Facts on the Ground: September 2014

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Explore Dan Kiley's Work

Dan Kiley was one of the most influential landscape architects of the modern period. His work with Saarinen, Eckbo, Kahn, Bunshaft, Roche and others, transformed the public perception of landscape in post war America. His knowledge of plants together with his ability to conceive abstractly of the space made by them was unique at the time. I had the privilege of interviewing him several times for a documentary. Check out this link for a new exhibition.

Links to my videos are below. I had to split it up to post it.

The Design of Landscapes, part 1 - "a walk in the garden": http://youtu.be/m9CrUU3_ijc

The Design of Landscapes, part 2 - "a conversation with Dan": http://youtu.be/-bg5irmk9N8

The Design of Landscapes pt3: "a walk in the woods" http://youtu.be/1pDowHc1SV4

The Design of Landscapes, part 4 - "a walk in the woods" continued: http://youtu.be/AJLHEUiKrU4

The Design of Landscapes "Thank you Dan": http://youtu.be/VuInRLtC6vI

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Alternative Geometry Generation and Scale

Trevor, Lucas,
I watched this and thought of your projects. It is fascinating.
Rather than tesselate, fractalate.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals

Friday, September 26, 2014

P1 Final Requirements

As noted on Thursday you all have the makings of a great proposal. To complete the work provide drawings and/or 3D views that lock the concepts into reality. In many ways much of the work you did for this project should remain sketchy and evocative but missing the opportunity to make it believable would be terrible! Concentrate of the quality of the images and drawings you make this weekend so that we leave this project satisfied.

For Monday prepare and present

DRAFT of two 24x36 vertically oriented layouts (formatted as a spread) that includes research, process and design. (title, studio, name, etc)

DRAFT of a final version of your publication

For Thursday prepare

FINAL two 24x36 vertically oriented layouts (formatted as a spread) that includes research, process and design.

FINAL version of your publication

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Project 1 | Gathering in Parramore

Project 1 | Gathering in Parramore
Trevor Boyle

A large push in the community development meetings was the idea of voting for small items in the master planning. In these meetings, residents, business owners and community leaders were able to place stickers in the category that represented their choice, and this created a very visual indicator of what was wanted. These popular choices included single family housing, better street conditions for walking, and more infrastructure/amenities, amongst many other things.

The idea for this project is to create viable gathering areas for the enrichment of the community. These will be connected to create a system of walkable streets and nodes which sustain a variety of activity to draw residents along these paths. The programming of these areas are necessary to put together the base structure, because that is what will drive the scale of the constructs. Shading materials and other various items will completely dependent on the resident’s needs and desires. Each resident team will be given a package containing the materials need to be supplied by the teams. This is for the purpose of generating unique structures which the teams can feel pride from their own design in their own neighborhood. These are completely bottom-up designs. Residents will be able to suit these gathering areas to their specific needs for the specific sites. Nothing will be forced upon the residents to use, instead they are given the materials needed to define their own spaces for their own purposes. These are small structures, so no license is required. There are small constructs for individual uses or clustering for growth, medium and large kits as well.

Balloon Volume Demands

Front Balloon - 0.236 ft 3
Left Balloon - 0.179 ft 3
Left Balloon - 0.179 ft 3
Total = 0.594 ft 3

Seat Total – 1.382 ft 3
Seat Compressed – 0.788 ft 3

Gathering Process Modulars

Project 1 | Gathering in Parramore
Previous Iterations

Version 1 - The Flower

Version 2 - The Stingray

Monday, September 22, 2014

Tiny House Communitites

http://www.sunconomy.com/healing-hands-eco-preneuring/

http://quixotevillage.com/

http://www.opportunityvillageeugene.org/

Kibbutz (Communal living in Israel)

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Alt-J Tesselate YouTube video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg6BwvDcANg&sns=em

Notes - Nano

sketches and ideas

The idea of a tower greatly increases the mass and density of the intervention.

Early form studies - Nano

Site diagramming

BUGS!!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Gathered towards a better Parramore

Hydraulic Balloon Structures
Community-constructed shade to promote social gathering in semi-permanent programmable spaces.

Hydraulics Simplified

Parramore: Stepping towards a healthy future - Process Images

Conceptual Sketches

Eco-Optimism "that sense of 'you never know'

PRI: To The Best of Our Knowledge
Episode 07/20/2014

Brutal storms, rising seas, drought... you've seen the headlines. Our climate changed future seems pretty scary. But do all the messages about climate catastrope keep people from taking action to slow carbon emmissions or prepare for changing weather? What would happen if we looked to the future with hope? A Hopeful Message - Frances Moore Lappé; Rethinking Nature; Sonic Sidebar: FutureCoast; Climate International; BookMark: Benjamin Kunkel; On Our Minds: Sacred Economics.

Architecture offers a positive frame.
"A medley of interventions"
Study landscapes of invasives as ecosystems. Are they also natural?
Stephen

Monday, September 15, 2014

Unit Max Dimensions and Layout of Unit Options

Base Trailer (7.5'x20') which provides a mobile foundation

Max dimensions for a finished unit
7.5'Wx20'Lx12'H

Four unit layout
Trying to give each pod of units a private gathering area.

Four unit layout
Creating closeness while still forcing the residents to the community

Five unit layout
Radial orientation amount the central gathering space, one of the units being a shared unit consisting of amenities such as restrooms, kitchen, and laundry

Five unit layout

One of the units being a shared unit consisting of amenities such as restrooms, kitchen, and laundry. The other four units being placed to open into the gathering space in the center

Axo of the 4 and 5 unit layouts

Friday, September 12, 2014

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - W.H. Whyte

So many of you have acknowledged climate factors on the use and usefulness of spaces in the city. This is the classic study of such effects. It includes more than just the sun but many other forces that change how a city's occupants use space. Watch it here, or as embedded below.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Guerrilla Garden

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

The Grassy Strip

Planting the Strip Between Sidewalk and Street

Community Garden or...

http://www.foginfo.org/

Changing Destiny

How do people in what seems to be a hopeless situation get out? People who have been rendered homeless through varying means are often subject to the harshness of the street.

http://www.stepuponsecond.org/services/home/
http://www.orl-oha.org/section8.htm#SRO
http://www.paaca.org/step-up.html

Nano Housing - Site Selection

The site is currently a vacant property owner by Hellenic Investment Properties. It has close access to the local homeless shelter and is also located in areas that have historically shown a strong concentration of homeless individuals.