The award ceremony for the ephemeral structures competition in Athens was held on the 31st of January; the winning entries are presented on the web site. Unfortunately, our proposal did not make the cut. At least we can now publicise it without fearing it might compromise the anonymity of the competition.

Reivisiting the scheme in my current state of mind (influenced by this evening’s inaugural lecture by Neil Leach) I would stress its capacity for the production of emergent forms without the digital tools. The membrane uses the structure of adjacent buildings parasitically and hence the tangent nodes which convey its load also determine its form. This process is undertaken by the builders on site and is driven by convenience, serendipity, and on-the-spot decision making.

Late on Monday nights Channel 4 is repeating a great documentary series called Pornography: The Secret History of Civilisation that traces the co-evolution of pornography and technology. In the process it outlines the sociological impact of erotic imagery. The prevailing trend for condemnation or acceptance of such imagery in each era is a result of complex (aesthetic, associative, psychological) factors, and has parallels with the fluctuation of architectural “fashion” and the appreciation of art.

An interesting idea to keep from the first two episodes (dealing with antiquity and the invention of the printing press) is that the concept of pornography is Victorian, much like the term itself, first appearing in a dictionary around the 1850s. The notion of “wrong” images is so embedded in our cultural heritage that this date seems surprisingly recent (as happens with the idea of romantic love, an invention of medieval troubadours).