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Big + Cool: Balmori’s Mammoth Endeavor
A recent bit of information from the NY AIA awards, announcing one of the winning entries for 2008. The ‘World Mammoth and Permafrost Museum’ in Yakutsk, Siberia, which was a first-prize winner in a 2007 competition, is a project that definitely posed some challenges in site and program. The result ended up with an interesting…
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Bat-Yam = Landscape Urbanism
A recent reference reminded me to post something about the Bat-Yam International Biennale of Landscape Urbanism, beginning April 13th, 2008. A summary via Archinect: “This international event will present 30 outdoor rooms in the public domain. All sites will be open to the public and introduce innovative ways for using urban open spaces, integrating community…
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Take a Seat
Continuing a more focused look at some landscape elements – there were a bunch of interesting seating concepts that have emerged lately – from the grand, to the contextual, to the bovine. Similar to the discussions regarding texture and materiality, furnishings are something we tend to have a hard time evolving as a stylistic component.…
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Materiality: Textured Verticality
It has been a bit since I’ve discussed the concept of texture and materials – and a quick peek through some saved up links made me realize there was a bevy of project images just waiting to emerge. I will attempt to focus this a bit by concentrating on vertical surface texture – spanning a…
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Design for Good
Ok, this is two posts from CNN in the span of a couple of weeks. And I don’t actual watch CNN, except for when trapped in an airport with the constant 10 minute new cycle. But this one is pretty impressive for major media outlet… Principal Voices is a ongoing series of discussion and dialogue…
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Veg.itecture #20
The schedule at work is heating up with some great projects getting rolling, so the weekend has become the de facto time to compile and sort all of the weeks great projects from the ether. Today is a compilation of the latest Veg.itecture additions. The first project is the Aberdeen Arts Centre by Brisac Gonzalez…
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Mimic Nature
Often the use of natural forms is implemented for aesthetic or biophilic reasons, and the resultant forms tend to span the gamut from stunning to awful. We’ve shown examples of abstracted trees here and here – and the use of natural forms often peeks into building both as a metaphor for ecological function as well…
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Vertical Farming: In Depth
I have a fascination with Urban Agriculture, more recently so due to the strategies that are being considered for implementation that either maximizes production per land acre, or maximizes the amount of acres used in the City for ephemeral or permanent farm operations. A recent post by WebUrbanist, ‘5 Urban Design Proposals for 3D City…
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Midtown Mews
A Garden of Eden Grows in ManhattanFrom the blog No Land Grab, via Curbed NY… of all the April Fools ephemera – this one made me laugh the most. Enjoy!:: image via No Land Grab Some highlights from the project, which offers:…22 Acres of underutilized land, transformed into a vibrant*, gated enclave. (*or, vast parking…
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Integrating Habitats Competition: Urban Ecotones
Well it’s finally official – the announcement of winners and the like for the Integrating Habitats Competition. The celebration was held about a month ago now (Feb 26) and we’ve all been basking in the warm glow of adoration since then… The team and our entry got lot’s of photo ops at the celebration (that’s…