LEBBEUS WOODS BLOG

Lebbeus Woods (born 1940 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American architect and artist. Woods, who envisions experimental constructs and environments, has stated, "the interplay of metrical systems establishing boundaries of materials and energetic forms is the foundation of a universal science (universcience) whose workers include all individuals".^{[cite this quote]}
The majority of his explorations deal with the design of systems in crisis: the order of the existing being confronted by the order of the new. His designs are politically charged and provocative visions of a possible reality; provisional, local, and charged with the investment of their creators. He is best known for his proposals for San Francisco, Havana, and Sarajevo that were included in the publication of Radical Reconstruction in 1997 (Sarajevo after its civil war, Havana in the grips of the ongoing trade embargo, and San Francisco after the Loma Prieta earthquake).
Woods studied architecture at the University of Illinois and engineering at Purdue University and first worked in the offices of Eero Saarinen, but in 1976 turned exclusively to theory and experimental projects. He is currently a professor of architecture at the Cooper Union in New York City. He has designed buildings in Chengdu, China and Havana, Cuba. In 1988, Woods co-founded the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture, a nonprofit institution devoted to the advancement of experimental architectural thought and practice while promoting the concept and perception of architecture itself. (LINK wikipedia)

Here is a link to Lebbeus Woods blog. Please have a look at the sketchbooks etc.

LINK to BLDGBLG interview with Lebbeus Woods
LINK to sketchook
LINK to BLOG
LINK to LEBBEUS WOODS WEBSITE

Conrad Shawcross Talk

In conversation with Conrad Shawcross. Tuesday 3 November 18.30–20.00. Conrad will be talking to Helen Sumpter, deputy arts editor at Time Out about the processes he went through to make Chord.

There will also be a book on sale which demonstrates his thought process and how he arrived at the final concept.The book is only £8 and its crammed full of beautiful skethes, Illustrations, Photos of the Installation, and some history on the Kingsway Tramline.[literally gold dust for the upcoming installation project]


Address:
Local Studies Room, Second floor, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road London WC1X 8PA.
Both talks £5 donation on the door.
book via Info@measure.org.uk

Loreo 3D Lens for SLR cameras

Loreo is a manufacturer of stereo photography equipment, including 3D cameras and stereo lens attachments for SLR cameras. Stereo pictures taken using Loreo systems are instantly viewable using 3D viewers without any cutting or remounting. These stereophotos are in the same format and size as any normal photograph, only they contain 2 images side by side. Some cameras produce cross eye stereo images, where the right-part of the photo is actually the left image and vice versa. Other cameras produce parallel stereoimages, where left and right are not swapped. Loreo was founded in 1982, and is based in Hong Kong, China.

The Loreo 3D Lens in a Cap is a new gadget for SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses. It is the latest in Loreo's digital ready Lens in a Cap series. The 3D body cap turns a standard or digital SLR into a 3D camera. SLR cameras have accurate viewing, exposure control and a wide range of shutter speeds. Most can be fitted with powerful external flash units. With the Loreo 3D Lens in a Cap, these features are harnessed to produce excellent 3D prints or digital images. The processed 3D prints are ready for viewing with LOREO Deluxe or Lite 3D viewers. They can also be viewed on computer screens with a Loreo Pixi 3D Viewer.

LINK

AJ Top Five: Comic Book Cities

The Architects Journal has compiled a video tribute to ‘the greatest illustrated urban spaces’.

Ceiling Painting at the UN in Geneva by Miquel Barcelo

An intricate ceiling painting has been unveiled at the United Nations offices in Geneva.

The coloured dome took Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo more than a year to produce, using 100 tons of paint with pigments from all over the world.
He worked with architects and engineers to develop the extra-strength aluminium for the dome.

LINK

NIGEL PEAKE - SHEDS sketchbook

Please have a look at Nigel Peake's Website. He has published a series of his sketchbooks.


LINK

BUY IT HERE

La Mano Dell'Architetto / The Hand of the Architect Moleskine Sketchbook

Architects have always loved drawings: pencils, felt-tips, and pastels are still the ideal instruments for getting early ideas down on paper. This custom Moleskine book features the entire 378 piece collection and offers descriptions of the work, the architects, and the historical nature behind the Villa. The introduction in both Italian and English includes the phrase “Architecture designs places that play host to life.” This book plays host to the inspirations and concepts of some of the greatest architects of our time.

The Hand of the Architect (La Mano Dell'Architetto) is a limited edition Moleskine book filled with drawings from 110 internationally renowned architects. The compilation is a tribute to Piero Portaluppi, who in 1932 designed Villa Necchi Campiglio, located in the heart of Milan. The participating architects donated a total of 378 signed sketches. These were then exhibited in Milan and auctioned to raise funds for the maintenance of Villa Necchi Campiglio, which is now open to the public.

Get a glimpse into the sketchbooks of visionaries like Michael Graves, Zaha Hadid, Piero Lissoni, Kengo Kumo, Mario Botta, Tadao Ando, and many more. From whimsical to philosophical, simple sketches to elaborate renderings, the images in this book are a source of inspiration that will make you think, smile, and create.

Then, capture your own ideas with the companion special edition blank journal - this set includes the hardcover 272 page Moleskine Folio filled with architectural sketches, and an A4 Cahier with 120 blank pages for you to fill up!

LINK

The Suburb Eating Robot

its quite old but maybe you haven't heard of it:



"Peak oil is approaching. In the next future, most of the oil-dependent suburbs in which we live now will be abandoned and decay, turning into ruins, inhabited only by the few ones who where too fat and too car-dependent to escape back to the city. Little by little, nature will take over suburbs, but this process will be extremely slowly.
In order to give Mother Nature a hand, Andrew Maynard Architects have designed CV08, the suburb-eating robot.


As it wanders through the suburbs, CV08 aspires people, houses and cars with its legs, and turns them back into nature’s products.

The animation can be viewed here.

Archigram’s concepts, with a manga touch, together for suburbs renewal."

archdaily.com

Fantastic Mr Fox!

Fantastic Mr Fox, the first stop-motion film by 20th Century Fox, features some incredible models, and lots of shots involving sections through different spaces. Using sections makes it a lot easier to convey information quickly about where the scene is taking place, especially underground... Go see the film! www.fantasticmrfoxmovie.com

Turning the Place Over by Richard Wilson

Turning the Place Over by Richard Wilson is an installation commisioned for the Liverpool 2008 Biennial. He made an 8 metres diameter ovoid cut from the façade of a building in Liverpool city centre and made to oscillate in three dimensions. The revolving façade rests on a specially designed giant rotator, usually used in the shipping and nuclear industries, and acts as a huge opening and closing ‘window’, offering recurrent glimpses of the interior during its constant cycle during daylight hours.

LINK

The Museum of Everything

EXHIBITION #1

In tiny crevices and under dusty beds, there lies a secret creativity by the unknowns of society. Unexpected, delicate and profound, this democratic work has inspired the world’s greatest artists. In Exhibition #1, the museum presents over two hundred drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations by self-taught artists, selected by leading contemporary artists, curators and cultural figures.
"Once you become an artist, your head is full of the things you want to do. You know what you want to paint about, you get a series of ideas, you know what you want to achieve.
The difference is that professional artists know it will go into a gallery. They're painting for a public, they know where they would like it to end up and they know the boundaries of ambition. That's all very sophisticated and informed, where as the old bloke working alone in his room has no idea and doesn't even expect it to go anywhere.
That's what makes these non-professional artists so fascinating. It's the privacy." - Sir Peter Blake CBE RDI
Squished between a library and a bakery in Chalk Farm, the Museum of Everything is deceptively small at the entrance but soon makes up for it in atmosphere as you are playfully directed through its narrow corridors and stairways. It's also right next to Regents Park and surrounded by some really nice cafes, so just good for a relaxing day out. Oh and it's free.

Link: www.musevery.com

Amon Tobin... The Innovator

"Amon Tobin is one of the most innovative music producer's in the world, in a class of his own" - John Peel 1998.

This short documentary gives a great insight into the deep and creative mind of a musical genius! If you get the chance to take 20 minutes, then kick back and indulge yourself in this video, as Tobin really does have one of the most inventive creative perspectives in the musical world, yet so wonderfully combined with profound musical understanding.

Official website; http://www.amontobin.com/field/

... and a link to the album, if you wish to download it - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AXXFD59L

ALAN WEXLER studio

Allan Wexler is an Artist/Architect from New York.

Here is what AAron Betsky in the introduction to the 1999 catalog 'Custom Build: A Twenty Year Survey of Work' says about Allan Wexler:

"Allan Wexler is an artist whose gallery objects brings us back to first thing: how we keep rain off our heads, how we define space, how we measure our time."

He is worth looking at. Not only his work but as well what is written about him. It is inventive, funny, unusual, sometimes strange, but he is always serious about whatever he does - in a funny way.

...and he is trained as an architect.... and he draws what he does.....

LINK to Allan Wexler Studio

LINK to Allan Wexler Publication

Casting of an ant nest...

Time, Space and Sound

Sound installations created by Trinity students with composer Dominic Murcott, animating clocks, timepieces and exhibition spaces within the Royal Observatory's historic galleries.

It's free from today until 21st November.

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/events/time-and-space-sound-installations

London Film Festival

Here is a link to the programme of the London Film Festival which started on the 14th October and finishes next week, have a look there might be something you want to see?

Made in Queens - customised bikes

‘Made In Queens‘ is a short documentary directed by Nicolas Randall and Joe Stevens. It’s about a small crew of 6 Trinida­dian teenagers in Queens, New York, who customize their BMX bikes with huge soundsystems.

Link to the Film

LINK to TodayandTOMORROW

...HMMMMM.... strange....

LINK

Folded Photographs by Abigail Reynolds

LINK

Musical Kettle by Yuri Suzuki

LINK

Breakfast machine for busy students_ Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura

Almost 3 weeks ago, Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura started to build the Breakfast Machine during Platform21 = Jamming in Amsterdam. The machine is a Rube Goldberg machine which can serve you an omelet, coffee and a toast with jam.
Yuri and Masa invited other designers and the public to help build and design the machine. They’ve used recycled remnants of previous Platform21 projects to solve all the different problems to get to their goal.
Last weekend the machine was ready and served all-day breakfasts to the visitors.
This video is actually in Dutch but you can see the Breakfast Machine in action.

LINK to TODAY and TOMORROW

1000 cellphones - Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture

Vodafone in New Zealand created an ad where 1000 phones were used to re-create Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture.



If you want to see how this was made, check out those two videos:
Part 1
Part 2

Wigglephotos

http://www.widelec.org/stuff/ruchome_obrazki/ruchome_obrazki_12.gif

sorry the animated gif won't play. check the links below for the images.

Please check this link for more wigglephotos. 

I think this is the original link to more wiggle photos

Try it yourself. Look for a free animated gif creator program on the web.

EVELOVER Student project

EVOLVER is an experimental dynamic spatial viewing experience designed and built by architecture 2nd year students ALICE studio, EPFL MORE EVOLVER: http://arpc167.epfl.ch/alice/WP_09/

EPFL | Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Further LINK 

Tim Knowles: Tree drawings - wind drawings - motion drawings

Grass & bottle wind vanes -  Grid 1 from Tim Knowles on Vimeo.

While land artist Richard Long has tramped the earth in an attempt to understand its mass, Tim Knowles walks to comprehend its power. His art is beholden to the vagaries of the British weather, and in particular the wind, which he follows doggedly across the countryside wearing a Heath Robinson-style device that indicates its direction and the path he should follow. These journeys have ranged from a perilous two-day excursion across Dartmoor to wandering through the lamp-lit streets of London at midnight. Each of these endeavours is captured on film. When Knowles returns to the studio, he refers to the GPS and redraws the route, creating a finely wrought image that charts his meandering walk across the countryside.

These expeditions were inspired by a hot-air balloon accident in which Knowles broke his leg. Far from scaring him off adventure for life, the frustrating period of recuperation proved the spur for a series of arduous challenges. Perhaps the riskiest was an ongoing project he calls Nightwalks, a series of excursions across the countryside conducted during new moons last year. The artist sets up a large-format camera on a long exposure, then scales treacherous ridges and inches along precipices for an hour while carrying three flashlights. The resulting images reveal thin streaks of amber light, shuddering across the pitch black.

Each photograph, film or abstract drawing recording these explorations reveals the bravery, absurdity and irrationality of Knowles's work – reminiscent of the Dutch artist Bas Jan Alder, who glorified endeavour and failures alike. The results are intrinsically beautiful, charting one man's lonely and often whimsical relationship with the natural world, played out across the expanses of the British Isles.

Please read the original Article by Jessica Lack Thank you!

LINK to GUARDIAN artist of the week 44


please check Tim Knowles website for more info and projects
all photos from Tim Knowles Website

How to build a working camera out of paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© David Balihar, 2001

DIRKON – THE PAPER CAMERA

During the 1970s, magazines published in Communist Czechoslovakia were controlled by the state, like the majority of other enterprises. Very few good magazines were available and were difficult to get hold of, so people would borrow and exchange them when given the opportunity. This also applied to magazines aimed at young people, which was probably one of the reasons why almost everyone from my generation, when we get on to the subject of pinhole cameras, has fond memories of the cut-out paper camera known as Dirkon^*, published in 1979 in the magazine ABC mladých techniků a přírodovědců [An ABC of Young Technicians and Natural Scientists].

Its creators, Martin Pilný, Mirek Kolář and Richard Vyškovský, came up with a functional pinhole camera made of stiff paper, designed for 35 mm film, which resembles a real camera. It may not be the most practical of devices, but it works!

LINK

ORDOS

Project Statement:
The scope of the project is to Develop 100 hundred villas in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, for the Client, Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd. FAKE Design, Ai Wei Wei studio in Beijing, has developed the masterplan for the 100 parcels of land and will curate the project, while Herzog and de Meuron have selected the 100 architects to participate. The collection of 100 Architects hail from 27 countries around the globe.

a lot of ordos projects can be found here
http://www.ordos100.com/

Alejandro Aravena

Article from The Icon about an interesting this architect and his take on social housing.
"There are two things you should know about Alejandro Aravena. First, he has built more than a thousand houses for Chile's poor, with several thousand more under way; second, the CEO of COPEC, the Chilean oil company, sits on the board of his architecture practice. In a strange way, neither of those facts is less impressive than the other. Aravena's practice, Elemental, has to be one of the most unusual in the world: an equal partnership between an architect, an oil company and a university...."

rest of the article

Flare - Kinetic facade

- is a pneumatic building facade system, for more info click the link...

http://www.flare-facade.com/

Edward Burtynsky

This is a blog dedicated to many of Edward Burtynsky's other photographs of mass natural and 'manufactured' landscapes and structures:

Edward Burtynsky
Shipbreaking No.1, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2000′

Edward Burtynsky
‘Bao Steel #2, Shanghai, China, 2005′

Edward Burtynsky
‘Feng Jie #4, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2002′

Edward Burtynsky
‘Nickel Tailings No. 31, Sudbury, Ontario 1996′

Edward Burtynsky
‘Feng Jie #4, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2002′


Edward Burtynsky
‘Dam #6 ,Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2005′

Link: article

This is a film called 'Manufactured Landscapes' documenting Burtynsky's work focusing on Bangladesh and China (by Jennifer Baichwal).