Author: Jason King
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Two if by Land, None if by Sea
Just last month, a strange site appeared in Portland, docked at Waterfront Park. The area, chain-linked off from anyone getting too close, gave a vision of a spectacle equal parts Rose Festival Fleet Week and kitschy episode of the The Love Boat, spawned from gigantism of the engineering prowess and the ego that could only…
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Tackling Suburbia
The latest competition out there challenging entrants to envision visionary designs is Reburbia: A Suburban Design Competition that focuses on the suburbs as the venue for exploration. Sponsored by Inhabitat and Dwell, the premise is open and relatively simple: “Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren’t…
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Interim Vacancy – Pt 2
A followup to the idea of interim use of vacant lands, the SF Chronicle surprised with expanded coverage of some ideas for these sites… and they are all pretty fun. King continues: “…a quartet of local designers see something else: a site that could become a sculpted realm of green folds spiked by artistic birdhouses…
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Interim Vacancy
Ever have one of those moments when you read, virtually word-for-word and idea-for-idea about an urban issue that you’ve been mulling and kicking around in your brain for some time. The idea of vacant land is predominant everywhere in varying levels, but offers potential for future development as well as valuable real estate that often…
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Interactive Architecture
This one should be done for every building designed, as part of design review. An installation called ‘walking berlin’ by fantastic norway was recently featured on DesignBoom (go the link for much more): “The walking houses are man-sized models of our latest architectural project: a tourist destination located on the northern west coast of norway.…
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Urban Chickens Build – 6
The final installment, the completion of the Chicken Cube, with ramp, some final security measures, ecoroof, and rain chain downspout. The ecoroof plants were leftovers from the Ecoroof Vendor Fair and had a diverse variety of sedums along with some native and other perennials, grasses, and herbs. The front side, with all the hardware cloth…
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Some SDATisfaction
‘A Leaner, Greener Detroit: A Report by the American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assessment Team‘ is (finally) available for download. As one of the contributors, it is great to finally see it in living color. Find the link to the final report here… I will be posting on this after I’ve had a chance…
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Spanning: Bridge Houses
A couple of projects, picking up on the recent post ‘A River Runs Through It‘, feature a pair of amazing buildings spanning waterways. I guess the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright is alive and well in architecture. The first via Arch Daily, is Bridge House, a design in Adelaide, Australia by Max Pritchard Architect. This…
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Experimentation in Modern Communication
I’m not necessarily against new media options, but as one who does not ‘tweet’, I’m curious to see the results of this upcoming forum hosted by Balmori Associates on What Should a Public Place Be? Conducted 100% via Twitter be sure to check it out on July 13th, and who knows, if it is a…
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A Short History of America
Perhaps an homage to a weekend of bbq’s and fireworks – this panel progression from the fantastic R.Crumb highlights the long (or really, actually quite short) road from nature to excess that we like to call development in America… anyone care to refute this vision? The interesting part, to see where this leads in future…