The Diary of Tortov Roddle

Aru Tabibito no Nikki
The diary of Tortov Roddle

Accompanied by his estrange long-legged pig, Tortov is on a ongoing journey through a magical surreal picturesque landscapes.

Adventurous fantasy, Tortov meets new friends, "creatures " that can only be imagined as strange forms which only random clouds would form.

An lovely and peaceful animation that warms anyone's heart.

Will Alsop - Related Video Searches

Response - In this video the creator focused on the building materials, sections of building

Gucci Flora

Donna Summer ft. Chris Cunningham



So Magical. constantly repeated during every advert break on every channel. Some how i prefer to watch this advert comparing to all the other rubbish adverts out there.. some how every time i see this advert i see something new?

Four Words

I AM, I Was

The last words of Jude Law's character in 'Artificial Intelligence' (The Film)As he was taken away by the machine patrols.

Absolutely NOTHING!

Congratulations!
you have recieved the gift of nothing. Absolutely nothing.
This is the ultimate in minimalism. Less is more, more is less.

Nothing is precious. Nothing is simple. Nothing is scared.

Open the pack and be enthralled when nothing happends.
Allow nothing to flow through your mind and calm your soul.
Savour the moment. Soon you'll discover that nothing really is so much better than somthing.


An product I found at the gadget section at Selfridges. Having and owning things gives us convienence, possibly happiness, feeling of fullness. Yet too much, can be a burden. At my flat in London i constantly buy to fill the gaps in my room, i ended up with the viscous cycle of finding objects to fill my room then finding resolution to contain these items, but when things are tuck nicely away, i would then go out again looking for things to make the room look cluttered.

why?

Report on "The Recorder"

I've decided to make a tranducer.
The original idea came from how when a train moves along the metal rails. Even from the otherside of the platform you can hear the violent shaking and the sounds of the train arriving moving towards you. That isnt a tranducer, but the friction between train and metals rails converting into sound and kinetic energy, and the rest is dispersed along the metal rails (the movement/shaking metal rails.)

Conclusion = tranducer machine to 'convert one energy into another form' to record a certain data.

Question= What to record
Ideas;

1. Record the vibration/sound of the buildings when a train arrive.

• Different distances, approaching, directly on top and leaving.
• Detailed time record when these train travels across these bridges
• In mm of the vibration of the building
  
• With these record i will be able to find out the frequency of trains passing by

Will Alsop Times Interview + Annotations

Will Alsop OBE, the maverick architect and member of the Royal Academy (he is one of the selectors of this year’s Summer Exhibition), has won many awards over his 61 years. There is one, however, that has so far eluded him: best front garden of the year in Sheringham, north Norfolk, where he and his wife, Sheila, 62, have had a holiday home for more than 25 years. “It would mean more to me than the Stirling prize,” he has said.

Alsop is best known for modernist buildings such as Peckham library, in south London, where the upper floors are supported on spindly legs that look like skewwhiff knitting needles — for which he bagged the said Stirling prize in 2000. One of his most high-profile works in progress is Chips, a residential building in Manchester that resembles a neatly stacked pile of pommes frites.

So, it is something of a surprise to walk down the stone-set path of the long front garden in Norfolk, under the shade of a Giverny-style arbour, and arrive at a late-Victorian red-brick house filled with comfortable sofas, books, antique china and paintings. Where are the contemporary building materials, the modernist furniture, the wacky colours?

“It is not just my house, it is Sheila’s as well. I concur with her taste,” says the man sometimes known as Mr Blobby — surely for the splashes of colour on his buildings, rather than his cheerfully unkempt appearance, which comes wreathed in a fug of cigarette smoke. “This is not a great art; the house has nothing to do with great design. Using a word that most architects don’t use, it is ‘cosy’, and I am comfortable with that. Actually, as I get older, I try to incorporate that in my other work.”

We sit in the glass- and aluminium-walled dining room that Alsop added to the back of the house with materials left over from a project in France. The room, which replaced a conservatory and small terrace, is contemporary in feel, but hardly pushes the frontiers of design.(Seems that there is more benefits of being an architect besides fame, building spontaneous things with left over freebies. I wonder if he had build the dinning room because he had the extra materials, or was it just by chance. I often find when things were build/created/happens spontaneously i often like them better. Would it be, when working with an material that was chosen for you, one would consider the properties of that material what it can offer and could be. But when choosing a material for a certain purpose, one is left with an extra job of decide on the material that fits. Does that make sense?)

Beneath, in a series of terraces, is a narrow jungle of a garden, planted with tree ferns, phormiums, palms and large pots of hostas and hydrangeas. You can just see the sea through the trees and over the top of the boundary wall. Goldfish swim in the small pond beneath the window. (During foundation year there was an lecture held by Will Alsop himself at the CSM cochraine theatre. After the lecture running 30minuets behind schedule, the lights dimmed and the spot light struck the lecture speech stand. Will Alsop himself strolled in the room holding a pint of beer. I hadn't researched any work or bio of Mr Alsop, but in my mind i stereotype architects as people whom should be immaculate, well presented, skinny-suited-glasses type. Although Will Alsop surprisingly had long wavy dark brown hair, very 'full', very 'cosy' clothings and his love for alcohol and cigarettes was obvious. He started off greeting the audience by insinuating that he is recovering form an hangover and is fighting it off by drinking more, and is desperate to fall asleep.

But surprisingly i find him a cunning and charming man. It was a 2 hour lecture, i was fascinated by the way he presents about his work. And from then on decided that if Norman Foster was the 'Big Mac meal', Will Alsop would be the 'Happy Meal' + Toy)

There’s a lunchtime bottle of red on the long maple table, which Alsop designed. He points to a sofa at the end of the room that catches the evening light. “If you really analyse both the house and garden, it is all about different places to sit,” he says. “I like a bit of sitting. That’s the gin-and-tonic sofa.”

Another favourite G&T spot is an outdoor bench by the front door that benefits from the warmth captured by the red-brick wall behind it. Similar seats are dotted around the jungly garden for different parts of the day. There is even one by the barbecue, though, he says, “we try not to have barbecues — dangerous things. They are the quickest way to arguments”. His role is to light the thing and eat the results: “If I cook, it is always burnt.”

The couple bought the five-bedroom house in 1982. They wanted somewhere out of London for weekends and holidays (these come less frequently nowadays, as Alsop is often abroad on business; he has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Toronto and Singapore, and is a professor of architecture in Vienna), and Sheila’s parents lived nearby.

It is also a six-minute walk from the station, which was convenient, as Sheila didn’t drive at the time. When their children, Oliver, now 31, Nancy, 29, and Piers, 24, were growing up, friends could be easily collected from the station.

Queen Victoria’s visits to the nearby Sandringham estate, which she bought in 1863, popularised the area, but Sheringham is now a rather down-at-heel, old-fashioned kind of seaside resort. Although Alsop lives in Kensington, west London, he has no desire to join those neighbours from the capital who decamp in clannish clumps to smarter towns such as Burnham Market and Wells-next-the-Sea, to the west.

The town has several run-down hotels, a legacy from its Victorian glory days. “If someone wanted to invest, you could do something fantastic with these hotels, but they don’t, so that is the end of it,” says Alsop. His own house was once the stables for such a hotel; in the second world war, it was used by the military for maintaining motor vehicles. A local builder converted it in 1951, and it was pretty much unchanged when the Alsops bought it 30 years later from the estate of an old lady who had died. “The house had been empty for six or nine months. Houses show that; you feel it when you go into them.”

Just as he was unpacking the furniture, Alsop got a phone call. “This is really peculiar. It was North Norfolk district council, wanting me to build a swimming pool in Sheringham. I thought it was my business partner playing a joke on me. In the end, I said, ‘F*** off, John’, but then I realised it was a genuine inquiry.” Alsop’s unorthodox response to his first stand-alone commission didn’t deter the council, and the pool, finished in 1987 and opened by Princess Diana, still exists. “Except that they have ruined it,” he laments. “They have painted the outside blue and yellow to cheer it up. It is supposed to be stained timber.”

The project was a good way to spend time in the town and get to know it. “I started to fiddle with the house, a bit here, a bit there; it just evolved.” As did the garden, which grew over the years from a narrow strip at the back of the house to encompass two extra areas bought from neighbours around the corner — visitors liken it to a Tardis.

“I would plant a few things, then come back, and suddenly they were in flower. You get this delayed joy; that is terrific. From that, I became more and more serious, and started to think about what I would like it to be.”

At the far end is Alsop’s studio, next to a paved patio with yet more seating. On the table is a thick pile of his paintings. He has one in the Royal Academy’s summer show of some flower-like shapes. Its title? I Wish My Garden Was Really Like This. In fact, the garden at the back of the house is more about greenery and strong shapes than a riot of floral abundance. He and Sheila “don’t go for lots of colour”.

Thanks to the mild seaside climate, they have pines, figs, a tamarisk, South African restios, potted shrubs and ivy-clad walls. Although the beach is only 10 minutes away — Alsop starts taking dips in the sea when it has warmed up in early July — it is not a place to sunbathe. A canopy of high branches covers much of the space in dappled shade. “It’s a high umbrella and a garden full of telegraph poles,” he jokes. Perhaps his garden is where he got his inspiration for Peckham library.

The front garden is more formal, with a series of parallel lines created by the path, a long rectangular pond (or “short canal”, as Sheila calls it) and a row of agaves in long-tom pots. Extending down the garden is a box parterre, in which olive trees are planted. They were pruned recently by Wayne Nolan, the gardener, who comes in once a week, and are looking rather the worse for wear. “He didn’t have a clue — and why would he? — how to prune them, and it isn’t like that,” says Alsop. “I learnt that in France last week.”

There is also an Indian chestnut tree near the street. Alsop had hoped its black nuts would be his secret weapon in the annual office conker championships. “They are not. They are pathetic.”

Away from the front garden’s formal structure, things are left pretty much to themselves. At this time of year, self-seeded hollyhocks and campanulas are happily flowering beneath the tunnel and in the gravel beside it. “An over-designed garden feels dead,” says Alsop.

His approach to his outdoor space is much the same as to his architecture — letting the other elements, whether they are plants, clients or local communities, play their part, and not being too precious about allowing their contributions. “In your twenties, you think reading the philosophers and indulging in theory is going to help,” he explains. “I can assure you that it doesn’t. By the time you get to your thirties, you downgrade it all to ‘concept’. At 40, that becomes, ‘Well, maybe the idea is all right.’ At 50, it’s ‘a notion’. At 60, ‘Not a f***ing clue’.

“It’s sort of liberating. I have become suspicious, whether it is a garden or whatever, when people start talking about the justification for their design. I don’t believe in the word ‘inspiration’. You just have to do it.”

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/article6538838.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2

Great product

How to Architect

Architect is Invention

Will Alsop - comments on home

It maddens me when I'm accused of living a country idyll on the east coast. We have a cosy home in the centre of a Norfolk town, but I also live in this unfussy Kensington flat. I'm much more at home here. In fact, I can't stand the countryside – who wants to have to get in a car to go and buy a pint of milk? (Likes convenience to obtain every day needs, "cosy")

Sheila and I moved here in 2002. It's a typical Edwardian mansion block. I like it because our friends are nearby, as is Holland Park, and I can walk to the museums, even Harrods if I had to. This area of London is home. (Area close to friends, and places to go to)

We hardly moved anything from our old London place – we had an instinct to buy new and to make life simple. There's a sense of impermanence in the pace of London life, and it feels in rhythm to travel light. We're lazy shoppers though, so most of the furniture in the sitting and dining rooms came from The Conran Shop. Then Sheila discovered the Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, and quirkier odds and ends began to creep in: an old chandelier here, a wooden tea tray there.(convenience in living or easy way and possibly the as he quotes lazy shopping, furniture appear some what by chance. Even such a prestigious architect is only human. )

Sheila insisted we bought a flat with a garden. I wanted to be higher up, but now I realise she was right. In summer I sit out with the plants that have survived winter, and those I freshly plant each May – the mad monkey puzzle and these wild grasses. It's the perfect spot to have a gin and tonic and a cigarette and read the newspaper in peace.

The flat is scattered with the work of artists I know and love: Bruce McLean, who is a very good friend of mine; the late Terry Frost, a good old northern painter who works well next to the Australian artist Annie Grace.

The coloured blocks in the hallway are by Kate Dineen, an artist I commissioned to do a large piece at Palestra, an office building I designed in Blackfriars. Kate grinds down marble and reconstitutes it into these various blocks – they're fabulous and remind me how much I like her.

It upsets me that in other people's homes you're given a drink and there's nowhere to put it. The floor is simply not a table. For the sitting room, I designed these sofa-side metal tables to get around the problem – one is for your drink and one is to have somewhere to flick your ash. I wanted to make a third to hold a book or magazine at a good angle for reading. Annoyingly, the design didn't quite work.

On the living room wall there are two simple paintings of mine. They feature four of the things my wife loves most about our Norfolk house: a teapot, a poppy, a bread crock and a native Norfolk plant. It links the two homes and I like that.

The dining table was the first I designed. The spotlights beneath its glass top cast this wonderful dull light when it's dressed with a tablecloth. It flatters guests. The dining chairs are office chairs with wheels. Once people have sat down I don't want them to get up, and they rarely do.

One of my favourite items in the kitchen is a bar-standard wine-bottle opener, a gift from my wife. Whisky is my winter drink, and gin and tonic is for summer, but I'm faithful to red wine above everything. It's so satisfying to tug the lever down that sometimes I simply have to open another bottle immediately.

Souvenirs that are merely dust-catchers irritate me, but I understand them if they have a use. My youngest son bought me a painted bowl from a recent trip to Mexico with his wife-to-be, that also has pride of place in the kitchen. I noticed he bought another for himself that was much nicer, but I like this because it's so uncompromisingly tasteless.

At the moment, both my grown-up sons are having their flats done up, so they're back here – which I love. My daughter lives nearby and often stays the night too if she feels like it. I'm intrigued by how long my sons manage to spend in the bathroom. Sheila and I are in and out of the bathroom, so it's a simple space. I've never understood the notion of relaxing in the bath with scented candles.

Homes have their own life, and I think this flat is a friendly animal. The kitchen is the centre of life, but I like it when the guests have gone and the air still has the faint after-glow of happiness and laughter. Then I'm relaxed sitting here with my sketchbook: writing a little, drawing a little.

When I was younger I dreamt of designing my own home and did the odd sketch to boot, but now I'm keenly aware of my shifting tastes. I'm much more inclined towards the rustic as I age. Also, style goes out of date, despite the nonsense the modernists say about classic design.

Some architects do their houses up as an extravagant showcase of their work and it's often assumed my home will be the same. I wonder how they can possibly live like that, though. Supposing they changed their minds?

SMC Alsop, the architecture firm of Will Alsop, is one of the UK's most successful practices. His designs – from North Greenwich Tube station to Hamburg Ferry Terminal – are often praised for their use of bright colour and iconoclastic form. He's now 60 and lives in London and Norfolk with his wife Sheila.

Youtube

My mother... hahaha

Respect

3 weeks of painstaking video project, 8 Minuit film.

New insight of life.Respect for the creator of this film, 2 simple shots, uniting music rhythm subject movements. Conclusion; Farcical joy........

In fact, respect for anybody whom contributed any clips on youtube...

quote flatmate; JOni

Effort man,,, effort... (squint eye, drag cigarette)





Clip from http://lukakarssenberg.blogspot.com/

The September Issue

Anna Witour & the making of Vogue

The Legendary Editor-in-chief of Vogue

A film by R.J.Cutler

Taking the viewer to a world they think they know, the working process of famed Ice Queen, Anna Witour. Her notorious….ahem…strenuous work ethic…was captured in film.

Releasing the impenetrable glamour of Witours's couture, revealing behind the scenes of the magazine that reached an audience of 13million people, and impacting the $300Billion global fashion industry more than any other single publications.

THIS is the REAL 'Devil wears Prada.'

The mysterious body gestures
The gentle yet intimidating tone, sending shivers down your spine.
Her teams admirations and panicky attitude
Gaging designers by her every question.

A bit like my mom .....

Couldn't help but admire and the urge wanting to know more about her. The birth of a STALKER!!!!

"LaughOutLoud"

http://www.theseptemberissue.com/#/home
http://community.livejournal.com/foto_decadent/1580482.html

The Hoerengracht

Gaston Bachelard

Gaston Bachelard- epistemologist, philosopher of science, and the theorist of the imagination - influeced key figures in the structuralist and post-structuralist gerneration of the post-war era.

The philosophy of No: 'The space in which one looks, is phlosophically very different from the space in which one sees is always a represented space, and not a real space. Only by recourse to philosophy can one take account of this.'


to be continued......

History and theory lecture 2/12/09

Jacquard Loom, invented by joseph Louis Jacquard (1752-1834)
invented or perfected this device for automating textile weaving.
complex patterns could be “programmed” via punch cards.
(image of machine jacquard Loom)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom
Duplicated, reproducing, not really generating ideas. Mechanical devices which make complex brain operations, mathematical complexes. A line to the development of industrialisation and commodities development .
Lyon = important silk city
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyon

Beginning of complex movements by mechanically.

Charles Babbage, the Difference Engine (1822) was an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. Both logarithmic and trigonometric functions can be approximated by polynomials, so a difference engine can compute many useful sets of numbers. the analytical machines, able to perform complex mathematical tasks, using punch cards.
Compute and fast solutions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

Lay cathedral of culture : Gehry's Guggenheim museum, Bilboa.
At the time it signify a new departure; to have new buildings layed down with meanings, religion which at the time is more devissive than buildings and communities.
"Normal/traditional" buildings were nice and neutral and appeals to every body. New art buildings not the fusty british museum type, something that says that culture and art is very much part of our worlds, higher status for architects, Guggenheim was an iconic pattern breaker.

Frank Gehry doodles and draws, he talks people through it and makes lots of paper models. Frank Gehry pioneered the use of digital fabrication in the 1990s

His primary inspiration is sculptures. Richard Serra . translate complex drawings .
Frank Gehry, concept sketch and finished walt disney concert hall, LA, 1988-1999 (IMG)
transforming application from one to another. (auto CAD)

Lewis Residence, 1995. ink on paper. gehry partners, LLP
structural properties built in to the equation + computer.

Peter B. Lewis Design Process Models, 1992 Mixed media (plaster, wood, metal screen, paper)
A reaction of visualisation of the mechanical calculation

Lewis Residence: Final Design model, 1995. Milled paper, basswood, acrylic, museum board.

'we must use the new instruments to address old architectural problems; not to create new problems.'

Programme, plan and floor are based on movement each time, while perception only comes into place later, when walls and partition are being designed. human activities, the continuity of habits and routines, experience: these are what should influence the whole geometry of the building. Perception and movement are one; experience and programme
NOX architects, water exhibition centre 1997

Collect data of what the inhibition of a particular area, what were reacting and thinking.. etc
meant to visualize water, it would be a experience of being inside a fish.

D-tower, built in Doetinchem 2004 the Netherlands, is a sculpture where the intensive (feelings, qualia) ad the extensive space quantities exchange roles, where human action, color, money, value, feelings all become networked entities

designed by NOX architectures, the tower is connected to a website in 2 different ways.

1. The websites is a visualization of the responses of the 45,000 inhabitants of Doetinchem to a questionnaire which deals with emotions like hate, love, happiness and fear.

2.the four emotions are represented by four colours, green red and yellow
architecture between communication and information
oosterhuis. nl, Noord-Holland pavilion for the florida 2002 exhibition
the free unfurling of the function that, from an industrial of view, represented the idea of an expanding machine now increasingly tends to be replaced by a logic based on the space between, there is a tendency to work in between also because we are forced to do so by the presence of existing buildings, the idea of efficient building structures and frameworks is replaced by the formula 'engineering is the art of the possible'
Antonino Saggio


“Gehry is shape-driven ” says Shop partner Gregg Pasquarelli

“we're more process driven. we would never build an elaborate frame work to support a curve. we'd let the curve be determined by information from our materials suppliers or by the parameters of the fabrication techniques.”

290 mulberry , NYC ship architects
molded by nature, but in-fact was molded all by computer calculation

The obsession with organic shapes, ability of the new computers to algorithms.
fascination with organic forms, because it is possible to calculate. to make it look it was a result of some tectonic pressure

the Yas hotel, Abu-Dabi , uae 2007-2009 by Asymptote: Hani Rashid + Lise Anne couture


Glass tower. La Cienega and Jefferson, LA
completion: proposed
Architect: Eric Owen Moss Architects
parametric design
http://aedesign.wordpress.com

http://morphopedia.com/projects/pharestower
morphosis, Phare tower project, Paris

Morphosis Giant Group Campus
the giant campus is a compact village that accommodates divers programmatic function i a flexible frame work of architectural forms that move into and out of a sculpted landscape.

michael Hanseyer:2004
portfolio.com/L_Systems/ls7.html
Lindenmayer systems in architecture nature's growth processes as generators of architectural design: turtle graphics with branching
Replication through software + graphics = fancy stuff

Fly through animation for Guange Zou, Zha hadid 2005
(animation)

Fly through is something that works within a computer generated space. super man vision.

Why Beauty matter..... bbc production

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p6tsd/b00p6stf/Why_Beauty_Matters/

Philosopher Roger Scruton presents a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives.

In the 20th century, Scruton argues, art, architecture and music turned their backs on beauty, making a cult of ugliness and leading us into a spiritual desert.

Using the thoughts of philosophers from Plato to Kant, and by talking to artists Michael Craig-Martin and Alexander Stoddart, Scruton analyses where art went wrong and presents his own impassioned case for restoring beauty to its traditional position at the centre of our civilisation.

Part of the BBC2 Modern Beauty Season.

Broadcast on:

BBC Two, 9:00pm Saturday 28th November 2009

Duration:

60 minutes

Available until:

9:59pm Saturday 5th December 2009

NOTES OF QUOTES AND COMMENTS:

• Beauty is a value, as important as truth and honest
• Marcel Duchamp L.H.O.O.Q, 1919
• Art increasingly aim to distrube and to break moral taboos. It was not beauty but originality how ever achieved and at what ever moral cost that the one to win the prizes.
• Mark Wallinger, Sleeper, 2004
• Not only has art has made ugly but also architecture have been made ugly.
• Sarah Lucas, Got a Salmon on (prawn) 1994
• Not only art, but our language our music and our manners are increasingly obnoxious self-centred and offensive. As though beauty and goodnesshav eno real place in our lifes
• "Jake and Dinos Chapman" Zygotic Acceleration, Biogenetic Desublimated, Libdinal model 1995
• One word is written large on these ugly things and that word is me. My prophets, my desire, my pleasure and art has nothing to say to response to this, except "yeah go for it!"
• Art needs creativity, and creativity is about sharing. Its a call to others to see the world as the artist sees it. That is why we find beauty in the naive art of children. Children are not giving us ideas of the place of creativity images, nor are they allowing in uglyness. They're trying to firm the world as they see it. and to share what they feel.
• Maybe people lost their believe in beauty; because they have lost their believe in ideal. There are no value, aside from utilitarian ones. Some thing has a value if it has a use and whats the use of beauty?
• "All art is absolutely useless " wrote Oscar Wilde, (remark as praise) for Wilde beauty was a value higher than usefulness
  
• People NEED useless things as much as, even more than they need things with a use. Just think whats the use of LOVE, friendship, worship. NONE what so ever. Same goes for beauty.
• Since art is useless it doesnt matter what you see read and listen.
• Adverts capture our eye more than art does, and art tries to capture us like adverts do. By being brass / outrageous.
• the cult of uglyness in the art and the cult of utility in every day life, these 2 cults come together in the modern world of ARCHITECTURE.
• "FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION"
  Stop Thinking the way a building does and think instead what a building looks.
  Sulivan
• If you consider only utility the tings you built will soon be useless.
• Put usefulness first and you'll loose it, put beauty first and it will be used for eternity.
• 
  

Jiang Zhi

FLY, FLY
Evoking the situation of city dwellers who long to escape their tiny, cramped apartments, this work shows a hand mimicking the movements of a bird soaring in flight.

LEGO LOVERS!!!

WOLF LOVES PORK

This morning Joni (flatmate) showed me the most amazing stop frame animation. damn i wish we did our video as such fun and painstaking way... the video is absolutely amazing!!!!

Going through David Ling's projects, It is significant that some features in his "home loft" has resembles to his projects.

David Ling "Labyrinth"

The annual Art and Structure Exhibits, founded by artist Joan Sherman, involve collaboration between esteemed artists, architects and designers. These exhibits explore the boundaries that define their fields of expression, challenging the artificial separation of artistic pursuits. Each installation relates conceptually to the experience of people involved with The Family Center. Established in 1994, The Family Center is a non-profit organization providing legal and social services to parents who are seriously ill.

The theme of this year’s exhibit was “Light and Illusion.” The architects and designers participating in “Light and Illusion” created installations that investigate the ability of art to reveal truth or create illusion. Architect David Ling and sculptor Norman Mooney designed a luminous labyrinth of cast glass and rough-hewn stones representing the various paths families take in life. Fred Schwartz collaborated with Domingo Gonzalez to construct a canopy of cascading lights recalling tiny spring blossoms, symbolizing hope and renewal. Juergen Riehm and Bill Schwinghammer installed a massive, glowing box that appeared to defy gravity, connecting viewers with the tenuous nature of life. And Samuel Botero and Pablo Molgora included mothers and children of The Family Center in the creation of their piece.

The Architectural Uncanny

Anthony Vidler
"Not only is human being interpretation all the way down, so that our practices can never be grounded in human nature, God's will, or the structure of rationality, but this condition is one of such radical rootless that everyone feels fundamentally unsettled (unheimlich), that is, senses that human beings can never be at home in the world. this, according to Heidegger, is why we plunge into trying to make ourselves at home and secure. "

When i was a kid, i believe home is where you feel at ease. Home is where you 'return to' after school.

In 2002, along with my brother (2 yrs older) each hauling a jammed-packed suitcase. Flew across the sea to UK and studied at an boarding school. At that time home was across the sea in HK.
After a few years, I started referring the boarding house as "home" (parents were no pleased)
Did i say so because the contents in my room grew, have i simply "got used to the idea", is it my friends at school that made me feel at home?
(In the boarding house we would treat each other as sisters ; have fights, snuggle & watch tv, go shopping, have detention for makeup...etc)

At present times, refer every where home easily, my halls is home, my present address is home, my boyfriends place is home, my hk home is home...

Does it mean that we don't only have one "main" home. Home is where our loved one is, where our belongings are, and most of all where we feel accepted, relaxed and at ease.As we grow up the term in our idea about home changes along with the changes of our needs and demands.

Therefore home is where our mind think it is, even if you live in a rubbish pit, if you feel at home, your at home.

Stop Frame Animationa "Swing"

Combination of photos taken from Zoe,
Resizing photos using photoshop, black and white mask, brightness contrast
Combine with premier pro + Channel blur effect

Made for injecting into film as intervals effect etc....

City Illusion

Video Naree and I came up with last night, adding motion effects on different layers of images that we pre-photoshoped. Using Adobe Premier Pro.

This particular footage is made for projecting on the fabric screening for illusion effects, and also possible for using in the film...

This footage is of buildings manipulating and moving about because, the subject of our film is about schizophrenia, one of the possible symptom is illusions. And therefore this scene is about how the subject imagine the city collapsing and rotating around here.etc

Labyrinth

Almost in every book, article, artist, architect's research I have done, the word "labyrinth" always pop up. Some how in my mind a myth character with sharp pointed ears pop up every time.. some sort of a creature or idea of a creature... i have no idea why, that's why i've decided to do some research into it.

Wiki Explanation:
"Mazelike structure from Greek mythology"
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (Greek λαβύρινθος labyrinthos) was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Daedalus had made the Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely escape it after he built it.^[1] Theseus was aided by Ariadne, who provided him with a skein of thread, literally the "clew", or "clue", so he could find his way out again.

Vertical Farms + Robotic Arms

Bostonian architecture firm Höweler + Yoon took a look at some of the stalled construction projects around town and decided to not only gussy them up, but make them useful as well. The solution? Eco-Pods, or algae garden capsules attached to the skeletal, halted construction projects.

Designed in cooperation with LA's Squared Design Lab, the capsule would be rotated and repositioned by robotic arms to maximize efficiency, and the end product would be biofuel. It's all a bit sci-fi, but — hey — it'd be sweet if it ever came to see the light of day.

As a female and individual, normally i would be all for these impractical useless psychotic designs. Although this time, I'm not too sure, first, simply use fuel to power these "handy arms" would itself cause polllution. Second, such large condensed space packed with plants, would attract lots of insects. In my mind machinery and plants+water+soil+insects, doesn't mix well, it could cause alot of accidents with the connection of the building ie mould growing on surfaces and the buildings might not fix together as well causing it to collapse... But the whole idea of bringing green into the city is overall good, but the idea of growing plants like buildings, creative but not so practical, it would be like Hundertwassers building . But i like Hundertwassers idea about man living underneath green more... and it is also more simple than this.

Aesthetically interesting though.

3 Meter-Cubed Space

Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka and the Schemata Architecture Office have come up with a home design that rethinks just how much space one person needs. 6,000 square feet? 600? Well, try 30 square feet.

The Paco home has a hammock to sleep on, a Japanese-style recessed desk, and a sink, toilet and shower all in a crate that's a 3-meter-cube. It's not intended to replace where you live now, but rather to supplement it. It could be a beach house, a portable office — anything, really, as long as you find a way to lug it into place and hook up the water. Trying to open that hatch-like roof to get in doesn't look like the most comfortable solution, either, though maybe that's a doggy door on the side.

Still, toss some posters on the wall, maybe put a rug down, and you've got yourself a happy little home. Check out the gallery below for more of the Paco house.

On the website there were alot of negative comments and feedback about this design;

It looks like a dumpster.....

Once again, there is no thought spared to those above six foot two hundred pounds. Not only do I have stress my back just to get in my car of the future, but my hamster cage of the future as well

As a whole abruptly, but how such thing in the plane to transport?
It seems to me it is a little bit left unfinished variant...

Although i actually quite like it, its like a transportable studio flat. The fact that every thing about this design is sooooo Japanese like.. "WABI SABI" simple, clean, sharp, hidden away. All essential about living is compacted in there toilet, shower, sleeping space, kitchen...etc. It almost seem like an blank canvas with the initial starts for you... like a coloring book... "here is the pattern/grid now decorate the way you want to".

They even solved the problem of air ventilation without breaking the perfect cube... by making the roof adjustable to open up like a cigarette box. Ingenious... Although i like the idea of such a simple house, I personally would never be able to live inside one, as i prefer cosy messy houses... houses with a history, with its on characters... nothing new... some where other people have once been and left their existence on the walls, floors..etc sounds stalker like but ... a place that has a scar that shows it was once loved by somebody else.

David Ling

David Ling
You know when i moved in, and made this leap of faith in 2000 and bought this place. And it is of over-whelming of volume, this huge building for me, at the time i was actually confronted by actually, what am i actually going to do with this place. It was actually a challenge because it meant its exposing your personality, because its almost an autobiographical spatial story, and there were tweaks, i froze the first winter because i didn't like the look of the radiators, after turning blue i decided to turn the radiators back. So its a kind of weird functional kind of compromises to straight to be able to live.


I enjoy the sort of live work aspect of it because its the kind of aspect i work any ways. because there isn't much separation from the way i live and the way i work. the way i see my life is through my design career, the people i meet and the friends i make. so i see this lift a kind of lab of sorts. its things i would do to myself that i would be hesitant to do to my client.



in this particular house which was a old dental factory built in the 1880, i wanted to keep the original shells as a raw as possible. i was educated in a Europe and had a lot of chances to see a lot of castles and medieval buildings in German and Italy. And was inspired by the rustication and rawness of the stone work.
I retained the masonry openings, god rid of windows and crammed glass, so you can see the guts of the building. The contrast overlay of old and new and the layering of history is in the ceiling area, where i have this sheet rock ceiling and 19th century exposed beams . i enjoy the layering of history and contrast.

I'm interested in juxtaposing 'wholer' differences in every really the materiality the rough versus the smooth, the cold versus the warm, curve versus straight. In the contrast and the tension between these opposites. I get a kick out of intervals that age and acquire. I freak out when there is a first crack of paint or the first paint peels off, but then it acquire a life of itself. and its kind of challenged to accept change and accident, love this space and i cant see myself moving out of it. i could evolve the space as my needs change. think a space should be able to do that. I still think this is pretty much home. i want to keep producing my work and say things that have never been said before in a timeless way.

Informed by a multi-cultural background, nurtured in the US, formed in Europe and with an umbilical cord still attached to china, David Ling founded David Ling Architects in 1992. After training as an associate with Richard Meler, I.m. Pei, and Emillo Ambasz, Ling established an international practice in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Composed of exhibition spaces, creative offices, high-end retail, high end residences and institutional spaces Ling's work has received numerous international awards such as the Interior Magazine's Future Furniture Awards and Kitchen and Bath Designer Leader Award, Municipal Arts Society's National Design Award, architectural Bienal Miami + Beach Gold and Silver medals, Benjamin Moore;s Hue Awards for Best Residential Interiors, London's Design Partnership Award for Best Retail Design and Best in Show ICFF and London's Grosvernor House Antiques Fair. Ling's international press includes the New York Tines, Interior Design, Interiors, House and Garden, Elle Decor, Metropolitan Home, Dwell Wallpaper, Arte, Dwell Video, Casa da Abitare, Interni, Architektur und Wohnen, Frankfuter....etc

Ling's Clients list includes Alberta Ferretti, Stece Wynn, Aaliyah, Blue Man Group, Sade's Band leader, Janet....etc

Ling has held teaching positions at Parson School of Design and University of Nuremburg and has served on design juries at Interiors Magazine, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Essence of Ling's Architecture is the artistic intergration of space, form, light and function enriched by materiality. As all projects are treated as unique, so too is Ling's creative vocabulary, tailored to diverse clients, sites, budgets and programmes. Ling's approach is a sculpted choreography of opposites, forming a dialogue of interlocking spaces and forms articulated in a crafted use of materials, ennobling space and form through materiality and light.

David Ling's ultimate goal is to create something never said before, in a timeless manner.

Herzog & de Meuron

Herzog & de Meuron Architekten, BSA/SIA/ETH (HdeM) is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog (born 19 April 1950), and Pierre de Meuron (born 8 May 1950), closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Ferderal Institute of Technology(ETH) in Zürich. They are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bank side Power Station in London to the new home of the Tate Britain. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994 and professors at ETH Zürich since 1999.

Herzog & de Meuron

Herzog & de Meuron - Elbephilharmonie, Hamburg (Copyright Herzog & de Meuron)

The Swiss Architects Herzog & de Meuron have proposed a new design for the Philharmonie in the HafenCity of Hamburg at the waterfront of the river Elbe - the Elbphilharmonie. On top of an old warehouse two concerthalls (a big one, and a smaller one) are positioned, plus a hotel that wraps around it all.

The form of the building echoes the water of the Elbe. The glass facade recalls the transparency of water.

The cone on the ceiling diverges the sound.