Category: Competitions
Posted by James on 2/11/2010 1:21:00 PM
A competition for built residential landscapes
The James Rose Center for Landscape Research and Design has released a call for entries for a design compettiont to explore "the aesthetics of landscape experience in the era of sustainability." The competition is focued on solutions to the ubiquitous small-lot, detached single-family, residential condition. Entries should employ sustainable strategies and tactics to create human landscape experiences that are beautiful, inspiring, perhaps profound; and which might serve as examples for transforming the suburban residential fabric.
This is a juried competetition open to all, including landscape architects, landscape designers, architects, individuals, teams, or firms. Submission deadline is April 16, 2010.
Link: Suburbia Transformed Competition
Link: James Rose Center
Related: James Rose: landscape theorist, author, and practitioner (L+L 5/12/2004)
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Category: Urban
Posted by James on 2/4/2010 1:02:00 PM
NYC adopts a new standard for urban construction sheds
 We
posted an announcement last August for the "urbanSHED International Design Competition," and Young-Hwan Choi, a 28-year-old graduate student from the University of Pennsylvania, heeded the call* and won the $10,000 cash prize. So how about showing L+L a little love, wontcha, Young? A little sumpthin' sumpthin'... anything? No?
Mr. Choi's concept, the Urban Umbrella has been adopted by the New York City Department of Buildings as a new standard. While use of the design by contractors will not be mandatory, the Department reports that the installation costs are "in line" with the current standard and that long term maintenance and installations costs for the new structures will be lower. Also of note is that the new design will obstruct less of a building's facade which would appeal to building owners and affected businesses.
Link: urbanSHED
*WE HAVE NO IDEA IF YOUNG-HWAN CHOI HAS EVER READ L+L.
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Category: Architecture
Posted by Nico on 1/15/2010 12:17:00 AM
From "Junk Space" to inspiring playground
Architect Avi Laiser and his wife, performance artist Dana Hirsch Laiser, investigate the concept of “temporary private space” by transforming a forgotten piece of land adjacent to a major highway into a vibrant and innovative playground for the surrounding community.
Firm: Avi Laiser Architecture
Location: L+L Maps - The REAL Estate
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Category: News
Posted by Nico on 1/14/2010 12:35:00 PM
Please help if you can. Thank you!
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Category: Competitions
Posted by Lorenza on 1/10/2010 12:52:00 PM
“PERSONAL INFRASTRUCTURES” — 2010 SMIBE Short Film Competition
In its second year, SMIBE Competition challenges us to create and submit 3 minutes videos about our built environment.
For this competition, SMIBE welcomes moving image stories that investigate, explore, and entertain our communities about social, environmental, political, technological, and economic issues that designers of the built world should be discussing.
Link: SMIBE 2010 - Personal Infrastructures
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Category: Interiors
Posted by Anthony on 12/26/2009 11:29:00 AM
One-of-a-kind loft is up for rent
Via: Brand X
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Category: Kids
Posted by James on 8/7/2009 8:17:00 AM
One giant step for eco-friendly back to school gear
 So you've got a kid, and you want to be "green," but let's face it, this is easier said than done. You have plastic this-and-that, one-use items, all of those school supplies, disposable lunch bags... etc., etc., etc. Sourcing environmentally responsible children's products is a royal pain!
What if one day your kid's tree-hugging school requires that you send waste-free lunches?! This is what happened to Renata Bodon who found it challenging to find safe and high-quality reusable lunch ware. Fortunately for you, Renata decided not only to solve her problem, but yours as well.
Meet One Small Step--your one stop shop offering a bevy of waste-free, lead-free, BPA-free, Phthalate-free, and PVC-free lunch and school supplies as well as items for babies and toddlers. And to top it off, One Small Step not only selects items with an eye for design, but also donates 10% of their gross returns to non-profits and partnering schools... you can even register your fave.
Link: One Small Step
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Category: Art
Posted by James on 7/27/2009 10:11:00 PM
Photographer Xavier Nuez
 Photographer Xavier Nuez ventures late at night to places you are warned not to go, drawn to document bleak urban spaces. However, his photographs transcend the gloom and uncover the sublime; while some photos display an aura of foreboding, many reveal an uncanny sense of calm seemingly at odds with reality. Nuez offers a glimpse of his forays into these forbidding realms in the Alley Stories section of his website.
I've been chased by violent street gangs, accosted by crazed addicts and drug dealers, and have been held at gun point. If the police see me lurking in a dark alley, often I am questioned and searched. And yet under these trying conditions, and within the filth and stench of the city's gutters, I find inspiration. With a family history of homelessness and with a belief that I was next, I found the need to create monuments out of these shunned places.
Nuez uses three Hasselblad film cameras, two of which are more than 50-years old. To capture the vivid colors in his images, he shoots with battery-powered lights and colored gels that are combined with long exposures.
Xavier Nuez's photographs have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States and in Canada
A selection of Nuez's photographs will be on exhibition August 24 through September 27, 2009, at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee, Florida.
Link: Xavier Nuez
Slideshow: Alleys
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Category: Architecture
Posted by James on 7/27/2009 2:11:00 PM
Water Sports Center in Zahara de la Sierra, Cádiz, Spain
Spanish architect Julio Barreno Gutiérrez designed this boathouse just outside the small town of Zahara de la Sierra on the shore of the man-made lake, El Embalse de Zahara. The small structure serves as a boat storage facility and also houses changing rooms and restrooms for boaters, and is meant to be part of a larger recreation area in development.
While small and utilitarian, the structure responds elegantly to the native landscape, the high waterline of the resevoir, and the local vernacular of the "pueblo blanco" hillside town. The design was awared the 2008 Torres Key Prize by the College of Architects of Cádiz given every two years to honor the best new buildings in Cádiz. The architect describes the town "as a dense liquid falling down along the slope" and the small parcels and buildings along the shore as "small white pieces" scattered below; a green and white pixelated landscape.
Architect Julio Barreno Gutiérrez is an Associate Professor for the School of Architecture at the University of Seville.
Location: L+L Maps - Paisaje de Canoas
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Category: Kitchen
Posted by James on 7/24/2009 8:55:00 AM
Integrated kitchen components
We've admired the high quality kitchen systems designed by Seattle-based Henrybuilt for many years. Henrybuilt offers an American alternative to the sleek European kitchen systems we drool over.
The latest expansion to the line--the Workspace Component Group--builds on their well conceived backsplash panel system adding smart functionality. The components are a set of sculpted functional blocks: a cutting board, colander, and knife block. Like the existing accessories in the system, these components are designed to integrate with Henrybuilt's customizable backsplash panel system offering flexibility in configurations and changing needs. The colander and cutting board not only store neatly on the backsplash, but are designed to function with Henrybuilt's recessed countertop sink and drainboard.
Additional components are in the works as well.
Link: Henrybuilt
Video: Workspace Component Group demo
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