American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins

A team at Kansas State just served up a feast: maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust). Christian clergy, likely noting the Bible Belt's status as Wrath Central, question the "science." Valid point—or maybe it's just the pride talking.

Original article written for wired by Kristina Shevory

Greed
Average income compared with number of people living below the poverty line.


Envy
Total thefts (robbery, burglary, larceny, and grand theft auto) per capita.


Wrath
Number of violent crimes (murder, assault, and rape) per capita.


Sloth
Expenditures on art, entertainment, and recreation compared with employment.


Gluttony
Number of fast-food restaurants per capita.


Lust
Number of STD cases reported per capita.


Pride
Aggregate of the other six offenses—because pride is the root of all sin.

Via: Wired & Kansas State University Geography/USACE

Stone and Water Video on Swissinfo.ch

Stone and Water
A visit to the Vals Spa.

Built from local quartz by star Swiss architect, Peter Zumthor, the Vals spa brings together Swiss mineral water with the precious stone from which it gushes. (swissinfo 2004)

Via: Swissinfo

Peter Zumthor Video on Swissinfo.ch

Peter Zumthor
The way of an uncompromising architect.

Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is the 2009 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize – an award often referred to as the Nobel prize of architecture. His path to international recognition has been marked by disagreements.

Via: Swissinfo

Olafur Eliasson: Playing with Space and Light

In the spectacular large-scale projects he's famous for (such as "Waterfalls" in New York harbor), Olafur Eliasson creates art from a palette of space, distance, color and light. This idea-packed talk begins with an experiment in the nature of perception.

TopoTek 1 Landscape Architects

I recently became aware of this very cool landscape firm out of Berlin named TopoTek 1 by a fellow co-worker. If you like the landscape firms of Balmori Associates and Field Operations; you will definitely like TopoTek, check them out.

TopoTek 1 Firm Profile:

"Based on the critical understanding of imminent realities, the search for conceptual approaches leads us to statements concerning the urban environment."

"Throughout design, planning, and construction we offer solutions for independent parks, square, sport-grounds, courtyards, and gardens, whose design answer to contemporary requirements for variability, communication, and sensuality."

"The manifold experence through a broad spectrum of German and International projects meanwhile compacitate an efficent realization, finly tuned to respective possiablities."

I am not sure what all that means, but you should still make the time to check out there website by clicking here.

Snøhetta Exhibition in Oslo

The Oslo/New York firm of Snøhetta is currently exhibiting there work at the National Museum for Art and Architecture in Oslo. Click the above image or the link below to view dozens of photos from the exhibit.

Click Here to View the Images

Text from the Exhibit.

Snøhetta's international recognition is unique in a Norwegian context. They have achieved this by winning two open, international competitions with hundreds of participants from all over the world, and by following through with completing these projects marvelously; The new Bibliotheca Alexandrina and The Oslo Opera House.

Snøhetta AS was established 20 years ago, when five young architects (three Norwegians, one Austrian and one American) won the prestigious competition to design a new library in Alexandria. As of 2009 the firm has a staff of 120 from several different nations, offices in Oslo and New York, and buildings in different phases of planning and construction on several continents.

The span in Snøhetta's producion is vast. Finished projects cover everything from restaurant interiors and court yard landscapes to museums and The Oslo Opera House. Of current projects, the research project Glitne conveys environmentally friendly, competitive architecture, and the utopian, gigantic Ras Al Khaimah Project in United Arab Emirates speaks volumes about versatility.

Curator: Eva Madshus

Also check out the video below of the presentation that Snøhetta gave of the New Opera House in Oslo.

Tarald Lundevall & Kjetil Thorsen present New Opera House, Oslo from The Architecture Foundation on Vimeo.

Via: Musabi Diary & Dezain

Film of Exeter Library by Louis Kahn... Made in 3ds Max

Kahn's Exeter Short Film from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

View this stunningly beautiful short film by Alex Roman.

Footage from "The Third & The Seventh" project for illustrating Mundos Digitales 2009 conference.

Done with 3ds max, V-Ray, After Effects and Premiere.

Book Review: Digital Fabrications

Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques

Book Description

Architectural pioneers such as Frank Gehry and Greg Lynn introduced the world to the extreme forms made possible by digital fabrication. It is now possible to transfer designs made on a computer to computer-controlled machinery that creates actual building components. This “file to factory” process not only enables architects to realize projects featuring complex or double-curved geometries, but also liberates architects from a dependence on off-the-shelf building components, enabling projects of previously unimaginable complexity.

Digital Fabrications, the second volume in our new Architecture Briefs series, celebrates the design ingenuity made possible by digital fabrication techniques. Author Lisa Iwamoto explores the methods architects use to calibrate digital designs with physical forms. The book is organized according to five types of digital fabrication techniques: tessellating, sectioning, folding, contouring, and forming.

Projects are shown both in their finished forms and in working drawings, templates, and prototypes, allowing the reader to watch the process of each fantastic construction unfold. Digital Fabrications presents projects designed and built by emerging practices that pioneer techniques and experiment with fabrication processes on a small scale with a do-it-yourself attitude.

Featured architects include Ammar Eloueini/DIGIT-AL Studio, Elena Manferdini, Brennan Buck, Michael Meredith/MOS, Office dA, Mafoomby, URBAN A+O, SYSTEM Architects, Andrew Kudless, IwamotoScott, Howeler Yoon, Hitoshi Abe, Chris Bosse, Tom Wiscombe/ Emergent, Jeremy Ficca, SPAN, Urban A&O, Gnuform, Heather Roberge, Patterns, and Servo.

Get it at Amazon by Clicking Here

via: Princeton Architectural Press

Future of Cities

Future of Cities from squintopera on Vimeo.

The film was commissioned by The Danish Royal Academy of Architecture and is part of a publication outlining the outcome of the IFHP congress that took place in Copenhagen in 2007.

‘Futures of Cities’ is a selection of contributions presented during the congress. These contributions consist of work from miscellaneous architectural practitioners, ten principles developed by ‘Monday Morning’ and competition entries from the student competition that took place as part of the event.

The film comprises 2D collages of the selected projects, creating
an abstract world in the distant future where everything is possible. The projects are connected through a globe of silhouettes and text describing the 10 principles for a sustainable future of cities.

Visualization was done by squint/opera