BUT STILL PRETTY COOL

A waste of time? Yes! But learnt a bit in the process of creating these

A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME

Hi Team,

Have had a pretty ordinary, very uninspiring couple of weeks spending mush of my time working on a nothing interior group assignment. So where am i in terms of my skyscraper? turns out touching the earth lightly has become a bit to mainstream, and whilst something i believe in (if not for the environment but also more literally for urban design), a recent conversation has lead me back down the path of the automobile.

I'm proposing a skyscraper which takes ideas from the car. think Radiator cooling system complete with ram air, think wind spoilers, grills, wind dams, exhaust vents, carbon fibre, and clean smooth lines. The ides is for a car manufacturing facility complete with; supercar museum, test track, space for design work, and sales, as well as residential for workers, designers, and clients.

I started by modeling the form of Ferrari's Enzo and breaking it down into parts which may be useful spaces. But this just ended up becoming a giant car wreck. Add a few stories car manufacturing plant on top of that and what you have looks more like Decepticon Headquarters. Wow couldn't have been more further from my initial ideas, but its a start, a useful exercise, even if it only taught me how to waste an entire day.

WHATS BEEN GOING ON?

So this week has been rather unproductive in terms of design. I've spent the past 9 days getting my new computer sorted out, (finding new software to allow compatibility with 64bit Windows 7, organising Internet connections, and setting up a home network) but i think I've finally got it sorted.

This weeks train of thought is based around ideas behind my new skyscraper project. My initial thoughts were based around a hybrid mixed use, residential, retail, and adventure park (a way for a city dweller who likes to get outside the city for a surf, or a ride, or a dive, or to go spear fishing, or skydiving, or rock climbing...). After exploring some of these ideas there was really no 'light bulb' moment and so I've chosen to move on. I was put down the path of a Skyscraper for the motor vehicle enthusiast and whilst i am still contemplating this I've moved more toward landscape (something which i guess you need to do all the activities i mentioned above). We as Australians don't have a huge architectural history, we don't have ancient ruins, or great palaces.

What we DO have is unique and diverse landscapes which are being turned to ruins because of poor planning. So what it the answer? How do we touch the earch lightly? Can we?

To me it seams this city area really does not have any natural landscape to speak of. This got me thinking... what if all the landscape had been swept into a big pile. A big pile of landscape in which people could inhabit. Not a building with plants and grass, not an indoor backyard, not a building with flora just for the sake of looking 'green', but a building which creates a man made landscape of natural elements for the sake of location and beautiful landscape. Instead of building to capture views, could we could be building to create views....

NINJA ARITHMATIC

Just a few things to think about...

These are two of my all time favourite wines, I love the Shiraz but Shaw and Smith also do a great Sauvignon Blanc. The first wine however is one I'm rather chuffed with. 'The Old School Principals Shiraz' is my new greatest discovery check it out at http://www.heidenreichvineyards.com.au/ they are a boutique winery in the Barossa. Awesome!

In all seriousness Foster I've been to your Reichstag (the double helix), Swiss re (the Gherkin), and London's City Hall (the single helixed, sliced egg); their all perfectly executed but 'the dome' has been done. It was a breath of fresh air to visit Hearst Tower. Cheers ;)

FORGIVE ME I'M NEW AT THIS

Hi suckers,

Welcome to my first blog. I'm new to this so bear with me, I've never done the creepspace/tweeta/facebook thing so this is a first. I've been asked to start a blog by Ruwan (my 4th year architecture tutor http://ruwanlsystems.blogspot.com/) so here it is.

For those who don't know me I'm 25, male, and a father of 1. If you want to know the rest of my stuff its in my details, or you can ask, i probably wont reply, its probably none of your damn business, but what are you gonna do...

Over the last few weeks I've been looking at a few books for ideas for my Arch. design assignment. Here's what I'm reading

UN STUDIO-UN FOLD

A very graphic book with some great ideas and theory. It introduces a number of the firms project by way of a surprisingly descriptive short story complete with fictional characters and events, giving the reader an imagined/implied experience of the building before they lay eyes on it. Very Cool.

S,M,L,XL

This book is thick people, bible thick. another very graphic book with flashes of sexuality and stark nudity (something i think Rem Koolhaas is rather fond of) It looks at architecture from all scales as the title suggests and is definitely worth a look. even if you wont read every page you'll take away something.

ARCHITECTURE IN TRANSITION

A fantastic book made up of lectures of some of the worlds greatest architects looking between deconstruction and new modernism. I've had the privilege to witness a number of architectural works by some of this books contributors including Coop Himmelblau, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Bernard Tschumi, so it was a very interesting read. Although very academic at times (don't read this if your tired, you wont remember a thing) it is full of worthwhile lectures.