Spec Book Pro Blog

50 Strange Buildings of the World

From Village of Joy — one of the selections is below.

50 Strange Buildings of the World | Village of Joy.

Kansas City Public Library

 

via Argot

Ettore Sottsass: Architect And Designer

MoCo Loco pays homage to Ettore Sottsass.

Link: MoCo Loco: Ettore Sottsass: Architect And Designer.

Ettore Sottsass is a design and architecture icon. Best known as the founder of the Memphis movement in the early 1980s, his career has actually spanned 65 plus years (he’s now 88). In that time he has worked with many of the world’s best known design manufacturers such as Alessi, Olivetti and Sevres, and has created an eclectic body of work that defies a single signature style. A comprehensive museum exhibition presented at LACMA, his first in the US, has just ended. The showcase may have ended but the show lives on in the catalog. A pioneer in several fields of design, Ettore Sottsass: Architect And Designer presents works in furniture, ceramics, glass, jewelry, architecture and industrial design. Hardcover, 160 pages, 130 color illustrations, $25.17 at Amazon. For the collector, there's also a limited edition of recent Sottsass work for Manufacture de Sevres here.

+ Ettore Sottsass: Architect And Designer at Amazon

Tiger Wood's Home

Here's one of the photos from the pdf below.

Tiger's Home.pdf

American Institute of Architects issues position statements supporting sustainable building and resource conservation

Inhabitat points to good green information.

Source: AIA Position Statements, American Institute of Architects

Sustainable Architectural Practice

The AIA recognizes a growing body of evidence that demonstrates current planning, design, construction, and real estate practices contribute to patterns of resource consumption that seriously jeopardize the future of the Earth’s population. Architects need to accept responsibility for their role in creating the built environment and, consequently, believe we must alter our profession’s actions and encourage our clients and the entire design and construction industry to join with us to change the course of the planet’s future.

Explanation

Altering current practices of design and construction to realize significant reductions in the use of natural resources, non-renewable energy sources, and waste production and promote regeneration of natural resources will require a multiple-year effort in conjunction with clients, industry partners, and concerned organizations. To achieve these changes, the AIA will act through all its Board Committees, Knowledge Communities, Task Forces, Working Groups, and related activities to: ... AIA Position Statements

via: Inhabitat

Jumptown Building in Portland, Oregon

Source: Inhabitat

...the Jumptown building has been given a second chance at revitalizing the history and culture of the neighborhood that was sidelined long ago, ironically, for urban renewal. Developers have hired Malaysian architect Kenneth Yeang, known for his eco-friendly skyscrapers, and local SERA Architects to restore the original building and design a 10-story mixed use building on the adjacent property.

Developers Greg Pearlman and Maria Toth have the lofty goal of making the new Jumptown tower the “greenest building ever built in Portland.” Designed to achieve a US Green Building Council LEED Platinum rating, the building will not merely incorporate storm water reuse, sewage recycling, and solar power, but will bring the concept of rooftop gardens to a whole new level, cascading vegetation down the side of the tower to the street level.

Yeang has written extensively on ecological, large scale building development and has been a pioneer of the “bioclimatic skyscraper.” His sustainable agenda has materialized in buildings worldwide, validating the notion that skyscrapers too, can be environmentally responsible and climatically responsive.

+ www.sijournal.com

Solar Powered Glass

Source: TreeHugger

XsunX, is manufacturing "Power Glass", a technology that allows glass windows to produce electricity via solar energy. It began shipping Power Glass products this May (more details here). The company believes the cells will operate at half the efficiency of conventional solar cells but may have one quarter the cost. :: XsunX

Stuff from MoCo Loco

Link: MoCo Loco: Meta MoCo - 17 SEP 05.

This week's MoCo picks + submissions.

+ Harry Allen's product design. <BLDT>

+ Studio Job's Nynke Tynagel and Job Smeets Swarovski crystal Roses on the Vine lamp (see more Studio Job here). <design*sponge>

+ Powder room night light by There Design. <architechnophilia>

+ D'Arcy Jones Design architecture and product design.

Raphaelplein

Source: MoCo Loco: Raphaelplein.

Spatial designers i29 created this combo room separator storage unit and kitchen for a private apartment in Amsterdam. The unit separates the living room from the staircase and faces the kitchen unit that has an integrated teppan-yaki grill and bar.