“FeLiNa”
Australian artist Isabella Morawetz has created a beautiful series of Breaking Bad-themed artwork that captures some of the most memorable scenes from AMC’s popular TV series. iPhone cases, mugs, pillows, and prints of her digital paintings are available to purchase online from Society6.
“These are great green beans, Mrs White”
images via Isabella Morawetz
via GeekTyrant
Redditor Bezbojnicul has created a series of European maps that show the etymology of common words like beer, apple, and tea. You can find larger versions, more maps, and updated versions on imgur.
images via Bezbojnicul
via reddit, Business Insider
We will be publishing Nikos Salingaros’ book, Unified Architectural Theory, in a series of installments, making it digitally, freely available for students and architects around the world. The following chapter posits that architecture’s geometric structure determines its “vitality,” a quality that should be the basis of architectural critique; it also explains If you missed them, make sure to read the introduction, Chapter One, Chapter 2A, and Chapter 2B first.
The perceived quality of life in buildings and urban spaces comes from the geometry (the form of structures on all scales, and their coherence), and how that geometry connects to the individual. It also catalyzes interactions among people — if it is done successfully.
The easiest way to perceive this quality of “life” is to compare pairs of objects or settings and judge intuitively which one has more “life”. After a series of such experiments, it becomes obvious that degree of “life” in architecture arises from geometrical structure.
However, the perceived life has nothing to do with formal geometry. It arises rather from configurations, the complexity and patterns in a situation; often unexpected juxtapositions and shapes that work very well, and that usually evolved over time and were not planned at the start.
A building’s geometry is a result of applying a particular form language chosen by the architect. This will determine, to a large extent, the emotional and physiological response of the user. A form language can aim at maximizing the perceived degree of “life” in the building. Otherwise it can have other, entirely distinct objectives, depending on the preference of the architect who employs it or creates it.
A form language includes the basic elements: floors, walls, ceilings, volumes and their subdivision, windows, materials, ornamentation, and the rules for combining them. Architectural composition within the context of a particular form language enables design in that idiom.
Every traditional architecture has its own form language: more accurately, a group of related languages, since languages evolve with variations over time and across locality. The language depends upon climate and local materials. It is also a continuation of traditional arts, social practices, and material culture.
Architecture is adaptive if its form language blends and connects with the Pattern language, and all traditional evolved form languages do so. Nevertheless, a form language could have other goals and not be adaptive.
The 20th century witnessed a new phenomenon: form languages that were detached from Pattern languages. Those form languages were no longer part of an adaptive system of architecture, but became self-sufficient entities. They were validated from artistic, political, and philosophical criteria.
Another related phenomenon that arises when architectural practice is not rooted in a Pattern language is the replacement of an evolved Pattern (which accommodates human life and sensibilities) by its opposite — an Antipattern. An Antipattern could be dysfunctional, and could cause anxiety and physical distress. A form language could attach itself to Anti-patterns, but that of course does not make it adaptive.
Form languages can be studied separately from their link to Pattern languages. Form languages can have different degrees of internal complexity. Just like written and spoken languages, form languages are characterized by their size of vocabulary; richness of combinatoric rules for generating new expressions; adaptability to the situation at hand, which might be novel. Or a form language could be very primitive, with limited vocabulary and combinatoric rules.
A particular form language may have very poor adaptation, but could appeal visually. This feature is sufficient to assure its survival in contemporary society, especially since the communications revolution. It is doubtful whether this would have occurred in a historic traditional society where resources were scarcer.
In contrast to historical times, today’s global consumerist culture treats a form language as a commercial product. Thus, its success depends upon both the marketing strategies of its proponents, and profits to be made by those who apply it. Adaptivity does not enter the equation.
A form language lives or dies based on rather commonplace considerations: (i) Someone decides to use that form language for a new building, and (ii) society values an older form language sufficiently to leave its examples alone. Decisions on new buildings could be based on adaptive value, how comfortable people feel in a building, ease of use, proven environment for human productivity, proven durability of materials, practicality for re-use, etc. Or a client could use totally different motives, such as perceived marketing appeal, re-use of a commercially-successful typology in speculative building, cost cutting, maximization of usable space, etc.
Another crucial factor is the inertia that comes from embedded bureaucratic costs invested by the banking, construction, and insurance industries. These all resist technical changes in their established way of doing business with architecture and construction.
For the second factor, which presents threats to conservation, every generation faces the siren call of giving older buildings and urban spaces a face-lift to follow new fashions. Human societies crave to appear to be up-to-date, and decide what to sacrifice in pursuing this desire.
Putting aside questions of adaptation, it is essential to catalogue and classify disparate form languages. A single building, group of buildings, the work of a single architect, or an entire architectural movement depend upon a form language. The fact of being built provides information on the form language. Another architect can extract the form language by studying built examples.
In rare cases, an architect writes down the rules for the form language, so that it is then easy for someone else to apply it. Most of the time, however, the rules have to be derived from the buildings themselves.
Architects can learn a form language, and then use it to build many buildings, without altering the language in any way. Other architects vary a form language to different degrees, introducing their own changes, which may be adaptive or not. Others still invent their own form language so that their buildings become a “brand”. This helps achieve success in an age of corporate branding.
Some architects can go through their careers switching from one form language to another, either traditionally-evolved form languages, or ones that they themselves have invented. For this reason, it is not always possible to identify an architect with a specific form language.
All traditional form languages had to evolve in conjunction with adaptive design, and this presupposes a certain complexity threshold. Just as all human languages share an underlying complexity that permits a variety of expression. Newer form languages, however, follow no such constraint.
There are many examples of form languages from the 20th century that fall below the complexity threshold. That is true for two related reasons: (1) the language has been invented and has not evolved, and (2) it did not have to adapt to a Pattern language.
I will use a biological analogy for architecture and its two languages. We consider the Pattern language as the metabolizing part of organisms, and the form language as the replicating portion of an organism’s structure. Architecture is thus directly identified as a living process (more on this later). Humans interact with buildings in order to use them and repair them, an analogous process to metabolism.
The replicating function is taken care of by the form language. A type of architecture survives only by generating copies and variations of itself using a specific form language. Just as with organisms, however, a replicating entity does not need to metabolize.
Viruses are replicating organic complexes that do not metabolize. For this reason, they therefore have a far lower complexity content. As a result, they replicate far more efficiently than more complex metabolizing organisms can.
This course attempts to present a genuine theory of architecture, as the notions we study have predictions that can be verified. Simpler forms propagate more rapidly and can end up displacing more complex entities. Indeed, simplified form languages using industrial forms and materials proliferated in the 20th century, replacing form languages that were adaptive — hence more complex.
There is another phenomenon that now has some sort of explanation: why Pattern language is not routinely taught in architecture schools. The reason is that, since the form languages of Modernism did not couple with Pattern language, the latter ceased to be of any interest to a profession that focused exclusively on Modernism.
Pattern language determines the human adaptation of buildings, however, and the connection of buildings to nature. In order to create a responsive and sustainable built environment, Pattern language has to once again take its central position in architecture.
The 20th century form languages were, and continue to be, a tremendous marketing success. They have generated enormous sales and profits for the architects and builders who use them, and greater brand recognition. But that does not mean they had the best interests of the user and the environment in mind. In fact, the reasons habitually given for those form languages’ success, like new industrial materials that permitted greater spanned spaces and building heights, already occurred at the end of the 19th century. Those factors pre-date and have nothing to do with the characteristic modernist “look”.
Today, with the looming ecological collapse, our attitudes are less narrowly profit–oriented for the strict benefit of individuals or small groups. We are more concerned with sustainability in the real sense, not just with gizmos added on, and for society as a whole.
Connection to the deep needs of human beings and the natural order brings us back to reconsidering using Pattern language once again. We would like to be able to distinguish between form languages that connect to nature, from those that are merely fashionable symbols of success. Such symbols are based upon criteria set by others, but they are not expressions of deep human values.
Further Reading:
Christopher Alexander, The Phenomenon of Life, Chapter 2, “Degrees of Life” (Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, 2001).
Christopher Alexander, sampler from “A Pattern Language”, available online at http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/aplsample/aplsample.htm
Or see the book itself: C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson, I. Fiksdahl-King, and S. Angel A Pattern Language (Oxford University Press, New York, 1977). Spanish version: Un Lenguaje de Patrones: Ciudades, Edificios, Construcciones (Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 1980).
Nikos Salingaros, A Theory of Architecture, Chapter 11, “Two Languages for Architecture” (Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, 2006).
Order the International edition of Unified Architectural Theory here, and the US edition here.
Unified Architectural Theory: Chapter 3 originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 11 Nov 2013.
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In these new galleries we present great product and industrial designs that are modern, creative and beautiful. Designs where form and function works perfectly together.
If you would like to send us suggestions for these galleries, please click on the button “Submit” located in the header, and fill out the form. And don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS-feed and follow From up North on Twitter + Facebook to get all the latest updates.
Unless you’re omniscient like me… Where is everyone going?
Why have two measuring cups when you just need one? The 2-in-1 Measuring Jug manages to handle both small and large amounts in one kitchen device so you don't have to dirty (or own) multiple.
After centuries of medical science I thought doctors knew every single bit of the human body. Incredibly enough, ScienceDaily reports on the discovery of a new body element called the anterolateral ligament, which apparently has been hiding all this time in our knees.
    
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A Sasquatch hunting expedition in Oklahoma ended in tragedy this weekend when one hunter accidentally shot another in the back. A subsequent investigation led to three arrests: the trigger-happy hunter, the trigger-happy hunter's father, and the trigger-happy hunter's wife.
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Le talent de Robin Eley pour la peinture est indéniablement impressionnant. Ce dernier parvient à un rendu hyperréaliste, créant ainsi des toiles époustouflantes inspirées de photographies. Des créations « Hyper Realistics Paintings » à découvrir en images dans la suite, ainsi qu’avec une vidéo explicative de son travail.
Three years after bariatic surgery, most people experienced health improvements. Yet some people benefited much more than others. Figuring out those differences would help doctors and patients understand who should have surgery and who should avoid it.
This remarkably lifelike octopus sculpture was created by Singapore-based artist Keng Lye. Lye made the sculpture from countless layers of resin, adding acrylic paint to each layer to slowly build the 3D form of the octopus. More more of Lye’s photorealistic sculptures, see our previous post.
Move over Darwin – evolution doesn’t stand a chance against this DIY Cyborg. American biohacker Tim Cannon has implanted the Circadia 1.0–a computer chip about the size of a pack of cards–under his skin as his first experimental step towards prolonging human life. The wirelessly charged device will monitor his vital signs and transmit that data in real time via Bluetooth to his Android-powered device.
Read the rest of “DIY Cyborg” Biohacks His Arm With the Circadia 1.0 Implant
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Post tags: biohacker, biohacking, body modification enthusiasts, circadia 1.0, circadia computer chip, cyborgs, diy cyborg, Grindhouse Wetware, immortality, man-machine modifications, tim cannon
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Art By: Milo Manara – Story of Humanity
Architects: Yuusuke Karasawa Architects
Location: Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan
Principal Architect: Yuusuke Karasawa
Area: 87.69 sqm
Year: 2009
Photographs: Courtesy of Yuusuke Karasawa Architects
Mechanical Consultant: gh9 co. ltd.
General Contractor: Eiger co. ltd, Noriaki Fujii, Yousuke Ozaki
From the architect. This is a weekend cottage situated within the deep mountainous area of midlands in Bousou Peninsula. The site is located in Kanou Mountain, Kimitsu city. An important traditional Japanese painter, Kaii Higashiyama(1909-99) once mentioned that he was awakened by a landscape painting of the majestic ravine scenery of this site. The cottage is sitting on a slope looking down to this ravine.
The exterior shape of this building appears to be a simple cube. However, the interior consists of two layers of the traditional square plan, while a cubic volume is inserted to the points of intersection produced by the walls, the floors and the ceiling that divides the space. The intersecting angle of each cube is defined by the rule of an algorithm, producing the most prominent character of this project – that adjacent cubes are tilted in a definite angle against each other. The rotation angle of the cubes defined by algorithmic rule dissects the interior volume into various spaces according to the header forms of the cutting plane, providing diverse spatial conditions as each individual room.
The interior produced by this method have diverse characteristics for each space although the certain sense of order is given to the whole building since the setting of the cube angle is not random. This condition allows to experience the coexistence of the order and the diversity as antinomy based on the physical sensation of the space. It can be said that such coexistence of order and diversity is the most significant characteristic of the architectural space produced by an algorithmic rule.
The skylight brings in the sunlight, filling up the room in the day. Beams of sunlight come from unexpected directions and crisscross within the interior, bringing out more layers of complexity to the already diverse interior condition. The initial rotation angle of the cube is fixed according to the slope angle of the site, therefore the magnificent natural scenery is reflected and articulated to the spatial conditions of the interior space.The occupants of the space can feel the sense of unity to the scenery visible outside of the windows.
This weekend cottage was completed under the unique methodology of configuring the spaces, it exists within its grand surroundings, and the scenery is brought into the space. The result would be the new and original physical sensation and experience of the space.
Villa Kanousan / Yuusuke Karasawa Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 04 Nov 2013.
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Here’s what the iconic SF landscape looked like in the 1930s. Also, heights: scary.
Construction on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge began in 1933 and opened in 1937. These photos show the suspension bridge between 1935 and 1937 as it begins to take form. This iconic landscape looks so very different, doesn't it?
Underwood Archives / Getty Images
General Photographic Agency / Getty Images
OFF/AFP / Getty Images
I am that common breed of DIY jerk that uses sheetrock screws for everything; I'm more handyman than craftsman. Were I the latter, I'd probably have a toolbox full of fasteners by Spax, the Mercedes of screw manufacturers and self-proclaimed "specialist of joining technologies." Spax has been manufacturing fasteners since 1967—its parent company has been for even longer, at nearly two centuries—and makes screws for just about every material you can think of: Softwood, hardwood, treated lumber, MDF, sheetrock, sheet metal. Head styles come in flat head, pan head or washer head, driver styles range from Phillips to Torx to hex-head to what looks like a proprietary take on Pozidrive, and the finishes offered correspond with whether you're using their screws indoors or outdoors.
The key innovation of a Spax screw is the wicked-looking serrated edges on the first few coils of the threads. These obviate the need for pre-drilling and preclude splitting, as the serrations cleanly cut into the material rather than shredding it. The serrations also mean the screws require less torque to drive which, for pros who are driving several hundred or thousand of these on a job, will reduce the time spent swapping batteries on your tool.
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It takes balls to redesign a screw, if you'll pardon my French. The incumbency of standardization is a difficult hurdle to overcome, particularly if you're going to change the screwhead pattern into something new; I don't know anyone who enjoys having to change driver bits from Phillips to #2 Phillips to square-drive to Torx, but different manufacturers' ideas of what shape will drive best without stripping necessitate it.
Still, a team of guys comprised of an industrial designer, a mechanical engineer, a contractor and "some business guys" reckoned they could invent a better deck screw, and having put in two years of development time, they'll shortly be bringing it to market.
They've named their screw Outlaw, and it's easy to see why: The driver system doesn't look like any you've ever seen. While it's hexagonal, like an Allen key, it's also tiered, which technically provides 18 points of contact between the bit and the screw head. This, they reckon, will make it strip-proof. (I do wonder, though, what the lack of cam-out will do if the screw is accidentally driven in an irresistible-force-meets-immovable-object scenario; will the head break off?)
The second benefit of the Outlaw bit/head design is that screws will stay on the driver non-magnetically, like it does with a square-drive set-up, allowing one-handed driving. Maybe I'm just a klutz, but whenever I need to drill one-handed with a conventional Phillips-head screw-—usually when I'm up on a ladder and have to stretch—that's always when the screw comes unseated from the bit and dangles from it magnetically at a weird angle, which is almost more irritating than if it would just fall off.
(more...)This is the first in what we hope to be an on-going collaboration between UK-based comic artist, Dan Berry and myself bringing stories from my historical podcast, The Memory Palace to a new media. Basically, we just want to make some cool comics that folks'll enjoy. We'd love to get them on paper and in your local shop someday but we're psyched to share it with you now.
This story is episode from Episode 21 of the Memory Palace. You can listen to it in its original form here.
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Despite increased awareness, Bisphenol A or BPA is still found in the bodies of 93 percent of Americans – and there are at least a dozen other hormone disruptors that don’t get the same kind of press. A new study released by the Environmental Working Group and Keep-A-Breast Foundation provides a list of other everyday chemicals in commonly used household items that could have the same effects as BPA with repeated exposure.
Read the rest of The Dirty Dozen Guide Reveals 12 Hormone Disruptors Other than BPA
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Post tags: bisphenol A, BPA, Dirty Dozen, dirty dozen chemicals, eco design, Environmental Working Group, green design, hormone disruptors, hormone disruptors in every day products, hormone disruptors other than BPA, Keep-a-Breast Foundation, plastics harmful to health, sustainable design
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Writers, directors, producers, and actors in the Hollywood film industry play major roles in shaping how millions around the world perceive architects and the architectural profession. Television shows, too, create stereotypes of professions that are repeatedly drummed into the brain with each successive episode. Both make long-lasting impacts that may encourage or dissuade young people from pursuing architecture as a career.
In her chapter, “Tall Buildings, Tall Tales: On Architects in the Movies” in Mark Lamster’s anthology, Architecture and Film (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000), Nancy Levinson examines how Hollywood has assigned certain stereotypic character traits to architects. The following graphic builds upon and updates her work, showing a snapshot view of how architects are portrayed in 20th and 21st century film.
So, according to Hollywood, an architect is a hero, lover, hopelessly out of touch, financially in trouble, a workaholic, or some combination of these.
But what does Hollywood say an architect looks like? Our updated list of actors and actresses who have played architects on the big screen allowed us to examine not just the manner in which the architect was portrayed, but also his/her physical features – such as gender, race, hair color, eye color, and facial hair – as well. In fact, Hollywood film directors have created a distinct image of what an architect should be. In over three-quarters (79%) of the 45 films we reviewed, the architect is represented as being clean-shaven. Over half (56%) of Hollywood’s architects have brown eyes (25% have blue, 19% green); over half (58%) have dark hair compared to light (42%). Taken holistically then, Hollywood has created the stereotypic image of an architect: a white, clean-shaven male with dark hair and brown eyes.
This image is promoted on television as well. Today’s most prominent fictional architect represented in media, Ted Mosby (portrayed by Josh Radnor) of the popular TV series How I Met Your Mother, (CBS, 2005-) is an exact demographic replica of Hollywood’s image of an architect. So was his brown-haired predecessor, architect Mike Brady (portrayed by Robert Reed) of the TV series The Brady Bunch (ABC, 1969-1974), which became an instant Friday night hit. The show reached even greater popularity when syndicated episodes were repeated for after-school viewing, influencing a generation of fans to pursue architecture as a career. In the show, Brady, a widower with three sons who marries Carol (portrayed by Florence Henderson), with three daughters of her own, is pictured as the ultimate father figure of his new blended family. They all live in a large modern house in a Los Angeles suburb that Mike designed.
How else has Hollywood narrowed our perception of the “architect image?” According to the American Institute of Architects, in 2011 women made up 15% of all licensed architects, and 30% of associate members (not yet licensed), yet, according to our research, in 91% of the 45 films we reviewed, the architect is portrayed as a male. As of 2013, women architects were only found in four Hollywood movies: Father of the Bride (1991), One Fine Day (1996), Firewall (2006), and Inception (2010).
Prior to Inception, the most successful film featuring a female architect was One Fine Day. In the film, Melanie Parker (portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer) is an architect and single mother trying to juggle motherhood, her career, and a social life. In a make-or-break meeting with an important client, Parker presents her model and simply says, “Voila.” When her client asks to see cars in the model before he agrees to the design, Parker whips out her son’s toy cars from her purse. No matter that the cars are completely out of scale with the model, the client is sold. In this scene and others, the portrayal of the woman architect in One Fine Day is superficial and simplistic.
By contrast, Inception portrays a more substantial leading female character, architect Ariadne (portrayed by Ellen Page), who Miles (played by Michael Caine) proclaims is the best student he has ever had. Ariadne’s role in the ultimate metaphysical crime is paramount to the success of the mission. Before Ariadne’s character is introduced we are given a glimpse into what a less talented architect’s design can do to hinder the sensitive equilibrium of a dream’s environmental authenticity. Nash (portrayed by Lukas Haas) creates an environment where the type and texture of carpet does not match the dreamer’s reality. This minute detail, a mistake that Ariadne was too skilled to have made, ruins the entire mission and emphasizes the ability and superiority of Ariadne. In contrast to One Fine Day, a film that minimizes a woman architect’s abilities, Inception maximizes her abilities, showing an exceedingly powerful woman creating intricate environments.
Despite this one positive portrayal, the lack of gender diversity among architects portrayed in Hollywood films is disturbing. Equally startling is the lack of racial diversity. Compared to women, persons of color are even less likely to be represented as architects in Hollywood cinema. AIA’s 2011 membership statistics show that African-Americans represent only 1% of licensed architects and 3% of associate architects. Hollywood comes close to replicating these dire statistics. In just about all (96%) films, the architect is white. Only two movies, Jungle Fever (1991) featuring Flipper Purify (portrayed by African-American actor Wesley Snipes) and The Namesake (2006) featuring Gogol/Nikhil (portrayed by Indian-American Kal Penn) are exceptions to this rule.
Jungle Fever provides a glimpse into the struggles of an African-American architect through the story of Flipper Purify, a successful African-American architect in New York City. Writer and director Spike Lee touches on the lack of diversity in the architecture profession when Snipes, claiming that he is tired of being the only African-American in the office, asks the partners of the firm to let his new secretary be African-American. Later in the film, Flipper asks to be made partner, and promptly quits when his request is denied. Director Spike Lee casts Purify in an unusually seductive role: he has consensual sex with his female secretary on the drafting table in the office’s design studio.
In her film, The Namesake (2006), Indian-born director Mira Nair chronicles the lives of Indian parents who make the transition to life in America and struggle to raise their son, who is torn between the two cultures. The son, Gogol (Kal Penn) has an eye-opening experience visiting the Taj Mahal during his summer in India. Here he announces to his parents, “I think I am going to major in architecture,” to which his father replies, “What about engineering”? And then Gogol responds, “C’mon, baba, architecture has everything. It’s got engineering, drawing, aesthetics.” The father’s response reflects the fact that in many households, architects are not held in as high esteem as doctors, lawyers, and engineers, who are paid much more. But Gogol ultimately persuades his father to support his pursuit of an architectural career.
The lack of gender and racial diversity is not the only quarrel that architects could have with the way they are portrayed in Hollywood fictional media. As seen in One Fine Day and elsewhere, many representations of architects’ work are both inaccurate and absurd. This can be seen not only in Hollywood films, but also on TV shows, such as The Brady Bunch (1969-1974) and How I Met Your Mother (2005-present). For example, in The Brady Bunch episode 16, titled “Mike’s Horror-Scope,” Mike Brady designs a factory that is shaped like a powder puff and is completely pink. In How I Met Your Mother Season 4, Episode 8 – titled “Wooo!” – a rival architectural firm shows the design of a skyscraper shaped like a dinosaur that actually breathes fire on command. In Season 4, Episode 24, titled “The Leap,” the main character Ted Mosby designs a restaurant in the shape of a cowboy hat. These examples of preposterous designs paint a comical picture of the profession and serve to diminish and demean the way that architects work.
Fictional characters can play important roles in both reflecting current realities and in shaping future realities. Just as the popularity of television shows like Glee (2009-) and Modern Family (2009-) allow mainstream viewers to identify with fictional lead characters who are gay, and corresponded, perhaps not purely coincidentally, with a sweeping shift in public opinion across the USA towards greater acceptance of same-sex marriage, a greater diversity of Hollywood architects is needed to inspire the next generation. Architecture 101 (2012), for example, a South Korean film directed by Lee Yong-joo, who received a Bachelor’s degree in architecture, offers a sensitive portrait of a mid-career architect reflecting on his life as an architecture student. The film was a box office hit, holding the number one spot for its first three weeks, and topping over 4.1 million tickets sold: a box office record. According to a faculty member at Seoul National University, since the release of Architecture 101, the number of applicants to architecture school has greatly increased.
Hollywood directors could similarly help restore the image of the profession by picturing architects more realistically and by creating films in which highly underrepresented gender, racial and ethnic groups, such as women, African-Americans, Latino/as, and Asian-Americans, play major roles as talented architects to be taken seriously. Perhaps Newsweek reporter and television pundit Eleanor Clift put it best in a segment (March 3, 2013) of the TV news show, The McLaughlin Group: “Movies are one of our most important exports and it’s how we change hearts and minds around the world…”
AUTHOR BIOS
Kathryn H. Anthony, Ph.D. is ACSA Distinguished Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the author of two design-related books, Design Juries on Trial: The Renaissance of the Design Studio; and Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession; over 100 scholarly articles; and two apps for iOS: The Design Student Survival Guide and The Student Survival Guide. She teaches a graduate seminar on “Architecture, Cinema, Environment and Behavior.”
Robert Deering is a LEED Green Associate currently working for an architecture firm in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Ohio State University, and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Curt Pratt is currently working for an architecture firm in Davenport, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Architecture.
Both Deering and Pratt participated in the inaugural session of Professor Anthony’s graduate seminar on “Architecture, Cinema, Environment and Behavior.”
Why Hollywood Needs to Change its Conception of "The Architect" originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 25 Oct 2013.
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Do we prefer straight lines or curves? According to Eric Jaffe’s article on Fast Co.Design, it seems we subconsciously prefer the latter. Our brains, he claims, have evolved to perceive potential threat in sharp edges. “Square watches, pointy couches, and the like activate the amygdala. The part of the brain that processes fear.” Thus, our feelings, buying habits and favorite buildings are subject to our affection of curves. Investigate for yourself and make sure to read the full article here, “Why Our Brains Loves Curvy Architecture.”
Straight Lines or Curves, Which Do We Prefer? originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 27 Oct 2013.
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At around $27,400, the Caterham Seven 160 is one of the more affordable, versatile vintage style racers you can get. It just looks like it’s a whole lot of fun to drive with it’s small and lightweight design. Under the hood is a Suzuki turbocharged engine that can propel this little guy from 0-60 MPH in 6.50 seconds with top speeds reaching 100 MPH. We can only imagine the handling would be near-perfect with a weight that’s just under 1100lbs. If a midlife crisis auto purchase is on your radar, or if you just need a sleek small vintage ride for the weekends, give the Caterham Seven 160 your consideration. We doubt you’ll regret it.
Visit: Caterham
Test print by artist Davidope
I've never gone back and looked at a GIF I'd already seen; I see them as cute, fun and ultimately disposable. But a legion of artists, a pair of data visualiss and several hundred Kickstarter backers disagree with me. Thus Gifpop, a campaign to create physical GIFs that you can hold in your hand, reached and doubled its funding target in less than 24 hours. (Admittedly, keeping the target at a low $5,000 probably helped.)
By using lenticular film—that striated, prism-filled plastic that can show you different images as you tilt it—architect and data visualist Sha Hwang, and data visualist Rachel Binx, are seeking to print physical cards that display "animated" GIFs. "We think that gifs and lenticular printing are two simple, lo-fi technologies that were made for each other," the duo writes. And with a max capacity of ten frames per card, lenticular film is in fact a good GIF fit (even if it's not for Vine, although the pair have set that as a future goal).
There's still over three weeks left to pledge, and for a low $12 buy-in, you can have a GIF of your choice printed onto a 3x3 card and mailed to you. (Larger sizes available for more bread.) Here's Hwang and Binx's pitch video:
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All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
All Rights to Mr. Peruca
Description from the architects: At the Castlecrag Residence, a cellular and inward-looking mid-20th century brick bungalow has undergone a vast transformation to a sustainable home for a modern family. Clarity of planning places private bedroom spaces on the first floor and public living and social spaces on the ground floor. The Kitchen has become the pivotal room in the house, connecting indoor living spaces and extending out to a double-volume outdoor living space that leads down to the garden. High level glazing allows northern light into the heart of the home, and through the double height stair hall to the entry. The house opens to a generous garden to the north while the neighbors on three sides are visually screened by a timber pavilion creating a peaceful oasis within a dense suburban context for the Clients and their young family.
Make sure to check out CplusC Architectural Workshop website for further inspiring projects. See you next week :)
We found this house at ArchDaily.
Your move, every other parent in America.
I want to watch a full-length feature film of this glowing stick figure toddler running around doing stuff. I'd also like this for adults. Very slimming.
(by Bob Powers)
