Addict.Ed

The Brains

2013-04-04T13:39:00.000+03:00

The Brain Obsession

is still on

Brains

Cities

Buildings

Streets

the URBAN

and everything

that makes the visual memory

a map

a mental map

a brain map

a brain obsession

2013

Work In Progress:

Niemeyer for Converse - how real is it ?

2012-11-03T18:01:00.002+02:00

So if you're on the design blogs lately you might have noticed a :
"Niemeyer has created a collection of sneakers and slip-ons for American shoe company Converse"

Ok so let me rephrase that. Oscar Niemeyer who is 104 and hospitalized twice this year has actually designed shoes for Converse ?
The man barely walks, is practically ill, and they want us to think he has time to jiggle around Converse the shoe maker firm for some shoe designs !
Where have we reached with the globalization / commercialization the creation of Icons to make fortunes out of them !?
#ontheborderline of unethical

(on a different note ) Below are some of the converse shoe designs that I find absolutely amazing

Above: Skid Grip Oxford

Above: Jack Purcell

Above: Chuck Taylor All Star Oxford

Above: Chuck Taylor All Star Hi

Above: Chuck Taylor All Star Chukka Boot

"2" not to B missed events

2012-10-18T10:40:00.001+02:00

Bloggers Kifna ?

so 2 emails about events i received early this morning and i'm sharing with you guys not to miss:

the first: 98weeks tonights' event at 6 - as featured on their website:

15.10.12

98TALKS

"Are you talking to me?"
Presentation of the Bik Van der Pol Workshop

Thursday October 18, 2012; 6pm

After a week-long intensive workshop, Bik Van der Pol and participants will present their stories, maps and documentation of their experiences.

Participants traveled by taxis, talked with drivers, recorded their conversations, and returned with stories which will be disseminated by public radio. The space of 98weeks functioned as a hub where workshop participants listened and discussed their recordings while constructing of a large city map of the routes taken and speakers were invited to talk about public space, mapping and the forming of collective memory.

The taxi is regarded as social place, as carrier and interface of public voice, knowledge/history, often across generations. By choosing the taxi, the project also subtly touches upon two major urban management issues in present-day Beirut: lack of public space (spaces of collectivity) and transportation.

the second Share Beirut is over but it seems their events are not- email below for their event on Friday night:

Kifkon dear friends,

We've got two nice occasions for this edition of SHARE newsletter:

1. Share.mov II is finally released online, and available to watch here. Give it a shot and help us spread it over the Internets, we've put a lots of time and energy in producing it. Movie is a fast-paced and very dynamic documentary blending loads of ideas, experiences, and wisdom told in 72 hours of this year's edition of SHARE conference in Belgrade, mixed with short-cuts from a wicked night program in clubs around the city. It also consists of a teaser from Beirut edition movie which is in the editing process at the moment, so you even might spot yourself among all the hipsters and geeks filmed during these three wonderful days.

2. Our lovely friends from Lamba Labs are giving all of us an opportunity to keep on sharing and meeting each other. If you're in Beirut on Friday, don't miss this event, here's their invitation message:

Hello awesome people!

Do you miss Share already? Well Share misses you back. There has been some chatter around how to keep the energy alive and the excitement moving after the conference is over. All the people who attended, contributed, and spoke at Share are part of the same community. How do we all grow together, and ensure that there will be an even bigger conference next year?

So now we’re calling all of you – future thinkers, artists, technologists, activists, amazing people who want to make amazing things – to join us at Lamba Labs this Friday at 8pm for a Share and Tell. Bring a personal project, tell us about your favorite moment from Share, bring falafel/pizza, tell us what inspires you.

We’ll gather at the Lamba Labs hackerspace, and let’s carry on the torch of sharing and light up the future.

Light and Love,

The Lambas

Lodz Design Festival 2012

2012-10-17T10:36:00.001+02:00

Lodz Design Festival 2012

ABOUT US

Łódź Design Festival 2012 – 6th Edition

Once again we are going to create an open space to facilitate talks about design, the exchange of good practices and meetings with personalities. If you are looking for inspiration or if you want to meet interesting people and discover latest design trends, just come to Łódź between the 18^th and 28^th of October 2012.
This year’s festival will be held under the motto AWARENESS to emphasise how important awareness is in design and how many connotations and meanings it has in relation to design. Awareness in design obliges us to ask what the role of design and the designer is. What design can do? In a sense, design speaks less about things, and more and more about the whole processes whose creation involves entire teams, consisting not only of designers, but also experts from the fields of humanities, science and others. Awareness tells us to look back and move forward, and above all to understand that design never exists out of context – human, historical, geographical, social. And nor does it ever exist in isolation. Furthermore, it belongs more and more rarely to only one category – one time it is a science, the next an art.

This year’s main programme for AWARENESS includes three exhibitions: The Future is Stupid, prepared by Sven Ehmann; Ways of Seeing/Sitting by Maria Jeglińska; and Who Are You? by Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka and Klara Czerniewska.

In the description of his project, Sven Ehmann, the author and editor of the Gestalten publishing house, writes: ‘’The Future is Stupid’ is a design exhibition. But it is NOT an exhibition about products, objects, brands, pop star designers, limited editions and status symbols… It is all about design as a tool, as a mindset, an attitude, a process, an approach…‘ Those who come to the exhibition in search of beautiful items will be amazed, because Ehmann’s exhibition is a collection of inventions and strange ideas – at least on the face of it. In its essence, however, they are things which change the quality of life, the world, and sometimes even the course of history… This exhibition proves that design is not a goal in itself but a means to achieve the goal, which takes imagination and courage.

The young designer Maria Jeglińska, a graduate of the famous Swiss ECAL, has already worked with such greats as Konstantin Grcic and Alexander Taylor; in her search for awareness, she has adopted a completely different perspective. Through her objects, she shows how the social changes which we witness and participate in influence the design. The mirror to each of these transformations is the chair, the archetypal object-icon for every designer. It is also a significant subject in discussions about design, because we often repeat that ‘design is not about the beauty of another chair.’ For Jeglińska, each chair goes hand in hand with another object. Together, in opposition to each other, they illustrate the problems or contrasts of socio-economic phenomena. Global versus local; digital technology versus analogue technology. The curator’s intention is not to build up a category or make a final summary of the phenomena, but to awaken curiosity in the observer, who asks himself questions and will look for the answers.

At first glance, the exhibition Who Are You may seem to be a nationalist provocation. It gathers the work of designers for whom the answer to this question is ambiguous. They are Polish emigrants, the children of emigrants, and people who never took the decision to leave, but who live and work outside Polish borders. They have had success there, and here they are unknown. They speak Polish, or they do not. They belong to different generations. If we tried to force them to answer the question ‘Who are you?’ literally, they would be in real trouble. But the curators Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka and Klara Czerniewska are not asking the exhibitors about their national identity, but about their design identity, about the sum of their experiences, which – among many – include being Polish. The implication is that the correct answer to this question is ‘I am a designer.’ What kind of designer and where they come from has no meaning today, because this does not provide any information about how someone designs.

The festival programme will feature all regular accompanying events that proved very popular and successful in the previous editions such as the make me! contest, a portfolio review, movie shows and discussions as well as events that have not been on the festival programme for long but have already won over a number of faithful fans: the Remade Market and the must have plebiscite.

What is new in this festival’s edition?

The extraordinary space arrangement by the architectural practice Centrala. The intent of the architects was to ‘weave this year’s exhibition’ by introducing colour, energy and an element of surprise into the rooms of an old spinning and weaving mill of the Naum Eitingon i Ska textile factory at 35 Targowa Street. A multi-coloured openwork structure, polychromatic layers and bunches of tight ribbons will entwine the building at all levels. The arrangement should create associations with the modern art of urban knitting, with a folk festival, but above all, with the history of Łódź and of Stara Tkalnia (the ‘Old Weaving Mill’).

Forum: Design & Architecture, or a new approach to lecturing. Our intention is to create even more space for the audience to have the opportunity not only to listen to design professionals such as designers, producers and curators, many of whom enjoy international recognition and the number is growing each year, but also to hear the answers to the pervading questions, to have discussions with the experts and to exchange experiences. Over five days, we will focus on the current topics related to the changes the world is undergoing as well as new working methods used by designers. We will talk about User Experience, design thinking, the condition of Polish design and about architecture. We will try to find the answers to a number of questions such as: Will experience design prove successful for Polish companies? How are decisions made today regarding architecture and space? Simultaneous interpretation for all speakers taking the floor during the Forum: Design & Architecture will be provided.

As we saw a growing interest from designers, we decided to announce a contest to award events and exhibitions in the Open Programme. Selected projects provide an additional context for the themes referred to in the Main Programme, but they take place in other venues across the entire city (in galleries, museums, clubs etc.), thus ensuring the presence of design everywhere in Łódź.

The range of activities undertaken last year under the motto Education. Children meet design. with the aim of bringing design closer to children will be enhanced to include new elements. Workshops, an educational playroom, an exhibition dedicated to children and their parents as well as exhibition tours with Ewa Solarz will be complemented by a calendar cut-out to inspire creative thinking and activity and to present information about the most significant designers in an understandable way. The activity will involve cutting out the images of items by top designers and freely organising them into clusters: by topic, size, function or the designers’ countries of origin. Every child visiting the Playroom is welcome to take the cut-out home with them!

Designer Zone
Over the main weekend of Łódź Design Festival 2012 (19th-21st October) we will create a special zone in the Festival Centre to present innovative tools and solutions that support designers and architects in their daily work. This will include both graphics software and new computer hardware.

MURATOR is the media partner of the Designer Zone.

Dutch Design Week 2012

2012-10-17T07:31:00.001+02:00

This year's Dutch Design week is just a couple of days away.

For those who are willing to check it out an online website and program are available @ Dutch Design Week

A lot of exhibits, conferences, and plenty of events going on:

here's a sneak preview of one of my favourite exhibits during the week -

Amsterdam based Elise Ousssoren's Elastic Storage Unit (just Brilliant)

New construction system HOLEDECK saves 50 cm per floor

2012-10-15T09:00:00.000+02:00

via dezeen:

News: Spanish architects Alarcon+Asociados have developed a new construction product that allows a six-storey building to fit into a five-storey volume. (+ movie).

Developed for buildings with large construction spans such as schools and hospitals, Holedeck is a concrete waffle slab system that can accommodate electrical cables, plumbing and ventilation ducts within the floor structure rather than hung below. This prevents the need for suspended ceilings, which are installed to hide these services.

“A total of 30-50 centimetres are saved per floor,” explain the architects on the product website.

The first building to be constructed using the system is an office block for the research and development department of communications company Logytel in central Spain (pictured).
See more stories about concrete »
Here’s a list of the product’s features from Alarcon+Asociados:

The new concrete waffle slab HOLEDECK is a patented system of voided slabs for buildings with big spans between supports and a high level of services. It can be pierced all through its thickness by the building conductions and services.
This means that services in cross-sections occupy the same space as the structure itself and thus no additional suspended ceilings are required to hide them all. HOLEDECK is especially suitable for buildings requiring multiple services as well as big or medium spans, such as office buildings, hospitals, schools or any public, commercial or industrial building.
» HOLEDECK is suitable for big spans ranging from 10 to 18 meter high with a 50-60cm slab edge.
» It is possible to keep the structure with fair-faced concrete by adding dyes to the concrete mass.
» It is set up in a similar way to other voided flat plate slabs.
» It provides greater freedom of design for the plant geometry and pillar placing.
» It is modulated according to a 80cm interaxis so its modules are interchangeable with any voided two-way flat plate slab system.
Air may be distributed through conventional semi-flexible conduits or through a plenum system, which requires a sealed suspended ceiling and removable locks in lateral windows.

War of the Malls - Ch. 1

2012-10-15T07:19:00.000+02:00

It is a fact that malls have quite a competition going on no matter where they were located and regardless of its' scale- whether it was a harrod's vs. selfridges or just the local ones in town !

But nthg has been more tangible than the undeclared "to be declared" war of Le mall vs ABC dbayeh !

It's true that ABC dbayeh has scored a comeback with a foreign signature architecture by nArchitects that has been the reason of siteworks and expansions over the past years.. And yes, its architectural image has improved -from the days of that striking yellow box originally designed by Nehme- with interactive lighting elevations that are quite "statementful", with a replica rooftop although not as successful as its achrafieh version, a "not so clear" circulation pattern and a limited reduced parking space compared to its original smaller area bigger parking ratio.

On the other hand its counterpart, reminds us of the early "yellow" days of ABC's architecture with a bold and daring volume by Aconsult (ironically the same architects as the other version of ABC) that stands out of the context - and once again yes we know those elevation tubes were described "ugly" by many, a replica of China's bird's nest by HdeM & Ai WeiWei by others- but they have played their role and done their part in creating a buzz regardless of its esthetical value if it had any- true we've all nagged about its' finishes, its' internal layout, its circulation, its parking spaces and mainly the connection between those parking spaces with the main mall and the lack of escalators or even regular staircases (which exist but are not part of the public space) besides the fulltime busy elevators.

But yes for the sake of attracting customers we've done our best - assigned foreign designers, created bold architecture, etc- True that the tenant mix comparison does not stand as ABC targets a more posh layer of the society, but with a very large and diversified food outlet range Le mall has managed to attract consumers on that level. And yes, le mall has also succeeded to attract clients to its much more affordable stores and tenants !

But the war of the malls has reached a new stage or so it seems - with a full parking at all times and not only because of its business but its shortage as well- Le Mall's consumers have managed to park in the next door lot ABC and have a walk to its premises.

So u might have noticed the newcomers in town (the parking meters) which announce that ABC after many long years of free parking in Suburbia will soon be paid.

Within all this chaos where does urban planning stand, and where does it actually define the line between a commercial growth along the coast and traffic generating mass blocks like the ones mentioned above ... Where do municipalities stand on regulating when it comes to such matters and hasnt anyone objected on the proximity of the malls and the amount of traffic it could generate (specially on weekends) and very soon on holidays!?

So the war of the malls was created not only by the greed of developers, or anxious consumers, it was encouraged by a chaotic planning (regardless of which governmental party was responsible of that) that in a fight of attracting clients might just as well turn those into objecters of the current status.

an Architects' vote on the american elections - Who Should You Vote For?

2012-10-13T07:46:00.001+02:00

I like how analytical and "statistical" american elections get.

I love how the voting actually is so scientific based to the point where even architects and based on the industry development can form a say with their vote.

below is an article i found on architectmagazine explaining the development of the industry from 2008-2012 and what a vote for each candidate can be !

Here's where they stand at least online :

· politics

Who Should You Vote For?

Architects have had a particularly rough go these last few years, being acutely affected by a recession and slow recovery. Will the next four years get any better? Two political reporters say that it depends on who you vote for.

The Opinionators

Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The American Prospect and a Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute. His work has appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic, CNN, The Washington Independent, and The Washington Post. He is based in Washington, D.C., where he covers politics and public policy. To read his rebuttal of Klein's defense of the Romney/Ryan ticket, click here.

Philip Klein is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner, with a focus on domestic politics and policy. Prior to joining the Examiner, he served as Washington correspondent for The American Spectator, and as a financial reporter at Reuters in New York. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, and The Dallas Morning News, among other publications. To read his rebuttal of Bouie's defense of the Obama/Biden ticket, click here.

With the presidential election coming up, we asked two seasoned political writers to break down the case for which candidate would most benefit architects and other design and construction professionals—Jemelle Bouie of The American Prospect defending the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden, and Philip Klein of The Washington Examiner defending the Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. (In true debate style, we also gave Bouie and Klein the opportunity for a rebuttal to each others’ cases. Check back tomorrow to read those.)

Below, we begin first with Bouie’s defense of the incumbent. Klein’s defense of the challenger begins on the next page.

A Vote for Obama/Biden
By Jamelle Bouie

So far this year, a lot of pundits have wasted a lot of digital ink on the idea that this is an unusually high-stakes election. Commentators say this for every election, and most times, they’re wrong. But, at the risk of sounding cliché, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and in this case the pundits are on point.

But if this is an important choice for the public writ large, then it’s a critical one for architects. As a profession, architecture has been in a tough spot for the last four years. Compared to other workers with college and graduate degrees, architects were hit hard by the housing bust and financial crisis—unemployment for experienced architecture college graduates is 9.2 percent, according to the American Community Survey, compared to 4.1 percent for college grads as a whole.

A critical choice, though, doesn’t have to be a tough one, and if one looks at recent public policy, it’s clear that the profession would be best served by a continuation of the path set by the Obama administration.

Since entering office in 2009, President Barack Obama has pursued a series of tax measures to benefit small businesses. The stimulus, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, and the Small Business Jobs Act included tax exemptions for key investments, tax credits for hiring out-of-work Americans, greater deductions for startup costs, capital-gains tax cuts, and a measure that raised the small-business expense limit to $500,000.

The Affordable Care Act is another measure that benefits small architecture firms. Under the law, businesses with more than 50 employees will have to provide insurance to their employees—or face a penalty. Of course, this exempts most architecture firms, the large majority of which employ fewer than 10 people. Those firms—and the people they employ—will have the opportunity to purchase insurance off of the regulated markets established by Obamacare, where insurers will compete with each other for customers on the basis of price. The hope is that this will lower costs and make it easier for small-business owners to provide a key benefit to their employees. Businesses that take this step will receive a tax credit to help cover the cost.

On the other hand, Obama has promised to raise taxes on high earners in his second term, and there’s a real worry that this will affect small-business owners and middle-class workers. But the good news is that, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, just 3.5 percent of small-business tax filers—or 940,000 individuals—would pay a higher rate. Another analysis, from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, notes that only 2.5 percent of small-business owners who are taxed at individual rates—a somewhat smaller pool of people—fall into the top two income brackets. Given architects’ median income of $72,550—according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—odds are good that most architects will see little change in their tax burden.

There’s also the issue of the architecture students and graduates who have been hit hard by high tuition costs and a sluggish economy—at a time when average in-state tuition and fees for bachelor programs in architecture have increased by 3.4 percent to $20,115. (For graduate programs, the increase is closer to 2 percent.) The Obama administration has recently moved forward with a program that would ease the burden on those struggling to repay federal student loans. The Income-Based Repayment Plan would allow borrowers to cap their student-loan payments at 15 percent of their discretionary income. And for the long-term, it has proposed a “Race to the Top”–style program for higher education to reward schools that lower tuition costs and boost value.

Other than a few references to cutting taxes for small businesses or helping out students, you won’t hear much about these policies from Obama on the trail. But they are all concrete steps that will continue if he’s elected to a second term, and might even expand if he can get congressional support. That’s what happens when you elect a president who sees a role for government in the maintenance of the economy.

This isn’t to say that the administration has been perfect for the architectural field; to wit, its lackluster response to the housing crisis has been tough for architects, whose fortunes are tied tightly to the performance of the housing market. But on a whole host of other concerns, the Obama administration has proven beneficial. This is especially true for the roughly 21 percent of architects who the IRS reports are self-employed.

It’s possible that Gov. Mitt Romney will see a need to pursue similar policies to Obama if he’s elected president. After all, he built his fortune as a sensible businessman who took wise advantage of benefits provided by the government. But, it’s also true that he’s the leader of the Republican Party, which has little interest in government as a proactive tool for improving the economy.

And while the president isn’t bound by the beliefs of his party, he is strongly influenced by them. A vote for the status quo isn’t inspiring. In this case, though, it’s the best bet for an economy that works for both architects and all workers.

Click to the next page to read Philip Klein's defense of the Romney/Ryan ticket.
To read Bouie's rebuttal of Klein's argument, click here

A Vote for Romney/Ryan
By Philip Klein

On the surface, architects may be tempted to re-elect President Barack Obama because he’s vowed that in a second term he’d spend more money “rebuilding roads and bridges; schools and runways.” Such infrastructure projects carry the promise of more work to struggling architects. The problem is, Obama tried to use government spending to stimulate the economy in his first term, and it hasn’t solved the problems facing the architecture industry.

In February 2009, Obama signed his $833 billion economic stimulus package, promising “shovel-ready” projects. Yet between 2009 and 2011, when the bulk of the stimulus money was spent, architecture firm billings dropped 41.3 percent, according to data compiled by the AIA.

For those still drawn by the allure of more government spending despite this track record, the reality is that unsustainable debt levels at the federal, state, and local levels will continue to put pressure on budgets. So, ultimately, the success of the industry hinges not on government, but on broader economic growth in the private economy.

One of the biggest policy contrasts between Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney is on taxes. If re-elected, Obama has vowed to raise the top marginal income tax rate on those earning more than $250,000 per year to 39.6 percent from its current 35.0 percent. His healthcare law also includes $1 trillion in tax increases on top of this, according to the Congressional Budget Office. At the start of 2013, a 3.8 percent surtax on investment income and a 0.9 percent hike in the Medicare payroll tax will hit higher income earners. All told, the changes that Obama has already enacted—or is seeking to enact—will raise the capital-gains tax to as much as 30 percent, or double its current 15 percent. Such tax increases would be detrimental for architects on several levels.

To start, the tax hikes wouldn’t be limited to just wealthy individuals, but would apply to 940,000 small businesses that file individually, according to a 2012 study by the Joint Committee on Taxation. This would punish architecture firms in particular, which tend to be small businesses. According to 2012 AIA estimates, “almost a quarter of architecture firms are sole practitioners, and more than 60 percent have fewer than five employees on their payrolls.”

Beyond the direct effects on architecture businesses, if individuals with income above $250,000 have less disposable income, they may decide to put off building or renovating homes. More broadly, cutbacks by higher income consumers will be a drag on the overall economy.

In contrast to Obama, Romney has vowed to repeal the $1 trillion in tax increases in the healthcare law. Not only will he not increase marginal tax rates, but he’s also proposed reducing them across the board by 20 percent (bringing the top marginal rate to 28 percent) and keeping the capital-gains tax at 15 percent. He’s also proposed cutting the corporate tax rate, which is currently the highest among industrialized nations, to 25 percent, thus encouraging more business activity at home. Romney has said that he would offset these rate reductions by getting rid of various deductions and loopholes in the overly complex tax code.

Beyond taxes, the candidates have articulated different views on regulation. During Obama’s first three years in office, the federal government imposed 106 new major federal regulations, costing over $46 billion per year, according to the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. “This was nearly four times the number—and more than five times the cost—of the major regulations issued by George W. Bush during his first three years,” Heritage wrote in its report. The continued implementation of the healthcare and financial regulatory laws would increase this number dramatically if Obama were re-elected.

Romney has vowed to repeal the healthcare and financial regulatory laws, and review and eliminate regulations that place a burden on the economy. Of particular interest to architects who have been hit hard by the housing crisis, Romney has proposed to “replace complex rules with smart regulation to hold banks accountable, restore a functioning marketplace, and restart lending to creditworthy borrowers.” Romney has also vowed to undo Obama’s executive order encouraging federal agencies to use unionized contractors in large-scale construction projects, which hurts non-union businesses and drives up project costs.

None of this is to guarantee that Romney would be the greatest thing to happen to architects since the invention of the blueprint. Obviously, all of his proposals will have to be fleshed out in more detail and will inevitably clash with legislative reality. But at least based on what the candidates are proposing, it’s fair to say that there’s a better chance that taxes would be lower and regulations would be fewer under a Romney administration, which is more conducive to spurring the type of economic growth needed to revive the architecture industry.

Beirut

2012-10-12T12:00:00.000+02:00

So practically nowadays the new reality is Online !

Beirut ! The city we live in ! What do we actually know abt it !?

Did u know that beirut is hashtagged over 90.000 times on instagram !?

Did u know that there are over 81 apps in the local itunes store with the word beirut in !?

And did u know that the mere fact that the word Beirut is the name of a mexican originated new york band (And yes they actually play great music)ended up with having the name BEIRUT designed in tens if not hundreds of posters that actually look Awesome !?

Enjoy Beirut below with a glimpse of the designs of a couple of the posters of the band !

Carwan Gallery Exhibit

2012-10-12T09:00:00.000+02:00

BEIRUT ART CENTER
10 October - 3 November 2012

BAC Design & Fondation Ousseimi - Geneve, CH

Carwan Gallery presents a new groundbreaking exhibition exploring new avenues in design. With a concept that seeks to expand the vocabulary of traditional crafts, Carwan has commissioned a selection of international designers to create a series of new, limited-edition objects in partnership with local artisans in the Middle East. Each designer s project encapsulates the re-imagining of a distinct, time-honored craft, where the specialized technique of each artisan has formed the basis for the creation of a new object by the designer. The designers are Karen Chekerdjian (Lebanon), Khalid Shafar (UAE), Lindsey Adelman (USA), Marc Baroud (Lebanon), Studio mischer'traxler (Austria), Nada Debs (Lebanon), Oeuffice (Canada), Paul Loebach (USA), Philippe Malouin (Canada) and Tamer Nakisci (Turkey).

"CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES IN MIDDLE EASTERN CRAFTS"Dubai - Milan - Beirut

Last Week of Sehnaoui's installation at Zaytouneh Square DT Beirut

2012-10-09T22:19:00.001+02:00

Light at the End of the Tunnel Public installation by Nada Sehnaoui Zaytouneh Square, Downtown. Opening: Wednesday 12 September 2012 from 6pm-9pm. Viewing until Sunday 14 October 2012.

More About the Artist on the link below:

http://www.nadasehnaoui.com

Gagik Ghazanchyan & Lilit Soghomonyan @ Hamazkayin

2012-10-09T19:00:00.000+02:00

Gagik Ghazanchyan:

Born in 1960, in Yerevan, Armenia.
1975 – 1979 Terlemezian Fine Arts College, Yerevan, Armenia
1984 – 1990 Fine Arts and Drama Institute, Yerevan, Armenia
1992 Member of Artist’s Union, Yerevan, Armenia

Tarek Atoui @ the Last Week of the Serpentine Gallery

2012-10-09T08:36:00.002+02:00

So I fell on this checking out news about the Serpentine Gallery's last week ! somehow its quite interesting to end the pavilion's memory with a lebanese artist ...

THIS WEEK
Park Nights
Tarek Atoui
La Suite
Friday 12 October 2012
6-11pm

http://tarekatoui.com

Memory Marathon Dome, Serpentine Gallery
Tickets £10/8 available from the Serpentine Gallery Lobby Desk (020 7402 6075), or ticketweb.co.uk

Acclaimed Lebanese sound artist Tarek Atoui transports audiences through a lost world of Arabic culture with a trance-inducing, five-hour performance to launch Serpentine Gallery's Memory Marathon

For his Park Night, and opening event for Serpentine Gallery's three-day Memory Marathon, which takes place during Frieze Art Fair Week, acclaimed Lebanese sound artist Tarek Atouiperforms La Suite, a five-hour work inspired by classical Arab music. This Sharjah Art Foundation commission is presented by the Serpentine Gallery.

Exploring Tarab, both as a traditional form of music and an Arabic word to describe the emotional effect music has on the listener, Atoui is inviting fourteen internationally renowned musicians - from hip-hop and electronica performers to contemporary and traditional instrumentalists - to create a dialogue with the collection of Kamal Kassar's AMAR Foundation which houses the largest library of Tarab and classical Arab music in the world. Atoui has long been captivated by the improvisation inherent in this deeply evocative music, which binds the audience to the performer. As Atoui says "Tarab is not a music genre but a state of 'melotrance' that you reach after being exposed to music for a certain amount of time."

La Suite is commissioned and produced by Sharjah Art Foundation and is a development of his earlier works Revisiting Tarab, performed in Sharjah this past March and Visiting Tarab, performed in New York, November 2011 as a Performa Commission with Sharjah Art Foundation . Responding to the theme of the Serpentine's Memory Marathon, Atoui's interpretation of this largely forgotten music promises to transport the audience to a lost world of Arabic culture that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century.

Tarek Atoui was born in Lebanon in 1980 and moved to France in 1998 where he studied sound art and electro-acoustic music. In 2006, he released his first solo album in the Mort Aux Vaches series for Staalplaat Records, and in 2008, he served as artistic director of the STEIM Studios in Amsterdam, a centre for the research and development of new electronic musical instruments. Atoui is a sound artist who initiates multidisciplinary interventions, events, concerts and workshops and specializes in creating computer tools for interdisciplinary projects and youth education. He has presented work internationally including the Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE(2009); the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2010); La Maison Rouge, Paris (2010); the Mediacity Biennial, Seoul (2010), the Haus Der Kunst, Munich (2010), Performa 11, NYC (2011) and dOCUMENTA 13 (2012).

Performers: Uriel Barthélémi, John Butcher, Mira Calix, Susie Ibarra, Hassan Khan, Kazuyuki Kishino, Lukas Ligeti, Robert Lowe, Ikue Mori, Sara Parkins, Zeena Parkins, Ghassan Sahhab, Sam Shalabi.

Tickets £10/£8
Available from the Serpentine Gallery Lobby Desk (020 7402 6075) or Ticketweb ticketing.

Cadbury wins court battle over trademark Pantone 2658C purple wrappers

2012-10-04T07:52:00.003+02:00

via dezeen

Cadbury has won the right to stop rival chocolate makers using its signature colour, Pantone 2685C purple, on their wrappers.

The chocolate giant has been battling its Swiss rival Nestlé for the last four years over the use of the purple, which has appeared in Cadbury’s packaging for almost 100 years.

Last December a court ruling gave Cadbury exclusive rights to the hue, despite Nestlé’s claims that a colour could not be used as a trademark.

Now Britain’s High Court has overturned Nestlé’s appeal, ruling that Pantone 2685C purple is “distinctive of Cadbury for milk chocolate.”

Pantone’s colour system is used by printers and designers around the world to standardise and accurately match colours. Cadbury uses 2685C purple in its logo and its most recognisable packaging, such as Dairy Milk and Twirl bars.

BEYOND POLITICS

2012-09-28T14:19:00.002+02:00

So let's put politics aside.. but who was the smart graphic dude that produced this LAME presentation board for the prime minister of his country to go at the UN assembly and show it off.. ???

This is not only hilarious but pitiful !

U could easily mock the guy looking at the pic below regardless of what u think of what he will or has said.
This looks like an episode out of TOM & JERRY for gods sake !

Vote for the ICON of the year

2012-09-27T08:50:00.000+02:00

Although tempted to vote for Barber Osgerby, my vote this year goes to Thomas Heatherwick for his contributions to the British pavilion as well as the Olympics designs.
U get to have a vote as well on a list of 10 nominees including:
» Zaha Hadid
» David Chipperfield
» BarberOsgerby
» Rem Koolhaas
» Yves Behar
» Patricia Urquiola
» Thomas Heatherwick
» Renzo Piano
» Herzog & de Meuron
» Michael Hopkins

http://www.iconmagazineawards.com/icon-of-the-year

More on Heatherwick below:

Thomas Heatherwick has one of the most diverse and well-known portfolio of works of any designer in the UK: from his early projects, such as the transformation of the windows of Harvey Nichols in London to the dandelion-like form of the British Pavilion at the Shanghai expo last year. This year, Heatherwick was commissioned to design the Olympic Cauldron that was lit to mark the start of the London Games, before an estimated audience of one billion people watching all over the world

Apple lets its hair down as it wins Best Brand and Best Design Studio By Simon Jary

2012-09-26T08:18:00.000+02:00

Apple flew out its entire design team to an awards ceremony in London last night, in a surprising move for the normally secretive company.

Say hello to Apple's whole design team

In an unprecedented show of force Apple’s chief designer Londoner Sir Jonathan Ive took his whole design team to the ultra-prestigious D&AD Awards that was celebrating its 50^th anniversary.

Apple was named the Most Awarded Brand and the Most Awarded Design Studio of the past 50 years at the D&AD (Design and Art Direction) Awards, which recognises excellence in the fields of advertising and design.

Apple has consistently won awards at the UK-based awards organisation.

The annual D&AD Awards are recognised globally as setting the standard for creative excellence, with its iconic yellow and black pencil awards. D&AD runs a year round programme of events and lectures across the UK and internationally.

The 50^th Anniversary D&AD Awards were held at a dinner at Evolution in Battersea Park in London.

Apple flew its 17-strong design team (15 men and two women) from San Francisco - including Ive, and all of them went on stage to collect the award for Best Design Studio.

Clearly the design work has been completed on Apple’s iPhone 5, which goes on sale this Friday.

The London Evening Standard reports Clive Grinyer, an old colleague of Ive at his original design consultancy Tangerine, saying of Apple’s success: "The design is inherent in every part of the brand."

“If anyone wondered whether D&AD mattered, the world's most valuable company has flown its entire design team over," said Robert Senior, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Talk 20 this monday !

2012-04-19T14:28:00.002+03:00

via architecturelab (Wang Shu wins Pritzker award 2012)

2012-03-09T10:37:00.001+02:00

Wang Shu of The People’s Republic of China Is the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate

Wang Shu, a 48 year old architect whose architectural practice is based in Hangzhou, The People’s Republic of China, will be the recipient of the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

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Posted In competitions, news & results

In announcing the jury’s choice, Pritzker elaborated, “The fact that an architect from China has been selected by the jury, represents a significant step in acknowledging the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals. In addition, over the coming decades China’s success at urbanization will be important to China and to the world. This urbanization, like urbanization around the world, needs to be in harmony with local needs and culture. China’s unprecedented opportunities for urban planning and design will want to be in harmony with both its long and unique traditions of the past and with its future needs for sustainable development.”

The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which was founded in 1979 by the late Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. The laureates receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion.

Pritzker Prize jury chairman, The Lord Palumbo, spoke from his home in the United Kingdom, quoting from the jury citation that focuses on the reasons for this year’s choice: “The question of the proper relation of present to past is particularly timely, for the recent process of urbanization in China invites debate as to whether architecture should be anchored in tradition or should look only toward the future. As with any great architecture, Wang Shu´s work is able to transcend that debate, producing an architecture that is timeless, deeply rooted in its context and yet universal.”

Wang earned his first degree in architecture at the Nanjing Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture in 1985. Three years later, he received his Masters Degree at the same institute. When he first graduated from school, he went to work for the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou undertaking research on the environment and architecture in relation to the renovation of old buildings. Nearly a year later, he was at work on his first architectural project—the design of a 3600 square meter Youth Center for the small town of Haining (near Hangzhou). It was completed in 1990.

Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art, Phase II, 2004-2007, Hangzhou, China

For nearly all of the next ten years, he worked with craftsmen to gain experience at actual building and without the responsibility of design. In 1997, Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu, founded their professional practice in Hangzhou, naming it “Amateur Architecture Studio.” He explains the name, “For myself, being an artisan or a craftsman, is an amateur or almost the same thing.” His interpretation of the word is relatively close to one of the unabridged dictionary’s definitions: “a person who engages in a study, sport or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.” In Wang Shu’s interpretation, the word “pleasure” might well be replaced by “love of the work.”

By the year 2000, he had completed his first major project, the Library of Wenzheng College at Suzhou University. In keeping with his philosophy of paying scrupulous attention to the environment, and with careful consideration of traditions of Suzhou gardening which suggests that buildings located between water and mountains should not be prominent, he designed the library with nearly half of the building underground. Also, four additional buildings are much smaller than the main body. In 2004, the library received the Architecture Arts Award of China.

Ceramic House, 2003-2006, Jinhua, China Photo by Lv Hengzhong

His other major projects completed, all in China, include in 2005, the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum and five scattered houses in Ningbo which received acknowledgment from the Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction in the Asia Pacific. In that same city, he completed the Ningbo History Museum in 2008. In his native city of Hangzhou, he did the first phase of the Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art in 2004, and then completed phase two of the same campus in 2007.

True to his methods of economy of materials, he salvaged over two million tiles from demolished traditional houses to cover the roofs of the campus buildings. That same year in Hangzhou, he built the Vertical Courtyard Apartments, consisting of six 26-story towers, which was nominated in 2008 for the German-based International High-Rise Award. Also finished in 2009 in Hangzhou, was the Exhibition Hall of the Imperial Street of Southern Song Dynasty. In 2006, he completed the Ceramic House in Jinhua.

Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art, Phase I, 2002-2004, Hangzhou, China Photo by Lu Wenyu

Ningbo History Museum, 2003-2008, Ningbo, China Photo by Lv Hengzhong

Other international recognition includes the French Gold Medal from the Academy of Architecture in 2011. The year before, both he and his wife, Lu Wenyu, were awarded the German Schelling Architecture Prize.

Since 2000, Wang Shu has been the head of the Architecture Department of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the institution where he did research on the environment and architecture when he first graduated from school. Last year, he became the first Chinese architect to hold the position of “Kenzo Tange Visiting Professor” at Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also a frequent visiting lecturer at many universities around the world, including in the United States: UCLA, Harvard, University of Texas, University of Pennsylvania. He has participated in a number of major international exhibitions in Venice, Hong Kong, Brussels, Berlin and Paris.
Upon learning that he was being honored, Wang Shu had this reaction: “This is really a big surprise. I am tremendously honored to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. I suddenly realized that I’ve done many things over the last decade. It proves that earnest hard work and persistence lead to positive outcomes.”

Five Scattered Houses, 2003-2006, Ningbo, China Photo by Lang Shuilong

The distinguished jury that selected the 2012 Pritzker Laureate consists of its chairman, The Lord Palumbo, internationally known architectural patron of London, chairman of the trustees, Serpentine Gallery, former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, former chairman of the Tate Gallery Foundation, and former trustee of the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and alphabetically: Alejandro Aravena, architect and executive director of Elemental in Santiago, Chile; Stephen Breyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Washington, D.C.; Yung Ho Chang, architect and educator, Beijing, The People’s Republic of China; Zaha Hadid, architect and 2004 Pritzker Laureate; Glenn Murcutt, architect and 2002 Pritzker Laureate of Sydney, Australia; Juhani Pallasmaa, architect, professor and author of Helsinki, Finland; and Karen Stein, writer, editor and architectural consultant in New York. Martha Thorne, associate dean for external relations, IE School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain, is the executive director of the prize.

The late Philip Johnson was the first Pritzker Laureate in 1979. The late Luis Barragán of Mexico was named in 1980. The late James Stirling of the United Kingdom was elected in 1981, Kevin Roche in 1982, Ieoh Ming Pei in 1983, and Richard Meier in 1984. Hans Hollein of Austria was the 1985 Laureate. Gottfried Böhm of Germany received the prize in 1986. The late Kenzo Tange was the first Japanese architect to receive the prize in 1987; Fumihiko Maki was the second from Japan in 1993; and Tadao Ando the third in 1995. Robert Venturi received the honor in 1991, and Alvaro Siza of Portugal in 1992. Christian de Portzamparc of France was elected Pritzker Laureate in 1994. The late Gordon Bunshaft of the United States and Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil, were named in 1988. Frank Gehry of the U.S. was the recipient in 1989, the late Aldo Rossi of Italy in 1990. In 1996, Rafael Moneo of Spain was the Laureate; in 1997 the late Sverre Fehn of Norway; in 1998 Renzo Piano of Italy, in 1999 Sir Norman Foster of the UK, and in 2000, Rem Koolhaas of the Netherlands. In 2001, two architects from Switzerland received the honor: Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Australian Glenn Murcutt received the prize in 2002. The late Jørn Utzon of Denmark was honored in 2003; Zaha Hadid of the UK in 2004; and Thom Mayne of the U.S. in 2005. Paulo Mendes da Rocha of Brazil was the Laureate in 2006, and Richard Rogers received the prize in 2007. Jean Nouvel of France was the Laureate in 2008. In 2009, Peter Zumthor of Switzerland received the award. In 2010, two Japanese architects were honored, partners Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, Inc. Last year, Eduardo Souto de Moura of Portugal was the laureate.

The field of architecture was chosen by the Pritzker family because of their keen interest in building due to their involvement with developing the Hyatt Hotels around the world; and because architecture was a creative endeavor not included in the Nobel Prizes. The procedures were modeled after the Nobels, with the final selection being made by the international jury with all deliberations and voting in secret. Nominations are continuous from year to year with hundreds of nominees from countries all around the world being considered each yea

Areen Architecture Series presents MVRDV JACOB VAN RIJS

2012-03-01T11:07:00.003+02:00

Architect Barbie

2012-02-15T12:02:00.000+02:00

So in what looks like seeking educated women and not superficial shallow blondies, Barbie has launched the architect series. The good thing abt it is it does not look like Zaha Hadid... ~! ;-)

Zaha / Adamson / Assemblage shortlisted for iraqi parliament

2012-01-29T14:17:00.000+02:00

So it seems Zaha Hadid has been shortlisted to create the new iraqi parliament.
The shortlist also includes English firm Assemblage with Americans Buro Happold and Davis Langdon, Iraqi firm Al-Khan in collaboration with Canada’s Adamson, and the United Arab Emirates' Dewan Architects & Engineers, as reported by BD Online.
It would be interesting to check out what the iraqi star would hold for her country as a modern image of Iraq...

26th Annual Congress - Ankara

2012-01-19T14:46:00.000+02:00

Welcome Message

The Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) will hold its 26th Annual Congress in Ankara, Turkey, from 11 to 15 July 2012. As 2012 will also mark the 25th Anniversary of AESOP our aim is to celebrate the occasion with the participation of many distinguished guests and keynote speakers, along with a number of special sessions and activities. The Congress will also provide the setting for stimulating workshops, round-table discussions, and exciting excursions, during which issues of spatial planning and development specific to Ankara may also be explored.

We believe that the congress motto "Planning to Achieve/Planning to Avoid" is an umbrella for a wide spectrum of planning concerns, and explicitly expresses the variety of functions planning has to accommodate in the face of the material conditions of the modern world. Global warming, environmental and ecological degradation, depletion of natural resources, natural and man-made hazards, and economic crises affect our modes of production, consumption, and mobility patterns, demanding for new strategies in socio-spatial organization and conduct.

Participants to the congress are expected to contribute to the dilemmas of growth/degrowth, vulnerabilities/ resilience, and the contemporary relevance of planning in theoretical and practical terms, while pointing to the strengths and weaknesses of educational systems, and problems of local and regional geographies..

We welcome our colleagues to a vibrant environment of sociable discussion.

Local Organizing Committee

Prof.Dr.Melih Ersoy
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ela Babalik-Sutcliffe
Prof.Dr.Murat Balamir

Day-to-Day Operations & Student Representatives
Research Assistant Ezgi Orhan
Research Assistant Ender Peker
Research Assistant Duygu Cihanger

Jal el dib Municipality Engineer warns of bridge collapse ! (maximum high risk)

2012-01-17T16:41:00.000+02:00

given the passive attitude of the authorities in Lebanon, and the last building collapse in Achrafieh, Jal el din Municipality Engineer made a statement regarding the bridge's current status (maximum high risk of crumbling) he said, adding avoiding the bridge on your way. !!!

the bridges' pics shown below have been a question of shock to most citizens including myself in the region which were wondering what happened to the plans of the new bridge to be installed in its; place.

Should we wait for another catastrophy to feel the need to act ?

ARCH DAILY publishes Armenian Genocide Project !

2012-01-03T13:44:00.000+02:00

http://www.archdaily.com/196234/armenian-genocide-memorial-winning-proposal-etienne-bastormagi-architects/

Addict.Ed

The Brains

Niemeyer for Converse - how real is it ?

"2" not to B missed events

15.10.12

98TALKS

Lodz Design Festival 2012

ABOUT US

Dutch Design Week 2012

New construction system HOLEDECK saves 50 cm per floor

War of the Malls - Ch. 1

an Architects' vote on the american elections - Who Should You Vote For?

Beirut

Carwan Gallery Exhibit

Last Week of Sehnaoui's installation at Zaytouneh Square DT Beirut

Gagik Ghazanchyan & Lilit Soghomonyan @ Hamazkayin

Tarek Atoui @ the Last Week of the Serpentine Gallery

So I fell on this checking out news about the Serpentine Gallery's last week ! somehow its quite interesting to end the pavilion's memory with a lebanese artist ... THIS WEEK Park Nights Tarek Atoui La Suite Friday 12 October 2012 6-11pm

Cadbury wins court battle over trademark Pantone 2658C purple wrappers

BEYOND POLITICS

Vote for the ICON of the year

Apple lets its hair down as it wins Best Brand and Best Design Studio By Simon Jary

Talk 20 this monday !

via architecturelab (Wang Shu wins Pritzker award 2012)

Wang Shu of The People’s Republic of China Is the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate

Areen Architecture Series presents MVRDV JACOB VAN RIJS

Architect Barbie

Zaha / Adamson / Assemblage shortlisted for iraqi parliament

26th Annual Congress - Ankara

Jal el dib Municipality Engineer warns of bridge collapse ! (maximum high risk)

ARCH DAILY publishes Armenian Genocide Project !

So I fell on this checking out news about the Serpentine Gallery's last week ! somehow its quite interesting to end the pavilion's memory with a lebanese artist ...

THIS WEEK
Park Nights
Tarek Atoui
La Suite
Friday 12 October 2012
6-11pm