Frozen Mývatn by Gareth Codd Photography Another from my recent trip to Iceland in February, this time showing the frozen lake Mývatn in north Iceland. http://flic.kr/p/64SW9a
Frozen Mývatn by Gareth Codd Photography Another from my recent…
Month: June 2016
Rolls-Royce touts remote-controlled cargo ship as “future of the maritime industry”
Car brand Rolls-Royce has revealed concept designs for an autonomous ship that could be managed remotely from a control centre (+ slideshow). (more…)
Cool Capital: Inside South Africa’s Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale
© Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
As part of ArchDaily’s coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale, we are presenting a series of articles written by the curators of the exhibitions and installations on show.
In line with creative director Alejandro Aravena’s theme for the 15th La Biennale di Venezia “Reporting from the Front”, the 2016 South African pavilion at building D in the Sale d’Armi presents successful physical outcomes and practical solutions to urban challenges, conceived and implemented by citizens for the citizens of the administrative capital city of South Africa under the umbrella organization of “Cool Capital”.
Curated by architect Pieter J. Mathews of Mathews & Associates Architects, this year’s South African Pavilion is called “The Capital of Uncurated Design Citizenship”, and showcases a selection of projects from Cool Capital – an urban experiment and labour of love for Mathews and a small team of dedicated architects, artists and designers that began in 2012, coincidentally at the 2012 Biennale Architettura.
© Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Cool Capital’s urban laboratory is Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital city situated 60km north of Johannesburg. Often overlooked as an international tourist destination, Pretoria is a typical landlocked capital city: The perception exists that this city, populated with historic government buildings, stoic monuments and many reminders of an uncomfortable past, is suspended in a bygone and uninspiring time-warp. Cool Capital proved this wrong.
Aravena’s creative call refers to the power of citizens to become active agents in the making, shaping and re-imagining of their own built environment, and it is exactly in this spirit that Cool Capital was launched. Starting out with with relatively few participants, the project quickly mushroomed into a city-wide movement with over 1000 active participants and an ever-increasing social media following.
© Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
It wasn’t long before the private sector and educational institutions aligned themselves with Cool Capital’s self-appointed creative commanders, not only seeing the potential of powerful partnerships, but also the chance to use Cool Capital as a laboratory to test out ideas of public ownership and engagement.
Locally referred to as the world’s first uncurated, DIY guerrilla biennale, Cool Capital’s intent was simple: to dislodge the bureaucratic relationship between citizens and public space and to encourage a new appreciation of where they live. The project encouraged citizens to rediscover marginalized or forgotten parts of the city and to collaborate and become active agents in the creative rethinking of Pretoria as home, place, destination and capital city. All of Cool Capital‘s projects either challenged, celebrated or leveled the status quo.
© Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
The South African pavilion proves that by short-circuiting the usual bureaucratic processes of permissions and approvals, a city can be effectively democratized in a creative sense, leading to substantial and sustainable empowerment, and above all – a new type of social cohesion for South Africa. It continues ideas of urban renewal in the public realm but urges that this discussion should not only be among industry professionals, but also include the broader general public.
South Africa’s refreshingly unconstrained pavilion features some physical installations pieces from Pretoria, a short documentary film of the inaugural event and the whole collection of 150 citizen-led projects by 1000 participants in the form of a catalogue available at the pavilion and bookstore. The exhibition presents visitors with the passion, diversity and commitment of the residents of Pretoria and demonstrates what can be achieved when citizens are provided with a platform to constructively engage with issues they identify in the realm of architecture, art and design. The Cool Capital project has already proven that this approach can cement one city’s reputation as a notable centre for Africanurban innovation. Real creative change does not come from administrative policy, but lies in the hands and minds of an innovative and engaged citizenry.
© Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
According to the pavilion’s commissioner, Mr. Saul Molobi, “South Africa’s participation in the Biennale contributes to international relations and gives exposure to South African talent to the world. This year will also be historic in the sense that we will not be taking only a few exclusive architects or artists’ work, but rather the projects of over 1000 South African participants, probably making this one of the most representative pavilions in the history of SA’s involvement with the Biennale. We look forward to this cultural diplomacy project entrenching South Africa’s positive image in Italy and thereby increasing our country’s brand equity”.
This year Cool Capital in Pretoria is continuing concurrently with the Venice Architecture Biennale under the theme “small is big”.
© Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Santa Monica, Californiaphoto via chandler
Five of the best houses in Washington state on Dezeen
Washington is up next up in our series looking at houses from different US states, with a concrete dwelling cut into a rocky outcrop (pictured) and a retreat nestled in a canyon among the best examples (+ slideshow). (more…)
Memory Garden in Vinaròs / Camilla Mileto + Fernando Vegas
© Vicente A. Jiménez
- Architects: Camilla Mileto, Fernando Vegas
- Location: Carrer de Sant Francesc & Carrer de l’Hospital, 12500 Vinaròs, Castelló, Spain
- Project Year: 2015
- Photography: Vicente A. Jiménez
- Promotor: Ayuntamiento de Vinaroz
- Architects: Camilla Mileto, Fernando Vegas
- Installations: Antonio Vte. Martí Guillamón, ingeniero
- Lighting: Elías Hurtado Pérez, ingeniero
- Stucture: Adolfo Alonso Durá, arquitecto
- Budget Control: Salvador Tomás Márquez, arquitecto técnico
- Garden Advisory : Marta Edo Albalate
- Contributors: M. Soledad García Sáez, Lidia García Soriano, F. Javier Gómez Patrocinio, Isabel Segovia Campos
- Project Direction: Camilla Mileto y Fernando Vegas, arquitectos (UPV)Universitat Politècnica de Valencia
- Director Of Execution: Salvador Tomás Márquez, arquitecto técnico
- Project Collaborators: M. Soledad García Sáez, Lidia García Soriano, F. Javier Gómez Patrocinio
- Archeology: Noema Restauradores S.L.
- Archeology Study: Pablo Rodríguez Navarro (UPV)
- Restorer: Noema Restauradores S.L.
- Constuction: Construcciones Rafael Zarzoso S.L.
- Garden: U.T.E. Jardines
© Vicente A. Jiménez
From the architect. In 2001 the church and convent of San Francisco, in the Castellón town of Vinaroz were demolished and only part of the north outer wall and the indoor flooring were left standing. Following this unfortunate event, what had been the site of the church and convent was asphalted and used as a parking space, and over the years the remains of the outer wall and flooring greatly deteriorated due to natural causes and vandalism.
© Vicente A. Jiménez
The garden of San Francisco was born from the archaeological remains of the original 17th-century convent and designed to evoke the historic memory of the building, as well as that of the gardens and orchards surrounding it, aiming to restore dignity to the site and transform it into a place for meeting, relaxation and amusement, recovering a living space for the community.
© Vicente A. Jiménez
The traces of the former walls of the convent were discovered when the new asphalt was broken up and have been built up to form garden seats using the original building ashlars, stones, tiles and roof tiles found during the excavation. The aim of this operation was to evoke the original convent by incorporating the archaeological remains, rather than adding to the municipal landfill where these remains and their unique background would be amalgamated with many others to finally become environmental waste. The surviving church wall has been carefully restored using remains and imprints of renderings, paintings, joinery, etc., as well as the remains of adjoining houses which had enabled the wall to survive until the present day.
Plan Site
The area inside the convent and church was paved with local stone, allowing the different spaces to be clearly distinguished. While the pavement in the church area is closely spaced and follows the bays of the original building, the convent area features spaces for vegetation to grow between the pavement slabs, perfectly integrated into the garden as a whole. The remains of the masonry walls and pebble paving of the convent found on the ground interact with the vegetation of the garden, blending into it.
© Vicente A. Jiménez
The square still preserves many underground crypts and archaeological remains which have been respected for the future following the necessary cleaning. In addition to recovering and restoring the traces of the convent and church, the original access from calle San Francisco through the fence which surrounds the whole area has also been recovered, and new accesses to the surrounding square have also been incorporated.
© Vicente A. Jiménez
In addition, the surviving vegetation, palm trees and a cypress, have been preserved and used as the basis for the new vegetation in the garden areas.
© Vicente A. Jiménez
The Ultimate Guide to 5 Days in New York City
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Nike unveils shoes for a 100-metre sprinter at the Rio 2016 Olympics
Sports brand Nike has revealed the running shoe that Jamaican athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will wear while competing at this summer’s Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro. (more…)
The Big Miss on Marriage: Only 3 Things You Need to Know
The rate of divorce is roughly up to 50% nowadays, depending on where you live. This post is dedicated to this new ‘norm’, as well as to those who are in long-term relationships looking towards marriage and to those who also hope to find their spouse.
There’s nothing more disappointing than to know that as much as you look forward to meeting your life partner, or have this big amazing wedding to celebrate an amazing relationship, you later find yourself at the brink of reality and statistics gets the better of you with the option of divorce looking at you square in the face. Although divorce is a convenient option to have, it’s more important to know the meaning of marriage and look at it as it’s meant to be, whether we are married or not. Let’s explore the meanings of marriage we have today and the current belief systems which have lead to divorce or unhappy marriages. Lastly, this is to remind us the true, original meaning of marriage at its core with only three things we need to know about it, and I think the simplicity of it can inspire many couples.
So what does marriage actually mean?
My initial search on the meaning of marriage pulled up: ‘the legally recognized union of two people as partners (those with shared risks and benefits, yes, that means I had to look up the meaning of ‘partners’ too!) in a relationship’. Sadly, when I searched ‘marriage contract’ for more specifics on this ‘partnership’, guess what pulled up? A bunch of lawyer ads and samples for pre/post nuptial agreements in the event of a divorce.
It’s important to know the widely accepted definition of certain concepts, like marriage, because these define our expectations, and the lack of meeting our expectations is what leads to divorce or unhappy marriages. From the definition alone, we expect marriage to be two individuals becoming one (union) and also be partners. Physically, emotionally, financially and in every other sense, it’s impossible for two human beings to actually become one, even if it’s just legally speaking. So right off the bat, we are setting ourselves up for impossible expectations on marriage.
Next, the suggestion that married couples are partners – this is quite an ambiguous expectation because the next question that comes to mind is, ‘partners in what? life? business? etc?’. Some might say marriage is a partnership in raising a family, but when there’s children involved, most often the little ones are those who ‘run’ the household and then the partnership dissipates into a board or shareholders meeting. ‘Partnership’ mostly refers to business relationships, and most of them have well defined contracts that both parties negotiate, then sign, and if not, there’s an understanding that both partners share a common goal at the very least.
If marriage were to be viewed similarly with business partnerships, what’s the common goal? If the goal is to live happily ever after, and your partner is to share the risk and benefit ratio on that, then this, my friends, is the reason why divorce is so common. No one else can give you a lifetime of happiness but yourself.
There’s a lot more other definitions and expectations about marriage that are more than this blog post can cover, but for the most part, many of us are caught up in expectations of what the husband, wife, or partner must do. The true essence of marriage and its pure meaning at its core is missing. When marriage is stripped down of all its expectations in terms of legalities, finances, intimacy, faithfulness, and health, all you’re left with are two individuals who made a promise to simply love each other.
What is true love?
Interestingly, true love is not measured by time or physical limitations, and some wedding vows do clue into this with the phrase ‘until death do us part’. Also, before one can truly love someone else, they have to love themselves first. When one gambles all the family’s life savings away or lost everything because of a high or becomes intimate with another person or becomes abusive, those situations make it very difficult to love that same person again. But the simple promise to continue to love that same person is what marriage entails. Love, meaning that regardless of the hurt created, such hurt is learnt to be left in the past, withstanding the test of time, and with a strong sense of self-respect and self-love, one can recognize that the hurt was not targeted towards their spouse, but rather, a manifestation of their own lack of self-respect and self-love.
Of course, the degrees to which love can sustain a marriage, especially when it’s only coming from one side, varies significantly and the case for divorce can be justified in each unique scenario. But for the most part, marriage is a declaration of one’s beloved, and after a certain amount of time with enough damaging storms, sometimes the spouse is no longer the beloved but even becomes an enemy. When such a point is reached, the marriage needs two things that are most often ignored: friendship and cooperation.
With friendship, the expectations become much less, the walls start to crumble, and more importantly, the negativity is replaced with small gestures of having fun. With cooperation, the spouse’s specialties become appreciated and their effort in the small tasks of living day to day with their loved ones are taken with patience and support.
To recap, many of us today are missing three very basic things about marriage, which are love, friendship, and cooperation. With that said, here’s an alternative definition to marriage: a recognized love one person has for each other with the values of friendship and cooperation between two people. With this definition, the emphasis is what kind of love one can bring into the marriage, rather than expecting or demanding what the other person should be doing. Also, the simplicity of marriage being rooted in friendship and cooperation reminds us how free and easy marriage can really be.
When you’re having a bad day at work, you have a friend at home you can talk to, or when you can’t open a jar lid, you have someone else you can ask to give it a try. But when your spouse is the one who’s suppose to make your life happy and easier, it’s those subtle but very heavy expectations that take a toll on a marriage. With friendship and cooperation, everything else will follow smoothly and the fruits of a pure relationship can be experienced.
The post The Big Miss on Marriage: Only 3 Things You Need to Know appeared first on Change your thoughts.
Sig Nordal 