[Look, if tequila and plantain chips don't help your creative process, you're probably just not a ninja]
Well, it’s official – after about 2 weeks of prep, and a marathon 12 hour push by the HNIC [AKA black octagons, the eight-sided darkness] and myself, the entire myninjaplease network has been upgraded, updated, retrofitted, and reinvented as MNP 2.0.
You’ll notice that the site as a whole is a bit crispier, and that the ’sidenotes’ in the middle column finally work [no more clicking titles of posts for links!]. We’re also using the new theme to attempt more cross-site promotion between the various MNP pages – most noticeably with the RSS feeds in the right sidebar [don't sleep on the rest of myninjaplease!].
I would say things are about 85% done – so if you could wait a week or so before you pass judgment, things should be in working order [we know how ninjas are about tossin' their opinions around]. Let me know what you think, if you have any suggestions/comments, and [especially] if you notice something that isn’t working right by dropping me an email at architecture@myninjaplease.com – or by leaving a comment.
Our ninja Ivan Hernandez Quintela of Ludens [our first 'Ninja of the Month'] contacted AMNP last week about new projects he’s worked on since the NotM feature – specifically, “The Box” @ MUAC. In addition to his own work, Ivan shared work done by student who participated in a “Guerilla Architecture” course which he taught at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
Ivan’s students were asked to produce temporary shelters that would meet the needs of one of several ‘homeless profiles’ that the class recognized, and then construct and test the design. Both designs featured here attempt to “make evident that the homeless are not inactive people, but actually are extremely mobile, nomad by nature” – creating solutions that take into account this mobile nature of many of the homeless.
The idea was that the homeless citizen would wear the kimono during the day and would remove it during the night to create his temporary shelter.
A garment that could be worn by day, and then reassembled into a tent structure – the first design uses lines to attach to nearby objects in order to create a shelter from wearable materials, rather than using poles or other rigid, harder to carry methods. The homeless citizen then wears her shelter on her person, saving the energy and space needed to transport something larger/heavier.
Next we have a design that combines this idea of mobility and need for shelter with the additional need – in some cases – for storage.
The students generated a vehicle, which was activated in a very similar manner as a wheel chair, so it required quite an athletic user, where two huge truck wheels were recuperated from a dump site and assembled in such a manner that in the middle is the navigating chair, and each wheel is used either as a resting spot or as a can container.
::all images, info, and quotes courtesy of Ivan Hernandez Quintela::
I’ve been kind of ‘on record’ as being deeply unhappy, and deeply uncomfortable about that kind of situation ['starchitect' title]… because I think every name describes a content, and the content of ’star architect’ – compared to the content of ‘architect’ – is limited. Nobody thinks the star has good intentions. A star walks over you – a star is indifferent to what people think. My hope is that also, through the current complexity, that the title will exit discreetly and disappear.
The MNP fam has decided that it was finally time we ‘officially’ went ‘green’ – even tho ninjas have obviously always lived in perfect harmony with their environment. With that in mind, AMNP was kind enough to grace the USGBC and GBCI with our membership – and my becoming a LEED AP. For us it was little more than an early morning diversion and a few hundred bucks lost – but now these LEED organizations can claim an association with the shogunate, which will surely improve public perception of both groups. You’re welcome, USGBC and GBCI – no big thing, really.
With this in mind, we’ve decided to go for a LEED rating here at MNP. For AMNP specifically, this means that I will be recycling 100% of future content from other blogs and websites within a 500 mile radius. I’ll also be creating a graphic for the top of the page advising visitors that the site is best viewed with your monitor off, to save electricity.
I’ve also presented plans to the rest of myninjaplease to take the network to LEED Double Diamond status – which is lightyears ahead of Platinum, for those that didn’t know – by constructing the new dojo in a paralel dimension that has no impact on our own, accessed from an urban brownfield site we’ll be converting to a public park.
It’s Monday! Which of course means that many of you are back at work, staring blankly at your computer screens and trying to shake off the weekend. That said, with the current state of things, many of you are probably barely aware of what day it is – staring at the 2 new job postings that went up this week and wondering just how many other people are going to be applying for them, too [I'm there also]. But hey, that’s why we have the internet – to distract us from ‘the Mondays’ and from dreary job searches [contrary to popular belief, the web is for more than porn and Youtube videos, apparently - who knew?]. So zone out and enjoy some linkage, which will hopefully occupy you through lunch.
As always, if you come across an article you think I should post a link to, or a project AMNP should feature, drop me an email at architecture@myninjaplease.com.
::Video Sundays, or VS, is a weekly feature here on AMNP. For more architecture-related videos, click on any Sunday in the sidebar calendar – or on the ‘videos’ category in the ‘archjutsu’ section. And don’t hesitate to submit suggestions for video features to architecture[at]myninjaplease[dot]com::
Our Furniture Expansion System for Small Apartments in Big Cities, is designed for such lifestyles of minimal materiality—even if it is lopsided since these types tend to accumulate large book or shoe collections, vices that one day suddenly surprise with unexpected demands for additional room.
The project, designed for people OBRA deems ‘urban nomads’, is meant to address the needs of urbanites with small apartments who “fancy perpetual pedestrian investigations and as little time spent at home as
possible”. OBRA proposes that their system serves the function of providing simple space definition, storage, and the ability to travel with these nomadic city dwellers as they move over time.
The system is made up of hollow wood panels and cabinets – constructed offsite with CNC milled 1/2″ ash plywood - which are a maximum of 2×8 feet to ensure that the system can be transported through standard doorways, hallways, and elevator cabs. The system can be assembled vertically or horizontally – giving the ability to create partitions in a space, and/or create loft floors in space with adequate height – and has the potential for “endless reconfiguration” due to its modular nature.
In today’s urban housing market mostly universally characterized by unimaginative and ill-conceived spaces dressed-up as luxurious by the inclusion of a few expensive materials, URBIA proposes a luxury of conception implicit in the harmony of its modular coordination. The proposed system is open-ended in nature, allowing for site modifications and the addition of custom elements that can give specificity to the whole, but it also provides, unlike traditional sheet-rock based interior construction, a built-in rhythm of articulation based on a Fibonacci series that makes proportional mistakes difficult and beauty almost automatic.
A very interesting concept, it reminds me a lot of the work of Dan Hisel, AMNP featured Ninja of the Month – in particular, his ‘Z-Box’ projects [1 & 2]. The idea to transform rented or temporary living space with a modular, portable, reconfigurable, inhabitable furniture system is incredible – and I especially like the uniform material, which allows personal possessions and furniture to accentuate the spaces. It would be particularly interesting if you didn’t have to pack up your posessions when you moved – if the system was really potable storage, that was arranged into an inhabitable system. Get a new place? Just close up the cabinets and shelves still filled with your stuff [maybe bubble-wrap fragile objects, but thats it] and be on your way. Not sure that that is feasible, really – but it’d be pretty dope.
Michael Jackson, ‘The King of Pop’
August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009
I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of a cultural icon, Michael Jackson.
I obviously can’t speak to the controversy that surrounded so much of his life in recent memory – nor can I turn a blind eye, because he’s passed, to the possibility that the allegations may be true. His image and legacy will forever be tarnished by events of the last decade or so, but dwelling on uncertain facts at this point seems disrespectful. Everyone ‘believes’ something about what happened, yet most ‘know’ nothing – I think its important to consider the difference between the two now that the man is gone.
The controversy is over – we are now faced with deciding how we chose to remember this incredible artist, a legend in his own lifetime.
For the immediate future [at least], I’d like to stick with what I know to be true: Michael Jackson changed global music and pop culture, forever – and I love his music. He was an incredible talent, and will be missed.
Just in case the ridiculous amount of rain that's been dropped on New England is something more serious, Boston.com gives us a step by step guide to building our own arks. I'd get started now, before all the good wood/animals are taken.
"America's obsession with supersizing has ballooned from burgers, sodas, and lattes to SUVs, houses, and now freeways. Cities including Atlanta, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., propose to widen some freeways to 24 lanes, or 400 feet—enough space for two 747s, side by side. The El Toro “Y” interchange in Orange County, Calif., already has 26 lanes. If this trend continues, you'll need binoculars to find your exit" .:Architect Magazine->
The NY Times reports that triple deckers in New England have been hit particularly hard by the recession - my guess is that it has something to do with the overinflated prices of these great buildings, which sell (in Boston) for upwards of $400 k a floor. Sure, they're big floors / apts, but still.
"As the environmental hazards of plastic become hard to ignore, a new generation of plant-based alternatives is creeping into commercial applications. Now it’s time for designers to take them to the next level." .:Metropolis->
Zaha Hadid has won a competition to design the 450,000 m2 Cairo Expo City - a major international exhibition and conference centre with business hotel.
Were we actually just straight-up tricked by Obama? Did he ever intend for his 'Office of Urban Policy' to do anything? Be represented anywhere? So far it has barely any staff, is now referred to as the 'Office of Urban Affairs', and hasn't been addressed in any serious way. Meanwhile, the administration continues to stroke 'small towns' and 'rural America', reminding them that the government loves them and will do everything it can for them. Change sure is a-comin'... more, via The Root->
Can 'urban design solutions' save suburbia from itself? Maybe so - and we all know it needs the help [read the full article at Residential Architect by clicking the title of this post].
Export your SketchUp models for first person shooter gaming! Now you can combine two things that I'm sure take up tons of your time - gaming and building digital models.
The number of scheduled LEED exams has gone through the roof, as people are trying to pass the test before the new system goes into effect. Ninjas still think LEED is a money game, making it about the wrong kind of green via the Architects' Newspaper
Well, of course they pollute - but new CO2 maps suggest that US suburbs have higher emmissions than their neighbors in urban areas. So, you're in the cut, pollute more, have to drive further to work, and probably live in a McMansion. Why do you live in the suburbs again?
Domus is available for discounted purchase as PDFs on CD, as a special collection of all the editions from 2000 - 2006 for only about $50 [35 euro]. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Sure - it's not as nice as having Domus in print and on your shelf, but it's a LOT cheaper [and I guess kind of 'green', too].
I just wanted to take a moment to link to an editorial on Prop 8 and gay rights over on PolitricksMNP by our ninja Kiye - and to say that the MNP fam are proud supporters of equal rights for all. Oh - and as ninjas, we think that all you bigots out there should go catch a shuriken to the heart.
I'm sure that many of you know all about this, and I'm wicked late to the party here - but have you checked out Kerkythea? Apparently it's an increasingly popular freeware/open source rendering engine - and the images it produces look pretty dope. Check it out for yourself, if you haven't already [click the title of this post].