Erik’s Blog

I don’t know if the house works well, but the view sure is great! From Gizmodo.

Architecture: Home Floating Over the Pacific Brings Peace, Insane Envy

Wired also weigh’s in on the Buckminster Fuller show at the Whitney with a nice gallery of images.

What We Can Learn from Buckminster Fuller

Saw this on Gizmodo:

A French company called Abilmo has developed collapsible hotel-style dwellings that users can construct in just about any location.

Architecture: Pop-Up Hotel Rooms

Boing Boing notes the release of the US Post Office’s stamps commemorating Charles and Ray Eames. The sheet of 16 stamps was designed by Derry Noyes of Washington DC. The stamps can be ordered online from the Postal Service.

The latest New Yorker includes a profile of Buckminster Fuller by Elizabeth Kolbert. She walks through the usual history of Fuller and his many inventions, included his invented vocabulary. To me the most interesting thing about Bucky was his frequently recounted story of contemplating suicide and deciding instead to devote his life to serving humanity as a whole. As recounted by Kolbert:

With no job and a new baby to support, Fuller became depressed. One day, he was walking by Lake Michigan, thinking about, in his words, “Buckminster Fuller—life or death,” when he found himself suspended several feet above the ground, surrounded by sparkling light. Time seemed to stand still, and a voice spoke to him. “You do not have the right to eliminate yourself,” it said. “You do not belong to you. You belong to Universe.” (In Fuller’s idiosyncratic English, “universe”—capitalized—is never preceded by the definite article.) It was at this point, according to Fuller, that he decided to embark on his “lifelong experiment.” The experiment’s aim was nothing less than determining “what, if anything,” an individual could do “on behalf of all humanity.” For this study, Fuller would serve both as the researcher and as the object of inquiry.

Good article and a nice introduction to Bucky for those unfamiliar with the breadth of his work.

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They also have a great slideshow online with the article here

Eikonographia has announced the MoPo 2008 list - the 20 or so most popular architecture blogs for the year.

MoPo 2008

1. BLDGBLOG
2. City of Sound
3. Archidose
4. Pruned
5. Interactive Architecture
6. Architecture.mnp
7. Subtopia
8. Life Without Buildings
9. Tropolism
10. Mirage Studio 7
11. Strange Harvest
12. Architechnophilia
13. The Where Blog
14. The Arch
15. Super Colossal
16. Sit down man, you’re a bloody tragedy
17. Brand Avenue
18. Architecture Chicago Plus
19. Hugh Pearman
20. Varnelis
21. Lebbeus Woods
22. Part IV
23. Eye Candy
24. Architectural Videos
25. Kosmograd

Some good ones on the list that I hadn’t heard of. Also good to see Lebbeus Woods‘ site on this list - his writings and creations deserve to be seen by more people and its great that the Internets are helping to make that happen.

http://www.eikongraphia.com/?p=2441

From 37signals Signal vs Noise blog, this quote from László Moholy-Nagy (Bauhaus school):

The designer must see the periphery as well as the core, the immediate and the ultimate, at least in the biological sense. He must anchor his special job in the complex whole. The designer must be trained not only in the use of materials and various skills, but also in appreciation of organic functions and planning. He must know that design is indivisible, that the internal and external characteristics of a dish, a chair, a table, a machine, painting, sculpture are not to be separated…

There is design in organization of emotional experiences, in family life, in labor relations, in city planning, in working together as civilized human beings. Ultimately all problems of design merge into one great problem: ‘design for life’.

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Interesting article from The Australian that discusses how the visual arts schools have stepped back from dialogues about business ideas at the same time that business dialogue has become more focused on creativity and design.

INSIDE the nation’s art schools students go about the important work of critiquing and subverting presumptions and preconceptions about art and life.

Significantly they are also generating ideas and images that have commercial potential, at a time when the federal Government is pursuing an agenda of innovation and growth of the creative industries.

Although there is a great deal of discussion about the concept of creativity, and about intellectual property as an exploitable resource, surprisingly the role of the visual arts in advancing this has been marginalised during the past decade.

While other disciplines and professions have adopted the concepts of creativity and innovation, and used those words with tedious frequency, the visual arts sector has stepped back from the plate with the result that others have taken guardianship of these concepts.

So, with the Review of the National Innovation System in full swing, a survey of what ishappening in the nation’s art schools is timely, to judge the veracity of the sector’s claims to innovation.

State of Play - The Australian

From the Architecture Daily blog a link to a Boston.com story about the new dean at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. The interview with Mohsen Mostafavi discusses his views on design and urbanism and his plans for the future of the GSD.

You were an associate professor of architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in the ’90s and director of the professional degree programs. How has the school changed since then? I think there’s a great deal of fascination these days with more socially based, activist forms of practice. I think the students are more and more conscious of both the significance of signature architecture but at the same time, the potential alternatives to that form of practice. So, specifically, how can we be ethically responsible and also not sacrifice the commitment to design?

New Harvard dean has designs on our future « Architecture Daily

Had lunch today with Richard Schwartz, founder of SoloMio and Diffusion and one of the original inventors of the Paradox database. He mentioned an old friend of his who had started in architecture and then ended up in software (at Xerox PARC), Steve Harrison (http://people.cs.vt.edu/~srh/).

Looking at his list of publications, it seems like Steve has crossed back and forth between design and computer science - with stopovers in HCI, technology-enabled collaboration, and spatialized multimedia. Prior to PARC he had an architectural career with Skidmore Owings & Merrill in San Francisco. I’m actually surprised we didnt run into his work when we were putting together the International Conferences on Cyberspace.   

It will be interesting to contact Steve and discuss how he sees the connection between design education, architectural practice and his later career in software technologies.