Reading a book by Peter Frey, Learning from Vernacular: Towards a New Vernacular Architecture, I came across the phrase:
"Earth architecture represents a way of ecological construction that requires only 1% of the energy that is necessary to erect an equivalent building made of concrete or bricks, and returning it to its original state requires no energy at all."
When I looked into constructing an earth (one of the options was cob) building as a vegetable storehouse, I ran into problems with designing foundations. So the first miscomprehension with the above sentence would be believing that the *entire* building can reduce energy so dramatically. Typically there is some stone, brick or concrete construction required too. Secondly, are we not calculating human labour involved? Because gathering the earth required is laborious - it should be subsoil with less organic matter than topsoil so deeper digging required! Return to its original state... don't mistake this as implying that the building will leave no mark or footprint when gone- remember those foundations? And the roofing will likely not be earthen either.
User-centric insighting: In order to create value in novel ways (the goal of innovating), you must first locate opportunities to do so. Where to start looking is easy to see—with the end-user—but it’s far more difficult to detect and synthesise actionable information within the complexity of the user experience. Customer surveys and focus groups simplify the process, but are often removed from how people authentically respond in the marketplace. Designers, by contrast, prefer observation to interrogation, developing empathy to discern unarticulated, even unconscious, user needs. As Tim Kobe, CEO of design firm Eight, Inc. put it, “We represent the end-user in all the design decisions that take place in these innovation projects.” And that’s why building empathy with the target user is crucial, as Continuum did when working with Procter & Gamble to reinvigorate the Pampers brand. Observing mums and their babies, designers realised that the mothers’ ultimate concern was their infant’s development, not the diaper itself. With that in mind, they devised a line of premium diapers for different developmental stages (Swaddlers, Cruisers, etc.) rather than segmenting by age.
Deep and diverse ideating: Designers generate heaps of new ideas based on user insights. This phase is where they unleash their creativity, coming up with as many and as distinct potential solutions as possible before putting much thought into implementation. These preliminary solutions are the product of an organisational process that deliberately cultivates a broad range of perspectives. Far from avoiding eccentric and exceptional voices, design firms seek them out and encourage their contributions within an atmosphere of freedom of thought and playfulness. Playfulness is so important at IDEO that they have created a Toy Lab where designers conceive and test out some of their creations by playing with kids as young as 18 months.
Rapid and cheap iterating: Designers understand that the creative flurry of the ideation phase can take them only so far. They are quick to make ideas concrete and not shy to declare them failures when they don’t live up to expectations. For designers, failures are not negative events but learning experiences. Producing fast and cheap dummy versions to test out concepts means that even when the experiments flop, it’s still a win-win. Singapore-based multidisciplinary design consultancy Awaken Group makes “low-resolution prototypes” of spaces using stacked cardboard boxes to represent walls. That way, alterations can be made to the design in a matter of moments as the client walks through the demo space.
Now the problem I had to contend with was that the house isn't facing due anywhich way!!!
I've tried rotating an image of the bridge and comparing it to a harp - the most noticeable difference/mismatch is that the strings on a harp run from the flat towards the top which is concave. If we are to look at the cables on the bridge running from the flat - they go towards a convex curve.
Isn't it horrible?? A little shed (public toilet?) being constructed in Howth I think.
My aunt has a narrow galley kitchen.
Apparently, the opening of the East Link was only just wide enough to let the bridge (at a particular point) pass through and so the tide had to be at its highest point.
The bluish colour of the above picture is awful, sorry about that. My phone was on funny settings when I took it. It's the plaza in front of AIB bank headquarters in Ballsbridge. They've done a beautiful job. I think it's a really nice space now.
I read about the health benefits of eating baked potatoes recently and so decided I should invest in a potato scourer to scrub the potatoes well before cooking and eating. A problem often encountered with brushes etc at a kitchen sink is how to distinguish the functions or uses of the different brushes from each other - which brush is for scrubbing dirty saucepans, which to clean fingernails and which to scrub vegetables.
In a kitchen shop, I spotted this hideous little brush whose 'handle' was shaped like a potato. Usually I run a mile from this kind of 'pop' design. I remember lectures in college on the topic where pictures of buildings (mostly in America!) were shown: an American fried chicken diner in a building shaped like a large chicken. I think the disney buildings are examples of this style. And an architect who enjoyed the unashamed madness was Charles Moore, if I remember correctly. I'm sure I could dig out my lecture notes and look into this more.
They seem basic enough requirements and I'm sure there's much more that could be listed there. It reminds me of a documentary I saw - an interview with the American architect, Philip Johnson filmed in his pavillion-like collection of buildings where he lived. The guest house was purposely missing things like light-switches positioned next to the bed and nice touches like that to intentionally annoy his guests and ensure they didn't overstay their welcome.
It was a Wednesday evening. This image of Peig Sayers (an woman who lived on an island off the south coast and wrote a book about her travails that many students had to read in Irish class in school) was moving on the wall, winking at passers by, haunting the street.
The Hard Working Class Heroes Festival took place in the Pod complex in Dublin last weekend. It's a 3-day affair to give unsigned bands a chance to perform in front of a wide audience, ideally consisting of people from the industry too. There were 6 rooms - in order of size: Working Man's Club, Lennon Lounge, Odeon, Pod, Crawdaddy, Tripod. The Odeon was for chilled out, sitting on comfy seats type music.
I met a friend who is in one of the bands and he had been busy throughout the day at mentoring sessions with PR people and others which he found very beneficial.
Design, music, creativity - I suppose it's a valid posting for this blog! And I did try and involve the idea of "designing a festival". Another example that I was at was the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures. It's interesting the info that is handed out to the public, the way the thing is laid out etc. I think it's related to Design!
