Nostalgia
Forbes Massie
From Renaissance engravings to Computer-Generated Images (CGIs), visualizations have preceded completed buildings since time immemorial, forming the space of architectural speculation and experimentation. In this lecture, architectural visualizer Forbes Massie will present his work and collaborations with various renowned international architecture offices over the past years, reflecting upon how the contemporary design process of buildings has fundamentally changed architectural visualization.
In a 2017 volume on Massie's recent work, David Bickle, former Director of Design, Exhibitions, and FuturePlan of the Victoria and Albert Museum, states that Computer Generated Images (CGIs) were never meant to be "photo real." He states that "Forbes Massie creates work that feels rooted to a time and to a place where skies are allowed to be grey and brooding—where it can rain and snow—where fog and twilight are welcome atmospheric conditions—where summer isn't the only reason. Now with a team of 10 strong, Forbes makes work with great care and precision, with a poetic eye but firmly grounded in the here and now."
This lecture is part of The Berlage Sessions, a thematic Friday afternoon seminar series entitled “Architectures of Speculation,” which considers architecture’s historical and contemporary relationship to real estate speculation, from urban developments associated with nineteenth-century London, fin-de-siècle Paris, and postwar Rome; to land ownership, the spatial ordering of property, and buildings as financial instruments. Lecturers will include Gabriel Cuéllar, Patrice Derrington, Florian Hertweck, Forbes Massie, Andrew Saint, Davide Spina, and Alexia Yates.