As real-estate prices in New York City continue to soar, Brooklyn residents are using their extra space and relaxed planning restrictions to extend their townhouses and build “quirky” garden studios, according to local architects (+ slideshow). (more…)
The latest stage of the Governors Island Park project, “The Hills,” is set to officially open to the public on this Tuesday July 19th – nearly a year ahead of schedule. Designed by internationally acclaimed urban design and landscape firm West 8, the park will feature ten acres of sloping landscapes that will provide residents and visitors with slides, art and unparalleled views of the New York Harbor.
The project consists of 4 themed hills, rising as high as 70 feet above the island to offer a unique 360-degree panoramic experience of the harbor:
The Hills have been constructed from recycled demolition debris, general fill and lightweight pumice held together with geotechnical reinforcement. To help combat erosion, shrubs, trees and grassy lawns have been organized in strategic planting patterns. More than just offering views, the dramatic topography will also improve the island’s resilience to volatile weather conditions and rising sea levels.
“Sculpted topography works in concert with winding pathways and trees to create ‘conceal and reveal’ vistas, choreographing the park experience,” said design director Adriaan Geuze, co-founder of West 8. “It maximizes the sense of anticipation, pulling a visitor through the park or signaling a place to sit and stay just a bit longer. The topography defines the very character of the area.”
The Hills are the latest addition to Governors Island Park, which has been designed by West 8 to completed over several stages and will feature buildings and landscapes from Rogers Marvel Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Mathews Nielsen.
The first 30 acres opened to the public in 2014 and include recreational fields, food concessions, seating, a public plaza, a hammock zone, a hedge maze and more. With the opening of the Hills, visitors can now access the entire 2.2-mile promenade encircling the island and Picnic Point, which had been closed since 2012.
The Hills will be open for the season daily from July 19 – September 25, 2016, Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday/Sunday 10am-7pm. For more information, visit www.govisland.com.
“Inpetus” by Geirix All Change Festival in Tjarnarbíó – Reykjavik – Iceland starring Halldóra Mark.
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Home-grown Chinese design brands will soon be selling affordable products in the west, according to Italian designer Luca Nichetto, who is creative director of Chinese startup furniture brand ZaoZuo (+ slideshow). (more…)
A young team of six architectural designers from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios won an open call competition released by the RIBA (Royal institute of British Architects) to rethink or construct community within the built environment. The team developed a proposal for the mobile installation now known as ‘Pea Soup House’.
London’s air was once described as ‘thick as pea soup’ during the industrial revolution and Londoners were known as ‘Pea Soupers’. In 1952 11,000 deaths were attributed to poor air quality. Today is not much better. The Pea Soup team aims to ‘construct communities’ by bringing them together through food whilst creating awareness of air pollution in cities, specifically London.
Pea Soup House serves daily soup that reflects the Air Quality Index (AQI) of that day – 1 being pea soup (green and good) 10 being bad (beetroot soup), and are collaborating with King’s College who monitor air pollution throughout London.
Pea Soup House is part of a much larger exhibition called ‘At Home in Britain’ and part of the London Festival of Architecture 2016. It is planned that the mobile installation will go ‘on tour’ to other locations within London to help raise awareness of poor air quality within the city.
Pea Soup House is just the first step. The team aim to develop their research into answering the question of how our built environment can help reduce air pollution and increase our health and well-being.
In this interview, curator Jingyu Liang of Approach Architecture Studio discusses the concept behind “Daily Design, Daily Tao – Back to the Ignored Front,” the theme of the Chinese Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Responding to 2016 Biennale director Alejandro Aravena’s overall theme of “Reporting From the Front,” the pavilion takes an introspective look at China’s own architectural front, and the impact that the country’s ongoing development boom has had on Chinese architecture.
“What I want to call people to pay attention to is our daily life, and through that daily life, you can find out the daily tao.”
When was the last time someone neglected to remember your name?
I’ll bet it wasn’t that long ago, maybe even today.
Perhaps the individual is a neighbor with whom you’ve conversed before. Or a fellow volunteer or co-worker. Perhaps a customer or supplier.
And how did this make you feel? Slighted? Inferior? Belittled?
And what was your opinion of the person who didn’t bother to remember your name? Jerk? Fool? [Expletive deleted]?
I don’t know about you, but when someone doesn’t bother to remember my name — particularly after we’ve encountered one another on several occasions — my estimation of the offending party is that they’re lazy and don’t really value the formation of new relationships.
Now I’m going to turn the tables. And as one of my college professors used to preface each controversial topic he was about to broach: “If I offend you, it’s completely intentional.”
It’s okay to admit it. I’m not here to wag my finger or to otherwise judge. Suffice it to say that you’re in good company.
But I want you to remember how you felt when that most recent person neglected to remember your name — because this is how you make people feel when you neglect to remember their names.
A bit of tough love, perhaps. But I’ll pay you the compliment of being brutally honest. If we hope to make any meaningful improvements to ourselves & our lives, a little self-reflection sometimes is in order. And that goes for me, too.
Yes, I’ll freely admit that I’m one of those persons who always remembers your name. And I’ve spent a great many years perfecting this craft. And no, I do not have a photographic memory. Far from it.
Had we met at some point in the past, I may have engendered in you a sense of annoyance at my ability to remember your name — I get this reaction all the time. Or perhaps you silently admired me for this subtle compliment that I paid to you. Maybe the entire encounter sailed right over your head. It matters not.
“But honestly, Bart. What in the world has all of this got to do with the Law of Attraction?”
In a word, everything.
Permit me to explain.
We all are supremely aware that with the LOA, a positive mental attitude attracts positive experiences and circumstances and that a negative mental attitude attracts conditions which we would regard as negative or undesirable.
I’m sorry, but when other people’s names are simply not important enough for you to take the time to remember, how can this be regarded as anything but a negative mental attitude?
Meeting people for the first time, and learning their names, comprises the very bedrock (or foundation) of all relationships. Over a quarter century of personal and sales experience has proven this maxim to be utterly irrefutable.
So if you’re a practitioner of the LOA, you want to maintain a positive mental attitude towards life & living, right? Towards your fellow travelers? In spite of all the reasons you shouldn’t?
Then I’m here to impress upon you the importance of remembering people’s names as a means to attracting positive experiences & circumstances.
The pure joy that this skill has brought to me is incalculable. And I want you to share in the joy.
“But I don’t know how to develop this skill, Bart.”
Understood. But you should take solace in the fact that there are plenty of books and websites which can guide you and provide helpful techniques.
The important part is to simply recognize how critical this one simple skill is to starting, and maintaining, lasting and meaningful relationships.
And talk about enjoying an edge in business and in life? You’ll really stand out in the crowd sporting this rarefied ability.
Self-help swami Dale Carnegie, author of the timeless classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, said it best:
“If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment; you indicate that I have made an impression on you. Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance.”
So go out and compliment some people in this fashion.
And relish all of the positive energy that you pull in.
The post What’s The Quickest & Easiest Way To Kill New Relationships? appeared first on Change your thoughts.
Movie: in this exclusive video Dezeen produced for Nike, fashion designer Kim Jones unveils his compactable collection of clothes and shoes designed for athletes travelling to the Rio 2016 Olympics. (more…)
From the architect. Donceles Studios is a multipurpose building that defies the rules of current real estate development in Mexico, because instead of being an “exclusive” development it is an inclusive project. In this case, a building with 6 flexible units of 50m2, a commercial space on the ground floor and a terraced roof for common use, serves as a catalyst to attract new people to the area (students, young couples, singles, or older people) plus it can be used as an office or work studio.
The typology of 4 levels seems very reasonable to potentiate intra-urban lots, since it does not depend on an elevator, the structure and its foundation is simple, and can generate a high density, which remains friendly to pedestrians and respects the existing urban scale.
The ideological basis of the project is for it to be a building with walls outward and not inward, ie allowing its users and inhabitants a private space, which in turn fosters interpersonal relationships not only among project users but between them and the residents of the neighborhood. The project aims to revive the concepts of neighborhood, because it is a place that allows people to meet their individual basic needs, but also invites them to go out, to live together, socialize and interact.
For this project we determined as impact zone the Matamoros pedestrian walkway, which starts on the north facade of the property and runs through 20 neighboring houses up to an existing chapel, which was respected as a limit of the intervention zone. Once we identified the area to regenerate, we implemented a participatory community action plan, from the presentation of the project and intervention of the pedestrian corridor, to considering the neighbors’ opinion, handling complaints and holding neighborhood meetings.
Donceles Studios is a project conceived with the highest values of sustainability; encouraging reasonable consumption of natural resources and community relations, in a very particular context of urban working class, which breaks traditional rules in favor of its residents and neighbors. It is the result of using architecture as a tool applied to the highest standard of social responsibility: inclusion
Sig Nordal 