oneshotexhibition.org blog

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

This work is located at the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Fairfax Ave, right next to Johnnies Restaurant.

Close up

Song of the Blog: Juice (Know the Ledge) by Eric & Rakim on the album Gold

One of the most disparaging articles in regards of urban development in Los Angeles is the city has 130 million dollars earmarked for providing parks and recreation when a developer pays for Quimby fees per unit. The article in the LA Weekly Why LA is Park Poor explains the logic that when you build high-density projects in an area, you should compensate open space (parks, gardens, rec.-centers) to balance living conditions that are beneficial to the community. Can anybody calculate the amount of public park space per unit in a 3-mile radius of the highly densely populated area, lets say in Hollywood?

One of the intriguing aspects if there is no open space to compensate future development in LA which increase the population and crowdedness, then a solution might be is converting golf course into parks. Sorry Tiger.

Song of the Blog: Shimmer by Throwing Muses on the album University

Hearst Castle by Julia Morgan in San Simeon, CA

View of the main castle.

macroscopic view of one of the marble sculptures of Hearst Castle’s collections.

One of the Halls leading up to the upper floors at the main building.

View of the indoor pool

Song of the Blog: Searching For My Good Eye Close by Soundgarden on the Album Badmotorfinger

Prior to heading back to LA, there was a stop to a Straw Bale Home in Cambria, built by the owner/elementary school teacher with a little help from friends and subcontractors. Finished in 2004 with a construction budget of $76,000 (not included permit fees & land purchase). Go figure.

Straw bale home in Cambria facing south for passive solar heating in the backyard. Also using reclaim lumber from old demolished home, which make it cost efficient and more sustainable.

Interior view of fireplace in living area.

View from the backyard overlooking the open foothill ranches of San Luis Obispo County.

Song of the Blog: Universal Highness by Thievery Corporation the CD Sounds of the Thievery hi-fi

California Straw Bale Association (CASBA) recently had their conference at the beautiful campgrounds of Cambria, north-west from San Luis Obispo. Builders, Engineers, home owners who are interested or already have a straw bale home participate in the event. Probably the most important, if not unpretentious event with a little more than a hundred members participating at Camp Ocean Pines, overlooking the central coast, with the majority bunking together in the camping, while others camp amongst the trees and nature.

A series of presentations, discussions and some laughs made it enjoyable, while gaining useful information on straw bale construction. There were owners telling stories about their success and failures (mostly success) in construction and after, builders and contractors explaining their methods of building in Northern / Central California and the San Diego County, a sit down discussion regarding making a better detail for windows, different types of lime plastering application and financing for a straw bale home construction .

The importance of the conference is not only the amount of information on straw bale construction but also the contingency of representatives from different parts of California. Most of the participants are from Northern and Central California with a few from San Diego County. The most underlying factor is there were only four (4) participants from LA County in the conference; a couple from Palmdale who were interested in building a Straw bale home, myself and one senior project manager from a large corporate architectural firm in Pasadena.

Los Angeles isn’t too receptive in terms to straw bale construction as an alternative material, while LA is pretty much a center of innovation and design, but the value of using straw bale can have a lasting effect towards sustainability and affordability, depending the size, scale and use of the project. Straw bale could instill new ways of to Angelenos alternative use towards design and space; flexible, organic, indigenous and worthy of bringing a humane factor.

Hay is for Horses and straw is for building discourse in Architecture.

CASBA @ Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria, the Central Coast of California

View from Camp Ocean Pines, CASBA conference location.

Bill Donovan from Truckee, CA presented his straw bale construction work to the members of CASBA.

CASBA members enjoying themselves at the conference.

Presented item regarding the energy efficiency of straw bale homes vs. typical single family residences. (A possible use for commercial and mix-use buildings)

A perfect ending to the conference.

Song of the Blog: Nature of the Experiment by Tokyo Police Club on the CD A Lesson in Crime

An article in the New York Times by architectural critic Nicolai Ouroussoff on the new exhibition in MOMA called Design and the Elastic Mind presented itself as the new soul for architecture and design, where nature is being derive from computers rather than real organic objects from nature. He believes that synthetic modeling can bring new life and emotional connection towards the future. There is a website pertaining to the Design and the Elastic Mind Exhibition. It gives you a better insight on the exhibition if you are not able to make it to New York.

While there is a great deal of relativeness to what we are heading to as a society, the question in turn is the work and design of the architecture, and the process of making architecture by using algorithms, computations and nano-technology. Generation forms using computers can be tricky business when you are relying variables and arbitrary data to generate a design without no context and clear direction and understanding. The work by Xefirotarch for the Busan Concert Hall Competition is a clear example where scripts and algorithms don’t breed good architecture. It just creates further dialogue to see how far we can go.

In an imperfect world, should we rely heavily on digital technology to create hybrid forms with no connection to history and tradition? Do we need reinvent the wheel? Are we too depended on technology in reattaching ourselves to nature? Is technology replicating nature better than the real thing?

Jaron Lanier, computer scientist and digital visionary who coin the term “Virtual Reality”, believed that technology can advance the way we create things as a tool but in the other hand that we shouldn’t disregard the pure essence of what is known and identifiable from its past and base it as life giving. Being totally dependent on technology to recreate nature does not mean it’s better and soulful but it crosses the line of what is real or unreal. In some ways he interject that people should learn first to play an instrument that was first implemented prior to work with a computer to generate creativity ( i.e. learn to play a piano prior to a computer synthesizer). It’s a level of the human factors that cannot be compared to artificial intelligence and biotechnology. Also, when forms and designs are heavily influence by technology, most times the meaning is loss.

One last note, there was an informal discussion instituted by Qingyun Ma (Dean of the Architecture program @ USC) with Thom Mayne (Morphosis) and Sir Peter Cook of Archigram in the campus of USC to talk to the audience (mostly students from USC) about their perspective and personal journey’s in the profession. You will get a better synopsis of the informal event from Emily’s Post. The most interesting part was the students asking toward the end of the talk. One student (actually 2) asked about the use of computers in creating architecture compared to drawings and model-making. Thom Mayne suggests to the students that most of your work in this profession will be computerize and his office is all computerized. He tells that today’s architectural drawings are 3-D computerization and that he employs 2 scripts writers. We will all do our work in a digital format.

While Thom is right in terms how today’s profession are using CAD files 3-dimensional in order to program and design buildings more efficiently, we started lose the feeling of intimate connection to a project, where human interaction don’t relate to the biomorphic technology and the lines are blur on what is real and unreal (artificial).

I rather take an acoustic guitar over Guitar Hero any day.

Pusan Concert Hall Competition by Xefirotarch (WTF is it?)

Song of the Blog: Even Better Than the Real Thing by U2 from the album Achtung Baby