BitMAPS: Writing on the wall

Here is a great video inspired by Bitmaps which is an image made up of pixels. The simple manufacturing used to create these unique forms in the vacuum former are brilliant. The tiles created are put together as a bathroom wall surface described as "an inexpensive patterned wall" projectione.com. The negative and positive design remind be of the tactile quality found in braille writing. Writing on the wall.

bitMAPS from PROJECTiONE on Vimeo.

Popaganda. Less Chilling More Killing

This is work that was posted up in New York. Its anti-consumerist posters work well. In Belfast all illegal posters are painted over every couple of days leaving black rectangles all over the City. If the council put local art work or street interventions over the illegal posters it would make a big difference.

Check out some more street interventions at Popaganda.com

Below is an interesting trailer for a posters intervention film.

Architecture: Guinness Style

This Guinness advert is showing how the landscape could be changed in an instant. It is similar to the idea of the Immediate City that I was reading about recently. This version is a lot more manly with damns being built by hand, grass being pulled over mountains and cliffs being split with a hammer. Its a classic.

Star Slime on Black Mountain

I first came across star slime when I was getting a talk from a warden from the Council who worked at Black mountain. Star Slime is a white gooey jelly substance found in the countryside. It was tested in Queens and was found to be neither plant nor animal. I heard its a delcasy in Japan this might be just a urban myth. Ever since I heard of star slime I have asked different experts who might have heard of it. Know I asked could give me any information. I found these interesting links which gives some possible answers to this puzzle BBC Nature&Outdoors and BBC Scotland . Here is a new report on it http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/outdoors/articles/jelly/

Pixel Building in Shanghai expo 2010

At the Shanghai Expo the Korean pavilion looks as if it has been pixelated. Really impressive work my Mass Studies studio. The symbols on each tile look amazing. Does anyone remember multilink cubes? Good Times.

DIY Manufactering

Some of my favorite projects are when I get to make real working prototypes. This flatpack roto moulder can step up quality and manufacturing possibilities. Its priced at £255 which could be seen as over priced when you could just shake your mould about for a couple of hours to get the same effect. Check out more work at Studio my first

Nazi Berlin in Donegal Street

I Was walking to the Uni of Ulster through Donegal Street yesterday and thought I had walked into Nazi Germany. There was a large Nazi poster and German street signs all put up in the space of 24hours. It looked impressive. If a real City could be transformed this easily it would be class. Guerrilla City.

ICFF designboom mart New York

The photographs from the New York mart May 15-18) are on designboom I always look forward to browsing through seeing the new up and coming designers. Designs which I like include "Goose Cones" by Michael Savona and 'zelig' elephant chair by Elad Ozeri.

Goose Cones

"Goose cones" by Michael Savona who featured in ICFF designboom mart New York City. Orange Cones are all over the world, these Goose cones would become a hidden delight if they were found in Belfast.

Happy Birthday Pac man

Its Pac mans 30th birthday. I just found out from Googles home page where you can play the game with the maze based around there logo. Pac man is a classic game. I was too young to remember Pac man when it first came out, but I remember it from video arcades as an old school classic. Now I can appreciate the brilliant pixel design.

The Immediate City

"The Immediate City" Everything at your fingertips . Its the first time I have seen these images the photomontages work really well. The project is from the shenzhen hong kong (SZHK) biennale 09.

"it was developed as an alternative solution to presenting and sharing architectural content about, for, within, from and against the city." designboom.com

Satellite photos of earth

Garden City, Kansas

This image is similar to the pixelation of the Cellular automa that I was looking at a few days ago. There are some images at this website satellite photos of earth that will blow your mind.

'M6B1' more student housing, Paris

JDS architects have designed 'M6B1' - student housing in paris france. the site is located in a context that is in development. after fulfilling the required programming, the left over square meters were unfolded creating a spiral for social activities linking the ground floor to the roof terrace. considering the exterior of the building as generic as possible to respond to its unknown context, JDS decided to populate the inside of the social spiral with elements normally found on the exterior façade of buildings: light fixtures, flower pots hanging by the window, all of which contributes to the common space of students. designboom.com

100 student houses - 'crou'

I am currently looking for some student housing for the next academic year. Ive decided to look at the most conceptual student housing out there.

This student housing in le havre, France by the company olgga architectes

If there designing for student type accommodation in the Titanic quarter could someone show the Architect this.

Droog's new manifesto

Droog the dutch design collective has created there new manifesto. droog.com/
Gijs Bakker co-founder of Droog left in 2009. Droogs new manafesto is released from April 28th 1010.







we need a new design integrity.
we redirect creative energy .
we redefine the lifecycle.
we create ongoing value.
we start with what’s easily available.
we want sensible innovation.
we redesign until we find an owner.
we care about where it goes.
we invite everybody to participate.
we celebrate the new orders.
we enable you to share.

Into the Wild - Chris McCandless

I watched Into the Wild the other day. A great film about finding yourself in the wilderness. Worth checking out if your planning on going for some exploring this summer.

Lonesome Traveller - Jack Kerouac

Finished reading Kerouac's Lonesome traveller it was a good book but not as good as "Dharma Bums" or "On the road" but worth a read if you get a chance.

"Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark,
The beggars are coming to town;
Some in rags, some in tags,
And some in velvet gowns."

Lonesome Traveller

The revolutionary cycle

"In November 2008, Simon Evans and Fearghal O'Nuallain began the first Irish circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle. Their unsupported expedition will cover over 30,000km, passing through 30 countries and some of the highest, lowest, driest, coldest, warmest and loneliest places on earth. In doing so, they will be promoting the positive contribution that cycling can make to mental health by encouraging people to get on their bikes, and by raising funds for Aware"

http://revolutioncycle.ie/

The landmark stops they made include The Iguazu Falls, Argentina, Petra, Jordan, The Gobi Desert, Mongolia, Machu Picchu, Peru, Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, Great Wall of China, Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt, Colosseum, Italy, Eiffel Tower, France, the Galapagos Islands and Lake Baikal. They made it home on the 15th of May with beards. Well Done guys!

Eyjafjallajökull - The Icelandic volcano

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier

Time lapse video of the Icelandic volcano. Powerful stuff.

Athens forgotton Stadium

The stadium in Athens OAKA Spiros Louis Stadium cost 265 million euro for renovation. Now it has become a empty out of the football season becoming a desert with little activity. It is so inactive the traveling community have been able to move in. Everything about the stadium is still new and will continue to stay new until it is properly used when it is not the football season with only Yoga and swimming taking footballs place oaka.com.gr . The Olympics is able to create better facilities for a City however plans should be in place for what a City will become after the Olympic tourism is gone.

Shanghai scaled model

The amount of time needed to make a detailed model for a project sometimes feels like a waste of time. Especially when its only used once or when the lecture throws out the window (true story).

The amount of work taken to build this Shanghai model for the 'Shanghai Urban planning centre must be incredible. Thats not even counting hours used to set the City up and cleaning/maintainance.

'Cellular Automata' City

Paul Coates took 'The Game of life' concept further when applying it to the design rather than natural evolution of the built environment. He has enabled the user to change the input to suit their own requirements. His design ‘Cellular Automata’ uses 4 states of pixel, the unbuilt state, a road, house and a garden. It follows 5 rules similar to 'The game of life'. For example :

“‘If a cell is empty and there is at least one road cell and less than two
garden cells among four bordering cells, then make the cell a road, with 50%
probability, otherwise a house’”. P188 Marshall, Stephen, Cities Design & evolution

The rules are complex enabling results that are something that can be recognised as urban.The user can input specific reference points described as “a scatter of ‘seed’ locations” P189, Marshall, Stephen, Cities Design & evolution, density of the site and road ratio to the rest of the area.

This concept could be developed further allowing the public or non-urban designers to produce complex plans created through inputting specific criteria to the area. Also with the changing of specific criteria such as local planning policy variations of designs or outcome probabilities it could be further developed as required.

Paul Coates 'Cellular Automata'

'arcelormittal orbit' Londons Tower

London's Olympic tower is being design by Anish Kapoor the Indian born sculptor. AnishKappor.com

The tower will stand 115m costing 30 million USD. The tower is being described as equivalent of the Eiffel tower for London. The tower will add another dimension to the growing City. However critics have said it could become another Millennium Dome, infamous for its lack of success.

City of West Kowloon

The walled City of West Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was demolished in 1993 as it had become an area of illegal activity. The images and history of the City are interesting with it having been one of the last areas of Chinese territory in British Hong Kong, Japanese occupied during World War 2 and after that it became a red light district.

More details on the project can be found at G.O.D. collective . Designboom has a good article on the work at G.O.D: west kowloon walled city installation .

The Game of Life

John Conway's game of life was created in the 1970's. From 4 simple rules life seems to develop through a 2d grid.

1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by loneliness.
2. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
3. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives, unchanged, to the next generation.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours comes to life.

If you want to play the Game of Life yourself check out

http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/

This concept when developed with Urban Planning can take the development of the City in a completely different direction. This idea has been developed to create Voxopolis by The masters of Advanced Studies in CAAD at ETH in Zurich.