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Materiality: Grab Bag
It’s been a long while since I’ve posted anything on materials… perhaps due to the work I’ve been engaged in, and the fact that little of it is dealing with material selection, or the recent focus on evaluating the more sustainable materiality – sans aesthetics. That is not to say that materials don’t constantly play…
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Flip This Strip…
Perhaps the timing is perfect amidst our current economic downturn – the award winners have been announced for the very interesting Flip a Strip competition sponsored by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (smoca). These entries expand the conversation and definitely deliver in potential opportunities and visions for these zones of urban and sub-urban blight,…
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Earth-Sheltered
An important and somewhat overlooked aspect of Veg.itectural design is the connection and use of the ground plane in providing critical aspects of the shelter. Whether traditional cave-like dwellings that are carved into the sides of hills, or northern european era sod hut housing. These items are used for literally centuries, and there are still…
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Yeang, Nakamura, Lim
The reputation of Veg.itect extraordinaire Ken Yeang is undisputed, but it’s always nice for a refresher on how far he has been pushing in designing (and getting built) these bioclimatic treasures. Inhabitat has recent coverage of an old favorite – the EDITT tower in Singapore, which is slated for construction. Can’t wait to see this…
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Veg.itecture #41
As I mentioned so innocently in the last installment of Veg.itecture, the quantity of projects out there in the world blending landscape and architecture has grown exponentially. This has two impacts… one is continuing to grow my backlog (it’s at about 70 projects) and making me question the rapidity and interval at which I post…
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Mind the GAP
The GAP in this case being the Grand Army Plaza, the forecourt space to the north of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, and one of those woefully inadequate urban spaces that perhaps was grandiose at one time – but due to current pressure has become inaccessible and dangerous. :: image via Grand Army Plaza Coalition Or in…
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World Veg.itecture from Land8Lounge
One of the great things about the network of professionals and students that are members of Land8Lounge is the ability to cast a wide, international net for specific information. Case in point, an ongoing discussion on World Examples of Veg.itecture to go along with the group of the similar name – which is my way…
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Don’t Look Back…?
This was definitely an eye-catching title on the ASLA snippet blog The Dirt… ‘Don’t Look Back’, in response to a recent NY Times article that focused on a Alan Berger’s restoration efforts in Italian Pontine Marshes. In summary, this: “…proposal to basically invent a natural system to purify heavily polluted waters running into the Mediterranean…
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Venice Biennial Snapshots
Be sure to check out the great post from Design Under Sky of the Gustafson/Guthrie/Nichol/Gustafson/Porter et. al. installation at the 11th Annual Venice Biennial – solidifying once again that landscape architecture is a great format for these more ephemeral installations… the white sheet held aloft by balloon is a stroke of genius. :: images via…
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West 8: Ile St. Denis
Hot off the wire from World Landscape Architect, Landscape+Urbanism favorites West 8 have recently won a competition for the Ecological District Ile Saint Denis. As with most competition entries, the sum total of our understanding comes from a few zoomy images and a snippet of descriptive text. So here’s both, all text images via West…