August 2016 – Page 35

Resentful Americans turn a blind eye to Trump’s faults

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

The candidate’s excesses appeal to voters who feel marginalised and for whom the temptation is to blur reality and illusion

Whenever I think about the dysfunctional horror of the looming presidential election in America – so weird that Nigel Farage can pop up in Mississippi on the Trump campaign – I can’t get Susan Sarandon or Plato out of my mind. Let’s talk first about the actor. When did Plato make a decent movie, eh?

A few weeks ago Sarandon gave a magazine interview to an overawed writer in which she set out her well-known political stall as a radical feminist who backed Bernie Sanders and doesn’t think much of Hillary Clinton. “There’s nothing about her I find feminist except that she’s a woman,” she said.

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Happy 100th birthday, National Park Service! For the last…

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

Happy 100th birthday, National Park Service! For the last century, the National Park Service has protected America’s Best Idea, ensuring current and future generations can experience the country’s natural, cultural and historic treasures. The birth of the National Park Service can be traced to back to June 30, 1864, when the federal government set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias – land that would later become Yosemite National Park in California. Photo by Lesli Cohan (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).

7 Ways to Get More Comfortable With Feeling Uncomfortable

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

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Our minds naturally hate change. Change makes us uncomfortable. Anything that involves risk or confrontation makes us tremble.

Despite the negativity, feeling uncomfortable is one of the signs of adaptation and growing. It may feel bad but, in reality, it’s actually a good indicator. In order to keep it from making you feel inadequate and filled with doubt, here are some of the ways you can ease the discomfort it causes.

Find an Outlet

Write about what is making you uncomfortable

This is my favorite method and is perhaps the most useful out of these options. Writing about what is bothering you, even if you do not reach any sort of positive conclusion, is helpful. Writing helps to release tension, organize your thoughts, and expel negative emotions. Think of it as a massage for your mind.

Learn to love a certain form of exercise

It doesn’t have to be especially intense; it can just be walking. I would, however, recommend something more intense and competitive. Such sports and exercises can motivate you to push past your limits to become more comfortable in extreme situations.

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Just meditate

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meditate

This is a form of spiritual exercise that you shouldn’t miss. Meditating can give you an overabundance of benefits that can help you be more comfortable with any situation.

By learning to be in tune with your breath for a few minutes each day, you can decrease your anxiety and stress. It can also improve your concentration and overall brain function and make you more appreciative of those around you.

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All of these benefits make feelings of uneasiness easier to manage. They can help you not only in surviving through the discomfort but to thrive in it, too.

Celebrate small victories

When we make progress towards our goals, we are often consumed by overthinking. We take one step forwards and then two steps back. Because of this, progress is almost never fast or easy.

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However, despite how slow we feel, there are still signs of progress that can be seen on the outside. You may not be able to see the progress you have made, but others will surely notice them.

Stay connected with other

No one can be the best version of himself on his own.

You need to share your journey with people who support you and your journey. Connection with others can make each step towards your goals more fulfilling.

From your perspective, it is difficult to see how you have changed over the course of pursuing your goals. You may even see stagnancy. But for the eyes of the people around you, they can see your progress and it appears much more simple for them.

Purge yourself of excess habits and goals

Your mind is not built to learn several new habits at once. Although it’s conditioned to pursue several goals at a single time, having too many things to adapt to at once can discourage and tire you easily.

Before you decide to pursue a new goal or adopt a new habit, you should first get rid of the excess habits and goals taking your time and energy. Ridding yourself of these things can help ensure that your new habits can actually be adopted and sustained.

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Complete tasks you are good at

If you are feeling especially uneasy, one of the easiest ways to get back on track is to do something you’re good at. It’s a simple way to feel fulfilled and get back into a more positive mindset.

Pursuing a goal that makes you uncomfortable can be frustrating, so you need to mix challenging pursuits with fun and easy goals. This brings me to the last and possibly most important method to get more comfortable.

Have fun–for heaven’s sake. HAVE SOME FUN.

have fun

Completing goals goes against the very nature of having fun. It gives you so much pressure that you feel confined, stiff and uncomfortable.

Engaging in activities that give you fun won’t stop you from achieving your goal. In fact, it can get you back to your spontaneous and creative mindset. It can put you back in control of whatever it is you need to finish and be more comfortable in situations that would normally make you feel uncomfortable.

Joseph Pineiro
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This Floating Desalination Megastructure is Designed to Combat California’s Water Shortages

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

Day View of the Vessel. Image Courtesy of Bart//Bratke

California is suffering through its 5th year of severe water shortage. Aquifers and rivers continue to dry out as the water provided by melting snowpacks is reduced, and even the heavy rain brought by El Niño this year could not relieve the drought. Authorities are wary of the long-term consequences for California and neighboring areas of the Colorado River, and Santa Monica is now seeing a growing number of initiatives to control the use of potable water and find sustainable solutions.

Most recently, the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) asked architects, artists and scientists to conceive sustainable infrastructure projects to improve Santa Monica’s water supply. The competition’s 4th-prize-winning team Bart//Bratke and studioDE developed a raft structure named “Foram” that illustrates the future of floating platforms in sustainable development.

Night View from the Coast. Image Courtesy of Bart//Bratke

Foram aims to desalinate sea water while providing a structure to educate people about water shortages. It is an amphibious pavilion supported on polyethylene boxes that floats along the Santa Monica coastline. The structure swells out into three “functional pockets” where visitors can learn about access to drinking water and the process of water purification. Each of the three protruding areas hosts a distinct activity – an eatery with self-grown food, a space for learning, and another for urban farming. At the pavilion’s center, a water bar also serves freshly desalinated H₂O.

Interior of the Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Bart//Bratke

The raft is covered by an organic-shaped roof made of a conduit system that transports water from the sea to desalination tanks, and then into clean water storage tanks. Similar to the raft plan in shape, the roof is rotated to allow for the collection of sea water in the spaces between the raft’s three prongs. At the low points of the roof, pumps send sea water to higher areas where it flows into the desalination tanks. These tanks also work as solar ponds, and the conduit system similarly collects solar energy to pre-heat the water for desalination. The whole structure also creates a comfortable microclimate, thanks to a cooling mist system that is integrated into certain pipes, and the natural ventilation facilitated by the roof’s chimney-like shape.

Section and System Integration. Image Courtesy of Bart//Bratke

Pavilion Alignment. Image Courtesy of Bart//Bratke

Pavilions can plug into one another to form an ever-expanding megastructure, allowing units to exchange water and increasing the usable surface area. Unfortunately, the design program stays largely the same when units are connected, merely offering larger public areas for the public to wander around. Defining the functional zoning on a wider scale – thinking in terms of megastructure instead of single units – could have contribute to the project’s development, and the design’s modular aspect thus seems like a missed opportunity. Notably, dedicating large areas of these floating platforms to urban farming could have been beneficial, given that agriculture suffers most in the Californian drought. Instead, BART//BRATKE mainly dedicated its Santa Monica design to the programmatic imperatives set by LAGI, and urban farming – spread in small lots across the overall megastructure – only serves a didactic purpose, and not a productive one.

Aerial Coast Assembly. Image Courtesy of Bart//Bratke

Nonetheless, BART//BRATKE imagines that its Foram raft could adapt to different locations, meeting different programmatic needs. As the architects explain, “the vessel can be applied globally wherever there is a need for fresh water and also is maneuverable which allows to bring Foram quickly into areas with an urgent need for fresh water” – a valuable trait, given the spread of water access issues across the globe. In an article about these global water shortages for The Observer, Robin McKie asserts that “the consequences are proving to be profound… More than a billion individuals – one in seven people on the planet – now lack access to safe drinking water.” With 71% of the Earth’s surface covered with seawater, combining desalination technology with floating architecture represent a powerful alternative; the Foram raft might be applicable to many more cases.

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Ani Nii Shobo Lodge / Sandra Iturriaga + Samuel Bravo

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

Architects: Sandra Iturriaga, Samuel Bravo
Location: Yarinacocha, Pucallpa, Peru
Area: 1162.0 sqm
Project Year: 2014
Photographs: Samuel Bravo, Juan Balazs

Builder: Rodrigo Melendez
Master Carpenters: Amador Sanchez, Misael Marin
Client: Ani Nii Shobo

From the architect. Predominant materials: wood structure quinilla (bidentata manilkara), roofing in palm leaf (irapay, shebon), exterior walls quinilla and wire mesh, interior wood paneling: capirona (calycophyllum spruceanum), pavements in quinilla and shihuahuaco (Dipteryx Micrantha).

Ani Nii Shobo, big house of the forest in Shipibo language, is a healing center and nature reserve based on the traditional medicine of the Shipibo people

The project is located on the banks of a lagoon near the native community of San Francisco de Yarinacocha in the Ucayali region in the Peruvian Amazon. The Ucayali river’s seasonal floods determine this landscape and its ecosystems with fluctuations of up to 8m that inundate and connect vast riverside areas. The project consists of a series of programs that are located along this variable edge between forest and water.

The program consists of rooms for visitors a volunteer house, a house of ceremonies (longhouse), a dining room and service spaces.

The situation of the trees and views was decisive to place the program. It was important to preserve and value preexisting conditions, favoring the the lake view of cabins and placing the dining under a group of old Pachucos, native trees with a slender pale trunk, contrasting with the proposed volume.

The project is based on the use of local materials such as capirona and quinilla wood and irapay palm leaf roofing. Constructive logic was sought on the observation of vernacular architecture, so that the project could be built by local craftsmen. A structural grid that simplifies modulation was used as well as constructive solutions according to local crafts.

To fit the extremely hot and wet climate of the region, the peoples of Amazonia have developed a simple yet specific system of rules, creating a n architecture based on the use of materials in the immediate environment. The Shipibo houses have tall roofs made of palm leaves with a steep slope which favors water runoff, while the hot air is concentrated at the top of the volume, creating a fresh and airy shade. In this space a deck, which is both the floor and the table of the house, concentrated daily activities, resulting in meals and long conversations accompanied by craft making.

This was the role we found for the collective dining room: a large shipibo house. The dining room can be completely open or closed yielding a covered terrace with a vented skin.

Covered outdoor margins create a shaded surround for habitations and an intermediate umbral for quotidian life. Walls themselves tend to merge with the roof or fade into a superposition of permeable

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How to Succeed as a Young Architecture Professor (Without Dying in the Process)

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

© Architecture students. Image by Tulane Public Relations licensed under CC-BY-2.0

How to Succeed as a Young Architecture Professor (Without Dying in the Process)

In this article originally published in Spanish by the Arquia Architecture Foundation‘s blog, the author Manuel Saga speaks about the important task of involving young professors in architecture schools, arguing that it is essential that the academic route is seen as a real option with as much value as being a “big name designer,” especially when you take into account the current crisis seen within the industry.

Every year, Forbes publishes its “30 under 30” list that highlights the latest young entrepreneurs, creative leaders and brightest stars. According to MIT News, at least 25 of those on the roster are 2016 graduates of a prestigious university. More than five of those are graduates or post-doctoral assistants with teaching responsibilities. Not one of them is an architect.

Honestly, I’m not surprised at all. We can easily imagine a successful Wall Street broker without any gray hairs, but not a successful architect. Architecture is a complex and profound expertise; the great masters of the twentieth century are remembered in their later years possessing an unhurried wisdom. When we’re in our twenties we’re barely apprentices; sometimes explorers, even innovative, but lacking the holistic view that only experience provides. How the hell are we going to teach anything?

Don’t get me wrong. I think today it’s more necessary than ever for young professors to be involved our architecture schools. In addition to the growing diversification of our discipline, the crisis in the architecture field has made it so the academic route has become a legitimate option right up there with being a “big name designer.” An architect who built his career as a researcher or communicator will find teaching almost inevitable and take to it very quickly. How can we meet this challenge?

© LAnscape architecture students at SLU, Alnarp. Imagen por Julio Gonzalez, SLU licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

First, I recommend an act of freedom: put aside the “maestro” mentality and become a facilitator. Designing curriculums and lesson plans can become an adventure when you think of it as two-way communication. The teacher provides techniques for students to produce their own knowledge, which they then give back to the teacher.

Graphical presentation skills are perhaps the best example. In this subject the teacher hopes that, with the help of some basic but precise tools, their students surprise them with an exercise of absolute rigor. A surprised teacher is a satisfied teacher.

Leonardo's fake sketch of the first known depiction of a valve flush toilet; via Anthony Ravielli from Codex Madrid I, a page allegedly discovered in 1975. April Fool's joke by Martin Gardner, in Scientific American (April 1975).

Secondly, I think it’s key to start with a specialized area that allows us to impart our knowledge as we continue to grow. In this sense, being a professor of toilets for twelve years like Saenz de Oiza is a choice that is both enjoyable and smart. Whoever said that the ritual of going to the toilet doesn’t hold all the knowledge of architecture in itself? A starting point like that lets you reach diversity from a very specific starting point, an anchor that keeps us from drifting off too soon.

Not only do you have to be a good architect to be a professor of architecture, but most importantly you must be a good student. Demonstrating what a good student looks like, learning in an independent and innovative way, that’s the real contribution of a teacher. I wish that our inspiring quotations would resonate through the ages like the classical masters of the past; but in the meantime, you get to participate in an exercise of humility, teaching while continuing to learn.

Remember, you won’t be under 30 forever.

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Can You Pass The Perception Test?

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment, in other words, the way our brain make sense of the world. An ambiguous image can be perceived in many ways, and can trick our brain in believing things that are not there.

With experience, we can learn new kind of categorization and we can improve our it. Start your training right now with this test.

Take now this quick, fun, quiz and find out if you can pas the perception test!

Can You Pass The Perception Test?
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Leave a comment below to tell us what you’ve got!

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5 Hard Steps To Take When Your Friend Hurts You

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

Being with friends, whether best friends, close friends or casual friends, no matter how much fun it is, sometimes has its snags. Friendships like any other relationship can often be slightly tricky, depending on how close you are your friend are. And then there are those who we think are our friends and end up not being a friend at all. Those ones are hard to deal with. You think you made a new friend, you’ve trusted them with information that you thought for sure they would keep and the next thing you know, the whole neighbourhood knows. It’s tough to form friendships. They are similar to romantic relationships. You still need to have trust, respect, loyalty and all that other good stuff that goes with it.

So how do you deal when your friend has hurt you? Directly or indirectly. Hurt is hurt no matter what form it takes. You initially want to lash out, scream and cry and point fingers. You can if you want but it won’t be very effective. It’s not easy to deal with this kind of hurt, so I won’t tell you it is. Here are a few steps to take when your so called friend has hurt you.

Find out the reason.

Get to the bottom of the matter. Were they mad at you for something you did recently and they are lashing out or taking revenge? Was it something done out of plain ignorance? Why did they do what they did? Find out. Don’t let it go and chalk it up as a stupid act, get to the bottom of it.

Make a decision.

Does this person have a habit of doing this often or is this a one-time occurrence? If they do this often, hurt you, then perhaps it’s time to get rid of this so called friend. They are serving no good purpose in your life and obviously there is something about you and your friendship that brings out the worst in them.

Confront them.

They may or may not know what they did hurt you. Let them know you are hurt and talk it out with them. Too often, we just let incidents go left unattended meanwhile it boils our blood and builds inside of us. If this is a close friend, tell them you are hurt and tell them why. Maybe, just maybe, it might be a misunderstanding.

Dig deep.

Inside of you. Why did this matter hurt you? Is there something from your past, maybe, that you haven’t dealt with and still have unfinished business with? Perhaps what your friend did was simply a trigger from an incident from your youth or maybe an old relationship. Do some soul searching and see what you uncover before you fly off the handle on your friend.

Kiss and make up.

This is the hardest step, besides the making a decision step because there’s the whole trust thing. It’s easy to kiss and make up and say sorry it will never happen again and move on but can you move on? How hard or easy is it going to be to trust this person again? If this a first time offence, it might not be so hard, but if they have done it a couple of times, and you really do like this friend for various other great qualities they have, then trust might be a wee more difficult. If you want to continue this friendship, trust will have to be given.

It really is no fun when our own friends hurt us but it may be a sign that it’s time to reassess your friendship and see if it’s time to let it go. The hurt just may be a blessing in disguise, a lesson for you, and time to shake up the friendship tree.

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Gallery: Herzog & de Meuron’s Schaudepot at the Vitra Campus Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

Earlier this summer, the Vitra Schaudepot on the Vitra Campus was officially opened. The latest in a string of structures designed by emerging and well-known architects, this gallery space is the second building by Swiss-practice Herzog & de Meuron. Conceived as “a visible storage facility” presenting a cross-section of the Vitra Design Museum’s extensive collection of furniture and lighting, over 400 objects will provide “a comprehensive introduction to the history of furniture design.” Featuring a café, shop and a new entrance for visitors to the museum, the building is also able to host temporary exhibitions. Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu has turned his lens to this latest addition in Weil am Rhein.

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💙 Lorikeet on 500px by Robert Burgers, Airlie Beach,……

August 25, 2016signordalLeave a comment

💙 Lorikeet on 500px by Robert Burgers, Airlie Beach,… http://ift.tt/1Xpoxul

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Sig Nordal

The World Around Us

Month: August 2016

Resentful Americans turn a blind eye to Trump’s faults

Happy 100th birthday, National Park Service! For the last…

7 Ways to Get More Comfortable With Feeling Uncomfortable

Find an Outlet

Write about what is making you uncomfortable

Learn to love a certain form of exercise

Just meditate

Celebrate small victories

Stay connected with other

Purge yourself of excess habits and goals

Complete tasks you are good at

Have fun–for heaven’s sake. HAVE SOME FUN.

This Floating Desalination Megastructure is Designed to Combat California’s Water Shortages

Ani Nii Shobo Lodge / Sandra Iturriaga + Samuel Bravo

How to Succeed as a Young Architecture Professor (Without Dying in the Process)

Can You Pass The Perception Test?