Image courtesy of AIA Dallas, as designed by Brian L. David
The AIA Dallas chapter’s annual Retrospect exhibition will run from April 1st to April 11th at NorthPark Center, between Dillard’s and Macy’s. There will be over 50 displays to introduce the public to local architects and architectural firms. There will be an opening night reception on Thursday in the NorthPark Gardens. To reserve a spot at the reception, or to learn more about Retrospect, please visit this link.
Number 97 from 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School:
Never rue the limitations of a design problem – a too-small site, an inconvenient topography, an overlong space, an unfamiliar palate of materials, contradictory requests from the client… Within those lies the solution to the problem!
Does a steeply sloping site make it difficult to create a conventional building? Then celebrate the vertical relationships of spaces with a fascinating stair, ramp or atrium. Does an ugly old wall face your building? Find ways to frame views of it so it becomes interesting and memorable. Have you been asked to design within a site, building, or room that is narrow and overlong? Turn those proportions into an interesting journey with a great payoff at the end.
Image from MIT press website.
Just want to spread the word that there are some small architetural interesting competitions open for registration at the moment:
1. Check out “Mine the gap”. (thanks to Doug Compton for forwarding this finding)
If you are not willing to participate it might still be worth following the results. It is a very interesting challenge. While seeking for a ideall design solution, they required participants to get involved with the actual problematic of our economy and redefined the architectecture role to engage the present, past and future of our cities. They also have a great Jury such as Lynn Becker, Writer from Chicago Reader and Architecturechicagoplus or Jeanne Gang, Partner at Studio Gang and Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology.
Deadline for registration and submittal is May 3rd, 2010
2. Don’t miss exploring the “Safe Trestles” competition, launched by Architecture for Humanity.
It seems like a pretty fun challenge to engage! They are asking for a design that solves the access to Trestle beach and creates a safe and environmentally friendly path for surfers and visitors! Winners get a design contract!!!
Deadline for registration and submittal is April 17th, 2010.
3. Lastly, if you are in the mood for competitions but do not have much time free, you have the option of “spontaneous architecture – mini competitons series”. A series of 12 competitions launched every month of 2010 requiring a single image engaging current events.
This year at the Academy Awards there was one entry in the animated shorts film that has drawn a lot of attention. Make sure you check out the short film Logorama. EVERYTHING in this entire film is made out of existing logos, from the buildings to the main characters. There is a trailer available on the idsgn blog, and with some inventive searching you can find the entire film. You can also purchase it on iTunes.
Here’s the trailer:
We all know about construction webcams. Typically they are static images that refresh occasionally from a single position. This is interesting and helpful, but I would love to see a construction webcam that is set up like this ski resorts webcams. At Park City Mountain Resort in Utah, they let webcam viewers take control of the webcams allowing angle and zoom change. If multiple viewers are requesting camera control at once a short queue is generated.
Imagine if we could do this with our construction cams, zoom in on something we need more information about or need to review. I’m sure it’s been done, I’ve just never seen it. If you know of a project that has this set up, I’d love to see it!
The idea can begin here. It is the Pepsi Refresh Everything grant money give-a-way! HKS can formulate a team who will create an idea to change our community. Pepsi is giving away up to $1,000,000 in grant money each month to people, businesses and non-profits to make their idea become a reality. They will take 1,000 applications per month and then the world votes on who receives the grant money. Applications are accepted under the following categories: health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education.
Each team is also able to choose the amount of grant money they would need for their idea to become a reality that range in the amounts of $5,000, $25,000, $50,000, and $250,000.
Pepsi has reached their quota on applications for the month of March, however a team can form and the idea can be developed for an April or May submission. More information about the application and entire process can be found at www.refresheverything.com
So what will be the HKS Pepsi refreshing idea to change our community?
Image above from Pepsi refresh video.
From the sketchbook of Jack Ford.
The most memorable childhood toys aren’t usually very sophisticated, high-tech, or used in the way they were designed to be used. Successful toys are a tool for the imagination. A cardboard box is a tool because it can be manipulated, rotated, it can house something within its volume, and its simplicity lends itself to take on many different meanings.
When our team of designers was asked to design a child’s playhouse for the Scottish Rite Hospital we chose to focus on the imagination and childhood activities, instead of designing a playhouse that carried a strong architectural theme.
The activities became the program of the playhouse; climbing, driving, sliding, cooking, peek-a-boo, game playing, crawling, etc. The theme of the house stems from the animated movie Ratatouille, the popular board game Mouse Trap, as well as other childhood tales.
The overall design resembles a block of cheese. Ordinary design elements like windows, a table and chairs, a front door, and walls were designed to encourage the imagination, play, and activities. The windows are circular holes in the cheese, the door is a mouse silhouette, the table and chairs are a spool of thread and chef hats. One can slide through, climb, crawl through, and look out the walls.
The final product was delivered to Highland Park Village where the auction to benefit Texas Scottish Rite Hospital was held. By the end of the night, our playhouse had raised $2,300! The next week, the “big cheese” was lifted by crane into the winning bidders’ back yard which, we’ve been told, has since become the neighborhood hang out! In total the playhouse raised over $5,000 in material and monetary donations. Volunteers from BECK and HKS donated their time and expertise to design and build the playhouse. Sherwin-Williams, Reid-Cooper, Carnegie Textiles, Mannington Commercial, Playset Parts, Southwestern Blueprint also contributed donations.”
Ratatouille, Mickey Mouse, Jerry, Stuart Little, Fievel, and the Rescuers would all be proud to call this house a home.
Click on the link below for more photos.
Sometimes we get caught up in the daily drum beat of our profession. So when an outside of the box idea like www.vanitybarcodes.com shows up, it’s a nice little reminder to look for the ordinary and make it extraordinary.
What ordinary things are you working on that you can go beyond what is usual and make extraordinary?
