TED Talk - Joshua Prince-Ramus authoring processes over objects, the Wyly Theatre

For a little background, Joshua Prince-Ramus was a founding partner of OMA New York, the American affiliate of Rem Koolhaas' Netherlands based firm, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Shortly after the success of the Seattle Public Library, JPR separated from OMA and renamed the firm REX.

He is part of the TED brain trust, and gives a damn good presentation that speaks to a pretty wide audience. The latest one is about the Wyly Theatre Building in Dallas. His intro is about the schism between creativity and execution, authoring processes versus objects, and the relationship between the architect and the client(s). Chronologically, these are some highlights:

1:00 - "We are for decorative purposes only" - referring to the state of architects and architecture today.

3:47 - both owner and architect alike are empowered to critique architectural manifestations based on positions taken. This leads to 'the lost art of productively losing control'.

5:20 - a diagram showing how agenda should fit into the projects and the clients' constraints (seen below)

9:00 - Diagrams

11:25 - three basic configurations for the theatre, the technologies used and some renderings to show the different uses.

16:36 - time lapse video showing the building change configurations

"If we are so good at our craft, shouldn't we be able to conceive of an architectural manifestation that slides seamlessly through the projects and the clients' constraints?"

-Joshua Prince-Ramus

If you enjoyed this video, check him out in an earlier TED talk while still with OMA:

And finally, here is the timelapse film from Stewart Mayer on Vimeo adding some clarity and music to the film shown in JPR's presentation:

Wyly Theatre Timlapse, Dallas Arts District from Stewart Mayer on Vimeo.