Stairs over The King's Pathway

El Caminito del Rey (English: The King's pathway) is a walkway or via ferrata, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in Málaga, Spain. The name is often shortened to El Camino del Rey.

15 minutes of Architectural Fame

Read the original article on Eikongraphia here first!

With all the nonsenses such as Starchitecture-fame-celebrity,
the idea of pop hit the architecture scene.

As it's some sort of a challange for masses to acquire a taste for architecture, the professionals choose their 15 minutes of fame rather than good architecture.

Is there a need for an architect to suggest/think of/design Binoculars in front of a building, Death Star in Dubai or a Putter shaped golf course?

New Age Land Art - Biggest Drawing in the World

With the help of a GPS device and DHL, artist Erik Nordenankar have drawn a self-portrait on the planet.
The idea is simple:
He put a GPS device in a briefcase and mailed it via DHL with precise travel instructions over the course of a 55 day period.
After the journey, the GPS data formed a virtual self-portrait of the artist that spread over 6 continents and 62 countries covering nearly 70,000 miles.

For more info on this project visit artist's website

Happy birthday Walter Gropius

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of Bauhaus.
Along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of "modern" architecture.

It's really fascinating that the same geography gave birth to the two opposite, yet both powerful ways of thinking, Nazism and Bauhaus, almost simultaneously.

--text added--
This reminds me what Kofi Annan (United Nations Secretary General), said in 2006 about religion:
"If there is a problem, it is not with the faith, but the faithful. It is not the text, it is the way we interpret it."
(As a Secretary General you don't expect him to say "Dogma of anykind kills you guys!", do you?)

Faith at that era, roughly speaking, was the perfect machine. The radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the miracle of mass production.

Both faithfuls Nazis and Bauhaus believed in the same thing.
Nazis seeking perfection in racism, and mass production in creating mindless citizens through propagandizing.
Bauhaus on the other hand, working on reconciling art/ individuality with mass production and seeking perfection in the relationship of usefulness and beauty.

Same faith, different faithful huh?
The rest is history. We've desperately tried to figure out what to do with the perfect machine till we nuked each other.
(I bet the guy who invented toothbrush, poked his buddy's eye out with it first!)

Anyway..
Happy birthday Walt! We love you!
Wish you could see us downloading individual ringtones to our mass produced cell phones, manufactured by the perfect machine we call chinese cheap labor!

C.A.D. Computer Aided Delusion

Just watch the video above! This is an unbuilt Theather Project proposed by Mies Van Der Rohe.

When did you see an architect thinking about the core of something last time?
Rethinking what we belive to be the only way?
Does our newly found tool, C.A.D., make us tools?
Did we start beliving, what we need is a super-cost-efficient machine and what we want is an eye-candy, a visual masturbation for brain?

Just asking myself.....

Tool:
One who lacks the mental capacity to know he is being used.
Someone who can't think for themselves.
Someone who tries too hard. A poser.
A fool. A cretin. Characterized by low intelligence and/or self-steem.

Delusion:
A fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact.

Skateboarding to Architecture

At last I've found another SKATEBOARDER ARCHITECT!
You must listen to the Dr. Iain Borden's podcast "Skateboarding to Architecture" to revise your idea of urbanism.



And if you're dedicated to Architectural Thinking, put your Blockbuster Card to good use once and get "Dogtown and Z-Boys" documentary.
This will make you look at the questions like:
What is culture?
What is a living design?
What does life in Urban Environment mean?
What is the influence of an architect on people's lifes?
in a different and wider perspective!

"two hundred years of
american technology
has unwittingly created
a massive cement
playground of
unlimited potential.
but it was the minds of
11 year olds that could see
that potential."
craig stecyk 1975

"skaters by their very
nature are urban guerillas:
they make everyday use of the
useless artifacts of the
technological burden, and
employ the handiwork of the
government / corporate
structure in a thousand ways
that the original architects
could never dream of"
craig stecyk 1976

Dr. Iain Borden is Director of the School of Architecture, Director of Architectural History and Theory and Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Educated at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UCL, University of London and UCLA, Iain is an architectural historian and urban commentator.
His wide-ranging historical and theoretical interests have lead to publications on, among other subjects, critical theory and architectural historical methodology, the history of skateboarding as an urban practice, boundaries and surveillance, Henri Lefebvre and Georg Simmel, Renaissance urban space, architectural modernism and modernity, contemporary architectural practice and theory, film and architecture, gender and architecture, body spaces and the experience of space.
His photographs have been widely published both in his own publications and those by other historians and architects.
Iain is a frequent contributor to conferences and exhibitions and has lectured widely around the world.

Want to find out more about Biomimicry?

I've been using and promoting to my colleagues Norbert Hoeller's weblog Clippings ever since I've discovered it.

Clippings is a great blog sponsored by Biomimicry Institude, full of news and information.
Norbert Hoeller is open to contributions and very kind on giving credits!

http://biomimicry.typepad.com/

You can also reach my original post here.

Remperor builds Deathstar!!!

Well well! If your city planning is a JOKE, if you think Disneyland is a good planning example, then people propose you such Projects!

Rem Koolhaas from OMA and his Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Center ladies and gentlemen!

Dead Star designs Death Star!
Remperor designs Death Star!

I haven't seen any architectural review on this project! Everybody just makes fun of it!
So I'll be the first one writing a proper review! Here's a design flaw I've found:

"An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has demonstrated a weakness in the Convention and Exhibition Center.
But the approach will not be easy!
You are required to maneuver straight down the trench and skim the surface to the point.
The target area is only two meters wide.
It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port.
The shaft leads directly to the reactor system.
A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station.
Only a precise hit will set off a chain reaction.
The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes."

Getting G33K with Autodesk

Autodesk Flip Flops

I would want some from The Autodesk Shop if only the Product Quality was a little bit higher.

I hope more comes out soon! Do you also feel the urge? That's called the inner G33K.

Autodesk Dog Biscuit

C'mon Autodesk don't try to be Google. Work on the integration and the refinement of the softwares you've bought if you have spare time and energy!

Architects remembering what Architects do

We were thinking we progressed alot. We needed specialization.
We loved dividing any job ahead into branches, giving every brach a COOL name.
Today we are starting to realize that it doesn't work out that way.
Every job needs a Leader.

It was the same in the Architecture scene. We have Interior Designers, City Planners, Landscape Designers and many others to do the same job. The job Architects did.
Well this is not a bad thing at all. Indeed it's a crucial partition for the era of speed we are living in.

The problem is that Architects forgot that the whole job belongs to them, and started to delegate their responsibility to the Cool Names. They forgot that they should be the Natural Leader of the process not an other Cool Name in the Headless Chicken Run.

The news I get lately show that people in the Architecture scene are getting that it doesn't work out that way too.
Natural Leader is not just a phrase AIA loves to call Architects but it's essential to do Architecture.

The Harvard Dean Mohsen Mostafavi calls it Architecture & Urbanism.
He explains Urbanism to The Boston Globe as:
"Urbanism is really dealing with the city in its broadest sense. It really deals with the variety of issues that are connected with the urban condition. It's the way in which our cities are changing in response to global changes, in response to various conditions of production, manufacturing, agriculture. But urbanism is also, these days, something that in its broadest sense also includes appreciation of landscapes of the urban, of the role of open spaces, and not restricting the study of the city to the study of the objects that occupy the city."

Oh my god! Isn't that City Planners' Job? Well not entirely!
Architects remembering their city planning duties. Their Social Duties!
Architects are the ones that are responsible to the COMMUNITY for every branch of what Architects do!

Here is another example: "Green For All" by Design E2's
Brad Pitt narrates this podcast which focuses on the inspirational architect Sergio Palleroni, who works with poor and underdeveloped communities around the world.

Best Place to Learn and Improve Revit

Bim is the new big thing. Autodesk Revit seems to be the Industry Standart.
If you want to step in to the revit world and/or want to improve your knowledge and skills.
The first site you should visit is www.revitzone.com

Ian, the creator of revitzone, has a very unique-straight way of explaining the concepts that lies behind Revit. And he's totally a cool guy, working really hard to bring out great articles.

QR Code

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994.
The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.
QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code.

UVW BOX ONE by ONE

When ever I format my PC, I always forget to back up these maxscripts. Then it takes some precious time to figure out how I wrote it. These three maxscripts are the life savers for "draw in Autocad, render in 3ds Max" kind of people.

Here I'll share them with the rest of the world. (And no more rewriting!)

macroScript UVW_BOX
category:"www.taskisla.com"
toolTip:"UVW BOX"

(
polat = selection as array
for d = 1 to polat.count do
(
select polat[d]
modPanel.addModToSelection (Uvwmap ()) ui:on
polat[d].modifiers[#UVW_Mapping].maptype = 4
)
)

Select by Colour

When ever I format my PC, I always forget to back up these maxscripts. Then it takes some precious time to figure out how I wrote it. These three maxscripts are the life savers for "draw in Autocad, render in 3ds Max" kind of people.

Here I'll share them with the rest of the world. (And no more rewriting!)

macroScript S_By_Colour
category:"www.taskisla.com"
toolTip:"Select By Colour"
(
max select by color
)

Boxmode Toggle

When ever I format my PC, I always forget to back up these maxscripts. Then it takes some precious time to figure out how I wrote it. These three maxscripts are the life savers for "draw in Autocad, render in 3ds Max" kind of people.

Here I'll share them with the rest of the world. (And no more rewriting!)

macroScript Box_Toggle
category:"www.taskisla.com"
toolTip:"Boxmode Toggle"
(
polat = selection as array
for d = 1 to polat.count do
(

if polat[d].boxmode == true then
(
polat[d].boxmode = false
print polat[d].boxmode
)
Else
(
polat[d].boxmode = true
print polat[d].boxmode
)
)
)

Hearst Tower

A glimpse of the Sir Norman Foster designed eco-friendly Hearst Tower in NYC.

National Stadium Beijing by Herzog & de Muron

National Stadium designed by Architects Herzog & de Muron to be completed for the 2008 Olympics.

National Aquatics Center Beijing

The Water Cube. The new National Aquatics Center in Beijing by PTW Architects.

A White Rose For Mrs. Disney

A short documentary by Irit Krygier on Frank Gehry's Disney Hall.

Nature’s R&D: Biomimicry Basics for Architects

Growing awareness about climate change has made designers, corporate leaders, and others increasingly open to creative approaches to old challenges.
Kira Gould, Assoc. AIA, explores the concepts and applications of biomimicry a method for seeking sustainable solutions by emulating nature's patterns and strategies with Dayna Baumeister and Rose Tocke of The Biomimicry Guild.

Press Play to listen to the Podcast:




Related Links:
Norbert Hoeller Blog: Clippings
Biomimicry Institude
Biomimicry Guild
Bionis
Green Chemistry Institude
Center for Green Chemistry
Biomimicry

Thank You Blog of The Day Crew!!

I would like to thank BLOG OF THE DAY AWARDS members for checking and awarding www.taskisla.com.