rolling huts

located in washington's methow valley, the rolling huts are several steps above camping, while remaining low-tech and low-impact in their design. designed by oska [olson sundberg kundig allen architects] architects, the huts sit lightly on the site, a flood plain meadow in an alpine river valley.



the huts are grouped as a herd: while each is sited towards a view of the mountains (and away from the other structures), their proximity unites them. they evoke thoreau’s simple cabin in the woods; the structures take second place to nature.

you blink when you breathe and you breathe when you lie

there's been a lot of buzz around this group lately. but i must say, when alison mosshart and jack white get together under the dead weather they're so much more hardcore than the white stripes. the kills are great, and the raconteurs rock, but when you bring them together you better be ready for the ride especially with the support of jack lawrence on bass and dean fertita on guitar.



here's a little preview. the group's first album came out a couple weeks ago [july 14] and i was lucky enough to catch them as they passed through minneapolis - rocking the legendary first avenue.

opening with the epic 60 feet tall the band brought the packed house on a wild ride. working their way through the album, some highlights include a cover of "you just can't win" where jack white came out from behind the drums to vocalize. "cut like a buffalo" and "hang you up from the heavens" were crowd pleasers. and true to rocker form jack white shared his gift of guitar with the crowd - absolutely shredding it to pieces. alison mosshart has an amazing stage presence, climbing all over the speakers, rocking around like a drunkard, she commands attention. after burning through two encores the band ended with "treat me like your mother" before walking off stage arm in arm - a true collaboration.

the new music/promotional video, directed by jonathan glazer, it's pretty straight forward flick, but so entertaining, one of my favs on the album:

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

design like you give a damn

recently the finalists were announced for the open architecture challenge; eight team finalists for the 2009 open architect challenge: classrooms. the call for entries spurred over 10,000 participants from architects, teachers and students.

“This initiative invited the architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. Designers entering the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions,” explained Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder for Architecture for Humanity and this competition.

some of my favorites include;



adaptable hillside classroom
design team: feilden clegg bradley studios & architecture for humanity UK
engineering team: buro happold
partner/ location: bunyonyi community school, kabale, uganda



classroom for salt pan community
design team: rajesh kapoor, prashant solanky, bharat karamchandani, kiran vaghela, gujarat, india
partner/location: cohesion foundation, kutch, gujarat, india



house in the wood
design team: built form, llc / northwestern university settlement house, chicago, united states
partner/location: northwestern university settlement house, delavan, wisconsin, united states



justified architecture in a landscape of transformation
design team: arquitectura justa - wolfgang timmer, fabiola uribe, t. luke young, bogota, colombia
partner/ location: waldorf educational & social organization, ciudad bolívar, bogota, colombia

mke gallery night

a while back i was fortunate enough to be introduced to local artists brent budsberg and shana mccaw exhibiting at the current tendencies show at the haggerty museum. they've done a series of architecturally related installations. relations of scale provoke thought and reveal the artists' creativity and collaboration.

they are curating a show to be opened at the pritzlaff building this weekend [july 24-25]. the building is undergoing renovation and like any advantageous creatives, they're getting they're say in transition. gallery night always makes for a great night out.

if you're swinging to the third ward, hop across the river and see a bit of cream city reinterpreted.



[n]: The Pritzlaff Project

[ l ]: N Plankinton Ave and St Paul Ave

[h]: (One block west of the Milwaukee Public Market)



[d]: July 24, 5:00-9:00pm and July 25, 10:00am-4:00pm



[i]: artists and designers include;

Jason Belmonti

Theresa’Beth

Michael Bouwkamp & Liza Pflughoft

Julio Cordova

Stephanie Dever

Becky Dimsey

Katie Kreger

Beata Krezalek

Rudy Medina

Siya Motamedi

James Pederson

Stephen Strupp

Amelia Toporsh

the start of something beautiful

perspective renderings. catalytic nodes. radical infrastructure. ready to go....




















images © 2Aem cooperative

detroit is burning

only a few hours ago a tanker, carrying diesel motor fuel [all too ironic], lost control, crashed into a bridge and exploded. a series of explosions followed ultimately ending with a melted overpass. the location; i-75, near nine mile road.

check out the whole story

diagrams

images © 2Aem cooperative

updates and more to come....

part 2: applying value

Taking the example of highway further: Perhaps the sky-ways create huge and interesting cathedral-like spaces underneath, the feet of the piles in rivers create habitats for new river life, the new boundary between the cities has given rise to 2 distinct neighborhoods that, like islands of Venice, have a new relationship with one another that a massive long street couldn't do before.

The 2nd problem of Detroit is this: How to get people to "slow down" and actually want to appreciate those experiences below, rather than traveling at 80 to go to a casino and travel back at 80 without fully exercising our sense. We can't build cities any longer for the singular economy of money, but fort the wholistic economies of place-making and human quality. Part of this philosophy is working with what we have, but not in the sense of simply accepting what's given, but accepting that there is always beauty and we need to work to find it (it is not always an outwardly given thing-- you have to work to see it); appreciating it not simply for an abstract value, but for the very real value we can give through the assessment of our real senses.

photo © cggaffer

part 1: philosophy

Part of our team's ambition in these competitions is to explore and discover without the trappings of the university and the safety of the authority of our professors what is is we find important in design. We want to develop our personal outlook and theory on urban environments. Detroit has been both challenging and helpful in this respect. people have all sorts of ideas about how to "bring back" or "bring about" the "old Detroit in a new way" or to "fix" it or otherwise condescend to the current environment or population and culture that exists and develops there now. Our views have through personal dialogue and experience begun to surface in a clear way with special consideration to this problem-- we don't want to be designers that attempt to "solve" a "problem," in fact what we want to do is approach the idea of the city environment with a completely different belief-- that what exists now is beautiful-- not that it could be beautiful "if only," but strongly and adamantly is. The eye of an architect or dreamer, however, is different than someone trained in a different pursuit. It is our job, then, to accentuate and give a means to experience those places of legitimate beauty in order for people who may otherwise flee from what they see as degradation and change to stop, to slow down, to appreciate.

For too long, we feel, the culture of car and road has led to a new culture of speed that does not allow us to experience the most primitive and important aspect of human knowledge and the basis of architecture-- that of the senses. But lets take that example of car and road for a moment to illustrate our outlook. What we are saying is this: "So now, through choice and circumstance, there are a great deal of highways and vehicles that move things and people, that create noises, cut up neighborhoods, create new boundaries and shift views of the sky, earth and water. But you know what? There is beauty." Our job as designers is to create framework in order that people can experience that beauty. That is our challenge and work.

growing power

last year local urban farmer, will allen, was awarded the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation's "genius" grant. a prize of $500,000 big ones. working in northern milwaukee he is seeking to educate others about the benefits of investing in local economies. he advocates growing food in a novel way.



allen's growing power organization has six greenhouses and eight hoophouses for greens, herbs and vegetables; pens for goats, ducks and turkeys; a chicken coop and beehives; and a system for raising tilapia and perch. There’s an advanced composting operation — a virtual worm farm — and a lab that is working on ways to turn food waste into fertilizer and methane gas for energy.

i've visited a few times, but never met the man. his operation blows me away every time i step through the doors and into the humidity of his hoophouses. i ran across a new article in the new york times sunday magazine [july 5, 2009]. in it the genius outlines his dreams for his organization, explains his concept of 'food deserts,' and offers insight into a radical shift in social perception.

there's a bunch of videos on youtube, but here's one that explain allen's mission pretty well...





mr. allen said he learned it all from his parents. “we’re having to go back to when people shared things and started taking care of each other,” he said. “that’s the only way we will survive.”

stalking detroit

[ a short story.... ]



peter gave a preview to peak curiosities a while back. here is a little more light to be shed.


we [ 2AeM ], and our photography friend [ cggaffer ] set out in our trusty 1986 ford mustang... convertible. taking to the roads like ants in a line. breaking through the jams of chicago, surviving gary, crossing into michigan we began to hit some snags...

shortly upon crossing the border our skillful repair of the canvas top (with loads of duct tape) was lacerated by air resistance. enjoying the fresh air we settled back in, three passed out passengers, one deft driver...

awoken by a loud rumble, a little stunned and surprised, we could no longer hear the static slightly resembling jack white's conquest spinning through a yellow portable cd player. looking back gave us our answer. we were shooting sparks down the highway... streaking through the midnight darkness.

we pulled off on exit 239 (black dot_left) and jacked up our car. then we jacked the car more with the gas attendant's spare from her truck. finding the exhaust pipe bent around the rear axle we began applying some elbow grease. an off duty cop and mechanic pulled through.... only the mechanic stopped.

it took a while, but we stashed the muffler and tail pipe behind a group of tall pines. treasure to bring back with us. only one more hour to our campsite.... in hell, michigan. no really, it's the black dot furthest right on the diagram. we camped adjacent to a bike bath in the recreation area... because we drove around for an hour and a half without finding an apparent campsite.

we awoke to confused hikers the next morning. bright and early we set out to stalk detroit.