8/27/2012

Symposium | PROTO/E/CO/LOGICS 002: The Field Is Open

A project curated by Alisa Andrasek and Bruno Juriric of BiothingPROTO/E/CO/LOGICS 002 The Field Is Open. I had more time (busy trap), I would definitely be spending a lot of the weekend there.
The symposium itself looks very interesting including lots of excellent presentors — Alisa Andrasek, Bruno Juriric, Eyal Weizman, Saskia Sassen, Michael Meredeth, Benjamin Bratton, Roland Snooks, Philippe Morel, Keller Easterling, to limit to these names (see below for the participants). And the topics that will be discussed too: Contigency, Supersensitivity, Axiomatic Heresy, Non-Natural.

Envisioned as an open platform for rethinking increasingly complex landscape of architecture and asymptotic cultures, symposium PROTO/E/CO/LOGICS 002: The Field Is Open, foregrounds the necessity for resilient bounding of global-local, generic-particular relations and transference, a navigational system for which increasingly accelerated scientific discoveries within the manifest image of the world are taken not as obstacles but as opportunities for further synthesis.
Through expansion in material science, cloud computing, transformations in constructability and manufacturing (such as ongoing revolution with 3d printing) and internet of things, boundaries of architecture are becoming fuzzy and the Field is increasingly Open. In recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in events and understanding that the agency spawns beyond human, provides a new ground for addressing design ecology. Unlike the principles of total holism that have characterized earlier ecological thinking, what this kind of synthetic approach offers is resilience and redundancy of transient boundaries, with increased ability for interweaving contingent agencies. The role of those boundaries is not any more to enclose space, but rather to form tissue for osmotic exchange.


The symposium will be articulated into four topics: Supersensitivity-Physics, Axiomatic Heresy-Codes (Saturday 1st September); Contigency - Data, Non-Natural-Objects (Sunday 2nd September).
Saturday 1st September will gather: Eyal Weizman, Roland Snooks, Michael Meredith, Benjamin Bratton (moderator), Skylar Tibbits, Mark Fornes, Michael Hansmeyer, Alisa Andrasek (moderator).
Saskia Sassen, Philippe Morel, Benjamin Bratton, Keller Easterling, Adrian Lahoud (moderator), Hernan Diaz-Alonso, Bruno Juricic, Lucy McRae, Eva Franch Gilabert (moderator) will lecture Sunday 2nd September.

What: PROTO/E/CO/LOGICS 002 The Field Is Open
Where: Hotel Lone ı Rovinj ı Croatia
When: 01-02 September 2012
Curated by: Alisa Andrasek, Bruno Juricic / Biothing
For some additional Info, but, and more important, registration (still open): Here.

If you have a chance to go…

8/25/2012

Guilty Landscapes ı Map of Radioactive Disposal Sites in The U.S.A.

September is arriving quicker than expected I am already looking forward to a flush of fresh fall events and projects kicking off next month. A series of projects will be launched this September: guest-editing project,  call for submissions, studio visits of French young architects, interviews, among others. I will go back to these projects in few days.

At the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Los Angeles, an exhibition named Perpetual Architecture: Uranium Disposal Cells of America will be through September 30, 2012. Along with large glowing black and white LCD images of selection of uranium disposal cells in the southwest of America, this map that features Radioactive Disposal Sites in the United States of America.
Radioactive Disposal Sites in the U.S.A.
[CLUI]
Click on a site provides further information on this site. For instance we click on Beatty to obtain information on the Beatty Radioactive Disposal Site.
Beatty Radioactive Disposal Site ı Google Earth Image.
[CLUI]


The Beatty radioactive disposal site, Nevada, was closed in 1992. It is located in NYE County in the Amargosa Desert.
It has been active from 1962 to 1992 receiving 4.3 million cubic feet of low-level waste.
The site contains low-level medical waste from hospitals and university laboratories and low-level waste from routine operations at nuclear power plants.
As CLUI points out, the Beatty site is still used as a non-radioactive hazardous waste disposal site.
If you are in Los Angeles in September, I highly recommend to see this exhibition.

Source: CLUI

8/14/2012

The Editor's Pick | Wounded landscapes ı Shimpei Takeda | Trace

A photographic project that I just discovered is Trace — Cameraless records of radioactive contamination. A project by Shimpei Takeda, a Japanese artist born and raised in Fukushima Prefecture but based in New York. This project is part of the forthcoming (and at top of my wish-list) book named Making The Geologic Now. I yesterday talked about Dredge Research Collaborative's event DredgeFest coming up these September 28th and 29th.

Related Article —
ULGC | The Editor's Pick ı The Yellow Bay Island

Making the Geologic Now is edited by Elizabeth Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse and published by Punctum Books. It will be released this November. A long list of contributors including Rob Holmes/Dredge Research Collaborative/m.ammothShimpei Takeda, Brooke Belisle, Jane Bennett, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Elizabeth Ellsworth, William L. Fox, David Gersten, Ilana HalperinGeoff Manaugh/BLDG BLOG, Jamie Kruse, Etienne Turpin, Nicola Twilley, among many others.
Trace - Cameraless records of radioactive contamination | ©Shimpei Takeda

Back to what concerns us today, namely Shimpei Takeda's photographic installation: TraceShimpei Takeda documented the environmental consequences of nuclear disaster in Fukushima.
Former Kashiwa Military Airbase, Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture | © Shimpei Takeda
> "Sunny. Air: 0.519µSv/h; Soil: 0.623µSv/h" Shimpei Takeda

With Shingo Annen, a hip-hop activist, and architect Keisuke Hiei, he collected soil samples from twelve locations:

Radiation was measured with Radalert 100, a handheld Geiger counter, at approximately 4ft from the ground for air measurement, and directly on the ground for soil measurement: 
1. Kegon Falls (Nikko, Tochigi) Air: 0.249µSv/h | Soil: 0.446 µSv/h
2. Former Kashiwa Military Airbase (Kashiwa, Chiba) Air: 0.519µSv/h | Soil: 0.623µSv/h
3. Former Kasumigaura Naval Air Force (Ami, Ibaraki) Air: 0.415µSv/h | Soil: 1.007µSv/h
4. Shioyasaki Lighthouse (Iwaki, Fukushima) Air: 0.228µSv/h | Soil: 1.152µSv/h;
5. Nihonmatsu Castel (Nihonmatsu, Fukushima) Air: 1.651-1.910µSv/h | Soil: 3.302-4.299µSv/h
6. Asaka Kuni-tsuko Shrine (Koriyama, Fukushima) Air: 1.142µSv/h | Soil: 3.780µSv/h
7. Iwase General Hospital (Sukagawa, Fukushima) Air: 0.363µSv/h | Soil: 0.560µSv/h 
8. Kamayama Limestone Quarry (Tamura, Fukushima) Air: 0.289µSv/h | Soil: 0.415µSv/h
9. Nakano Fudoson buddhist temple (Fukushima, Fukushima) Air: 0.67µSv/h | Soil: 1.030µSv/h
10. Chûson-ji buddhist temple (Hiraizumi, Iwate) Air: 0.321 µSv/h | Soil: 0.45µSv/h
11. Hyaku-Shaku Kannon (Soma, Fukushima) Air: 0.633 µSV/h | Soil: 2.637 µSv/h
12. Lake Hayama Mano Dam (Iitate, Fukushima) Air: 1.848µSv/h | Soil: 6.438µSv/h*Natural Background


Soil Samples | ©Shimpei Takeda

Trace - Cameraless records of radioactive contamination | ©Shimpei Takeda


These sixteen soil samples, then, are paired with a 8x10" black and white sheet film and stored in individual light-tight enclosures for one month.
Trace - Cameraless records of radioactive contamination | ©Shimpei Takeda
Trace - Cameraless records of radioactive contamination | ©Shimpei Takeda
Trace - Cameraless records of radioactive contamination | ©Shimpei Takeda
Traceless - Cameraless records of radioactive contamination | ©Shimpei Takeda

These wounded landscapes will be showed, this August, at the 5th Contemporary Art Biennale of Fukushima.
Soil Samples | ©Shimpei Takeda
Soil Samples | ©Shimpei Takeda



Source: Shimpei Takeda

The Editor's Pick: Yellow Bay Island

I discovered this excellent blog while collecting data for my first and forthcoming guest-editors' project. I am currently working on a project series; Guest-editors will be invited to explore topics on infrastructure in this new era. I will announce a call for submissions on September — certainly the end of September. So more soon. This aside…
This infographic is part of this interesting post named Yellow Bar Island - Dredge Reuse and FAA Permitting. This is the result of a visit of Yellow Bar Island in Jamaica Bay conducted, this July, by The Dredge Research Collaborative. The goal to this visit was to document progress on the Army Corps of Engineers project that aims to restore eroding salt marsh habitat with recycled dredge material.
Dredge Reuse and FAA Permitting | The Dredge Research Collaborative
Originally appeared on PLOTS
Gwirth describes this maps as follows:

Visible in these images is the flat expanse of newly constructed ground, composed of clean sand dredged from the Ambrose Channel, the main shipping channel leading to the port of NY/NJ. 
Salt Marsh Cordgrass, (like Spartina patens) is seen here in pixellated form, as small, approx 2'-5' diameter hummocks of preexisting marsh. These green clumps are a complex marsh matrix of sediment, Spartina, and ribbed mussel, which in a functional ecosystem colonize the base of the cordgrass and staibilize the marshland. Past the dotted fringe of cordgrass clumps is the expansive island interior, touched in a more economical fashion with a grid of fences marking Spartina plug planting zones. We speculate that the fence grid acts as a goose deterrent, preventing flocks from landing and feasting on the newly planted plugs 
Also pictured at left is the constructed island-on-a-constructed-island used by the Army Corps for material and equipment storage, located just above the high tide line.
In a paper named Army Corps awards contracts for restoration of Yellow Bar Hassock Marsh Island in Jamaica Bay, N.Y that was included in Gwirth's post, I found this interesting information:

Restoring salt marshes and coastal wetlands in Jamaica Bay are a critical component of the Comprehensive Restoration for the Hudson Raritan Estuary. The marsh islands ecosystem within Jamaica Bay is a home for a variety of wildlife. 
It is estimated that approximately 1,400 acres of tidal salt marsh have been lost from the marsh islands since 1924, with the system wide rate of loss rapidly increasing in recent years.

This September (Friday 28 and Saturday 29 September), Dredge Research Collaborative and Studio-X NYC will conduct a symposium named DredgeFest. This symposium will explore NYC's human acceleration of sediment, and the technologies and techniques that have been invented. Broadly speaking, as Dredge Research Collaborative writes, dredging plays a key role in global shipping networks, and in coastal real estate as well as in a wider cycle of linked activities through which humans act as intentional and unintentional geologic agents, accelerating and decelerating the movement of silts, sands, and clays.
Saturday 29 September (that follows the symposium) a Harbor Tour will be organized with Jamaica Bay included. A great occasion for having a real understanding in situ (albeit this map may help to have a good understanding of this area's issues, too — in particular for those who cannot attend this symposium).


8/09/2012

Editor's picks | Urban Climate ı The Europe's case

Following to the previous post: Cities and climate change: Are cities prepared for future heat waves? some maps and an interesting report that I just found. These maps are parts of a study directed by the European Environment Agency (EEA), an agency of the European Union.

Related Post: ULGC || Cities and climate change: Are cities prepared for future heat waves?

The title is Urban Adaptation to Climate Change in Europe including interesting analysis and data for a better understanding of environmental constraints. It is a PDF format study that I am currently reading; consequently I will not say more on. It provides some key messages to building an urban environment more resilient to face future challenge: heat waves, urban migration, river and coastal flooding, etc.
With a strong evidence, I warmly recommend this reading.

Suggested article: The European Environment Agency | Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe ı Challenges and opportunities for cities together with supportive national and European policies || n°2/2012

So the EEA provides interesting Europe's maps that would have well-illustrated my previous post. In the previous post, I included an America's map that illustrates the urban climate trends. These map below show the Europe's case.
Heat waves - both a low share of green and blue urban areas and high population densities contribute potentially to the urban heat island in cities | © The European Environment Agency, 2012
> "The map above shows the share of green and blue urban areas per city. The city is defined by its morphological delineation according to urban land use classes which intersects with the core city delineation defined by Urban Audit. Green and blue urban areas have been extracted from the Urban Atlas product, i.e. values for 369 core cities were available. (…) For the map production the values were classified into four classes and presented as coloured dots on the map: green dots correspond to cities with a low share. The background map is a modelled map of the number of combined tropical nights (>20°C) and hot days (>35°C) in the period 2070-2100 (Fischer et al, 2010). It provides an indication, where the probability of heat waves in the future is particular high. A low share of green and blue areas will further increase the heat waves impacts in cities" [ EEA, 2012]
Percentage of the city that would be flooded in case rivers rise 1m | © The European Environment Agency, 2012
> "The map shows the percentage of the city that would be flooded in case water in rivers rises 1m. Only cities with more than 100 000 inhabitants are considered. The city is defined by the part of its morphological delineation according to urban land use classes (UMZ), which intersects with the core city delineation defined by Urban Audit/Urban Atlas. With a digital elevation model, areas below and above a potential water level (1m rise) were identified. That layer was crossed with the city areas. The intersecting areas are the potential urban flood areas." [EEA, 2012]
Urban flooding — impervious surfaces reduce the drainage of rain water and increase the risk for urban flooding | The European Environment Agency, 2012.
>  "[This Map] shows the projected change i the annual number of days with heavy rainfall in 2071-2100 against the reference period (1961-1990). It shows an approximate north-south division with the imaginary division line being the Alps. Projections for regions south of the line show, in general, a decline in the number of days with extreme precipitation of up to five days and more. Most regions north of the line expect an increase, mostly of one to three days. Yet the coastline of Norway as well as Ireland and western United Kingdom and some parts off the Atlantic coast of France can expect an increase of between four and 13 days (Greiving et al. 2011)." [EEA, 2012]
Infrastructure as one determinant | © The European Environment Agency, 2012
> "Different types of infrastructure are also vulnerable to particular impacts of climate change, and a greater variety can help to buffer the impacts of climate change in both the short and long term. Infrastructure is also important in the capacity of a system to cope with sudden impacts of climate change such as extreme weather events. Cities depend on their infrastructures for their safety and well-being. (…) An index at regional level is used for three underlying indicators: the density of the road network, the number of hospital beds, and the water exploitation index. Map 3.5 shows this index, which seems to highlight certain countries and regions, with no evident patterns. It should be noted that data constraints and quality concerns persist here as well." [EEA, 2012] 


Source: European Environment Agency.


8/08/2012

Cerebro | The Mars Project

And this Curiosity, a magnificent and sophisticated robot landed in Mars this Monday 6 August, 2012. Of course I could not but bring my personal contribution to these flows of articles and reactions of this rover.
Curiosity is looking to explore the potential of supported life and transformation from a wet and warm planet into a dry and cold one.
In many ways imagination, fiction, and myth are more active in our image of Martian environments than scientific fact. The way in which we imagine Martian landscape and view our relationship to it explains this excitement for Curiosity's landing.

Suggested article: (among many others from The Washington Post) A Mobile Laboratory on Mars || The Washington Post

For a large number of observers, Curiosity's exploration might be offering us new perspectives of understanding not only Martian landscape's evolution as well as the Earth's one.
© NASA, JPL, Caltech. | Alberto Cuadra/The Washington Post
Originally appeared on The Washington Post
First, Curiosity landed in the north-west quadrant of Gale Crater which geology shows up that Gale might have been full of water for hundreds of millions of years, Lisa Grossman reports in the New Scientist.
As the same Lisa Grossman reports, Curiosity's eventual destination is Aeolis Mons, also known as Mount Sharp. Aeolis Mons is a 5-kilometer-high mountain in the crater's centre.
Curiosity's Possible itinerary.
Originally appeared on New Scientist
Why Aeolis Mons? As described on The Washington Post:

This 90-mile depression was chosen by NASA mainly because of the mountain of layered materials in the middle, Aeolis Mons. On Earth, this mound would be mountain three miles high. Studies from orbit have revealed that the layers have different minerals depending on their height. Near the bottom of the mound are clay minerals. Higher there are layers with sulfur and oxygen-bearing minerals. Flowing water appears to have carved channels in both the mound and the crater wall.

In short, this mountain might have collected important data on this landscape. First water's trace. It is reported that Mars contains clays and minerals and both ingredients are evidence of water. This evidence of water then embraces multiple possibilities… at least, speculations of life's trace on this intriguing landscape. Needless to repeat that the soil is a memory bank of pattern change, adaptability, and of impact of climate evolution on landscape. As Geoff Manaugh clearly writes, Mars is an alien landscape, then, in everything but name.

Suggested article: BLDG BLOG | Mars Bungalow and the Prison of Simulation || also on book format: The BLDG BLOG Book, Chronicle Books, 2009.

And we will be seeing, during Curiosity's two-year exploration that even the smallest things, the smallest discovery that describe Mars' landscape pattern evolution will be put into focus with a highly excitement.

Suggested article: Lisa Grossman | Where next? Curiosity's scientific priorities on Mars || New Scientist

Curiosity | © New Scientist. Originally appeared on New Scientist
So Curiosity. 900 kilograms, a length of 3 meters and a radioactive-plutonium-238 battery capable of allowing the robot to rove day and night.

Suggested article: Adam Mann | Laser, Cameras and Particule Detectors: Mars Rover's Super High-Tech Science Gear || Wired US

This Rover, the New Scientist describes, is equipped with a camera, also known as ChemCam, that will be providing color images and video footage.
This camera also contains a laser that will be analysing the composition of rocks. According to Marc S. Kaufman of The Washington Post, this camera will be able to offer images and videos of a type and quality never seen before.

Suggested article: Marc S. Kaufman | With NASA Mars rover Curiosity safely on surface, time to take inventory || The Washington Post
ChemCam Mast Unit | CNES
Originally appeared on CNES.
ChemCam | CNES
Originally appeared on CNES.
The laser will be able to measure signals that, then, will be identifying and analysing rocks and soil…
ChemCam: How it functions | © CEA
Originally appeared on Wired US. Another but similar image can be found on CNES.
> "The ChemCam, which is announced to have been created by a French laboratory is equipped with a laser beam to shoot rocks and characterise sample of rocks and soils. A spectograph will then analyze the vapor, determining the composition and chemistry of the rocks." [ Wired US and CNES]
Suggested article: in French: CNES-Mission d'exploration planétaire || L'instrument chemcam du Rover MSL

An environmental monitoring station will be recording daily weather. Sample analysis at Mars (also known as SAM) instrument will be searching organic compounds and hints of life. A radiation assessment detector will calculate radiation hazard to any microbial life and future human missions. Other camera are installed in the robotic arm.

ChemCam | Wired US
Originally appeared Wired US.
> "Situated on Curiosity's head, ChemCam can shoot up to 23 feet and should provide unprecedented detail about minerals on the Martian surface." [Wired US]

A spectrometer completes this robotic arm. Both camera and spectrometer will be providing close-up views of rocks and characterising samples in rock and soil. A Mars descent imager will be producing high-resolution views of landing site. A neutron detector will be looking for possibly liquid water, ice and hydrated minerals.

Suggested article: Duncan Geere | Glory comes hand-in-hand with tragedy for Mars missions || Wired UK

It is also equipped with a Chemistry and Mineralogy (or CheMin) instrument to searching for mineral clues of habitability. This CheMin, then, will be bombarding the sample with X-Rays to determine its composition, Wired US writes. A very sophisticated robot to explore a landscape mined data as well as resources of Martian environment.

Video originally appeared on NASA's Curiosity rover successfully touches down on Mars || The Washington Post


8/04/2012

Cities and climate change: are cities prepared for future heat waves?

Urban heat is becoming another urgent task to put in evidence as temperature is rising up. As Brad Plumer wrote on The Washington Post: urban areas now are significantly warmer than rural areas. A phenomenon named urban heat island effect.
Brad Plumer listed a number of reasons that can be summarized into: lack of trees and plants in the city to clean up urban air; building materials not adapted to temperature rising; human activities; and automobiles (both should be put at top of this list). Brad Stone, a researcher of Georgia Institute of Technologies, writes in a paper published in the journal Landscape and Research Planning:

It's not surprising that cities are heating up more rapidly than surrounding areas. But the extent to which they're amplifying warming trends did come as a surprise. [Originally quoted in Brad Plumer, The Washington Post, 2012]

What this article shows up is a call for a new approach to planning cities that includes new building materials. As temperature is rising, this will lead to serious public health issue, accordingly.
Lack of trees and plants in most cities. Cities have been dominated by red, grey and brown. Green is translated into small-scaled parks, even pocket parks in crowded cities that face a lack of space like Tokyo. According to observers, cities must reconsider zoning laws for more place for green features. Borough President Marty Markowitz, for example, argues:

Here in New York, we don't have acres and acres of land to grow fresh food, and that's why I've been advocating for the changing of zoning laws to maximize rooftop space and open up our borough's industrial buildings for growing fresh produce. [Quoted by Molly Cotter, Inhabitat]
Allow me for mentioning an example. Paris counts 450 green areas including woodlands, parks, communal gardens, and promenades. Paris recently announced the implantation of a linear urban forest that will link Porte de la Villette and Porte de la Chapelle. It is announced that the aim of this new feature is not only to clean up Paris's air as well as to serve as a promenade for users and habitat for wildlife, plants and animals. Paris is neither the first nor the only city that envisions the plantation of an urban forest: Portland, Milan are the others cities and the list will certainly grow up. As known — and this may explain this increasingly number of green projects — green areas improve air quality within urban areas.

UN Population Division (2011). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision Population Database.
Originally appeared on Dynamics of Urbanisation | Antoine Paccoud/LSE Cities/Urban Age


Related:

But this leads to a crucial question: Urban heat waves may cause serious public health issues. As Brad Plumer reported, between 1979 and 2003, heat waves killed at least 8,0195 Americans. And I don't mention the 2003 heat waves that hit France which death tolls rose to above 15,000. Now that — needless to say — we are in an urban age, cities must put focuses on urban heat and its consequences on citizens' health, well-being and quality of life, and ecosystems. Hence this question: are cities prepared to future heat waves? No. And while we are envisioning cities more sustainable, one must admit that, as Anna Leidreiter writes, sustainable cities is too nebulous and vague. According to the same Anna Leidreiter, a regenerative city may be a solution to adapt to future pressures. It consists of redressing:
[T]he relationship between cities and their hinterland, and beyond that with the more distant territories that supply them with water, food, timber and other vital resources. We need to re-enrich the landscapes on which cities depend, including measures to increase their capacity to absorb carbon.
Suggested article: Anna Leidreiter | Sustainable is not enough: a call for regenerative cities || The Global Urbanist

Urban Climate Trends | Urban Climate Lab || Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012
In short a regenerative city addresses the ecological regeneration of urban settings. It is way too early to say whether urban regeneration or eco-regeneration will be able to re-engineer cities. We, then, have been seeing a proliferation of new umbrella terms from inclusive cities to smart grid cities that have their own solutions.
However facts are put on the table that need to be taken seriously and rapidly as urban migration will continue to grow up along with internal and external constraints. Building materials also need to be urgently reconsidered. As many researchers have observed, existing building materials contribute to urban heat effect with a serious impact on citizens' health and well-being as well as biodiversity.



Source
Brad Plumer | Study: Many U.S. cities unprepared for future heat waves || Washington Post, July 26, 2012
Brian Stone Jr | Urban and rural temperature trends in proximity to large US Cities: 1951-2000 || Georgia Institute of Technology
Brian Stone, Jason Vargo, Dana Habeeb | Managing climate change in cities: Will climate action plans work?, 2012
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | Extreme heat: A prevention guide to promote your personal health and safety
In French: Villes et adaptation au changement climatique ı Rapport au Premier ministre et au Parlement
Antoine Paccoud | Dynamics of Urbanisation | Cities, Health, Well-Being ı Hong Kong Conference, 2011
Antoine Paccoud | Measuring the Human Urban Footprint | Cities, Health, Well-Being ı Hong Kong Conference
Anna Leidreiter | Sustainable is not enough: a call for regenerative cities || The Global Urbanist

8/03/2012

The Architecture Post The Conversation: Second Edition: Jordan Geiger

Last Tuesday I had this great occasion to discuss with Jordan Geiger, architect and educator for the second edition of The Architecture Post The Conversation.
Jordan Geiger is an architect and educator. His work combines architecture and interaction design to explore the interface between the environment, individuals and existing and emerging technologies.
Jordan Geiger contributes in important magazines and theoretical research (Architectural Design, Bracket, etc.). He also lectures and exhibits internationally.
His projects are Beau-FleuveLitmuscreen, ÉmissionHyperculture: Earth as Interface, Microboundary/ Un-tolled Plazas, Day For Night, Flutter, Being/ Light, Vapor, and Zero Atmosphere Architecture.
Beau-Fleuve | Jordan Geiger Architects
Being/ Light | Jordan Geiger Architects
Litmuscreen | Jordan Geiger Architects
Émission | Jordan Geiger Architects
Vapor | Jordan Geiger Architects
Microboundary/ Un-tolled Plazas | Jordan Geiger Architects
Day For Night | Jordan Geiger Architects
Flutter | Jordan Geiger Architects
Hyperculture: Earth as Interface | Jordan Geiger Architects
Below I post the abstract of my conversation with Jordan Geiger:

The project is first of all a collaboration with another architect Virginia San Fratello who is based here in California, in Oakland. We began the project when I was still living in the San Francisco region. The project initially was a response to a request from my gallery in New York, a very progressive gallery with very interesting and long history. This is gallery called Exit Art. Exit Art has a 30 years history of engagement with social issues and social critique. And very sadly, the founding Director of the gallery died with cancer about a year ago. And the gallery has just closed but hopefully we participated before that the exhibition was called Consume, the call for the response to a book that has had an enormous influence in America. This is a book by a Journalist named Michael Pollan. And the book is called The Omnivore's Dilemma. He has a number of books and he has been growing in recognition in America about discussing relationship between food, society and health. And in the Omnivore's Dilemma, at one moment, he visits a farm in Iowa, he tries to understand the prevalence and the influence of corn. So he visits a farmer, a particular farmer. Virginia and I decided to visit the same farmer but to do it virtually…

And the podcast:






Suggested books: Michael Pollan | The Omnivore's Dilemma. A Natural History of Four Meals | Penguin, 2007
Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby | Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects | Princeton Architectural Press


Who are they?
Virginia San Fratello is a licensed, practicing architect with over 10 years of professional and academic experience. She is an Assistant Professor at San José State University. Prior academic appointments include the California College of the Arts and Clemson Univeristy, where she was the co-director of Clemson University's Charles E. Daniel Center for Building Research and Urban Studies in Genova, Italy. She has been a member of the Design Faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles and a Visiting Professor at the University of Arizona.
San Fratello's research revolves around the convergence of digital, ecological, and building component design in architecture. She was the recipient of Metropolis Magazine's Next Generation Design Award for her Hydro Wall concept and with Ronald Rael currently has a collection of recently designed masonry units which hold vegetation on display in New York. She is working with manufacturer/ distributors to launch these innovative and sustainable architectural building components into the market place.


Fiona Raby is professor of Industrial Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and reader in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art. She is a partner in the design partnership Dunne & Raby, established in 1994.
Dunne and Raby use design as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate among designers, industry professionals and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of existing and emerging technologies. Their work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Science Museum, London, and is in the permanent collection of MoMA, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; FRAC Centre, Orléans; and FNAC. She co-authored with Anthony Dunne Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects (Birkhauser) and Hertzian Tales (MIT Press).

Anthony Dunne studied Industrial Design at the RCA before working at Sony Design in Tokyo. On returning to London he completed a PhD in Computer Related Design at the RCA. He was a founding member of the CRD Research Studio where he worked as a Senior Research Fellow leading EU and industry funded research projects. Between 1998 — 2004 he taught in Design Products where he jointly led Platform 3.
He is a partner in the design practice Dunne & Raby, his work with Fiona Raby explores how design can be used as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of emerging technologies.
Their work has been exhibited and published international and is in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, FRAC Centre, Orléans, and FNAC, as well as several private collections.
He received the Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education in 2009.




Erratum: Contrary to what I said in the podcast, Hyperculture: Earth as Interface was designed in 2009 and not this year 2012. My apologies for this mistake.

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