Saturday, April 15, 2023

notes re raising skyscraper architecture

It is of note that roughly at the middle of the previous century, there rose the category of architecture called "international architecture."  In the name is implied that there exists architecture which is raised for communities across different nation states.  This call was made at this point in time after the League of Nations transpired during the war efforts; it was at this time when countries around the world initiate the legal establishment of nation states.  For the label of "international architecture" to have been designed, the intention behind the design of the name must be to note the significance of the nation-state polities in their acceptance of architecture which was being proposed as a common architecture for the Western world.  Yet, the governments in each nation state cannot in each case act as the sole decision-making stakeholder that could sign for the purchase of new architecture, because not in all cases were they representative of all demographics which are affected in the locale.  Furthermore, the governments have not yet the capacities to act without due information and advice on how to enable the populace to work with such architecture, which is at a physical scale and novel nature, without disrupting continuity in urban development.  For this reason, extensive consultations and investigations, in addition to consent by stakeholders and local architects, as well as preparations, must occur before actions that affect the urban landscape could be taken.  Nevertheless, the engagement with the administrative branches of polities is implied in the name of "international architecture."

Saturday, July 2, 2022

 A skyscraper can be many things, or better stated, many-sided or multifaceted. It can even have a metaphorical or descriptive aspect. But another thing it cannot be, especially to the patroning individuals utilizing its spaces and functional provisions. Architecture is primarily for those who inhabit its spaces.

Friday, June 17, 2022

Towards building why

  Going to the Moon is very important for the future of humanity.  The promise of peace as the natural state of being beckons where beyond the earth where our lineages have had such a long record of development.  What had been difficult centuries and millennia before were overcome in many ways so that peace is possible.  Peace is not only the beginning but the goal.  To be together without lamely thinking ourselves as like unthinking beings out for gains lasting a moment or two - we are beings that dream and plan and work in cooperation to realize the worthwhile realities.  The idea that the moon is a new beginning is the idea that we can start anew.  It is the new frontier in the sense that the Americas has been the new world.  The land of opportunity and dreams, the society of peace and order.  

The sight of the bright white moon in its phase strikes me with a profound sense of contentment and reassurance.  The presence of the first and immediate celestial body.  A place we haven’t been, a place we will soon go.  Everything is possible.  The way there will be made.  That this one here is possible makes the rest across the incomprehensibility in vastness also there and teeming with the possibility of real existence.  To make this first step, the importance cannot be overstated.  Just as venturing from the stasis of tradition to a realm of pure potential was the foundation in human action that allow the dream of the ideals and values defining societies today in the Americas.  What is freedom?  What is hard work?  What is making?  The move to the moon will not be merely a duplication of circumstances and choices.  Just the same, the endeavors into space will bring those to new heights of human experience.  What these realities could be we will never discover should we not venture beyond this home of a vibrant and lush garden. 


Carl Sagan wrote that we are upon the cosmic shore gazing into the deep oceans of space.  The grand stage of unknown proportions from these sittings of such modest proportion.  The amphitheater the presents an infinite count of drama depicting all that could be possible beyond the reach of any or all of our imagination.  What presence, what meaning could be discovered and made that I am this one, here, this small subjectivity, that exists within what is all and could contemplate my own existence within all that is and changes.  From the moon is a new vantage offering a view into what surrounds us everyday and every moment, which yet eludes us as we travel through the wonderful devices of our own making, under the firmament of the blue sky.

Friday, March 18, 2022

 "As much as level designers try to emulate the design of the real-world, we spend just as much time trying to work around the limitations those rules impose.  We strive to create a world the player can understand and relate to, but then we add elements - not for their function - but because their presence is indicative and convincing of a deeper, richer world than the one we have actually constructed." p179

"We pick and choose from the world we know to create one we don't, curating aspects of our environment, shuffling them around, and reseating them to give a sense of the familiar in pursuit of something fun." p181

from The Making of Dust: Architecture and the Art of Level Design by David Johnston

Thursday, March 3, 2022

de·moc·ra·cy


a form of governance where people through their selective inclination place various emphases at various sites of influence, culminating in the constitutional act of voting for leaders in effective roles in government










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(the commendable drawing with 
the re-interpretational crop)

 

Sunday, December 19, 2021

 


Accra, Ghana

(Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Memorial Park)

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Thursday, July 7, 2016

symbol



Eye of Horus eco-house, Luis De Garrido Architects

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Thursday, June 23, 2016

viewing pavilion




Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter Selected to Design Viewing Pavilion at Greenland’s Icefjord archdaily
Dorte Mandrup link

Thursday, June 16, 2016

art


Arthur Woods,
blog post at Astronomers Without Border link (scroll down to read 4 part blog entries
personal website link

architecture, art

My ultimate dream is to build in space. I am an abstract thinker. In order to build in space, I believe that one has to build first for the many peoples and societies on this earth. What are our common values? What can breach the vastness of space that we only in this century begin to discover? Art in orbit has become a reality. Architecture must follow if we believe in and find the necessity to explore. A sacred space where we can measure what is human to what is the solar system, to galaxy, and ultimately the universe. For this I have an idea in mind. But at once I feel that service to the inhabitants of the earth is a foundation for reaching our loftier goals. To build temples, parks, churches, institutional buildings of culture, schools, court houses, hospitals, gas stations, entertainment and recreation venues, housing, parkades, office buildings, monuments, libraries, and so on: these are architecture for the everyday person. Though their needs may differ, the purpose is the same - shelter, enclosure, openness, programmatic requirements, communication, and at the utmost, inspiration. This inspiration can cross boundaries; art and architecture are bridges, abstract bridges that can reach beyond space and time.