If anyone is out there, and anyone out there can spare a minute, could you please tell me what your understanding/ definition of architecture is? Please please please! And a few thanks you’s as well!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N239ZHS
Thanks internet friends!!!
I love tea pots. It’s a grandma thing. She loves tea cups and tea pots, and I always grew up having tea parties with her friends.
Now they’re just a comforting thing. They are cozy, functional, classic yet whimsical, and reminds me of gram. Oh, and Beauty and the Beast. There is no wrong.
I love this idea of reuse.
Something I love about architecture, and architects is that it’s not all buildings. Or at least it doesn’t have to be all buildings.
Take this firm, dEEP Architects from china. They made a light exhibition art piece.
Architects can pretty much design what they want to, which is why I’m so drawn to it. Industrial design, interior design, art of all kinds, architects pretty much get the green light to go on a free for all at a hat store… And someday I hope to wear all of those hats I’ve been collecting.
Fiber optics are pretty awesome. I’ve always loved the idea that.. light. and stuff. Can move through them. Mostly the lights, I love the way it looks. This art piece called “Heaven” is no exception. It’s very well done. And pretty cool that an architecture firm was the one to do it.
As I promised at the end of my last entry, I’d share with you the poem that is on the bottom of the Dr. Bronner’s bottle. The poem on the bottle is a little different, but it was inspired by this, and this is pretty good inspiration if I dare say.
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!
-Rudyard Kipling
Here. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to poems too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-TmC0MsM1o&feature=related
Fair Trade is an exceptionally important aspect of my daily life. It’s also something I try to support as avidly and frequently as possible.
The fact that farmers all around the world are in near slave labor conditions to bring the rest of the spoiled world a $5.00 cup of coffee sickens me. And it doesn’t stop there. Bananas, vanilla, sugar, rice, chocolate, even flowers… The list continues. Almost any crop that the world demands can probably be traced back to small farms in impoverished countries, and you can bet that $5.00 coffee that they’re not seeing even a fraction of that money. That’s not right, and it’s not okay either.
Fair Trade works to avoid that. Farmers are paid fair wages in order to support their families. Have access to health care, and have a better quality of life. Fair Trade is also dead against child labor and anything anti-human rights. Things ordinary farmers in the same regions are often denied. In most cases Fair Trade farming also harvests and grows the crops in an ethical, sustainable way, and works to benefit the surrounding community.
Okay, you’re right. Fair Trade products are usually a lot more money coming out of our pockets. And it also probably means that you can’t just stop into that same coffee shop every day either. But, if you were the one harvesting the cocoa beans for pennies a day, wouldn’t you hope someone would stand up and fight for your rights too?
Besides, buying coffee for $11 per lb makes a lot more than the two cups you could have bought out somewhere.
Care about people and the world too? Look for these labels:
It doesn’t end there though. There are lots of other brands that also sell fair trade products. Such as my favorite brand of soap: Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps Not only do they smell delicious, last forever, are all natural, fair trade, made in the US, and all around wonderful, they also have really fun bottles!
My favorite sent has a fun poem on it adapted from Rudyard Kipling titled “If.”
I’ll post it in a minute.
I got reading about this school, and couldn’t deny that it was a clever approach.
From what I’ve been reading lately. Asia seems to be on their game with designing children’s schools. They’re run. Imagine that? A fun school? It doesn’t look like a three story box that was dropped in the middle of town and left to decay. Children, a child’s scale, and their experience were all accounted for in this example. And a few others. I think our newer schools are headed in this direction, but… The US seems to prominently favor fast and cheap much more than it fun and experiential quality. It breaks my heart.
I love the simplicity of these spaces. I also love that in reality, none of these rooms are really closed off from one another. I’m not sure of effective that is with screaming children. But I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.
I also enjoy the simplicity of changing the direction of the flooring to differentiate between spaces where ordinarily there would be a wall. It creates a very nice space within a space. The added change in ceiling height, and bold splashes of color also are a dead giveaway.
If I was a kid, I think it’d like it there. But, probably not running around outside. In context it looks like that place was picked up in a tornado and plopped somewhere else. In the middle of a farm field perhaps?
…Have NOTHING on this girl. I live for stuff like this!
I’ve always been a fan of hiding things (or, on occasion, myself) for people to find. I do it semi-constantly when the opportunity strikes. Seeking is also fun, but I’ve always enjoyed the hiding more.
This lady had a brilliant idea, I’m slightly envious that she though of it before I did. I wish I could find one of her jars.
This blog IS for architecture right? Yeah. I thought so too.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/07/21/garden/20110721-LOCATION.html
take that!
Arch Daily explodes Daily, with new and sometimes old architecture that the world should probably be aware of. Who sets the standards I don’t know. But I really enjoy seeing what kind of buildings are actually getting built. And what kind of competitions are actually getting won. I’ve been collecting the ones I’ve liked for the majority of the summer. I’d better get to posting them, huh?
Well. The above Cube House designed by Yumiko Foust Virant is just, charming.
What I like:
It’s simple. It’s small. But on the inside it looks HUGE. For two people, (maybe even more) there really is an ample amount of space, in such a tiny amount of space! And the kitchen was actually thought out!
I also like it because it’s cozy, but grand. It seems to combine both of the elements I find myself continually drawn to. Vast open, often double height spaces, but also little nooks to hide away in.
It’s also fun. Did you see that little picture frame window in the bedroom? Right next to the bigger window. Whimsy! Oh, I love whimsy! The designer and the clients clearly have a sense of humor. No one needs a little window next to a huge one. But it’s fun, so why not?
Need I mention it’s surrounded by trees? That trees, and views to trees were an important consideration in the design of this huge little house. Of course I love it. This, coming from the girl who’s last project incorporated 15ft ficus trees in every loft apartment.
What I don’t like:
The front door, the view to the front door, and I imagine the walk to the front door, is just depressing. I probably would have added some covered patio out there at least. Thrown a chair or two. Something to make it look a little less stark, and a little more inviting. I’m a huge fan of simple, but this entry is just bare.
I don’t like the thought behind the storage space in the bedrooms. Why, exactly does the second bedroom get the walk in closet while the master bedroom gets a wall unit? Swap that nonsense.
I would also throw in a basement of some kind. It makes me nervous when buildings are just thrown on the ground. They needs some roots. I’m also pretty sure that for the size of that pace, having a little extra storage or a small media room in the basement might be a nice feature.
I have yet to do this to my bookshelves. But, I’ve been MEANING to do this with my bookshelves for a while.
This raises two questions though. 1. What happens with multi colored book bindings? 2. What happens with books that are part of a series?
I guess those get their own shelf. I guess they get banished to another bookshelf, somewhere in a corner. Poor guys, permanently in time out.
