Monthly Archives: May 2009

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Comments on JAPAN – MY TRIP TO BATTLESHIP ISLAND | Vice Magazine

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JAPAN – MY TRIP TO BATTLESHIP ISLAND | Vice Magazine – The story of two friends exploring an old coal mining facility on Hashima Island, which is close to the port of Nagaski. The facility was abandoned in the 1970’s and the crumbling buildings are an incredible site. Unlike many other modern ruins, Battleship Island wasn’t devastated by war but only by neglect. The island was once the most densely populated area on earth, but is now only a shell. It is an amazing site.

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Comments on Pachacamac House / Longhi Architects | Arch Daily

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Pachacamac House / Longhi Architects | Arch Daily – Architecture of the Earth is such a rare thing in our contemporary times. Too often building try to float free of the constraints of gravity in an attempt to challenge our perceptions. However the Pachacamac House in Peru by Longhi Architects, which is intimately tied to the Earth seems more foreign and challenging to our modern eyes. To be from and of the Earth is no small feat and the Pachacamac House seems to flow and sculpt the ground into a terraced construct that both blends with and contrast with the barren hills rising from a lush valley.

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Comments on Sand/Stone | BLDGBLOG

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Sand/Stone | BLDGBLOG – A student, Magnus Larsson, at the Architectural Association, has proposed a landscape project that will solidify desert sand into sandstone, thus creating a new material for habitation within a harsh desert. The idea is to use injection piles to 3D print sandstone out of sand by injecting a microbial solution that will solidify the sand into sandstone. These structures can create internal micro-climates more favorable to habitation and the sustaining of life, condensation of water and the locking of the sand dunes which could potentially halt the progression of the desert.

It is a fascinating idea and sees well thought through. The very idea of a architecture grown from the earth is fascinating and Larsson seems to have thought it through.

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Comments on Frances Anderton: “Excess” Versus “Relevance” Is an Irrelevant Debate

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Frances Anderton: “Excess” Versus “Relevance” Is an Irrelevant Debate – I can not agree with Frances Anderton more when she says that by framing a dichotomy of excess versus relevance in architecture, those mourning the loss of grand projects and those cheering that loss due to the current economic circumstances, are failing to appreciate the full scope of architecture. Certainly, architectural journalism favors the spectacular projects of excess but even still most architecture fails to meet either standards.

Architecture encompasses all of the built environment, from the ordinary to the singular, and both aspects are important. By framing the debate not in a dichotomy but instead as qualities of the larger field we call our culture and environment,, an architecture for the here and now can be more easily balanced between social responsibility and artistic ambitions. Both are needed and in different mixes for different projects.

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Comments on ART TO ARCHITECTURE « LEBBEUS WOODS

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ART TO ARCHITECTURE « LEBBEUS WOODS – Lebbeus Woods asks the question about the relationship of Art to Architecture.  He points out that as the arts like painting and sculpture became less integrated with Architecture, they actually gained a more direct influence on architecture.  Suddenly Art could be used as a direct inspiration for Architecture.  It is certainly an interesting observation.

For my part, I hold with Deleuze and Guttari’s opinion that Art is concerned with precepts and affects and their ability.  This means that Architecture is not necessarily Art, though it certainly can be and certainly the value of Art in Architecture is important.  I am not one to hold that Architecture is only an Art, for Architecture includes much more than Art, both in constraints and in scope, Architecture addresses more than the limited, but very intense, subjects of Art.

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Comments on Inapal Metal / Menos é mais | Arch Daily

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Inapal Metal / Menos é mais | Arch Daily – Inapal Metal is manufacturer of automotive parts.  The designed by Menos e Mais architects is a simple study in corrugated metal.  Rather than a banal metal building though, the Inapal Metal building has a subtle refinement that makes it something so much more.  The curving radius of the corners and the change in direction between the two main masses of the building break the building up and create a dynamic difference that energizes the form.  The large cantilevered loading dock canopy, while very functional also gives the otherwise heavy building a lighter feel.  Finally the perforated metal screens that partially hide the mechanical systems and large circular holes for exhaust along one side of the building is almost shocking when compared to the closed feel of the corrugated metal elsewhere.  The interiors further extend the precision and neutrality of the exterior.  The building is one with few expressive moves, yet it holds a spatial movement that is farm from static.

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Comments on Santo Stefano Cemetery in Italy / Amoretti + Calvi + Ranalli | Arch Daily

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Santo Stefano Cemetery in Italy / Amoretti + Calvi + Ranalli | Arch Daily – The expansion of the Santo Stefano Cemetery in Italy is set between the old cemetery and a waterfront way.  It consists of a series of cubic crypts each freestanding and set in two rows along a curving line with a path set between.  The project’s success comes from its use of such a simple object as the cubic crypt which is then subverted by arraying it into a field, breaking down the idea that architecture is about a singular object, continuous or discrete.  The crypts themselves are proportioned to meet the requirements of an interned human body giving an empathic quality to the crypts.  Each crypt like the body of the people inside.  Though it is a long standing tradition in Architecture for funeral monuments to be an expression of some idea of the person life, it is modern take to make the crypt emphatically relate to the human experience rather than express or represent it.

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Comments on Richard Box | Interactive Architecture dot Org

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Richard Box | Interactive Architecture dot Org – An installation of 1301 fluorescent light bulbs powered by the electric field of a high voltage power line that crosses over the site is impressive in its ability to reveal the hidden world of the electromagnetic radiation that permeates the world around us.  While visually reminding me of Walter De Maria’s lightning field at sunset/sunrise, this installation takes the place making abilities of De Maria’s piece one step further.

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Comments on 290 Mulberry Fabrication Update – Prototyping | CASE Design, Inc.

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290 Mulberry Fabrication Update – Prototyping | CASE Design, Inc. – Case discusses the collaborative approach that was taken during their time at SHOP in the development of the innovative brick panels at 290 Mulberry.  The use of parametric modeling and a 3D printer allowed the production of quick prototypes and models that were then presented to potential fabricators, allowing a more directed and specific discussions to happen and the selection of fabricators that were interested in proceeding.  The 290 Mulberry project is an excellent example of how to work with fabricators to get unexpected results.  Well done.

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Comments on Plants Can Twitter for Water with New Device – PC Magazine

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Plants Can Twitter for Water with New Device – PC Magazine – Researchers have designed a system that combines a soil moisture sensor, a micro-controller and custom software to allow a plant to send out tweets on its status.  Messages can be customized by the user to make them more unique.  In fact one of the researcher’s plant ‘Pothos’ has more than 2,300 followers on Twitter.

This is an interesting example of how everyday objects are beginning to communicate with us in a more direct manner.  I hate the term ‘Smart’ technology but along those lines, what happens when all the potted plants in everyone’s houses can ask for water and tell us how they are doing?