Designs Released for the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture

Designs for the last piece of the national mall have been unveiled and include designs from 6 of the most recognized names in architecture. The entries include submissions from Devrouax +Purnell Architects & Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Diller Scofidio + Renfro in Association with Kling Stubbins, Foster + Partners / URS Group, Inc., Freelon Adjaye Bond / Smith Group, Moody Nolan Inc. / Antoine Predock Architecture PC, & Moshe Safdie and Associates Inc. The site for this new half a billion dollar LEED certified building will be on the corner of 14th street and Constitution Ave, directly opposite the American History Museum. According to The Washington Post Models of these submissions are on display to the public at the Castle Building until April 6th, and if these models are anything like the renderings then you should probably take a few hours out of your day to check it out! The Castle building is located opposite the Natural History Museum on The Mall.

the seed

The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

For you bikers out there!

Check it out, a neat idea

the atom suit project

the photo series atom suit project by japanese sculpter/photographer/artist kenji yanobe shows suited figures roaming desolate, but strangely compelling landscapes. the mixture of dystopic imagery and the contemplative nature of the suited explorers create an all too familiar feeling of looking into a future that we have created for ourselves. are the suits needed for survival in this new old land, or are they merely housing visitors surveying the post event fallout? the seeming neccessity of the suit itself perversely reminds the viewer of the cushicle, an automated leisure environment suit created by archigram in the 1960s.

wii graffitii

the future is here. in another example of a haptic device bringing user-generated actions to the small screen, students at the bauhaus have created a wii-based game that simulates the act of spray-painting. the graffiti game uses the wii-mote as a spray can so the user can "paint" the surface of the monitor. ganked from oobject. see more haptic controllers here.

analog blogs

even though much of today's communication takes place in a digital realm, it's hard to deny the connection between physical message boards and the digital news we consume via broadcast media and the internet. this guy, Alfred Sirleaf, in Liberia runs an analog news stand along side of a busy road, physically recording news items, gas prices, and advertising throughout the day. not confined to large broadcast-populations, a physical message board offers a public locality and the ability to respond to local environments. in most of these instances, the media is supplied and organized by the surrounding populous.

space invader

a cool new video of a stealthy installation by Invader. ganked from Wooster.
SPACE INVADER #763
by extermitent

grow your own house!

Why build a house when you can grow one? Green roofs, living walls, and all sorts of crazy! See a living wall get built here.

abandoned lot, berlin, germany

an empty lot, adjacent to friedrich strasse, berlin, germany... I found it wandering not to far from my hostel, my first day in the city...

spray cans, rags, cigarettes, with an ever-changing canvas of walls, buses, and any/all surfaces activates the lot with a relentless urban intensity...

further in, layered within the graffiti lies a small artists collective, housed under tents, shipping containers, and makeshift structures... sculptors and painters working in concert with their environment to defy convention through art...

a fitting slogan for a space unabashedly embracing flux, defined by nothing but open and defiant expression of art and energy...

Civil Disobedience is BIG in Adams Morgan...

Local artists in conjunction with Capitol Climate Action go big in Adams Morgan, DC to promote renewable /sustainable energy. 

Visit http://www.capitolclimateaction.org/ for more info.  

park/ing

Entry in NOTORIUS LA Design Competition, sponsered by RTKL. The competition brief provided two building sites at the intersection of Figeroa Ave. and the 110 Freeway, and invited proposals for a gateway into downtown Los Angeles. The site itself is bi-sected by the freeway. The program is split on the site. The tension of the 110 Freeway connects each function. On Figeroa Ave., a major artery to downtown LA, a parking garage and public transportation hub is located. The structure of which, acts as a multi-media platform to the park located on the opposite side of the freeway.