I can't remember if Professor Hecker may have mentioned this or not, but here is a book that seeks to identify... well... the perfect $100,000 house.
The book apparently chronicles architecture critic (are any of these "critics" actually architects) Karrie Jacobs road trip to find good housing design for $100,000. Jacobs travels from coast to coast interviewing architects and builders “who are revolutionizing the way Americans think about homes, about construction techniques, and about community” to find the answer.
What will your micro-house cost? Will smart and intelligent materials continually drive the cost of well-designed homes beyond the reach of the masses?
Can you get more micro than this?
Probably, but the 480 sf BARK ATC (All-Terrain Cabin) is still pretty darn small, especially for a structure containing a fully functioning kitchen and bathroom.
From the BARK design website:
"...we designed a small home, a cabin, using the standard ISO shipping container as the basis for the structure and outfitting it totally with Canadian Design and Technology. The result is as smart as it is efficient, suitable for a family of four and a pet to live off the grid in comfort and contemporary style. It travels by train, truck, ship, airplane or helicopter, folded up and indistinguishable from any ordinary shipping container. Once it arrives, it unfolds rapidly to 480sf of self-contained, sophisticated living space with all the comforts of home."
The ATC is currently on tour to promote the design industry in Canada. One wonders if the design could truly be site-specific in other parts of the world, too. For example, how could its climate control systems deal with the hot, humid, and altogether oppressive summers in the southeastern US? Would it still be able to operate off the grid?
You can read more about it here:
http://www.barkbark.ca/projects_atc.html
In direct response to the 2005 EU Clean Air Strategy, a London- and Berlin-based design firm called Elegant Embellishments (
http://www.elegantembellishments.net/) has developed "a decorative, three-dimensional architectural tile" that can reduce vehicular air pollution, including nitrous oxide and ground-level ozone. The tiles – algorithmically designed and modular in assembly – can thus "rapidly improve urban environments in terms of air quality and visual appeal."
According to the company's own recent press release:
"The tiles are coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2), a pollution-fighting technology that is activated by ambient daylight. TiO2 is a photo-catalyst already known for its self-cleaning and germicidal qualities; it requires only small amounts of naturally occurring UV light and humidity to effectively reduce air pollutants into harmless amounts of carbon dioxide and water. When positioned near pollution sources, the tiles neutralise NOx and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) directly where they are generated. They transform previously inert urban surfaces into active surfaces, re-appropriate polluted spaces for safer pedestrian use, and invert problem spaces – dark, polluted, uninhabitable – to benevolent spaces that benefit communities."
The physical design of the tiles is itself meant as a visual provocation--the resulting grid resembles a kind of "crystalline ivy, sculpturally attached to the otherwise bare walls of urban downtowns," where it assumes "endless varieties of physical structures." So the more pollution a city has, the more of this material you have placed about the city to fight that pollution.
This of course begs the obvious question - which virus do you choose? Pollution or this ever-growing matrix of white plastic? It seems to me that the better choice may be to fight the causes of the pollution rather than trying to mop it up with this stuff.
One for the category of "Why Didn't Someone Think of This Sooner?"
Need I explain why?
Taking home the Silver in the student design category of the Idea Awards, "Plug-In" by designer Julia Burke fits in a standard opening for electrical outlets. Its uplifted angle obviously makes it easier to plug cords into it. Additionally, one can plug two large AC adapters into it with room to spare.
This product could definitely qualify as a Daily Lubricant.
Mr. Vaio R.I.P. 2002-2006
I have been a few days behind in my blogging, in no small part to the death of my faithful old laptop. Nothing brightens the grad student's day more than a loud beep, a slow whir, and a smell reminiscent of burnt hair emenating from one's daily companion of four years. And so I was off on my quest to replace this indispensable tool. I'll apologize to Tim and Matt in advance - I know they are probably tired of hearing my moaning on this subject, but I found the process of selcting a new laptop tied closely to our discussions in studio.
Why?
Because, I found out, that I, to some small extent, am a "Master of the YOUniverse." Hopefully this doen't mean that I am one of those people Professor Hecker mentioned should be lined up and shot. But it does mean that I found myself in a market for a product for which good design an a good process for purchasing is essential. In perusing the local retail outlets greater Anderson had to offer, I was sorely dissapointed, not just by the design of so many of the computers, but by how few options were available. Among the four stores I visited, I essentially found the same products at each store. The problem wasn't a lack of variety of brands or models, it was just that all off those models essentially offered the same thing - HUGE hard drives, flimsy construction, and exstensive gimmicks with woefully-underpowed graphics cards. Anything else was incredibly overpriced. Sure, they are great for folks who only use their computers to download vast amounts of illegal music or store millions of photos to post on Facebook or Myspace or whatever, but a possible liability for anyone who will be using their computer for any sort of graphics-intensive programs. It appears that the brick-and-mortar retail stores were geared almost completely to impulse buyers. Most of the computers were flashy,
excessively flimsy (I'm looking at you, Compaq), and overpriced for what they were. To me, a sturdy chassis means as mush or more than actual processing power - after all, I tote one of these things around every single day. Some were considerably better constructed (and no more expensive), and they served to guide me in investigating what the online world had to offer.
And so I became, for a few nights anyway, a "Master of the YOUniverse." I did a lot of research and became very familiar with the ups and downs of the buyer interfaces of three manufacturers offering customizable computers - Dell, Toshiba, and Sony. I would suggest that folks in the studio might want to look at the sites as we are thinking about what it means for a product to be mass-customizable.
The Dell site (
www.dell.com) offered a very flashy selection interface with a bevy of options - to the point where it definitely became information overload. Of course, most of the options were ridiculous and obvious price-inflators- does anyone really need a 5-year warranty for a product that will probably be obsolete in less than 1? Why do I need to wade through a selection of over-priced backbacks? Didn't I come here for a computer? Do I need every page to tell me how I can "listen to my favorite songs" while I have to pick through the entire website just to figure out if the damn thing will fit in my existing laptop bag? There's no doubt though, that the Dell site is a Master of the YOUniverse's dream - the customization options are almost endless.
Sony's (
www.sonystyle.com) and Toshiba's (
www.toshibadirect) websites offer far fewer customization options, but offer a wider selection of basic laptop models to build upon. The sites are both less flashy than Dell's (with Toshiba's being downright utilitarian - think of the internet circa 1997), but require the consumer to wade through a good many different pages to see all the models available. However, upon selecting a model to build upon, customization is very easy - a single page let's one see an select every available option.
This all brings us to the question of the buyer's interface with the product selection - something all of us will have to think about as we develop and consider the properties of our micro-houses. Do we want a few models for which customization is almost endless, or should the products be more specialized with fewer available options? What is the best way to present this to the customer in a way that balances the need for communicating a lot of information, while trying to present this information in as direct a way as possible?
Oh - and if you want to know which product I selected, it was the Sony. It cost the least for what I wanted. So maybe everything I just talked about got tossed right out the door.
The Daily Lubricants House: A Home for the Hypertasker
70 percent of media users consume more than one medium at a time. Of those who listen to radio, 53.7 percent are also online, 46.9 percent are reading a newspaper and 17.7 percent are watching TV. Of those watching TV, 66.2 percent are online and 74.2 percent are reading a newspaper.Based on the readership of REAL SIMPLE magazine, there are at least 1.5 million American HYPERTASKERS who are interested in products that serve as DAILY LUBRICANTS. Their median age is 40, and their median household income is USD 90,000.
The logical step is to apply the trend of DAILY LUBRICANTS to architecture and market housing for these people. This trend is not to be confused with minimalism. These people want quality, reasonably-priced surroundings with the lowest possible maintenance, as they actually may not spent very much time at home. They need a contemporary home that will LUBRICATE their busy lives.
Therefore, the program for the DAILY LUBRICANTS HOUSE is as follows: This mass-customizable home will provide a total interior square footage of 1000 sq.ft. As the HYPERTASKER spends so little time at home, additional square footage is unnecessary. Two bedrooms and two bathrooms serve the HYPERTASKER and his or her immediate family or friends. These are the only enclosed rooms in the house. The remaining space remains as open as possible to allow the unimpeded flow of the HYPERTASKER from one task to another and into and out of the house. Extensive glazing provides a direct visual connection between the indoors and outdoors, and numerous portals will allow ingress and egress from every possible direction. Furnishings are minimal, but functional and of high quality. A number of well-thought-out “stations” within this open area will serve the occupant as he or she HYPERTASKS. Wall planes will flow into floor planes and ceiling planes as smoothly as possible to facilitate easy cleaning, and all materials will be as low-maintenance as possible. The HYPERTASKER has far too much going on to spend any time worrying about the house.
A nifty, cheap lighting system.
This lighting system, called the
lbs_mmv lighting system by industrial designer Arcus Mőhely of Budapest, won honorable mention at the BIO20 Awards.
As far as I can tell, it appears to be fabricated of stamped steel, styrofoam, and clear tubing. There is something poetic about it's modular use of such inexpensive materials to create the effect of a unique biological organism.
Too bad it wouldn't work in the Daily Lubricants house. No hypertasker has the time to dust this thing.
Another automotive post. Yes, this is still an architecture site.
In light of Nathan's presentation yesterday regarding the hydrogen fuel cell, here it is - the world's first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle.
http://www.caranddriver.com/carnews/11655/2008-chevrolet-equinox-fuel-cell.htmlGM plans to build and market 100 fuel-cell-powered Chevy Equinox SUVs in the third-quarter of 2007. The cars will be assigned to three test markets--New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles--for three-month loans to families, business, and policy-makers.
"Inside is GM’s fourth-generation fuel-cell stack, a single 97-horsepower motor with 236 pound-feet of torque driving the front wheels, a pack of nickel-metal-hydride batteries, and three storage tanks holding up to nine pounds of hydrogen (good for 200 miles on an EPA mileage test) stored at 10,000 psi. GM fuel-cell director Byron McCormick promises that the hydrogen-inhaling Equinox will behave much like a regular car. It will start up in sub-freezing temperatures (until now a technical hurdle for the water-generating powerplant) and get to 60 mph in about 12 seconds. However, the fuel cell’s life expectancy is just 50,000 miles owing to corrosion issues inside the stack."
While this could be a promising development, it seems to me that it could very well end up like GM's EV1 fiasco. For those who remember, the EV1 was was GM's electric car that was released in the late 1990s to a limited market. Of 1100 produced, only about 800 ever ended up on the road, due to the fact that GM would only lease the vehicle to a handpicked number of applicants in California and Arizona. Despite very positive consumer feedback and high interest, GM killed the project in 2003, promptly repossessed all of the vehicles, and proceeded to destroy as many as possible (including hundreds of brand-new vehicles). Obviously, many folks believe the EV1 program was intended all along to fail, and to prove that electric vehicles were not feasible, and that we should all continue driving GM's (very profitable) gas-guzzling SUVs. To add fuel to this fire, GM insiders later provided documentation of long waiting lists for the EV1 that went unfulfilled.
Crushed Ev1s.
Interestingly enough, I just found out that a recent documentary titled
Who Killed the Electric Car chronicles the reasons behind the rise and fall of the EV1.
Bird-Friendly Wind Turbine
Aerovironment has introduced a product they call Architectural Wind, a relatively small 6.5-foot diameter, 60-pound turbine. It's designed to take advantage of the unique aerodynamics of tall buildings, catching the wind after it's been funneled up the facade. The unit only needs a 7mph wind to start cranking out the power, and it's capable of generating 55kWh per month. There's an optional canopy you can mount on the top of the unit as well as the grid you see here that keeps birds out of trouble.
You can see the manufacturer's website here:
http://www.avinc.com/index.phpSome of the other unrelated products from Aerovironment are also very interesting, especially the hand-launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). While most of the ones profiled on the webpage are for military or scientific applications, one can only wonder how long it will be before surveyors (or even architects) will be able to toss a GPS-guided UAV into the air that can, with the use of laser mapping or a synthetic aperature radar, completely generate a digital model of a particular site.
A hybrid that will make you feel like a man.
Not a big fan of the hybrid Escape's grocery-getter image? Does your Honda Civic or Accord hybrid just blend into the crowd? Are GM's hybrid full-size trucks pointless (A real man drives a diesel anyway, right)? Is a Prius just too damn effeminate?
Well, have no fear.
Two big players who fabricate Formula One dream machines, N.Technology and Tatuus, have teamed up to build the first hybrid formula car. The single-seater open-wheeled race car will have a 250hp engine, along with an electric motor that uses regenerative braking to recharge its batteries.
The fact that hybrid engine technology is even being considered by world-class Formula One designers serves as an
ad hoc endorsement for the idea. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, right?
This of course begs the following question: Why are all the hybrids currently on the market so damn boring? Sure, the Lexus GS450h is a swift car, but as we all know, Lexuses are cars marketed to the nouveau riche who think they are too good for Toyotas - not to true aficionados of automobilia. Several years ago, Honda promised that the next iteration of its NSX uber-car would be a hybrid, but that car is a piece of vaporware that has yet to materialize. And I'm not just talking expensive cars. Why aren't hybrid versions of GM's inexpensive and hot-selling Pontiac Solstice / Saturn Sky / Opel GT roadsters available? At least it would but a prettier face on the world of the hybrid.
One for the aerophiles.
Looking for an nifty coffee table? This one created by Irish designer Lorraine Brennan is made out of 2mm folded steel. Nothing like a little whimsy to liven up your dour pre-fab blob house that looks like it was designed by some high-minded grad student.
Personally, I like it. Not just because I'm an aerophile, but it raises some interesting questions. Maybe folded sheet steel can be used for something other than cheap office furniture. It certainly doesn't look hard to fabricate.
The shadows of International Modernism are haunting us still. But perhaps not for much longer. The remaining vestiges of Chicago's Pruitt-Igoe-style Taylor housing projects are slated for demolition.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/08/taylor.homes.ap/index.html
How about a pretty obvious alternative to our HYPERTASKING trend: the need — in between HYPERTASKING — for simplicity, order, and more quality time?This phenomenon has been dubbed DAILY LUBRICANTS: the fast growing class of products and services that cater to consumers' need for simplicity, and that literally LUBRICATE daily life.Already a massive hit in the US, REAL SIMPLE magazine delivers its 1.5 million affluent readers (median age 40, median household income USD 90,000) tips and tricks on which products to buy to make their busy lives easier. In the magazine's own words: "While balancing professional, family and community priorities, our readers also recognize the importance of taking care of themselves."Dutch newspaper deVolkskrant recently introduced a clever Saturday-Plus subscription. 'Plus' subscribers receive the paper version of the daily on Saturdays, while on weekdays they have access to the full digital version. This mirrors the lifestyle of more and more readers: no time to read the paper version from Monday to Friday, because of HYPERTASKING, combined with little desire to leave the home early Saturday mornings to get the still-popular paper weekend edition. Very astute, not just from a publishing approach, but from a behavioral, process, and service angle as well. LUBRICATION in action.The next logical step is to take this trend to architecture and market housing for these people. This trend is not to be confused with minimalism. These people want quality, reasonably-priced surroundings with the lowest possible maintenance, as they actually may not spent very much time at home. They need a contemporary home that will LUBRICATE their busy lives.
Internet Deprivation Study
This is a neat (and humorous) study. Yahoo disconnected a number of volunteers from the internet and than attempted to show them how to engage in a real life.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/disconnected/The funny thing is, that upon my first visit to the site, none of the links worked. So I thought it was all a brilliant joke. I was actually let down a bit when the links eventually began to work.
Cheap Hotels
A new trend arising for travelers, that has been driven by the ease of internet booking, is dubbed "Planned Spontenaity." But where does one stay on such short notice and and a small budget (less than 90 E per night)?
Why, at the 25Hours Hotel, of course.
That is, if you are going to Hamburg and you like 60s colorful minimalist design.
http://www.25hours-hotel.com/25h/index.html
And another article from ArchitectureWeek...
This is interesting. It's an entire exhibit based on artists' views of architecture. "Archipeinture: Painters Build Architecture."
http://www.architectureweek.com/2006/0927/news_4-1.html
Urban Infill
This summer the American Institute of Architects California Council (AIACC) announced the 2006 recipients of its annual design awards program. Five honor awards were given to California architects, for projects at home and as far flung as Pennsylvania and London.
One of the local projects is a residence hall complex for the University of California, Berkeley, designed by Esherick, Homsey, Dodge, & Davis (EHDD) Architecture.
One block from the Berkeley campus, this infill student housing project lies in a transitional zone between the bustling campus and a quieter residential neighborhood with single-family houses and low-density apartment buildings. In the early 1960s, the university had built eight dormitory towers, organized in a pinwheel configuration facing away from the street, without connections to the street life of the community, creating unused outdoor space.
EHDD's new buildings remedy this situation and solve several other problems. The new housing faces the street, giving students a greater presence in the community. The stepped-height facades reduce the disparity of scale between the dormitory towers and the nearby houses. The neighborhood — always desperate for more student housing — has increased in density.
----
I found this interesting as an example of current infill design. The rest of the article can be read here:
http://www.architectureweek.com/2006/0927/news_3-1.html
First blog.
Since the concept of the Garden City is what I am currently researching for my Architecture of the City course, it's going to become the topic of my first post here.
While his 1898 text "To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform" is anything but contemporary, pieces of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City concept is clearly visible in Safde's "Every Man a Garden" ideal, Israeli kibbutzes and even in the kitschy "Neo-Trad" communities popping up everwhere today.
It's interesting to see how closely Howard's Garden City movement is intertwined with the political, societal, and economic ideologies of the time, including socialism and temperence. While Howard himself was not an architect, he had a number of architects as his followers. It raises the question of whether contemporary architects should find themselves and their design logics allied with a greater ideology, or remain in a more detatched and objective position.
I can't remember if Professor Hecker may have mentioned this or not, but here is a book that seeks to identify... well... the perfect $100,000 house.
