Another interesting article from NY times titled, "Reinventing American Cities: The time is NOW"


"With their crowded neighborhoods and web of public services, cities are not only invaluable cultural incubators; they are also vastly more efficient than suburbs. But for years they have been neglected, and in many cases forcibly harmed, by policies that favored sprawl over density and conformity over difference.

Such policies have caused many of our urban centers to devolve into generic theme parks and others, like Detroit, to decay into ghost towns. They have also sparked the rise of ecologically unsustainable gated communities and reinforced economic disparities by building walls between racial, ethnic and class groups.

Correcting this imbalance will require a radical adjustment in how we think of cities and government’s role in them. At times it will mean destruction rather than repair. And it demands listening to people who have spent the last decade imagining and in many cases planning for more sustainable, livable and socially just cities."

I got the Museum Itch

Living in Los Angeles, you're confined to about one good museum-- LACMA. Sad fact.
I miss museums after constantly bombarding them across Europe and NYC last summer.

According to the Ny Times, the Most-Visited Museums last year were...

" The two most-visited museums in the world last year were the Louvre in Paris, with 8.5 million people, and the British Museum in London, with 5.9 million, according to the annual ranking by The Art Newspaper. The National Gallery of Art in Washington (4.96 million visitors), the Tate Modern in London (4.95 million) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (4.82 million) rounded out the Top 5.

"

What was the last museum you visited?

Sad Tears for USC Student

"The accident, which occurred at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street at 3 a.m. Sunday, left Adrianna Bachan, 18, dead and Marcus Garfinkle, 19, clinging to life. According to witnesses, Garfinkle was carried about 500 feet on the vehicle's windshield before the driver stopped and a passenger removed him from the car. The vehicle then sped off."

Looking at her picture, stunning and beautiful girl.

This really hit me because I was crossing the same street on that same night roughly around the same time. Probably missed the incident by only a couple minutes or seconds. I was walking to my friends home after studio around 2:55 am-- I was delirious and tired after the weekends sleepless nights. I know I should be more careful, but I really can't help NOT walking to my car or outside of campus because the campus car stops at 2 am. Really Terrifying and tragic.

Thoughts and prayers goes out to Adrianna Bachan's family and friends.

In the Desert

I visited Joshua tree for the first time during spring break. It was amazing sleeping under the stars and exploring the desert and oasis. I also saw a bunch of cool homes on the outskirts of joshua Tree!


An article i came across today...
Rosa Muerta near Joshua Tree

"Robert Stone — former punk rocker, studio artist and now architect — has built a one-bedroom retreat called Rosa Muerta on the outskirts of Joshua Tree. Chrome columns rise from the sandy desert floor to support a ceiling plane clad with mirrors. Stone left the arid landscape that surrounds the property unaltered. "My architectural practice is more related to how artists work," he says. "I'm trying to do something amazing here. I learned as a kid doing my music that you have a right to come up with something brand new"

The minimalist structure has four rooms: a spacious outdoor living room with spa, fire pit and barbecue; a bedroom; a bathroom; and a small kitchen.

I lost my Seoul

LA LA LA (LOS ANGELES) knows REM and PRADA go together (Just head to Rodeo drivess) Or if you're a newyawker, you know prada + rem got it going in as well.

But WHY SEOUL?! Seoul already has a project designed by REM... a museum i visited last summer... I don't even remember it but it was black and. modern. hah.

OMA, (the architecture firm, Rem represents!) did the PRADA TRANSFORMER, a design for a pavilion which wil open in Seoul, Korea in a month or so.


the crazy play and design should be left for Dubai. just kidding.

The Queen is Hit as well

McQueen Leaves Fashion in Ruins goes to show that the talk in Paris was more about money than about the clothes.

"Retailers are worried about sales, and magazines are concerned with the loss of advertising. And most designers, listening to the bean counters, have played it so safe with their fall collections that they run the risk of choking. Fashion is in a fractured state."

Are the expectations of fashion changing?

The economy sucks

Government data revealed that 651,000 more jobs disappeared in February.

"The unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent, from 7.6 percent in January, its highest level in a quarter-century."

We all know architects are the canary in the mine.

To state it more clearly:

Architects are the first to be screwed when the economy drops.

TWEET, SHUT UP.

to all you obsessive twittering, facebooking, blogging, i spend 80 hours a day glued to my laptop or typing a keypad on my phone peeps out there.

interesting post on the ny times:

be it twittering or blogging

Berlin's Extreme Makeover.

Berlin is a fascinating city. I had the pleasure of spending a week in Berlin last summer, and I couldn't get enough of all the museums and historical culture active and lively on the streets. The Neue Museum, built by architect Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, had a Modern Makeover That Doesn’t Deny the Wounds of War

" The Neues Museum briefly reopened here last weekend (was reborn, seems more like it), and local newspapers reported that more than 35,000 Berliners, many of them waiting hours in the cold in lines stretching nearly half a mile, filed into the still empty building over three days to see it."
"The Neues Museum suffered more than any other structure there from Allied bombs dropped in 1943 and 1945"

Is this another excuse me to drop couple thousand on another Eurotrip this summer?

it's good enough.

I miss Europe

from satorialist, the trendy site everyone seems to go to..

The layers, the color, and the attitude.

DUBAI looks like Ursula's Hair

Oobject has an interesting story on 15 skyscrapers around the world on hold due to the economic crisis.

Every single high rise city, including New York, London, Moscow, in the world is seeing skyscraper projects canceled.


However, Dubai does not seem to be affected by the current global recession. The CEO of Dubai claims the continuous flow of money from the present government guarantee the ongoing projects.

The crazy building up there, known as the "fourrrrr fingggerrs" will not be completed anytime soon. But who cares? Dubai is filled with so many "creative, out of tune" projects that it will look more like Disneyland.... or Times Square.

pageflakes

MY PAGEFLAKES


my flakes is organized into two columns. the left is the skinny column, and the right is the slightly fatter column. I placed all my design/art/fashion sites and placed them in the fat, right side because of the flattering thumbnails i get to see when i log into my pageflakes.


right--

i have Notcot, the Satorialist (one of the most popular fashion website monitored by one man!), mirage 7 (a student blogger from Malaysia i previously blogged about) , curbed, and cool hunting. just your everyday general design sites. I wouldn't check these sites on a daily basis, but page flakes makes it convenient and incredbily fast for me to just drop in on the posts without leaving pageflakes.

on the left-- more academic

my wonderful rss feed, wikipedia, newyork times fashion + design, universal news and blog search, my blog ( my remainder to update), and lunch blog. the last blog is not academic, but the pictures are so pretty and it reminds me that intelligent female architects in new york city are eating something mouthwatering daily. It doesnt quite keep me fit if im staring at food every time i log into pageflakes, but whatever, it makes me happy. wee.

i admit.

i dont have pageflakes as my main window. or even in my bookmarks. I assure you, from tonight on, i will be making pageflakes my lover I check on daily.

annotated bibliography

hello. february is almost ending, and the best month is coming up--March!
Ah, i love spring. anyways, so ive been lingering...and theres a bunch of social bookmarking sites out there, but ZOTERO, is more for collecting, managing, and citing research from all types of sources from the browers. amazingly useful for school//term papers.

the best part is that it manages bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. On many major research websites such as digital libraries, Google Scholar, Google Books, Amazon.com, and even Wikipedia, Zotero detects when a book, article, or other resource is being viewed and with a mouse click finds and saves the full reference information to a local file.

so heres some that I found useful for myself while browsing zotero for the first time. just thought i'd share..

1) 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (Hardcover) by Matthew Frederick (Author)
This book expresses in clear and simple language things that tend to be murky and abstruse in the classroom. These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentation--from the basics of "How to Draw a Line" to the complexities of color theory--provide a much-needed primer in architectural literacy, making concrete what too often is left nebulous or open-ended in the architecture curriculum. Each lesson utilizes a two-page format, with a brief explanation and an illustration that can range from diagrammatic to whimsical. Written by an architect and instructor who remembers well the fog of his own student days, "101 Things I Learned in Architecture School" provides valuable guideposts for navigating the design studio and other classes in the architecture curriculum. Architecture graduates--from young designers to experienced practitioners--will turn to the book as well, for inspiration and a guide back to basics when solving a complex design problem.

i chose this book because architecture students should keep it in studio and just browse through it when theyre bored! apparently, those 4/5 years in architecture studios can be learned with this single book. highly impossible, but its worth reading.

2) Building Construction Illustrated (Paperback) by Francis D. Ching (Author)

This book offers clear inspiration for designers and drafters. The classic visual guide to the basics of building construction, now with the most current information., such as latest knowledge on sustainability, incorporation of building systems, and use of new material.
Its rich and comprehensive approach clearly presents all of the basic concepts underlying building construction and equips readers with useful guidelines for approaching virtually any new materials or techniques they may encounter.

Laying out the material and structural choices available, it provides a full under-standing of how these choices affect a building's form and dimensions. Complete with more than 1,000 illustrations, the book moves through each of the key stages of the design process, from site selection to building components, mechanical systems, and finishes.

i recently checked this book out from the architecture library and i love it! every student should know how structure and details of a building should work. it is also illustrated for the non-readers out there.

now for the journals, i found some amazing articles on architecture studio life!


1. Thomas A. Dutton, “Design and Studio Pedagogy,” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) 41, no. 1 (Autumn 1987): 16-25, doi:10.2307/1424904.

There is a hidden curriculum to analyze the design studio. The author argues that there is a rough correspondence between schooling and larger societal practices, where the selection of knowledge and the ways in which school social relations are structured to distribute such knowledge, are influenced by forms and practices of power in society. Asymmetrical relations of power are reproduced in schools and classrooms, including the design studio. The author seeks to investigate how social relations are structured, and how students and the professor come to see their roles in these activities.


2. Olindo Grossi, “Considering Architecture?,” Journal of Architectural Education (1947-1974)19, no. 4 (June 1965): 56-58, doi:10.2307/1424259.

Architecture is so special a calling that even to enter a school of architecture as a freshman student is a big step--and a step which, if taken inadvisedly, can lead to the waste of more time than either the student or his instructors can well spare. How to reduce to a minimum the number of students who take the step inadvisedly is a problem confronting every school. Here Dean Grossi describes a program designed to that end which has been in successful operation at Pratt Institute for the past fourteen years.


3. Matthew J. Kiernan, “The New Strategic Architecture: Learning to Compete in the Twenty-First Century,” The Executive 7, no. 1 (February 1993): 7-21, doi:10.2307/4165104.

An outward focus on success within firms has tended to blind executives to a series of internal factors likely to be even more critical to competitive success in the twenty first century. These factors constitute the key elements of what we call the strategic architecture of the firm. Constructing strategic architecture requires conscious attention to developing mechanisms for organizational learning, innovation and experimentation, constructive contention, empowerment, optimized value potential, corporate sustainability, and strategic re-framing. Firms with a thoughtful and durable commitment to these meta-strategies will not only survive to see the next century, they are likely to dominate it.

4. Sherry Ahrentzen and Kathryn H. Anthony, “Sex, Stars, and Studios: A Look at Gendered Educational Practices in Architecture,” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) 47, no. 1 (September 1993): 11-29, doi:10.2307/1425224.

Educational research and theory indicate that male and female university students are treated differently in the classroom and that the nature of the curriculum as well as the teaching act itself often reflect and promote male-centered actions. Architectural educators must examine whether their teaching practices and pedagogy are similarly gendered. If so, although their numbers in architecture schools are increasing, women may well be shortchanged. Further, such practices may prevent the discipline from expanding its influence, potential, and vision. This article identifies situations in which gendered practices occur in architectural education, especially in design studios and juries. It also suggests ways in which we can restructure our educational practices to provide enhanced opportunities for both women and men.

females and males are treated differently in the studios. this is a solid fact and great article worth reading!

Starchitects vs. Architects break it down (for a good cause)

LET'S PLAY!!!!!!
On Tuesday night, LVHRD had one of their many infamous competitions with multi-disicplinary fim Weiss/Manfredi and the less known, unconventional firm FRONT Studio (The only asian women owned arch firm)

" Both groups will receive 30 minutes to plan their structure and 90 minutes to build a model from a surprise material, followed by a 10 minute demonstration of their creation. "

Weiss/Manfredi is really throwing it down. I first noticed their work when in 2007, TIME Magazine named their Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle #3 in “The 10 Best (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels.

Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, Washington.

FRONT STUDIO, on the other hand is quite a pleasant surprise. I mean, are they really the only Asian women owned firm in the U.S? Yen Ma and Michi Yanagishiya studied together at Carnegie Hall, where they came together with a passion for architecture, design, and food. Their website also links to their LUNCH, a simple lovely blog about the things they eat daily.


"....A reminder to stop, chill, breathe in fresh air and most importantly - EAT. Architects by profession, we're also ladies who lunch. "

Awwwww. So Adorable.

Social Bookmarking Soulmate

delicious is a social bookmarking site i have already talked about. though my laptop is set up by diigo to save all my bookmarking sites, i have found it a lot easier to find a pseudo "soulmate" through delicious. the person goes by the alias of "Zonnegroet"

I have no idea what that means, but that is not important. I have looked at his/her tags and we seemed to match. His/her top 10 tens were

Top 10 Tags

• design66
• architecture41
• fashion39
• art32
• sustainability27
• technology26
• trends22
• culture19
• gadgets19
• designcompany14

design. check. architecture check. fashion check. all in that order, and you know, that is good enough for me. this person has bookmarked roughly 200 pages, and has invited me to drop in a bunch of architecture/design sites that I have never seen witnessed before such as yatzer. however, it does get a little dull seeing design sites over and over again. one can only see so many of the 'hot' trends of furniture, wall paper, unique stationary right? It's not like we can even afford to buy it!

This mystery person doesn't seem too through but his/her interests all seem to correlate from design to sustainability/trends/culture. One of his/her bookmarked site is Coolhunting, a trendy site which features daily update on ideas and products in the intersection of art, design, culture and technology, and features weekly videos. I am guessing this is a person highly interested in design, but not so much html/ portfolio/ adobe programs (one of the reasons why i love delicious). But you know, some differences between soulmates is a must. How else can we learn from each other? We gotta give and take the new thangs, or whatever.

again,
I also chose this person as my soulmate because I don't have the highest standards for mystery people online. Hence, I am settling for mediocracy. Hah!

Lefty Presidents

To those to have been closely paying attention to the hand our fellow Prez writes with, that's right. He is a Southpaw.
Believe it or not, President Bill Clinton was this country's third straight left-handed president. George W. Bush was the first right-handed president since Jimmy Carter.

The following presidents were all southpaws:

• 20th James A. Garfield
• 31st Herbert Hoover
• 33rd Harry S. Truman
• 38th Gerald Ford
• 40th Ronald Reagan
• 41st George H.W. Bush
• 42nd William J. Clinton
• 44th Barack Obama

"When Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain take the stage for the presidential debates, attentive viewers may notice both candidates scribbling notes with their left hands. Political junkies will remember that such a curiosity has occurred before: In 1992, all three contenders -- George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot -- were southpaws. "

Are Leftys More Talented?

Its the exclusivity, I know. Wikipedia gives the statistics that " 7 to 10 percent of the adult population are left-handed, and that left-handedness is more common in males than females."But only if you knew the history behind left-handed folks...just look at that picture below.

The sad little Southpaw strollin' on life... knowing the architecture, design, moral, culture of life have always been again him/her

^{There's this interesting data that left-handed people:}

" occur more frequently in both identical and fraternal twins,and several groups of individuals with neurological disorders (such as people with epilepsy, Down's Syndrome^, autism, mental retardation^[8] and dyslexia)"

Fellow southpaws, don't be distressed. Historically we were discriminated against. Even during my generation, the habit of writing with your left hand was beaten out of you.

But are we fellow southpaws more intelligent? Are there any Left-handed Starchitects?

Chris McManus of University College London argues that the proportion of left-handers is rising and left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He says that left-handers' brains are structured differently in a way that widens their range of abilities, and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centres of the brain.

McManus also says that the increase in the 20th century of people identifying as left-handed could produce a corresponding intellectual advance and a leap in the number of mathematical, sporting, or artistic geniuses.

In 2006, researchers at Lafayette College and Johns Hopkins University in a study found that left-handed men are 15 percent richer than right-handed men for those who attended college, and 26 percent richer if they graduated. The wage difference is still unexplainable and does not appear to apply to women

i guess it sometimes pays to be a lefty.

DO you need AA?

You sign up for AA because your friends tell you that you need it. Your family encourages it. Your significant other threatens the end of the relationship unless you attend AA.
It starts out like every cliche AA session

"Hi, I'm --- (insert name here), and... I'm an alco...I mean, architect."

.....this is the introduction in the many groups archiecture students on facebook are a part of. Architecture kids love to procrastinate on how much their major sucks, despite claiming that they don't have any time to use facebook, joining groups with as many members as 200. Architecture students love to complain about how much time they don't have, registering groups such...

"I Don't Need Sex, Architecture school fucks me everyday",
"Architects- We Do Models all Night Looong"...along with this image


"The Worst Part of Being an architecture Major Is Not Having any Time To Use the Facebook"

"AA: architects anonymous" which is

".... a support group for those who are addicted to architecture. Admitting it helps; you are not alone. There are other people that have the same craving for really strong design. Others don't understand the addiction of nights spent cutting up chipboard, and foam core, using the "wood chopper," and one xacto blade after another... "

If you're an arch major , I'm sure you've read this already. But to those roommates and lovers and family members who still don't understand... This pretty much sums up the list of an architecture major.

-Your roommate acts surprised if you’re ever in the room
-When asked what day it is you have no idea, but always know how long until a project is due
-You use your alarm to tell you when to go to sleep
-You know what Tacky Glue tastes like
-You avoid eating, sleeping, or going to the hospital because you need to finish a model
-All of your teachers wear black… only black…
-When asked if you like the Guggenheim you reply “Which one??
-You have an ample supply of B HB H & F and know the difference between them
-GEs feel like vacation
-You use Soda as a tool, not a treat
-You’ve never seen the other side of campus
-You’ve danced the Macarena at 3am without a single drop of alcohol in your body
-You have listened to every song on your iPod within two days
-You go to class to be marked present and then sleep until the lecture is over
-Telling your teacher your major actually gets you excused from work
-While watching movies you continuously point out famous buildings to your non-architecture major friends

How to look like an Architect

Picture yourself at a party; Dressed in impeccable clothing and don't forget your signature black framed glasses. These amazing fitting specs fit your face perfectly. Inevitably, you strike up a conversation with a stranger. You exchange names, ask each other what you do for a living, and the other (drunk or sober) states, "Let me guess.... You're an architect."

Ah, those spectacles. Back in grade school, you were ridiculed as “Four Eyes”, “nerd”, “Ugly”, “Speckys”, anndd let's stop. You won’t admit it, but those elementary taunts still haunt you ‘til this day. Then you send a little prayer to the goddess above because you’re wise enough to know that trends change. Eye wear is now something that’s hot (If you can rock it well).
It can literally change your image--even your occupation


Not only do specs make you look intelligent, but they’re also a statement that says something in the lines of “muthafucka I work hard”, to “I got the steeez and confidence to work these shades”.
So what is it about those architects and their signature frames? Father of modernism, Swiss born Le Corbusier, “ made owlish black spectacles a signature, thereby giving generations of followers permission to adopt a similarly geeky look. " He made it safe to make a statement through eyewear," said Mayer Rus, the design editor of House & Garden magazine.

It was a domino effect. Le Corbusier inspired Philip Johnson to “design a similarly rounded pair of glasses for himself in 1934, which he had manufactured by Cartier. Ken Smith, the landscape architect, has adopted a contemporary version of Mr. Johnson's black-rimmed orbs — the perfectly rigorous complement to his black-on-black attire.”

And we all know that architects only wear black right? Like Le Corbusier, architects today are often remarkably loyal to their chosen eyewear style. For architects, signature glasses are a conscious attempt to trademark their buildings and their faces as well. So ubiquitous architects are with their image that now ordinary people try to mimick their style. Customers don’t ask, “Make me look like a surgeon!” They ask specicially for that architect look.

After all, spectacles are all about design. 1) They are geometric shape. 2) They are a natural style choice. 3) they revolve on structure and form.

Architects want to be known for their design, just as much as they are known for their eyewear. Robert Marc, an infamous New York eye wear designer and retailer, often hears customers pleading, “Make me a pair of glasses just like Daniel Libeskind”.

Trends shift, and name callings are no longer damaging to ones soul. A well-designed specs will add to your image. To those with perfect 20/20, don't worry too much. The accessory is just a fashion statement.

B.l.o.g..r.a.m.a

As development in Los Angeles (particularly Downtown LA) has been on the rise, I seek to investigate cultural and social issues with contemporary architecture. As an architecture student, I wouldn’t be necessarily showcasing my work (okay, maybe I will), but more so entertain my readers with daily architectural news, architectural social issues and theory, the emergence of young architects, and of course, voicing my opinion on what exactly goes on in those architecture studios.

I will investigate how architecture is being transformed in the web2.0 craze. How much do people really know about how their city is being developed? And if they do, how much of a role can one play in shaping their city or neighborhood? In fact, don’t the everyday common people have a say in what is to be built and how it should be built? After all, every work of architecture is in the public realm, despite who commissions it, or has access into the building. Unlike artists, who can withdraw public exposure to their work by merely placing them in museums (sole purpose of a museum), this protection is not possible for architecture.

It is exploring into the subjects of sexuality, the male gaze, the female role, and the elitism that many fear to tread upon when speaking of architecture culture.
My blog will survey different architects, delving into the “Starchitects” to the architects barely getting their foot in the door. It is an exploration of pop culture, pop architecture, and the ever so impossible to avoid the “IGeneration” influence on society. It is about me. It is about you.

It is no surprise that the trend of 'blogging' would provoke architecture students to rant online about their consistent all nighters and stress of being an architecture student. Archinect School Blog offers just the safe and understanding atmosphere for that; but more importantly, the blog is written by more than 250 participating architecture s from around the world.

Think of it as a recruitment of enthusiasts to document their experiences in their studio work and/or travels (Quite useful for prospective architecture students). Though the discussions are for registered users, one can persue the site and the blog without being registered. The blog is sponsered by Archinect, an architecture site for news, discussion, job listings, and much more.

The bloggers range from first years undergrad to graduate students. There is an application process provided by Archinect to showcase your work and ideas. The blog is written by students and provides a scholarly and academic vibe. The posts are incredibly detailed.The students relation to the subjects are those of passion, of course, and because the site links to multiple blogger, the page is updated almost daily with two or more posts a day. Very smart because what architecture student (with a life) has the time to blog everyday?

However, I do have some things I'm not incredibly fond it. First off, the structural layout is just straight up messy. The pictures are scattered throughout the page, and all the pictures of the student's work can be overwhelming to those not familiar with certain projects (or even to architecture students who see those similar images..daily...for hours...)

Second, the collaboration with the 250+ schools is beneficial, but it is also information overdose. For me, it just holds less of an attachment to the site. I'm just saying I rather be attached to one specific reader. I know, lame, but I have grown to have attachment issues with certain bloggers. I can't deal with too many personal stories of travel and bad reviews bombarded in one page. Though we are living in world where we want instant everything summed up in one "image", there's something about that one personal voice.

Nonetheless, this is by far one of the most relavant blog I have come across so far because of its diversity in the students. I'm assuming the audience are architecture students, potential students, art enthusiasts, professors, and even architects. This blog feeds what I would like to write about because I can relate personally with the students. The lack of sleep, the abroad travels, and knowing the exact time the vending machines are refilled at school.
mirage studio 7 is a personal, more humorous blog by a post graduate who had studied in Malaysia, focusing on architecture and tutorials on 3d programs. It offers comical insights,some of his examples on 3d renderings, which I presume is to show his some of his skills in modeling (a resume for future employers?) and some downloading which you can’t actually download (unless you email him and want them badly)

But that's not important. The posts are witty, daily musings of his self proclaimed struggling life as a post-grad. His autobiography mentions he worked as an assistant architect in a small firm; the “months of slavery and robotic life” that left him “almost-retarded and completely burnt out”. Wow, um, talk about optimism for my future. The random section about himself also gives the freedom to just write about whatever. The only strategy here is a list of facts, simple and straight to the point about his physical and emotional status. But this is no twitter nor facebook here. It comforts me that he is “always insanely lazy in school, but scoring with a decent G.P.A” , a behavior I can closely relate with. He holds sense of humor I thoroughly enjoy as an student...to see other students/post grads suffer. Jk. The voice definitely changes in different posts. The sentence style is fragmented. The setting of the post conveys a casual emotion, one expecting a story relating to architecture, the economy, or personal life....

After all, we must love what we do and be who we are. We are in the blog world and that gives us the freedom to write whatever we want. He also links to other related articles in his blog after the post. He adds multiple links at to the bottom of the post. It keeps to readers up to date with articles that they might have missed.

His recent post “Fashion and Architecture” is a comical post, and one can only understand when knowing the architect Santiago Calvatrara.
This Steve Duenes New Yorker cartoon is Calvatrara's hairstyle modeled after the architect's Milwaukee Art Museum. I have a professor who has the Calvatrara! Maybe I might get one. It's kind of hot.

He goes into saying that he is not a fan of Calvatrara. He asks questions such as “Don’t you think we ought to be a bit different from the rest?”, (commenting on how architects predominantly wear black), suggesting a “jeans and polo t-shirt” would be presentable, even mentioning Steve Jobs as an good example. HOLY CRAP. Please do not say that again, that was just WRONG. Appearance is everything. Yes, jeans and shirt can work.
if you work it like thisnot like Jobs.

Plus, Black is classy and makes you look skinnier. Fashion and architecture will always mix. Hint to those who missed the “Skin and Bones” exhibit at the Los Angeles MOCA back in 06-07.

SB Craze!

No, not the madness of Isla Vista in Santa Barbara. SB= Social Bookmarking.

there is furl
Furl (from File Uniform Resource Locators) is a free social bookmarking website that allows members to store searchable copies of webpages and share them with others.

and delicious
What is Delicious?
Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows you to tag, save, manage and share Web pages all in one place. With emphasis on the power of the community, Delicious greatly improves how people discover, remember and share on the Internet.

Things you can do with Delicious
1) Bookmark any site on the Internet, and get to it from anywhere
2) Instead of having different bookmarks on every computer, Delicious makes it easy to have a single set of bookmarks kept in sync between all of your computers. Even if you're not on a computer you own, you can still get to your bookmarks on the Delicious website.
Share your bookmarks, and get bookmarks in return
1) If your friends use Delicious, you can send them interesting bookmarks that they can check out the next time they log in. Of course, they can do the same for you.

Delicious has a "hotlist" on its home page and "popular" and "recent" pages, which help to make the website a conveyor of internet memes and trends.


oh my geezus, SO many social bookmarkings and websites.. it is a headache. But to those who spend hours in front of your laptop with an insatiable desire to know all the important/witty/etc. articles written that day... feel free to join and browse... I am quite a fan of the 'popular' articles because it does somewhat keep me up to date when I don't read the paper. But organizing your "SB (social bookmarking)" is a job itself. Everything is a "MAKE IT YOUR OWN", very much like pageflakes and all the other hoohahs out there. But really, it is about finding that site that works for you. For me personally, email and morning paper does it.

I commented on someone's blog!

from the Archinect: School Blog project...A Magazine!

Samuel, a University of Tennessee architecture student, posted the second issue of "Current" .
Quite nice to see the entire pdf file of the magazine edition..all 106 pages. I never knew UT had an architecture program. These are works from undergrad and graduate school... anyways, here was what I had to say.

"I really enjoyed the concept of "Studio Culture". The student's works definitely illustrate an intense level of energy and ambition. I wanted to comment on the single black and white images (I'm guessing of the school?) The immense focus on the material and lighting in the images reminded me of Peter Zumpthor's book, "Atmospheres". The layout of the work by school year was well-organized and climatic, shifting as the intensity of the projects grew. The addition of the interior design department (quite a rarity in an architecture school) was also a pleasant surprise.
As others have mentioned, the responses from the interviews were very long and somewhat tedious to read. But nonetheless, I loved the sketches and the hand drawings. Good mix, and keep up the great work!"

Jean Nouvel designs peen again

Architects are known to never limit their line of work. 2008 Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel has designed everything from hotels to concert halls, and now the latest from Kiki de Montparnasse is this sleek YSL's new fragrance bottle for the French fashion house.
Nouvel states he "wanted it to be very ergonomic, so you can put it in your coat pocket".

Let me explain why I am a bit bewildered by his comment. Nouvel seem to just love peen. His Torre Agbar in Barcelona, which Jean Nouvel, in an interview, described it as having a phallic character."

And again, the Doha Towers


Nouvel's new building NewYork MOMA , the new 75-story concrete and glass building consisting of a luxury hotel, some condos, an underground restaurant with a glass ceiling, and additional art galleries for its neighbor, is described as "shiny, silver, hard, slightly curved, and it even has veins."


Does it bother you when tall buildings are considered phallic? I would say yes. When a man designs a phallic building, it is lauded as penis-worship. When a woman designs it, she has Penis-envy. But for Nouvel to blatantly say "Yes! It is phallic", that is just creepy. He just seem to replace the skin on his designs, keeping the overall shape permanent. Will the Starchitect continue to build many more homages to his obsession with erections (or maybe power)? Or maybe I'm being too crude. Perhaps eroticism unconsciously flood our sensations and it just happens! Like pregnancy.

LEGOS R' US

I LEGO NY frm the NY Times has been circulating Facebook, a witty little article full of lego images by illustrator Christoph Niemann. The New Museum , designed by female Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima is hilarious (but where's the rainbow flag?)




Architecture and Lego? LEGO Towers 's scale model designed by MR BIG aka Bjarke Ingels Group just owns it. I've had the opportunity to meet him at his lecture @UCLA last semester. Bjarke is an amazing and very entertaining presenter. Lego Towers was housing proposal for a residential, retail and hotel development in Copenhagen. Denmark is after all the hometown of Legos. and guess how many lego bricks were used to build this model?




two hundred fifty thousand.

Ah, Lego, you keep our mind young

The BEST CHILDREN'S BOOK EVER!

I grew up reading almost every children book from "Green eggs and Hamers" to "Are you my Mama or what?". But I never had the privilege to come across a book as chic and urban as Iggy Peck. I'm sure any kid can relate if they love to build something out of anything. My fav. memories of childhood are building and engineering train tracks around my house, taking maybe a week to finish, and making my own "house" with sofa cushions because it was just a way to create space.

I'm a sucker for books that rhyme. I've read it out loud about 15 times....yes alone...and I'm still not tired of it!

It also got TIMES TOP10 list in 2007. HOllER! Maybe more children will aspire to be architects, not just doctors/teachers because those are the only two jobs they know.

A birthday present from my dearest, JenSincerityClarityLeung.

Architecture blogs

There are so many blogs on architecture! All quite the same; all quite a bit different.

Here's a funny quote I came across from PIDGIN: Princeton's architecture newsletter, written by Annie Choi.

"Architects love to discuss how much sleep they have gotten. One will say how he was at the studio until five in the morning, only to return again two hours later. Then another will say, oh that is nothing. I haven’t slept in a week. And then another will say, guess what, I have never slept ever. My dear architects, the measure of how hard you’ve worked and how much you’ve accomplished is not related to the number of hours you have not slept. Have you heard of Rem Koolhaas? He is a famous architect. I know this because you tell me he is a famous architect. I hear that Rem Koolhaas is always sleeping. He is, I presume, sleeping right now."

I'll tell you that students do love to brag. It's kinda like a "who did it where best". Someone in studio would madly proclaim that the only time one got some shut eye was while driving home. It gets smelly and humid as shit during charrette. I tend to steer clear of studio during massive activity. I don't know usually know who's in or not cus I need my 8 hours of sleeep.

Obama wana wana be Architect

Mr. Prezzz joins the list of architect wannabe with superstars such as Brad Pitt, Obama said: “He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician.” (Source: telegraph.co.uk) Another article from miragestudio7. And i completely agree with Obama holding a resemblance to Hong Kong actor Tony Leung..."the cool, quiet, serious killer looks"

I've seen bits and pieces of 2046, absolutely admired "Lust, Caution", and now I'm just dying to see "In the Mood for Love " for my film course.

Found anotha one!

Mirage studio 7 is a personal, more humorous blog by a post graduate who had studied in Malaysia, focusing on architecture and tutorials on 3d programs. It offers comical insights,some of his examples on 3d renderings, which I presume is to show his some of his skills in modeling (a resume for future employers?) and some downloading which you can’t actually download (unless you email him and want them badly).

But that's not important. The posts are witty, daily musings of his self proclaimed struggling life as a post-grad. His autobiography mentions he worked as an assistant architect in a small firm, the “months of slavery and robotic life” that left him “almost-retarded and completely burnt out”. Wow, um, talk about optimism for the future. The random facts section also gives the freedom to just write about whatever. The only strategy here is a list of facts, simple and straight to the point about his physical and emotional status. But this is no twitter nor facebook here. It comforts me that he is “always insanely lazy in school, but scoring with a decent G.P.A” , a behavior I can closely relate with. He holds sense of humor I thoroughly enjoy as an student...to see other students/post grads suffer. Jk. The voice definitely changes in different posts. The sentence style is fragmented. The setting of the post conveys a casual emotion, one expecting a story relating to architecture, the economy, or personal life....

After all, we must love what we do and be who we are. We are in the blog world and that gives us the freedom to write whatever we want. He also links to other related articles in his blog after the post. He adds multiple links at to the bottom of the post. It keeps to readers up to date with articles that they might have missed.

His recent post “Fashion and Architecture” is a comical post, and one can only understand when knowing the architect Santiago Calvatrara.


This Steve Duenes New Yorker cartoon is Calvatrara's hairstyle modeled after the architect's Milwaukee Art Museum. I have a professor who has the Calvatrara! Maybe I might get one.

He goes into saying that he is not a fan of Calvatrara. He asks questions such as “Don’t you think we ought to be a bit different from the rest?”, (commenting on how architects predominantly wear black), suggesting a “jeans and polo t-shirt” would be presentable, even mentioning Steve Jobs as an good example. HOLY CRAP. Please do not say that again, that was just WRONG. Appearance is everything. Yes, jeans and shirt can work.


WORK IT LIKE THIS!


Say No to Steve.

Plus, Black is classy and makes you look skinnier. Fashion and architecture will always mix. Hint to those who missed the “Skin and Bones” exhibit at the Los Angeles MOCA back in 06-07.

Archinect: Making architecture more connected

It is no surprise that the trend of 'blogging' would provoke architecture students to rant online about their consistent all nighters and stress of being an architecture student. Archinect School Blog offers just the safe and understanding atmosphere for that; but more importantly, the blog is written by more than 150 participating architecture students from around the world. Think of it as a recruitment of enthusiasts to document their experiences in their studio work and/or travels (Quite useful for prospective architecture students). Though the discussions are for registered users, one can persue the site and the blog without being registered. The blog is sponsered by Archinect, an architecture site for news, discussion, job listings, and much more.

The bloggers range from students of all years (first years undergrad to graduate students), and I believe there is an application process provided by Archinect to showcase your work and ideas. Though it is written by students, it holds a scholarly and academic vibe. The posts are incredibly detailed.The students relation to architecture is those of passion, of course, and because the site links to multiple blogger, the page is updated almost daily with two or three posts a day. Very smart because what architecture student (with a life) has the time to blog everyday?

However, I do have some things I'm not incredibly fond it. First off, the structural layout is just straight up messy. The pictures are scattered throughout the page, and all the showcase of work can be overwhelming to those not familiar with certain projects (or even to architecture students who see those similar images..daily...for hours...)

Second, the collaboration with the 150+ schools is beneficial, but it is also information overdose. For me, it just holds less of an attachment to the site...hrmm, I'm just saying I rather be attached to one specific reader. I know, lame, but I have attachment issues with certain bloggers okay? I can't deal with too many personal stories of travel and bad reviews bombarded in one page. Though we are living in world where we want instant everything summed up in one "image", there's something about that one personal voice.

Nonetheless, this is by far one of the most relavant blog I have come across so far because of its diversity in the students from around the world. I'm assuming the audience are architecture students, potential students, art enthusiasts, professors, and more? This blog feeds what I would like to write about because I can relate personally with the students. The lack of sleep, the abroad travels, the bleeding of fingers, and knowing the exact time the vending machines are refilled at school.

Hello readers!

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