I think they are both amazing. The installations of lot-ek are beautiful, and i love the philosophy behind 3deluxe - treating graphic design as architecture and architecture as graphic design. Its refreshing to know that there are firms like these out there.
Wes Jones and Lo-Tek. Apples and oranges. Lo-Tek has that artsy appeal that some may cconsider sloppy. The Students Pavilion is kind of cool in a Lo-Tek reuse sort of way.
They made a cool lamp about 6 years ago from old Tide containers. It is on their site under objects. This for me epitomizes their work - better than the shipping containers do. They need to let go of those damn containers.
Why do they need to let go of the containers? The idea is still being developed. Do you see shipping container homes everywhere? How about anywhere? I don't know what Wes Jones is up to lately, whether he is still pushing his shipping container stuff, but I always thought his take on the shipping container was maybe just a bit ahead of its time; Lot-ek makes simple houses out of them (I know they have designed larger projects with them as well, but they are actually working towards selling the relatively basic container house), Wes Jones makes frickin hyper-articulated multi-storey housing out of them. I think the baby steps approach has a better shot at actually getting container houses out in the real world.
Maybe baby steps will eventually prove that using shipping containers will prove to be not ridiculously overpriced*. Time will tell. Until then, don't expect to see them everywhere for quite some time.
*It was from the mouth of Jones that I learned shipping containers were unreasonably overpriced.
The problem with the containers, as they explained, a great deal of sistering of the structural tubing has to take place. They also replace a great deal of the decking. By the time they are done "retrofitting" the containers, only 35% of the container is existing. This in my opinion is reason enough to depart from the containers.
If they want to reuse them, melt them down to some cool trusses. Or a bullet.
i believe there is a common tendency in architecture to confuse an aesthetic decision with a logistical one. the quote from wes jones on the cost of the shipping contiainer is probably about the cost of the one-off versus the issue of the mass-produced. the problem is inevitably that the shipping container is not made to be architecture although it can be used as such...instead the container is made for shipping...which offers it's own potentials beyond the aesthetic.
the fundamental problem with both is that the aesthetic of the container clouds the functions of it. lot-eks designs are art installations of architecture using industrial objects. this inherently fetishizes the object and makes it more akin to sculpture than architecture since the architecture cannot accomodate too much of a shift from the original object...in other words it is not allowed to work.
jones uses the industrial object as an aesthetic device to connect to the presuppositions of the industrialization of early modernism, which although closer to the potential of the object and allowing it to begin to contain the functionality of architecture brings up the problems of the many attempts at modernism to propose a mass-produced architecture ...
okay i have to admit a rambled a bit on that previous comment. basically the thing that i think this all boils down to is...
what is necessary to make something functional and how does that relate to it as a device. the problem is that i think that very few architects are attacking the problem from a functional view...instead they are happily sitting on the sidelines in the safety of the gallery afraid to see what occurs when a concept is forced to meet reality...
adam kalkin can be thrown into this category as well.
I mean, i've beaten off to Instrumental Form. There is something sexy and seductive about Wes' graphics. The open loft box idea has been pushed a lot in the recent years. www.loftcube.net is a great example.
The essential problem with shipping containers is the simple fact that steel is not "warm".
Jan 31, 06 12:19 pm ·
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Lot-ek/3deluxe
Any opinions on these two firms.
I think they are both amazing. The installations of lot-ek are beautiful, and i love the philosophy behind 3deluxe - treating graphic design as architecture and architecture as graphic design. Its refreshing to know that there are firms like these out there.
http://www.lot-ek.com
http://www.3deluxe.de
Wes jones does it better. Lot-ek is just too sloppy in EVERYTHING they do. I haven't been too pleased with any of their work in person.
3Deluxe does interesting work, but their website makes it difficult to see anything if your res is set to higher than 980!
Wes Jones and Lo-Tek. Apples and oranges. Lo-Tek has that artsy appeal that some may cconsider sloppy. The Students Pavilion is kind of cool in a Lo-Tek reuse sort of way.
They made a cool lamp about 6 years ago from old Tide containers. It is on their site under objects. This for me epitomizes their work - better than the shipping containers do. They need to let go of those damn containers.
Why do they need to let go of the containers? The idea is still being developed. Do you see shipping container homes everywhere? How about anywhere? I don't know what Wes Jones is up to lately, whether he is still pushing his shipping container stuff, but I always thought his take on the shipping container was maybe just a bit ahead of its time; Lot-ek makes simple houses out of them (I know they have designed larger projects with them as well, but they are actually working towards selling the relatively basic container house), Wes Jones makes frickin hyper-articulated multi-storey housing out of them. I think the baby steps approach has a better shot at actually getting container houses out in the real world.
Maybe baby steps will eventually prove that using shipping containers will prove to be not ridiculously overpriced*. Time will tell. Until then, don't expect to see them everywhere for quite some time.
*It was from the mouth of Jones that I learned shipping containers were unreasonably overpriced.
The problem with the containers, as they explained, a great deal of sistering of the structural tubing has to take place. They also replace a great deal of the decking. By the time they are done "retrofitting" the containers, only 35% of the container is existing. This in my opinion is reason enough to depart from the containers.
If they want to reuse them, melt them down to some cool trusses. Or a bullet.
why would anyone think that using shipping container as architecture would be cheap?
If you guys are interested there was an extire exhibtion on turning shipping containers into architecture at the the Tokyo Designers Block 04:
http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/tdb04/3.html
i believe there is a common tendency in architecture to confuse an aesthetic decision with a logistical one. the quote from wes jones on the cost of the shipping contiainer is probably about the cost of the one-off versus the issue of the mass-produced. the problem is inevitably that the shipping container is not made to be architecture although it can be used as such...instead the container is made for shipping...which offers it's own potentials beyond the aesthetic.
the fundamental problem with both is that the aesthetic of the container clouds the functions of it. lot-eks designs are art installations of architecture using industrial objects. this inherently fetishizes the object and makes it more akin to sculpture than architecture since the architecture cannot accomodate too much of a shift from the original object...in other words it is not allowed to work.
jones uses the industrial object as an aesthetic device to connect to the presuppositions of the industrialization of early modernism, which although closer to the potential of the object and allowing it to begin to contain the functionality of architecture brings up the problems of the many attempts at modernism to propose a mass-produced architecture ...
okay i have to admit a rambled a bit on that previous comment. basically the thing that i think this all boils down to is...
what is necessary to make something functional and how does that relate to it as a device. the problem is that i think that very few architects are attacking the problem from a functional view...instead they are happily sitting on the sidelines in the safety of the gallery afraid to see what occurs when a concept is forced to meet reality...
adam kalkin can be thrown into this category as well.
I mean, i've beaten off to Instrumental Form. There is something sexy and seductive about Wes' graphics. The open loft box idea has been pushed a lot in the recent years. www.loftcube.net is a great example.
The essential problem with shipping containers is the simple fact that steel is not "warm".
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