Pont Gustave Flaubert Bridge, Rouen, France

Lifting bridge by SCAU. Completed in 2007.

'Like a souvenir of the port of Rouen with its cranes and dockers, the bridge’s majestic piles and their superstructures reveal the vertical movement by the dramatisation of the pulleys and cables for lifting the roadways. They signal the border between the fluvial and maritime domain and the city backdrop of towers and spires of the Rouen sky.'

Stair porn

http://www.stairporn.org/ - a new favourite in the Birmingham office.

Reactive Origami

Reactive Origami Prototype from Michael Duff on Vimeo.

My own take on rapid prototyping,  Physical model and computer model in sync, with inputs from any kind of interference (in this case light) and not a mouse in sight! Now I'm looking for ideas to push it a bit further, any thoughts?

Yugoslav Spomeniks and Parisien Follies

These Spomeniks (monuments), a collection of sculptures built across the land of former Yugoslavia as memorials to WWII could be compared with Tschumi's follies of Parc de la Villette in the sense that they are standalone objects in green space, with little or no practical purpose. However the key difference is way in which they were designed to convey meaning, the difference between signified and signifier, or so it was originally intended...

monument |ˈmɒnjʊm(ə)nt|

noun

a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a notable person or event. • a statue or other structure placed over a grave in memory of the dead. • a building, structure, or site that is of historical importance or interest: the amphitheatre is one of the many Greek monuments in Sicily. • an enduring and memorable example of something: recordings that are a monument to the art of playing the piano. ORIGIN Middle English (denoting a burial place): via French from Latin monumentum, from monere ‘remind’.

folly |ˈfɒli|

noun ( pl. follies )

1 [ mass noun ] lack of good sense; foolishness: an act of sheer folly. • [ count noun ] a foolish act, idea, or practice: the follies of youth. 2 a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park. 3 ( Follies )a theatrical revue with glamorous female performers: [ in names ] : the Ziegfeld Follies. ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French folie ‘madness’, in modern French also ‘delight, favourite dwelling’ (compare with sense 2), from fol ‘fool, foolish’.

...Tschumi's follies intentionally ignored their contexts, laid in a regular grid over a fairy irregular shaped park and each cube following rules of transformation rather than of use. Jacques Derrida's philosophy of deconstruction, disregard for hierarchy and order, allows new meanings to be read from the structures rather than imposing historical pre-conceptions.

The fate of the Spomeniks by their abandonment is the rejection and eventual loss of their original meaning and they now border on the side of the signifier, open to wider interpretation.

So do we let the memories of our history fade so that we can create Tschumi's dis-junctions, or do we aim to preserve the memories that create a readable, linear history?

More on this:
Spomeniks - http://www.meta-magazine.com/articles/spomenik-the-monuments-of-former-yugoslavia

Parc de la Villette - http://archidose.org/wp/1999/02/01/parc-de-la-villette/

Spomenik book preview - http://issuu.com/romapublications/docs/spomenik_preview

Architectural videography from Japan

Two videos of cultural buildings in Japan. The first is the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art by SANAA and the second is a library by another Japanese firm. via archinect

Barceló Raval Hotel by CMV Architects

Barceló Raval Hotel by CMV Architects

Herma Parking Building by JOHO Architecture

Parking Building, Korea

Anhui Provincial Art Museum

Anhui Provincial Art Museum / RTA-Office

Leadenhall 'Cheesegrater', RSHP

Comprehensive animation of the construction of the Leadnehall building, London by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

CLOG Journal: Apple

The new CLOG journals are proving to be very popular, print runs are limited - get your hands on one whilst you can! The February issue focused on Apple's influence on architecture from the pioneering glazing technology used in some of their stores to the new Foster + Partners, Cupertino campus. A number of authors and comments help to produce some balanced and thought provoking articles.

Apollo Pavilion

Flickr set from loodealer of images of Victore Pasmore's Apollo Pavilion, situated within the new-town of Peterlee.

Braun Watches Re -issue

Braun have re-issued some of their Dieter Rams designed watches from the 1970s alongside some new instant design classics. My personal favourite is the BN0021 (pictured).

OS & Google fusion

An interesting link below....where OS maps are displayed next to the corresponding satellite imagery.

Should be of use to someone!

http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm

Cities from space

 All Alone in the Night

Time-lapse footage of the Earth as seen from the ISS

 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120305.html

This is one of the most spectacular videos I’ve seen recently – taken from the international space station fly-by, (look out for the lightning).

Design Playgrounds

A blog I follow, designplaygrounds.com, showcases work by artists, designers and architects interested in generative modelling and its applications. It is something I'm a tad obsessed with, using Rhino with Grasshopper, and something I'll be sharing my experiments in my future posts.

Hunger Games

Cornucopia from the Hunger Game Event

Interesting article on the design of the recently released 'Hunger Games' film. I love films set in the near future as they always have interesting architectural references (clockwork orange, soylent green, total recall, demolition man) and so does this one. I especially like the Cornucopia (pictured above)

Cedric price - think the unthinkable

An online archive of the "think the unthinkable" exhibition on Cedric Price that was recently shown at the Bartlett.

Urban Art

Geode Street Art

http://acommonname.com/street-art-project/

Quite a playful fusion of nature...time....art....almost architecture

Design Space Manifesto

Design Space is the collection of the varied interests within and beyond architecture, with the common aim to share their inspirations and challenge convention.