How to Save Architecture

Yes! Architecture clearly needs more googly-eyes!

via Build Blog

Flintstones

Yeah, yeah, looks like a bad Photoshop job, but is a real place.

Details via TreeHugger.

The Third & The Seventh

Some flat out awesome architectural CGI via boingboing, including "making of" videos on Vimeo.

Unreal

Some awesome artwork from the Netherlands. Yes, that really is all just tricks of the light.

via Good Magazine.

Want!

Okay, I so totally want my own galactic shuttle. Wonder if it would make a good house?

Via Wallpaper*.

Oobiki (大引)

No, it is not really worth asking why I was looking for a definition of that word, but here is a neat site on Japanese architecture, with just such a definition.

And a House to Live In

The Shelf Pod. Finally a place for my books. Found in Moriguchi, Osaka via What We Do is Secret

Am I allowed to confess the extent to which this house fills me with desire?

An Office to Work In

Selgas Cano Architecture Office by Iwan Baan via ArchDaily

And yes, I so would want an office like that.

For those really big math problems ...

The Measure of the Man, from Continuity in Architecture.

The Blind Leading the Blind

Sometimes the blind leading the blind is a good thing, after all, who better to have a handle on the obstacles that need to be dealt with.

Designing for a space people won't ever see ... via Archinect.

Beauty in Economy

Some commentary on excesses of architecture from Canada's Globe and Mail.

I think it could do a better job clarifying the difference between iconic and moronic, but that is probably just me. Which is to say, there are well designed architectures of ego as well as poorly designed ones. It is just the poorly designed ones seem to be the ones more commonly built. Mostly because they are the flaming, spinning logos of the architecture world. Look great, but inefficient and not really designed for actual use.

The Impossible Weirdness of Being

It’s impossible to legislate weirdness, which is a sad thing for the city’s architectural heritage.
from New York Magazine

Virtual Made Real

Project Dragonfly by Autodesk

Now anyone can lay out their own home in a virtual setting. Given the title of the headline at Archinect, it seems that at least some architects are a little concerned about their profession. Though the comments that follow also indicate that they are few in number. Still, if they really are concerned, perhaps they should spend some time in Second Life. It will quickly allay their fears.

On the other hand, it is an interior design tool available for free online, making it accessible to even those who may lack construction paper, scissors, rulers, pencils, tape, and markers or crayons (or even just pencils and paper). If architecture is about controlling the tools and not about the inspiration and talent of the creator in addressing the needs of their clients in an aesthetically pleasing, environmentally friendly, socially responsive, and innovative way, then perhaps there might be a problem. Otherwise we are still good to go.

via the New York Times

As a follow up. I did try it. Pencil and paper is still faster and more flexible. And Second Life wins hands down on pan and zoom and environmental effects.

World Builder

An wonderful, short piece called World Builder.

I wish Second Life tools worked like this.

It would definitely be cool if we could build things sketchup style.

Some Interesting Architectures

It's a golf course! No, it's a waste treatment plant! Creative responses to the knee-jerk NIMBY.

The social bracket just isn't what it was ...

The Political Arcology

The Continuous Enclave: Strategies in Bypass Urbanism

An interesting, if impractical, idea to use arcologies to redefine and unify fractured political geographies.

From BLDGBLOG

Builds: Asian Modern

Just some shots of an Asian modern block of a house I am putting the finishing touches on.

It is meant to sit in a reasonably steep slope. The building has a discrete door hidden away on the first floor as well as a rooftop entrance from the cliff behind it. There is also a small indoor koi pond at the base of the spiral staircase.

Best Practices

Some tips on best practices in architecture from the BUILD Blog.

Student Works

From the comments in a post on Deezen regarding the posting of a student project.

eeeh..Why are third year students around the world doing the exact same thing? No context, no meaning, no function, scaleless…. it could be anything, it could be a toy or a villa or a museum. No thought of the art. No, it has to be enough now!

There there are many things in the long litany of complaints that I must agree with:

• Student works should be shared and commented on in public forums like this.
• Students should be allowed to experiment.
• It is easy to claim something is derivative because it looks sort of like it falls into one camp or another that critics have typed famous architects into or that architects have claimed as their own. Also note that such claims of derivation seem to be a name dropping game. How many times can we drop the name Zaha Hadid? Perhaps the student was actually inspired by some lesser known work of Jungermann. Or perhaps Hadid is as influenced by her tools as these students are.
• However, the point of such encouragement is to allow for a broader base of critique.

So ...

• Buildings have context. Most student projects that get shown off like this are entirely lacking in context. For instance, in the article linked to above, where in Queens could you even put such a thing, and what sort of dialog would it establish with the surrounding architecture? Would it become nothing but a larger version of the Golden Turd?
• Buildings have function. Judging from the interior shots of this structure, the only function the building serves is to create space. As someone asked already, where would you hang the art?
• Buildings, certainly public buildings, need to relate to people.
• Overlooking these factors is not intellectual experimentation, it is intellectual laziness. On the other hand, learning where your weaknesses are and overcoming them is a critical part of learning.

The Economy in One Easy Lesson

Lesson One: Negative Chicago from Pruned.

All in all we seem to be having an inauspicious start to what the Chinese have decided is an inauspicious alignment of the zodiac sign of the year.