serial consign

The Tokyo Subway is undoubtedly one of the world's most complex rapid transit systems. Maps of this network have even eclipsed Harry Beck's famed London Underground Tube Map as the benchmark graphic representation of sprawling urban infrastructure . While sifting through ffffound! yesterday I (actually, my girlfriend Jordan) found a series of related graphics that expand on the Tokyo Subway map proper. Please note the following eye candy, which is long on sophisticated diagrams and short on commentary.

This is an axonometric diagram of Otemachi Station, the largest subway station in Tokyo (it is served by five lines). Above and beyond the expected system maps, the Tokyo Metro also provides diagrams for station-specific wayfinding. These drawings identify spatial layout, connecting transit lines, interior circulation, amenities and locations of information within each subway station. There is a definite abstract quality to these drawings as they reduce station architecture to a series of untethered platforms, ramps, elevators, escalators and stairways that seem to float in white space underneath a dense layer of annotation and iconography.

Check out a much larger version of the above image here - this shrunken screen capture doesn't do the drawing justice. Oddly enough, we couldn't find these diagrams on the "global" (English) version of the Tokyo Metro website.

This is the axonometric diagram for Ginza Station - another key transit hub. You can view a larger image of this drawing here. [via securecat]

[frederick kiesler / study for an exhibition / 1947]

Exhibition design is a challenging arena in which to practice architecture. While the jury may still be out about the utility of the museum as spectacle, it is universally acknowledged to be in poor taste to overshadow the work being exhibited in smaller, thematic settings. The planning of "display space" put architects in the doubly dubious situation of acclimatizing themselves to the programme of the curator and the spirit of the work being exhibited. All of that said, nARCHITECTS has just completed what looks to be a promising exhibition on the drawings of Frederick Kiesler that opens this week at the Drawing Center in New York City.

Frederick Kiesler (1890-1965) was an important industrial designer and architect who dedicated much of his career exploring the notion of "flow" in space. This lifelong research project culminated in Kiesler's proposal for the Endless House, a band of bulbous volumes which serve as an organic counterpoint to the machine rhetoric associated with Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye. It might have taken three decades and parametric modeling for architecture to catch up with some of Kiesler's ideas, but his work has clearly influenced experimental architects like Greg Lynn and Asymptote and projects like UNStudio's Möbius House.

Given that Kiesler only realized two built projects, drawing was extremely important to his practice. He left behind a significant archive of drawings pertaining to the Endless House, idealized space, viewing devices and exhibition design. A selection of this material will be on display at Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities on at the Drawing Center until July 24th. For this show, nARCHITECTS have developed a simple and elegant band of curvilinear vitrines in which to showcase Kiesler's drawings and related multimedia content. Always a sucker for an interesting set of drawings (and a complimentary environment to view them in), I'm most certainly adding this show to my summer hitlist. Really though, what could be better than architecture for drawing?

A special thanks and hello to my peer and former thesis neighbour Alice Wong for tipping me off about this exhibit. As an intern architect at nARCHITECTS I'm sure she contributed her fair share of blood sweat and tears to this project.