Just Looking, Thanks.

Response to hunger MDG:

I really don't mean to question these groups, i really am no place to call people out, but i really felt like i was getting corporate bullshitted. I've spent all year learning about how wrong the "green revolution" was, and to listen to this group describe how we should "educate" these people how to grow cash crops of all things...PEOPLE SURVIVED MILLIONS OF YEARS BEFORE THERE WAS AN ECONOMY AND WE FED OURSELVES FINE. I think we hear too much these days about treating problems without looking at why they're problems in the first place. take hunger - why are these people hungry? well for starters the population is way over what the land will hold, so teaching them to grow your flowers isn't gonna help. better use their resources? so producing your products is a better use, than simply using them for themselves? i don't really get where this group was heading. Take for example the OXFAM example, of teaching them to grow cash crops, sure the guys are making five times as much, BUT THERE ISN'T ANY WATER LEFT. all these people are going to die by the way of dehydration in little over a year if current use keeps up. and irrigation? what is more wasteful than growing a crop somewhere it can't naturally?!?! sorry, it isn't the answer. it didn't work 40 years ago, it won't work now. I AM TIRED OF WATCHING PEOPLE RE-TRY THESE TERRIBLE SOLUTIONS. sorry guys, with all due respect, that presentation was a load of crap. in my humble opinion. sorry. really i am, good job, but everything i've learned in my life time tells me its us that have to change - not them.

Posted by thom2600 at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Response to Aids MDG:

I really couldn't believe that 2/3 of the deaths were in sub-suharan africa, or the amazing infection rates there of the HIV virus there. It was pretty astounding. I was a little confused by the "education is the answer" that the group presented - i guess it was a little unclear what we were educating them about. protection? treatment? i assume its using condoms and things, but all things said and done i was surprised that they focused on the architectural response if education was the answer. but if that's what gets the money, then run with it. If these programs are truly lowering rates, or at least leveling them out i can't argue. I guess i felt still really left in the dark, hopefully they went in more depth in the packet, because the 15 minutes wasn't really enough time to go in depth to the level i wished for.

i guess i would have liked to hear more about what happened to that HIV vaccine that was initial testing last year, that failed miserably. it sounded like the next big thing, but i missed the follow-up. how come it ended up increasing infection rates in mice? i wonder if a vaccine is even possible. I guess humans have finally found their predator.

Posted by thom2600 at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

so i guess we could go miles. i can't figure out this project. nobody is telling me what they want - so i have to come up with something of my own. well - we could blog it, obviously, and hell we could print it and paste it on a wall. or we could build it. but maybe we should be stretching this. looking farther. pictures can show many things. so can video. so can showing the real thing.

what does style mean? i guess its what it looks like, feels like, the idea it gives. maybe we should print all our stuff onto leaves. write it on the wall with mud. that's style. bring in some animals, the chimps can interpretive dance it out for us. we can write it on the wall with honey and let ants crawl down it.

i don't know, i guess i'll just keep things clean, but i oh so want to do something wierd and different. i keep forgetting that this is design school, not art school. damn. guess i should have been a sculptor.

this project's style should be clean, because the project isn't. the project is messy and loose enough for itself. there isn't a right answer.

Posted by thom2600 at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I thought about how i might explain this entry best, and perhaps we should just take a tour through my home away from school. It was designed by my grandfather and some other architect, and built mostly by my father's own hands. don't get the wrong idea either, this is no small house. three floors, two half floors, massive project. may i take you inside?

I think the house itself is a part of me, it always seemed different than where other people lived. not because i lived there, but the building itself had an effect on me. In other people's houses i never felt an opinion, i just felt the presence of people. in the house my you feel like the house makes a statement about how people should live - in some sense. It isn't particularly environmentally friendly, but it is never wasteful. it was built twenty years ago.

Continue reading "005.5: head survives to write another day" »

Posted by thom2600 at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'll do the next one, promise. my head is exploding with pus, and i'm getting the spins from the headache. brain is inoperable.

Posted by thom2600 at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my favorite movies ever - will remain a sci fi classic for all time. you have good taste ozayr, take it from me.

"MY BIRDS MY BIRDS"

oh, note to justin. i have logan's run on DVD, just in case you would like to not work in section this week, i'd be happy to bring it.

Posted by thom2600 at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Talk about an open ended topic - here goes the rant you were looking for.

To be honest, i hate the structure of school more than anything else i have to deal with on a daily basis. The reason i got interested in architecture wasn't drawing or one of those stupid skills surveys, or a need to build skyscrapers, it was me getting fed up in buildings, getting tired of spaces i didn't like and didn't want to be in. Places that didn't show the human hand that built them, anymore than the suit who they are built for.

When we were young, there was only one place that we could experiment at our own devices - to really push the boundaries of how we wanted things. two words: the woods. When I went outside to play in the woods, i had all the materials i needed, a place of my own to build, and the will to construct something of my own. The childhood drive to build forts is their cry out for their own designed spaces - because crayon on the wall isn't allowed. The ceiling can be vaulted, walls can be twisted, but at the same time, they deal with real constraints that architecture deals with today. You can only carry so many sticks, only find so many, only pile them up certain ways to keep them stable. Kids must work around constraints in the same way, so in some ways, i feel like i was closer to being an architect when i was eight years old. I'd sit for hours inside on rainy days, drawing possibilities, planning our next move. Every detail of the fort is always under scrutiny for improvement. It is the ultimate building project.

Children will even move to touch every possible material, in every effective way. They will not just stick to sticks, but will find cardboard, scrap wood, snow, stones, anything left in the trashpile at the end of the driveway. They will use all these objects in new creative ways - at least to them - and every material will be tested fully and pushed to its limits. Children will scavenge what they need, in the true art of sustainable building. We often went as far as to steal things that we knew my parents never used, and they never noticed.

Continue reading "004: Back to the Woods!" »

Posted by thom2600 at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The songs that influence my values towards development goals aren't any different than the ones that influence my values from day to day. Truthfully, I'm sometimes a little downtrodden by where I think we're headed in this world. Music is often a clarifying element and Milk Punk will always be my favorite genre, mostly because of the feeling it gives me. I always feel hopeful, upbeat, a smile on the darkest face - even if the lyrics lead a different way. Sometimes the culture of a music can express things the lyrics can only scrape. Milk Punk is almost always defiantly hopeful, and its members often lead lives of poverty, travel, adventure, and thrill seeking. They lead lives of happiness, without concern for those who hold them down. There is an emphasis on being hopeful, and sticking it to those who hold things away from others. Sometimes it can be a little too romantic of things, but when we think of hopes and dreams, we are always romantic. Dreams are important to these people and they never let them die. Perhaps Milk Punk will never preach of helping others - like many other genres do- but Milk Punk is full of inspiration, which one must never leave home without. Let's move on to some examples:

Continue reading "003: research project" »

Posted by thom2600 at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This rotten fish is Chuck's dinner.

Continue reading "002: Chuck" »

Posted by thom2600 at 2:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

inspired by Andy Goldsworthy (and our discussions today), document and investigate,
through text and image - this idea of energy, flow and transformation through the city.

Anything can have flow. Look for yourself. Many parts of the city are designed to flow like their natural counterparts.

Continue reading "001: flow, energy, and transformation" »

Posted by thom2600 at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)