time flies when you're having fun

Tunnel vision: a history of the London tube map

2009-11-27T08:36:00.003Z

Tunnel vision: a history of the London tube map

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/nov/25/london-tube-map-design?picture=356059485

includes.... Henry Beck's original drawing for the 'diagrammatic' tube map (1931), Beck's first pocket Underground map, British Waterways river map. enjoy!

How far will £1,000 take you?

2009-11-04T09:14:00.000Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/04/1000-pound-ticket-to-scotland

Cross the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, ride the London tubes for a year – or take the train to Scotland

Cornwall to Kyle of Lochalsh . . . £1,002, 20-plus hours and five changes.

Inaudible Tannoy announcements. Limp sandwiches. Interminable delays. The British public have much to endure on the nation's rail network, but nothing raises hackles more than fare hikes. Rail users, then, must surely be weeping tears of despair at news of the first-ever £1,000 train journey.

It was revealed this week that if you turn up at Newquay station in Cornwall and ask for a first class "walk-on" return to Kyle of Lochalsh on the northwest coast of Scotland you will be quoted £1,002. Admittedly, it is highly unlikely that any sane person would want to endure such a journey. For example, if you were to catch the 14.58 from Newquay, you would arrive at Kyle of Lochalsh at 11.28 the following morning having made five changes, including a wait of more than an hour and a half at Crewe for the sleeper to Inverness.

To be fair, though, going by coach would require even more stamina. It takes 25 hours and 25 minutes to travel from Newquay to Inverness with National Express (you still have to make your way to Kyle of Lochalsh and the return fare is a somewhat more modest £134.10). Going by taxi, however, would cost £1,500 each way, according to Biotravel Taxis in Newquay.

But let's assume you want more for your £1,000. Here are some alternative travel options:

£1,032 Annual Transport for London travelcard, zone 1+2.

$1,000 (£610) 120 days of unlimited travel on US Greyhound buses.

£959 "Economy Plus" around-the-world flight on Qantas/BA with STA Travel (London-Hong Kong-Sydney-Los Angeles-London).

£743 One month first-class Inter-Rail Global Pass, valid across 30 countries.

£969 14 days aboard the Trans- Siberian Express (Moscow-Beijing).

£899 Six-night transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner (suite or outside cabin).

Statistical treasure chest...

2009-10-14T11:30:00.001+01:00

A very useful site:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/themes

Now this is what I call 'Train Overload'

2009-10-12T22:10:00.002+01:00

Website of image below:

http://www.trainsforthais.com/image/webboard/5447aTrainOverload.jpg

Norfolk Southern Unveils Zero Emission Plug-in Electric Train

2009-10-11T15:45:00.003+01:00

.......................................................................................................................................

Hey guys, found this artical and found it interesting so thought i'd share.

We’ve covered plenty of plug-in hybrid electric cars, and now Norfolk Southern Corp. is extending the same technology to locomotives with its prototype battery-powered train, the NS 999. The 1,500 horsepower switching train is powered exclusively by a series of 1,080 lead-acid 12-volt batteries. The best part – since the NS 999 doesn’t have a diesel engine, it releases zero emissions.

The train, developed in conjunction with the US Department of Energy, the Federal Railroad Administration, and Penn State, recharges its batteries during braking. When fully juiced up, the locomotive can operate three shifts before recharging.

-
The $1.3 million NS 999 may just be a prototype now, but it could radically cut down on the railroad system’s carbon footprint if widely deployed. The transportation sector in the US accounts for nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions. Let’s hope the NS 999’s plug-in technology is commercialized before the US expands the national railroad system.

For more info visit : http://www.inhabitat.com/transportation/

RHDR GETS ANGRY!

2009-10-11T11:18:00.004+01:00

After the lil trip on the RHDR (Romney, Hythe, Dymchurch Railway), just thought it might interest people to see what the climate of Dungeness/RHDR can create. Let me introduce NOVEMBER COMING FIRE. I know for a fact that the band grew up in the area, road the RHDR to school (one of the members had the railway passing through his street), and used/went on trips on the railway for inspiration during the album writting process.

It may not help everyone but i think it helps give RHDR some richer (or maybe slightly stranger) context.

Great live video which captures the 'point' of the music. Performed in our very own Canterbury Scouts Hut (one of the first and possibly most famous newwave/underground uk hardcore venues)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVfWuw7wH10

Video and artwork of the band with a studio version of their song blackest blood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXw8ZaayVYs

In addition i think this review of the album raises some fun points of the world of dungeness, both land and album.

(http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=13810)

"Dungeness, is both a seaside town in Kent known as "The End of the World" (it's the most South East point of Britain) and a stunning record. The town, is a rather depressing one. It's key landmarks are; its beach, its lighthouses, its two (at the time) nuclear powerstations, and, a little black house (Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness). It is a virtually deserted place of human population and proved the perfect setting for NCF's full-length opus (many of the song names takes references from key landmarks), as the place is both as dark, atmospheric and mysterious as is this album. Take songs like 'Powerstation' or 'HMS Blackwater' (or the 3 minute comedown after 'Closure' which is just waves crashing) both songs that make references to technical, riff-based hardcore (Inspired by the likes of Converge and Old Man Gloom) but spliced in with genuine atmosphere. I remember the first time I saw 'Powerstation' live, (supporting The Hope Conspiracy, December 2005) and I remember being absolutely blown away by it. It starts with a stop-start rhythm section, and a relentless guitar riff that practically manages to menacingly rip throughout this song. It progresses, into a fantastic battling ground for the shifting, explosive rhythm section, and the counter balancing guitars, whom, eventually win when this track's outro takes over of a haunting, repeated guitar riff, being played to the sounds of waves crashing and a mystic speaking in a archaic language; it is a truly stunning piece of songwriting, full of rage and atmosphere, a hard thing to get right, and something I think even the mighty Converge would be enviable of"

Dungeness

Tracklist:1. Blue Reigns2. Powerstation3. Devil on the Shore4. The Jackal5. HMS Blackwater6. That Black house Made Of Rubber7. Argonaut8. Instrumental No.29. Providence10. Mascot11. Queenliest Dead12. Closure

Enjoy!

An oblique connection, but worth thinking about.

2009-10-05T19:48:00.000+01:00

From cleantechnica.com - tangentially related to our agenda.

Coal power is not base-load electricity by itself. To enable coal to reliably deliver electric power, it took the creation of an entire other national infrastructure; the trans-continental railroad system.

Without the unceasing rail-car-load delivery, every 12 hours, on the hour, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year, of every next 12-hour-supply of fuel for the fire; the fire would go out, the water wouldn’t boil, the steam wouldn’t rise, the turbine wouldn’t turn; the next 12 hours of electricity wouldn’t be made. The fire must never go out.

Coal plus railroad = base-load power.

Even today, a century later, every 12 hours in this nation a trainload of coal from Wyoming or Pennsylvania or Ohio, must arrive at an electric power station near your city, to make your coal power for the next 12 hours. No trainload of coal; no coal power.

link

Internet rules!

2009-10-01T18:52:00.002+01:00

Team JB: Keep up with your world railway news at Railway Gazette!

Happy new thesis...now to work.

2009-09-28T16:30:00.003+01:00

JB team research links...
follow!

link
linko
linka
linki

find more!

ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL 101

2009-03-18T14:16:00.001Z

Lebbeus Woods has been reflecting on what makes a good architecture school on his blog. There are several follow-up pieces there also. make up your own minds.....

ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL 101: "

A school is—before all else—a faculty.

It is obvious that without a faculty, a school could not exist, for there would be no one to teach the students who come to a school. Also, the better students, those who are most eager to learn, most ambitious for themselves, and most demanding, those, in short, with the most potential for becoming good architects, select a school partly because of its faculty—they understand well the dynamics of learning.

It follows that, without a good faculty, a good school cannot exist. A mediocre faculty can only create a mediocre school, never a good one, regardless of how much potential its students have. Only a great faculty can produce a great school, and it does so by helping students realize their full potential.

There are two aspects of a great faculty (let us put aside mediocre and say that good is fine, but why not calibrate higher?): they are very effective teachers, and they have active peer relationships. The latter refers to the exchanges they have with other teachers and critics within their school and to their creative activities outside the school, in the big, wide world of ideas and work. Peers demand of each other, first of all, a high level of dedication to architecture, meaning a high level of seriousness. A peer is an equal. No one who is serious (even playfully so) wants to waste time with anyone who is not. There is always a certain amount of competitiveness among peers, and not just for position. The true competition is for achievement: as teachers and as architects. Creative rivalry and intellectual disputation are good, even noble, forms of competition, and are to be encouraged, and appreciated.

However, creative achievement does not necessarily make an architect an effective teacher. Teaching requires several qualities operating in parallel.

The first is having something to teach. An architect, or anyone else, who wants to instruct young people should feel strongly about what they know and have an equally strong desire to communicate it with others, particularly aspiring architects.

The second is a commitment of time and energy to teaching. Dipping in and out of a studio or seminar in distracted bits of time stolen from a busy career is no commitment. Teaching cannot simply be a line-item on one’s CV. A teacher must spend ‘quality time’ with students, that is, being personally, fully engaged in the time—of whatever duration—he or she is with students.

Third, a teacher must understand the difference between training and education. The term ‘training architects’ is an oxymoron. The trans-disciplinary nature of architecture, the depth and diversity of knowledge it requires, as well the complexity of integrating this knowledge into a broad understanding that can be called upon at any moment to design a building or project, goes far beyond what anyone can be trained to do. Still, some teachers try to train students, using all the finesse of training dogs. Even those who disclaim rote learning and ‘copy me’ methods can carry vestiges of attitude that amount to the same. A good test is whether the students’ work in a design studio is diverse and individual, or is similar or even looks like the personal work—the ‘design style’—of the teacher. The best teachers preside over the flourishing of individuals and their ideas, and the resulting diversity. Diversity is the essence of education.

Schools of architecture must require of students that they pursue in some depth a broad range of subjects. This is because architecture is the most comprehensive field of knowledge one can enter. It engages the whole of society, and must be informed by a society’s knowledge, practices and values. Philosophy comes first, as it provides a framework for ordering all the diverse bits and pieces. Then come the social sciences, literature and poetry, and art. These studies happen together with architecture and engineering courses, and, ideally, coalesce in the design studio. It is the task of the studio teacher to set up projects and programs that enable this coalescence—far from easy. To accomplish it, a teacher must have the requisite knowledge himself or herself, and an almost uncanny ability to state in plain language a problem, lay out a methodical series of scheduled steps leading to an articulated and attainable goal. It is up to the teacher to make sure the intended work is actually accomplished within the given time. There is nothing more discouraging and dispiriting than work left unfinished.

Not least in importance is the study of history. Knowledge of the histories of the many communities we share today in global society, as well as the history of architecture, towns, and cities, is crucial. Goethe said, ‘The best part of history is that it inspires us.’ He was right. When we see what people have been able to achieve in the past, we realize that we can do the same, in our own inevitably different terms. Without a strong sense of this spirit of history, an architect can only drift with the currents of the moment. It is the responsibility of studio teachers to make this clear.

Students are the other half of any school’s story.

Without good students, a good school cannot exist. However, it is much easier to find good students than good faculty. It is far easier to find great students than great faculty. As Raimund Abraham once said, ‘There are no bad students.’ What he meant was that young people who aspire to become architects and have gone through an admissions and selection process have demonstrated in advance a potential that should be respected. If students try and yet do not do really good work, it is, with few exceptions, due to the failure of their teachers. In contrast, many architects who become and remain teachers do so for reasons other than their potential as teachers. There are many—competent professionals—who should never be allowed any contact with young, eager students bristling with talent and ambition. Bad teachers, especially those who imagine themselves as good, do irreparable damage. They kill the spirit.

This does not mean that outstanding architects cannot emerge from mediocre schools—they can, and some have. But their being outstanding is more the result of their own drive to learn and develop, in spite of the mediocrity around them in school. They are, in effect, self-taught. However, even the most self-determined students need some help along the way: the encounter with a rare teacher who stirs their imaginations, ignites their passions about an idea, or sets an example by the teacher’s own knowledge, integrity, and dedication. These are the qualities that describe the entire faculties of great schools.

This brings us to the other half of any school’s story. Yes, there are three halves. The third is a school’s administration, its dean and department chairs….

(to be continued)

(Via LEBBEUS WOODS.)

...WHAT A WONDERFUL MORNING

2009-02-14T10:00:00.001Z

...WHAT A WONDERFUL MORNING: "
This Otto Neurath inspired narrative is part of the work 'Book from the Ground' by Brooklyn based artist Xu Bing. He is even developing a computer programm that translates from different languages into the pictoral language of isotypes. Read the artist:

Book from the Ground is a novel written in a 'language of icons' that I have been collecting and organizing over the last few years. Regardless of cultural background, one should be able understand the text as long as one is thoroughly entangled in modern life. We have also created a 'font library' computer program to accompany the book. The user can type English sentences (we are still limited in this way, but the next step will include Chinese and other major languages) and the computer will instantaneously translate them into this language of icons. It can function as a 'dictionary,' and in the future it will have practical applications.

via ads without products"

(Via synchronicity.)

transition city

2009-02-13T15:31:00.003Z

check out this blog: http://transitioncitycanterbury.blogspot.com/2009/02/power-of-community.html

Next social meeting:

Tuesday 17th at the farmhouse, 7pm onwards. including a screening of The Power of Community

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No! it’s a… Hostel?!

2009-02-12T23:14:00.001Z

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No! it’s a… Hostel?!: "

Visitors traveling to Stockholm will find soon themselves with the option of sleeping on a plane! That may not sound like the most exciting proposition until you realize that the 747-200 in which they will be sleeping has been retired from flying, salvaged from being dumped somewhere to rot and turned into a low-cost, fully-furnished hostel that is perfect for overnight accommodation.

(more…)

(Via Inhabitat.)

WIND ENERGY REPLACES OIL FROM THE GULF

2009-02-04T22:39:00.001Z

WIND ENERGY REPLACES OIL FROM THE GULF: "
Office for Metropolitan Architecture recently has presented a masterplan for the North Sea, claiming that wind farms in the North Sea can produce as much energy as the oil from the Persian Gulf is now. The plan was inspired by Hugo Graat, who in 1609 highlited that the sea should be a binding medium between nations, enabling communicating and exchanging ideas.
via archinect, architectenweb

(Via synchronicity.)

Build Your Own Light Lane

2009-02-04T18:11:00.001Z

Build Your Own Light Lane: "

This is an interesting concept... create your own nighttime bike lane, when none is available. The idea is that you could still ride on the street, but that cars would see and respect your bike lane. Who knows, they might even think its real?! At the very least, the lasers would help to illuminate the riders so that they are more easily visible.
via Gizmodo

(Via Atelier A+D.)

Sky TV

2009-02-04T18:04:00.001Z

Sky TV: "[Image: From the series Cloud Projections by Blake Gordon].

Photographer Blake Gordon has been documenting the geometric effects of light pollution in Austin, Texas, capturing thinly defined shapes in the clouds, projected upward from the tops of buildings.
It's an accidental ornamentation of the city sky – or what Gordon calls Cloud Projections.

[Image: From the series Cloud Projections by Blake Gordon].

read more of this at BLDGBLOG

(Via BLDGBLOG.)

Earrings for Spontaneous Seeding

2009-02-04T17:35:00.001Z

Craig, perhaps a way of accessorizing your seed vest? You should forward your project to NEXT NATURE, who will probably be interested....

Earrings for Spontaneous Seeding: "

Seed bombs away, because these earrings may awake the Guerilla Gardener in you…

You never know when an opportunity for planting might present itself. Be prepared with these tiny glass bottles filled with vegetable and flower seeds. Great for secretively planting in friends’ yards, medians, and those boring beds full of petunias outside your doctor’s office.

By Lea Redmond | leafcutterdesign.com

biomimicmarketing, manipulating growth, On the Road"

(Via NextNature.net - Nature changes along with us..)

2009 Open Architecture Challenge

2009-02-04T17:32:00.001Z

2009 Open Architecture Challenge: "This year's Open Architecture Challenge -- a biennal open, international design competition run by Architecture for Humanity and Orient Global -- asks designers 'to work with students and teachers to design the classroom of the future for a school of your choosing.'

Click the image above for more information. Registration deadline is May 1, and the submission deadline is one month later."

(Via A Daily Dose of Architecture.)

Basque Health HQ by Coll-Barreu Architects

2008-10-17T19:07:00.003+01:00

edgargonzalez.com has a photo filled post about the new headquarters of the Basque Health Department in Bilbao, Spain that was designed by Coll-Barreu Architects.

Bonneville Salt Flats Rest Stop Shelter

2008-10-17T18:54:00.004+01:00

The first in an occasional series of unexpected monuments - Bonneville salt flats is famous for its salty flatness - hence the name - and its predictable weather....making it a prime choice for land speed record attempts and possibly chip consumption.... A striking mid-century modern form at the rest area next to the (also striking) salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. This is one of those historically significant public designs, like those of the WPA, that remains uncredited, and often unappreciated, by today’s administrators.

source

2012 the year the internet ends...

2008-10-15T14:53:00.003+01:00

Source: Power.ning.com

Editors Note: I was tipped to this article and have talked with several others in trying to confirm its legitimacy. It has over 11,000 diggs and it seems legit.

Update:Bell Canada and TELUS (formerly owned by Verizon) employees officially confirm that by 2012 ISP's all over the globe will reduce Internet access to a TV-like subscription model, only offering access to a small standard amount of commercial sites and require extra fees for every other site you visit. These 'other' sites would then lose all their exposure and eventually shut down, resulting in what could be seen as the end of the Internet.

Dylan Pattyn *, who is currently writing an article for Time Magazine on the issue, has official confirmation from sources within Bell Canada and is interviewing a marketing representative from TELUS who confirms the story and states that TELUS has already started blocking all websites that aren't in the subscription package for mobile Internet access. They could not confirm whether it would happen in 2012 because both stated it may actually happen sooner (as early as 2010). Interviews with these sources, more confirmation from other sources and more in-depth information on the issue is set to be published in Time Magazine soon.

What can we do?

The reason why we're releasing this information is because we believe we can stop it. More awareness means more mainstream media shedding light on it, more political interest and more pressure on the ISP's to keep the Internet an open free space. We started this social network as a platform for Internet activism where we can join forces, share ideas and organize any form of protest that may have an impact. If we want to make a difference in this, we have to join together and stand united as one powerful voice against it.

Join the movement.

Don't let the Internet evolve to this!

Now I don't know if I'm scared or merely covetous...

2008-10-08T13:32:00.001+01:00

Apparently, in another robotic development, Berkeley Bionics in the United States is already working on its second generation exoskeleton suit for hikers, emergency/rescue personnel and military. The company originally showed off their exoskeleton back in 2005 and has steadily improved the design. Like the HAL, the contraption consists of leg braces, a 1.2 lbs battery and a microcomputer. There’s also a back frame for military style rucksacks. More on both here

Domo arigato Mr Roboto

2008-10-08T13:23:00.001+01:00

I want one of these...

palintology

2008-10-06T21:16:00.002+01:00

'nuff said...

Liz on TED

2008-10-06T17:22:00.004+01:00

worth keeping an eye on ted.com...

new kwinter book for any architectural technophiles out there...

2008-02-29T07:44:00.002Z

Far from Equilibrium

Essays on Technology and Design Culture

Sanford Kwinter

Sanford Kwinter ponders the complex encounters between technology, culture, and architecture. Critical essays offer an extended meditation on infrastructure, war, computation, mechanical and material intelligence, and other multivariate facets of modernity. Far-reaching in scope, Far from Equilibrium amounts to a performance in writing of what Kwinter describes as radical anamnesis: “the imagination's escape from the sterile logic of what is.” Compiling over a decade of architectural and critical writings, many published here for the first time, Far From Equilibrium is essential reading for anyone interested in the state of architecture and criticism today. A primer for (re)thinking design in the 21st century.

Is Architecture one of the Creative Industries?

2008-02-22T15:56:00.003Z

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3106849&origin=BDweeklydigest

An interesting debate, worth posting a comment on the site above, I did, would you agree/disagree?

"Its people like Mr. Kenealy that make this profession so dull and restrained, subsiding it to merely tactics and trouble shooting! If it wasn’t for the creative individuals in this field that strive to "reinvent the wheel" we would still be living in 'thatched cottages’... Architecture is an art, beauty and intellectual thinking. It is very much related to the creative industries where it is cross informed by all the other subjects like fashion, ceramics, fine art, interiors, digital design, product design, modelmaking.....It is a social profession that is at the heart of society that listens and responds and not one that governs and dictates!"

Ted

Explosive Car Ballet...

2008-02-08T11:32:00.000Z

This is quite amazing, changing something quite horrific into something almost beautiful?!...

"Artist Cai Guo-Qiang has achieved the impossible. His installation Inopportune, featured at MASS MoCA in Massachusetts presents a virtual ballet of individual cars as they twist, revolve and flip in sequence making their way through the motions of a car crash. Long transparent rods radiate from the car, pulsing with dazzling multi coloured light as the vehicles appear in stop motion. Suspended from the ceiling with transparent cables the vehicles takes us through the contorted journey of an experience we would otherwise not want. Described as as "an explosive moment‚Äú expanded in time and space as if in a dream Cai Guo-Qiang's work is dramatic, severe and frighteningly beautiful."

It's a 2006 project if you wanted to have a look but there's also some other interesting stuff on the website...

LINK:
http://www.caiguoqiang.com/shell.php?sid=2

To Travel Somewhere

2008-02-05T12:44:00.000Z

To Travel Somewhere was made as a result of an artists placement at Adobe/Macromedia in San Francisco.

The aim of the placement was to explore ways in which mobile technology intersects with social experience.

I began this project by asking people I met on the streets to direct me to their favourite place. I followed their directions documenting the route in image and video on my mobile phone. This material was later loaded onto the project web site and positioned on a map using GPS co-ordinates.

The project took place in three cities - San Francisco, USA, Cambridge, UK and Helsinki, FI. All cities synonymous with the development of mobile technology

I was directed to swimming pools, cafés, parks, rooftops, harbours, rivers, museums, markets, bars. I met other people on the way, took detours, got lost, but usually found the right place in the end.

On the web site a kind of psycho-geography or alternative portrait of the city is created as we discover places through the memories of others.

Julie Myers

the 17

2008-02-05T12:37:00.000Z

link

art&architecture

2008-02-05T12:09:00.001Z

'Art & Architecture is an independent association providing a public forum for cross-discipline debate.

Celebrating twenty-five years, Art & Architecture (A&A) has been influencing the role of art, design and building, ever since its inception at a landmark ICA conference in 1982. To date A&A has presented over 200 lectures and numerous events, a considerable achievement for a voluntary group.

Applying the principal of art practice at the forefront of innovation, A&A promotes the collective approach as the vehicle to a better public domain. Rallying and empowering practitioners it advocates joined-up thinking between architects, engineers, planners, artists and academics to meet new challenges, such as a low carbon society and "restorative" ecological design.

In order to achieve the desired levels of quality and influence the future of the built environment the aim is to stimulate a lively and open debate through its open talks programme'

has a useful links section to various journals and foundations > see blogroll >>>

Metro Zones

2008-02-05T11:47:00.000Z

metrozones is a really interesting Berlin imprint. the website has some selected essays translated into English.

link

Visual Complexity

2008-02-04T15:35:00.000Z

VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project's main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web. I truly hope this space can inspire, motivate and enlighten any person doing research on this field.

do your own thing?????

2008-01-24T21:23:00.000Z

here's an archive of GLASPAPER, a publication produced by a deign co-operative I was part of. (established by a group of us who studied together in Diploma School). If it proved anything it was just how easy it is to get something done yourself!

GLASPAPER link

what if?

2008-01-24T10:24:00.000Z

WHAT IF: projects Ltd builds upon what‘s happening on the ground. We consider the qualities of existing conditions that may begin to unlock resources that reduce dependency, enabling people to find new ways of doing, thinking and relating in response to everyday issues.
We make small adjustments to our environment which have the potential to influence locally, city wide and beyond.

link

MAde - Digital Ekistics MA now recruiting

2008-01-17T10:57:00.000Z

On Monday, the MA digital ekistics: new online virtual settlements was validated for the maximum 5 year term. The course, the first of its kind, will provide a route by which students can conduct advanced design-based research into how architecture and urbanism can respond to these novel and increasingly pervasive electronic spaces. Should be fun....kind of drl in space, really...
link

RepRap

2008-01-09T23:58:00.000Z

JJ showed me this the other day - I want one - we should get one- in fact everybody needs one, imho....RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the left - a self-replicating machine. RepRap will make plastic, ceramic, or metal parts, and is itself made from plastic parts, so it will be able to make copies of itself. It is a three-axis robot that moves several material extruders. These extruders produce fine filaments of their working material with a paste-like consistency. Conductors can be intermixed with the plastic to form electronic circuits - in 3D even!

linkerator

light relief?

2008-01-08T23:20:00.000Z

Iso Truss

2008-01-08T17:11:00.000Z

The three-dimensional, yet relatively simple geometry of IsoTruss® grid structure provides substantial resistance to local and global column buckling, while lending itself to cost effective fabrication using batch or automated continuous manufacturing techniques. IsoTruss extrapolates the traditional 2-D triangle based truss to a 3-D truss made up of pyramids formed by isosceles triangles.

The IsoTruss® can support axial tension or compression, torsion, or flexure (bending) loads, or any combination thereof. Each individual member carries primarily axial loads, taking full advantage of the inherent strength and stiffness of continuous fiber-reinforced composites. IsoTruss structures are particularly effective when replacing structures that were stability-critical designs.

link

The Acorn Pig

2008-01-05T13:45:00.000Z

Art and Agriculture
landscape vision and natural animal keeping

The engagement of art with ecological questions is more old than 40 years. Since 1990 Insa Winkler did approach segments of this voluminous theme, special the keeping, the destroying and the repairing of the landscape - Moor, Chernobyl Zone, Military Zone, Wadden Sea and then the mass production of agriculture in the focus of the Acorn Pig and their species appropriate in the landscape.

`The domestic animal of human being incur into the machinery of the European agar industry. As an object of this intensive factory farming it becomes the danger of the landscape.´

loink

another huge dutch housing block

2008-01-04T18:14:00.000Z

From BD - The Parkrand building, designed by MVRDV and interior designer Richard Hutten, is one of the key projects in what is being branded a “metamorphosis”. Situated between a park and a residential neighbourhood set for demolition, the 135m-long, 12-storey building dominates its surroundings through its sheer size. With 223 dwellings, 193 of which are at the higher end of the rental market, the Parkrand building introduces a type of tenant to the north-western periphery of Amsterdam West who had been virtually absent in the social housing units it replaces.

linkoid

Skydiving in the lift shaft?

2008-01-04T13:11:00.000Z

Japan opens 'tallest lift tower'

The tower will be used to test new lift technologies

Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has opened what it says is the world's tallest elevator testing tower.

The 173m-high (567ft) structure is called Solae and dominates the skyline of Inazawa City.

The company says it will use the tower to conduct research into high-speed elevators to serve the next generation of super-tall buildings.

linka

MURVEGETAL

2008-01-04T11:54:00.000Z

I know some of you are aware of this guy- but maybe not everyone is - so here you go!
Using a system that allows plants to grow without any soil, The Vertical Garden by Patrick Blanc allows for natural living beauty in the otherwise most uninhabitable of places: the very walls of buildings, indoors or out. Watering and fertilization are automatic, so it's almost completely hassle free. Patrick Blanc has created customized living walls all over the world.
linkeroo

Bdonline's alternative architecture awards for 2007

2008-01-02T12:51:00.000Z

In case you missed them - check out this lot of shrinking violets - I'm sure you are aching to join them - I particularly admire the island in the shape of Russia - mad as a brush and rightly receiving the 'god complex' award

linkoid

Edifici Fòrum Barcelona

2007-12-05T11:25:00.000Z

James Turrell meets Anish Kapoor pimped by Yves Klein - as seen by swiss architects -
all of which are not necessarily bad things...

FOA Parque Litoral Barcelona

2007-12-05T11:22:00.000Z

Make your own mind up.... does this look as good as the concept and drawings suggested?

Herzog + De Meuron Winery

2007-12-05T11:18:00.000Z

nice gabion walls...

Fighting Robots

2007-12-05T11:10:00.000Z

A little light relief - maybe one for Odysseus?

FREE SOIL

2007-11-30T19:50:00.000Z

Free Soil is an international hybrid collaboration of artists, activists, researchers and gardeners who take a participatory role in the transformation of our environment. Free Soil fosters discourse, develops projects and gives support for critical art practices that reflect and change the urban and natural environment. We believe art can be a catalyst for social awareness and positive change.

Links to loads of stuff, architectural exhibitions, texts, etc......

LEARNING SITE

2007-11-30T19:43:00.001Z

Learning Site pays attention to the local conditions it finds in the place where it chooses to work. In the past years Learning Site has mainly worked with resource materials and economies related to the specific situations where work has been carried out. Economic, environmental, labor, property rights, and many other issues are investigated in tandem to produce a variety of perspectives.

Learning Site takes part of a discussion of how knowledge is distributed and produced.

N55

2007-11-30T16:48:00.000Z

Introduction:

N55 works with art as a part of everyday life.

Construction:

N55 is a platform for persons who wants to work together, share places to live, economy, and means of production.
N55 is based both in Copenhagen, and in LAND.

Production / distribution:

N55 has its own means of production and distribution.
Manuals for N55 things are published at www.N55.dk and in the N55 periodical. Furthermore, N55 things are implemented in various situations around the world, initiated by N55 or in collaboration with different persons and institutions.

Economy:

N55 is non-commercial. N55 is financed primarily by exhibitions, grants and educational work.

Politics:

N55 suggests respecting conditions for description: logical relations and facts, as a basis for politics.
Ideologies, religions, subjective opinions, social conventions, and habitual conceptions do not necessarily respect conditions for description.
An example of a decisive logical relation is the logical relation between persons and their rights. Persons should be treated as persons and therefore as having rights. If we deny this assertion it goes wrong: here we have a person, but this person should not be treated as a person, or: here is a person, who should be treated as a person, but not as having rights. Therefore we can only talk about persons in a way that makes sense if we know that persons have rights.
An example of a decisive fact is that concentrations of power characterise our society. Concentrations of power do not necessarily respect person's rights.
Concentrations of power force persons to concentrate on participating in competition and power games, in order to create a social position for themselves. Concurrently with the concentrations of power dominating our conscious mind and being decisive to our situations, the significance of our fellow humans diminishes. And our own significance becomes the significance we have for concentrations of power, the growth of concentrations of power, and the conflicts of concentrations of power. It is decisive that persons try to find ways of existing with as small concentrations of power as possible.

History:

In 1994 a non-commercial exhibition space and lab was initiated in Nørre Farimagsgade 55, Copenhagen. N55 grew out of this collaboration. In 1996, a number of persons started living together in an apartment located in the center of Copenhagen, trying to "rebuild the city from within" and using their everyday life situation as a platform for public events and collaborations. In the year 2000 FLOATING PLATFORM and N55 SPACEFRAME were constructed in the harbour area. N55 SPACEFRAME served as a starting point for local initiatives and interventions, a workspace and living space for the group until 2004. It now serves as a living space.In 2005 co-founder of N55 Ingvil Aarbakke died. N55 continues activities locally and elsewhere in collaboration with various persons.

URBAN PRESCRIPTIONS

2007-11-30T09:18:00.000Z

Santiago Cirugeda Parejo exploits gaps in administrative structures, governmental bodies’ supervisory energies, official procedures, and where the law falls short. As Benedicte Grosjean writes in ArchiLab’s Futurehouse (2002): “(Cirugeda) formulates realistic and empirical strategies to push the law to its limits and find pockets of non-law in which to develop a possible habitat.”

more maya stuff

2007-11-19T19:09:00.000Z

Hi - heres a link to Columbia's maya resources - mostly quite basic but there is a laser cutter wizard and a couple of other interesting bits - so something for n00bs and others...
enjoy.
j

LINK!!

Biomimetics: Design inspired by nature

2007-11-14T01:08:00.000Z

Biomimetics is an enabling discipline which looks towards nature for ideas that may be adapted and adopted for solving problems:

The burr on a dog's fur was the inspiration for Velcro!

An interesting site, with many links and information on ideas borrowed from nature applied in fields as innovative material research from aeronautical, submarine engineering to architecture etc

TheVeryMany

2007-11-06T20:07:00.000Z

Hi all.
John you might know this guy from your time at the AA. Mark Fornes. His research, some of which is displayed on his blog, is all about parametric/scripted/encoded processes in design. There's a couple of rhino scripts that can be copied and tested in the comfort and safety of your own home!

GM

Morpho-Towers---Two Standing Spirals

2007-10-25T16:27:00.000+01:00

Morpho Towers--Two Standing Spirals is an installation that consists of two ferrofluid sculptures that moves synthetically to music. The two spiral towers stand on a large plate that hold ferrofluid. When the music starts, the magnetic field around the tower is strengthened. Spikes of ferrofluid are born from the bottom plate and move up, trembling and rotating around the edge of the iron spiral.

LANDSCAPE URBANISM WEBOGRAPHY

2007-10-24T17:38:00.000+01:00

heres a list of weblinks to interesting Landscape Urbanism projects and designers. might just be useful.......

Projects
MFO Park, Zurich, Switzerland
Multi-tiered vine park
http://www.burckhardtpartner.ch/english/projekte/mfo/projekt.php

Parque de Diagonal Mar, Barcelona Spain
Misting Vine Pergola
EMBT
http://www.mirallestagliabue.com/project.asp?id=51

Palio de Bougainvilleas
Wind Adapted Road Canopy Strcuture
West 8
http://biennale.cp-artspace.com/2005/featured_west_8.html

Olympic Structure Park, Seattle
Mechanically stabilized landform
Weiss/Manfredi Architects
http://www.weissmanfredi.com/projects/index.php

Wonder Holland, Rome
Floating Glass Plain
West 8
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefoxa&
channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-
GB%3Aofficial&hs=Tko&q=wonder+holland+west+8&btnG=Search&meta=

The High Line, Section I, New York City
Field Operations
Navigate from website via projects:
http://www.fieldoperations.net/

Safe Zone, 7th International Gardens Festival, Reford Gardens, Grand Metis
StoSS landscape Urbanism
http://www.stoss.net/metis.html

Maritime Youth House, Sundby Harbour, Copenhagen
Surface Inversion
PLOT=BIG+JDS
http://www.big.dk/

Allianz Arena Munich Stadium, Munich
Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten + Herzog + de Meuron
Weaving Porous and Nonporous surfaces
http://www.vogt-la.ch/en/aussenraum/landschaft/projekte_1587.html

Shoulder Hedge, The Lurie Garden, Millenium Park, Chicago
Hedge Trimming Armature
Gustafon Guthrie Nichol Ltd + PPPiet Oudolf + Robert Israel
http://www.ggnltd.com/frame-sets/portfolio-fset.htm

Hybridized Hydrologies, Erie Street Plaza, Milwaukee
Artificial Winter Microclimate for a Bamboo Garden
StoSS Landscape Urbanism
http://www.stoss.net/metis.html

Former British Petroleum Park
Bio-Remediation Park Design
McGregor + Partners
http://mcgregorpartners.com.au/mcgnp_alternate.html

Daimler Chrysler Potsdamer Platz, Berlin
Water-Cleansing Biotope
Atelier Dreiseitl
http://www.dreiseitl.de/index.php

Sidwell Friends School, Washington
Andropogon Associates + Kieran Timberlake Associates + Natural Systems
International
http://www.andropogon.com/home.htm

Cultuurpark Wetergasfabriek, Amsterdam
Strategic Contaminated Soil Replacement
Gustafson Porter
http://www.gustafson-porter.com/

Ephemeral Structures, Olympic Games, Athens
Pneumatic Body
ONL
http://www.oosterhuis.nl/quickstart/index.php?id=349

Courtyard in the Wind, Munich
Powered by wind, the ground is turnable
Acconci Studio + Wolfgang Hermann Niemeyer
http://www.acconci.com/

Harvey Milk Memorial, San Francisco
Responsive Cloud Machine
Christian Werthmann + LOMA architecture.landscape.urbanism
http://www.loma-design.de/loma2/indexe.html?http://www.lomadesign.
de/loma2/projekte.asp?l=e

Pitterpatterns, Stuttgart
Computer Animated Rain
J. MAYER H. Architekten
http://www.jmayerh.de/home.htm

Wind Veil, Mesa Arts Centre, Mesa, Arizona
Dynamic Thermal Wind Wall
Ned Kahn
http://nedkahn.com/wind.html#

Exhange Square,Manchester
Martha Schwartz Inc.
http://www.marthaschwartz.com/prjts/civic/manchester/exchange.html

The Aesthetics of Urban Renewal
Online slide show review of MOMA’s exhibition Groundswell
http://www.slate.com/id/2114188/

Shanghai Carpet
Tom Leader Studio + Skidmore owings & Merrill LLP
http://www.tomleader.com/

Southeast Coastal Park, Barcelona
Foreign Office Architects
http://www.f-o-a.net/

Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park
Latz+partner
http://www.latzundpartner.de/L3/eng/e-4-du.htm

Northeast Coastal Park, Barcelona
Abalos + Herreros
http://www.abalos-herreros.com/#

Maya tutorials

2007-10-24T17:28:00.000+01:00

Hi All,

some of you have asked where to find online Maya tutorials:
here are some places. Enjoy...your eyes may look like this, after a while, though.

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials.html

http://www.zoorender.com/?page_id=26

http://www.highend3d.com/

http://www.purplestatic.com/courses/maya/

Park & Jog - Buschow & Henley

2007-10-22T20:59:00.000+01:00

Park + Jog regenerates its surroundings, bringing activity and value to blighted sections of the city, and it radically alters the political situation for the suburb and the heartless commute it makes inevitable. In 2006 it was shown at the Van Alen Institute in New York as part of the international exhibition “The Good Life - New Public Spaces for Recreation”.

Our utopian scheme is envisioned for a 1km stretch of the A6 road between Salford University and Manchester city centre. The road is transformed into a 4-lane linear park. One lane is grassed, another a water channel, another sand and the last a running track. Parking their cars in a multi-storey car park, commuters can change in the facilities provided and head east into Manchester walking, jogging, cycling, rollerblading, horse riding, swimming or rowing.

Web http://www.buschowhenley.co.uk/projects/regeneration/006.htm

Another 'Smashing' article on Data Visualization

2007-10-13T17:37:00.001+01:00

It has a lot of the same examples as below and also includes an interesting interview

PingMag

2007-10-12T20:39:00.000+01:00

SmashingMAGAZINE

Wish i'd found this earlier! :) still, loads of ideas for data visualisation and diagramming.

Architecture and Situated Technologies

2007-10-12T18:22:00.000+01:00

Online results from a 3-day symposium bringing together researchers and practitioners from art, architecture, technology and sociology to explore the emerging role of "situated" technologies in the design and inhabitation of the contemporary metapolis.

Some of the presentations are worth a look and the bibliography is ok too....

Sky-Rail

2007-10-10T22:03:00.000+01:00

Intereseting in relation to diagrams as interactive machines.

link

AkrYls

2007-10-06T23:12:00.000+01:00

Hi all.
I thought i would post this for those of you interested in CG. It's one of my favourite indie animations of all time :)

link

smoke signals

2007-10-03T21:05:00.000+01:00

This is a nice project from an old colleague of mine - Theo Spyroupolous.

“Participants engage in a collective act of writing space through the use of light as a virtual writing machine onto ephemeral plumes of smoke,” explain Minimaforms. In other words, onlookers can text messages which are then displayed using light projected into plumes of smoke. Their texts “are fed through dynamic coding that recognizes, archives and plays back a real time visualization. This visualization is then grafted onto trajectories of smoke that form a dynamic ephemeral field that is affected by all external forces in the space of performance. Through turbulence the smoke writes or erases the grafting of the inputted text.”

link

Asymptote building stuff - surely not?

2007-10-01T23:03:00.000+01:00

image: Asymptote

Asymptote has unveiled another major Asian project, extending the complexity and scope of their kinetic work with a 10.8-million-square-foot mixed-use, zero-carbon complex in Penang, Malaysia. In a statement, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called the project, known as the Penang Global City, “a high-caliber development” that will serve as “a catalyst for the NCER and an important factor in the Malaysian economy as a whole.” The NCER is the Northern Corridor Economic Region, a recently created development zone along Malaysia’s northern border.

“It’s certainly a place that’s off the map, but it’s trying to get on there,” Asymptote principal Hani Rashid told AN. He said that in ambition, the city’s goals are analogous to those of Bilbao, Abu Dhabi, and Kuala Lumpur, all of which have used architecture to raise their global profile in one way or another. “When people think of Malaysia, they uually think of the Petronas Towers,” Rashid said. “Now the government wants to bring that attention to the northern corridor.”

I wonder who is drawing the construction set??

from here

McGametastic

2007-10-01T22:49:00.000+01:00

Paolo Pedercini is a mad bastard, and the McDonald's game is his sharp, procedural satire of how fast food is a corrupt industry by necessity. The game is set up so that you cannot win without compromising. Try it, you'll see. While you can maintain mild growth without using hormones or genetically modified crops, your bosses will not be satisfied. To really succeed, you have to employ what some might call "unnatural" means, though at Corporate, they call it "McFriendly growth measures".

The game is drawn with a crazy flair, the blood splattered happy meal at the title screen should be some indication. There are subtle touches, like the joint perpetually hung out the mouth of a marketer, or the fact that some of your customers are men with beards wearing skirts -- a byproduct of the randomly combinatorial nature of the character generation system. Watching the constant flow of people getting their trays, then walking off, is sickly hypnotic; it's the core pulse of the game's system, where the commodities turn into cash and complete the play loop, and its also an abstraction of something that is going on all over the world, many times a second. The illustrations and writing are pretty on-point as well (hint: before you bulldoze the Amazonian village to plant more GMO soy, start a "McDonald's for the Third World" campaign).

via Playthisthing

Cross River Park

2007-09-30T18:08:00.000+01:00

Mat & Kevin, I said that I would send you this link at the end of last year (there is a huge amount of info, embedded in here)

Cross River Park, Thames Gateway. This is the product of a Diploma Unit running at London Metropolitan (run by CHORA)
http://crp.urban-gallery.net/
http://www.chora.org/2005/?page_id=9

The Architecture of Parking

2007-09-30T17:27:00.001+01:00

Neil the book I was talking about was 'The Architecure of Parking' (they have 3 copies in Waterstones Canterbury; to flick through). The last chapter with the contemporary stuff is very interesting.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=0500342377

They have a fair amount of info on the BD site
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/feature.asp?featurecode=12025

The two projects that jumped out were:

OMA, Souterrain Tram Tunnel, The Hauge (the linking of 2 transport hubs, underground, plus parking)
http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_projects&view=portal&Itemid=10&id=183

Aranda/Lasch, 10 Mile Spiral, Las Vegas (the beauty of parking at 55 miles per hour)
http://www.terraswarm.com/vegas/
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/10-mile-spiral.html

Building Design Class 0f 2007

2007-09-30T17:05:00.000+01:00

Just in case anybody missed it BD has an overview of some of last years student shows and student diploma work.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/section.asp?navcode=2058

Plus you can download Paul Maich's full project from dezeen (bottom of the page 2 pdf files)
http://www.dezeen.com/2007/09/28/architect-murdered-in-his-own-building-cognitive-dwelling-by-paul-maich/#more-5482

First review of the year...

2007-09-28T13:39:00.000+01:00

Light works - crit and selection for exhibition.

please be pinned up and have projectors on standby ready for a prompt start. It is your responsmibility to get projectors if needed for animations - sharing would make sense..

I draw your attention to the output specifications in the brief -

For individuals working alone
A minimum of 5 full colour, high quality full bleed images on semi gloss photo-grade paper, cropped and mounted for exhibition on 3.5mm foam board.

For groups
A minimum of 5 full colour, high quality full bleed images on semi gloss photo-grade paper, cropped and mounted for exhibition on 3.5mm foam board.

Also a minimum 30 second animation presented as Quicktime movie, size 720x594 px 16:9 aspect ratio

MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THEM PRECISELY.

Any work which does not meet submission requirements will be disregarded and may be summarily destroyed in an extravagant and public ceremony.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

But - hey - lets have some fun...

Tuesday 2nd October 12.30 for 1.00pm in the Atrium

Sao Paolo Mayor---genius or.....?

2007-09-28T13:00:00.001+01:00

At the beginning of this year the mayor of Sao Paolo Brazil passed a law to make all forms of public advertising, from the mega-billboard to the flickering neon sign of the liquor store illegal.

The result speaks for itself---check out the photo set on flikr:

http://flickr.com/photos/tonydemarco/sets/72157600075508212/

GM

gentlemen, start your bookmarks...

2007-09-27T13:26:00.000+01:00

This is a Dutch Tax office - it would be better/more fun if it was in the UK when it would certainly leak - however its kinda cute, no?
more details and many more-or less- groovy projects at thecoolhunter

If you don't know this site - you do now.

Robodock 07

2007-09-27T11:29:00.000+01:00

The 10th Robodock Arts & Technology Festival that took place in Amsterdam last weekend. Interesting as event architecture... have a look

link

There is an mp4 slideshow here

photo by PharPhoto / Aaron Butler

Lets get to it...

2007-09-26T18:08:00.000+01:00

Hi - UCCA diplomanauts, I am sending you all logins so you can post to this blog. I hope it will build over the year into a valuable resource. Post often - and anything you feel worth seeing - architectural or not (In case you're wondering the pic is one of mine).
J