BAD.Built by Associative Data has released its designs for BARCELONA, a new mixed-use development on the Mediterranean coast of Beirut, Lebanon at the Ramlet El Bayda waterfront.
Spanning 18,000 square meters, the project will serve as “a new gastronomic experience, embracing the Mediterranean from a remarkable vantage point,” through a clustered development featuring restaurants, coffee shops, lounges, and event spaces.
“The project derives inspiration from Barcelona city, in its materiality, tactility, and the relationship between space and gastronomical experiences,” explained the architects, and it will stretch across the waterfront in terraced layers.
As a “creative interpretation of a social venue,” the project will showcase varying restaurant identities in customized lobby spaces.
News via: BAD.Built by Associative Data
You’re reading What I Learned about Politeness at a Korean Flower Shop, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
We take it for granted that people should know how to be polite. It seems like something universal: You say please and thank you, you smile, and you tell people you’re doing well when they ask how you are, even if your life is in turmoil. At least that’s how it works in the West.
I’ve been living in Korea for the past year and a bit and it’s a little different over here.
Koreans have a distinct way of saying “Yes” to each other that sounds like a dismissive grunt to the native English speaker.
When my girlfriend and I first started dating, for example, I’d ask if she wanted to have pizza for dinner. “Uh,” she’d reply, and it took me a while to learn that this meant yes.
Naturally, as we spent more time together, I began using “Uh” myself. Eventually it became unconscious; without noticing I would grunt “Uh” whenever I wanted to say yes to something.
I’m used to expressing politeness by using the word, “Please,” or excessively apologizing like the good Canadian boy I am. But in Korea I’m often at a loss because there’s no real word for “Please” in Korean, and if you say “Sorry” without having actually done anything to apologize for, you just seem strange and silly.
Instead, politeness in Korean is expressed using different word endings. There are essentially three levels—casual, everyday formal, and super formal—and in each level you would end the last word of your sentence in a different way.
It’s a little confusing, but for the sake of this story all you need to know is that using “Uh” to say “Yes” is something you would do only when speaking to someone younger than you or someone who you know very well. You would use a different word to say “Yes” in more formal situations.
There was an old Korean couple inside sitting behind the register. They were eating noodles together silently. I smiled, said hello, and began browsing the flower display.
The old lady rose from her seat and asked me in Korean if I’d like to buy the bouqet that I was looking at. “Uh,” I said, without noticing.
She began preparing the flowers. As she did I noticed a sour look on her husband’s face as he sucked up a few noodles from his bowl.
“Would you like to pay by card?” she asked me.
“Uh.” I smiled and handed her my card. Now her face looked sour too. I tried making small talk with them in Korean—something I’ve found usually delights the elderly couples here as they watch me struggle to form sentences. This time, however, I barely received a response.
I sensed something was wrong. “Would you like a receipt?” she asked in a tone that seemed rather harsh. “Uh,” I said.
She gave me the receipt and sat back down without thanking me or saying goodbye. I eventually figured it out as I replayed the scene in my head on the walk home.
Worst of all was that I had no idea how many times I’d done the same thing to others; I imagined the number to be high. I consider myself to be a reasonably polite person, yet here I was in Korea, walking around grunting “Uh” at elders like an asshole.
So the next time you see a foreigner acting in a way that seems rude in your own country, perhaps they’ve just misunderstood some of the dos and don’ts of your culture. Maybe they really do mean well and are just confused about how to express their good intentions. Maybe they aren’t accustomed to all of the strange things we do that seem normal to us.
…Or maybe that particular person really just is a dick. Who knows. 😉
My name is Jacob. I’m fascinated by all of the strange things we often tell ourselves that prevent us from doing what we want to do in life. Soon-to-be blogger at pooroldme.com Check me out here.
You’ve read What I Learned about Politeness at a Korean Flower Shop, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
From the architect. Dwell between the countryside and the beach
To inhabit the binomial countryside-beach entails dialogs between uses and customs intuitively disparate. Far enough away from the city but yet influenced by it, the new maritime ‘chacras’ combine opposites in coexistence: from the summer enjoyment to the winter gathering, from the sophistication of the beach meeting to the simplicity of country life. Conjugation of landscapes and practices: field and lagoon, beach and sea.
Remote Landscapes
To build in far away territories from the surroundings in which we usually live is a great challenge. Remoteness not as a limit but as a possibility, as a value, as a generator of fields and conditions. Remote landscapes confronts us with the awareness of immenseness. It puts us in our role in reality.
Prefab
In landscapes of high natural value, it is fundamental to respect their original condition and so it is essential a reversibility condition. Prefabrication allows us to work with industrialized materials that enable high-precision processes. Thus amortizing the impact of construction on the ground, minimizing waste, staff in situ and displacement: a perfect combination of nature and industry.
Eppur si muove!
Houses do not move. They are made of heavy materials, put together with mortar, concrete must be used. These prejudices are hard to break, as the immobility of constructions.
On the other hand, Prefab Houses are produced in a controlled environment and carefully made. They are born in a factory and taken to its final destination. Houses do not move, however…
Morphosis Architects’ Hanking Center Tower in Shenzhen, China has recently topped out, with the 62nd floor now in place. Defined by its detached core configuration, the building positions its primary core 9 meters outside its main body, connected by a series of sky bridges and braces, in order to increase flexibility and light penetration into the floor plate.
Two secondary cores in the body of the building provide structural reinforcement and house private elevators for VIP users, as well as freight elevators and mechanical services.
In an effort to serve global professionals and bring density to the suburb of Nanshan, the tower will feature flexible office space on its open floor plate, anchored by high-end retail and dining.
The Center utilizes folded angles to elegantly merge public components in the podium with private commercial space in the tower, a departure from conventional towers, where differing program is often regulated to separate and disjointed volumes, explained the architects.
Moreover, the separation of the core from the main portion of the building will allow for “a public to private gradient of activity on each floorplate, as tenants move from circulation and social spaces around the core to quitter perimeter offices with panoramic views.”
At the ground level, a grand plaza and “dimensional hardscape” will support public activity. Similarly, glazed lobbies and sky gardens will be located throughout the building, with one for every five floors, in order to create communal hubs for tenants.
Upon completion, the building will be the tallest steel building in China, as well as the tallest detached core building in the world. Hanking Center Tower is projected to open in 2018.
News via: Morphosis Architects.
Located in the Tsaotun Township of Nantou County in Taiwan, the Yu-Hsiu Museum of Arts was completed in October of 2015, after 4 years of design development. The request received by AMBi Studio’s design team, led by architect and founder Wei-Li Liao, was for a building that was “subtle,” “delicate” and “clean.” The building’s focus is therefore on creating a harmonious relationship between the manmade and naturally formed architectural elements, paying respect to the surrounding Jiu-Jiu Peaks. This relationship is demonstrated in the combination of the building’s artificially constructed corridors and the existing vegetation in the area, and the museum’s doubled-façade construction which creates an “intermediary” space between outside and inside.
This successful design led the building to win first prize at the 2016 Taiwan Architecture Awards, causing the selection committee to praise Liao for his “continual effort… to explore the experience of perception… and poetic spatiality.” Taiwan-based photographer Lucas K Doolan visited the site to capture the building’s interaction with nature in detail, exploring the museum’s carefully considered materiality.
From the architect. The plan to design a winery for top quality wines was developed in Paraje Altamira, in the district of San Carlos at 130 km to the south of Mendoza city. Located at 1100msnm, Paraje Altamira is surrounded by vineyards and it is placed in the heart of Valle de Uco at the foot of the Andes Mountains. The area, which has been recognized worldwide, is ideal for wine growing because of the spectacular natural setting.
Within this context, wine tourism has gained great importance not only for the industry but also for its tourism. The spillover effect is that in some basic rural areas, new activities and infrastructure related to the wine industry have begun to emerge. Hotels, local gastronomy, real estate developments are exploring the limits of creativity to offer visitors new and original ways of exploring the fascinating world of wines and the virtues of the surrounding areas.
The architectural proposal responds to two essential objectives: on the one hand, a building which is functional to the agronomical needs together with the enological aspect always following the strict technical and operational requirements that the process of high quality wine making demands. And on the other hand, the touristic aspect, where the visitor plays a leading role and together with the impressive landscape makes everything possible.
The Zuccardi Winery itself is a tribute to the solemn and austere Andes Mountains, which define the weather and the soil of the region. The building emerges directly from the soil and becomes part of the mountain, seeking integration and visual balance which do not affect the landscape.
From the productive point of view, the winery is designed on a strong axis which links all the operating areas of the winery. It is similar to a backbone which is repeated on the three levels. The basement holds the wine vats, the ground floor contains all the productive process and the lab, the administration area and the tanks gateways are on the first floor.
The production system takes place through gravity. The grapes enter from the harvest area. Then, it follows a rigorous process of double selection. Next, it is deposited in big barrels that are raised and transported to the tank mouth to be deposited there. After that, the fermentation process starts.
The process is distributed in a U shape and it is organized around a big central terrace which guarantees a comfortable and agile operation, safe from the rigorous weather conditions of the area.
The winery is almost completely made in reinforced concrete in sight, exploring different finishes. Big slopes of hydro washed cyclopean (with great rocks) concrete, with local sand and gravel, emerge from the ground with a tectonic strength. Heavy and robust volumes look like bodies emerging from the surface, showing the features of the ground as a way to express its own identity. The use of local elements, such as sand and water from the Tunuyán River, was prioritized. The human resources and local workforce was also part of the plan.
The main building surfaces from the ground exposing the long truncated cone shaped wine vats. These vats are the result of years of experience from the team of enologists. They were made of precast concrete. All the internal area, the surroundings and the equipment were solved with the same material giving it an homogeneous look, where soft strategic light lines fill the walls with a lively and natural brightness. This effect leaves the vats and the space exposed as if it were a cave where the vessels have always been but now, they have only been uncovered. The idea is to transmit that the winery is an extension of the vineyard.
Between the structural walls emerges a metallic dome, which represents the universal and the eternal. The dome highlights the special conditions of the place, reflecting the light of the sun and the sky at different times of the day in this mountainous landscape. Inside the building, there is a succession of wine storage and wine tasting areas, which represent the passage of times and the projection into the future. Under the dome, a metal work of art, made by Guillermo Rigattieri, is suspended on the air. This work represents the seed, which is the origin and the potential of the future.
As you go through the winery, you get to understand the concept and it invites you to discover every corner of it. From the moment you approach the tall and majestic external walls and as you go through the interior and discover the different spaces which show the interplay of light, the changes of temperatures, the silence and the echoes, you feel at awe. All of these features allow the visitor to experience the enological process and get seduced by the attractive and mystic fantasy of the wine making process. Without this experience it is impossible to understand it or feel it.
Making wines that respect the identity of the area is a unique activity, which results from a research and development process. It implies a great commitment and passion not only in the vineyards but also in the winery. It is an activity that mainly seeks to understand the place and its unique and unrepeatable characteristics. Science and art together turns into the magic of wine. Following these premises, the design is a mirror to its duality, the technical aspect and the place conjugated with feelings gives us a memorable experience.
London’s Foster + Partners will likely design a flagship Apple store for the historic Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square in Washington, D.C., reports The Architect’s Newspaper. According to Events DC, Apple will lease a portion of the 63,000-square-foot building’s ground floor and basement levels in a ten-year lease, sharing the space with its existing tenant, The Historical Society of Washington.
This is an extremely important repositioning of an iconic building—a building whose original purpose was about community, information and sharing of knowledge, said Max Brown, chairman of the board of Events DC. Amid rapid change in our city, we are confident the space can become a true blend of the square’s past and future.
If plans are approved by the National Capital Planning Commission and Washington’s Historic Preservation Review Board, the Beaux-Arts-style Ackerman & Ross library will be reinterpreted to fit both the building’s original intent, as well as the modern tech ecosystem of the city.
Funded by Andrew Carnegie, the library was the first fully integrated public building in Washington, D.C. Since 1999, the Historical Society has held exhibitions, public programs, and later the Kiplinger Research Library in the building.
Plans to use the library for the International Spy Museum in 2014 aimed to build additions to the existing building but were rejected by historic preservationists.
Foster + Partners has previously designed Apple stores in San Francisco and London, as well as Apple’s Campus 2. If constructed, this will be the second Apple store in Washington, D.C.
News via: The Architect’s Newspaper.
Sig Nordal, Jr. 