January 6th, 2008

Incision Skin
Geoff Manaugh in BLDGBLOG
Architects Wojciech Kakowski, Natalia Paszkowska, and Marcin Mostafa will be designing the Polish Pavilion for Shanghai's World Expo in 2010. The building's design, the architects write in a mass-circulated press release, was required to "denote, by its esthetic distinctiveness, the country of origin," and it had to "constitute, by the strength of its stylistic connotations, an evocative, recognizable and memorable cultural ideogram."
In this case, the "cultural ideogram" their winning design was meant to embody is "the motif of folk-art paper cut-out[s]."

How George Lois Got Andy Warhol Into That Can of Soup
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Not to be missed is this week's edition of "Studio 360," a conversation between the Muhammad Ali-rapping George Lois and the Martha Stewart-skewering Kurt Andersen (although we imagine the "Studio 360" editing team had to do a fair amount...

Foliage Covered Botanical Building by Mass Studies
Emily in Inhabitat
If you’re a fan of botanical architecture, this might just be the coolest building ever. Architects Minsuk Cho and Kisu Park of Mass Studies designed this flora-clothed multi-level building to house Belgian fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester’s store in Seoul, South Korea. The building was completed in October 2007 and takes green roofs and living walls to another level, using foliage to cover both the external and internal wall surfaces. We love that it looks as if the building is growing up from underneath the greenery, blurring the lines between plants as ornamentation or structure.

Urbanffffinds 012
Brendan in Where
Yesterday, 4:39 PM
This was a very tough week. Lots of great urban imagery over on FFFFOUND!, but Where has pared it down to just eight pics for your viewing pleasure...

Berufsfeld Architektur 1.0 Job-Report Architecture 1.0
Christoph, anArchitecture in anArchitecture
There is almost no serious statistical data on the (Austrian) working and business situation of architects. Still, architects focus mainly on the aesthetic standpoint aspect – seeing architecture only reflected by the creative product. Collecting statistical data isn’t appropriate to architecture, most of them might think. However, what it means to be an architect is blurry – even for them. Still many people think of architecture as an artistic, elitist profession and a life of wealth. Increasingly, star architects confirm this image. Each year 570 Austrian students complete their architecture studies and struggle for success. Many of them will never build or work for architects: they’ll work for developers, real estate agencies, graphic designers, visualization studios or engineering consultants. Again, there is hardly any statistical data showing these shifts in the architect’s labour market.

January 5th, 2008

Rasenberger and Co. Look at the Past, Present and Future of NYC
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
And finally, to round out our weekend fun, and in something of a response to that last post, here's a story from the NY Times the other day we were enjoying on our time off "The World of Tomorrow."...

Joyriding Exhibition Amsterdam
Frame Magazine
Now that most vehicles have robust reliability, quality and performance, it is up to designers to dare to dream again and design the car of the future.  Read more…

The Museum Trend This Season: Returning of Italian Artifacts
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
More from the world of "returning things to its original country of origin" in the museum world this week, as the University of Virginia has just joined ranks with several other museums in the past couple of months in...

JODY BARTON’S Environmental Graphic Design
Kate in Inhabitat
We’re guilty of overlooking good green graphic design sometimes on Inhabitat, but here’s a great example of visual communication as an effective tool for environmental and social change. London-based illustrator Jody Barton is just one example of the power of graphics as an education tool, producing a plethora of bold illustrations focused on environmental crises. Using hand-drawn typography, Barton’s illustrations evoke preconceived notions, stereotypes, and challenge beliefs around these issues, and make us stop to think about our environmental impact.

January 4th, 2008

Intriguing Earth Architecture 38
Bradley in east coast Architecture review
Bloch Building, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA - Steven Holl Architects

A New Year of Old Stuff in Interior Design
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Yesterday, 10:03 PM
And here's where the focus shifts. Once the numbers on that calendar roll over, you start losing the "best of" year end lists and move onto the upcoming trends of the new year. And here we find just that...

"Shared Space" Traffic Calming: Counterintuitive, But It Works
Erica Barnett in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
Recently, my city (Seattle) decided to put the brakes on red-light scofflaws by installing 19 more cameras at intersections around the city, bringing the total number of red-light cameras in the city to 25. The cameras work by automatically photographing the cars of suspected light runners; if the police department believes, upon reviewing the photos, that a suspect ran the light, they mail the car's owner a ticket for $124. The owner has 18 days to pay or contest. As an infrequent driver who's more likely to be in the intersection than behind the wheel, I was happy to see that some of the city's most dangerous intersections will now be festooned with big signs warning drivers not to speed.

CheatNeutral: Offseting Your Cheating Ways
Jorge in Inhabitat
If carbon offsetting just isn’t personal enough for you, here’s a cheeky option to erase any negative effects of your “romantic” footprint. If you God forbid find yourself cheating on your loved one, you can now offset that cheating through CheatNeutral, an infidelity offseting service. Thanks to them, all your potential transgressions will be offset and your relationship fine once again.

Where Would We Be Now on Climate If Carter Had Won?
Alex Steffen in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
So, ever since yesterday, with Regine's post referencing Carter's energy plans and the Kim Stanley Robinson quote about the eco-visions of the 1970s, I've had a thought wedged in my brain: Where would we be now on climate (leaving aside other issues) if Carter had beaten Reagan? Where would we be now if the PV panels stayed on the White House roof, the Energy Security Act (with it's focus on biofuels, solar, geothermal and energy efficiency) was fully implemented and we had a political debate about energy and the environment....

PREFAB FRIDAY: Single Hauz Elevated Domain
Ali in Inhabitat
Living lightly takes on new meaning with the Single Hauz from Poland-based front architects. Inspired by billboards, intended for single lifestyles and propped on a central pole, this prefab looks to the spaces otherwise overlooked. Small, sustainable and high-tech, the Single Hauz can live almost anywhere.

The Collapse of Civilization: "It Wouldn’t Be An Adventure"
Alex Steffen in WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future
Kim Stanley Robinson makes a point I made elsewhere, but much more clearly:
"It’s a failure of imagination to think that climate change is going to be an escape from jail – and it’s a failure in a couple of ways. For one thing, modern civilization, with six billion people on the planet, lives on the tip of a gigantic complex of prosthetic devices – and all those devices have to work. The crash scenario that people think of, in this case, as an escape to freedom would actually be so damaging that it wouldn’t be fun. ...

January 3rd, 2008

the shack at hinkle farm, jeffery s. broadhurst
Justin in materialicious
Snipped facts: Architect Jeffery S. Broadhurst designed and built this 140sf retreat for his family on a very remote 27-acre mountaintop property in West Virginia, accessible only by off-road vehicle. Built by himself, friends and neighbors, using off-the-shelf materials. Board-and-batten siding and a standing-seam, terne-coated steel roof sit atop a wood platform. A ladder unhitches and swings down, providing access to the entry door. Oil lamps provide light and a woodstove heats the space. Hand-powered, gravity-fed plumbing system, and water is heated using the woodstove. Rainwater from the roof supplies the outdoor shower. The front wall is an overhead-acting aluminum and glass garage door, opening to a cantilevered deck.

If You Build It, Will They Come?: Roanoke Tries for the Bilbao Effect
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Today, 10:13 AM
When we hear "Roanoke" we think of two things: that whole spooky "Lost Colony" business (that was North Carolina though, not Virginia) and infomercials (it seems like every one of them would us send our $19.95 plus shipping and...

New Jersey Quantifies the Value of Undeveloped Land
ASLA.org - The Dirt
Yesterday afternoon's "Marketplace" radio program covered an interesting (if academic) attempt by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to determine the value of the state's undeveloped land. Their answer? "At least $26 billion a year worth of goods and services. And that $26 billion a year is worth about $850 billion in present value terms." Some of the benefits quantified include storm protection, soil-erosion prevention, minerals and agricultural products, and wastewater treatment. This is an example of what's being called the "green infrastructure" approach; what does undeveloped land do for surrounding development, cities, and suburbs? What are the true costs of development? New Jersey hopes that by putting a dollar value on undeveloped land, developers, environmentalists, and others can make better land-use decisions.

Forest village planned for Scotland
From Newbuilder
Plans for 32 woodland eco homes will be submitted to Highland councillors at Kilnhill in Scotland, later this month. The Scottish Forestry Comission wants to build a small community on about 50 hectares of land in Kilnhill wood, near Nairn, as a demonstration project. The plans show small groups of energy efficient mixed housing, including some affordable and some holiday homes built as far as possible from local timber. Spokesman Phil Whitfield, of the Forstry Commission, said: "The Kilnhill project is intended to become a demonstration site showcasing woodland living, timber construction and green technologies.

Mark Khaisman Architects TapeWorks
admin in mirage.studio.7
Mark Khaisman is a Ukranian artist and architect living in Philadelphia. Since his student’s years Mark was occupied with conceptual art and architecture. He participated in conceptual architecture exhibitions in Milan, Frankfurt-on-Main, and Paris and was featured in various international publications, including “Architectural Design” London, 1989. Mark worked as an architect, an art director in seven animation films, and a stained glass designer. Not quite what I had in mind or somehow related to architecture but isn’t this amazing? Probably he got his idea from overlapping tapes during his students years and developed it into a talent. I bet he applied the same technique for his final year submission.

style builder
architecture.MNP
Calvin, over at Mirage.Studio.7, reviews a new SketchUp feature: Style Builder - Imitation of Sketches [click the title of this post to read his article].

The Architecture of Abandonment
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
The Victorians found ruins romantic, and so fell in love with them, that for their country estates, when they didn't exist, they would simply build some. Those Victorians would probably risk heart failure if they confronted our own contemporary kind of ruins, the subject of an intriguing website, Abandoned But Not Forgotten, which offers photographs of abandoned buildings and sites that are a long way from classical picturesque. For some reason, there's an abundance of abandoned psychiatric hospitals in the collection, including several pages on the closed Manteno facilities, from which the above photograph, taken at the location in Morgan, Illinois, was taken. Another, snake-pit styled evocation of the mental hospital experience can be seen below.