REVIEW OF: "THE HELSINKI EFFECT: PUBLIC ALTERNATIVES TO THE GUGGENHEIM MODEL OF CULTURE-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT"

By Annette Koh

The Guggenheim Effect is an urbanist fairy tale about how a starchitect-designed museum transformed a sleepy backwater into a celebrated global destination. In this story, architect Frank Gehry’s undulating design for Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum jolted Bilbao out of post-industrial doldrums by garnering international acclaim and drawing an influx of tourists and investment.

The Helsinki Effect: Public Alternatives to the Guggenheim Model of Culture-Driven Development punctures the prevailing mythology through a case study of the failed 2011 proposal for a Guggenheim branch in Helsinki, Finland. Edited by Finnish artist Terike Haapoja, American cultural studies scholar Andrew Ross, and the much-missed Michael Sorkin, the book is an accessible antidote for all those entranced by fantasies of a “world-class” museum catalyzing urban revitalization. Divided into an essay section and a design proposal section, the book fuses together critique with practice to answer the “clear need for alternatives to… blockbuster design.” [1]

The eight contributors to Part One launch a far-ranging interdisciplinary critique of the multi-scalar origins, logics and processes of exploitation embedded within the mega-museum franchise. Curator Juhani Pallasma begins with the key premises and problematics of the proposed Helsinki Guggenheim, with attention to its discursive, aesthetic aspects. The essays include reflections by collaborators from Checkpoint Helsinki arts coalition and the New York City-based G.U.L.F. collective – founded to challenge worker abuse in the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim construction.

The second half of The Helsinki Effect features a kaleidoscopic set of creative possibilities generated by the Next Helsinki counter-competition organized in 2014 and 2015 by several of the book’s contributors. The compiled proposals vary wildly in approach, but all seek to reinterpret the museum as an institution and redefine culture within urban space…

Dezeen: "Fierce and brilliant architect Michael Sorkin dies of coronavirus

Eleanor Gibson, March 27 2020

Tributes have poured in for architect and critic Michael Sorkin, who has died aged 71 of complications caused by Covid-19.

Based in New York, Sorkin headed architecture firm Michael Sorkin Studio and was president of non-profit research group Terreform.

His death triggered shock and an outpouring of warm tributes from architects, critics and writers around the world.

"He was a supremely gifted, astute and acerbic writer"

"I am heartbroken. This is a great loss," tweeted New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman. "He was so many things. He was a supremely gifted, astute and acerbic writer. He wrote with moral force about big ideas and about the granular experience of life at the level of the street."

"Whether or not one agreed with Michael Sorkin didn't matter in the end," added Chicago Tribune critic Blair Kamin. "He was a great activist critic – fearless, unafraid to challenge received wisdom or powerful figures, and, because of his wit and insight, a pleasure to read."

"The architecture world has lost a brilliant mind," said Harriet Harriss, dean of New York's Pratt Institute School of Architecture.

Financial Times architecture correspondent Edwin Heathcote described Sorkin as a "fierce and brilliant critic, perhaps the best".

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Deen Sharp at MESA Annual Meeting

The Middle Eastern Studies Association is a nonprofit organization, that promotes development of the Middle Eastern studies field. MESA will hold its Annual Meeting on Thursday, November 14 - Sunday, November 17 in New Orleans, LA. The events will allow for colleagues to share and engage in interdisciplinary Middle Eastern studies.

On Thursday, Deen Sharp will present at a panel concerning the role of corporations in regional development. The panel will feature Kristen Alff, Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, Stephanie Wright, Associate Lecturer at Australian National University, and Ibrahim El Houdaiby, PhD candidate and researcher at Columbia University. The discussion will revolve around the history and influence of the corporations in the region.

On Sunday, the discussion will explore the expansion of urban areas in the Middle East. The panel will feature Sarah El-Kazaz, Assistant Professor of Politics at Oberlin College, and Huma Gupta, a PhD candidate at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture. The focus will be on decisions to direct efforts towards urban expansion as a strategy for strengthening the economy.