the age of stupid

Told in hindsight, the British film The Age of Stupid is a foresight of the future we may face and the incredible sense of shame that might very well accompany the great sense of loss. The film follows it's narrator, a lone survivor in the year 2055, as he watches film footage of 2007 and the swirling arguments and political stand-offs that the idea of climate change generated. As he watches real footage from 2007, the narrator (played by Pete Postlethwaite) wonders aloud why we didn't stop climate change while we had the chance. Meanwhile, epic scenes of the disaster and the world we constructed are flashed on the screen. It will be frightening to see real images of natural disasters today side by side with the haunting but beautiful scenes of a post-apocalyptic world and all to easy to see the two being not-to distant relations. Seen on i09.

innovation

the legacy

Industrial Revolution

Great Depression

Suburbia

Our greatest problem was that we were given everything. Our great-grandparents invented industry and our grandparents lived without so that it might succeed. Our parents worked hard, built the middle class, and laid a foundation of stability. We are the fruits of this labor, and we seem to be satisfied with it. Without something to fight for or rebel against, we let stand the progress. Why progress when the outcome of the past was comfort? Is what exists of this process the peak? Do we refine the product? Re-invent it? Or do we just take advantage of it's stasis and let the meaning behind the process disappear. Will we let it fall into disrepair, only for the next generation to fix? If it does, will that be our legacy, or theirs?

the problem of organic form

Green Algae. A microorganism that uses protons to produce molecular hydrogen.

"The external configuration is usually rather simple, but there is packed into the interior of an organism an amazing complexity of structures which have long been the delight of anatomists. The specific form of a plant or animal is determined not only by the genes in that organism and the cytoplasmic activities that these direct but by the interaction between genetic constitution and environment. A given gene does not control a specific trait, but a specific reaction to a specific environment."
-From The Problem of Organic Form by Edmund W. Sinnott, 1963. Seen in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi, 1966.

shenzhen crystal island

OMA, in collaboration with Urbanas, has recently been announced as the winner of the Shenzhen Crystal Island competition. The scheme imagines an inter-connected landscape of creativity. Located in front of the old City Hall, the development would link the creative industries of the city through connective infrastructure. Layered into the urban fabric the plan vertically stacks three zonal concepts. Underground, a network of "shortcut connectors" form the "design link", a system that physically joins the disperse creative industries of the city. A large-scale public plaza and "creative center" occupies the surface area of the site and provides 20 hectacres of parks, pavillions, and "design villages". Amidst all of this is the Shenzhen Eye. This feature is seen as the "landmark" element on site. Situated between the underground network and the above-ground landscape, the "eye" seems to defy it's own spatial existence. Located below grade, the curvalinear form of the apperature and the distorted perspective provide a "floating" glimpse of the city skyline beyond, realizing at once the spatial implications of creative design. swiped from designboom.

asphalt spot

Asphalt spot is a bastard-hybrid parking-lot-exhibition-hall-facilities facility by Francois Roche and R&Sie(n) in Tokamashi, Japan. Whether the 300m2 folly exists to carry 20 parking spaces on it's undulating roof surface or it is that very surface that purposely hides the folly is called into question. The traditional programmatic idea of primary use and it's relation to support function is neutralized by elevating the supporting functions to prominence. No longer does the exhibit hall and rest facilities command visual and circulatory precedent. Instead, they become subject to the redfined whimsy of a traditionally ignored site element. seen on SpaceInvading

16,000 year-old concrete

photo by chris bobko
Engineer's at MIT have discovered the cause behind concrete to deform and weaken over time due to stress. called concrete creep, a rearrangement of structure at the nano-scale, professor Franz-Jozef Ulm's paper suggests that, if slowed by 2.6%, the result would increase the effective lifespan of concrete up to 16,000 years. Although I understand BLDGBLG's hesitation at a material synonnomous with parking structures being able to last for 16,000 years, there may be practical uses for this. Aside from the ecological benefit of only producing the concrete once, extended-use infrastrcutre such as bridges and foundations would require less maintanence and replacement over the material life-cycle. Also, by micro-engineering the material, a complete re-imagining of construction methods with the material is possible. Working at a nano-scale it becomes possible to engineer into the concrete certain nano-structures or formulas that would allow for easy assembly/disassembly and manipulation. If the material does indeed have such durability, the ability to re-engineer that actual piece of concrete, whether to repair or reform, could yield infinite solutions. Ironically, the material that defined 'modularity' could be re-engineered to be modular at a molecular level. Could actual 'curable' concrete be created where the atomic structure is re-energized and given a molecular tune-up? A structural member is tested and the calculations reveal it's structure has decomposed to an unsafe level. A specific electrical current is applied to the material and particles are jostled back into place and the original strength is again realized.

destroy build destroy

flow 5.0

In the 2007 project Flow 5.0, interactive artist Daan Roosegaarde created a 10-meter long space with two parellel walls composed of hundreds of small ventilator fans linked to audio and visual sensors. The result is a "pixelated" interactive surface that responds to user and environmental stimulus. According to the Dutch artist "Flow 5.0 is an interactive landscape made out of hundreds of ventilators which reacts on your sound and motion. By walking and interacting the visitor creates an illusive landscape of transparencies and artificial wind. Moving through Flow 5.0 the visitor becomes conscious of himself as a collective body, in dynamic relation with space and technology." In his statement, Roosegaarde admits a fundamental desire to link the built landscape more dynamically with that of it's users and environment.

yggdrasil electric pole

the yggdrasil electric pole by no picnic is the recently approved design for a new high tension electricity pole at a highway entry point into stockholm, sweden. the structure both carries elevated electric lines but also functions as a large light sculpture. as a conceptual gateway into the city, it is undoubtedly a beautifully designed structure that will emit low level ambient light between the tree-like masts. unfortunately, using energy, to project light directly up into the atmosphere does not quite seem like an efficient or environmentally friendly decison. the design is named after the yggdrasil, or earth tree, of ancient norse mythology. seen on gizmodo.

metropol parasol

construction is underway for 'metropol parasol' designed by Jurgen Mayer H. The project was the winning entry in a 2004 design competition to redevelop the Plaza de la Encarnacion in Seville, Spain. the competition entry is an attempt to create a new contemporary urban center that provides an archeological site, a farmers market, public gathering space and numerous commercial venues. the structure, which, once complete, will be on of the world's largest timber-frame constructs, is scheduled to be complete in late 2009. the form itself seems to grow from the cityscape below and spreads out overhead creating a canopy that weaves it's way through the plaza. serving as both facility nodes and as vertical circulation, the large columns speak of the connection between earth and sky, historic and contemporary, past, present, and future. swiped from designboom

Lego Mania!

Ahhh, yes...LEGOS!!!!! We grew up playing with this amazing toy designed by the Dutch. Below are some fine examples by Nathan Sawaya, posted on Design Boom

Little girl, why do you have grenade in your hand?

I thought this was a powerful one and coincidentally, so did someone else as I was taking the shot. I ended up having a good conversation with this man about the meaning of the one. We talked of innocence, puppeteer-ing, war and greed in a good 10 minute conversation. I've been trying to get a shot of this one for a while and finally got it. Rain had been getting in the way.

[Taken near Georgia Ave and Quincy streets NW, on 4/19/09]

Google Street View

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Post Industrial Revitalization ?

I looked at this image and just had to say "wow!" followed by a short breath of disgust and concern. There are huge built forms like this that are just barely holding itself up...if not structural, morally. This was once the central train station in Detroit. In its time, probably thousands of people are scrambling through the space, yelling, running, trying to find their next train. Now, absolutely nothing. It's sad... Maybe the building could be partially renovated to accomodate a new function, artist lofts, indoor mall, skate board arena....anything!??!

Another example is the Ryugyong Hotel in Taiwan. Two problems here, out of funding and poor quality concrete was used and structural failure is occuring. This one, I think the building is really freaking ugly but just another example. Following are some links of abandonment posts:
Web Urbanists - Abandoned buildings, spaces
Web Urbanists - Abandonment in Asia (inc the hotel)

evol : spotlight on

evol, a street artist from germany is known for installations that call into question our relationship with the urban environment. frequently pointing out the failures of 'modernist utopia schemes' and the oft overlooked corners of the city, evol's work draws attention to grand schemes and the scale of misunderstanding. for some of his recent installations evol has taken the repetitive and often senseless facades of public housing projects and applied them to small city objects, thus forcing the viewer to re-evaluate the scale of the idea. see more at fabrik project and spaceinvading.

electronic paper display

from e ink:
"An Electronic Paper Display is a display that possess a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low power consumption, and a thin, light form. It gives the viewer the experience of reading from paper, while having the power of updatable information."
see more at xconomy here

gas stations and rocket ships

Tramway Gas Station / 2901 North Palm Canyon Drive by frey and chambers. 1963.

you can't explore space if you run out of gas. but cars and planes and rockets all carry their own fuel supplies. so, at best, only relatively short trips are possible. how far could you drive your car if there were no gas stations within driving distance. you would always have to return to that fuel station to make any travel possible. thus, as an organism, a space ship does not thrive in it's environment, it merely exists in it. it can make limited trips in and out but that's the extent. satellites and space stations only hang there, balanced perfectly, in a pre-set orbit, yet no free movement is possible. instead of carry-and-consume, the ship should produce-and-transform as it travels. if the craft can harness and utilize naturally encountered energies, it could travel and exist indefinitely. imagine limitless travel where time is the only constraint on distance (both being af function of each other anyway...)! but a vessel might use passive energy such as solar or transform it's internal bio-processes into energy (poop=power). who knows, maybe sans-gravity, a perpetual motion apparatus may finally be realized and the resultant emmision is propulsion?

magnetic termite mounds

the termite has long been known as highly social insects that live in large colonies with a very specific social order. however, the 'mounds' that they construct are quickly being identified as sophisticated structures. the compass termite of australia orients it's mound along a north-south access to utilize the process of thermoregulation to maintain the interior temperature even as the outside air may vary from hot to cold. with it's largest elevations facing east and west, the mound collects the warm sun in the morning and evening, as the center stays cool. however, once night falls, the heat captured by the exterior is transferred to the interior. mounds also use the stack effect to cool and ventilate the interior of the structure. warm air is drawn up through the network of tunnels that are similar to capillaries in the human skin and the warm gaseous air is exchanged at the structure's surface. read more at environmental grafitti and at the national. images by neil liddle.

grey goo

grey goo is the name given to the hypothesized scenario which envisions the world being taken over by self-replicating nano-technology. giacomo costa is a digital artist who imagines the world post-infiltration. the forms that begin to arise in the decimated landscape seem to grow organically, yet mimic the vertical growth patterns of urban density. calling to mind the singularity, where the rate of technology expands so rapidly that a super-intelligent 'being' is created, these images imagine a new phase in evolution; one created by humans, but not controlled by them.

of google maps and robots

just as it is difficult to imagine getting work done without email, finding your way around town without google maps is risky, at best. the old-fashioned way of navigation, interaction with the urban fabric and local populace, has been relegated to several mouse-clicks and a printed screen-shot. asking for directions is for old people. and robots. old people and robots.
a team of german scientists at the technical university of munich have programmed a robot to navigate an urban area to a destination one and a half kilometers away through human interaction. nicknamed ACE, for Autonomous City Explorer, the robot approaches a human target and subsequently displays a message on it's screen asking the human if it would like to help. If the passer-by chooses to help, the robot vocalizes it's current position and destination, and asks for directions to it's endpoint. the robot is programmed to scan the stance of the human target and recognize pointing and gestures. continuing it's data collection, the robot requests wayfinding tips through identification of landmarks and map input. as ACE continues to collect and analyze the data in it's system, the robot and generates a 3-dimensional real-time map of information.

data collected from New Scientist

liquid signage

WATER LOGO, by the hara design institute and atelier omoya, is fabric structured at the nano-level to repel drops of water larger than a certain size. These droplets are moved off of the textured surface passively, by gravity, and only drops of a specific size remain. the structure is constantly re-supplied with water, so control over the droplets is possible. seen via designboom

of bricks and robots

Louis Khan was famously quoted as saying " 'What do you want Brick?' And the Brick says to you, 'I like an arch.'..." Much of Khan's work was rooted in the honesty of heavy materials such as concrete and brick. His comment, moreover, belies his belief that all materials contain certain physical characteristics that define their usage. Brick was invented as load-bearing unit masonry and for much of it's history was used as such. However, in recent years, the meaning of brick has become convoluted in modern buildings. No longer used as a load bearing unit, brick has become a skin applied to the surface of structure. Ironically, it is the meaning of 'brick' that sustains it's usage. Technologically, brick does not function well as building skin. The units themselves are small, heavy, and require internal structure to carry their weight. However, brick is still used as skin in modern buildings because of the meaning and familiarity behind it. A brick wall recalls the idea of permanence and strength. It is a material of comfort in spite of the fact that today, unbeknownst to the user, the system is literally hanging over them.
However, the very properties that make brick a perverse choice for skin, may also enable a renaissance in it's usage. Capitalizing on the very fact that it is a small, unitized system, new technologies are revolutionizing the three dimensional capabilities of it's stacking. Using digitally defined algorythms and computer controlled robotic stacking devices, complex forms are able to be generated. At the 2008 Venice Bienale Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler constructed an installation entitled 'Structural Oscillations' that consisted of 14,961 individually rotated bricks in a 100 meter-long wall (pictured above). Here, the modern technology used to create this wall redefines the idea of the 'brick wall', while using the very properties of traditional brick. The individual units are rotated in space, creating spatial surfaces yet still rely on their load-bearing capacity for support.

Dematerialization of Brick

Another example of creative using brick to articulate a facade treatment. Here rather than having actual spaced openings, the brick units are rotated incrementally. As the spacing between gets too wide, it naturally lends itself in being an opening. Pretty cool.

Image is from Archidose Porous Masonry Posting

favela eyes

for his latest 'intervention', street artist and photographer JR has tagged the walls of this favela in Rio de Janeiro with the oversized portraits of his subjects. viewed from a distance, and at such a large scale, the human faces and eyes turn the stacked structures of the favela into a crowd of silent observers. perversely the very favelas which are generally looked upon with distrust, are transformed into the watchers. the personification of the structure is a reminder of the humanity that inhabits them.
Seen via BLDG BLOG

'phyte' tower

'phyte' tower, the winning entry in a competition sponsored by the Foundation Societe Tour Eiffel, is a 380 meter tall mobile-communications tower that bends and flexes with the wind. Designed by Nicolas Mouret, the structure is a combination of structural members and cables operating both in tension and compression, allowing it to move freely with the elements.
Acting as a dynamic counterpart to the static iconography of the Eiffel Tower, Phyte Tower re-interprets the spirit of technology and progressive design that made the former possible. As it's structure bends and sways, internal mechanisms generate sufficient energy to power it's lighting.

morpho butterfly

The wings of the morpho butterfly remain bright and shiny throughout the butterfly's entire lifespan. The vibrant color is created by light refraction rather than pigment. The tiny scales that make up the wing membrane are made of layers of protein that refract light in many different ways, so the color seen is that of reflected light.
According to Ask Nature, an advanced fiber company Tenjin Fibers Limited has begun to manufacture fibers mimicking this structure. The resultant fibers require no pigments and resist fade. The color shades and brightness are created by the thickness and frequency of structural layering.

suburb eating robot

The large, colorful robot is so big it could be a building. But it's not. Not really. It looks like it could be an AT-AT's distant, cheery relative that chases houses instead of Ewoks. There are people inside of it, probably. Either working for it, operating it's movements, or maybe inhabiting it, just enjoying the view. It happily chomps through house after house. Walking spirally ever forward, it leaves nothing behind it but great trails of green. Trees. Grass. Maybe a picnic or two.
Andrew Maynard's Suburb Eating Robot is an attempt to imagine a building, albeit mostly robot, contest a built environment deemed unacceptable. That Maynard is an architect in Melbourne, Australia, where suburbs have recently begun to expand into the surrounding areas, might come as no surprise. And whether one is fighting sprawl with giant, colorful robots, generating energy to return to the grid, or just plotting to take over the world, the signs are clear! Buildings can be more than just building. Technology, research, and advanced (and simple) construction techniques allow today's buidings to confront today's problems.

prada transformer

The Prada Transformer by OMA, which is the firms most recent collaboration with the well-known design house Prada,is structurally and functionally a tetrahedron that can be rotated by cranes to four different positions. Each new structural positioning reveals a new floor-plate for each new event; a fashion exhibit, art exhibit, cinema, and fashion show. The interior is a collection of walls that become cielings that become stages that become seating. M.C. Escher would be proud.