Dive into the archives.
- Terrestrial Discontinuities
[In 2007, an ill-conceived 6,000 mile network of energy corridors in the US West represents the collective ambition of Department of Energy, Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service. The project is called the West-wide Energy Corridor.]
Following a trail from our Dust Bowl post last week, we [...]
- Particulate Swarms
[Radar image of Sydney during the dust storm of September 2009 - its largest in 70 years.]
Editors Note: File under Glacier / Island / Storm, a studio run by BLDGBLOG at Columbia University GSAPP. Storm edition.
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“It is time / It is time for / It is time for stormy weather” – The Pixies
Storms deal in [...]
- Islands of Speculation/ Speculation on Islands: Spray Ice
[Large Ships spraying Water to manufacture Ice Islands]
Editors Note: File under Glacier / Island / Storm, a studio run by BLDGBLOG at Columbia University GSAPP. Glacier Edition.
Islands fabricated from ice are becoming more prevalent as offshore oil speculation in the Arctic gains more interest. Ice has been a strategic building material in the Arctic for [...]
- LandFab, or Manufacturing Terrain
[Zealandia topography. Considered by many a lost continent (micro-continent), Zealandia sank after separation from Antarctica some 130 million years ago. Separated or future originary?]
Editors Note: File under Glacier / Island / Storm, a studio run by BLDGBLOG at Columbia University GSAPP. Island Edition.
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Gilles Deleuze, in “Desert Islands,” distinguishes between two types of islands, continental (separated) [...]
- Student Works: Thermarium
Processing Water Overflow
The Thermarium envisions a new beach typology for the Toronto Waterfront. Responding to the lack of swimming at Toronto’s new urban beaches and consistent CSO (combined sewage overflow) closures at surrounding swim areas, we offer new possibilities for water immersion and activity that are enabled, rather than prohibited, by the polluted run-off instigated [...]
- The Spectatorium, 1893
[Steele MacKaye's Spectatorium was intended to re-create the landing of Christopher Columbus, complete with mini-ocean, waves, and an island.]
With seating for 10,000, an eight foot deep concrete tank under the entire stage complete with wave machine and wind machines, railroad ties to aid in the shifting of three dimensional scenery behind a “light curtain,” the [...]
- -arium: Weather + Architecture
[Arium: Weather + Architecture]
Is Weather the last vestige of nature in the City?
Do the forces in Weather systems hold the key to the energy crisis?
Is instability and disorder something that can be designed?
Is Weather the nemesis of Architecture or its best friend?
Is Weather becoming the last form of cultural specificity?
Does it all come down to [...]
- Student Works: Trawling the Thames / Fish ‘n Ships
[The Tower Bridge Seafood Market explores a fictitious urban scenario where direct access to the sea provides the ability for fish farming to become free-ranging. All drawings by Jonathan Blair.]
Last month I had the pleasure of attending final reviews at University of Michigan Taubman College for two days. I saw an incredible range of work [...]
- P3-Post Peak Phosphorous
[Togo phosphates mining]
If you thought post-peak oil had generated media frenzy (and spawned endless sustainable design projects), there’s another, quieter crisis looming – post-peak phosphorous.
Phosphorus is at the heart of modern farming; an essential ingredient of agricultural fertilizers. It has no synthetic alternative and is being mined, used and wasted as never before. Inefficiencies [...]
- Vortex streets
[Alternating eddies of vortex street.]
[The Canary Islands as an eddy-creating obstacle via GSFC/NASA.]
Vortex streets emerge when the right wind and cloud formation encounters the right kind of obstacle. Theodore von Kármán, a fluid dynamicist, observed and documented this phenomenon. Swirling rings sequence along a street-like corridor trail beyond the obstacle. Each ring stems from an [...]
