in place have not resisted last ten years reversed White Flight. The loss of real estate value implicit in foreclosure crisis speeded up extinction. Meanwhile in Levittown, houses, home-owners and business remain surprisingly unchanged, unaware of their endanger species status. What follos is our cautionary tale describing their fate and a proposal to save them from extinction.

Transcript of Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Page 1: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Sound of SilverLisa and Leo’s Domesticity Museum

by Fake Industries Architectural Agonismfor DROOG Open House

April, 23rd 2011 / Levittown / NY

Page 2: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)
Page 3: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

The fragile images of everyday-life that kept suburbia in place have not resisted last ten years reversed White Flight. The loss of real estate value implicit in foreclosure crisis speeded up extinction. Meanwhile in Levittown, houses, home-owners and business remain surprisingly unchanged, unaware of their endanger species status.

Following, our cautionary tale describing their fate and a proposal to save them from extinction.

Page 4: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Suburban party circa 1952

Page 5: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Sixty years ago, Levittown, NY, was built following suburban promises; consumption met leisure nature in a postwar controlled environment. Criticizing modern architecture’s trust in metropolitan density and, at the same time, fulfilling its promises of functional division of life, colorful images and synthetic materials constructed a hedonistic way of life that left work and politics, seemingly, out of the picture.

Suburban Picnic circa 1956

Page 6: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Senator John F. Kennedy at Levittown, PA Shopping Center, October 30th, 1960

Lemonade sale in a front yard circa 1951

Page 7: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Closer inspections, however, revealed underlying programmatic perversions. Sidewalks became the available for informal economic activities and political rallies were eventually hold in the spaces reserved for shopping. Meanwhile interiors transformed into laboratories of domesticity explored the limits of popular technologies and sexual practices.

Playboy magazine’s bachelor pad design

1950s advertisement for domestic equipment

Page 8: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown diagram for “Signs of Life” Exhibition, 1976

Page 9: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Yet, it was not long before the utopian impulse dissolved into homogenous boredom. It was hard to find transgression in interiors so malleable that Miss Daisy Duck can consume them all – early American, Modern, early Hogde, Podge, etc. Similarly, exteriors, codified in a series of unfulfilled desires of architectural grandeur, rendered the promise of a different urbanity as the return of repressed architectural paradigms.

Page from Walt Disney’s Dasy Duck Diary, March 1954

Page 10: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

So, is there hope for Lisa and Leo and their slightly altered Levittown Rancher House?

Page 11: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

So, is there hope for Lisa and Leo and their slightly altered Levittown Rancher House?

Lisa and Leo Vanderburg on the front their living room

Page 12: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

As we have seen Levittown houses were conceived, literally, as laboratories of domesticity – flexible arrangements of technical equipment for the practice of everyday-life – surround by informal envelope.

“Tupperware Party” by Bill Owens, 1971

“Workmen and the materials to construct a house gathered in a lot before construction” by Tony Linck in Life Magazine June, 1948

The indifference towards enclosure was parallel to the growing interest on sealed environments. Preservation technologies were developed and tested the Levittown living rooms.

Page 13: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

“Andy Warhol at the Silver factory” by Jon Naar, 1967

Advertisment for plastic sofa Covers

Private atmospheres, whether at the size of a carrot or a sofa, were relentlessly discussed and questioned. The material effects of these conversations can still be found in those very same interiors.

While paradoxically, only few miles west from those rooms, flexible arrangements and sealed environments were being tested at the scale of life. Not a bad model to follow, owing to its proximity and its success.

Page 14: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Lisa and Leo’s Cafe

Museum Shop

News and Co�ee

Souvenirs Interior PromenadeVisit

Domestic SceneDisplay

Lisa & Leo’s

Domesti

c Museu

m

In the light of these precedents, we propose to preserve Lisa and Robert’s house as domesticity museum. Wrapped in a 0.00059in (0.015mm) thick layer of metallized polyethylene terephthalate reflecting 97% of the radiated heat, the front lawn recovers the yard-sale as the museum store. the lemonade sale and Sunday barbecue combine to form the museum café, And the paper boy gets replaced by the local neighborhood association newsletter.

Membership Brunch 1

Contact Lists 2

Meeting Reminder 2

Mind Bogglers 2

President’s Message 3

FC Resident Places Sixth

at U.S. Nationals

in Senior Pairs

Championships

4

New Board Members 4

Bike Path on Web Site 4

Web Site News:

FCCA earns commissions

if residents connect to

Amazon.com through

Forest-City.com Web site

5

Fall Festival Photos 5

FCCA Membership

Update

6

Membership Application 7

Holiday Party Photos 8

Garden Club News 10

“History of Forest City” 12

FCCA Calendar of

Events16

Long Time Resident Dies 4

Inside this

issue:

Volume LVIII, No. 1

Long Island’s

Most Outstanding

Community

Dedicated To The

New Way Of Life

February 2009

3099 Morgan Drive, Wantagh, N.Y. 11793

THE NEXT FCCA GENERAL MEETINGS WILL BE HELD AT 8 P.M. ON

February 9 - General Meeting

March 9 - General Meeting

AT THE FOREST CITY CLUBHOUSE ON MORGAN DRIVE

Forest City News

www.forest-city.com

Forest City Community Association

www.forest-city.com

Bring your Friends & Family

2009 Membership Brunch

At The Club

House

3099 Morgan

Drive

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY

Special thanks to North Bellmore Dunkin Donuts, Iavarone Bros., and

Town Bagel for helping to sponsor our Membership Brunch

For FCCA Members Only

(Join/Renew at the door $20.00)

Come have delicious breakfast

& meet your neighbors

February 22, 2009

11 AM to 2 PM

We are starting our annual membership drive with this issue.

Please mail in your dues or bring it with you to the brunch.

Fall Festival  1 

Contact Lists  2 

Meeting Reminder  2 

Mind Bogglers   2 

President’s Message  3 

NY Senate Passes DWI Bill  4 

Membership Committee Seeks help 

Garden Club News  4 

Holiday Wreaths  5 

Amazon.com & FCCA  5 

FCCA Membership  Update  

Membership Application  7 

Spring Event Photos  8 

“History of Forest City”  10 

Sudoku Puzzle  10 

FCCA Calendar of Events  16 

   

Inside this issue:

Volume LVIII, No. 3

Long Island’s Most Outstanding 

Community  

Dedicated To The New Way Of Life 

Fall 2009 3099 Morgan Drive, Wantagh, N.Y. 11793 

Forest City News www.forest-city.com

If you wish to continue to receive the Forest City News, PLEASE JOIN OUR MAILING LIST TODAY

Only ONE more issue will be printed and delivered. Beginning January 2010, this newsletter will be sent via e-mail,

only to those that sign up to receive it.See the “President’s Message” on page 3 for further details.

Also visit our web site often.

Forest City Community Association Forest City Community Association

October 10, 2008 11AM to 2PM

Rain Date October 11 

At Forest City Community Park, Morgan Drive Free Admission For the Entire Family

Food, Activities, Games, Arts & Crafts Pony Rides from 11:30 to 1:00 Pumpkins for FCCA members,

Scarecrow stuffing (bring some old clothes) Check in at the Membership Table to receive you benefits

www.forest-city.com Bring your Friends & Family 

Holiday Party  1 Contact Lists  2 Meeting Reminder  2 Mind Bogglers   2 President’s Message  3 New Drunk Driver Law  4 Garden Club News  4 Garden Club Photos  4 Fall Festival Photo  5 Amazon.com & FCCA  5 FCCA Membership  Update  6 Membership Application  7 Fall Festival Photos  8 

“History of Forest City”  10 Sudoku Puzzle  10 Bike Path Update  11 

   

Inside this issue:

Long Island’s Most Outstanding Community  Dedicated To The New Way Of Life 

Forest City News www.forest-city.com

This Is Our Final Printed Issue The Forest City News is going GREEN PLEASE JOINOUR E-MAIL LIST TODAY

Don’t Miss A Single Issue. Beginning 2010, this newsletter will be sent

via e-mail, only to those that sign up to receive it.

See the “President’s Message”

on page 3 for further details.Also visit our web site often.

3099 Morgan Drive, Wantagh, N.Y. 11793 

Volume LVIII, No. 4

Winter 2009

December 13, 2009 3 PM to 5 PM

At Forest City Club House, Morgan Drive 

Directly after the party from 5 P.M. to 6 P.M. 

Tree Lighting and Menorah Lighting Ceremony 

Sing along with the Lee Rd Chorus and Band 

Page 15: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Lisa and Leo’s Cafe

Museum Shop

News and Co�ee

Souvenirs Interior PromenadeVisit

Domestic SceneDisplay

Lisa & Leo’s

Domesti

c Museu

m

Inside, scenes of suburban everyday-life make boredom accessible to bystanders and onlookers. Visitors, separated from the locals and their exotic traditions by the customary museum rope, enjoy the last images of a disappearing way of life. In order that they remain the same,

Page 16: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Lisa and Leo’s Domestic Museum Facade

Page 17: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)
Page 18: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Lisa and Leo’s Domestic Museum Cafe and Gist Shop

Page 19: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)
Page 20: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Domestic scene at Lisa and Leo’s Domestic Museum

Page 21: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)
Page 22: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Greetings from

Lisa & Leo’s Domestic museum

Lisa & Leo’s Domestic MuseumGreetings from

Postcards from lisa and Leo’s Domestic museum

Page 23: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

Fake Industries Architectural Agonism are:

Cristina Goberna is principal of Fake Industries Architectural Agonism. She graduated from the School of Architecture of Sevilla in 2001, and from the Independent Study Program at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona in 2006. As a Fulbright Fellow she was awarded a Ms in Advance Architectural Design in 2007 and an Advance Architectural Research Certificate in 2008 by the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation of Columbia University. She is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Architecture of Barcelona where she develops her dissertation “From Pan to Europan or the Construction of the European Union Urban Imaginary”. Her work has been exhibited internationally and her projects and writings have been published widely. She was a member of the committee and jury of the Architectural League of New York 2010 Young Architects Prize and she is currently a visiting scholar at the NYU Institute of Fine Arts, the curator and coordinator of Van Alen Books, a new center specialized in Architectural publications at Van Alen Institute and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Studio Design at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation of Columbia University.

Urtzi Grau is principal of Fake Industries. He graduated from the School of Architecture of Barcelona in 2000, was awarded Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design by the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, Columbia University in 2004, and is currently completing his Ph.D. at Princeton University School of Architecture on the 1970’s urban renewal of Barcelona. His work and writings have been published in different international journals as 306090, Architect’s Newspaper, Domus, Pasajes de Arquitectura y Critica, Pidgin, Volume, Via Arquitectura or Visions.

Page 24: Lisa & Leo's Domestic Museum (aka Sound of Silver)

www.fakeindustries.org