it’s easy to get mired in a view of design that focuses data exchange between ecotect and grasshopper, performative skin systems in generative components, and scripting architectural solutions, but once in a while you find a completely different take on what design is and what you really should be doing to be creating a design solution. james rojas of g727 and metro has one of these takes on design on an urban scale: let the community members design it themselves. if you haven’t seen one of james’ installations for yourself, you can’t imagine the vast amount of trinkets, toys, and other items that people can use to construct their own vision of their environment. by using either items we recognize as toys or elements taken out of context, the users have a remarkably high amount of creativity and exploration.
read more about one of james’ installations on ::industrianism.
these shots are from an interesting architectural exploration from the university of stuttgart, where willows and trees grow to become load bearing members of a 26′ tower. as the trees develop, so does the structure and the program.
what ’s unique about this project as compared to projects like plantware and patrick dougherty’s work is the demand placed upon the trees. in other projects that either reappropriate plants to perform an alternative function or reorganize trees to provide enclosure, this example of building botany asks the trees to support more than their own weight. in the spiegel online article there’s a description of how the architects need to manipulate the trees to become load bearing, which is an interesting process of placing lateral forces on the trees in order for them to develop a support for the steel platform.
which calls into question, how green is this? forgetting for a moment that this is a nascent technology and that with time it will certainly become more efficient, it would be interesting to see how much energy is used in weighting the trees versus creating the lumber necessary to frame the same structure. I think this project is brilliant, but too frequently we define what is sustainable very simplistically. for example, it takes five years for the average driver to counter the embodied energy of just the battery of a prius, much less the rest of the vehicle. in the case of building botany, does removing the fabrication process of lumber out of construction create a more sustainable building method or is there an economy involved in creating massive amounts of lumber at once and then shipping it very efficiently? it’s a little unclear, which is why I wish there was more published on this process. regardless, its an incredibly fascinating and thought-provoking development.
philipp schaerer’s photography is a unique examination of how build for relates to its context. his bildbauten series looks at buildings as negative space and his meereshorst series investigates a variable relationship of building form to its surroundings. schaerer’s work is a collection of fascinating minimalist images that seem to build off of the work of andreas gursky and carlo van de roer, but manages to manipulate the relationship of subject and surroundings in a very potent way.
one could say that all architects do is represent data. from the conceptual sketch to the sd rendering to the cd submittal set, architects are simply representing information graphically as a means of communication. sure there’s consultant meetings, client calls, and other office-type activities, but all of these actions are in support towards providing a clear, comprehensible, graphical representation of information.
here’s a blog post from webdesignerdepot.com that shows 50 absolutely incredible representations of data. looking at these graphics from an architectural perspective, it’s interesting to try to identify how web app design might start to effect architectural representation.
sure, eating local is a nice way of feeling sustainable if you live in southern california. you take a little extra time in your whole foods examining your avocados before you place them in your canvas bag, hop on your fixed gear and ride away. but if you live in barrow alaska, the northernmost settlement in the US, eating locally means you’re eating whale blubber- and a lot of it.
jonathan harris’ the whale hunt is one of the most unique and compelling websites I have come across. the shear beauty of the photographs would be worth visiting on their own, but the interface and the method of documentation is really incredible. the amount of photos taken during a specific interval is determined by what is heart rate was at that point- the higher his heart rate, the more photos taken. while there are obvious moments where you’d expect an observer’s heart rate to be high (when a whale is pulled onto the ice by a village of people by hand), there are other moments where you wouldn’t expect a high heart rate that adds an incredible personal touch to the story.
richard saul wurman, creator of the TED conferences, has a created an online proposal to examine 19 cities in the world, with 20 million people, in the 21st century.
even though he hasn’t actually done/published the research yet, the initial analysis of our global population as an “urban species” is very compelling and the site design is pretty slick.
the belgian goverenment opened the world’s first zero emissions research station last sunday. the entire project is self-sufficient- wind turbines and solar panels provide electricity and solar thermal melts snow for water.
from ::treehugger. official website.
almost a month ago now I submitted an entry into google’s 10^100 project. for those of you who don’t know the project, google is planning to donate $10 million towards the five best ideas that will help the most people. they will be selecting the top 100 finalists over the next couple of months, and then there will be a public vote to select the top five ideas.
I thought I’d post my entry description and a video showing my idea here. if you want more information, would like to stay involved, or would like to know if you’ll have an opportunity to vote for my idea, just send an email to reFarm@alexwebb.com .
reFarm1/5th of the united states’ gasoline is used on transporting food.
over 50% of the american population resides in urban environments.
instead of bringing food into cities, what if it was grown there?
reFarm is a responsive ideaset directed at integrating argriculture into the urban environment. reflexive and contextual, the ideaset evaluates the urban infrastructure and creates a response that utilizes what exists within each particular city. these responses then work with the environment to develop argricultural opportunites within each setting.
if reFarm was to target los angeles, one opportunity would be with the large amount of low rise warehouses that comprise the majority of downtown LA. the roofs of these warehouses were equiped with drainage systems, compost could be used to provide a minimal soil volume, which in turn would minimize water retention and minimize weight and could provide an agricultural medium without structural reinforcement on many buildings. these facilities could turn to neighboring areas like boyle heights and central city west for manpower to maintain and harvest crops, while providing food for these areas.
if reFarm was to target houston, one opportunity would be to utilize the massive amount of vacant office buildings in the houston suburbs the plumbing and electrical systems of these buildings could facilitate hydroponic growth mediums and uv lighting for a host of crops that could be planted, grown, and harvested inside of these structures. these vertical farms could borrow from the knowledge base of the argicultural community around the houston area, utilizing a small footprint and a climate controlled environment to provide a large year round yield.
reFarm. not just a singular idea, but a dynamic ideaset designed to maximize the argricultural opportunities within a wide range of urban environments.
my name is alex webb and I am an architectural designer who is primarily interested in performative algorythmic design, environmental sustainability, sustainable transit and building information modeling (BIM).
new TOSD post- NewYorkSunWorks, Arup, and the VerticalFarmProject design an integrated curtain wall/agricultural system. http://tr.im/JU8h::::::::::::2 months ago
new TOSD post - grasshopper as site analysis tool... for hundreds of sites at once. http://goo.gl/XCvz::::::::::::3 months ago
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