By Justin on March 5th, 2010, 9:45 pm 0 Comments

I’ve been collecting a bunch of great ideas lately, but haven’t had the time to post them, so I thought it was about time to get them up here, again as reference points, context, and markers for projects we’re hoping to do and general inspiration.

First off, an idea that Josh once imagined, in some fashion anyways, a green house made from recovered windshields.

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Tagged: architecture context design plant plastic bags recycle windshield

By Justin on February 6th, 2010, 4:00 pm 4 Comments

The details: Sunday, February 28, 2010 (1pm) at 362 California Ave, Windsor

As part of the Broken City Lab: Save the City project, and to better understand the city and its rich and failed history, Broken City Lab researchers will host an open community event on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 1pm to map and invent two distinct community tours—Sites of Apology and Sites of Hope.

Throughout the first part of the event, Broken City Lab will lead community participants in brainstorming the numerous sites deemed to be worthy of apology—these could include failed strip malls, roads without sidewalks, or former auto factories—along with the numerous sites that give community participants hope for the city—these could include an especially great bike trail, sites of architectural significance, or places that can be imagined as being easily improved.

Immediately following the creation of these lists, Broken City Lab will set out to demarcate and officially designate each Site of Apology and Site of Hope. At each site, a short ceremony will be held and community members are welcomed to come along to help recognize each and every site.

A map demarcating each of the designated Sites of Apology and Sites of Hope will be made available online to encourage the ongoing investigation of these sites by community members.

Broken City Lab: Save the City is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council.

Tagged: architecture BCL event geography lists research Save the City sites Windsor

By Justin on February 4th, 2010, 11:00 am 0 Comments

While we’re still moving along on our Save the City project in the background, we’re also continuing to look ahead to other projects and deadlines coming up. Tuesday mornings are always a really good productive time, and this week was no exception.

While we wait for our ribbons and postcards to arrive for the upcoming Sites of Apology / Sites of Hope event, we’re looking into CAFKA and the ANTI 2010 festival, both of which could be a lot of fun and give us a chance to go and play in other cities.

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Tagged: architecture BCL drawing Finland Kitchener proposals research Waterloo

By Justin on December 20th, 2009, 1:11 pm 0 Comments

As previously noted on Windsor Visuals and Tom Lucier’s Twitter (via Planetizen), a number of buildings in Windsor and Detroit are now on Google Earth in all of their SketchUp-rendered glory.

It’s quite interesting to fly around and see what buildings have been modeled, not all of which have been done by the SketchUp team, but by local folks with the talent and skill to do it.

I think this is going to help us with a number of projects, since we love to do Photoshop renderings to imagine projects … having the ability to see those renderings on 3D objects can only make things that much easier. I just wish one of us knew how to use SketchUp.

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Tagged: 3D architecture Detroit google earth maps Windsor

By Josh on November 29th, 2009, 7:00 am 0 Comments

I don’t want this to come off as an advertisement for Kanner Architects, but since I have an interest in architecture, I thought I’d share one of their projects. This project, entitled “Malibu 5,” is a home made from sustainable and recycled materials. Because of its roof-mounted solar panels, it’s also energy efficient! The home also makes use of concrete flooring’s ability to draw in heat during the day and release it at night. What’s more, the home takes advantage of  coastal breezes and, with its large windows, natural light.

Part of the appeal for me is this gorgeous view of the ocean.

If I had a list of the most pleasant places I’ve ever seen, this would be near the top.

Tagged: architecture green housing malibu sustainable

By Justin on September 30th, 2009, 9:29 am 0 Comments

Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler are using R-O-B, their Mobile Fabrication Unit robot, to New York to build Pike Loop, a 22m long structure built from bricks at the Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Positioned on the central mall on Pike Street, the robot will work for up to four weeks – in full view of the public – to construct a brick wall, a highly sculptural response to the specific identity of the site. For the Pike Loop installation, more than seven thousand bricks aggregate to form an infinite loop that weaves along the pedestrian island. In changing rhythms the loop lifts off the ground and intersects itself at its peaks.

Beyond awesome.

[via today and tomorrow]

Tagged: architecture brick fabrication installation machine

By Justin on August 24th, 2009, 11:49 am 0 Comments

I don’t mean for this to be such a lazy post/reblog, but there’s a few images I’ve been meaning to post for a while. I figured they were good reference points for our magnetic planters project, among others, given the variety of display and function of these planters and the use of recycled materials (see below). So, consider this less any sort of critical discussion of these works, and more just a compilation of image research for stuff we’re doing and would like to do. That being said, I’d highly recommend following the links throughout to read more about the projects.

First up, pictured above is, “The Hanging Smoking Garden”, 2007 by Mikala Dwyer from vvork.

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Tagged: architecture gallery gardens installation plants recycle

By Justin on July 30th, 2009, 11:14 pm 0 Comments

Danielle and I spent the day at the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture with the DodoLab team planning out a project that will take place in PEI near the end of August. Near the side of the building in this kind of walkway between two parts of the school, we saw this installation, completed by a 4th year architecture class.

The installation consists of a huge number of used coffee cups, chicken wire, and transplanted grasses and flowers. It undulates mildly until reaching the rail for the steps (in the right-side of the photo) where the planters climb the rail. The chicken wire is supported by other coffee cups and those cardboard heat-shields.

We didn’t get to speak to anyone who worked on this project, but it was another great reference for our own ongoing research.

Tagged: architecture context course school Waterloo

By Justin on June 22nd, 2009, 12:13 am 3 Comments

Architecture firm, Import Export, came up with a structure specifically designed for urban camping. The mobile architecture is meant to be dropped into urban spaces to provide new opportunities for for overnight city experiences.

There are a lot more photos that do the project better justice.

Long ago, we talked about urban camping, but we certainly never discussed this level of infrastructure. Maybe this project is slightly more realistic than the way I’m imagining urban camping in Windsor, but it’d be a shame if no one utilized any of the newly created acquired naturalized areas across the city for a makeshift campsite.

[via rebel:art]

Tagged: architecture camping city context tent urban

By Josh on May 8th, 2009, 7:00 am 5 Comments

As I stumbled on the work of Richard Galpin, I wondered about the possibilities of creating hand-made or photographic experiments with Windsor’s architecture to help understand and interpret Windsor’s architectural setting. I believe that these types of activity could help us design projects involving commentary of our physical surroundings. Here are a few words to describe Richard’s working process.

“Richard Galpin’s complex art works are derived from the artist’s own photographs of chaotic cityscapes. Using only a scalpel Galpin intricately scores and peels away the emulsion from the surface of the photograph to produce a radical revision of the urban form. The artist allows himself no collaging, or additions of any kind – each delicate work is a unique piece made entirely by the erasure of photographic information.”

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Tagged: architecture erasure photography