Eames Chair Meets Hip Hop "Eames Hotrod Boombox"

Mikal Hameed is a Brooklyn-based artist and designer who is constantly finding new corners of America's creative culture to explore. After starting out in music and theater, he shifted his efforts to visual arts and production design, all of which inform his latest efforts as a craftsman and maker.

I recently came across his "Eames Hotrod Boombox"—a refurbished and reimagined Eames lounge chair—at Brooklyn's Dijital Fix and I was fascinated by the notion of "remixing" an iconic design object, especially since it incorporated another vintage reference point in the turntable. Meanwhile, the allusion to the boombox is itself a reference to mixing and sampling music, and it so happens that the "Eames Hotrod Boombox" was featured as the album art for a compilation album called Verve Remixed 4. Although the project dates back to 2008, the video is certainly worth a minute of your time; New York-based readers can see it in person at Dijital Fix in Williamsburg, just a couple short blocks from the Bedford Avenue stop on the L. 

Originally blogged here 

Architecture - Chopped and Skewed

Work of photography and artist Filip Dujardin. Fillip studied history or art at the University of Ghent, and specialized in architecture.

His approach to architectural works is stunning and can be an approach used in the creation of a hip hop inspired architecture. Filip's work is the architectural equivalent to sampling in music, or even the "break beat".   

The break beat is typically the best portion of bars of a song, looped over and over again in an effort to create a seamless loop of the best portion of a song, ultimately encouraging the audience to dance. In Filips work, various portions or architectural details and geometry is looped in the same way, only instead of encouraging the viewer to dance, his work encourages you to follow the repetitions throughout the entire piece.

Click here for additional work. 

Quote of the Day

“The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright

A quote which was a driving force during the long studio hours of graduate school at University of Detroit Mercy as I developed my graduate thesis titled "Hip Hop Inspired Architecture and Design. Frank Lloyd Wright made a bold statement here which I applied directly to the evolution of Hip Hop Culture and its lack of an architectural style. Hip Hop is one of the worlds most recognizable cultures, with its various art forms, including, MCing, DJing, Graffiti and Breaking but Frank Lloyd Wright calls the mother art, architecture. Is it possible for Hip Hoppers to establish a “mother art” and develop a “soul” of its own civilization."?

The Architectural Planning that Created Hip Hop

As architects, designers and urban planners we create the spaces and environments which hosts the day to day interactions of every living being which ultimately nurtures the development of culture. Through a series of my blog posts, you can see how architects and planners subconsciously contributed to the environments which unintentionally created the socially, economically, politically and physically restrictive spaces which resulted in the birth of the hip hop nation. A culture which rebels against social norms and social structure, a culture which results from economical, social and political deprivations.

In the portion of the video from a PBS documentary below, one of the first housing projects in New York city is displayed through the lens of utopia if you ask me. The commercial which promotes the high density housing units is laughable today, knowing what these "housing projects" became once this grand scheme disseminated across the inner cities of America.  This was Robert Moses' attempt at solving housing issues in the Bronx as he shuffled residents while as he planned and built the Cross Bronx Expressway. A grand idea, that fizzled and resulted in becoming some of the toughest places to sustain life throughout the country, "The Projects".  Fast forward to the 2:58 mark of the video for the commercial.

If you want to view the entire series "The World That Robert Moses Built" by PBS.org. Click Here 

Take a look at a previous blog post to understand how LeCorbusier's vision was implemented by Robert Moses in the South Bronx.

Le Corbusier - The Forefather of Hip Hop?

Louis Armstrong Park - New Orleans

Louis Armstrong Park was developed with the city of New Orleans to highlight the site’s rich, historic African American heritage and culture. The interpretive plaza celebrates six key contributors, linking them through design elements and the creation of an animated public space. Louis Armstrong Park is a 29.23-acreregional park, housing vital cultural resources such as the Municipal Auditorium, Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, the National Jazz Historical Park, and Congo Square. The park provides an interpretive “journey” through New Orleans’ history and culture, while creating educational and cultural opportunities for families. As a team member while working at Hamilton Anderson Associates in Detroit, Michigan, Michael Ford was involved with developing the design concept and architectural graphics.

Kanye - Yezus Inspired by LeCorbusier

I must admit that this blog post has me very excited, for the past 10 years I have been creating a body of research based on the architecture of LeCorbusier and its unintended social implications and subsequent environmental backdrop in Hip Hop. Click here for Previous Post. Hearing that Kanye West's Yezus was inspired by LeCorubiser now validates my research and efforts which include the linkage of Corbu to Hip Hop and ultimately aims to create a Hip Hop Inspired Architecture. Since the culture itself has been heavily influenced by architecture, its only right that the culture now shall heavily influence architecture.

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Yeezus - Album Cover

In an interview with The New York Times, Kanye West admitted that the new sound on "Yeezus" came from somewhere none of us were expecting. "Architecture — you know, this one Corbusier lamp was like, my greatest inspiration," he claimed. 

Le Corbusier is one of the founders of modern architecture. Working in the 1930s, the French architect rejected the architectural styles before him. In fact, he rejected style entirely in favor of minimal and essential structures. He believed in function above all, and his perfectly-proportioned creations were ideal structures for the modern citizen. "Like I say, I’m a minimalist in a rapper’s body," Kanye told the NY Times, which explains his attraction to Le Corbusier's radical designs. 

Last week, MoMA opened their show on the influential architect, "Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes." It seems that Le Corbusier is having a moment in the cultural spotlight. We've put together a list of why Le Corbusier is just as awesome as Kanye says he is. Meet the inspiration behind "Yeezus."

RELATED: The Design Evolution of Kanye West's Album Artwork
RELATED: The Complete History of DONDA's Work So Far

Original Post - Click Here 

Hip Hop Inspired Architecture Lecture

On April 8th 2010,  The University of Michigan’s chapter of Hip Hop Congress invited me to give a lecture on “Cultural Innovation – Hip Hop Inspired Architecture and Design” in Ann Arbor.  Click here to see the original posting by Hip Hop Congress.

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