Archive for the ‘my ninja, please’ Category

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 by orangemenace


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 by orangemenace


Categories: architecture, my ninja, please

Comments: 6 comments


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 by orangemenace


Categories: architecture, my ninja, please

Comments: 8 comments


In Defense of the Burj (Dubai) Khalifa

I would like to take a brief moment to defend the Burj Khalifa (formerly known as the Burj Dubai) – if only a little bit. While there have been many middle-of-the-road articles on the opening of the building – and many supportive ones as well – I feel as if the building is being unfairly used as a scapegoat, taking the hit for the current rally against “excessive” architecture.

For starters, look at the damn thing – it’s absolutely feckin’ awesomely ridiculous. 2,717 feet tall, all curvy and shiny and all that? I think we can all take a second to marvel at the fact that it’s an incredible structure. I mean, any fan of Star Wars / SciFi has been waiting for a tower this absurdly tall since their youth, as the Burj Khalifa looks like Coruscant, step one.

Now this is hardly a reason to build this thing. I’m all about admitting that this project seems kind of ignorant, and like little more than a pissing contest. “Now we have the tallest building, bitches”. But so what? Aren’t nearly all buildings over a certain height an exercise in ego? Outside of the few places where there is actually not enough land (NYC, parts of China + Japan), what’s the justification for a building over 20 stories or so? There are a number of towers here in Boston that have been sitting here half empty for a minute now – and our tallest building is under 800 feet.

Also, this design is nearly plagiarizing Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposal for a super tall skyscraper – and that man is by far the US’s most beloved architect.

Moving on to a less rational argument – what does this matter to any of us? How could some rich people building a super tall building in the desert be offensive? Did they spend your money? Because I’m pretty sure that those of us in the US should focus on the fact that our trends in housing are gross and inefficient, or that the government doesn’t adequately support progress and innovation in the construction fields. Plus, where the hell is all our infrastructure spending going? We have our own problems with shitty architecture of another sort. Fortunately, we can apparently afford to throw stones – modernism never took in housing.

The world is falling apart around us, and we’re going to take shots at this building for being too tall? Or, for that matter, a Zaha building for being too curvy? A Gehry building for looking too much like a melting chunk of metal? Let’s do this: the next time you read about ‘the architecture of excess’ – or anything similar/related – prep some ninja stars and go attack a brokerage firm, or a bank that gave out bad home loans.

My ninjas, please – get a grip on reality. The Burj Khalifa is a lot of things – including wasteful and unnecessary. That said, it’s also wicked cool for being over half a mile tall. Let’s take a moment to focus on that, and quit projecting our problems onto the people pushing the boundaries of design and construction.

Posted: January 10th, 2010
at 6:55pm by orangemenace


Categories: architecture, my ninja, please, starchitects, towering pagodas

Comments: 4 comments


Ninjas Do It Best

And by “it”, I of course mean everything…

Our ninja Linda Bennett over at what I’ll call AMNP’s ’sister site’, Archi-Ninja, has created this comic documenting what she calls the “Top 9 Ninja Characteristics of Awesome Architecture Blogs“. Linda has chosen a blog which she believes best exemplifies each characteristic – naming AMNP for “wisdom”, adding: “Grandmaster ninjas offer knowledge and guidance to all in their dojo”. I know what you’re thinking – AMNP hasn’t even been updated with any kind of consistency in what seems like months. But I assure you that the ninjas have been in retreat, meditating on the “isness” of architecture and blogging.

The other sites selected as representatives of “ninja-ness” [which is definitely not a real word] are:

- ArchDaily [Timeliness]
- AMNP [Wisdom]
- A Daily Dose of Architecture [Regular Diet]
- Inhabitat [Never Leave A Trace]
- Super Colossal [Super Strength]
- Designboom [Masters of Weaponry]
- BLDGBLOG [Foresight]
- cityofsound [Laser Focus]
- DeZeen [Agility]

I have to say, I think Linda should have included her own site in the comic – although, in not she has displayed the 10th ninja characteristic: “modesty”.

.:full comic->via Archi-Ninja

Posted: January 6th, 2010
at 6:15pm by orangemenace


Categories: MNP, architecture, illustration, my ninja, please

Comments: No comments


Burj Dubai Opens

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The Burj Dubai – now the tallest building in the world, and renamed the Burj Khalifa – opened yesterday with 160 inhabitable floors, and topping out at 2,700 ft tall (including the spire). And you can get your own office space there for only $4,000 a square foot! What a bargain!

They must have pre-paid for all the theatrics – because you know they don’t have any money left at this point.

And (obviously) not everyone’s into it – German architects have come out slamming the building:

In Europe, the emphasis was on refurbishing and upgrading existing buildings rather than building more, bigger developments, according to the German architects’ association DAI.

‘Nobody knows where the planning hubris of the sheikhs will lead,’ said the DAI’s president, Christian Baumgart.

‘One thing is sure though: what has become a glass and ferroconcrete desert hardly represents a sustainable contribution to building practices around the world,’ Baumgart added.

German architect Meinhard von Gerkan called the skyscraper ‘an economically pointless symbol of prestige, representing the power of money.’

Awwww, shoot – you gonna take that, sheiks and Burj Dubai?

.:quote via-> Monsters and Critics

Posted: January 5th, 2010
at 1:22pm by orangemenace


Categories: architecture, my ninja, please, towering pagodas, videos

Comments: 2 comments


Actual Lego House

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My ninja, please.

James May continues his quest to show what is possible with old-fashioned toys by using them on a scale never seen before. In one of his biggest challenges yet, James attempts to build a full-size house out of Lego.

.:via->the BBC

Posted: January 5th, 2010
at 1:10pm by orangemenace


Categories: architecture, housing, installation, my ninja, please, pre-fab, videos

Comments: No comments


On Top of the Burj Dubai

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This video is kind of horrifying – and that’s all I really have to say.

Posted: November 16th, 2009
at 10:30am by orangemenace

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Categories: architecture, my ninja, please, towering pagodas, videos

Comments: 7 comments


Peter Guthrie’s Farnsworth Renderings

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I’m not normally one to get all geeked over some photorealistic architectural renderings [as many readers probably know at this point]. That’s mostly because I question their value in design, when compared to the effort/time/cost involved in producing them. But, when I see something like the work of Peter Guthrie I’m still taken aback by how incredibly real these renderings can be. I came across his work over at our ninja the Architectural Scholar’s site earlier this week.

Created during his free-time, these renderings of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House were generated from VRAY and a SketchUp model.

I’ll say that again – A SKETCHUP MODEL. Ridiculous.

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.:Peter Guthrie->

.:Farnsworth House Renderings Flickr Set->

Posted: November 12th, 2009
at 12:26pm by orangemenace

Tagged with , ,


Categories: architecture, illustration, my ninja, please

Comments: 9 comments


Zebra Imaging: Holographic Prints

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They’re not quite the holograms we all grew up seeing in sci-fo movies – but they’re still pretty sick. Produced by Zebra Imaging, these “3-D” images are printed on boards which will then showcase changing views of an object from all angles. So, unlike those holographic trading cards you had as a kid these new images by Zebra can be rotated for 360 degree views of the objects depicted.

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I would think this was more revolutionary, if I thought that there were architecture firms that could actually afford to implement this technology. Maybe if this had come out in the mid-to-late 90’s we would all be using it by now – but I don’t think I see it catching on anytime soon, taking the economy and all that into consideration.

.:Zebra Imaging->

Posted: October 26th, 2009
at 9:43am by orangemenace

Tagged with , , , , ,


Categories: architecture, graphic design, my ninja, please, tech, videos

Comments: No comments