On Fri the 22nd of 2010 we had an opportunity to sit down w/ EASTON + COMBS and discuss their entry into this years MOMA P.S. 1 Young Architects Program.
CF: What was the initial design approach?
E+C: In our project entry for the 2010 YAP we began by conceptualizing this year’s shift in the theme to include some consideration of sustainable design issues. One of the critical questions we have been investigating is the role of innovation within architecture’s response to sustainability, and we saw the PS1 project as an extension of this research. Innovation and the defining concerns of budget and the schedule, were therefore our primary points of departure, which quickly intersected through questions of material research, fabrication and efficient assembly methodologies. We felt very strongly that a successful design proposal must raise the bar simultaneously in the aesthetic character of the courtyard and in terms of a truly innovative agenda regarding sustainable design. Given the new criteria set forth by the MoMA and PS1 committee we also saw the commission as an opportunity for the MoMA to play an active role in addressing the larger question of sustainability in design culture in the 21st century.
New addition to our 3rd column scripting++ section wework4her
_Context and argument.
Ted Kruger , in his lecture series, Instrument and Instrumentality , uses Herbert Simon’s distinctions between ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ sciences to describe the ‘sciences’ as operating on two agendas: understanding the world ‘as-is’ and speculating on ‘as-it should be’. Subscription to, and extension of the argument would mean that ‘applied science’ could be posited as the bridge between the two. Further, (architectural) ‘design as research’ could be argued to exhibit similar properties of using, translating, transposing and adapting the descriptive tools of natural science to engineer an imagined and wished world. However, it could also argued that this ‘translation’ has to be negotiated against more ‘weathered’ concerns of design including discourses on formal language, performance fitness, spatial perception and experience, socio-cultural implications etc. The over-arching context of this paper will be ‘apposing’ the current interest and rapid evolution of computation within architectural design, against such an idea of applied science. read more
Here is a close look at the competition entry by Penn State University for the Solar Decathlon, as well as a video of the Solar PV technology developed by Solyndra that was integrated into the scheme.
AA Landscape Urbanism
It was in 2000 that the Chinese government formulated a plan to build 400 new cities by 2020, in order to install the migration coming from the countryside towards the new urban agglomerations. This is the equivalent of 20 cities per week.
Rice concrete can cut greenhouse emissions
Researchers find way to make nearly carbon-free rice husk ash for concrete
(Via:www.msnbc.msn.com)
By Michael Reilly
updated 3:47 p.m. ET, Tues., July 7, 2009
A new way of processing rice husks for use in concrete could lead to a boom in green construction.
Rice husks form small cases around edible kernels of rice and are rich in silicon dioxide, an essential ingredient in concrete. Scientists have recognized the potential value of rice husks as a building material for decades, but past attempts to burn it produced an ash too contaminated with carbon to be useful as a cement substitute.
The world’s penchant for consuming concrete is a huge problem for climate change. Every ton of cement manufactured for use in concrete emits a ton of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Worldwide, cement production accounts for about 5 percent of all CO2 emissions related to human activity.
core.form-ula is the academic wing of form-ula. Our goal is to provide a platform, be it physical or virtual where architects, artists, designers, engineers, scientists, and writers can come together in collaborative space.
Core.Profiles
A Brief introduction to some of the people doing what we find to be progressive work in the field of Architecture, Art, Design and Science.
