beta, please please PLEASE spend time with friends. Go to Happy Hour, drink a little too much, don't throw any bottles, but do whatever you feel like doing. I don't know many people who work with loneliness well, certainly no one on Archinect. Those that do loneliness well have written books called "On the Road", etc.
Techno, what I want to know about Kingston is, what flavor of city is it most like? When I ask people about cities I've never been to, I like to compare it to other cities so I know what to expect. For instance, never been to Mexico City but I hear it's very European. What other place does Kingston remind you of most, and how are they similar/different?
beta, what they said sounds good to me. like the saying goes, thats what friends are for...
archi, a comparison would be good. or you could write about what has changed. how its a modern city, a not so modern one.
or...what do you notice is NOT a part of the cities you visit in the usa that you take for granted in kingston and vice versa? i can imagine a lot of cities in the states, but have no idea what kingston is like so any picture you paint would be interesting to be honest...cool that you are asked. publications are essential to the biz so i think you are lucky, especially if its for good publication. putting that on resume is very good thing.
I want to know about color in Kingston: what colors are there, and why. I don't have any image in my mind of what Kingston looks like but when I try to imagine it I get a carnival-festival-riotous color image. *Is* it a colorful urban landscape? if so, what significance is attached to those colors, how have they changed over time (color technology), are they dulling down as the world becomes more boring?
another possible approach... what about the urban form of kingston is specific to its tropical location? how does the urban form respond to the rain, the heat, the hurricanes, etc.?
and congratulations on being asked! like jump said, publications are key one of the keys to the academic game...
speaking of publications... some of you know that i've been working on a book called viaDirt (with three other co-editors)... the manuscript is now complete... originally it was going to be self-published by PennDesign, but it now looks like it (and the book series that it is a part of) are going to be picked up by a major academic press, which is very cool... anyways, the point is that i may also be involved in the next book in the series, in which case i may be asking some of you for potential contributions!
re: Kingston: I've heard that there are problems right now with drug lords running entire neighborhoods - which is what happens when you see disinvestment or some other strife and someone with money from seedy activities steps in and rebuilds. maybe something to learn from that...
This is interesting to me because you don't really see this behavior in american cities as much anymore - someone with money (either obtained dubiously or "honestly") entrenching themselves in an urban neighborhood. it's mostly about building their own version of Karnak out in the middle of nowhere instead of building up a Palazzo Medici in the city.
[rant]
you know - we spend all this time talking about the buildings and details we like and the architects we admire, but almost no time talking about the M.O. of clients/patrons.
we're more concerned with making and analyzing abstract form rather than who our clients are and what they are trying to do with the built environment.
all architecture is political - whether it is about displays of control/power, or an attempt to make a more democratic sustainable society - it's all designed to affect how we behave and to communicate something about the intentions of those who built it. even what we consider to be unintentional has meaning as a part of a larger political context.
cities reflect this history - we can literally see and touch the remnants of changes in power and ideology. we can keep trying to find some kind of underlying universal formal "truth" (topography, environment, settlement patterns, etc...) - but for me it's hard to separate out strategic political manipulation in all built form (which includes even something as mundane as picking out plants for your flower box or the color you paint your door).
[/rant]
also snook (or if someone can answer for him if he is already off grid) are you Native American (Sioux) by descent? Or just like the raw beauty of the Dakotas?
When I picture Kingston, well, I just picture Jamaica, but I picture shanty-towns painted in bright colours. Is it really like this? Is it poverty-stricken? If so, does the architectural style of the area, the shacks and such, create the poverty, or does the poverty create the shacks? Is all this wrong? Do you have tall buildings that aren't beach-side resorts? And then, how does the resort program/building type affect the area? I've been against cruise ships ever since I realized that they pull into port and block out the sun because they are so large.
I don't know, maybe all this is a terrible stereo-type, but it's all I know. Maybe you could show us there is more to Jamaica than Bob Marley and Jerk chicken.
What I find interesting is that toaster's very apt and academic rant about socio-political-cultural concerns is asked in Sarah's questions in very plain speech.
Does anyone else get that? or am I looking for the connection thus making it? I don't really trust my own instincts these days.
No, I kind of got that even though I just woke up from a cough syrup induced hazy sleep.
@toasteroven "but almost no time talking about the M.O. of clients/patrons":
I've brought this up a few times-- I think it is something planners inherently dwell on more than architects.
In some aspects, I don't mind the practice of "vanity architecture." Vanity architecture as an idol/icon is interesting sociologically and psychologically.
A truly vain client who is building a piece of vanity architecture understands that for vanity to be reinforced, it has to be admired. In that sense, vanity architecture (as spectacle) is worthless without spectators (worshipers).
In able for vanity architecture to be appreciated (worshiped), it has to be open or semi-open to the public. And not only do it have to be open to the public, the environment in and around the vanity object has to be of enough quality to draw and retain observers.
But in most cases, you do not have "purity of vanity." And that's when you get into someone specifically developing something to intentionally rip off others. Or even worse, using a delicate and sensitive issue as a facade to rent out auxiliary spaces (How many Holocaust Museums do we really need and how many of them have leasable retail attached to them?).
"If so, does the architectural style of the area, the shacks and such, create the poverty, or does the poverty create the shacks? Is all this wrong?"
This is a really interesting point.
I think someone made this point formally about New Orleans and its obsession with shotgun houses.
In some cases, the development of the shotgun house was "incidental." Meaning, the influence of a cosmopolitan Colonial and Afro-Caribbean culture in New Orleans brought architectural styles in from a very large demographic and the shotgun house was archetype of house prevalent in the area.
I.e., They were built because of familiarity following a housing boom during the Reconstruction Era.
Others posit that they were built as a housing option that allowed people to live closer to the city center while providing them all of the necessities of a home.
The last option is that they were essentially a reformed slave shack situated and adapted for use in urban environments.
They have no division between formal and informal space. They are incredibly cheap to build (i.e., requiring little-to-no bank financing which blacks would have been unable to have received anyways).
And they are fire hazards.
The reason as to why I don't buy the "cultural" concept or the "fits in a city" concept is many of these were built before sewage and before adequate fire protect. In that sense, jamming all of the "undesirables" into a high-density environment that's one match away from burning all the way down to the ground and that was knee deep in sewage makes more sense for political climate of the U.S.
In addition, they don't make sense because New Orleans is also famous for French-styled apartment blocks that can easily and feasibly support more people per acre than shotgun houses can.
While we celebrate the shotgun house now, we really ought not to. Because the shotgun house is really a sign of poverty and function of poverty.
This is probably goes along the same lines as to what Sarah and toaster are asking, but I am interested in how all the different socio-economic levels integrate throughout the city. Do they even integrate or is it quite obvious where the lines are drawn? I mean there is always some degree of separation, but I feel there are cities that do a much better job at integrating the different groups than others.
I'm also interested in learning how the city functions as a whole, in regard to transporation. Is public transporation widely used? Do a lot of people bike? Is there a lot of foot traffic or does everyone and their brother have a car? I guess that reveolves more around urban planning, but I still am curious.
i don't talk about clients because it is boring and because i don't think it is appropriate to talk about them too much in this venue. they are not public people and even if they were this is not the right place.
amongst ourselves we always talk about clients and how to respond to them better, find more and all that stuff. we also discuss environmental issues, sometimes with the clients. i guess it is possible to talk about that sort of thing here. i.e., the house we just finished was made so that every room had two operable windows on opposite walls for natural cross ventilation (NOT normal here - you think sejima gives a a shit? most clients don't). that came from the clients, who otherwise do not care about the environment in an obvious way. myself i found that interesting. we would have done it anyway but not necessarily talked to them about it. it is nice to be surprised by people that way.
all kinds of other client side things, like how we now have to get involved with banks on their behalf, and how we are also doing job of real estate agents and advise on property values, when and how much to bid....but that is already skirting the area i feel comfortable talking about in public, and anyway, does anyone here care about finance in the age of banks that don't offer loans? it's pretty tedious stuff.
welcome back vado, what an apt musical selection. Great to have you back brother. Also I am truly touched at the excellent, excellent and overwhelming responses enough to fill 10 essays I'm sure. Alas I will find a way to stuff these questions in one way or another. Again thanks. The essay after much deliberation will be entitled, Kingston Logic and will take the approach of commentary rather than a serious academic contribution. It will look at the growth of the city both formally and informally... to include some of the questions Sarah raised oddly enough about poverty and the development of the architecture of the shanties, the polarisation of the city poor vs contained middle class, and the informal commercialisation of the streets (more accurately the sidewalks)
I think "all architecture is political" is different from "architecture is all political". I don't agree with the assessment that because we don't talk about it as much we are not as concerned about who our clients are or what they are trying to do.
For me and as Jump touched on, it may be more about appropriateness, boring or not. I think clients are inherently interesting to us because of their position, but they may be a more private part of the process. If anything, sometimes I wish we can have more input from those that do not have financial stake in the project but will be affected by the project, which makes the definition of "client" more general to all those we "serve", not the person with the fattest wallet and/or the biggest stick. And please lets NOT quote Philip Johnson about architects being whores. I'm getting so annoyed with old quotes that are taken as truths because they're provocative (or worse because it rhymes).
And by the way, I was looking up the exact quote from Philip Johnson again, and when I got to "architects wh..." the search engine suggested "architects who eat their young." Yikes. These suggestions by search engines can be insightful.
Don't know anything about Kingston, but Architechno, I was looking up some pictures of polycarbonate online and somehow stumbled onto a blog referencing your blog. Couldn't find it again if I tried, but had a weird feeling like there was a bit of "six degrees of architechnophilia" going on.
Hi all. As an apt end to my incredibly crazy month of August, I have one last houseguest... and this one has four legs. Cutest Cat Ever has been living underneath my deck and his cuteness was able to be ignored when it was dry and warm, but today it took a turn for the cool and wet. When I came home drenched from an unexpectedly soggy bike ride, and my friend from under the deck appeared, I knew I had to do something. So we went to the vet and found out that my friend does not belong to anyone, but he is about 2 years old, and he is neutered! I will take him in and give him a place to sleep at night and let him out during the day, until I can get an appointment at a local rescue. He is so well-behaved...
In the meantime, what should I name him?
Good discussion going on here, and good luck with everyone's first day of classes and publications and what not. When are we going to have the Archinect conference again? I think it would be pretty darn interesting at this point...
Be sure to send me a copy of your essay, Techno. If you can, that is.
Nam, that is interesting. Why can't we ever so stuff in Dallas? Oh, wait, it's a long way to travel for most of you guys. I sometimes forget I'm out here all by my lonesome.
Dub, that cat belongs to you now. Don't fool yourself that he'll be going to rescue! Since you lost WonderKitty, who's been sleeping in your dresser?!
If he likes going outside during the day and being an adventurer with a warm place to et and sleep at night, let him be that for you. Best of both worlds, and on very cold rainy days make sure he has a place under the deck out of the rain.
Name: Petey, like Eisenman, though he looks much less high-strung than that Peter.
speaking of peter eisenman... has anyone else seen the documentary "Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio"? i watched it earlier this week and it was pretty good... eisenman was sorta cast as the evil villain, saying things like "architecture shouldn't try to save the world" etc.
I saw it! It was very intersting. I caught it on PBS.com. I couldn't get it to blow full screen, so I had to watch it in little. I wish I'd even couldve known about rural studio when I was looking for schools. Would've been awesome.
[rant]With all due respect, but what is this ridiculous design proposed in the latest submission? Where did the original design go? How does this monstrous, defacement of an urban environment, find its way into Minneapolis? This "Titanic" mess of a design is better suited to a suburban community and NOT Minneapolis proper. If this latest idea moves forward, it'll move forward with an epic fail.
nam your misreading reminds me: I swear the sign on the local Starbuck's door says "come in and be retarded". Actually it says rewarded - but I did quite a double take!
That's kinda funny Donna. I do that all the time, though not with what I see, but more with what I hear, especially during allergy season when I'm all congested. Sometimes it's quite comical, really.
I used Acad for the first time in nearly a year today. I can't remember how to get dimension lines, without clicking on the pull-down menu, and damn if I can't figure out how to get my dashed lines to show up, or create modelspace viewports when in paperspace. I figured it'd be more like riding a bike, but I can't remember most things. Sucks.
I just learned the best photoshop trick ever, and now I feel embarassed that I didn't know it before! If you hold down alt + shift and simply drag a layer from one open file to another open file, it copies and pastes in place, even as live text! I always used to hate trying to make things line up from one file to the next.
Nothing more exciting than new discoveries! I live in this house for almost one year, and just found out that there is a light socket (pull chain type), inside the closet in my "home office". Before I had to pull a lamp nearby. heheheh
copper top, wow, really!? Does that only work in CS4? Awesome!
Also I like the name Dexter a LOT, and I think it's appropriate because it could be derived from Deck-ster, as in, "the Deck-ster kitty". I will name him that as soon as he turns up again, which he has not in two days, LOL. This is one easy cat to take care of!
You never know Dub. He doesn't look too skinny in the photo. He may indeed be someone else's cat. Lord knows my gray kitty is flea infested cuz she won't actually let me put any medicine on her and is prone to walking into other people's houses. Maybe he just needed a vacation and you provided him the opportunity. LOL!!! Maybe he'll just be a visitor from time to time. In any case Dexter is a great name.
Looking forward to that upcoming long weekend. It was looking like i was going to have to work over it but lo and behold it turns out deadlines are flexible. As long as I am not the one doing the flexing...
Anywho, hopefully, some reading, writing and beaching...
dub, nope! My office is still running on CS2... I'm trying to tell them they need to fix that before CS6 comes out, due to the only-three-levels-of-upgradability issue, but they're remodeling the office so I doubt it'll happen.
I was doing some reading yesterday about the "going green" changing of habits, in using goats instead of lawn mowers to keep the grass short and on the other end keep the grounds fertilized.
I watched a video from Google’s property lawn where they rent those goats to do the job. Subsequently I came across this video about the fainting goats, hilarious.
I didn't notice one of those at the Google’s field.
My mom got goats so she wouldn't have to shred her pastures, and to maybe eat the offspring, and I hate them. They're noisy, crap everywhere, and they don't eat the grass! They also get into everything, and climb on the cars. Ugh. Renting a goat is the last thing I would ever do.
ahahahah, Sarah... goats climbing on cars is pretty awful. I am always a little skeptical about “going green” trends.
I have the impression sometimes that they are put together by a LEED pencil pusher with very little practical experience. These things should be explained to people with more details on the pros and cons of using new methods.
I do love my new job, believe me it does help to own the company. The only bad thing being that now I am super spoiled and will never ever be going back to architecture. Then I get sad and confused and wonder what I am giving up, and wonder if I am making a mistake. I often bring to mind an image of myself 20 years in the future as a truly fabulous architect and knowing that it won't happen now I feel bad. Yet I must be doing the right thing because I haven't stopped smiling (I call it Permagrin) in seven months and I am still thinking this is a dream I will wake up from and go back to reality.
We are going to Hawaii for our anniversary, by the way, but also to celebrate our good fortunes and explore the culture there, which I am sure to love. For this job we are expected to be well traveled and culturally fluent after all!
is wrong for me to want to be around friends and just feel like shit, crying into my proverbial beer? or, should i just go to the boundary waters for a week, and find my manhood again?
I don't know anything about manhood, but I do know about moving on from the end of a meaningful relationship. From that period of my life, I will always cherish - absolutely cherish - the warmth and love a friend showed me in simple being there with me, and taking me out. I was an awful companion, I'm sure - prone to bouts of anger, whining, and crying, interspersed with long silences - and yet she simply endured, with me. She took me out of town on short road trips, and even though we didn't really go anywhere or do anything, just getting out of my surroundings (which were too memory-laden) was extremely helpful to me. And having someone there with me encouraged me to spend 10% of my time thinking of something other than myself and my own myopic problems - whereas lying around on my bed and calling in sick to work was encouraging me to spend 100% of my time moping self-centeredly. She did all that without really doing much at all - and I'm forever grateful. Oddly enough, she wasn't even that deep of a friend - more like a casual friend - which I think made it work better; she didn't ask to delve into my shit and I didn't cling to her too badly. Also, she kind of appeared on the scene for a few months, helped me through this period, and then literally moved away and I haven't spoken to her since. I'd like to thank her, though, some day.
Unicorn, um, have you been to the doctor? They have drugs for that, you know?
manta, that's a sweet, if melancholy, story.
Strawbeary, have so much fun! How long are you there for? I'm so happy for you to have found success, especially knowing how shiteous your previous situation was.
My boss told me to slack off this afternoon, and I get to tell my coworker to slack off too. I have a feeling my boss is going to give me direct reports any day now. It's a little scary, but if it involves telling people to slack off an hour before the start of a long weekend, I'm OK with it.
Thread Central
beta, please please PLEASE spend time with friends. Go to Happy Hour, drink a little too much, don't throw any bottles, but do whatever you feel like doing. I don't know many people who work with loneliness well, certainly no one on Archinect. Those that do loneliness well have written books called "On the Road", etc.
Techno, what I want to know about Kingston is, what flavor of city is it most like? When I ask people about cities I've never been to, I like to compare it to other cities so I know what to expect. For instance, never been to Mexico City but I hear it's very European. What other place does Kingston remind you of most, and how are they similar/different?
beta, what they said sounds good to me. like the saying goes, thats what friends are for...
archi, a comparison would be good. or you could write about what has changed. how its a modern city, a not so modern one.
or...what do you notice is NOT a part of the cities you visit in the usa that you take for granted in kingston and vice versa? i can imagine a lot of cities in the states, but have no idea what kingston is like so any picture you paint would be interesting to be honest...cool that you are asked. publications are essential to the biz so i think you are lucky, especially if its for good publication. putting that on resume is very good thing.
I want to know about color in Kingston: what colors are there, and why. I don't have any image in my mind of what Kingston looks like but when I try to imagine it I get a carnival-festival-riotous color image. *Is* it a colorful urban landscape? if so, what significance is attached to those colors, how have they changed over time (color technology), are they dulling down as the world becomes more boring?
another possible approach... what about the urban form of kingston is specific to its tropical location? how does the urban form respond to the rain, the heat, the hurricanes, etc.?
and congratulations on being asked! like jump said, publications are key one of the keys to the academic game...
speaking of publications... some of you know that i've been working on a book called viaDirt (with three other co-editors)... the manuscript is now complete... originally it was going to be self-published by PennDesign, but it now looks like it (and the book series that it is a part of) are going to be picked up by a major academic press, which is very cool... anyways, the point is that i may also be involved in the next book in the series, in which case i may be asking some of you for potential contributions!
Good morning all,
Sounds like TCers are making moves. Congrats all!
that very cool philip. well done!
re: Kingston: I've heard that there are problems right now with drug lords running entire neighborhoods - which is what happens when you see disinvestment or some other strife and someone with money from seedy activities steps in and rebuilds. maybe something to learn from that...
This is interesting to me because you don't really see this behavior in american cities as much anymore - someone with money (either obtained dubiously or "honestly") entrenching themselves in an urban neighborhood. it's mostly about building their own version of Karnak out in the middle of nowhere instead of building up a Palazzo Medici in the city.
Congrats, Phillip. And congrats techno too.
[rant]
you know - we spend all this time talking about the buildings and details we like and the architects we admire, but almost no time talking about the M.O. of clients/patrons.
we're more concerned with making and analyzing abstract form rather than who our clients are and what they are trying to do with the built environment.
all architecture is political - whether it is about displays of control/power, or an attempt to make a more democratic sustainable society - it's all designed to affect how we behave and to communicate something about the intentions of those who built it. even what we consider to be unintentional has meaning as a part of a larger political context.
cities reflect this history - we can literally see and touch the remnants of changes in power and ideology. we can keep trying to find some kind of underlying universal formal "truth" (topography, environment, settlement patterns, etc...) - but for me it's hard to separate out strategic political manipulation in all built form (which includes even something as mundane as picking out plants for your flower box or the color you paint your door).
[/rant]
ok - I'm done now.
peach pie... mmmm....
toast nice....
also snook (or if someone can answer for him if he is already off grid) are you Native American (Sioux) by descent? Or just like the raw beauty of the Dakotas?
Techno, I'd want to know...
When I picture Kingston, well, I just picture Jamaica, but I picture shanty-towns painted in bright colours. Is it really like this? Is it poverty-stricken? If so, does the architectural style of the area, the shacks and such, create the poverty, or does the poverty create the shacks? Is all this wrong? Do you have tall buildings that aren't beach-side resorts? And then, how does the resort program/building type affect the area? I've been against cruise ships ever since I realized that they pull into port and block out the sun because they are so large.
I don't know, maybe all this is a terrible stereo-type, but it's all I know. Maybe you could show us there is more to Jamaica than Bob Marley and Jerk chicken.
What I find interesting is that toaster's very apt and academic rant about socio-political-cultural concerns is asked in Sarah's questions in very plain speech.
Does anyone else get that? or am I looking for the connection thus making it? I don't really trust my own instincts these days.
No, I kind of got that even though I just woke up from a cough syrup induced hazy sleep.
@toasteroven "but almost no time talking about the M.O. of clients/patrons":
I've brought this up a few times-- I think it is something planners inherently dwell on more than architects.
In some aspects, I don't mind the practice of "vanity architecture." Vanity architecture as an idol/icon is interesting sociologically and psychologically.
A truly vain client who is building a piece of vanity architecture understands that for vanity to be reinforced, it has to be admired. In that sense, vanity architecture (as spectacle) is worthless without spectators (worshipers).
In able for vanity architecture to be appreciated (worshiped), it has to be open or semi-open to the public. And not only do it have to be open to the public, the environment in and around the vanity object has to be of enough quality to draw and retain observers.
But in most cases, you do not have "purity of vanity." And that's when you get into someone specifically developing something to intentionally rip off others. Or even worse, using a delicate and sensitive issue as a facade to rent out auxiliary spaces (How many Holocaust Museums do we really need and how many of them have leasable retail attached to them?).
"If so, does the architectural style of the area, the shacks and such, create the poverty, or does the poverty create the shacks? Is all this wrong?"
This is a really interesting point.
I think someone made this point formally about New Orleans and its obsession with shotgun houses.
In some cases, the development of the shotgun house was "incidental." Meaning, the influence of a cosmopolitan Colonial and Afro-Caribbean culture in New Orleans brought architectural styles in from a very large demographic and the shotgun house was archetype of house prevalent in the area.
I.e., They were built because of familiarity following a housing boom during the Reconstruction Era.
Others posit that they were built as a housing option that allowed people to live closer to the city center while providing them all of the necessities of a home.
The last option is that they were essentially a reformed slave shack situated and adapted for use in urban environments.
They have no division between formal and informal space. They are incredibly cheap to build (i.e., requiring little-to-no bank financing which blacks would have been unable to have received anyways).
And they are fire hazards.
The reason as to why I don't buy the "cultural" concept or the "fits in a city" concept is many of these were built before sewage and before adequate fire protect. In that sense, jamming all of the "undesirables" into a high-density environment that's one match away from burning all the way down to the ground and that was knee deep in sewage makes more sense for political climate of the U.S.
In addition, they don't make sense because New Orleans is also famous for French-styled apartment blocks that can easily and feasibly support more people per acre than shotgun houses can.
While we celebrate the shotgun house now, we really ought not to. Because the shotgun house is really a sign of poverty and function of poverty.
Re: Kingston
This is probably goes along the same lines as to what Sarah and toaster are asking, but I am interested in how all the different socio-economic levels integrate throughout the city. Do they even integrate or is it quite obvious where the lines are drawn? I mean there is always some degree of separation, but I feel there are cities that do a much better job at integrating the different groups than others.
I'm also interested in learning how the city functions as a whole, in regard to transporation. Is public transporation widely used? Do a lot of people bike? Is there a lot of foot traffic or does everyone and their brother have a car? I guess that reveolves more around urban planning, but I still am curious.
i don't talk about clients because it is boring and because i don't think it is appropriate to talk about them too much in this venue. they are not public people and even if they were this is not the right place.
amongst ourselves we always talk about clients and how to respond to them better, find more and all that stuff. we also discuss environmental issues, sometimes with the clients. i guess it is possible to talk about that sort of thing here. i.e., the house we just finished was made so that every room had two operable windows on opposite walls for natural cross ventilation (NOT normal here - you think sejima gives a a shit? most clients don't). that came from the clients, who otherwise do not care about the environment in an obvious way. myself i found that interesting. we would have done it anyway but not necessarily talked to them about it. it is nice to be surprised by people that way.
all kinds of other client side things, like how we now have to get involved with banks on their behalf, and how we are also doing job of real estate agents and advise on property values, when and how much to bid....but that is already skirting the area i feel comfortable talking about in public, and anyway, does anyone here care about finance in the age of banks that don't offer loans? it's pretty tedious stuff.
welcome back vado, what an apt musical selection. Great to have you back brother. Also I am truly touched at the excellent, excellent and overwhelming responses enough to fill 10 essays I'm sure. Alas I will find a way to stuff these questions in one way or another. Again thanks. The essay after much deliberation will be entitled, Kingston Logic and will take the approach of commentary rather than a serious academic contribution. It will look at the growth of the city both formally and informally... to include some of the questions Sarah raised oddly enough about poverty and the development of the architecture of the shanties, the polarisation of the city poor vs contained middle class, and the informal commercialisation of the streets (more accurately the sidewalks)
vado's back!!!
I think "all architecture is political" is different from "architecture is all political". I don't agree with the assessment that because we don't talk about it as much we are not as concerned about who our clients are or what they are trying to do.
For me and as Jump touched on, it may be more about appropriateness, boring or not. I think clients are inherently interesting to us because of their position, but they may be a more private part of the process. If anything, sometimes I wish we can have more input from those that do not have financial stake in the project but will be affected by the project, which makes the definition of "client" more general to all those we "serve", not the person with the fattest wallet and/or the biggest stick. And please lets NOT quote Philip Johnson about architects being whores. I'm getting so annoyed with old quotes that are taken as truths because they're provocative (or worse because it rhymes).
And by the way, I was looking up the exact quote from Philip Johnson again, and when I got to "architects wh..." the search engine suggested "architects who eat their young." Yikes. These suggestions by search engines can be insightful.
Don't know anything about Kingston, but Architechno, I was looking up some pictures of polycarbonate online and somehow stumbled onto a blog referencing your blog. Couldn't find it again if I tried, but had a weird feeling like there was a bit of "six degrees of architechnophilia" going on.
Hi all. As an apt end to my incredibly crazy month of August, I have one last houseguest... and this one has four legs. Cutest Cat Ever has been living underneath my deck and his cuteness was able to be ignored when it was dry and warm, but today it took a turn for the cool and wet. When I came home drenched from an unexpectedly soggy bike ride, and my friend from under the deck appeared, I knew I had to do something. So we went to the vet and found out that my friend does not belong to anyone, but he is about 2 years old, and he is neutered! I will take him in and give him a place to sleep at night and let him out during the day, until I can get an appointment at a local rescue. He is so well-behaved...
In the meantime, what should I name him?
Good discussion going on here, and good luck with everyone's first day of classes and publications and what not. When are we going to have the Archinect conference again? I think it would be pretty darn interesting at this point...
Hi vado, nice to see you right back up with the music/
video interludes.
Archi, sounds exactly like the sort of thing i would want to read...
Dubbers cute looking cat.
I thing the Archinect conference is now undergoing it's first birthing. did you all see this???
Introducing Archinect Sessions at the Neutra VDL House!
Wow, a Vado sighting, and I missed it! Damn.
Be sure to send me a copy of your essay, Techno. If you can, that is.
Nam, that is interesting. Why can't we ever so stuff in Dallas? Oh, wait, it's a long way to travel for most of you guys. I sometimes forget I'm out here all by my lonesome.
Dub - He looks very content. Glad you let him in and gave him a place to warm up and dry off.
Dub, that cat belongs to you now. Don't fool yourself that he'll be going to rescue! Since you lost WonderKitty, who's been sleeping in your dresser?!
If he likes going outside during the day and being an adventurer with a warm place to et and sleep at night, let him be that for you. Best of both worlds, and on very cold rainy days make sure he has a place under the deck out of the rain.
Name: Petey, like Eisenman, though he looks much less high-strung than that Peter.
speaking of peter eisenman... has anyone else seen the documentary "Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio"? i watched it earlier this week and it was pretty good... eisenman was sorta cast as the evil villain, saying things like "architecture shouldn't try to save the world" etc.
I saw it! It was very intersting. I caught it on PBS.com. I couldn't get it to blow full screen, so I had to watch it in little. I wish I'd even couldve known about rural studio when I was looking for schools. Would've been awesome.
here was my email rant for the day, enjoy.
[rant]With all due respect, but what is this ridiculous design proposed in the latest submission? Where did the original design go? How does this monstrous, defacement of an urban environment, find its way into Minneapolis? This "Titanic" mess of a design is better suited to a suburban community and NOT Minneapolis proper. If this latest idea moves forward, it'll move forward with an epic fail.
I am incensed.
Regards,
Ken R. Koense AIA NCARB[/rant]
hah hah Ken, lovely email - and it excites the mind of what could of gotten you so fired up.
dubK: dexter aka the deck kitty.
Ken: call me if you need to talk (or rant).
beta, I read I am incensed. as licensed..Meaning you were saying I know what i am talking about re: this complaint because i am licensed.
anyways, hope all is well. night all.
I like Dexter!
nam your misreading reminds me: I swear the sign on the local Starbuck's door says "come in and be retarded". Actually it says rewarded - but I did quite a double take!
That's kinda funny Donna. I do that all the time, though not with what I see, but more with what I hear, especially during allergy season when I'm all congested. Sometimes it's quite comical, really.
I used Acad for the first time in nearly a year today. I can't remember how to get dimension lines, without clicking on the pull-down menu, and damn if I can't figure out how to get my dashed lines to show up, or create modelspace viewports when in paperspace. I figured it'd be more like riding a bike, but I can't remember most things. Sucks.
I just learned the best photoshop trick ever, and now I feel embarassed that I didn't know it before! If you hold down alt + shift and simply drag a layer from one open file to another open file, it copies and pastes in place, even as live text! I always used to hate trying to make things line up from one file to the next.
Nothing more exciting than new discoveries! I live in this house for almost one year, and just found out that there is a light socket (pull chain type), inside the closet in my "home office". Before I had to pull a lamp nearby. heheheh
...But not in the bedroom.
copper top, wow, really!? Does that only work in CS4? Awesome!
Also I like the name Dexter a LOT, and I think it's appropriate because it could be derived from Deck-ster, as in, "the Deck-ster kitty". I will name him that as soon as he turns up again, which he has not in two days, LOL. This is one easy cat to take care of!
You never know Dub. He doesn't look too skinny in the photo. He may indeed be someone else's cat. Lord knows my gray kitty is flea infested cuz she won't actually let me put any medicine on her and is prone to walking into other people's houses. Maybe he just needed a vacation and you provided him the opportunity. LOL!!! Maybe he'll just be a visitor from time to time. In any case Dexter is a great name.
morning all.
Looking forward to that upcoming long weekend. It was looking like i was going to have to work over it but lo and behold it turns out deadlines are flexible. As long as I am not the one doing the flexing...
Anywho, hopefully, some reading, writing and beaching...
What about you all?
dub, nope! My office is still running on CS2... I'm trying to tell them they need to fix that before CS6 comes out, due to the only-three-levels-of-upgradability issue, but they're remodeling the office so I doubt it'll happen.
LoL on finding the pullchain after a year! I lived in an apartment for months before finding a kitchen drawer that I had never noticed before...
Deckster is the cutest name ever! Are you going to spell it like that?
One half day of work, then off to Hawaii!!!!
Man, Strawbeary, your new job must be awesome. Not only do you love it, but it pays well enough to let you travel all over! Colour me jealous!
I was doing some reading yesterday about the "going green" changing of habits, in using goats instead of lawn mowers to keep the grass short and on the other end keep the grounds fertilized.
I watched a video from Google’s property lawn where they rent those goats to do the job. Subsequently I came across this video about the fainting goats, hilarious.
I didn't notice one of those at the Google’s field.
My mom got goats so she wouldn't have to shred her pastures, and to maybe eat the offspring, and I hate them. They're noisy, crap everywhere, and they don't eat the grass! They also get into everything, and climb on the cars. Ugh. Renting a goat is the last thing I would ever do.
They do make some awesome cheese, though.
ahahahah, Sarah... goats climbing on cars is pretty awful. I am always a little skeptical about “going green” trends.
I have the impression sometimes that they are put together by a LEED pencil pusher with very little practical experience. These things should be explained to people with more details on the pros and cons of using new methods.
I do love my new job, believe me it does help to own the company. The only bad thing being that now I am super spoiled and will never ever be going back to architecture. Then I get sad and confused and wonder what I am giving up, and wonder if I am making a mistake. I often bring to mind an image of myself 20 years in the future as a truly fabulous architect and knowing that it won't happen now I feel bad. Yet I must be doing the right thing because I haven't stopped smiling (I call it Permagrin) in seven months and I am still thinking this is a dream I will wake up from and go back to reality.
We are going to Hawaii for our anniversary, by the way, but also to celebrate our good fortunes and explore the culture there, which I am sure to love. For this job we are expected to be well traveled and culturally fluent after all!
I don't know anything about manhood, but I do know about moving on from the end of a meaningful relationship. From that period of my life, I will always cherish - absolutely cherish - the warmth and love a friend showed me in simple being there with me, and taking me out. I was an awful companion, I'm sure - prone to bouts of anger, whining, and crying, interspersed with long silences - and yet she simply endured, with me. She took me out of town on short road trips, and even though we didn't really go anywhere or do anything, just getting out of my surroundings (which were too memory-laden) was extremely helpful to me. And having someone there with me encouraged me to spend 10% of my time thinking of something other than myself and my own myopic problems - whereas lying around on my bed and calling in sick to work was encouraging me to spend 100% of my time moping self-centeredly. She did all that without really doing much at all - and I'm forever grateful. Oddly enough, she wasn't even that deep of a friend - more like a casual friend - which I think made it work better; she didn't ask to delve into my shit and I didn't cling to her too badly. Also, she kind of appeared on the scene for a few months, helped me through this period, and then literally moved away and I haven't spoken to her since. I'd like to thank her, though, some day.
instead of our standard submittal stamp, I'm going to start using this from now on.
I can imagine it also being very useful for grading papers...
How long is too long to have bronchitis??
Unicorn, um, have you been to the doctor? They have drugs for that, you know?
manta, that's a sweet, if melancholy, story.
Strawbeary, have so much fun! How long are you there for? I'm so happy for you to have found success, especially knowing how shiteous your previous situation was.
My boss told me to slack off this afternoon, and I get to tell my coworker to slack off too. I have a feeling my boss is going to give me direct reports any day now. It's a little scary, but if it involves telling people to slack off an hour before the start of a long weekend, I'm OK with it.
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