The Yamakoya (which means wooden-log cabin in Japanese) by Ben Nagaoka was a winning project at the 2009 JCD Design Awards.
If there was a library like this near me, I would never leave.
14.9.09
13.9.09
12.9.09
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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What isn't shown in the scanned version: light reflecting off the mica lining. Bling Bling.
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.)
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3.9.09
poem. early draft.
Because Everything is Capable of Being Broken
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A mocking bird made her nest
at the top of a telephone pole,
and I sat in the grass watching
a hawk eat her babies one by one.
She threw herself against him,
screaming with a broken beak,
his blood, her feathers
dotting the sidewalk.
I could see the babies in his throat,
one dark bulge. The last baby's head
stuck out of his mouth, suffocated
against the bodies of the others.
The hawk wobbled over the mess,
small branches the mocking bird had gathered
for her eggs. He digested his snack.
She was tired, crying against the hawk,
me, the street, the live wires
until her featherless belly broke open
with sadness and she fell
into the grass beside me.
There are children that you do not get,
but our hands cannot choose who we love
and who we should not love.
My sister took her stillborn baby
out of the freezer and sang to it,
her chair facing the window, and I watched
grief settle at the nape of her neck
the same way pleasure can, aching like a loom,
and I thought about how in the beginning
I used to sit with her and tell her stories
of Mary and Elizabeth, how they lugged
their bloated bellies for miles looking
for quiet spots where they could sit together
out of the wind and lift their dresses to look closely
at their stretching skin, the hands and heels
of their sons pushing outward, and how later
they pushed their full breasts to the mouths
of kings and saints, wincing at the bite,
the smell of black hair, the sound of feasting.
I remembered the night she lost her baby
I dreamt that I found her body at the bottom
of the drained pool in her backyard. I wept
when I finally found her round and heavy in bed.
I pressed my ear against her belly, still and emptied,
and I assured her that there were still stories to tell of Mary
and Elizabeth, how one way or another they would throw
the scraps of their children's bodies out to compost.
Because everything is capable of being broken,
how can we rest? Somehow we lift the heavy crates
of our unborn children everyday.
1.9.09
Notes on a Night Swim
ROAD ENDS AT WATER
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Three-quarter-fat moons
A mauvish, immaculately grey man-made lake, edged in woolly, unruly pine tree cutouts
Glen Miller from a car, with a bike in the back seat
29.8.09
new space!
all the 1st year kids took the window seats. bitches.
i'm mildly excited about the studio space. got in a row with people i like, and there are way more windows than they had in last year's space.
just as a note, the desks are arranged differently than the ones in the architectural plans. which i think is kind of funny.
renovation by garrison architects out of new york.
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21.8.09
500 Days of Summer: In Review
So, recently, I saw the film '(500) Days of Summer.’ It was an honest tale of expectations, perceptions, love and life. However, one facet, among the particulars, that gave the film tremendous depth was the level of detail given to the appreciation of the subtle, captivating urban spaces that remain unspoken in daily interactions. I think the film was largely about the details – the details of relationships, the details of a woman, and the details of everyday life. The film really takes the time to focus, in a very intimate way, on subtleties that a good author will walk through with you – that you would not have noticed otherwise. The details really give this film a rich quality that you can lose yourself in. And, as Mies would say, ‘God is in the details.’
In speaking about the details, I loved all of them – the music choices, the costumes, locations, casting, coloration, editing, cinematography – it was all marvelous. It is pure elation. It bathes in misery. It is honest and heartbreaking. It allows a series of opinions on love. The sequences are all individually crafted and edited in a way that takes advantage of the often-overlooked fact that this is a film. It could be a novel, a short story, a poem, but it is not – it is a film and ‘500 Days’ should be a film; it takes advantage of the medium to tell the story.
The main character, Tom, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, is a greeting card writer and an aspiring architect. He is a romantic and a head-case, however I think this enables him to find beauty creeping up between the cracks in the sidewalk that most would walk right over. Los Angeles becomes a place in the film, with the help of carefully chosen locations, a genius dance sequence, a park bench and actual Richard Neutra sketches, the film really gives you a sense of place.
In addition to capturing ‘place,’ Gordon-Levitt’s character actually has something to say about place, architecture, and urban design. While the commentary is a little brief and understated at times, he finds beauty in an overlook that looks into a downtown flooded with one too many parking lots. He discusses what he sees though - how there is potential and a subtle captivation in the view to a city. He actually takes the time to voice what he thinks of art, architecture and the city – something very rare in film.
Similarly, there are two sequences in the film where Tom takes time to notice the details of Summer (hair, smile, knees etc.). These sequences are something memorable not because Tom merely mentions them, but that each of her details is totally open to interpretation, as a city is – it could be a cute haircut or a stupid 60’s throwback – it could be an intimate view of a city or an ugly view plagued by too much parking. In other words, perception becomes a choice – it is not forced. The film has an acute understanding of the meaning that we attach to places and to people – and that those meanings run much deeper than physical appearance.
I think it is easy to take a critical position and dismiss a city or a view because of what it lacks - one too many parking garages, way too much asphalt, not enough density, and so on. What Tom navigates well, is the ability to resist the modernist urge to write away history and get lost in what something could be. I don’t think Tom would be one to theorize about a new ‘ideal’ type of urban environment or way of life, rather, he represents an embrace of the ordinary along with the hopes of what could be.
Additionally, here is a music video done by some of the same cast and crew.
Continue
In speaking about the details, I loved all of them – the music choices, the costumes, locations, casting, coloration, editing, cinematography – it was all marvelous. It is pure elation. It bathes in misery. It is honest and heartbreaking. It allows a series of opinions on love. The sequences are all individually crafted and edited in a way that takes advantage of the often-overlooked fact that this is a film. It could be a novel, a short story, a poem, but it is not – it is a film and ‘500 Days’ should be a film; it takes advantage of the medium to tell the story.
The main character, Tom, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, is a greeting card writer and an aspiring architect. He is a romantic and a head-case, however I think this enables him to find beauty creeping up between the cracks in the sidewalk that most would walk right over. Los Angeles becomes a place in the film, with the help of carefully chosen locations, a genius dance sequence, a park bench and actual Richard Neutra sketches, the film really gives you a sense of place.
In addition to capturing ‘place,’ Gordon-Levitt’s character actually has something to say about place, architecture, and urban design. While the commentary is a little brief and understated at times, he finds beauty in an overlook that looks into a downtown flooded with one too many parking lots. He discusses what he sees though - how there is potential and a subtle captivation in the view to a city. He actually takes the time to voice what he thinks of art, architecture and the city – something very rare in film.
Similarly, there are two sequences in the film where Tom takes time to notice the details of Summer (hair, smile, knees etc.). These sequences are something memorable not because Tom merely mentions them, but that each of her details is totally open to interpretation, as a city is – it could be a cute haircut or a stupid 60’s throwback – it could be an intimate view of a city or an ugly view plagued by too much parking. In other words, perception becomes a choice – it is not forced. The film has an acute understanding of the meaning that we attach to places and to people – and that those meanings run much deeper than physical appearance.
I think it is easy to take a critical position and dismiss a city or a view because of what it lacks - one too many parking garages, way too much asphalt, not enough density, and so on. What Tom navigates well, is the ability to resist the modernist urge to write away history and get lost in what something could be. I don’t think Tom would be one to theorize about a new ‘ideal’ type of urban environment or way of life, rather, he represents an embrace of the ordinary along with the hopes of what could be.
Additionally, here is a music video done by some of the same cast and crew.
Continue
20.8.09
absolut rip-off
Notice any similarities?
(note: the picture is one of the projects featured in Stefan Sagmeister's latest book: Things I have learned in my life so far)
(note 2: I'm switching to Grey Goose.)
19.8.09
18.8.09
Today's Special Is So America
Home Shopping anchors are sometimes fiercely good at their jobs, usually creepy (see above), and always so America. The Paris Hiltons of daytime tv, some like David Venable achieve viral fame for shear awkwardness. Dylan and I are working on a celebration of this obsession for the b-side of the scrap cover. Scraps for scrap are being pulled from the blog this week! Keep posting or email thestudio@ new material.
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These are Please God Days
It is unbearable how people keep falling in love
with people far away. Not the lovers in different
states with their loins at convenient distances
so the only times are good times half way between here
and Cincinnati - somewhere in Virginia, skiing,
wine tasting - or not skiing and not wine tasting
but making love in hotels with seven-pillowed beds.
I am thinking of lovers who have flown through windows
to know one another better. For whom the fire is not
cleansing or warm, but cracks like the links of a metal
chain around their ankles, wrists, throats.
There is no perfect faith, she says, don't blame me.
When she says sacrifice is something she understands,
she means there is no God of courage. He tells her he is crumbling.
He keeps his resentment in his front pocket, fingering it
like a buckeye. Sometimes he holds it in the side of his cheek -
a damp apology. They sledge stakes in the yard and in the bed
and throw themselves against imaginary fences, falling
back into each other like wounded dogs trying to escape
the front yard. These are please God days when love is not enough
in the flood. She is languorous in the porcelain tub
when he comes home smelling sad. He takes her wet hand
out of the cloudy water and gently brushes his lips against her
knuckles. He stays there fore a long time, beside the tub
holding her hand. She steps out and stands in front of him.
A puddle forms beneath her naked body. He shudders, has to steady himself.
He can think of nothing better to say so he tells her he loves her.
Think of bad days as long distances, she says. You are a layer
of skin I can't explain. They drive past cornfields and graves
wanting to take back the ugly things they said. They carry
everything with them, words heavy as wood axes, waiting
for a clearing, for some moment they can comprehend, like this one.
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i'm here.
Syracuse's main talent is being seriously sketchville on one block while competing with the world stage on the next. This building is feirce, and it's not even done yet. This sucker is LEED PLATINUM, bling bling. It's some sort of sustainable research mecca, located a 10 minute drive from my place. Think it will be ok if i just go hang out there? Design work done by Toshiko Mori.
16.8.09
Spill It
What kind of designer are you...
Fill it out, Repost or email thestudio@supermanicecreamcolletive.com. In prep for superman ice cream COLLECTIVE.com, we need to pick your brain. Short/Long answer, what makes you and your work tick. If you need a refresher on multi-Local terms, catch up here.
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15.8.09
horror show
Here is the DVD cover for the short I'm working on. As of right now, this is for a prop, it will be modified for the actual dvd. I might do another iteration later.
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13.8.09
i'm pulling a temps.
no internet for 2 weeks. baltic sea. don't do anything too collective without me.
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all aboard.
here's my IDEAL studio, collective.
it is a mobile (and fittingly multilocal) studio carried on a rickshaw. important features are open-air studios, easy-loading dock and latticework for plants.
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12.8.09
A Northwest Av.Diagonal Gem.
everytime i run past this particular apartment building, i get an odd feeling Laura Bennett is watching me. probably because she lives in it. [see exterior comparison with her season 3 final collection] that sneaky architectrix.
go take care of your 17 redheaded children.
11.8.09
german haus
a few pictures as promised...
.JPG)
the first two images are of the house. my room is upstairs, on the right side of the house. it faces the back of the house. the last picture is of my room.
all houses around here look very similar, but not cookie-cutter like american neighborhoods.
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10.8.09
out for a bit
I'm doing one of those things where I don't come to studio for a bit, be back Thursday...
IN OTHER NEWS: Kaitlyn got a short film gig, Dylan is moving to his new Local, Kels is back in the EU, and scrap's september issue is on schedule. Dont' forget to send your mailing info to andrew@supermanicecreamcollective.com. Ciao.
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IN OTHER NEWS: Kaitlyn got a short film gig, Dylan is moving to his new Local, Kels is back in the EU, and scrap's september issue is on schedule. Dont' forget to send your mailing info to andrew@supermanicecreamcollective.com. Ciao.
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