Thursday, May 21, 2009

reFresh 090521


refresh will be located on my blog site from here on out, along with other items. i intend to actually write and post beyond just sending links, but we shall see.
at some point i will learn how to actually blog, so the layout and content will hopefully get richer (nowhere to go but up)

lebbeus woods has a blog now.

stuart semple's happy clouds ethereal


frank lloyd wright exhibit opens at the guggenheim

this may have been the first place i got a wee bit tipsy in san francisco. i will miss the tonga room.

can norway provide insight into the economy?

speaking of norway, craig dykers' (graduate of the university of texas) firm snohetta won the most recent mies van der rohe prize for best building in all of europe for the oslo opera house

speaking of unsolicited plugs for my home state 

eco appliance sales pitch #1: rainwater hog allows you to collect and use rainwater on your garden/yard or in your house.

eco appliance sales pitch #2: nature mill is an indoor composter

more niemann genius

austerity project number one: claudio silvestrin

custom treehouses one

custom treehouses two

austerity project number two: uno tomoaki

got a restoration project? the old house parts company is exactly what it sounds like.

are you hot? you need a bigass fan

i don't need much prodding to talk about champagne. veuve clicquot launched their new ecofriendly gift box with an emphasis on design.

and since we're talking bubbly, let's recycle the cork in a mosaic tile

i just learned of these guys, OHIO, a san francisco based furniture company 

corbusier at the barbican in london closes sunday

tired of austerity and modernism? head to southern california for some good old storybook architecture. i encourage looking around this guy's site. 

download vitruvius ten books on architecture here

for everyone who's asked me what is the most eco friendly way to remove/strip paint, i now have an answer

new york has a green roof company. let me know if you hear of a san francisco one.

tomas alonso's furniture seems to draw inspiration from fred sandback

lego is introducing an architecture line, starting with frank lloyd wright (thanks chris)

looks like jones | haydu will have to redesign our business cards.

i figure i will be mentioning long overdue things a lot over the next four years. this is the first.

blow up hall is a new kind of hotel in poland, billed as interactive art. when you make your reservation, the room chooses you after you pick a series of images and answer a few questions.

the pixel hotel in linz has unique rooms to stay in throughout the city. 

this is an ad, but is an amazing work of film. there is no action. it is all freeze frame, only the camera moves through the scene as a narrative unwinds.

global quality of living rankings here

i don't know the science behind this, but fun nonetheless, and maybe a way to plan your summer vacation. graphic maps of the united states showing propensities for the seven deadly sins.

my latest favorite tableware... by aldo bakker

iphone user or apphole? there's an app for that. 

anyone who's ever driven around east houston to west louisiana knows the eery beauty of refinery fires in the sky. this captain took time lapse photography of his ship going through the houston ship channel.

bus stops that serve the community

mecca master plan leaked on youtube


jiffy pop architecture: stainless steel as thin as foil used as building shell. its structure is spray foam sprayed to the back.

toyo ito designed stadium for taiwan's world games looks like a coiled snake. the scales are solar panels. 8,844 of them.

one of my oft mentioned favorite design collectives, droog, has had a series of tiles for some time. they've put out a few more... expanding into kitchens. have a look. the stove is genius...

some great photos of twin houses in leis, designed by recent pritzker winner peter zumthor

Sunday, May 17, 2009

pizzetta 211



one of my favorite unsung, understated restaurants in san francisco. SO much detail taken care of. such delight and wonder where you would not think...

to wit:
in the restroom, a diorama with a mini video screen (and audio) showing scenes out a train window.

perfect really.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

andy goldsworthy @ presidio


i finally made it out to andy goldsworthy's "spire" piece in the presidio

a piece constructed of 37 felled tree trunks
there is an internal sttructure that is completely hidden: a steel armature anchored into an enormous concrete foundation.

similar to much of goldsworthy's works, the piece feels as though it is a natural occurrence, albeit one that on closer inspection becomes directed. currently, it sits as a monument in a clearing.... as such, it feels contemplative... a focal point... there are newly planted trees in the clearing. at some point years in the future, the monumental quality of the spire will subside. instead the monumentality should prove more natural, subtle, surrounded by living trees.

there are two other spire sculptures planned for the area.






Tuesday, April 28, 2009

bayview addition progress

just visited the addition in bayview. getting very close to finished. exterior siding is up, solar panels on the roof, etc...




























Sunday, April 26, 2009

nectar

fire + water

sometimes the simplest things make me stop and take notice

Friday, February 27, 2009

reFresh 092713

eVolo sponsors an annual skyscraper design competition (conceptual). here are this year's winners.

david byrne's blog has an interesting, if somewhat scathing, entry on hong kong

for fans of crop circles

i knew i was contributing to a higher spiritual purpose all this time

a nice photo essay of people at work

a very extensive article from the new republic regarding the challenges to prefab (thanks, gong)

dr. NO's favorable review of d+s remodel of lincoln centre

the amazing design collaborative, droog, opens a store in new york

current favorite light fixture

current favorite rocking chair

what may be the next wave of architectural challenge... what to do with all those failed big boxes?

30 years building a model of herod's temple, and still not finished

connecting the toe to the football... proposal for the world's longest suspension bridge

for fans of metro stations, here are the world's "ten best"

san franciscans: last night the presidio trust released their latest plans aimed at scaling back the proposed guest lodge and fisher's contemporary art museum. fisher has apparently submitted new renderings to john king at the chronicle exclusively. those are not here. WARNING: clicking on the following link downloads a 10MB pdf from the presidio trust. DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT

a four minute video to help you refresh/reset. "everything is amazing and nobody is happy" (louis ck on conan obrien)

Friday, February 13, 2009

reFresh 090213


photographic artist michael bosanko made these photos of "light graffiti" not by photoshop but by using colored flashlights, time lapse and multiple exposure:


a lecture by architect teddy cruz (also a professor at UCSD) titled "a city made of waste". the text does not do the subject matter justice...it comes off a little too much like romanticizing the favela. watch the video, directed by laura hanna. 7 minute slide show with text. incredible. the ingenuity and creativity in transforming waste is the uplifting thing here...

one of my favorite recent bloggers is an artist named christoph niemann.
his blog appears in the ny times. he also often provides illustrations for the new yorker.
often very centered on new york, he now lives in berlin. two entries:
i lego NY and bathroom art

lebbeus woods shares his drawings he did for alien iii, from 1990

the green walls of chile

this is the best collection of aftermath photos of the tvcc fire in beijing (koolhaas designed 'culture center' which was to house a hotel it's a 34 story building) that i have found.

the story of the fire was squelched in china by the media. many bloggers had a field day with the incident, since the building is government owned. i won't pretend to know what the text says in this blog, but the photos are pretty clear. as well, there are some phenomenal shots of the fire in progress.

time + ritual

chinese artist liu jianhua has built shanghai out of poker chips and dice


a nice valentine idea for your significant other


for fans of the new yorker... their favorite 12 of the eustace twilley contest


a table that converts into a chair. simple. check out the sculpted marriage of seat bucket and lumbar support


light fixtures in honor of lincoln and darwin's bicentennial birthday?