Working For The Mayjah Starchitect

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.

Rubbish Soup – The 8th Continent

click on the image for a full-size view

Aw heck. Soon the Earth will suffocate because our vicious species keeps shoving waste down its throat. Here’s the story, please read it. The Independent is reporting that an oceanographer Charles Moore ‘discovered’ a – to say the least – really dirty patch floating on the surface of the ocean between Japan and Hawaii. What he was looking at was the largest rubbish dump in the world held in place by the ocean currents. Up until today people thought that the patch was an island swamped by plastic that you could walk on. The huge thing, however, is no island; it is nearly twice the size as continental United States. The rubbish is basically debris that drifted from the mainland and shipborne garbage. The most worrying thing isn’t the garbage itself, although that alone is a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions; what will effect the marine ecosystem the most is the toxins that are produced by the decomposing plastic. You can’t detect the thing from the sky because of its translucency but it can be spotted from the ships.

/read more after the jump if you have a heart (haha, now you must)

No Feeds & Bad Connection

In the past few days I haven’t been uploading that much because there is a decline in interesing news. I’m subscribed to feeds of some 50 sites but still, it happens. As if that wasn’t shitty enough I’m having connectivity problems. And by ”connectivity problems” I mean ”roomates downloading crap all day long like there was no tomorrow”. It seems like they’re downloading an elephant. We’ll have to talk about that. And by ”talk” I mean ”unplug their cables”. Sorry people, this may happen occasionally.

Thanks for your understanding, hopefully today evening will be better.

Alpine Ski Resort in Texas | What The F%&#

No, no, NO! There are very little things that upset me at all, this is one of them. Now I love snowboarding with all my heart, but all I can think of doing with my snowboard in freaking Texas is punching these developers in the nuts so hard they’ll be pissing particles of my bindings for years to come. Some bright cookies in Texas thought this was a brilliant idea. Them having an IQ OF A FLEA, I’m not surprised. “Not only will Bearfire Resort be a huge economic boost to North Texas, but its innovative approach may prove to be a trend-setter for other cities around the country looking for ways to spur their local economies,” said Armey (one of the fleas). Keep reading, it gets better…

Tom Cruise Freaks Me Out

I’m not here to trash the church of Scientology or any religion for that matter. But this is brainwash. And he takes my breath aoowaaay.

EDIT: Of course there’s a parody :D at Funny or Die.

E-waste | We made our bed, now we’ll sleep in it.

This is by no means an attack on Apple, but the picture of the little girl is just so heartbreaking because sadly it represents what we’re leaving over for our kids. We’re all contributing to the big problem of electronical waste and should be aware of what happens with the out-of-date appliances.

Electronic waste, “e-waste” or “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” (“WEEE“) is a waste type consisting of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic appliance. It is a point of concern considering that many components of such equipment are considered toxic and are not biodegradable. (from Wikipedia)

Eye Candy From Across The Pond

Dan Barry took a trip with Kenneth Fry and photographer Ángel Franco and as a result wrote an article entitled A Place Just Like Every Other Place. Only Not. that was published by The New York Times on Dec23rd 2007. This video is part of that article addressing the problem of visual pollution in the States. “Kenneth Fry is the president of Scenic America, and organization that works to preserve and enhance the visual character of America’s communities. The visual pollution they try to address can be found almost anywhere/…”

We should not point any fingers at US because of this but rather realize that this might happen/ is happening in Europe as well, and as future architects and city planners it is our duty to design with conscience. Also check out the James Howard Kunstler’s talk about The Clusterfuck Nation. Holy ugly shit, now my eyes are hurting. If you ever design something like that, I shall poke you in the eye repeatedly with a rusty fork.

Oh no… He didn’t.

If you got annoyed or just BATSHIT APE because of the highlited text above, I suggest you read the article wrote by this fuckass while I go join forces with my friend Drima of The Sudanese Thinker, and puke my inner organs out. I will hold my comments for I cannot calm myself down, which may result in killing this person slowly with a dull object.

James Howard Kunstler – The Tragedy of Suburbia