A Whole Nother Issue

The Global Partnership For Development presentation from lecture was especially interesting. Identifying communication as a way of promoting development was cool because it was what my group focused on to help eradicate poverty. Implementing a large scale communications infrastructure was a bold move. Even though there would be no wires laid and the labor involved would be considerably less it is still no easy task. If implemented I think it would have many positive results but if it was as easy as presented it would have been done already. There was plenty of evidence showing that there are efforts being made to increase improve communications networks and there is some progress being made but even it the results would be as revolutionary as thoerized, there is a lot between theory and practice.

Overall, it was a very well done presentation. All angles were covered and there were no dead-ends in the research. When a topic was introduced it was relevant and thoroughly explored.

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The Sustainability lecture in section was okay. There were a lot of numbers put to the issues that everyone is afraid of in an rather intangible way. Hearing what kind of difference CFLs can have on energy consumption in terms of vehichle emissions was rather eye opening. After the laundry list of problems was finished I thought the solutions were rather superficial. Most of the points mentioned are already being employed and are well known through product promotion like ads for CFLs and hybrid cars. The other ideas about gardens and composting were rather worthwhile though. I liked hearing that there are solutions that don't involve purchasing new products. Overall it was informative but the analysis of options could have been a little more in depth.

The presentation in lecture on this same subject focused on ways that the solutions could be applied to a specific example. That was cool. I liked seeing ways that water use could be reduced by using sink water to fill the tanks of toilets and how rainwater can be collected and used also. Innovative uses of new green technologies are just as important as the technologies themselves.

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Today was the last day that I am able to volunteer and it was a very unceremonial day. Not like I was expecting a big send off or anything. I ended up being sent from room to room which was fine but I was hoping to spend time with the kids I knew but it was still fun. The kids are all pretty amusing and it is interesting how much personality they all have. I hope I can find time next year to volunteer with the same organization.

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Last time I went to ACES the kids were painting paper mache owl pellets. Basically the kids were slathering paint on easter what looked like big easter eggs. The nice thing was I got to be with the group of kids that know me and some of them were excited that I got the work with them again. That made things a little easier. They were crazy because it was one of the first nice days of spring and they all wanted to be outside. I couldn't blame them I would have like to play outside as well. Next time will be the last time I get to go before the end of the year which isn't great. Iim going to miss it. But I'll be writing about that in a day or two.

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Last week I was with a different group of kids and it took a little while to get to know them. Once I did get to know a few things went well. There were still plenty of unruly ones but I did what I could to keep the few around me under control.

This week I was with the group that I know the best. They dissected owl pellets and it was pretty fun. After learning what oul pellets are the kids were quite disgusted but they got over it and had fun with it. Overall, a good day.

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Here are my rough title pages.

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After looking though a lot of well designed websites I have been put in my place as a (wanna-be) designer. The sites I chose as inspiration are so well done that they make me doubt I will ever be as good as the people responsible for the following sites. I am just starting my design education, and I still have a lot to learn. Maybe there is hope. Until then I will use these to fulfill the intention of the blog, as inspiration.

The following images are good examples of two dimensional design that could be useful for the design of the research project. They are kind of similar but again I wanted sites that best translate to a printed final product. The movement of many of the sites is amazing but I have tried to capture them in a worthwhile state.

This last one is my favorite.

Continue reading "Poorly Framed" »

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Today was a lot like last week (I do go every week) and I was surprised. Last week I sat down with a student that wanted help with her home work and when I would try to help would she would shut off completly. After about 30 minutes she finally opened up and was receptive to my help.

Today I sat down with the same student and I was hoping that we would be able to pick up right where we left off last week. She asked me to help her with her homework but ignored my help all over again. I was persistent and after about the same amount of time as before she began to speak to me and we were working well together again. I hope that after a few more weeks we will be able to get some work done with out the initial struggle.

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Because all the featured blogs are just soooooo optimistic...

Continue reading "Think of the Kittens." »

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If I was given the chance to step outside architecture school and pursue what I would enjoy doing right now I would do a few things. Some are things I enjoy that I can now do better now that I have spent a little more than a semester being exposed to design and others are things I just enjoy. Some I can actually accomplish and the one will be a learning expereince and may produce nothing more than a better understanding of a material. But I have learned how to appreciate such a lesson.

The first of the tasks is working on local off-road bike trails. I have been enjoying them for the last few years and after volunteering I see how far a little time can go. The best part of the trails that are designed in the area is that they are built with the surrounding environment in mind. The effort of the trail building is to make a trail that disrupts the area as little as possible and also is sustainable. An off-road trail experiences some hard use and it has to hold up to the riders that use it as well as maintain it's conditions through rain and run-off and not wash away and errode every time it rains. I also hope to learn some lessons from this experience as well. If I can learn something from making a trail sustainable in Minnesota that sees plenty of rain in the summer and run-off in the spring, I should be able to apply that knowledge on a larger scale and help produce some quality trails at the same time. Here are some examples of quality trails that already exist in the metro area and surrounding suburbs.

photos courtesy of morcmtb.org

The next project would be my stereo. Not much to do with architecture on the surface but there are also lessons to be learned here as well. I need to put up some acoustical treatments in the room my stereo is currently in.

photo courtesy of me

Bose tells people that reflections are good and they are but too much is a bad thing. Bad speakers rely on reflections to sound bigger but good speakers should be heard as the primary source and the reflections dampened.

courtesy of bose

So I will have to learn a little more about acoustics to dampen the room appropriately. This too could be useful some day when trying to be sure that a space is treated correctly for the sound it should have.

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After three weeks of volunteering I am appreciating the challenge of teaching children. It also takes a lot of patience. Patience I thought I could never exhibit but I feel I am doing well with the challenge.

More than anything I am seeing how the kids that occupy the most time from the teachers hinder the kids that are better behaved. I have found myself spending most of my time with the better behaved kids and that was not a choice I made, I just got to know htem first (I think it is due to the fact that they sat still long enough to get to know me). The last few weeks I have been given the task of giving the kids that are more of "a handful" special attention. It is good for me and I feel I may be doing something that is beneficial, I hope.

Sometimes it feels like babysitting but I understand that the kids are 10 years old and have a lot of energy at the end of the day but it makes things frustrating sometimes. Overall, I am enjoying the experience and look forward to getting to know the kids better and hopefully being useful.

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I do plan to dive into this project but I am having trouble wrapping my head around it at this stage. Being given the goals of the United Nations as a term project is a rather daunting task. Even though we only have to focus on one goal and one country it is still a huge task. I know it can be done and I am looking into it but for now I will express what this assignment feels like to me as of right now. If anything this entry will give me a reference point to compare where I am after this assignment is completed to where I was at the beginning. Right now this assignment may as well be something like winning a billion dollars. I know it is a real amount of money but I cannot start to comprehend what such an amount of money means. Other things that blow my mind much like this assignment are the Bugatti Veyron and Eva Mendes.


Holy shit!

I am looking forward to making this goal more tangible an championing it, seriously.

My first choice was to eradicate extreme poverty & hunger. I have to be honest, I am not particularly invested in any goal more than any other they are all noble and deserve to be resolved. For this reason I have no ready inspiration for why I chose this particular goal and therefore have no material the fits the propt for this blog.

Quotes, I have none.

Music? Uh, "We are the World" as performed by (what was) an all star cast of performers; "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson; and Phil Ochs had a lot of inspirational songs, none of which I can single out right now. Does that seem about right? Other than that I can't think of happy inspirational songs. I usually find inspiration in songs that have a stronger message than "We are the World" but won't leave such a pleasant taste in your mouth. For example, Refused has a song called "New Noise" and the lyrics are amazing. Wanna hear it? here it go...

Can I scream?
It's here for us to admire, if we can afford the beauty of it.
If we can afford the luxury of turning our heads.
If we can adjust that thousand-dollar smile and behold the creation of man.
Great words won’t cover ugly actions and good frames won’t save bad paintings.
We lack the motion to move to the new beat.
When the day’s over the doors are locked on us.
Cause money buys the access and we can’t pay the cost.
How can we expect anyone to listen if we’re using the same old voice?
We need new noise, new art for the real people.
We lack the motion to move to the new beat.
We dance to all the wrong songs and we enjoy all the wrong moves.
We are not leading.

I think that is something people would remember. Too bad it would never make it on primetime TV like a horde of celebrities did so viewers could get lost in all the celebritiy singers and miss the point.

To try to have some of this fit the promt as assigned I'll throw in some more pictures.

I find it sickening that some countries have so many resources and some have so few and little (if any) effort is made to balance the two. Personally, I find the picture of the feed lot to sickening in it's own right but that is "a whole 'nother issue".

Continue reading "I'm going to change the world." »

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My daily commute takes me down Nicollet Mall every day. I have gotten to the point where I take it for granted but the other day I noticed Elliot Offner's sculpture of Minnesota birds.

After I noticed this sculpture I started to see the many other parts of the area that had been touched by artists and designers. Some of the more obvious are Peavy Plaza and the Central Library but there are many other things throughout the city. The light rail transit stations are more on the larger scale but I wonder if they get noticed for the designed structures that they are.

The most subtle feature of Nicollet Mall is the manhole covers that have been decorated with plants and other designs. These may be overlooked by most but they add to the overall look of Nicollet Mall.

And across from the Central Library there is a bench-like sculpture that seems to be more sculpture than bench because it isn't very comfortable to sit on.

All of these features of The downtown area make the area look nicer and maybe give people somehting to talk about. I'm pretty sure anyone who has walked in front of the courthouse has had a conversation or two about the figures scattered about the grassy hills in the plaza.

But public art can be more than just something to talk about. Public art can unite neighborhoods and establish identity. There is a sculpture in Triangle Park in the Seward neighborhood that, through a contest, was named "Merwin". The children of the neighborhood were given a chance to name the sculpture and therefor establish a relationship with it and the park. The park was a popular site for drug deals and other illegal activities but now the park belongs to the people who live near it and it is a safe place for children to play.

In the Hale neighborhood along Minnehaha there is a large bronze rabbit that has been named Cottontail.

This sculpture has also become an integral part of the identity of the neighborhood. The children that live nearby spend time playing on it after they get off the bus and decorate it for the seasons and holidays (Easter eggs for Easter and a big red bow for Christmas, etc). This scultpure, that was questioned when first installed, is now something that has helped to unify those who live in the Hale neighborhood.

These designed features of the city are being integrated into projects that are functional to ease funding and maintenance issues. As lessons are learned from earlier projects the subsequent projects become less expensive to build and are integrated into structures that would be maintained if they were designed or not (this is an issue for the stand alone sculptures).

If the cost is minimal and the maintainence marginal then why can't everything be designed to look better or even function better? Minneapolis is a city that is pretty rich in culture and art and that should be reflected in the built environment as much as possible. With just a little extra effort each project, and the city as a whole, can benefit.

Continue reading "...but do they notice?" »

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When thinking about energy flow through the city I thouht about energy flow into and out of the city. The flow of energy in the form of people is probably the most drastic. Looking at the energy required to move the potential energy of people was interesting. Comparing the energy needed to move people into the city by car (and to make the comparison as fair as possible I will use a Prius as the mechanical reference) and the energy needed to get travel by bicycle yeilded some interesting numbers. The easiest way to show this is with a short table.

These numbers are what people of varying riding abilities can generate on a bike:
average 3W/kg or 200W for a 154 lb rider
amateur 5W/kg or 350W for a 154 lb rider
lance armstrong 5.4W/kg or 400W for a 160 lb rider

This is what a Prius generates:
prius 61W/kg (28W/lb) or 82,000W for a 2932 lb car

So using a rather efficient automobile transports untapped physical energy at a rate of 12.2/1. I guess this seems relevant because energy is spent to move the energy that is in people in to and out of the city and very little is done with the energy in those people. There is a lot that could be done if all the people who commuted to a job downtown put at least a little of their own energy to some good use. Aside from potential energy in people not being used for a practicl purpose beyond general movement the "energy" of having so many people in the city is obvious. The city is transformed by the daily influx of people. For example, Nicollet Mall feels completely different on a weekday during working hours than it does on a Sunday afternoon. Though this for of energy is rather intangible it is certainly there.

Continue reading "Energy Flow (blog #1)" »

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