Category: materials
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Field Trip: deYoung Museum
A new series offers some highlights of the epic roadtrip down the coast of California and over to Arizona and back to Oregon via Palm Springs – over two weeks of the holidays. These won’t be in any particular order – just grabbing what grabs my attention when sifting through photos. deYoung Museum – San…
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Got History?
Hawthorne & 50th (1936) Aerial View of Portland (1936) My fascination with history and place is no secret. While i am intrigued with urban history in many forms, there’s always a desire for a connection with the place you inhabit. Typically this fascination comes via maps, which have been well documented, but the timeline of…
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Soundtrack for Spaces – Next Generation
I have discussed the concept previous posts on the ‘Soundtrack for Spaces’, where I was making connections between physical locations in the landscape and the potential to imbue place with appropriate musical accompaniment. These varied, but included looking at the Fleet Foxes as driving music in the Columbia River Gorge, the video customization for Arcade…
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Europe Journal: Diana Memorial Fountain
Located at one of the far ends of Hyde Park in London is the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, an elegantly curved ring of water opened in 2004 (design by Kathryn Gustafson from her London office of Gustafson Porter). Although somewhat controversial, I found the feature quite engaging, even experiencing it late in the…
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Materials Library: Rust
A revisit of an old feature on L+U, investigations of materials for inspirational purposes. For starters, one of my favorites, the rusted metal of Cor-ten, weathering steel, or whatever you’d like to call it, a durable and wonderful addition to exterior projects in it’s ability to blend with natural materials (landscaping, wood, stone) and more…
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Reading List: Small Spaces
A new release that arrived from Princeton Architectural Press ‘Small Scale’ advertises ‘Creative Solutions for Better City Living’ which is a lofty goal. It immediately made me think of niche DIY magazines like Ready-Made for people with pent up creativity just bursting with ideas if they only had some direction or money. When I read the preliminary…
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A Perfect Perch
Atop the rooftop chaise lounge at the Sattler Winery in Tadten, Austria by Architects Collective (spotted via Arch Daily) :: image via Arch Daily
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Ephemeral Road Paint
Ubiquitous markings in our roadways are a fact of life. From road striping, lane delineation, and construction utility locates – the street is often a rainbow of color and line. Ways of expanding this notion in interesting ways to take-back some of this area of cities and make us aware of the patterns underlying or…
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Sukkah City
An interesting competition and potential for installation is Sukkah City. A recent email from one of the co-organizers Joshua Foer explains the concept: “…it aims to radically reinvent the original green building: the sukkah. The sukkah is an ephemeral, elemental structure traditionally erected by Jews for one week each fall. Its ancient design constraints require…
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The Beauty of Dirt!
I caught a screening of the documentary Dirt! The Movie last week on Oregon Public Broadcasting as part of their Earth Day series. Worth checking out for a number of reasons – those with some background will be inspired by some of their eco-heroes like Wes Jackson, Majora Carter and Alice Waters. Others will be…