stash pocket

Talking trash to the garbage around you.

Goodnight :*

The starchitect that is Santiago Calatrava will change the Chicago skyline with this slim skyscraper - a residential building that is called The Chicago Spire and is proclaimed to be the most significant residential building in the world. In a city where architecture played a huge role in its cultural image, Calatrava will be joining a very long list of big names in the business (I found a very informative timeline of notable buildings in Chicago on Wiki). I hope more information about this project will surface soon. The website says little about the construction but shows a lot of neat renderings, a panorama from the top of the tower, interior images and a movie accompanied by DiCaprio-sees-Titanic-for-the-fist-time-style music. With all do respect, I have to say I’m left unimpressed with the way he did the interior. Maybe because I was all siked and high on adrenalin from the movie; but fool me you can not with your magical presentation :D Could be just my taste. Anyways…

/check out the movie here (and scan through the elegant website while you’re there)

This is pretty much what you get when you slice a side/front-gabled house in half and build it in Tokyo. It’s sited exactly 63.01° off the road to provide the interior with more sunlight (and stares of freaky neighbours). It’s supposed to be used as a SOHO (small office/ home office) and will be possible to rent. Can you tell that they went with minimalism on this one? But I don’t think it would be too minimalist for comfort. I’d drag a bunch of my stuff in (curtains) and it would make a perfect little home. What’s impressive is that they built it on such a small piece of land and managed to get a decent home out of it. It looks raw on the inside because it is. And that’s ok because it’s honest. They may have pushed the enevelope a bit with this one though, but you be the judge.

slideshow: click

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(via: TreeHugger, photo source: Schemata)

For all of you who think that working for an architectural studio of a high profile, such as SANAA of Kazuyo Seijima and Ryue Nishizawa, is a joyful experience filled with rainbows and unicorns, this is proof of how mistaken you are. An architecture student blogged about her experience as an intern at SANAA in Tokyo and what was told is not pretty. We’ve all probably worked at a studio before and it can get frustrating, I’ll agree. But it was never anything like this story - working for free, all the time. I strongly disagree with the statement they usually throw in your face - that you should be glad you’re even a part of the team and will benefit from the internship in a way money can never cover. Understandably don’t let you do the concept, or let you pick the materials, or define the structure; you are not a part of the creative process and we all know what’s left for us to do. But the conditions you live and work under are dehumanized beyond belief. It has become a common thing that architecture students are treated that way and it is wrong. Can big studios today even sustain without the (nearly) free flow of students/ graduates? What is sad is that when you come to a point in your life when you need to get employed, the portfolio with the ’starchitects internee’ written on will probably nail you the job - when the employers themselves know it’s a load of crap. The circle is vicious. I hope they’re providing her with food and shelter but they probably switched meals with food pills years ago.

Continue reading ‘Working For The Mayjah Starchitect’

I have no idea how I haven’t noticed this piece of brilliancy up until now. I’ll just make it a ‘better late than never’ thing and post it. Said to be written by John Cleese, it goes like this:

To the citizens of the United States of America:

In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (excepting Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Continue reading ‘John Cleese (?) | A Letter to America’

Junya Ishigami designed the KAIT kobo at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology recently. It appears to be a pavillion but is in fact a studio/ workspace. The whole facade is made entierly out of glass that is supported and attached to flat glass ‘columns’; together with the thin roof they give the building an extreme feeling of lightness. The thin steel columns inside offer the building support and give the interior a nice, clean airy look. The studio has more than enough natural light throughout the day comming through the glass facade as well as through the roof windows. The space appears to be empety with only a few tables, workspaces and flower pots. I personally am not feeling the wooden furniture nor the flower pots as they seem a bit random. I hate to nag, greenery is very welcome in a warehouse-like space, but I think that H&deM made it way funkier in their (not yet built) Miami Art Museum. But all in all, very elegant!

slideshow: click

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(via: dezain, photo source: miru-kenchiku)