12.9.09

digital dinner with dylan


...and kitties. (or ditties for alliteration's sake)





Continue

11.9.09

notes from the studio moleskin...


(an early morning elevation for you)

this is going to be a simple post, as i am quite tired.

we might think of the following as rules we might try to keep in the back of our minds throughout the design process, and also just as fun observations.

in the context of urban catalysis:
1. it is not master planning.
2. it is not a house.
3. don't be a boyscout.

architecture nerdy things:
1. denise scott brown: if you want to know what the yale soa was doing in las vegas in the late 60's, watch the sopranos intro.
2. "dirty realism" & the film clerks actually discussed as a legitimate form of research for a convenience store program.
3. "urban ritual" and predicting the actions of local populations
4. a publication of naida and i's weekly angry rants about the death of urbanism and architecture not being poetry (sorry roz).
5. the danger of architectural proposals resulting from fantastical, functional rationalisms.

(collected notes from professors moran, sisko, and sanin for studio grey matter)

p.s. : guess what's going down this weekend!
Continue

8.9.09

turnin' it out.


(before)

(after)

keeping the graffiti wall, making it more porous. inserting large scale framing systems that can house program/possibly change over time.

to come: creepy surveillance systems and wildflower fields.

*p.s. i was talking to VA while i was making this.
Continue

7.9.09

convenience, surveillance, and crime.



the semester has started at su, and it begins with a rather dismal program: a convenience store + recreational area in an impoverished neighborhood. the diagram above (currently in progress) describes crime activity in the area of our site within the last year or so.

convenience stores are magnets for crime, so i'm working to prepare the little guy for a good ole fashioned drive-by (half kidding). i'm currently exploring the following issues:

1. surveillance (through achieving a type of self-policing)
-the panopticon
-actual surveillance systems (set up strictly to monitors, not to record activity)

2. transparency/light
-light transmitting concrete
-bright, sometimes ridiculously lit areas

3. respect for community
-keeping "patrician's snowflake bakery + limousine service" (though we are all sure that is a crack cover-up).
-using salvaged/re purposed materials from the site.
Continue

Coffee Drips/Cracks are the New Light Wells/Air Shafts


Cracky air shaft? Perhaps.
What isn't shown in the scanned version: light reflecting off the mica lining. Bling Bling.
Continue

6.9.09

remember these?

fall bcn '07 kids these are for you:





if you need a refresher, or haven't been to bibao, or missed some of these on your visit, here goes...
1-our hostel. (roz, i think that was our balcony.)
2-arguably one of the best chocolate shops in the world.
3-restaurant with best menu del dia in bilboa. (we ate there too many times in 3 days.)

Continue