urban explorer

just an old image i stumbled across.  graffiti with a sense of humor….. i can imagine this in london….. but the netherlands?

I have been pondering the influence of climate change on borders, migration patterns and massive social change lately……. and having read a very interesting article in the guardian on saturday about the maverick scientist James Lovelock. Originator of the Gaia Theory, which is essentially the hypothesis that proposed living and non-living particles of the earth are part of a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism….I remembered this image (spotted at supercolossal) and thought it provocative and relevant as an approach towards climate change.  It is also symbolic of the human desire to control nature; build a beach house that looks like a fortress with an observation tower in the most remote location possible, where it will obviously be subjected to the full force of the ocean. Occupants can lounge in the observation tower oblivious to the turmoil that surrounds them, and when nature allows they can venture beyond the fortress walls to dip manicured toes in the water….. It is the Sam Bell beach house in California, designed in 1965 by Dale Naegle.

Six international names have been selected to compete for the redevelopment London’s iconic Commonwealth Institute.  Designed in 1960-62 by Johnston-Marshall and Partners the existing building is grade II listed, its complex roofscape is constructed from equilateral and ‘bastard’ hyperbolic paraboloids………   OMA, Rafael Viñoly, Make, Eric Parry, Rafael Moneo and Caruso St John have been selected by Chelsfield Partners’ deputy chairman Stuart Lipton and his architectural adviser Ricky Burdett.  Read the full article at bdonline….

image: view images

I couldn’t help poaching this image of Cedric Price’s 1960-61 project for a funpalace in East London.  Read some more in a great article on Price over at things magazine.

Geoff Manaugh, of BLDGBLOG fame, is speaking this week at the Bartlett, wednesday the 23rd of Jan in the Darwin Lecture Theatre at 6:30 pm .  Geoff wil be broaching such topics as artificial reefs, tectonic warfare, urban soundscapes, climate change, sovereign trapdoors, dungeon instancing, the future of surveillance and offshore utopias… sounds like a lot to pack in, but well worth the ride i imagine.

exhibition currently on at the ICA is an exhibition on Peter Hujar: 70’s - 80’s photographer who captured new york in its grittier days…

Foreign Office Architects has recieved planning permission for is Trinity EC3 commercial project for developer Beetham. The £700 million Trinity EC3 project comprises of three crystal-shaped buildings ranging from 12 to 22 storeys on a 1.3ha site in Aldgate. The renders below show the revised scheme after it was remodelled to avoid spoiling strategic views of the Tower of London. The physical model shows the project in its original form.

Product Placement:

Firstly watch the video showing Italian practice Dynamic Architecture’s rotating skyscraper (now under construction).  Then watch the latest VW ad by DDB, showing a car driving through a moving city… notcie as the car drives up a flight of stairs the tower to the right bears a striking resemblance to Dynamic Architecture’s tower….. Plagiarism or clever product placement? also reminds me of an OMA rotating tower… i think….(spotted by julie) 

Then we have a brilliant one from Apple… The New South Wales Police department have launched an awareness campaign to help reduce the “epidemic” of pedestrians being run over by cars whilst listening to portable music devices….. die with the best….

Some images from the winning entry for the Polish pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, by Polish architects: Wojciech Kakowski, Marcin Mostafa and Natalia Paszkowska. More images and the conceptual text can be seen over at Bustler….. however i warn you there is a bit of archi-waffle….e.g “quality of experience born out of the chemistry of inter-sensory stimulation”

also check out pepakura if you want to make some of your own folded masterpieces.

what better way to start the year than with a little bit of colour. want one?

c/0 fabrica