New Urbanism

I've seen this video floating around the internet in a variety of blogs and websites and its a good one, so why not share it here too.

Yay Architecture!!

The Life of an Architecture Student from Peter Hess on Vimeo.

Archiculture Pre-Trailer from arbuckle industries on Vimeo.

No Really, I'm Fine...

Its hard to express your feelings sometimes. That's why I like MoodJam.org, a website that allows you to express your feelings in colors. Above are some of my feelings from the last few months.

I found this other website, WeFeelFine.org, that,

"has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.)"

This information is saved in a database of human emotion, that can be displayed in different visual styles such as "Madness," "Murmers," and "Montage."


And all of this reminds me of Infosthetics.org, a blog entirely devoted to "the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization. More specifically, it collects projects that represent data or information in original or intriguing ways." (They have a post about WeFeelFine.)

And in case you're wondering, it was my friend Stephen that introduced me to Infosthetics many years ago, and you should check out his blogs too (he has a few).

Park in the Air!

Ever since I saw the model of this at the MOMA New York over a year (or two?) ago, I have been waiting and waiting and reading updates and emails and waiting some more for the opening of The High Line. In case you don't already know, The High Line is a park that is being built on top of the already existing unused elevated train tracks along the west side of mid-Manhattan, and part of it is scheduled to open this summer. The Sundance Channel's website is now featuring a series of digital shorts about this park in the air, featuring everyone from architects, to journalists, to celebrities that have been involved over the last few years. Above is one of them, click here to see the rest.

TEXT

I was inspired by Nadine Bouler's post about text and fonts to write a post about my own font. I've actually been developing this idea since high school, when I was really bored in class one day and noticed that I could write my name in simple geometric shapes.

So then I thought, maybe I can apply this concept to the rest of the alphabet. Its still an idea in progress, but so far here's what I came up with:

Walkin' Down Driggs

These are just some of the things I saw this weekend while walking down Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Peep

This is a little video I made a while ago.

Make Your Own Robot

My friend Adam sent me a link the other day to this and I really want one! Its called micRo, and its a little desktop CNC robot! This little machine can make switch-plates, outlet-covers, cabinet knobs and other home accessories. It can make circuit boards, A/V components, and any other little 3d object you can think of. The work area is as follows:

X axis total travel is over 13" (roughly 13.375)

Y axis total travel is 10"

Z plunge is <= 3.5"

Its a bit small, but there are ways to extend it a little. Still doesn't take away from its overall coolness.

I'm definitely saving up for one...

And here is some more information on other similar products:

Fab@Home
RepRap

Dance Parade '09

I spent most of my day yesterday out in Thompkins Square Park getting ready for the Dance Parade, working with people from New York Circus Arts, where we built a 25' high rig for their circus apparatus. Here are some of the photos from the day.

Cube House

This is an idea for a house I'd like to design and build one day. The pool, on the roof of the first floor, is completely transparent, creating a skylight, and also allows you to see the people swimming above your head from the room below.

(Please excuse the horrible state of the materials and grass and everything...I made this when I was just learning the software - 3d Studio Max - and how to apply materials and lighting.)

Zeynep Fadıllıoğlu

I WAS going to write about New York. I was going to write something nice. I was going to write about how when you are in Grand Central in the main room with the green ceiling you can take this escalator up, go through these double doors, walk around the corner, and find yourself in the lobby of the Met Life Building where there is a very nice sculpture commemorating the time when the Met Life building was the PanAm world headquarters (when they used to have helicopters landing on the roof). I was going to write about all of that, but I'm NOT. I'm mad at you Met Life building, and your irritating security guards who drove me off the property and your rules against taking pictures.

*******************************************************

Let's talk about Istanbul again. A few posts ago, I wrote about the Hagia Sophia, and how I really need to go visit it soon. But now there's another house of worship in Istanbul - the Sakirin Mosque - that has caught my attention (and the attention of many others). Its not Byzantine though. Its new! It was very recently completed and is the “first notable mosque designed by a famous female architect,” Zeynep Fadıllıoğlu. If the outside structure of glass and cast iron mesh impress you, the interior is even more breathtaking.

Have a look.

***SIDE NOTE: I've seen a lot of articles about this building saying that it is the first ever mosque to be designed by a female. I've also read comments from other bloggers saying that there are other mosques designed by females but that this is the first one to have so much publicity (hence the quote above). If anyone has any information on this, please feel free to share it in a comment on this post.

City in the Park

This is an animation I made in college. It is set in Fort Tryon Park,

my favorite park in Manhattan.

In case you're wondering, this was made with my Canon G7 camera

and 3d Studio Max. The music comes from Ansiform, an internet

based ambient music collective, is licensed under

the Creative Commons License, and is free to

download or listen to on their site.

Blur & David

I love Blur and I love David Shrigley. And I really love it when they work together.

A Word From the Managment

Hello Readers,

As you may or may not have noticed, over the last few days I've been adding more and more new links and blogs to the side bar over there on the right of this page. These are (almost) all links to websites and blogs of friends of mine that are super talented and cool. If you have a chance, take the time to check them out. You'll find writers, musicians, visual artists, and more. Keep checking back too, because I'll be adding more soon. Oh, and if you know me, and you want me to feature a site or blog of yours here, let me know.

Peace.

Avarboretum.

Thanks Mom!

My mom sent me this card in the mail a few days ago. On the front is a drawing of the east facade of the Dana-Thomas house in Springfield, Illinois, circa 1904, designed and drawn by Frank Lloyd Wright for Susan Lawrence Dana.

A Chance to Get it Right

This is an involved story. I promise there's a point.

I've got a friend. Whose got a friend. His name is Francis Dunnery. Francis makes nice music. Check it out - you might like it.

Have you heard of the band Yes? Yes? You have? Before Yes, there was The Syn. One of its members was Steve Nardelli. Steve eventually left The Syn, and the other members joined up with other musicians and became Yes. But what happened to Steve? He went off to make his career in the fashion and sports industry...

One day, not too long ago, Francis was at a soccer game, and was introduced to Steve Nardelli by a friend. When Francis realized who Steve was, he suggested they make an album together. And that is the point of this story. Their album - Big Sky, A Chance to Get it Right - is really beautiful. Their styles blend perfectly. I'm no good at describing music, so listen to it and see for yourself.

This was a while ago, but...

I haven't been able to get Choreographing Space, a project created by Eva Peres de Vega and Ian Gordon back in 2007, out of my head. It is a performance choreographed so that the movements of the dancers affect the shape, look, and feel of the space, which is designed so that it is affected by the movements of the dancers. Check out this video of the "movable mesh" and click here for pictures.




In my own recent explorations in movement, I've begun to brainstorm on some of my own ideas in the areas where architecture and dance and perfomance intersect. More on this later.