Death of a Ninja: Howard Zinn

“He’s made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture,” Noam Chomsky, the activist and MIT professor, said last night. “He’s changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can’t think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect.” Chomsky added that Dr. Zinn’s writings “simply changed perspective and understanding for a whole generation.” [via The Boston Globe]

Historian, activist, and all-around 9th Dan ninja master Howard Zinn passed away yesterday, January 27th, of a heart attack while traveling in California.

His most well-known work, A People’s History of the United States, changed the way that many of us looked at history – giving a view of the rise of the US without a patriotic filter feigning perfection. Zinn wished for us to consider the whole picture when viewing our history, including the oftentimes unfortunate, embarrassing – and sometimes horrifying – aspects of it that are far too often whitewashed in our school textbooks. He challenged us to take a long, hard look at our history – and at ourselves – in the hope that we could take what we learned to shape a better future for this nation, and the world.

Possibly even more importantly, Zinn worked to spread the idea that dissent was an essential part of democratic life – and that questioning the status quo and demanding more / something better was possibly the most ‘American’ thing we could do as informed citizens.

Rest in peace, sir.

.:Boston Globe article->

[Note: A People's History is a must-read for ninjas, in case you somehow didn't know - otherwise you're running around here uninformed like a white belt. Knowledge is the most important weapon in your arsenal.]

Posted: January 28th, 2010
at 10:32am


Categories: MNP

Comments: 1 comment


Ninja Arithmetic LXV

[Equation: Sauron's Tower - Sauron's all-seeing eye = Miapolis]

Thanks to our ninjas, and AMNP readers Hee and Beth – who unwittingly submitted this week’s Ninja Math to me. Note – I don’t mean to imply that the builders of the Miapolis Tower are evil personified – like Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. I, however, don’t know for sure that they aren’t, either – I’m just saying.

If you’re inspired with an idea for a Ninja Arithmetic post by a project that you come across, don’t hesitate to contact AMNP! You don’t have to make the graphic yourself – simply explain the equation to me in an email, and I’ll handle the rest. Simply end your suggestion to architecture@myninjaplease.com, with “Ninja Arithmetic” in the subject line.

Posted: January 27th, 2010
at 10:04am


Categories: ninja arithmetic

Comments: 1 comment


‘Pole Dance’ by SO-IL Wins P.S.1 Comp

The P.S.1 installation competition seems to be an increasingly popular, creative, and fun way for architects / designers to express themselves simply for architecture’s sake – while creating an interesting space to be used, seemingly, as a kind of rallying point for architecture and design related events in NYC. With a new year comes a new installation, adding to a growing list of impressive work by up-and-coming designers.

Sure not to disappoint, this year Brooklyn based SO-IL [for Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu] has been named winner of the competition, for an entry entitled ‘Pole Dance’.

“What we wanted to do is propose a structure that was constantly trying to find its balance as it was influenced by people and outside forces. It’s a take on the wider world, where we’re always trying to find balance in our lives and in everything around us.”

The installation will lay out a 12′ grid of 2 inch thick, 25 feet tall fiberglass poles – which, due to these dimensions, etc, will be quite flexible. A roughly 9,000 square foot stretchy net will be suspended – the form of which will be dynamically altered as the poles sway. Lastly, a number of brightly colored balls will be bouncing around on this netting, allowing visitors to ‘play’ with the installation.

Sounds, and looks, pretty dope.


SO-IL PS1 Pole Dance from SO-IL on Vimeo.

.:via->The Architect’s Newspaper

Posted: January 25th, 2010
at 12:29pm


Categories: architecture, competitions, installation

Comments: No comments


Studio Banana TV Interviews Toyo Ito

Studio Banana TV interviews Japanese architect Toyo Ito on the occasion of his lecture at the European University of Madrid. Toyo Ito is one of the world’s most innovative and influential architects. Ito is known for creating extreme concept buildings, in which he seeks to fuse the physical and virtual worlds. Interview realised with the sponsorship of the European University of Madrid.

Toyo Ito is a Japanese architect born in 1941. He graduated from Tokyo University’s Department of Architecture in 1965. His office Toyo Ito & Associates is a world leading exponent of architecture that addresses the contemporary notion of a ’simulated’ ciy, and has been called “one of the world’s most innovative and influential architects.”

.:via->

Posted: January 24th, 2010
at 1:29pm


Categories: architecture, interview, videos

Comments: No comments


Boston Arcology

Say it with me now: My ninja, PLEASE.

Dubbed “BOA”, for Boston Arcology, the project was designed by E. Kevin Schopfer as a floating arcology much like the one proposed for New Orleans a few months back. Capable of housing over 15,000 people in new apartments, condos, hotels, offices, and a new city hall, the ?BOA [Bank of America might sue...] extends as a long linear box from Rowe’s Wharf – supposedly in an attempt to preserve existing views and sitelines, while emulating the general massing of Boston by “exud[ing]a rigorous geometric format.”

What? It’s a huge box on the waterfront…

The proportions are, of course, based on the Golden Ratio – and the diagonals within the rectangular frame are actually meant to be a reference to the Boston Common [criss-crossing paths contained within the rigid boundary of the city].

Really, I just had to share this with everyone, as it’s awesome in its ridiculousness.

.:via->Yanko Design

Posted: January 24th, 2010
at 1:10pm


Categories: architecture, my ninja, please, towering pagodas, urban/master planning

Comments: 2 comments


Vote ‘Architect’ for Barbie

I’m shamelessly ripping off our ninja John over at Archidose today in order to spread the word about something very important to ninjas everywhere: voting for Barbie’s next profession.

I know, you probably think I’ve cracked – and I totally have – but hear me out. All the other options suck, and I’m bored with too much free time this morning not to argue my point. The other choices for Barbie are ‘environmentalist’, ’surgeon’, ‘news anchor’, and ‘computer engineer’ – non of which, obviously, is cooler than being an ‘architect’. Here’s what I’m thinking:

- ‘Environmentalist’ isn’t really a profession itself – anyone can be an environmentalist. Additionally, this is America – nobody here believes in that global warming nonsense [sad as that sounds, lets face facts].

- Girls know damn well that they can be doctors / surgeons / whatever. What is this, the 80s? A decade or so of ER, Grey’s Anatomy, and whatever else we’ve got for medical dramas on TV must have changed any antiquated ideas about women not being surgeons.

- Moving on to ‘News Anchor’ – that shit right there is just sexist. Of course Barbie can be a news anchor, she’s a babe. Why not say swim-suit model or Playboy Bunny? My ninjas, please.

- Last we come to ‘computer engineer’… and I’ve got nothing. I actually wish I was a computer engineer, as maybe I could land a sweet gig somewhere like Google and make some $$. And as we know, ‘computer engineers’ all call themselves ‘IT Architect’ or whatever anyways, so they’ve got the title too. I’ll just go with the god-complex ‘we design and shape the world’ argument here and move on.

All that aside, I mostly want to spread the joy. I know so many architects will talk about Legos or whatever building block-ish toys they played with inspiring their desire to be an architect. I would love one day to hear that a woman I work with decided she wanted to be an architect when she got her first Barbie at age 5 – only, of course, to have those hopes and dreams crushed by a crap economy and absurd developer-controlled building sector…

Now to be serious: Barbie does seem to hold a special place in the hearts of many who have played with / collected the dolls, and I think it’s safe to say that toys do influence children as they grow-up. More women in architecture can only be a good thing, even if their initial interest is prompted by a toy originally based on some kind of German sex doll [kind of].

.:vote early, vote often->

[Oh hells yeah, that was an entire post about Barbie. Act like you know.]

Posted: January 20th, 2010
at 11:56am


Categories: architecture, my ninja, please

Comments: 6 comments


LAN Architecture: Terres Neuves Apts.

Designed by LAN Architecture, this unnamed apartment complex is planned for the Terres Neuves District of Begles, France. Much like Le Corbusier’s famous explanation of his Unite d’Habitation project, Terres Neuves is based on inserting living units into a steel frame – “like wine int0 a wine rack”, as Corbu put it.

The first stage was to ’sculpt’ the volumes in order to exploit their urban potential and intrinsic spatial qualities. We directed our research towards a hybrid typology combining the house and the apartment.

The principle underlying our approach was that of stacking containers, and careful study of habitat modes, climatic conditions and the sun’s trajectory throughout the year suggested the way to organise this. The project’s column-slab supporting structure has a system of lightweight facades providing ultra-high performance insulation levels.

Outside of the technological advances allowing for a lighter strucutre and cladding [or at least the appearance / effect of 'lighter], LAN has deviated from Unite d’Habitation by creating a rather significant outdoor terrace space for each unit [see the diagram below], which can be closed of with a sliding screen of some kind. The idea here is that this gives the building distinctly different personalities as the seasons the change.

During the summer, residents are expected to leave the screens on the terrace open, allowing cooling breezes to permeate the building and get into the block’s internal courtyard. When temperatures drop, the terraces can then be enclosed – becoming a kind of three-season room, I would think, while also protecting that interior courtyard from any harsh winter winds.

The project is described as ‘green’ by the designers, but I’m not sure what that refers to – other than the terraces / ventilation, and the insulation described in the quote above.

.:more images/diagrams/etc->via LAN Architecture

::images and info courtesy of LAN Architecture::

Posted: January 20th, 2010
at 11:15am


Categories: architecture, green arch, housing

Comments: 1 comment


AMNP is With Coco

Partly because Conan is f-ing hilarious, and partly because we ginger-headed ninjas need to stick together, I would like to take a moment to deviate from AMNP’s architectural ruminations to say that the ninjas here at MNP are ‘with Coco’.

What does this mean for AMNP readers exactly? Absolutely nothing at all – but I really wanted to come up with a reason to post this image, which is killin’ me. Keep fighting the man, Coco!

Posted: January 19th, 2010
at 12:18pm


Categories: MNP

Comments: 1 comment


You’re Not An Architect

This is a little much, I would say – but that doesn’t take away from it being pretty funny. Someone in Boulder, tired of the interwebs being full of “IT Architect” postings put this up on Craigslist:

Dear IT/Computer/Analytics professionals:
You are not ‘architects.’ It’s true. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you just aren’t. Do you know that even real architects can’t even legally call themselves an ‘architect’ unless they pass a rigorous intern/licensure process?… yeah, it takes about 5 yrs and hundreds of dollars, and it’s regulated by an international organization devoted to the single purpose of licensure. Yet, you self-inflating computer hacks throw that word around like it belongs to you. Maybe you’re just filling that white space on your business card, or maybe you’re just trying to get laid by riding the coattails of a noble profession. I don’t pretend to understand your nerdy motives, but I implore you to stop this chicanery. Shame on you.

My ninjas, please!

In all seriousness, though – looking for ‘real’ architecture jobs in a culture where the term has so many new meanings is HORRIBLE. I care less about what people call themselves, and much more about how hard it is to distinguish IT professionals from designers [online]. That’s probably because I myself don’t have a license…

.:actual Craigslist posting->

Posted: January 19th, 2010
at 6:00am


Categories: architecture, my ninja, please

Comments: 8 comments


Ninjas on the ‘Net

[image: Slate's interactive unemployment map - watch out, it's pretty depressing]

Happy Monday, and MLK Day, my ninjas!

Now, right to business: everyone reading this should stop – right now – and go donate some money to disaster relief efforts in Haiti. I’m not really sure that it matters who you give the money to, so long as you give it – but since this is an architecture site, I’ll suggest you head over to Architecture for Humanity. When things settle down and this tragic natural disaster starts to fade from the 24 hour cable news channels, I trust that AfH will be in Haiti, hard at work trying to rebuild.

- Frankie G withdraws from Museum of Tolerance project, for financial issues [NY Times]

- the graphics of fear + hate [NY Times]

- Our Bauhaus: why Modernism matters [The New Republic]

- the recovery of Detroit [The New Republic]

- blind architects rely on other senses [LA Times]

- Architect to replace Arch Record [Architect's Newspaper]

- Sim City Baghdad [The Atlantic]

- 7 tips to start your own architecture firm [modative]

- living surfaces, bichromatic floor tiles [Transmaterial]

- Die Hard, John McClane, Israeli Troop movements, and architecture [BLDGBLOG]

- A New Infrastructure book giveaway [Archinect]

- getting steamy in the city [Urban Omnibus]

- architecture one of top 9 professions hit during recession[MSNBC]

- Micronesia fights the Czech attempt to build power plant [Scientific American]

- Wallpaper* announces Design Awards 2010 winners [Bustler]

- lastly, don’t miss myninjaplease.com’s two newest features :A Dozen, and The Industry. Our ninja Kookiecrumbles has been hard at work interviewing artists and featuring their work as well as speaking to industry insider – coming up with some great content that should not be slept on.

Posted: January 18th, 2010
at 3:29pm


Categories: Ninjas on the 'net

Comments: No comments