War and conflict often bring about the destruction of architecture, however these forces can also result in new constructions that define a cultural identity and place.Stressed by China’s growing population, the Hakkapeople have been confronted with armed warfare for local resources since the 17th century. To remedy their situation the Hakka began building massive structures that could not only stave off intruders, but would also form amazing self-sustaining micro-communities complete with food storage, space for livestock, living quarters, temples, armories and more.
…Scripts are made out of series of written commands which can be programmed to solve complex geometric problems. Scripts can also be used to generate new, unexpected outcomes as they have the ability to evaluate, process and build on the given commands…
Generate seminar on the 30th of October 2009 in Oulu, Finland.
Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing.
For a long time car owners have had yearly gatherings for special brands. Now bike owners are catching up. The first bike gathering for Helkama Jopo-bikes was arranged in Helsinki. Photographer Roni Rekomaa took a cool photo of the bikers on their Jopos. Talk about ultra-cool! /aitoa
Helsinki and Eindhoven competing for becoming Design Capital 2012
Two cities, Helsinki inFinland and Eindhoven in The Netherlands are competing about the prestigeous title of Design Capital 2012. The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design will choose the winner in November. The judges will visit the two cities in August.
If Helsinki is chosen there will be big opening and closing events and several festivals and happenings organised around Design and Architecture in the city during the two-year capitalship.
Will the establishment of Iittala, Marimekko, Fiskars, Aalto, Artek, Helsinki art nouveau- and modern architecture, and designers like Ilka Suppanen, Harri Koskinen, Valvomo bring the price home, or do the judges look for new design ideas of non-commercialism, ecology, ethics and mysticism like Hel Looks, Globe Hope, Hollmen-Reuter-Sandman Architects,Marcus Copper, or -since the almost total death of free graffiti culture in the city-, the risign culture of guerilla gardening in Helsinki?
ComplexCity is an exploration to find a concealed aesthetic by using the pattern formed by the city’s roads, which have been growing and evolving randomly through time, thus composing the complex configuration we experience today.The project started in Seoul, Korea, where designer Lee Jang Sub was born and has grown up. Now it is expanding to other cities all over the world. Lee Jang Sub now lives in Barcelona, Spain, and explains: “I perceive the city’s patterns as living creatures that I recompose to form an urban image.”
Rome and Paris
The ComplexCity design concept is screen-printed on different materials, such as wood, textil, or paper, each giving the design a different feel. For the final product, the screen-printing effects of the design are implemented on one of the materials listed above.
With a love for spaces in decay reused and delicately transformed, we like the plan for the old dairy barn transformed into a home by architect Charlotte Scene Cataling from Skene Catling de la Peña Architects .
Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects New Heden project transforms a vacant city block is a self-contained sustainable city interspersed with cycling paths and walkways. Envisioned as a “green lung” for Gothenburg, Sweden, the development will introduce a beautiful expanse of fresh green space to an area currently consumed by parking lots and football fields.
The skill to give an interesting lecture (on statistics)
It is a true skill to give an interesting lecture on something that normally would make most people fall asleep; statistics on world health. We present to you professor Hans Rosling from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden:
A brilliant communicator with a great message that could change how we view and inform ourselves about the world. I believe this kind of technology associated with the freedom of information Rosling advocates, and perhaps with future uses of the internet as a means for direct participation from individual citizens could dramatically alter the way we conceive of democracy.
Tuomo Siitonen Architects´ plan for apartments in downtown Helsinki
Cement accounts for 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions – more than aviation. Now British engineers have discovered a new form of cement that instead reduces CO2 emissions. Cement is the key ingredient in concrete. In Finland, concrete is the most common material for building bearing structures of high-rise apartment houses. Scientists predict, that worldwide, the demand for cement will grow by 50% in the years to come.
Cement, a vast source of planet-warming carbon dioxide, could be transformed into a means of stripping the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, thanks to an innovation from British engineers.
Making traditional cement results in greenhouse gas emissions from two sources: it requires intense heat, and so a lot of energy to heat up the ovens that cook the raw material, such as limestone. That then releases further CO2 as it burns. But, until now, noone has found a large-scale way to tackle this fundamental problem.
The new cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative. Set up by chief scientist at Novacem, Nikolaos Vlasopoulos and his colleagues at Imperial College London, the innovation has already attracted the attention of major construction companies and investors.
