This is fairly depressing book. As ‘young architects’ ourselves, this book presents a fairly good summary of just how lazy we are and we should be doing more…

It is the result of a Young Architects Forum competition run by the Architectural League of New York - young architects here being defined by having graduated within the last ten years (again, depressing). The brief asked for portfolios to be submitted showcasing work under the thematic lens of ‘proof’. In her foreword Sarah Whiting states that

“proof is in fact product as much as it is process: it’s demonstration, meaning the end product, as well as the action of demonstrating.”

And

“While the six selected winners differ greatly, a general shared optimism wafts across the entire group, complemented by quick wit, which often helps to push optimism toward ambition rather than remain in the realm of mere naivete.”

As such the book contains practices and projects that demonstrate proof of practice in projects ranging from small experiments in space to larger buildings under construction. The six practices are: ludens, PRODUCTORA, PARA, Jinhee Park, Aranda/Lasch, and UNI.

…continue reading…

One of the announcements made at the RAIA National Conference a couple of weeks ago was a partnership with Google to integrate Australian award winning buildings into Google Earth. Available as a download-able layer that can be added to Google Earth, there is information on over 600 buildings that have been awarded at the state and national level.

While it is not clear why a partnership with Google was necessary to achieve this (can’t anyone add their own content, 3D models etc to Google Earth? Am I wrong in thinking this?) it is certainly a very large step in the right direction by an Institute that has for a long time been a little tardy in keeping up with the technologie nouveau.

…continue reading…

The New Yorker recently ran a completely fascinating article on the world of elevators – “Up and Then Down” – by Nick Paumgarten. It details the mechanics of elevators, the likely hood of something going wrong, a history of Otis, all of which is interspersed with the story of Nicholas White.

White was a hapless employee of McGraw Hill who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours; the whole ordeal of which was captured on surveillance cameras, a time-lapse version of which follows:

Watching the video is a little like watching a bug in a jar, a body quickly attempting to come to grips with its enclosure, looking for areas of permeability, hopelessly opening the doors periodically to check to see if the scenery outside has changed from a blank wall to an open floor, measuring the dimensions of the space by lying across its length and width, resignation and desperation.