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I chose that title, because in many ways Japan is already 10 years ahead of the rest of the world in may ways. I think the main reason is because they had to spend their wealth on making the country a better place, rather than on spending one third of it on building the largest military on earth. Livingry vs. Weaponry.
Featured here is an Auto-Door by Tanaka. Although this particular device isn't going to save the world, its a perfect 10 in the cool department. Here is a demo video (real video).
From Gizmodo:
Cleanliness, efficiency, compactness, cool-factor… for a variety of reasons, automatic doors have become a standard feature of Japanese shops. While the typical sliding star-trek style design has proven itself, the tanaka auto door aims to improve upon a good concept. This new design entails strips equipped with infrared sensors that open to the approximate shape of the person or object passing through, minimizing entry of dust, pollen, and bugs while keeping precious air-conditioning in. The technology for the new design seems to be in it’s infancy, but Japan has proven once again that it’s a least 10 years ahead of everyone else.
From PopSci:
"Designed as an exterior skin that would be stretched taut over an aluminum frame, like nylon over tent poles, SmartWrap consists of two layers of a polyester film called PET—the same clear plastic used in soda bottles. The idea is to use the thin, flexible film as a substrate onto which micro-components for lighting, heating, energy storage and even information display can be printed, like ink on paper. The result will be electronic walls that are inexpensive and infinitely customizable both at the manufacturing stage and at home, so that you could, for instance, program one side of the living room to be a built-in movie screen or turn an entire side of the house into a window at the flick of a switch."
via Eye of Gaia
Inspired by Finnish architect Antti Lovag (see his own Palais Bulles - which I did a write up here) in the mid 70's, the Bubble House with its an indoor river, bubble kernel and cactus garden is for sale.
Lovag invented the bubble-house concept in the 1970s when he noted that primitive dwellings, such as caves and igloos, better reflected the way humans move (which is maybe correct but i lived in a "bubble" house once and it was a chore to find "bubble" furniture to fit there).
The Bubble House current owner, Daniel Bord, fell in love with Lovag's creations, took himself off to a week-long bubble-house-building course at Lovag's workshop near Nice, came back in Festes-et-Saint-André, in south-west France and started work.
There are some 20 bubble houses in France, the price of this one is set at €2,440,000 ($3,000,000).
Via BookofJoe. See also The Telegraph.
If I had $3 million, I would buy this house immediately, move my family to the south of France, and set up shop.
(This article is from earlier this year - Feburary 23, 2005. I think it's intereting and fun enough to repost)
I love the reverb from the net. While checking the stats for the site, I saw a hit from The Uppers Organization - Your Guide to the Modern Pleasures of Living. A quick glance and I was onto a couple of articles on psychedelic futurist architecture. Always one of my favorite subjects. To my delight I re-discovered this amazing house on the Riviera which I had the fortune of visiting back in 1991 [pictured at left]. From the moment I saw it I immediately felt at home in its warm, inviting and organic environment. Perhaps it was watching Barbarella as a kid, or reading too many futurist magazines like Omni and Future. Whatever it was, the aesthetic stuck to my brain like glue. For the life of me I could never find it again, and when the internet came along I looked for it with no luck. Of course it would help to remember the name of the place. It's called the Palais Bulles, and you can read more about it at Uppers, or quoted later in this post.
Another article at Uppers talks about the Vasarely Foundation at Aix-en-Provence [pictured below]
'The whole place looks like the set of a science-fiction film of the late '60s: a huge black and white hexagon standing out on a big lawn by a motorway at Jas de Bouffan, just outside the centre of the beautiful and relaxing Aix.The building is formed by six hexagonal rooms, each wall displaying one enormous work of Victor Vasarely's kinetic art, art in movement. Black and white patterns, coloured spheres and other geometrical shapes, like the infinite column, a long sculptured column set between two mirrors, giving the sense of the infinite form.
The Foundation opened in 1976 after the idea of Vasarely, who wanted to create a cultural centre, not only a museum, but a place where architects, urbanists and sociologists could discuss together, in search of new solutions for the ideal "city of tomorrow".
The site itself was chosen by Vasarely: it was close to a motorway and car drivers travelling along could clearly perceive the sense of movement in the design of this building. Then, Jas de Bouffan had been the home of one of Vasarely's favourite artists, the French painter Cézanne.
Vasarely's style influenced deeply its time and brought many imitators among designers and architects. Some of his ideas have unfortunately proven utopian but his desire to integrate art into architecture and everyday life is still valid and gives his whole work a curiously contrasting sense of warmth and passion.
Fondation Vasarely
1, avenue Marcel Pagnol
Jas de Bouffan
13090 Aix-en-Provence
Tel. +33(0)4 42 20 01 09'
'An extraterrestrial looking house made of huge concrete bubbles, sits on the Esterel hills by the the French Riviera. It is the Palais de Bulles, the Palace of Bubbles, the summer villa of Pierre Cardin.Pierre Cardin has always been very sensitive to futuristic atmospheres and even his summer house reveals his passion for the future. The Palais de Bulles stretches in Port-la-Galère, near Cannes and it was built in the early '70s after the project of the hungarian architect Antti Lovag.
Lovag noticed that traditional habitations, like the cavern or the igloo, were round and reflected the way a human being moves in space. These houses were built "around" the human being and did not force him into rectangular spaces, like modern houses. Spheres and round surfaces reminded of the maternal uterus and avoiding any sharp edge they could prevent, according to Lovag's theory, neurosis and violence.
Lovag, together with Hausermann and Chanéac, experimented in the '60s a new idea of architecture based on natural forms and in the early '70s Lovag realized his first round house, always in the South of France, for the French businessman Pierre Bernard.
The Palais de Bulles is hidden among the vegetation, and the exterior colour is brown, to make it similar to the nearby Esterel hills.'
Of course this particular house is very expensive, but there is no reason why this type of style can't be done on the cheap. There are two institutes here in the states that are working on alternative architectures. The first one is the Monolithic Dome Institute. I discovered them in 1994 while touring this amazing house in Sedona called Xanadu. It's still there but no longer open to the public. Here is a picture of that house.
The other is Cal Earth in Hesperia California founded by Nader Khalili. I discovered him the same year (1994) when he came to conduct an earth-fire architecture workshop at Arcosanti, where I was living at the time. Khalili's methods are now used all over the world to bring affordable housing to people with otherwise very limited resources. Cal Earth is worth checking out. Not only is the potential cost of one of his home cheap, but they are beautiful to look at and live in, as well as being very environmentally friendly and energy efficient. Below is a picture of one them.
3 minutes², by French art collective Electronic Shadow, expands architectural space of a reduced volume via interartive and enhanced imagery. The space reconfigures itself in response to the individuals activities and over time.
'3 minutes² is an installation mixing space and image, real and virtual and proposes a hybrid habitat metamorphosing endlessly around its inhabitant. Hybridising of space with images, fusion of material with immaterial, architecture of memory and information design, the habitat isn’t only measured by its surface but by the sum of its potential dimensions. Parallel realities melt in one space-time, 3minutes are a space, 10 square meters are a space. 3 minutes² is a surface-time, a hybrid space living according to its inhabitant’s rhythm, his trace, his electronic shadow.
3 minutes² is an installation presenting an extremely reduced living unit. This space has the particularity to extend beyond its physical borders via the image, the space being its projection surface. This volumes demultiplies thus in as many functions as the ones described in the scenario of use of this living space.
In fact, the space permanently reconfigures itself according to its inhabitant’s activities and also defines itself in time. The scenario presents in a few minutes the compression of most activities and functions taking place in the habitat and corresponding to its inhabitant daily life, eating, sleeping, working, etc.
The inhabitant himself is contained in the image, represented as a silhouette. This shadow which represents the projection of a neutral individual in this habitat is the installation’s neuralgic centre, the habitat building itself around him as a cocoon, a more cultural than a natural extension; the habitat becomes then a character.
The presented functions correspond to vital needs and also to more complex behaviours. 3 minutes² doesn’t try to caricaturise the habitat’s functions but to draw the shape of a daily life deeply modified by technologies and the presence of the virtual, or the materialisation of immaterial.
Beyond the traditional functions adapted to this type of habitat, some activities are directly linked to this conception of space and inevitably induce radical changes in the political, economical and social organisation.
The status of the image compared to the space is permanently ambiguous, is it an individual’s printed memory in his habitat, the virtual reflect of a real life or the scale 1 model of a future space, prefigurating the use of technologies in development, such as the nanotechnologies?
3minutes² doesn’t answer to this question but tends to shift the traditional debate opposing real to virtual. Here, hybridation of real and virtual is fictively acquired and becomes the ground for the proposition of a habitat which anticipates the technological and social modifications making it possible.
No screens, no visible interfaces, the two characters touch the walls, make movements, the habitation responds to them. The technology has become totally invisible and the effect of technologic becomes then magic.'
I was just watching a show called Extreme Homes on HGTV, which features some of the most cutting edge and innovate homes on the planet. This morning they featured the Butterfly House. The entire house is a kinetic sculpture of a butterfly.
Butterfly house is a refurbished family home inspired by the life cycle of the butterfly. An experiment in zoomorphic design, the house traces each change from larval stage, represented by the walkway, to the chrysalis, captured by the staircase and conservatory, and finally the winged canopies - the emerged butterfly.
Although this is more of an kinetic art architectural experiment, I think it demonstrates that our living spaces can become a lot more dynamic, fluid and responsive, resembling living things more and more. Combine this kinetic architecture with other sustainable technologies, and our architecture can become a seamless part of the natural environment.
Here are some more pictures of the house:
My friend Edmond Cohen created a vision, iAmerica, for what ought to replace the World Trade Center in New York. I don't think it actually got submitted to the contest, and it is probably too late. Anyway, I hadn't looked at the latest version, even though it is hosted on my server. But I just saw it, and I think it is fabulous. Much more worthy than the mishmash that came out of the contest. A globe on top, lighted up by LEDs showing an image of the planet. Five domed biospheres on top of five surrounding towers.
Arthropods is a book I came across about 15 years ago. It was published in 1971, but the ideas, concepts, and many of the designs are still as relevant as ever. The book is out of print, so I took some of the highlights and made it available here at Future Hi.
From the book:
Future shock, or Possibilities for Creative Future Change?"In our time, the amount of change in the environment self psychologically is so great, and the pace of thispsyche's capacity to adapt." Nowhere, probably, are the forces of change Arnold Toynbee mentions so apparent and the means to deal with them creatively so diverse and protean as in the increasingly intertwined interfaces of art, architecture, science, and technology, public involvement in environmental change, and the other disciplines, talents, enthusiasms, and concerns that affect and/or are affected by man's environment and the ways he manipulates it.
This book is an examination of a number of approaches to the general aspects of environmental change. It discusses the work, practical and theoretical, of a number of individuals and groups from a number of countries who have as common ground an interest in ameliorating man's lot in an increasingly desensitized atmosphere, and of postulating ways in which he can have—in smaller or larger scale—a deciding influence on the ways he will live and the nature of the places in which he will live. Some of the work will appear fantastic to many readers; other proposals will seem commendably "practical" and worthy of support by governments, industries, and the rest of the bureaucratic hierarchy that has gotten us into the sorry fix we are in at the present time.
This book seeks not to make laudatory, or disparaging, judgments upon specific projects or to arbitrarily segregate the workable from the visionary (the visionary must be tomorrow's "workable," anyway, if we are to move ahead), but to investigate the forces at work in new fields of environmental creativity and the interests that provoke them.
To read the rest of this book (including some pictures), click here.
Earlier today, I became aware of some beautiful work being done by visionary artist and community builder David Lightman. It's difficult to describe the multi-faceted nature of everything he's doing, so here is some info from his website:
Dlight is an artist by accident, a revolutionary by intent. His art is strictly functional, springing from serious attempts to further what he terms the New Tribalism. He is dedicated to creating spaces, systems and structures designed to foster the development of a new breed of focused communities which act as artistic, economic and spiritual vortexes – cultural incubators for the 21st century.His first architectural experiment was at Burning Man 1999. Two 30 ft reinforced mylar wings were attached to a metal ladder, creating a shade structure that kept people cool even in the peak of the searing desert heat. It resembled a bird attempting to take flight, with the wings alternately rising and falling. This structure was strong enough to withstand 60 mph winds surviving a week in this hostile environment. Although large enough to shelter 20 people comfortably, the whole structure weighed only about 30 pounds.
In February 2002 Dlight founded a project now called Tribal Oasis, (www.tribaloasis.org), a detailed plan for a self-sufficient eco-friendly arts village in the middle of Los Angeles. This pioneering project mobilized a large group of people to develop detailed architectural and financial plans to make this ambitious dream a reality. Dlight designed a community currency for this village called Ecos.
As a member of several communities that hold gatherings in harsh desert environments, Dlight has been fascinated with the idea of portable structures designed to be erected quickly and easily, yet providing a significant level of comfort, modularity and beauty. After learning about a new kind of structural mathematics called helical geometry, Dlight immediately realized that it might be the ultimate solution for the “movable city”. Although it was only a few weeks before Burning Man 2003, Dlight was able to create the first “Helix” in time. Later he erected a 23-panel Helix for the Solids show in December 2003.
Dlight studied physics and psychology at Cornell University. He was responsible for the computer graphics on the film “War Games”.
I really hope his group is successful in getting Tribal Oasis off the ground. There is no question that people are hungry for this type of community. I have hungred for it almost my entire adult life. The ideas are sound, and as always come back to economics. My thinking is if you can create a diverse and dynamic enough community it can become both economically and environmentally sustainable, whether it's in downtown LA like Tribal Oasis, or out in the country. If Dave and his group can make a go of this, it will become a prototype for other communities to emulate.
David's designs remind me a lot of of the stuff coming out of the late 60's in a book called, Arthropods by Jim Burns. I have an original signed and mint condition copy of this book. As revolutionary and radical as the ideas in this book were then, they are even more relevant and perhaps revolutionary today. I will definitely make a point of blogging about this book in the near future, and I will expand upon in it the growing archives section under Spaceship Earth.
Dymaxion 4D Lightful Dwellings by Buckminster Fuller:
In 1927, in the privately circulated draft entitled 4D, later printed as part of 4D Timelock Fuller outlined his vision of shipping mass-produced houses around the world by Zeppelin, to be accessible by means of small planes capable of prolonged ground-taxiing.
Fuller actually described the 10 deck houses shown here as "stepping stone, world airline maintenance crew environment controls", the idea being that, if appropriately distributed around the globe, they could serve as maintenance stations for planes on great circle air routes.
Fuller was convinced that his plan for mass-produced housing would render city-dwellings obsolete.
In July 1928, he wrote to his mother who was in their home in Bear Island, Maine, suggesting that the value of island property would be radically increased once his ideas took effect. He advised his mother to sell their house in Cambridge Massachussetts immediately, as the price of urban real estate was bound to fall dramatically:
"If the rest of the family want to keep their money in land, I should recommend transferring the money for the sale of the Cambridge property to the purchase of additional islands, picked for their landing facilities. In a year or so, when my 4D houses are ready, we will be able to put them up on the islands in one day, with every facility of modern city luxury built in, quite as comfortable in winter as any other time, on the installment plan, for a dollar down... There is no question that what I have predicted will come about."
The 4D-transport, that later developed into the dymaxion automobile, was initially intended as a private vehicle suited for this new decentralized human condition. Its primary role would be for flight between island dwellings. For ground-use, it would have to be capable of taxiing for long distances.
Well, Bucky was sure an optimist. But why not? Why shouldn't we get lightweight buildings delivered by zeppeliner or helicopter? Why does an average one-family house need to weigh 150 tons and take a number of months to construct? It makes sense to use as little resources as possible, and arrange the production procedures for fast and easy delivery.
From the website:
Ok, we have all seen the movie and if you don't know WHICH movie I am talking about, well click HERE. After seeing The Fellowship of the Ring, you have probably fantasized about living in a Hobbit Hole and lazing about in the shade. I know I have.
That is when I started expressing my inner architect and wondering of easy, bio-friendly ways to build a Hobbit Hole. These pages are what I have come up with.
The largest expenses in building a home (not counting the flat screen tv and indoor lap pool) typically are the walls, exterior and roofing system. Obviously, the roof and exterior are done away with for Hobbit Holes. However you have some staggering stress and loading issues with underground housing. The weight of the soil and flora growing on it can produce tremendous loads on a structure. It is even worse when it rains.
Once you start doing the math for wooden structures, the cost quickly skyrockets. On top of high costs to support such loading, you have yet to deal with the issue of water seepage, insect vulnerabilities (termites) and wood rot.
The Green Century Institute (GCI) is developing an initial study and general proposal for a model ecocity community of 7000-10000 people to be built in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Califia will combine a revolutionary "arcological" (architecture-ecology) design integrating cutting edge sustainable development and technology resources with community innovations. These innovations include extended family communal housing configurations, new kinds of public facilities and services, advanced power generation and recycling systems, permaculture farms and greenhouses, non-traditional financing and "social capital" programs. The dramatic, integrated complex will meld natural environments with dense urban spaces. It will be built in phases over a 10 year period.
I spent 18 rewarding months at Arcosanti between 1994-96. While I was there I had two project I was aggressively promoting. The first was a more integrated approach with living technologies to treat waste water and create sustainable permaculture, the second was a more supportive atmosphee for small-scale free-enterprise. At the time, both of these projects were rejected by Paolo Soleri and the long-time residents. Despite their anathema to free-enterprise, I took over and grew a small business, and divided the profits between arcosanti projects and my skydiving habit. It became clear at that time, that those who has made this there home were not particularly interested in seeing it grow. Despite that, the nature of an Arcology with it's mixed use urban plan, makes for a very dynamic and lively community. More than anything else, that sense of connection and community, plus the fantastic beauty of the area, made my time there the best year and a half of my life (so far).
Now 10 years later, it looks like they are taking living machines seriously.
What Arcosanti might look like if it gets completed.
This photo above is a real picture with a CAD drawing of the proposed additions overlayed. Just to the right of the picture is some small living quarters near a small river where I lived. For 50 miles in almost every direction, is nothing but raw nature and no sign of civilization. In fact, if you were to head directly east from this picture, you could walk for at least 75 miles and not cross a single road. Most of the time it felt like I was living on a remote 24th Century Federation research colony. It gave me a good sense of what life aboard a space colony would be like.
Via Boing Boing
Loop.ph is a design group "exploring reactive luminous surfaces in the built environment." Products that respond to the activities of the human beings using them. Things that emit light, things worn or lived in. Here are a few:
Proposal for a tiling system to illuminate public spaces. Each tile forms a pixel that responds to a moving shadow being cast upon it, mapping a physical pathway with an inverted| illuminating shadow. Light trails linger as you move through space providing localized and personal illumination.
A silent alarm clock, an illuminating, personalised alarm integrated into your bedding that gently wakes you in the most natural way. Ever since the beginning of time light has controlled our body clock telling us when to sleep and when to wake. As lifestyles are rapidly changing with increased travel and demands on our time, people's natural body clocks are out of sync. This pillow and duvet simulates a natural dawn that eases you into your day. Light Sleeper Bedding uses electroluminescent technology allowing traditional textile surfaces to become a reactive light source.
And then this via DRT News:
LiTraCon© is a "common" concrete stone-block that turns out to be light conducting through its embedded glassfibers. From one side to the other light passes the stone without any significant loss and illuminates the darker side of the stone. Shadows are transmitted and shown in precise shapes on the opposite surface.
The current pace of construction in China is astounding! According to Metafilter:
In scale and pace, the building boom currently sweeping over China has no precedent in human history. China is spending about $375 billion each year on construction, nearly 16 percent its gross domestic product. In the process, it is using 54.7 percent of the world's production of concrete, 36.1 percent of the world's steel, and 30.4 percent of the world's coal.
The breadth and vision of some of these buildings is unprecedented. They are either already slated or under contruction. Some of these buildings are the most futuristic I have ever seen, even more than I've seen in most science fiction movies.
This entire building's surface will be video screens.
At this pace how much longer can the Chinese government keep a lid on dissent? How much longer will they be able to sustain such growth without going to renewable resources?
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In the news: China Plans to Pass the U.S. on Fuel Economy
For lots more pictures of Chinese construction go here.
If we ever hope of creating a sustainable planet-bound civilization without then it seems only obvious that we'll need to work with rather against the biospheres processes. There are many archictects who are working hard to bring our civilization back into harmony with the environment. Emilio Ambasz is an architect who has designed buildings that do just that. They are passively solar, evaporatively cooled, extremely energy efficient, seamlessly bringing the built and natural environment together. All the rain water falling onto his building is either collected for the buildings flora or recycled for drinking water by it's inhabitants. Additionally, much of the buildings waste is processed using Living Machinery.
As you can see from this model below an entire mixed-use project could easily disappear, providing an urban solution that has little or no impact on the local ecology, and retains the natural beauty of the area.
