January 27, 2007 – 11:17 pm
Recent announcements by Exxon-Mobil and George Bush indicate that we are now moving out of the climate change denial phase and into the sabotage-and-delay-by-spurious-solution phase (with a good dash of solutions-that-are-worse-than-the-problem like nuclear power and sunlight blocking). It all means that serious catastrophe looks increasingly likely.
We don’t really believe it will end in apocalypse but [...]
January 24, 2007 – 12:39 am
A few months ago when we did a post on the Cambodian norry railway we searched high and low for similar DIY railways but all we found were high tech/high capital experimental projects. But we had something like this in the back of our minds,
and because it seemed such a good idea we knew someone [...]
January 17, 2007 – 9:33 pm
The history of prefab buildings is long and honorable (even the First Fleet sent out to set up a British colony in Australia in 1788 brought prefab buildings), and the importance of old prefab buildings cannot be understated for they are among the most vulnerable elements of the built environment. It is especially true of [...]
January 17, 2007 – 5:56 pm
One of the main arguments for adaptive reuse is sustainability, by extending a building’s life you save its embodied energy, and the bigger the building the more you save. If the building is in the US and you can achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification as a sustainable building you gain other [...]
January 17, 2007 – 2:01 pm
It’s the Venturi Eclectic and well maybe it’s sorta cute in a moon buggy sort of way although it does also look a bit like the Amish buggy redesigned. We’re posting it as a bit of a more serious footnote to our last post.
After being despised and vandalised by politicians for decades, mass public transport [...]
January 16, 2007 – 9:08 pm
At 3am in the dark night of the soul the thought often occurs “Why is Segway?” and you babble incoherently “Down there…those things…legs… for walking… or if I want to go faster, for cycling…” Now the news has come through that Segways have been banned in the Netherlands except when used in private by consenting [...]
January 15, 2007 – 10:38 pm
(Photo Douglas LeMoine)
Broken Angel, the Brooklyn house made famous by Dave Chapelle’s Block Party, may have been saved by an adaptive reuse deal according to the New York Times.
(Photo Douglas LeMoine)
The spectacular example of outsider architecture has been suffering a near death experience following a fire in early October 2006. According to the owner’s son, [...]
January 14, 2007 – 8:14 pm
The old milk carton wallet has worn out from recent over-use. How about a new one, this time made of adaptively reused plastic bags?
Maybe just a rubber band?
Or perhaps made of duct tape?
You can even make one lined with aluminum foil to go with your tin foil helmet?
Sorry, shouldn’t joke, RFID devices are [...]
January 14, 2007 – 6:12 pm
Just as it has become fashionable for designers to give a nod to adaptive reuse, it is also fashionable for architects to create show houses for refugees. You get a few extra brownie points if it involves a bit of adaptive reuse.
Here’s an example by Cubo Arquitectos of Santiago, Chile.
Its made entirely of doors, pallettes [...]
January 13, 2007 – 11:53 pm
Let’s be even more critical than usual. This stuff is just plain bloody awful. Since we are not interested in shaming we won’t even tell you where it comes from,
the point is that it is indicative of something that seems to be increasing, fake adaptive reuse, a sort of greener shabby chic.
It tries [...]
