Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Wired 12.12: Roads Gone Wild via Design Observer--the no-signs, no-stripes approach to traffic calming

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Absenter: Opening battered and tough
Sandbag Shelter Prototypes, various locations, 2002-2004, corbeled sand bags reinforced by layers of barbed wire, Cal-Earth Institute, Nader Khalili, US, via Boing Boing

Saturday, October 16, 2004

Wood Foundations wow
Snap search: general structures, a rough search
Areguide.pdf (application/pdf Object), which includes the general structures division statement
GS, download the cheat sheet.
ENTER General Structures Forum - Multiple Choice Divisions - ARE Forum General Structures, where there is a great cheat sheet.
General Structures again from AIA Silicon Valley, the online test is here. Still only 5/10 for this student, not ready to pass.
Amstar Engineering, Inc. - Structures Video Seminar--this page gives instantly recognizable subject headings.

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Learning From Accidents and a Terrorist Attack covers normal accidents like Three Mile Island and unusual accidents like 9/11.

The defense of U.S. airspace on 9/11 was not conducted in accord with preexisting training and protocols. It was improvised by civilians who had never handled a hijacked aircraft that attempted to disappear, and by a military unprepared for the transformation of commercial aircraft into weapons of mass destruction. [page 31]

The "first" first responders on 9/11, as in most catastrophes, were private-sector civilians. Because 85 percent of our nation's critical infrastructure is controlled not by government but by the private sector, private-sector civilians are likely to be the first responders in any future catastrophes. [page 317]

Sunday, September 26, 2004

House like a studio apartment in a S P A C E B O X - General information via reBlog. Would it apply to the US? Not easily.

Saturday, September 25, 2004

, good for ya' category
gravestmor via things for "an irreverent architecture weblog."
gravestmor ? do it yourself
Step One: Gather your entire village together in one spot.
Step Two: With your fellow villagers, go out and chop down some trees.
Step Three: Again with the villagers, lean the trees up against each other, forming a kind of tree tee-pee.
Step Four: Seal up all the gaps between the trees using other trees if necessary. This step is essential for later steps so make sure the tee-pee is water tight.
Step Five: Make a big timber box around the tree tee-pee. This will be used as form work for the next twenty four steps.
Step Six: Pour 50cm of concrete into the formwork and leave for a day.
Steps Seven to Twentynine: Each day pour another 50cm of concrete until you reach the top. If you have followed the instructions correctly you should have a big concrete box with lots of horizontal lines on it. Inside the box should be an intact tee-pee made from trees that you and your fellow villagers cut down with ancient farming tools.
Step Thirty: Go inside the tree tee-pee. Light the trees on fire.
Step Thirtyone: Run outside and let trees burn.
Step Thirtytwo: Once trees have burnt away go back inside and clear away the debris.
You should now have a big concrete box with a hole in the middle shaped like a tee-pee. If you don’t have something like this, go back through the steps to check where you got it wrong, otherwise post a comment below and one of our staff members will attempt to help you out.
Step Thirtythree: The final step is to pour floor liquid silver over the floor. This will make the floor nice and reflective.
Google Search: gutter size calc points to an imaginative PDF that looks at rainwater catchment systems in the San Juan Islands.
Google Search: gutter size calc points to a PDF that shows roof calcs in a memorable way.
Sizing Gutter Systems answers the question, one downspout every 10'? 20'?

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Counting Bricks The Easy Way McGraw-Hill Construction | ENR - Utility Gets The Joints Too

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Life ahead of the curve / The world is finally catching on to iconoclastic architect Dan Liebermann's way of building—in the interest of old newspaper removal. An excellent young architect the Toph worked with went to work for his eminence after the Mt. Vision fire and moved a project forward. The office approach was to be be assertive, let's say, with building officials, and the results are truly unique buildings with a basic umbrella-like structural system seen nowhere else. The article describes this and the characteristic canoe-shaped floorplan and building pad he uses for his hillside buildings:
Liebermann says the most efficient structure requires a circular floor plan. Rather than "cutting a big, nasty, square hole" in the ground and building a "nasty retaining wall with a cold space behind it that fills with dirt and leaves," he works with a hill's contours (most of his houses are on steep hillsides), making an elliptical cut, "a bite out of an apple."

Borrowing from his father's expertise as a dam engineer, Liebermann then creates a concave, curving retaining wall, like a bowl halved top to bottom. (Curved structures are stronger, he maintains, so they predominate in nature, as in craniums, eggs and seashells.)

His retaining wall doubles as the main interior wall of the house. Because such a wall could look forbidding, he usually softens it with a massive fireplace. Featuring a hollow large enough to roast a boar, and stacks of limestone stretching across the wall, the ensemble beckons aesthetically and emotionally. Liebermann explains that a fireplace provides "tremendous therapy" because it's a "primordial, womb-like cave, a place of warmth and security."

As for the rest of the house, he figures the best way to cover an ellipse is with an umbrella. He constructs a central column, perhaps a straightforward steel pole or a birch trunk salvaged from a forest fire. Sometimes he opts for a structure of woven steel beams, the straight pieces appearing to curve as in an Asian wicker stool. Planted deep in the ground like a tree and braced firmly at the floor slab, the central column acts structurally like the tower of a suspension bridge or the mast of a boat.

Liebermann says that during an earthquake the whole building moves together like a boat on waves: "You have a holistic, static relationship between all the parts in my buildings."

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Small Project Forum Journal and getting paid via BAYA aiasf

Monday, May 17, 2004

The New York Times > New York Region > After 100 Years, a New Rule Book for New York -- toward replacing the building code with model International Building Code

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

09900-06
Materials - Paint - Quicklime
Materials - Paint - Quicklime
Whitewash. Make your own homemade Whitewash
An Architects view of the World:
I am a Licensed Architect with over 15 years experience. My Experience includes working in both large and small firms in Chicago, and San Francisco. With that comes experience working on small and large projects. In addition, I have built my own challenging projects from the ground up and I have spent time working in the trades.

I give each project utmost attention, and treat each one as a challenge.

I satisfy and delight my clients with creative and innovative solutions.

I have actually built from the construction documents I have created. I have taken the time in my career to work in the trades where I have experienced what it is like to build from Architectural Drawings.

I have a thorough knowledge of materials and construction coupled with a love and understanding of Design and Architecture.

Available for Residences, Residential Remodels and Additions, Multi-Family Residential, Light Commercial and Tenant Improvement.

Very Competitive Rates with a Very Satisfied Clientele and Reference List.
Call for free initial consultation and quote.
Available to work throughout the Bay Area.

Andy Morrall, Architect
415-282-0616
AndyMorrall at aol commercial domain

Friday, April 16, 2004

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Turtle Bay | Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay via Truc BAYA correspondence, "Calatrava's first freestanding bridge in the United States."

Sunday, April 04, 2004

CHRISTIAN PATTERSON: Spaces, a different choice from malorama

Friday, April 02, 2004

Kansas City Public Library - Local History
f-stop.com - photographs of modern architecture: R. Crosby Kemper Memorial Arena
The Star/Kansas City Millennium: The 1960s: "On Monday night, June 4, 1979, a violent thunderstorm, accompanied by strong winds and heavy rains, collapsed the roof of the 5-year-old Kemper Arena, where, just the Monday before, the disco group the Village People had played. Just two days before the collapse 13,500 people had packed the arena for a truck pull.

"

Friday, March 26, 2004

Kalwall aerogel

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Design Observer: writings about design & culture: Michael McDonough: Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

Thursday, March 04, 2004

Southern California Institute of Architecture: Perry Kulper has some atmospheric drawings

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Ecotecture | Helical Geometry: A foundation for Nature-based Architecture--something to build for the little master?
v-2 Organisation | news | Junk architecture refers to a BAR fancy hotel similar to Common Ground Community and paraSITE inflatables very similar to an office the Ant Farm designed for the Toph around 1970, an inflatable room within a cold porch in back of a church being borrowed as a non-profit arts organization. It depended on reducing draft for climate control, and was a bit inconvenient to open--turn on fan--, walk around (because it filled the room), and get in and out of. The evolution of the inflatable as a heated room with walls inflating, rather than a single space inflating, and filled with whatever warm waste air comes from a building is impressive.

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Friday, February 20, 2004

Caterina.net has an article on philosophers and dwelling, namely Heidegger and Bachelard. The gist of her post is the modern house is a brutish machine providing scant comfort and TV invades it horribly. Read it.

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Untitled Document: "CTC - A leader in technology driven support services for the Architectural, Engineering, and Building industries"

Monday, February 02, 2004

Click on Jörg Sasse - 3502, 1995 for a blurry piture of a square, white cottage with red roof.
J?rg Sasse - '(in-) visible' is a short essay on the photograph as a limited way to experience architecture.

Curious how a drawing matches a photograph: both take a two-dimensional static view. Even a virtual model seen only on the computer screen has this limitation.

Sunday, February 01, 2004

Massimiliano Fuksas. Congress Center is similar to concept TftT has for Emeryville Park.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

. : an image a day keeps the doctor away : . . . : photoblog by christian reister : .: Barcelona Skyline, April 2003, 2004-01-15 shown without frame or navigate -> chronological January 2004 Barcelona Skyline. Hope the sell-by date is far off in this image that apparently shows Sagrada Familia in rooftop context.

Monday, January 26, 2004

Sunday, January 25, 2004

.::Snøhetta - The State of Things.::., a paper for the architect...

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Via Boynton Which Dead Poet Are You? - Quizilla
You are Dylan Thomas - a poet who lives to spite the banal continuity of modern life.  You are the new word, the new voice.  You will trample on tradition, and breed a new school%
You are Dylan Thomas - a poet who lives to spite
the banal continuity of modern life. You are
the new word, the new voice. You will trample
on tradition, and breed a new school of poetry.


Which Dead Poet Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Susan Dobson Visual Artist
Arcspace - arccitecture online

Thursday, January 22, 2004

thingsmagazine.net: daily links, photos and new writing about objects: Tricorn Center, pictures and Proles for Modernism

Friday, January 09, 2004

InsideArch - The inside view into firms and professional culture. via ArchVoices in Albany, CA

Friday, January 02, 2004

Thursday, January 01, 2004

OK, Stewart.
Roundhouse design is four post, massive columns with heavy lintels that have to be lifted with a small crane in a massive work party. These pictures from Pine Grove Elementary School are pretty good.
Indian Grinding Rock SHP for Miwok roundhouse and this pdf of the brochure -- this entry from October visit is conspicuous by its absence, but 4th grade were there and more besides. This thing is supposed to be like a famous elusive house. It is the stuff of poetry.