Friday, August 29, 2008

American Express Members Project - Nominate AFH and Lulan (an option)



Architecture for Humanity Link

Please help raise awareness and funds for one of your favorite worthwhile projects and organizations which will be rewarded by American Express. You don't have to be a cardmember to nominate a cause. So far the chosen group will receive $2.5million for their program.

Project ID: JAO706

Our project is a locally driven social venture that creates an alliance of textile designers and gifted artisans in Southeast Asia to produce luxurious hand-woven fabrics. By providing economic opportunity, we help preserve hand-weaving in Asia while creating environmentally sustainable fabrics. Collections include fabric-by-the-yard,as well as home and fashion accessories that are marketed through select retailers. We are ready to hire thousands of weavers and build innovative weaving centers.

We preserve artisan traditions and promote economic development by creating sustainable livelihoods for our artisan partners, their families and communities. This offers economic and social options to people at risk in regards to human trafficking and poverty. Our method utilizes a scalable, replicable model for each specific region to offer expertise in product development, fair wages and to provide the benefits needed whether childcare, education, housing, literacy classes or healthcare.

We currently support over 650 weavers,spinners,dyers and finishers using a holistic approach to produce eco-fabrics in Thailand,Cambodia,Laos and India. Our goal is to increase the number of artisans to over 6,000,thus expanding our reach to more weaving families and communities. We will work with international and local architects to build inventive, replicable off-the-grid weaving centers. Each building design will be shared through Creative Commons licensing so more communities can benefit.

While living in Asia,I witnessed the ill effects of human trafficking and the Tsunami devastation. The interplay between a strong economic engine and built environment allows for communities to thrive and grow. After 3 years of working with 18 weaving groups in 5 countries,this model is proven. But to achieve this project’s fullest potential,I am determined to increase the number of artisans and communities we positively impact while expanding our weaving centers and production of our textiles.

Veteran's Memorial Bridge Tour 2008

Veteran's Memorial Bridge Tour
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
Location: Northeast Corner of W. 25th Street & Detroit Avenue, at the west end of the bridge.
9am - 3pm
Free

Take advantage of the last bridge tour of the year and enjoy the weather at a free downtown event offering a new perspective on one of Cleveland's greatest resources, the Cuyahoga River Valley.

Monday, August 25, 2008

What have we become...

Back in architecture school I was a large fan of Lebbeus Woods. There was something completely satisfying in the society depicted by Woods, a deconstructed future built from the scrapes of a comfortably modernized and inherently self destructive society. Structures were not built to reflect the comfort and gleaned aesthetic of a specific region but instead to create shelter and social commentary on mankind's ability to tear itself apart.

Armed with a dog-eared copy of War and Architecture I was able to keep at arms length the multiple studio precedents adored by my school, the countless pure white boxes which had sauntered onto virgin greenfield sites, overlooking wetlands and lakeshore and still find fury and interest in smuggling social context into various projects, granted never to the scale and audacity of Lebbeus's work.

Still though, I was able to take some solace in realizing that there were designers who felt that the humanity of architecture was as important as the design, that the process itself was the product. It was this that gave me comfort in my darkest hours. Back then when struggling with a presentation and now, when I feel the profession more interested in fame and fortune then the art. While some may argue that the greatest goal architects aspire to is noble in that they grant inspiration to humanity I would counter that if the work is built, then it has failed to cause us to question our limitations and has become accepted. Even in the shadows of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia which began construction in 1882 and is yet to this day an unfinished masterpiece, an unwavering tribute to the love of design and creation beyond the grasp of mere men, we build larger and bigger but continue to create from this vast wealth the terrible endeavors which constantly destroy us. Architects have become marketing ploys and tools, brand names to garner false legitimacy to pet projects of false idols looking for some sort of permanent recognition. Our dreams have become complacent when we happily sit and beg for the table scraps instead of furrowing our own fields.

I miss the wonder and awe I had when my hands clutched my first Lebbeus pamphlet, when my eyes grew wide at the colors and schemes of Archigram, when I struggled to contemplate the love of humanity that Superstudio envisioned. Today our dreamers work small in the dark corners, attempting to harness the raw power of the forgotten, the ravaged, the meek. To give them their empowerment on a scale manageable by small teams looking to go out and solve the ills that they can, realizing that the system is broken, that it has failed and that if the profession were left to its own devices we would sell ourselves out of our jobs.

New York Times writes the article that spurs these memories

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Cleveland Competition Brief up and running

Figured I would start getting the word out there. The full brief including timeline, registration costs, site specificity, program, submission requirements, etc, all the fun stuff that makes design competitions so gruelingly enjoyable, has been posted to the Cleveland Competition website.

all the downloadable resources you have come to love and expect including the brief itself in .pdf form.

Procrastination...



Something that crawls along the back of my mind as I sit here at my desk thinking about competitions, architecture, this city, people, moving people, people holding hands, the poor, the war, food, hungry people, loud cars, quiet cars, cars, The Cars...

Thanks to the MarJ, for furthering my ability to postpone doing what I suppose I should be doing, what I need to get done. She sent me this link

If I ever end up running an office, new hires/collaborators will be forced to watch this to understand exactly what procrastination is.