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minifost

Hi I'm Mike, 

Working with and designing for a non-human client is known to be difficult. Starting Architecture school in September I have taken to the liberty of researching into the criteria of year one at my school. Project 1.1 states that one must design a habitat for an animal living here within the city (England city) I have had some ideas for which animal I have a tendency of designing for although after reading further into the course I have found that:

Tasks 1.2 = Design a small mobile home, no larger than a car parking space using the ideas from task 1.1 and the chosen animal.  

Tasks 1.3 = Design a full building using the ideas from tasks 1.1 and 1.2 

 

Example = Otters fish,  small home is a fishing boat and full building is a cookery school located near a river where fresh fish is caught and sold.

 

My Initial choice of animal was the hedgehog, due to its dying population I thought I may be able to preserve the lives of those that dwell within a city. The animal habitat I have though about has gone through some design process although I have no prior experience in designing and only passion and interest to show for myself. 

 

I have split the criteria for the habitat into 3 distinctive criteria - 

 

Attraction - It must attract the given animal (Hedgehog)

Container - It must contain the animal and give shelter

3rd - It must protect and serve the animal AND flow and coincide with city life.

 

My problem comes when i think of project 2, How could i possibly design a small home the size of a car parking space with the hedgehog idea in mind?

My Thinking - A home that can shrink into a ball, like the anatomy of a hedgehog - for transportation and fit within the given size, When in use the home can curl out into a larger more usable space. 

Problem [ Spheres don't fold very far and the only rational thinking of how it may work is if the contents inside were stationary within the centre and possibly fold in on its self and that the roof or floor of this portable home is made from a material like cloth.

 

Any advice for ideas or help would be appreciated, even just some advice on design processing would be great.

Jun 21, 14 12:34 pm  · 
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Volunteer

Lexington, Kentucky, and the surrounding equestrian estates are extremely pleasant places to live. A lot of the horse farm owners could buy and sell the Hamptons en toto if they chose.

Jun 21, 14 8:59 pm  · 
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Let's play Can You Top This?

The most expensive house in the US just sold for $147 million in East Hampton. The most expensive listing in Lexington is about 8% of that. These guys don't have a vacation house or two, they have investment portfolios of real estate holdings around the world, in the most expensive markets - the Hamptons, Palo Alto, Aspen, LA, etc.

Open listings here currently top out around $100m. The really exclusive stuff never gets advertised or openly listed.

Jun 21, 14 10:58 pm  · 
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Volunteer

As you said: "The really exclusive stuff never gets advertised or openly listed". The horse barns around Lexington are better built than the crap in the Hamptons.

Jun 22, 14 7:02 am  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

I'm sure there are landowners (farmers, ranchers) that could top $100 million in Kentucky, but I guess that doesn't count because the value isn't in the house. The horses are probably worth tens of thousands apiece though. 

Jun 22, 14 7:50 am  · 
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How'd we get to one-upsmanship re: real estate? One of KY's charms is low cost of living. Real estate bargains galore. Comparing us to NY is goofy.
Jun 22, 14 8:16 am  · 
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minifrost, put your client at the forefront of this project.  Take a look at Visiondivision's home for crayfish called Cancer City - it's an actual built animal habitat.

Jun 22, 14 8:26 am  · 
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Volunteer, we also have lots of brand new $20m spec houses that require serious ongoing repair from day one. Betcha don't have any of those, either. 

I didn't say it was good, just that Lexington couldn't top it (or even come close). Like Steven said: that's a good thing.

Jun 22, 14 9:18 am  · 
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minifost

Thank you Donna, the linked habitat is quite amazing and works perfectly like intended, however my problem is the portable home that we have been asked to design with the animal in mind. I'm not entirely sure on how to progress from a hedgehog, using the information from my habitat to create a portable home for a human.

Jun 22, 14 9:23 am  · 
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Don't be so literal. If archi schools there are like archi schools there, some incomprehensible, unbuildable schematic and a line of pretentious bullshit will get you to the top of the class.

Jun 22, 14 9:28 am  · 
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minifost

Haha Miles,

The difference is id rather be a good architect, than be a bad one with a good degree!  I'm a qualified carpenter and therefore I think of a design and then think rationally how it may work, If it does not  work, I try to find a way I can make it work.

I got told the first year is for making mistakes and making a name for yourself, so i intend to make a good job of this.

Jun 22, 14 9:37 am  · 
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Volunteer

Miles, having visited the Hamptons several times as well as Lexington, there is no comparison. The Queen of England spends several weeks each year visiting Keeneland buying yearlings for her stables; I don't think the lady would be caught dead in the Hamptons. You are confusing value with costs and class with wretched excess. A lot of the new homes in the Hamptons should be bulldozed as eyesores. You cannot say that about any of the equestrian estates around Lexington. Point being if you think all Kentuckians are mouth-breathing gomers vastly inferior to the bankrupt bankers of the Hamptons propped up by a corrupt Fed you might want to reconsider.

Jun 22, 14 9:50 am  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

I think Miles should sell his hampton estate and move to bluegrass country. maybe it will help with the negative thoughts. Horses are very therapeutic. 

Jun 22, 14 10:30 am  · 
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Volunteer, you're barking up the wrong tree. I'ver never been a fan of wretched excess, in either NY or KY, and have no confusion about values. Inherited royalty ("the Queen") is a particularly poor example of 'class', as has been repeatedly demonstrated throughout history. While on the subject, I would recommend the book Class by Paul Fussell, an insightful and hilarious dissection of social structure in America (and now much of the world).

FYI I've done a number of projects about this issue, including writing The Hamptons Dictionary (first word: A-list, definition: a catalog of assholes) and creating the Nuke The Hamptons website.

tint, we have horses here too, and the Hampton Classic, one of the biggest show jumping contests in the US. If horse people in KY are anything like horse people here, I'll pass.

Jun 22, 14 11:54 am  · 
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I'm not sure there are a homogenous group 'KY horse people', exactly. There are the old guard gentry and then those who pool their money to join an ownership together, and then a spectrum of situations in between.

As I understand our geology - the massive limestone Karst formations below most of the state - is what gives us our excellent aquifer system for delicious water, and by extension our Bluegrass, healthy horses, and lovely bourbon.

The magic is in the place. People are just its ambassadors!
Jun 22, 14 2:59 pm  · 
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3tk

Can't park a yacht in KY - that's gotta hurt the market out there despite the beautiful rolling hills.

Jun 23, 14 10:25 am  · 
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I'm going to Kentucky today, and I'm very happy about it.  The prospect of a trip to the Hamptons makes me itchy and a little nauseous.

Jun 23, 14 10:42 am  · 
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How big's your yacht, 3tk? We do have water...

Are you coming to see me, Donna?! 

Jun 23, 14 11:54 am  · 
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3tk

mine's maybe a couple of inches :)  I was just recalling the 3 deckers docked in Sag Harbor.

Jun 23, 14 12:56 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

I was in Long Island City yesterday at  the Nagouchi Museum....It is't the Hamptons but it is well worth the visit.  Think I could quit my day job and go to work there just to be in the company of some very High Class Sculpture.

Jun 23, 14 1:05 pm  · 
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The prospect of a trip to the Hamptons makes me itchy and a little nauseous.

This time of year I feel the same way about leaving the house.

Jun 23, 14 1:19 pm  · 
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Volunteer

Well Katie Couric married some drone from Brown Brothers Harriman in the Hamptons this past weekend. You cannot make this stuff up.

Jun 23, 14 1:30 pm  · 
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toasteroven

kentucky... can I safely ride my bike there... without fear of getting harassed?

Jun 23, 14 10:44 pm  · 
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morning TC!

Jun 24, 14 8:38 am  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

good morning!

toaster, when I bike commuted in the midwest people assumed I lost my license from drunk driving. 

Jun 24, 14 9:10 am  · 
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louisville's getting better bike infrastructure all the time, but it's still not understood by a lot of the driving population. i hear lexington's getting better as well.

louisville really needs to update cycling rules and then do a good education program. cyclists tend to break road rules - and it makes sense that they do, in some respects - but the rules need to actually change to accommodate. otherwise drivers get frustrated thinking that cyclists are arrogantly flouting the law.  

rural kentucky? depends. as cyclists become more familiar, harassment is decreasing. there will always be yahoos, though. [but, then, that may not be kentucky-specific.]

is kentucky, in general, a safe place for cyclists. i'd probably come down on the 'no' side right now.  

Jun 24, 14 11:36 am  · 
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I was in Danville, Steven giving a talk on tactical urbanism to the GSA kids.  Good time, but too brief.

I did manage to go see this project on the way home.  Very well done.

Jun 25, 14 11:31 am  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

When I bike in Connecticut I get Killed!

Jun 25, 14 10:35 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

Donna that looks like a Kicking Chicken kind of experience! 

Jun 25, 14 10:39 pm  · 
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Hi, y'all!

Jun 26, 14 12:47 am  · 
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hey Fred! nice to see you around TC

Jun 26, 14 8:53 am  · 
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Yo, Nam! What's happening?

Jun 26, 14 11:45 am  · 
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Hi Fred. How's the bun?

You sll need to read Mimi's article on the Biennale and revolution. Here:

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/06/26/mimi-zeiger-opinion-radical-action-architecture-protest/?fb_action_ids=10152467393666380&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B520238074772675%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Also, I'm excited about the proposed Chicago biennial. Chicago is obviously the proper place to hold it.
Jun 26, 14 6:20 pm  · 
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toasteroven

read it - awesome stuff. 

 

Things are changing - I think we're seeing the beginning of a big shift in arch discourse.

Jun 26, 14 9:28 pm  · 
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This, I don't know what to say about this:

MoMA PS1 rendering: http://www.designmagazin.cz/foto/2014/02/moma-ps1-the-living-hy-fi-4.jpg

MoMA PS1 photo: http://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2014/06/Mushroom-Tower-PS1-Hy-Fi-537x357.jpg

(and I'm a big fan of The Living, but this is just … I don't know)

Donna, Stan the rabbit is great. It's hot in Baltimore, and he doesn't like that much, but we keep cobblestones in the freezer that we rotate out to help him stay cool.

Jun 27, 14 12:19 am  · 
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toasteroven

I think for me, what falls flat is that the form and execution is your run-of-the-mill parametric stacking exercise - assembled by a bunch of amateur masons.  sure - the material itself is interesting, but they could have built it with anything.

 

but isn't the whole benefit of the material that it could be any shape?  They could be 3d-printing intricate formwork and then using that to make strange lattice-like blocks (using FLW's concrete block houses as a springboard) - that would have been more exciting, IMO...  There's absolutely no craft with this.

Jun 27, 14 10:37 am  · 
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toasteroven

probably more what these guys are doing:

 

http://www.emergingobjects.com/

Jun 27, 14 10:45 am  · 
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Very cool, toast. Love those odd units.

 

When *I* was a kid, we hand-crafted masonry units with an intentional flaw to see what kind of wall forms we could produce.  This was before parametrics was common, so we used mass-produced but unfired bricks - wet clay.

Now get off my lawn!

Jun 27, 14 11:13 am  · 
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Since being selected The Living has possibly prioritized their absorption by Autodesk. Maybe lost interest in this?
Jun 28, 14 8:52 am  · 
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I can't help but think this goes back to the myth of 'self-assembly' that was the hook in their proposal materials and animation. When you have real humans (likely not masons, but unskilled volunteer laborers) doing the work, you're not going to get that smoothly variable complexity and those elegant parametric lines so easily. Should've used quadcopters.

Jun 28, 14 9:43 am  · 
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That dishwasher thread is awesome.
Jun 28, 14 12:22 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton
Not having internment for 2 weeks is awful. Like some sort of purgatory. Now I know what my kid in Pakistan feels like. First world problems. Thank god for 4G.

The high window thread is awesome. Like Archinect of old. Off to find this dishwasher thread.

Highya, Fred!
Jun 28, 14 1:09 pm  · 
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Hi!

Jun 28, 14 3:17 pm  · 
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@Donna, there are also many good responses in that Window thread from;

"Thong Rods" to "helper monkey"...

Night all.

Jun 30, 14 10:05 pm  · 
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I'm feeling so down tonight, most of my government and a huge chunk of my fellow citizens thinks I have no value as a human being. Guess I can stop paying taxes now since I'm less than human?

I'll be happy when Scalia either retires or dies. Don't care which.
Jun 30, 14 10:32 pm  · 
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CD.Arch
I was going to post something about how the monkey needed to wear designer clothing in order to be a chic helper monkey, but Donna beat me to it.
Jun 30, 14 10:40 pm  · 
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b3tadine[sutures]

"Get back into the kitchen, and make my meatloaf, honey." - Justice Scalia

Jun 30, 14 11:07 pm  · 
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"And if you don't, the Devil will get you," he adds - because Scalia actually sincerely believes in *the Devil*. He said so in a recent interview. IMO that's grounds for being committed to an institution, not for holding one of the most powerful positions on a government. He's clearly not only biased, but insane.

CD.arch, it had to be Prada, because Rem!
Jul 1, 14 6:27 am  · 
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"And if you don't, the Devil will get you," he adds - because Scalia actually sincerely believes in *the Devil*. He said so in a recent interview. IMO that's grounds for being committed to an institution, not for holding one of the most powerful positions on a government. He's clearly not only biased, but insane.

CD.arch, it had to be Prada, because Rem!
Jul 1, 14 6:27 am  · 
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Good rant on the Supremes here.

Jul 1, 14 9:44 am  · 
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