Tuesday, December 13, 2011

All the Water We Have Now is All the Water We Will Ever Have

it's been a while since i've discussed the major piece of work i am, uh, working on... mostly because it has been placed on the back burner for longer than it deserved and way longer than i would have liked. the last time i spoke of this thing, we shall call it a 'thesis', i was ready to jump off the brooklyn bridge. i just couldn't wrap my head around my topic or come up with a plausible topic for that matter. and then all of a sudden (okay more like gradually, slowly, painfully, NERVE-RACKINGLY) on a saturday afternoon after a gowanus studio working session i got to talking with another student who happens to also think the environment is the center of our world... and i started to feel better about what i was proposing.

ah, now you may be wondering "what the fuck are you proposing this time?" well, it's not much different than what i was thinking about a year ago... stormwater management, in gowanus, using natural systems. alright, that's it. i got all nervous and sidetracked because i wanted my thesis to be more badass, more feral.. i.e. "transforming streets into feral landscapes to manage stormwater" ... and i could have gotten there if i just had more time, more energy, straight up just felt more comfortable talking about something i really believed in. it also didn't help that i go to school with some really brilliant people who are working on topics that involve people and i just felt like my topic was irrelevant...

....until i thought about what i had learned for 5 years living in vermont and paying for a kickass education, i.e. the environment matters and without it none of us would be here.. so you can write and write about the human race and the possibilities within it but without clean water [and healthy, functioning eco-systems] we'd all be dead. terrifying, i know.. but it's a fact. and it's now or never that we start to value stormwater as the ultimate resource, a blessing from mother earth, that keeps us going.. it's not a waste, it's not something we must dispose of. NO! it's something we must learn to use, to benefit from, to work with.. to manage. but more importantly, we must learn to live with stormwater, with water in general.. we must understand that water will always be more powerful than we are because we are mostly water and we depend upon it for survival - and water will always come back to reclaim what once belonged to it... that includes man-made land.. man-made land that is now the gowanus neighborhood.

the gowanus has so much potential.. it's a working waterfront! coastal folk tend to forget how lucky we are to live along the coast.. we can import and export with ease.. we can flee if we must.. we are not landlocked. but back to the point... gowanus is great but it won't be for long if some serious infrastructure issues are not addressed - and i believe we can address these issues in a positive, less costly way. we do not need to disturb the earth more than we already have.. i say let's give nature back a bit of the urban pie! let's use natural processes to manage, harvest and REUSE stormwater.

All the Water We Have Now is All the Water We Will Ever Have - much like energy.. it cannot be created nor destroyed.. but it can be altered significantly but that comes with a major price tag that we simply cannot afford.. and does it really make sense to rebuild the wheel when it rains down on us nearly once a week? [you might have to re-read that to have it make normal-person sense but then hopefully you'll get what i'm saying].

what i am saying [or as always, trying to say] is my thesis is gonna be badass because i love my topic, i am an aquarius for pete's sake - HELLO WATER BEARER  - i love water and i value it in a way i never thought i could and i want to stand up for the one resource we simply cannot make due without. bringing nature into urban landscapes is something modernist had been proposing for nearly 3 decades, amongst other things and of course people only listened to other other things - eww, all concrete buildings on piloti, really, that's what people chose to focus on?!

as a self-declared modernist, environmentalist, and just an over cautious planner, i am seriously excited to give so much needed time and love to my research. my thesis will not be the end of me [like i thought] but rather an extension, a new phase, of what i have always believed.. we can be better than what we are, we just have to push ourselves to achieve the what some may say is impossible and what we should really call sustainable. humans have survived with nature for thousands of years, why stop now? go with your gut, stick up for your thoughts because you're probably right.. the environment is the center of our world.

oh and this is my research site where i shall test my theory that nature is awesome:  Badass Batcave

me + the gowanus [thanks j.rec for the photo]

do you get modernism?

"To be properly understood, Modernism is not just a matter of cubist space but of a whole appreciation of environmental design as a holistic approach to the matter of making spaces for people to live.... Modernism, as I define it and practice it, includes and is based on the vital archetypal needs of human being as individuals as well as social groups." Lawrence Halprin, landscape architect.


thanks 99 percent invisible for opening me up to him... and thanks wikipedia for this great quote that captures the very essence of how i feel about modernism

Monday, November 14, 2011

i'd like to shrug

i spent nearly all last january-may reading ayn rand's 'atlas shrugged'. don't get me wrong, the book is a beast, it would have taken anyone 4 months to read it; but i read every word of it, trying to fully understand the complexity of what rand was trying to say - and what she really meant. i had read 'anthem' almost a year before, it really got the brain going, thinking about a world where people were not awarded based on the their minds but based on what whoever was in charge thought was a good fit. i next read 'the fountainhead', along with every single architect alive, and i began to think about conviction and standing one's ground even if it meant not getting properly awarded for your work and being ignored because you had failed to think inside the box that was nothing more than smoke + mirrors. 'atlas' added to this thinking. what gives someone else the right to take what they have not earned from someone else? this is where i begin to be spilt. i am not wealthy, in fact i am by most standards buying time before i am poor, so it becomes difficult to think that it's ok for people to make endless amounts of money and then not give back to the process that helped them do so. in my working life i have helped bring in money for my bosses. i have waited tables, smiled at customers and told them the large OJ was totally worth the 5 bucks.. and in fact it was, because my boss did not produce shit, he produced top notch, high quality, products. i made him money because he gave me the ability to be honest about his products and in turn i was able to sell them based on facts.. are you following me here, even a little?

now with this all in mind, think about our current economy.. it's barely hanging on and people are quick to say 'we must provide an atmosphere that enables 'job creators' to work their magic' and then there are people who are saying that those 'job creators' aren't paying their fair share - and in fact BOTH sides are right... and both VERY wrong.

i am not a economist, nor do i pretend to be, and my words are my opinion, and some times the opinion isn't all at informed... so bare with me while i expose my thoughts

many people out there say ayn rand is a quack.. and maybe she was... but they say this because they believe her 'characters' lack human emotion, which is incorrect. her characters always fall in love so if you're gonna say they're emotionless cold-hearted people, you might want to look up some of those words in a dictionary (i don't care which one, you pick). second, her characters are workers, hard fucking workers that feel pain and sadness but do not let this stop their work, they turn it into fuel (yah, yah, i'm disobeying the law of thermodynamics but you know what i'm trying to say!) and use their minds to accomplish tasks. none of her characters had ever finished college and yet turned out to be successful because they worked hard.. not because they knew the right people but because they produced products that were needed and high quality.. these products were not meant to fall apart so producers could simply produce more of the same shit.. no, they were created to be the best, satisfy the need in the market and then something else would have to be invested/created/produced.  summary: people's work matters, and who you know should only be secondary, if at all.

i don't want to rant about this, i honestly think people just need to read 'atlas shrugged', and read it OBJECTIVELY, before you go around bashing or supporting ayn rand. she was an absolute supporter of capitalism, real laissez-fair 'let them work', capitalism... but she also did not believe in absolutes... and furthermore, she was a libertarian, not a 'conservative' as it is known by today's standards. she was an atheist, who had emotions, but believed they did not belong in the work place. can you separate the two?

i am not here to say ayn rand is right but i am also not about to say she is wrong. we cannot wrap our heads around her philosophy because we do not live in a world that could support this type of economic system. we do not pay the true worth of anything and rand would require that we did. there are no such things as subsidies, there are no regulations... and there is NO invisible hand. she was not a neoclassical economists. if people truly want to use ayn rand's words then you have to know she wouldn't let deforestation happen because the market value of a tree's worth would be measured, clean water would be measured. Are you still following me? everything would have an economic value, a true value. we wouldn't be producing, digging, scheming for oil because it wouldn't be cost effective to do so.. not in a regulation-less market place and we also wouldn't have subsidies or hand-outs.. this part is always left out of the conversation.

one last thing.. we need 'job producers', the last thing we want is a 'moratorium on the brains'... but we cannot pick which parts of ayn rand's philosophy we support. there would be no income tax because that is taxing what someone has produced (same thing goes for why property taxes are bullshit, it punishes someone for maintaining their home.. how about a land tax that punishes you for speculation and allowing a piece of land to stay undeveloped? that's pretty fucking wasteful.. and by undeveloped i don't mean we should BUILD on every piece of land but a park/open-space is development, it's creating a productive landscape - but that's a different topic). so yeah, back to taxes, either we don't have them and we find a new way to pay for services.. i.e. if everyone is paying the true price for goods this is possible, yah? and if people are paid wages that are representative of the work they do, most people would receive a livable wage... - or we have taxes that are fair and accomplish something.

but this misses the point that there are way too many externalities at play. people have disabilities, people get sick, PEOPLE ARE GREEDY NON-SELF REGULATING SELF-CENTERED CREATURES... and this is why ayn rand's philosophy is lost on us.. if people can't keep themselves in check this economic system will not work... and we're seeing this now. our economy is the result of picking-and-choosing different philosophies and putting them in a blender and calling it a day (amongst other things, of course). we have no convictions, we're just moving through the system, looking to fill our wallets.

this became a much longer post than i had intended... and it's not very thought out, which isn't fair for anyone who is reading this.. but it is what it is. maybe you agree, maybe now you're pissed off.. whatever, at least now you're thinking.  there's a lot wrong with our system but there's hope and there are good people out there who respect the world and its resources and their employees, and those are the type of job creators we need.. people like you and me... people with brains.. and hearts.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

i don't mind

exactly what i needed

cities and nature.. can they co-exists?

"the belief that the city is an entity apart from nature and even antithetical to it has dominated the way in which the city is perceived and continues to affect how it is built. this attitude has aggravated and even created many of the city's environmental problems" - anne whiston spirn

"we must learn the joy of working on the solution - not to be consumed by despair over the immensity of the task - but enriched by the steps to be taken - one at a time" - robert thayer

Sunday, October 16, 2011

natural systems

"we might assume that a nature preserve represents the absence of human influence when in fact the existence of intact remnants of indigenous ecosystems depends upon human protection and managements" - joan inverson nassauer


The BlueBelt Project, Staten Island.
use of natural systems to manage stormwater - a very human effort

adore

post-moderism yet again

"post-modernism preoccupation with simulation, fantasy, irony, contradiction, vague historical reference, boundary warping, and lack of guiding principles will not last long, simply because 'postmodern' style attempts to 'deconstruct' or make a mockery of all former, form-giving influence and assumptions. It has given up seeking an underlying 'truth'. I argue, however, that an underlying truth is rapidly revealing itself to us in the birth of the notion of sustainability, however 'trendy' the world has become. A need to put flesh [in the form of physical landscapes] on the skeletal philosophy of sustainability has become too powerful to resist" - Robert Thayer, Gray World, Green Heat 1994.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

i'm screwed worse than new york's shoreline

a month and a half into thesis and i'm fresh out of a topic. my plan for a feral landscape in the gowanus is basically what dlandstudios (landscape arch firm based in brooklyn) is proposing. this really couldn't happen at a worse time because the semester sure as hell isn't about to get any easier.
sure there's plenty to write about with respect to stormwater management via green infrastructure it's just too bad most of it's been written by engineers, scientists, and landscape architects. i've got nothing. i've tried thinking about how i could investigate nyc's seriousness in the various efforts to use green infrastructure but i know the answer, the city doesn't have money so how could is possibly do more than it already is? i've thought about proposing an alternative plan for the gowanus neighborhood in opposition to that ridiculous decision made by the city planning department to add more housing in a flood plain, i just can't figure out how to go about this.. but i've gotta do something, my first assignment is due in a little less than 48hrs and guess what i haven't even started. this is not like me and it really sucks. i wish SO badly that i was allowed to create a thesis that is more playful, allowing the master to look beyond the rigid structure that is planning policy and start to think about the possibilities that could be achieved if people just tried something new every once in a while. also it may have been a better idea not to go to school in new york where some 'powerful' people have a sickening love affair with capitalism and all things greed.. more so it would have been wise to go to school for philosophy and focus on ecological transformation and what that means for humans and their life, especially those living through it - now. but alas, here i sit, damning myself for lack of creativity and possibly knowledge, intelligence, and all things necessary to write a successful thesis that means something to me. jeez, i'm fucked.

rough day

Monday, September 19, 2011

many surprises await you!

productive meeting

week 4, check out some books.
meet with advisor to make sure your topic is 'legit' <-- this went extremely well and now i have a grasp on how to tackle my thesis in a way that will matter to me.. and maybe to others.

overview:
- other codes/ordinances/policies are just fine.. explain them; bring together a nice tool box of ideas.. but go on to justify why they are not going far enough.. and why feral is the route that should be further investigated by cities of the future and neighborhoods at risk.
- why is stormwater management to this degree necessary..
- develop a plan, how might these feral/resilient landscapes be integrated into existing conditions... DRAW this.
- what have other people called 'feral'.. and what do you mean when you say 'feral' in an ecological sense?
    - invasive v. native
    - LID ---> low cost?
- use other examples to explain your case, and once again, develop this theory of feral and how it fits into your location
"there must be a preeminent emphasis upon preserving the feral landscape of the Alaska wilderness"


etc. etc. etc. stay tuned. 

Friday, September 16, 2011

so Liechtenstein's got some coin to spend

gross national income per capita, the US is 18th in the world,
behind all scandinavian nations, switzerland,  the netherlands, and finland.
Monaco was number 1, with just under 200k, followed by Liechtenstein.
however, the US ain't doing so bad with its purchasing power..
and norway's capital, oslo is one of the most expensive cities in europe,
so really only norwegians can afford to kick it there...
but don't forget, we pay for everything here, especially higher education,
the other nations, not so much.

titles are never easy

class 3: send professors your thesis titles...
if this house in denmark can do it, so can nyc's streets
this really is a very fast process.

working title #2: "Stormwater Management: Transforming Streets into Feral Landscapes"

this ultimately begs the question: how can we do this effectively with out freaking people out - or more importantly, cheaper and more effectively than grey infrastructure? the latter is how i'm really gonna focus this.. should be good fun.


enjoy

holy beautiful... the universe in 8 breathtaking photos

oh hey Jupiter, winner of the royal observatory photo contest, looking' good.

Friday, September 9, 2011

working title

it's that time again.. where too many academic thoughts are racing and thus i need an outlet [it's how this whole blog-thang started in the first place]... but now they'll be somewhat more focused, say around a thesis.

working title #1, week 2: Pedestrian Priority Streets: Using People + Feral Landscaping to Combat Stormwater Runoff, A Case-Study of the Gowanus Neighborhood

a wacky mash-up of the things i love the most: water, people, wild things and landscape design.

As an instructor put it last night "let's keep it wild."

Canoeing on the Gowanus, yep we did that.

i'd like to move to sweden please.


this just sucks.. income gaps by country: sweden clearly knows how to take care of its people.. they're smart, sexy, healthy and most importantly, educated. now there's america, i'm glad we're on par with corrupt communist nation china, sweet, can't wait until we ban knowledge and free speech.

Monday, September 5, 2011

live is best

let's talk politics

well Irene was a bust.. at least for us down in Brooklyn.. can't say the same for Vermont (Buy a sweet t-shirt and help with the clean up efforts!) and much of eastern NY. It has caused plenty of uproar amongst congressmen and residents of the states, citing the need for faster clean up efforts to get the northeast back on its feet. This podcast from The Brian Lehrer Show brings the debate center stage and depending on which representative is speaking you'll hear a variety of ideas about how this clean up and the economic situation should be handled... the second segment touches on insurance companies and how they handle natural disasters via risk assessment - give it a listen, it's actually awesome.. and the quote from Brendan Greeley in around the 7:35 mark is top notch and spot on. Enjoy loves.

i'm a swiss 721 C BT girl

fonts are an interesting thing to talk about because people really do have such strong opinions about them.. and because there are literally thousands of options out there and we all basically stick to 10. if anyone's ever seen Helvetica this NPR article will seem to barely skim the surface but i thought it was worth the share to show that font talk in on the rise and is becoming more mainstream than i ever expected. as the title says, i'm a swiss 721 condensed BT girl.. this font is slim and sleek but it's not on every computer and since up-grading to a mac i've had to completely re-think what i like, right now it's optima but that's mostly because i haven't truly put aside the time to search and explore the many options. it's interesting that for the first time in my life i have helvetica at my finger tips and i don't plan on using it anytime soon. over the summer i came in contact with city blueprint.. now that's a FUN font, it's the 'architecture' handwriting style (when 'capped') that is nice if you're trying to get the point across that you are not an architect yet have architectural tendencies.
free font Swiss 721 Condensed BT
CityBlueprint sample
Linotype Optima

Saturday, September 3, 2011

just relax

a special thanks to some cool IV's for this little bit of heaven


my favorite building...

i really, really like One Bryant Park. it's just such a beautiful building and the fact that i can see it from the window at school makes shitty long nights in HHN 406 seem not so bad. richard cook, of cook + fox - the firm behind the beautiful design - gives a little over view of the thought and care that went into designing the 3rd tallest building in nyc.

it ain't much, but it's suttin

info graphs are sweet

nuff said. check out how to shop smart

this doesn't have anything to do with shopping but it looks cool, right?

power sketching..

after a long summer of pretending to have a clue about sketching, i'd say i dislike it less but honestly i'm a better drawer. i need time, erasers, and oh yah, TIME. but i know how much my architecture lovahs love to sketch and while looking over FXFowle's blog to see what's on the architecture brain these days i came across this nice little write up about how wonderful sketching is.. and i'll give it to 'em, with stuff like "drawing is a line going for a walk" it makes me want to get good at drawing so i can be better at sketching, if ya know what i mean. because as ed marzia put it last spring at cooper union: "the most powerful tool to change our world, is the stoke of a designer's pen".

thing: sketchbook. location: fredriksberggade 24, copenhagen. when: late summer night, 2011.


simple, sweet... to the point.

what the title is getting at is: this will be short... mostly because it's been awhile since i've 'blogged' so i'm not sure i'm ready for a full blown post. with that said, as most might know, i love modern architecture and have been defending the actions of FLW, Le C., and Garden City for quite some time. i can't get into the whole thing right now but you know damn well these guys had some swell ideas that got over exposed due to the first leg of globalization and what not, and if things moved a bit slower they might have been able to 're-think' some things.. but nonetheless, their work and their manifesto is clear, keep it simple and let nature do the work.. here are 10 things that we mustn't forget 

this one time i went to scandinavia

3XN, Copenhagen

"the mountain"

"8"

Kastrup Seabath

more of the "8"

Ebeltoft, Denmark

such a great video. fantastic song.

ever talk politics... on weed?

Jon Stewart really is fucking brilliant

little episode..
i loved him before hugh laurie.

adele.. yup, she gets it

song of summer 2011

Thursday, July 21, 2011

i'm living in a fair tale

danes love bicycles in a big way; 1.3 billion kroner, which is almost 250million big us dollars, is generated by the ever-growing cycling industry every every.... just a usual day in copenhagen. we're discussing the width of bike lanes.. some bike lanes up in nørrebro can fit up with 5 bikes side per lane... and as it pours out i will be one of the lucky ones who shall ride their bike home sans raincoat because weather.com said there was only a 30% chance of rain today which, in scandinavia, means downpour just after noon o'clock. this place is seriously magical, i'm living in a fairy tale and it's fantastic.. i just may never leave, though, i might have to import a bit of brooklyn to make it feel like perfection.
Sunne, Sweden



wonderful song, even more wonderful woman

everything was never the deal.... home by NYC natives...

Thursday, July 14, 2011

sometimes a building is just a building

uh, look familiar?  the new museum of liverpool looks like the guggenheim (interior) and the oslo opera house (exterior) had a baby.. which now that i think about it sounds like the best place on earth. but eh, i don't know. i strive for originality and i think buildings should do that same but it's by 3xn, so really: what the fuck do i know?










              +






 
         =

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

to whom this may concern

Please excuse my absence...
I haven't been personally blogging like a rapid monkey in months - but don't worry, it isn't because I've stopped using my brain and thus no longer have an opinion on everything. No, in fact it's quite the opposite, I'm now EMPLOYED to write about niffy environmental happening as well as sweet architecture with a full-on emphasis on green roofs and stormwater management. Yes, I know, my life got real sweet real fast. After months of re-hashing their stories Inhabitat.com gave my the opportunity to write for their recently launched NYC site, Inhabitat.com/NYC and it's been awesome ever since. Please check out the sites to see what I've been up to, as well as all the other awesome posts done by my co-workers.

But don't get too cozy reading my works there, I'll be fleeing the county in a matter of weeks to spend the summer in BEAUTIFUL Copenhagen studying what else, Urban Design - so maybe then I'll start to blog about my experiences there or I just might keep it all to myself... just kidding that's not the Danes' style.

All the love in the world.
k.

oh Hiya Copenhagen, see you in 2 weeks. xx

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

this guy...nom nom nom.

this here is Hugh Laurie.. or really dr. Gregory House - yes I'm aware he's a fictional character and yes I'm aware he's twice my age HOWEVER I don't care. Hugh Laurie in real life is so sexy: clever, kind, smart, slightly uneasy, hard working, possibly even shy and then there's his character House, who is not only easy on the eyes [thanks to Laurie's breath-taking blue eyes and some wonderful folks in the make-up department that make him look 30 - not to say Hugh isn't looking mighty yummy for 50] he's also beyond brilliant with a persona that kicks you in the face. now like many people out there I find House to be so sexy it hurts but unlike most people I have no attraction to him because I "want to fix him"... no, I have no interest in fixing anything but cityscapes. what I like love about House is who he is, rough, cynical, rude, mostly always right, and extremely smart.. now I say this because a girl's got needs and simply I'm looking for someone just like House, only real because otherwise the obsession may get border-line wacko-ish. Yes House has his faults, addicted to pain meds, a bit of a limp, loves prostitutes, etc... but I'm willing to work with some of those, mostly the limp because it makes him who he is, the rest, eh well, I could most definitely do with out. I just want a nice, BRILLIANT human being whom is ok  with being a bit of an outsider and is sexy because of it [but hey I'll be shallow and say if this human happens to look like House it'll make the whole falling 'in-like' process a bit easier to some degree]. Really it'd be nice to have a combo of both House and Hugh: real, smart, sexy, foreign.. get what I'm sayin - I'm just looking for something sexy that, unlike a map, is alive and well.

we are...

if we're not looking for happiness is there something to that? what if we've grown content with who we are - is this something we should be concerned about? is it unthinkable that we have an outlook that differs from the 'norm'? we are not sad, we are not angry, we are.. that is all. 
- we exist like all others, we feel and think and imagine just like the rest - but we are.. us. we are a different breed that views happiness for what it is, the opposite of sadness, a feeling that should be treasured when it washes over us. we respect happiness like we respect all other emotions that are no less or no more important than happiness itself. we are not creatures of negativity, although we possess an energy that is undeniable - it is an energy that fills a room but can most certainly empty one as well. we are not unaware or unmoved by what is around us - in fact we are more in-touch and find beauty in all, especially the feral. we are connected to our minds in a way that frightens most and can become unbearable at times, such as those during which we attempt to deviate from our natural state in order to fall inline with the populous that we interact with. we view all as equal but understand the limitations of the individual - underscoring our own lack of strength. 
- we do not deny the power of humankind and feel a sense of worth every moment we exist. we find our happiness by simply existing and acknowledging the poles of the Earth, emphasizing differences that in collaboration with one another create the innovative and breath-taking world we inhabit. we are... what we are and make no apologies - if we did that would mean we have done something wrong, and yet we haven't. we are rising above any oppression that demands conformity if order to be who we are and love every moment of it. 
- we are who we are because it's the only truth we can ever be certain of. we know we'll change, evolve into more enlightened and self-aware persons, or perhaps not, but we know we may never be the same as we are at this very moment. we will, however, continue to have our same inner-workings, the same emotional response, however altered it may be due to all the wonderful knowledge gained over the years - we will always be us. we are not an easy pill to swallow but we quite like that about ourselves anyhow. we are different and we feel different about who we are because we understand what it means to be us while others only understand themselves. we do not view the world through emerald-tinted glasses but instead with just our own understanding of colors, both bright and dull. we are reality and we are very pleased to be here.
by Mike Luckovich

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

so i'm obsessed with beets - no big deal

I know it's spring and all the wonderful juicy vegetables are beginning to sprout but I can't just push my love [okay borderline obsession] for root vegetables aside. Growing up I loved carrots - cooked, raw, dipped in dressings, covered in butter, hell put some brown sugar on those bad boys - I didn't care just all long as I got my daily dose of beta carotene I was as happy as a hippo. Then I grew up and met carrots crazy and juicy cousin, BEETS - i like to refer to them as purple carrots.  I love me some beets, so much so that I try to work them into everyday conversations like "oh yah I know that shoe store it's next to this place that sells beets" or "i love beet" kind of like "i love lamp".  So when I stumbled upon this little bit of heaven I literally wanted to go out into the streets of brooklyn and track down a little Italian man and force him to make me beet pizzas everyday until i started to turn purple and then I'd have him cut back to one every other day. what I'm getting at is I LOVE BEETS and if you don't, well you're insane.

hi there, i love you.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

happy weekend



okay... Robert Redford has nothing to do with maps... but he is an environmentalist and more importantly, he is the sexiest man [possibly person] to have ever walked this earth and I thought it was completely essential to share this with everyone as we enter our first full spring weekend! Enjoy yourselves, melting season is upon us.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

reading about trains on a train

Atlas Shrugged

"you've borne too much, and there's a great deal that you have to learn to understand in order to lose every scar of the torture you never should have had to bear. all that matters now is that you're free to recover. we're free, both of us, we're free of the looters, we're out of their reach..... check your premises, Dagny. Contradictions don't exists.... we never demanded the one payment that the world owed us - and we let our best reward go to the worst men. the error was made by every man that fed the world and received no thanks in return. you don't know what is right any long? Dagny, this is not a battle over material goods. It's a moral crisis, the greatest the world has ever faced and the last. our age is the climate of centuries of evil. we must put an end to it, once and for all, or perish - we, the men of the mind. it was our own guilt. we produced the wealth of the world - but we let our enemies write its moral code." - Francisco d'Anconia,  pg. 618-619

"you - she thought - whoever you are, whom i have always loved and never found, you whom i expected to see at the end of the rails beyond the horizon, you whose presence i had always felt in the streets of the city and whose world i had wanted to build, it is my love for you that had kept me moving, my love and my hope reach you and my wish to be worthy of you on the day when i would stand before you face to face. now i know i shall never find you - that it is not to be reached or lived - but what is left of my life is still yours, and i will go on in your name, even though it is a name i'll never learn, i will go on serving you, even though i'm never to win, i will go on, to be worthy of you on that day when i would have met you, even though i won't....she never accepted hopelessness, but she stood at the window and, addressed the shape of a fogbound city, it was her self-dedication to unrequited love." [she: Dagny Taggart], pg. 634

Friday, March 4, 2011

where's the social concern?

"the french architect alain guilheux "from an architect supposedly giving to others [the modern architect], we have moved in a very short space of time to the 'artist' architect [the postmodern architect] who speaks of himself, of his own genius". and Huxtable exclaimed: "the most fundamental change in architecture today is one of attitude. scratch a postmodernist and you will find an apostle of architecture for art's sake, something that would have had any respectable and responsible architect drummed out of the profession not too long ago.... with the renunciation of traditional responsibilities as beyond his capacities or control, the architect has finally been freed to pursue style exclusively and openly... with apology". she bemoaned the current state of architecture, saying "there is more pettiness and pedantry than passion in architecture today... there are no heroes, and no architectural giants, because there is no cause"."  ::  nan ellin's themes of postmodern urbanism p.154-55

WHO ARE WE DESIGNING FOR? What is our largely responsibility outside of paying bills and fattening bank accounts? There MUST be a social cause for something as monumental as a building that is meant to be used by living bodies.. there must be social awareness in all we do, not as martyrs but as responsible individuals that grasps the fundamental fact: we are just guests on this planet, we must act accordingly... and when we can't [roads, buildings, etc] we must know things that last longer than a lifetime should show respect to those who have yet to arrive.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

google: bikini atoll

words cannot describe

half thoughts on the g train

continuing on with the months of thinking about post-modernism and the conditional reactions to the modernist shift at the turn of the 20th century. i stand on the side of modernism, believing the utopian ideals were manipulated and never expressed in fullness - which culminated in the defiance of the purposes hoped for in the manifestos declared during the modernist movement. breaking apart a whole for its parts does not create something greater.... nonetheless these are thoughts of the early morning while enjoying mass transit:

the modernist movement torn down the past because it failed to function or create a city/homestead that represented equality, health, + wealth - and no, not wealth the way post-modernists [and everyone else] defines it: income/consumption and lots of it, wealth was meant to be measured in happiness, which was not achieved by objects themselves, their mere existence/presence, but rather their utils, how they affected the order and the abilities to live effectively [modernists believed they were breaking with the past by starting fresh, but they didn't fully comprehend the intensity and radicalness that would be necessary in order to achieve such ideals in mass culture while working against the mass propaganda, or perhaps they were unaware of the propaganda rising and sneaky pieces of the ideals in order to create a quilt for the masses to sleep, unaware, under]. Modernist may have failed but Le Corbusier,  and even earlier modernist, FLR + E.Howard whom may have differed from the contemporary definition of a 'modernist', wanted a life that was beautiful by nature which meant effectively dispersing wealth to all - each in their own way: tower/broadacre/town+country but they tried/purposed/succeeded in putting ideals out there because what they had in front of them was not working - this is why people still look to this movement, for better or worse, because people are fascinated by individuals who have tried to do something in response to crisis, to try and deal. criticize if you must, but planning today [not necessarily city planning but authoritative planning, generally speaking] is segregating society, a polarization with the majority failing, and modernism is being faulted, despite nearly 50 years after the branch of post-modernism began to appear.  the ideals of modernism were not meant for us, they had concrete order and often were mere representations of how equal + healthy life could be if we all tried a bit hard to achieve something that was not being accommodated by the past. these ideals were not meant for us to pick apart. 


*an interesting note: Utopia=no place, so when people use the term they realize the limitations of never being able to achieve such a place but that does not, and should not, stop one from dreaming and trying to achieve a place of equality.

modern means living with, not against, nature. realizing the importance of nature and our ability to survive because of it. modern architecture, all architecture, should become apart of its landscape and adapt accordingly, giving back in any way possible. FLW falling water is an easy example.. and while i dislike the vast majority of skyscrapers [mainly because of the necessary use of the elevator which i firmly believe is the ultimate waste of energy] the design of these buildings are a response to the small amount of land in a given area, e.g. nyc, and the high demand for living quarters. architecture shouldn't live in a city, a city [i.e. people, because really what is a city without its inhabitants?] should live in its architecture and the building should be more than just a place to rest.

remix time.

i'm in love with your honor

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

yes.. more fake trees

fake trees just keep getting better! Power Genereating Trees designed by NL Architects, based in, where else, the Netherlands, are miniature wind turbines shaped like trees, with the turbines extending off the 'branches' it maximizes the amount of wind that can be captured and harvested into renewable energy on such a small scale. also aside from their white color the impact on the visual environment is minimal and the noise is reduced as well! the design also makes it possible for two homes [or one home on a large lot] to invest in one 'tree' and use the energy for their homes.. and who knows, if extra energy is produced the home owners can sell the remainder to the city, helping to curb the consumption of non-renewables and bring the architectural city alive!
for more on NL Architects ... http://www.nlarchitects.nl/

boston does trees, 2.0

another nifty way to use fake plastic trees, this time taking it one [two?] step further to collect stormwater [YES!] and produce electricity! - i could totally get down with this - the design could be improved a bit but hey, i'll take it, i'm just lovin the creativity and the desire to do something to curb the issue until we finally make the move to a radical new paradigm. 
urban field

so stunning

Stockholm's new Waterfront Centre is beautiful [-http://inhabitat.com/stockholms-undulating-waterfront-centre-is-a-transforming-low-energy-venue/] recently complete and designed by DANISH architect firm, White Arkitekter, it's a low-energy consuming, shape-shifter design. the whole of the inside can be molded time and time again in order to accommodate various activities and events along one of the most beautiful waterways, bordering the historic city center and the business district, which has helped Stockholm become one of the most technological cities, the building takes radical modernism to a whole other level. 'wa', similar to RAU and most other northern european Archs/designers/planners, took their time designing the building, beginning the process in 2005, carefully working with the city to accomplish the task of providing for the citizens and visitors. i'll be seeing this building, as well as many works [and spaces] by w.a. & other Scandinavian designers in t-minus 3.5 months!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

post 200.

"philosophers and philologists should be concerned in the first place with the poetics metaphysics; that is, the science that looks for proofs not in the external world, but in the very modification of the mind that meditates on it. since the world of is nations is made by men, it is inside their minds that its principles should be sought" - giambattista vico

"why do we have a mind if not to get our way?" - fyodor dostoyevski
      both as quoted in rem koolhaas's delirious new york... 1st page... i can't imagine what the rest of the book holds

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

excel, i own you


what life is like.. assignment 2, community profiles.


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

searching for truth

trees in boston

This is one way to deal with our failing ecosystem...fake plastic trees aka TreePods that filter the air based on real trees and the human lung. they're pretty neat being realistic and solar powered and made from recycled bottles.. how sweet this may be, we shouldn't forget that this doesn't change the bigger picture, we gotta quit consuming so much of everything because the by-products are co2 or other more toxic toxins. at least people are getting creative and buying us some time.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

color me beautiful

Color Brewer 2.0 is an amazing site to help **MAPPERS** put colors together that are easily readable. colors that compliment each other and colors that people who are colorblind can read. it's a great site that works well in map making program ArcGIS. the site provides you with the proper values for each color so you can make it yourself or upload the entire program set into ArcGIS and other programs. but it's not just for mappers, anyone that works with color is gonna love this site. so enjoy and put some color into this barren [winter] landscape of NYC!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

design stuff

innovate + sustainable ideas began in North America.. think the organic movement of the 1960's... people used to like this landmass, enough so that we impacted development around the world - but suddenly we stopped... and we've been stuck in a money-hungry funk for nearly 40 years.  one of the most innovate ideas out there these days deals with sustainable architecture and how we reduce our footprint by starting at home. Passivhaus was a [north] American idea and it has taken off in Europe.  Check out the article, it makes you hope for a future were people care not just their home but how their home can make a difference.  Also Rau.Eu is the Dutch architectural firm RAU, founded in '92 by German Thomas Rau.. their work is incredible and their manifesto: OnePlanetArchitecture has lead to, among others, the call for a radical paradigm shift in how we consume and where responsibility for waste lies.  ENJOY!

lovely song.. even better video

this came on during brunch, awesome

perspective

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Eeeeeessential

Oils to help you live... better  10-slide slideshow from TreeHugger.com on some amazing natural essential oils to help everything from bad skin, cramps, sore muscles, and the like.  Some benefits are obvious, e.g. mint helps your belly, but others like: lavender to fight germs is kinda sweet and explains why 7th Generation uses it in almost every one of its all natural cleaners. nature's pretty amazing.. i wonder what else is out there

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

personal preference

if you know me you know i'm down for using my natural abilities to get around [except for my excessive use of the subway but that's another story].... what i mean is i like to use my legs to get me around. i don't work out so i take any chance i can to get this heart of mine racing. Alright, my point: take the stairs... avoid elevators when you can and don't you even look at an escalator unless you have a 20+ pound suitcase - and even then just think about how great your arms will look if you have to lug it up with the strength of your body. This short video shows the creative efforts of some fine engineers to get more people to do just what i was blabbing about, Taking the Stairs. how'd they do it? watch and see.. it's awesome and if it gets people to use their legs i say lets do it everywhere.