Tokyo!

Tokyo! has been saved in my instant queue for months now, undeservedly alone and neglected, but yesterday I finally got around to watching it.

And it blew my fucking mind...away.

Tokyo! is really three short films comprising one unique (bizarre) look at Japan's largest metropolis. And although each story uncovers and probes different aspects of human experience and emotion in unrelated story-lines, the urban context connects all three and frames each tale. Like sister films Paris, Je'taime and New York, I Love You, the starring role undoubtedly goes to the city itself. While there was no collaboration between the directors (director Bong Joon-ho said, "The three of us saw each other’s work for the first time there [at the Cannes premiere.]"), the trailer went as far to announce "Do we shape cities, or do cities shape us?" I couldn't find any information on if the producers of the film were architects in a past life, but creating a montage of urban themes was undoubtedly a scheming goal from the film's inception.

One particularly fascinating detail from Michel Gondry's contribution "Interior Design" conjured up a whole new scenario when the character Akira, a burgeoning filmmaker, gets inspired by a strange urban space...

"Something's wrong with these buildings. They all refuse physical contact with each other. Every night, flat ghosts slide in and out of these gaps and wander about the city. They wander about the city scaring the people shit-less. The authorities fill in the gaps with concrete, but the buildings keep moving apart letting the flat creatures take over."

A premise for a film (or book?) I hope to see (read) one day. Movie stills from Leos Carax's "Merde" and Bong Joon-ho's "Shaking Tokyo" below.

Inflatables.

Around the end of this past semester a giant inflatable torus was brought to life on the Kent State campus, a product of the Operative Detailing seminar led by Jason Turnidge. Since I was in Italy, I couldn't be there at that time, however much to my delight, the big plastic fun house was re-inflated this summer here in Cleveland within the courtyard of the Sculpture Center.





Named treehugger: giant torus, the courtyard in Cleveland was not the original site for the project, and even though providing a tree (as did the campus site...hence the pun), a few permanent sculptures required that the structure be roped and suspended over them, re-adapting the torus to the new site.

But after releasing this project to the greater Cleveland area it begs the question, “What are the intentions, if any?” Was the project decidedly satirical, or maybe just purposefully offensive. Is "treehugger" a play on words or is it simplistically and innocently literal? Was the selection of the torus shape an exploitation of design process or explotation of exploitation? By no stretch of the imagination the goal was to provoke not just the viewer but architecture at large; which I can definitely get into.

From the artist's statement: “Doing more with less” -- a Buckminster Fuller ideology in a situation when there is no “more”. No fabrication lab, no CNC mill, no … – only an idea to provide a back drop for an event made feasible through the use of a diagram, a plotter, sharpies, 4 mil vapor barrier, tape, a leaf blower, and time. 36 unique two-dimensional surfaces are hand cut in 4 mil vapor barrier, individually taped into continuous loops, and joined edge to edge on 35 seams accounting for 10,357 linear feet of packaging tape. A flattening of the relationship between representation and actualization through exploitation of design process and fabrication achieves a 1:1 space approachable in the context of a three-week vertical seminar assignment. A torus was selected for its ability to define a closed loop of inside | outside space with a singularly curved membrane that turns doubly curved through the simple process of inflation. A focus on the production of a temporary and mobile space for a particular event-based experience calibrates material selection, precision, and construction. Siting provokes arches, drops, lifts, compressions, and expansions as edits resulting in various modes of access between the outer and inner | outer spaces of the inflatable turned architectural trope capable of making a scene.

Precisely. "Making a scene", not just creating a place for one. Not very often do we at Kent get to design in a 1:1 relationship with the final product, and for that, I'm incredibly jealous of these students. Even if Treehugger leaves you with a sarcastic and bitter taste in your mouth, the efforts of the students and the opportunity this gave them can still definitely be appreciated.

And for that, I commend everyone involved. Good work Kent.

[photo credit | christopher schoenlein]

[photo credit | christopher schoenlein]



Students // Graduate: Eric Pros, John Collett, Diana Kichler, Rachel Crafton, Alex Hosack. Undergraduate: Justin Parish, Justin Gantz, Nathan Bailey, Rachel Pensinger, Jenelle Kuehne, Jeremy Beatty, Paul Adair

Professor // Jason Turnidge.


Note: This post is nearly two months late.  The aforementioned event happened on June 11th, 2010. I also posted this to my Archinect blog.

Legal.

I just turned 21 two minutes ago.

And by the way, I made it back to the states safely, however reluctantly. More to come soon: semester wrap-up, final presentation, summer plans.

I'm in Kent now for the summer. Hitmeup, friends.

Finality sandwich.

Final reviews were two days ago.

In two days I will be on a plane back to The States.


Europe, I will definitely miss you. Don't make me leave.

København.

[the mountain dwellings by big.]

[the mountain rising over the neighborhood seen from martin's house, taken in winter, obviously.]

[the new city from the top of the mountain.]

[at the 'career cannon' concert, but don't remember what happened here.]

[all photos courtesy martin, my host, seen here in the black t-shirt, his gorgeous family behind him and his friends/roomates beside me.]

For me, traveling to Copenhagen was many things. It was my last trip of the semester before going back to The States, my first solo traveling experience, and my first couch surfing experience. After all the growing I experienced this past semester and all the things I learned, this trip was my final test of myself, the real final exam for this study abroad experience. I had to prove to myself that I could be my own support, that fear is overrated, and that making things happen for yourself is possible.

And I'd like to think I did.

Some of the highlights from my trip >>>

> Living for three days right next to Big's Mountain Dwellings, possibly my favorite building. UNREAL.
> Visiting the office of JDS Architects. I literally went inside and was shown around the studio...still can't believe it.
> Danish bike lanes. They line almost every street making biking the best way to move through the city. The Danish people have adapted bikes in to many different forms...moving groceries, pets, children, etc.
> Having dinner with Martin, his roommates, and his family. They made some sort of fried danish pork meatloaf. Very good.
> Going to a concert with Martin, his entire family, friends, and roommates to see his (soon to be?) brother-in-law perform.
> Bar hoping in Copenhagen. We'll stop there.
> Having wine and bread for breakfast at 1 in the afternoon and watching the final episode of Twin Peaks with the guys.
> Being asked by the owner of a restaurant specializing in hamburgers what my opinion of his hamburgers was.
> The Danish Kroner. About 7 of them equal one US Dollar and since Denmark is a Socialist welfare state with ridiculous taxes, my hamburger cost 187 kr, or 32 dollars.
> Visiting the Danish Architecture Center and seeing the exhibition of 3XN Architecture's work.
> Walking around Copenhagen, getting trapped by canals with no bridges over them and not having a map.
> The CPH metro. The trains are driver-less allowing one to sit in the front to witness the train move through the underground and illuminated tunnels beneath the city. Beautifully futuristic.
> Siting next to Big's Harbour Bath project and reading their monograph. I almost started crying from pure joy and amazement...realizing my whole world was converging in one place for me at that moment.


That's the short of it. I am hoping to get an internship in the city in the future because spending more time in Copenhagen is definitely on the agenda.

De lisboa para o mundo.

[photo credit: john yurchyk, santa catarina market / barcelona]

Spring break is a few weeks in the past, but its effect on me is still fresh in my mind. Really, I can't think of any other experience in my life that has so obviously effected me as that trip. I suppose the words of H. C. Andersen are common, "To travel is to live", but never had I understood them as I do now.

I always thought traveling was about seeing things I've never seen before (and it is), tasting strange cuisines (and it is), partaking in the local traditions (and it is), and broadening your book of experiences (and it is). But more than any of the previously mentioned, traveling is about meeting and sharing with people...strangers...you meet along the way. Our second night in Lisbon I was sharing a giant beanbag chair on the floor of the our hostel with a girl from Seattle as we talked to other travelers and locals from Montreal, Melbourne, the UK, and Portugal. How funny, all of us sharing our lives with one another in that moment, in an unlikely place such as Lisbon, from places scattered across the globe. How incredible it is that a country boy from Ohio has an opportunity to have his life shaped by so many different cultures? How powerful a thing to improve the world, if every person from Earth could just hang out on over-sized beanbag chairs and relate to one another for a night. Never before had I felt such an overwhelming sense of content, peace, and stillness. Seriously, I wanted to cry with joy.

That's the true power of travel. To find out that the world isn't such a big and scary place; that the things that divide us maybe aren't the canyons that we think they are; that this life is an unbelievable gift that we have to take FULL advantage of. If not, we're wasting everything.

[haha. a night out in bcn with random hostel'rs.  represented: holland, spain, italy, turkey, and the us.]

[photo credit: brandon zawicki, pavilion of portugal by alvaro siza / lisbon]

[photo credit: brandon zawicki, city of arts and sciences by calatrava / valencia]

To say that trying to convey what I felt that night is difficult would be an understatement. All I can say is I now think travel may be the most important thing in the world to do, and to do often. South America, Summer 2011 perhaps? The travel bug has officially bitten me.

The future looks...

Just saw this on the Archinect salary poll.


62 / Male from Phoenix, Arizona

$64,000 salary

Type of work: Fulltime
Type of workplace: Corporate
B. Architecture
B.S. Botany
I year grad school
Registered Architect, Az, Ca. and
Registered Landscape Architect, Az, Ca.
38 years experience
40 hrs vacation
Health and dental insurance
No retirement program
Took 20% paycut in 09
40-60 hr weeks+
bonus-rare

"I have been used, abused, stabbed in the back by co-workers and overworked all my life. My retirement savings is disappearing. I am a very talented designer and project manager. What a depressing profession. The rewards are very small."

Posted: Apr, '10


Yikes.

Pointy things.

In between jet setting across Europe, I've been devoting (some) time to my studio's proposed project for Florence, a new Mediatheque located within the walls of the Fortezza da Basso.

From the syllabus, under the guidance of Alberto Francini. //

"The new mediatheque will have to become an asset to the city at large.  Both in terms of image and functionality, it will have to become a major forum for the public life of the city.  The design will have to respond to the surrounding context in whatever way deemed appropriate by the student, who will have to support his/her own ideas through a strong design rationale.  The design of the open space has to be integrated with the design of the mediatheque and will have to appeal and respond to contemporary culture and sensibility.


Program //


Lobby / 100 sqmt.
Cafeteria + restaurant / 200 sqmt.
Bookshop / 200 sqmt.
Exhibition space (multi-use) / 200 sqmt.
Restrooms / 100 sqmt


Mediatheque / 250 sqmt.
Emerotheque (video/music) / 150 sqmt.
Library + reading halls / 400 sqmt.
Lecture hall / 400 seats
2 conference rooms / 300 sqmt.
Archives / 200 sqmt.
Storage / 100 sqmt.
Administration + services / 100 sqmt.
Management + production offices / 150 sqmt.
Restrooms / 100 sqmt.

I presented my project at its (then) current state about 3 1/2 weeks ago to a jury consisting of my studio professors and two architects from MDU architetti.  Mid-term reviews before this had always been either a) the last thing I want to do after a week of sleepless final production, or b) a chance to look back and reflect at my massive heap of half-mindless work in hopes of pushing my project forward.  This semester took an alternative route, partially because of my struggles this semester, partly because of the typically light work-load here in Italy.  Reason 1:  I haven't been doing much work.  Backbacking across Europe is way more interesting than studio right now.  Reason 2:  I threw this presentation together without much thought and had a wonderful night of sleep beforehand.  Architectural taboo.  Kick me out of the club.

That said, the project below is still in its baby stages, arriving only now at a concept model and general direction to where I want to take it (and in the last 3 1/2 weeks still hasn't pushed much further).  If you feel inclined, visit my Flickr set for more detailed explanations and to view the presentation at a higher resolution.

In the end though, the project has been well received. The only disappointment I have with that is many times reviewers at juries are more apt to criticize and put down students than become creatively involved in the intention of the project and leave one (me) without any input. So, input is encouraged.