oneshotexhibition.org blog

The state of California is in a verge of a movement of epic proportions by a propose Legislation, Measure SB 375, to limit the urban sprawl to reduce global warming. It is the first state or government that has tackle urban development as a source to regulate land use policies that will create smart urban planning & infrastructure, and reduce carbon emission. It will give not only urban designers but Architects a broader context on designing environments for the future of society.

There is a belief that it will entail new business for energy technology, better research & invention on clean energy, such as solar, geothermal & recyclable,  and spur a new age of global environmentalism and emerging markets. The new book Hot, Flat and Crowded by New York Times “foreign affairs” columnist Thomas L. Friedman stated that there is a need of new innovation of clean energy and shift away from the waste that society is accustomed to their lifestyle choice. He calls it the Green revolution and that American has the opportunity to become the leader in this movement.

The hope from the possible new California state legislation measure and the series of books and articles addressing for a newer and daring approach towards the environment and society is that Architects and Designers has the opportunity to come up with innovative ideals and designs that will capture the spirit and the nature of moving towards a sustainable future. The ideal is to have a more responsible practice in reinventing the built environment while preserving our natural resources and the earth.

One of the most blatant act of police brutality was done by a rookie New York City Cop Patrick Pogan who attacked a cyclist in one of the Critical Mass event which bicycle activists ride the streets of NYC to promote a better share of riding bicycles in the city landscape and for the public awareness of being socially conscious & environmentally responsible. The cyclist, Christopher Long, who is a Army veteran, was not seriously hurt but left an imprint on other cyclist on the status of being proactive in promoting sustainable living and responsibility.

The whole event was not permit, given the fact the bureaucracy of government officials would circumvent the critical organizers attempt to get a legal gathering or event to promote an alternative mode of transportation with safety concerns. It is important to note that more and more people are finding ways to decrease the amount of driving the automobile because the high price of gasoline and the driving experiences between cars and bicycles.

The most disturbing thing about the incident is the comments made in You-tube and other blog posts are asinine comments by ignorants who think that it was OK to beat up cyclist with no provocations. Be the judge of that. Also check out the New York Times report regarding this incident by the conflicting accounts from the officer account and what is actually happen by videotaping it.

Song of the Blog: Screw The Law by Black Flag on the Album The Process of Weeding Out.

Straw bale construction is probably the most underestimated material to use in the building industry with all the metallic surfaces, wood-framing and processed materials used in today’s contemporary architecture that increases the carbon footprint. It has not been utilize in ways to explore space and tactility in bigger projects, mostly in mix-use and commercial projects, especially in Los Angeles. There is a lot of potential in which it gives an aesthetic quality and a human tone, similar to the missions of California and the adobe dwellings of the Native Americans in the Southwest, an innate quality that is indigenous to the world.

CASBA (California Straw Bale Association) put out workshops on bale raising and clay plastering seminar. Recently, there was a bale-raising seminar for a charter school in a former military base Fort Ord near Monterrey called the Chartwell School. It is a 16′x22′ typical A-Frame building, separated from the main campus (which is the first LEED Platinum rating for a school), amongst the forest of the Oaks.

Lead by Greg McMillan of Flying M Construction for the Bale raising seminar, it gave most of the participants helpful information on the reason of using straw bales as a alternative material for designing and construction, and the future lies for it. Not a lot went to the preparation because there were some delays, but most of participants enjoy the company and work really hard in raising the bale by the end of the 2 1/2-Day seminar. One was to tie nylon straps on the 4 corners of the building, using a haystack needle to stitch it from separation and movement. All in all, it was fun and informative about building straw bale.

The Chartwell School in Fort Ord, near Monterrey (main campus).

  Site of the Straw Bale workshop, near the main campus of Chartwell School. Note: foundation is already set up with the pressure treated sill plate and the nylon straps attached to it from both sides of the exterior and interior.

Gravel filled between the sill plate prior to raising the straw bale.

Borax is poured on top the gravel to prevent bugs and insects.

Ready to lay the first coarse of the square bales.

  Box framed windows being installed to the straw bale.

Building up with straw bale.

Finishing with the top coarse of the straw bale, ready to put the wood frame box plate for the roof truss installation.

Putting up the box frame plate on top of straw bale.

Plate is nail to the straw bale.

Nylon straps anchor at each corner across to adjust to the building being square (or close to it) by tightening the straps.

  Next time, plastering workshop.

Song of the Blog: Distance Equals Rate Times Time by the Pixies on the Album Trompe Le Monde

The biggest debate in the general shift of neighborhoods that has pitted neighbor against neighbor is older neighborhoods that are dominated by the middle class or lower middle class being inundated by development to increase value in its area, changing the look for the better and allowing young professionals to move in, causing a dissension on what it should be presented as. Some people call it white flight, others call it gentrification, but the truth is that it has created a bastion of the old guard neighbors fighting against the affluent who want to improve the neighborhood.

The word Gentrification is defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary : the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.

Some may quote that it will eliminate crime in the area, which bodes well, but in the meantime it will displace and discourage the lower income people to afford living in the area close to work, unless they make enough capital to live there, which means working 2 jobs and allowing more tenants move in dilapidated units or houses that becomes a hazard for public safety. It would not only cause a class struggle but also race struggle, immigrants trying to resort their means of survival and live the American dream.

One example gentrification running amok is the article in the LA times regarding the Echo Park/ Elysian Park area. It is one hotly debated area besides Santa Monica and parts of the Westside and serves to notice that the community is still redefining itself, urbanistically. It is a more complex matter which geographically and creatively, how are new development, businesses and people could basically turn a page of a culture that is diverse in nature and is dealing with increase population and traffic with no center or point of interest.

Another one is the prospect of East LA and Boyle Heights is in verge of urban renewal. Boyle Heights has a different approach in which much of the new businesses and development are home-based, meaning there is no outside sources influencing the landscape of the neighborhood and the racial make-up is largely Hispanic, there is no such movement in white flight. If there was, hell would break loose.

Much of the shifting urban landscape is how to balance the area for affordable housing, urban renewal, culture identity and sustaining itself from shifting away from its historiography and spatial identity. More and more, designers, planners and architects are needed to know about the area’s certain nuances and characters in order to come up with theories, ideas and proposals that embraces the community rather than to facilitate the masses.

Muffler Shop in East LA

Song of the Blog: People as Places as People by Modest Mouse on the CD We Were Dead Before the Ship Ever Sank

With the gasoline prices @ more than $4.50 for unleaded in Los Angeles, the major shift how society is shifting their everyday habits in regards towards the high cost of living. Decision are made in taking a more responsible approach, away from the excess and greed that all of society is taking for granted.

More and more families & individuals are starting to realized the impact of the environment and the high cost of living, they are starting make conservation and responsible choices, on how they live their lives. Such as recycling, walking to shops at a short distance, composting yard and food waste, eat less meat, taking mass transportation (subway, train, bus-line), working close to home, growing organic fruits and vegetables, spending less money.

What is happening here in this global economy is people are starting to think locally and to invest into their own communities which are inundated with subdivisions and the built environment of strip malls, car shops and billboards that has no distinction. There is a movement to reassess how we live, communicate and to be engage with the public in moving towards a sustainable society. It is how suburban communities will eventually become urban and what are the ways to transition it into a integral part.

The important signs of this transition are coming to ahead and to look at the increasing depth and complexity in which we live in, how we take things for granted and the circumstances that surrounds it. To take a proactive search and understanding can only harness new ways of thinking and practice for the future.

The truth is we need to go a long way in order to see there is a future for mankind.

My shopping cart is limited and the world is wasteful.

 Song of the Blog: Everything Wrong is Imaginary by Lilys on the CD Everything Wrong is Imaginary

On May 11, 2008, Pecha Kucha (name derives from a Japanese term for the sound of conversation (”chit-chat”) hosted Femmes Fatales, a 20 sildes in 20 seconds for each slide to show off their work by accomplished women in the field of design, art and architecture. There were various ideas, approaches and works that quantify the diversity of women who are gaining an edge towards a specific subject towards society and the built environment. 20 women of different backgrounds challenges and embraces the notion that women can stir the kettle while the world is changing from sustainability, gender identity, feminine empowerment and theoretical musings.

A few individuals presented their slides with no explanation but the images evoke some soliloquy in their work. Another presenter, Christine Magar of Greenform, presented her slides in the role of sexual politics by using fruit (apple, pomegranate) to objectify as being a sexual organ, the reintroduction of the dysphoria of men’s objectivity to the female’s body part by renaming them with such candor (mangina, pentacunt). Pat Morton presented her slides in learning and to love the work of gay architects, most notably Charles Moore and Phillip Johnson, which she describes, their work as being Campy (adj. deliberately artificial, vulgar, or banal quality).

All in all, it’s good to see woman architects to share their ideas and to social network with other people in the audience in order to become an integral part of society. More and more women are playing roles in our society and government, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House), Gail Goldberg (Director of LA City Planning and Development) and Karen Bass (California’s Assembly Speaker). The act of women is as important to the failures of men.

Mangina (term used by Christine Magar)

Song of the Blog: Give’er  by Peaches on the CD Impeach My Bush

The director of Los Angeles City Planning, Gail Goldberg, who came from the San Diego Planning Department in 2006 to revamp and reconstituted the planning department came to a panel discussion about the future of the San Fernando Valley at Woodbury University in Burbank to explain the audience that the planning department will do real planning and one of the aspects for having good planning is to have good design. The name of the symposium event is Shifting Focus: Architecture, Urbanism, & Development in the San Fernando Valley. She says in general that Los Angeles doesn’t have good planning, to say the least, any planning (which is true). Her intentions are to have the community be involve in the process and that designers, architects and urbanist will play an important role in all. The hope is to gain a valuable paradigm for other cities to follow and gain more insight in redeveloping and redesigning the suburban landscape, which the San Fernando Valley is a good case study.

She explains that neighborhood (commercial) corridors will transform itself into mix-use; higher density and pedestrian oriented streets while most of the inner residential neighborhoods will still keep their character. She mentions that 23 planners in the downtown region will reassign to the valley to refocus and address the issues relevant to each community.

Right now, she mentions there is a new community plan program (look under Plans & Ordinances) for the communities around LA to redevelop and revitalize where communities can be sustainable and vibrant. The communities being focus in the Valley are Sylmar, Granada Hills and Sunland / Tujunga areas.

The hope is that the new City Planning Department will play a major role in which how is the City of Los Angeles will shape and re-landscape itself into a world-class urban city where the residents will feel proud of their community. We wait and see how the process will evolve and how innovative designers, architects and planners are going to be involved. The possibility is endless.

Director of City Planning for the City of Los Angeles, Gail Goldberg, with her mission and vision statement for the department and for Los Angeles.

Song of the Blog: Do Want You Gotta Do by Nina Simone on the CD The Essential Nina Simone 

One of the most intriguing aspects of social space recreated by crowds is Bubble Gum Alley in Downtown San Luis Obispo. Started in 1960 and has never once been clean from the massive wads of gum sticking into wall. It’s pretty much a institution which makes the town unique other than historical preservation of building and open space. You might say it is part grafitti which power of the people takes over a space or a wall.

Bubble Gum  Alley in Downtown San Luis Obispo

Bubble Gum Alley from the other end.

of social involvement and spatial engagement.

Song of the Blog: John Cage Bubblegum by  Stereolab on the CD Refried Ectoplasm: Switch On, vol. 2

Today is Earth Day. Not much of a celebration but to bring awareness to the planet. Much of the media are focusing on what ways to live sustainable lives where human consumption impacts the earth.

The City of Los Angeles just approved a proposal to make private developers to meet nationally-developed green building standards which are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Whether it will make a huge difference, time will tell. There is a wager on which cities, Los Angeles or San Francisco, will make more of an impact. It seems that SF has won this battle for the meantime, but the only good way for LA to be a truly sustainable city is too drastically change our habits: Live close to where your work is at, live small than live way beyond your means, shared housing and stay close to your community.

It seems people here in LA still don’t get it, but they will someday, someway and somehow.

Sunset at the Venice basketball courts.

Song of the Blog: This is Good Remix by Fascinoma on their LP Everything is a Landmark (Playing tonight at Silverlake Lounge @ 10:00pm.)

There’s an article in the LA Times regarding the shifting animosity towards development along Ventura Blvd., from Studio City all the way the Woodland Hills because the impact of traffic in the area. A lot of attention goes to mix-use housing to create a more a pedestrian friendly atmosphere but complaints from neighborhood councils are becoming more frequent and a lot of bickering amongst city planners, developers and residents.

In the meantime, Barbara Faga wrote that the problem is not about the density and sprawl. but design on Planetzen. Then on the Economist article, politicians are pushing density in order to redesign areas near mass transit station to have pedestrian friendly places. The question are they following on what they preach or they are selling out to developers without concession from the public in terms of building smart growth?

One of the Redline subway station stops

Song of the Blog: Handle with Care (Traveling Wilburys tune) sung by Jenny Lewis on the CD Rabbit Fur Coat