Leaf Layout

Other energy sources

Geothermal Energy- The energy comes from steam, which was around during the early part of the 19th century. The geothermal liquid is injected into an underground chamber where the heat is recycled throughout the house. Since it is underground then the water stays at a constant temperature, so that the house stay the same. Some geothermal plants are around the world and they burn clean and are completely safe for the environment.

Wind power- This energy source is becoming more prominent, because it is completely clean and produces alot of energy. The wind pushes the turbines which in turn causes the electrical generator to produce electricity. This wind mills are usually located in large farm and help power large cities and grids. I feel as if this would be one of the most renewable sources of electricity that we can get. I mean wind, we get that all of the time and it completely recyclable.

HNTB Architecture Site

Website: http://www.hntb.com/

Only one word to describe this site here: plain. When I came to the site I just wanted to automatically click the back button so I could find a better one. Because to be honest here, I didn't have much to say about it, I didn't even know where to start. I guess the navigation of the site was alright, didn't feel special or anything. The tool bar on the side is nice, but they could be more innovative than that. I did like how they had career highlights for young architects though. I mean I guess if I were working for them I would feel somewhat special just being reviewed at the bottom of the page. Its nice to know a company cares for their employees. The site needs more work, I'm sure its not that hard to get innovative with a site considering you might have thousands of designs and concepts to choose from.

Suzane Reatig Architecture

Website: http://www.reatig.com/projects/metrochurch.html

The site doesn't really appeal to me, but I do like the organization within the site itself. When you first arrive at the site you see a couple pictures and they link you to the design that you are looking for, whether it be worship or townhouse. The feel of the site is not much different than browsing the Internet on Google. There isn't much motivation in the site, and I really hope that doesn't show on the company themselves. I could see alot of potential here and maybe through time they will develop a much better site.

Gensler

Website: http://www.gensler.com/

I wasn't too surprised by the site at first, but after I clicked on the studio 585 link, I began to see things their way and I was really impressed. The site is designed really well and I do appreciate a site that can be easy to navigate through. Its not too crazy and doesn't require alot of patience to stroll through. So if you have a slow computer then you wold appreciate something like this. The color scheme was red and white which seemed to fit the designs they have. Red is a great color and really penetrates the white. The site has a great look, and I definitely wouldn't do anything to change it. Nice and simple is the way to go here.

Archigram?? What?

website: http://www.archigram.net/about.html

I may not quite understand the company, but the site isn't anything to look at. I feel like I just jumped back 40 years through time and I'm suddenly inside this cheap diner wearing chuck taylors. I don't know but I like chucks, however in the sense that I feel like I going to be wearing something cheap in architect, I don't like that feeling. The use o f the site is very obvious, ill give that to them. The choice of colors just don't' follow through with their designs, and the descriptions are full of jumbled text, very plain and boring. I think I would fall asleep looking at this page, much less reviewing it. yawn...

Asymptote Design

website: http://www.asymptote.net/#

By far the best design site that I've seen. I was confused at first about the different views you get of the site but eventually figured it out. The site is like a living organism, these little numbers fly around and the designs pop up from the numbers. I haven't quite figured out why the site is titled Asymptote, but seeing that they derives from many numbers and mathematical equations??? I guess I could see it in there. I love the feeling of just watching the site come up, assuming you have a fast enough computer to watch it pop up and slowly come to terms. I really enjoyed looking through the site. Its really innovative and appealing to the modern world.

Gregg Fleishman

Gregg Fleishman is all about rejecting the common joinery, which implies nailing two things together, or gluing them together somehow. He instead uses a system of notches that he can easily put his designs together with. For example you can see the playground that he designed for these kids. It looks like a pagoda, hence the name of it, and completely made of wood, and some metal on the slides. This guy is great with wood, and I really enjoy seeing his work, its just something new and innovative, and definitely a unique style that I haven't seen in any other architect.

Famous Architects

Antonio Gaudi- Possibly one of my favorite architects. He was a very influential figure in the art nouveau style. Most of his works were created within Barcelona, Spain, which is also where he started designing the Sagrada Familia which was never finished during his lifetime. Eventually this was finished by a later architect. I really enjoy the curves within his architecture, it very dreamlike and thought provoking to me. Then the church he designed just blew me away and the fact that he twisted the rules of architecture and still had people accept his style is an accomplishment in itself.

Aldo Rossi- Another architect who loved city planning. He became more famous for his drawings, and theories developed during the 80s than for his architecture. I feel like it is important however to critically analyze architecture and developed theories, but on the other hand I think that theories are only made to be broken. His civic center in Italy was a big accomplishment, but he had to work a transition between the old historic district into the new. This demonstrated his competence in designing larger plans of work, rather than the singular space.

Tadao Ando- After reading about his childhood I really felt a strong connection to this architect. I saw his water temple and then just fell in love with the design concepts he created. As a kid he learned about construction with wood, and then around the age of 15 he was reading alot about the temples and designs he saw, and then began to trace sketches of them. I really appreciate seeing an architect outside of school, I feel like he really had an affinity for it. That is love for architecture if I've ever seen it.

Paolo Soleri- Much more of an urban designer that took a large approach to designing buildings. He proposed alot of city plans that seemed very furniture-like in their organization. I really like the way he thought of things, the way his cities were organized remind me of some sort of dream scape. Very different in the way he approached architecture, but all the same I like how he thinks architecture is more than just a singular building.

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe- I see him as an architect with the idea of functionality over the actually physical appearance of and object. I really like that about him. In the Tugendhat house their were many open spaces within both the living area and in the kitchen and dining room. This is more reasonable I think in terms of how people like space. Some of his later designs seemed to take on a modern approach, but I can definitely see him as the functional architect that he is.

Gottfried Boehm- He seems to have transversed many different styles over his time. His father was an architect and so are three of his four children. It seems he really has a thing for architecture built in blood. He served in the German army for some time in the 30s and early 40s, after which he went back to school to do architecture at Munich. In the 70s he developed a style similar to architects in the time period, using materials such as galvanized metal. This transition took him away from the old and brought him into modern architecture today.

Frank Owen Gehry- I love the design of the Guggenheim Museum, and his use of metal being woven around the building. I have heard however, much like Frank Lloyd Wright, Gehry did have some structural problems within his buildings. However his designs were unique in that the materials he used were galvanized metal, copper, lead, and cardboard. He had many designs that resembled the snake-like figure, I guess that goes to show he didn't study the snake form all too well if some of his projects are falling apart. Overall a really interesting architect in perspective.

Frank Lloyd Wright- When I think of Frank Lloyd Wright, I think of design as a whole. He was really good at designing his residential houses as a whole, incorporating the chairs and furniture within the space. Everything was custom designed for the house itself. The only downside is that the residence wouldn't use the chairs so he would get really mad at them. He wasn't much a nice guys, and not all of his buildings were very stable.

Some Eco-Friendly Items

Here is the Cross side table designed by Andre' Joyeu. This table is very unique in its composition which is old white oak. The surface is polished nicely to look very pale and clean, which is what I really enjoy about it. It really reminds me of an ancient sculpture laid in ruin, which gives me the impression that it is a very sustainable design. Not only environment friendly but completely re-usable.

Dirtt walls are the new replacement for dry-wall. They are consisted of separate tiles and can be re-arranged on the wall. This design makes construction alot easier, as well as "de-contruction." Since the environment is effected by demolition of dry-wall buildings, this method makes the process more envirnmentally friendly, which is in turn much more sustainable.

A good example of what recycled glass can be made into. This chandelier is awesome, I am really into the tentacle looking bulbs that protrude from the base. It almost reminds me of a star, because when you look at stars closely they flare up and you see these kinds of shapes. I guess you could say this product looks sustainable as well as being sustainable. Stars have to recycle energy too.

When I first looked at these, I thought, wow what a piece of junk. Then I realized their names were Dust catchers. So I thought about what I would use these unique looking vases for and really nothing came to mind except pots for plants. Not really my kind of thing, however the company runs their furnaces off of wind-powered electricity, and donates about 100 pounds of glass to be recycled every day.

Albert Speer

Albert Speer was appointed by Hitler himself to be the chief architect of the third Reich. Speer was young at the time and shared a close relationship with Hitler, because he was able to communicate Hitlers ideas, since Hitler wasn't very good at drawing up plans or ideas. Personally, I don't really support what Speer did for Nazi Germany, but his work was very successful. He came up with the ruin theory that stated that ruins were to stay in ruin so that they could show off historical precedence. I agreed with him on that one, because if the Greeks or Romans did not leave ruins behind them, then we wouldn't have much to learn from them afterwards.

Music Albums Connect

This recent NIN remix album was just released, and I was immediately drawn to the cover of the album. The songs weren't all that amazing, but I was amazed by the artwork shown on the cover. I feel like when I'm browsing around the store and I see a nice cover like this, I will pick it up and hope that the music is Representative of the cover itself. I mean thats the way it should be.

A very morbid album cover, but It is somewhat cool to look at. The picture is really weird, and I wouldn't suggest it to the average alternative kid, but by personal preference I really enjoy it. The little feathers and the slick hair combed over her eye, give a very defiant look, which is very much like the singer on this album. However it has some medieval references with the cloak, and the poetry written on the album really shows in this picture. So once again this album reveals to us the nature of the music.

Very weird indeed, but I loved the text effect that they had. I didn't quite understand the name of the band itself and the music was awkward, but I did see how the music fit the cover of this album. The cartoons that hovered above the text are strange and I don't particularly like them that much. However they do seem to flow with the text nicely which is the only reason I can seem to stand them being there.

A great band, and the color of choice if I were to choose. The music is very repetitive and minimalistic, which goes along with this album cover. There really isn't much which isn't overwhelming to the eye. The colors reinforce the look on the mans face, and his pose shows how the album will feel to the buyer. A great album and a great cover.

This is one of my favorite album covers because it is very clean and organized. I would definitely want to hear the music if I were to see this album in stores. The crossroads are very apparent and come full circle when you listen to the whole album. The colors are very cool and electrical which defines the music as a soothing electronic experience. This is a must have for any fan of electronic music, and the fits the album perfectly, in fact flawlessly.

This is rebellious as it can get to the modern world. This picture shows how peace and prosperity is being destroyed for such monopolization in the economy. I really like the burning peace symbol and the effect it seems to have on the picture. The music is very minimal but draws you in like the burning peace symbol does. The symbol actually draws you into the backing scene, and is very representative of the world we live in today.

I am a fan of the music, but the album cover is just not up to the music standards. The electronics in the music are much more complex than it is shown in this album cover. It seems like they tried to pull off some sort of mathematical look to it with some sort of alien life form. I did enjoy the music, but the album cover needs alot of work if it is to achieve anything close to the effect of the music.

With teeth is an intriguing name to go with for an album. I can't quite figure out why it is named that, but there is a song on the album that is called with teeth. When I saw the nine inch nails logo it looked like a bar code, but when I looked closer the effect seemed to drift away and connected to some organic form. The form itself looks like it might be dripping ink on some transparent board. A really nice touch, but the music has nothing to do with it.

Muse is very overwhelming when it comes to their music, which it good, because when you look at this album cover the man seems to be overwhelmed with some greater thing. I don't know what that thing is, maybe its just a force of nature or something. The hovering silhouette's make me ponder alot of questions regarding the state we live in, and that is what muses music is all about. Absolution, the search for something, for answers.


Unsure of what the cover may be, but I guess thats just part of the greater mystery added to their music. It looks as if there is some sort of switch on the bottom left part of the screen. I feel like I'm looking through a cracked window as well, and maybe a torn up cardboard box in the background. The cover is alright...but I feel lost when I look at it. I mean maybe they just want the buyer to be lost in both their music and their artwork.

Nebula II Chair

This chair was designed by Greg Fleishman. This Chair is very unique. I like the way he laid out the chair on the sheet it lets the user see the chair from different perspectives. This design is what I would call an Alice in wonderland kind of chair. I feel like if I were tumbling down some rabbit hole I would run into this chair. I really like the chairs design, its really warped and unique in that way.

The Obelisk Chairs

Stacking chairs that actually create an interesting form. I'm sick of all those stacked chairs that do nothing interesting when they get stacked. This is the perfect solution. I like the look of the chairs and when they get stacked. The designer, Janus Et Cie, did a really good job putting together these chairs. Not only did she think about how the chairs fit into the space, but she thought about how the chairs would fit together inside of the space when your not using them. Thats one way to save space, and make it look good at the same time.

Future Systems Website

Site: http://www.future-systems.com/

When I first came upon the site I saw a big logo that said "Future Systems." I was excited to enter the site, but then once I got I really was upset with what I saw. There was little effort put into this website. Its very plain and simple, which isn't too bad, but something tells me that the site should have a little more to it to that explains what the companies about by just looking at the design of the site. The company seems to have a lot of well made projects but, they need a lot of work done to their site before further exploration.

Ride in my Vacuum

Wow. This...appalls me. It makes me want to clean. What is it with items that require work and being able to ride them. Like the lawnmower, you can now ride one, i mean whats next the riding mop? I love the concept of your children helping out in the cleaning. I know for sure that as a kid I would love to ride one of these things, in fact if you just turned it on I would ride it everywhere and the parents wouldn't even have to clean. A great concept, I personally would like to own one, but i don't really have money that I can just blow away right now. Awesome Vacuum, I'm sure kids will love to clean in the future...at least vacuum.

Peter B. Lewis Building

Designed by Frank Gehry, this space is the interior of the Peter B. Lewis Building. When , I look at this space, I wonder how exactly did they build these form and still have some sort of stability. The place just seems like a walk in wonderland. The walls are very organic in their forms, and look like flowing water. This huge cuved block in the center of this space confuses me, I havent quite figured out its function, but it looks like a space ship. At first when I looked at this space I thought it was really small, but thanks to the table I actually get a good feeling of the shear space inside this building. Quite impressive. I still wonder how does this palce hold itself together?

Orestad Gymnasium, Denmark

This space is very Representative of the Scandinavian architecture, which the design presides from. Inside the buildings, in the lobby space, there are platforms that hover over the walkways. I really like this touch, its very communal, and I feel like the place has a strong sense of community. The windows have different colors on them and they rotate around during the day to direct the sunlight into the building showing the time. Not only does the sunlight that flows through create time, but the colors change during the season. This internal space is a good example of how architecture, notably the interior space, connects the external world to the internal world.

Micro compact Homes

A team of researchers from the university at Munich designed this space to help with housing demand and sustainability. The Micro compact Home and around 30,000 euros, and 50,000 American dollars. This house contains everything that is essential for the average human to survive, and its really well constructed and clever. The floor comes up to make a bed, and the shower pops out of the wall and the water drains right below it. The kitchen and everything are all Incorporated into one small space. These homes are very popular in creating communities. There is a recent project that's being worked on which suspends these house above each other into and tree-like form. This design reduces the use of land and all the materials used within the project are completely recyclable making it sustainable. These small homes can be dropped out in the middle of nowhere and with an attached solar panel to the roof you can have power and satellites make it possible for theses houses to communicate to the world from distant locations. A great design, and I feel like we might be seeing this come alive in the future more, heck maybe I'll get one myself, I'm not the kind of guys that needs much room.

Sources: http://www.microcompacthome.com/

The Low Plastic Chair

This chair was designed by Maarten Van Severen. Their were a couple other color choices which included green, white, and red. The red one was the most appealing to me. I like how they folded the polycarbonate over itself, and then attached the piece to itself with springs. I feel like if I were sitting in this chair then I would have a very soothing experience. The design is real sleek, and modern which is very appealing. Harsh to say though, but there are not many environments currently that I could place this chair into and it would work out well. Maybe in the future when modern design, and sustainability come full circle.

Sonic Chair for the Ipod

This the ultimate accessory for any musician. I want one no doubt, thought it might cost me a couple hundred dollars. The Sonic chair was designed by Holger Fritzlar, Frank Hussong, Michael Kientzler & Daniela Reuter. The chair has speakers built into it and you can hook your Ipod up to it and just blast music straight through your skull. This definitely a chair for the average college student. I love to blast music and I like to relax too. Sitting down and blasting music inside this egg shaped pod that hovers over ground is just awesome. What else can I say, I bet this chair could take out someones hearing in a few years if the tunes are played right. Crank it up, that's what the chairs made for.

Super baddy, Nike's Got something Dorky for you

Whoa now kids. This is not the typical sneaker, in fact they match your favorite tools. Elmer's glue with a pair of Airmax sneakers is perfect if you ask me. The composition notebook adds a nice touch to the sneaker. Actually I'm being sarcastic, this is just ridiculously pointless, why would you make shoes to match items that people hardly care for. I really don't like those composition notebooks, because they are so hard to write in. And the glue doesn't stick anything together, and its messy. The last thing I want to do is advertise shoes that advertise glue. What a disgusting proposition. Maybe next Halloween they will have mat board shoes, just to mock me.

Morphosis

When i first saw this site, I was a bit skeptical, but after exploring it for a while I grew really fond of the web design. It took a while to get use to it, because at first there was a bunch of letters jumbled up and flying around the screen and I got really lost. The graphics are mind blowing. In the upper right hand corner of the page, there are three links which open up a small hub that allows you to see the company working live from three different platforms. Its not much like a video camera, but I think every minute or so the picture is updated. I like that, because the public, or client, can see how well the company works. This is a really good strategy for drawing in clients. Besides there website, I looked around at some of the buildings and spaces that they design, and I was very impressed. One of which that captivated me was the design competition for the capital of Alaska. The building was really amazing, and the renderings were really good as well. Personally I've never seen a better capital, and that in itself makes me want to travel up there to see the design. Overall, This firm really deserves the fame it appears to have. A very well thought out web page and intuitively designed. Although I work out it being a little bit more user friendly, Sometimes I can get lost within the letters.

website: http://www.morphosis.net/

Scale Model Orthographic and Site

Design Research Zine