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Urban Art, Memphis

Court Ave Pedestrian Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee from datadreamer on Vimeo.

When one laments the lack of cool/good art in Memphis, please send them to the pedestrian bridge that spans Court Ave. at Riverside Drive. The interactive light display is awsome. We have been watching this video within the office for a few days now. Sophorn McRae also included a photo of it in her blog entry today on how to add color without paint.

The art was commissioned by the Urban Art Commission and was designed by Electroland out of LA. They have done some amazing work all over the world, so we were glad to see Memphis represented.

01 September 2010 - Admin - General - Permalink

Whole Foods' 5% Day goes to Habitat for Hope

Whole Foods is donating 5% of their sales to Habitat for Hope on September 14th. Please stop by and support a wonderful local nonprofit and a great grocery store as well.

If you are not familiar with Habitat for Hope, please check them out here.

"We are a committed group of volunteers and staff who work to form community around families who have traveled to the mid-south to receive medical care for their children.

We exist to support, serve, and care for families facing the serious or long-term illness of a child.

Our approach is active and holistic. We come alongside families and provide practical, emotional, spiritual, and respite care. We step in to the life of a strained family and commit to a relationship extending beyond the illness of the child – wherever the journey may lead. We serve families by feeding them, providing lodging, helping with transportation, inviting them into our homes for gatherings, counseling, and staying in close contact once they return home."

Habitat for Hope is an amazing group of volunteers who have helped over 200 families during their stay in Memphis. Please stop by and support them September 14th. HFH is an incredible organization that should make all Memphis proud. Thanks also to Whole Foods for being such a great Community partner.

Image courtesy sophorn mcrae ~ www.norococo.blogspot.com

30 August 2010 - Admin - General - Permalink

Design Challenge: Preventing Spread of Fire

Not a fan of the journalistic mantra "if it bleeds, it leads", because it gives us a daily (over?)dose of body counts and property damage. It gets people pointing fingers trying to shift the blame for what went wrong. Well we want to point fingers for a novel reason…what went right. These images were forwarded to our office from Mike Eckles, a local licensed fire door inspector with Fire Door Assembly and Inspections of the South.

Local media, this may sound strange, but these are positive pictures from a fire scene. They are from a fire at a New York nature center. Notice the back of the building on the left side of the photo above...it is gone. Complete loss due to fire. But the front of the building is almost unscathed. What happened?

The architect used their knowledge of building safety codes, and had a properly rated fire door specified and installed for this exact situation. What is a fire door you may ask? A fire door is part of a passive fire protection system designed to reduce the spread of fire or smoke between adjacent spaces within a building. A fire door doesn’t have to be noncombustible; its purpose is to slow down the fire for a limited amount of time, until sprinklers or fire fighters can be employed to extinguish the fire.

Unfortunately, just because it is installed doesn’t mean that it will be used properly. When closed, fire doors prevent fire and smoke from penetrating adjacent spaces within a building. Please do not prop them open. These images prove that fire doors work. The damage to the facility, although severe, wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

Thanks for the photos Mike!

19 August 2010 - Admin - General - Permalink

Architecture in the Movies: Aeon Flux

We had a discussion in the office about architecture in the movies. It seems that modern architecture, has been wrongfully typcast as evil, cold, and heartless.

Why do the villians/antagonists have such great taste in architecture? Richard Neutra's Lovell Health House in LA Confidential and John Lautners home in The Big Lebowski and Charlie's Angels are two examples of movie houses owned by smut kings and or drug lords.

Why do highly flawed futuristic societies always live in such cool places? Aeon Flux is a great example of this. Would not recommend watching the movie for anything other than the architecture. That being said, it is worth watching for that alone.

Found a great website that locates the incredible sites. The images on the top and bottom of this entry are from the website. Click on the images to see where they are. You may be surprised by a few especially the images on the below.

The film was made mostly in and around Berlin. Rather amusing that 2 of the locations designed in the 1700's, were rather easily transported to 2045 in the movie. Good design truly stands the test of time! "The Handler Space" was originally built in 1790 by Carl Gotthard Langhans as an anatomical theater for veterinary students. Sansoucci Palace and Park was built for the Prussian King Frederick the Great in the mid 1700's.

06 August 2010 - Admin - General - Permalink

Architecture in the Movies: Citizen Architect

Break out the instruction manual on the DVR, TIVO, or the VCR (if you still have one.) PBS is airing a documentary that should be classified by all architects as DON'T MISS! On 8/23/2010, 10:00-11:00 PM, they will be airing the documentary Citizen Architect. This appears to be a one time event, so don't expect to see it on again.

Citizen Architect is a documentary on the life and influence of the late Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee and Auburn University's Rural Studio which he co-founded with Dr. Dk Ruth back in 1993. The Rural Studio was designed to be a multifaceted training ground for young architecture students. Its goals:

1. Using the design/build approach, students receive hands on learning experience on how things are really put together.
2. Provide students with a place to experiment with different construction methods i.e. recycled tires or hay bales as building materials.
3. Having students build structures for people in impoverished Hale County, Alabama teaches them about being good "Citizens,” testing them on how they fit into the larger discussion of architecture's role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, citizenship and social change.

Amazing Architecture + Social Responsibility = Great Documentary.

"Proceed and be Bold!" ~ Sambo Mockbee

04 August 2010 - Admin - General - Permalink

Architecture in the Movies: Daylight Fades

There is a screening of a Memphis movie called Daylight Fades tonight 7:00 and 9:25 at Studio on the Square. Tickets can be purchased at the door. It is a vampire movie that was shot at various locations around town. Have read good things about the movie and am excited about seeing it.

There will be an upcoming series of blog entries on architecture in the movies, so this was a natural fit to start the series. Be sure to look for the Memphis architecture used in the movie. Do you recognize the bedroom used in the opening scene of the trailer?

Daylight Fades - July 20th
7:00 and 9:25
Malco Studio on the Square
2105 Court Ave.
Memphis, TN 38104

20 July 2010 - Admin - General - Permalink

Virginia Tech, Solar Decathlon Europe, Winner!

Team Virginia Tech recently won Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid, Spain. This victory was especially sweet, as this was their first victory in 4 Solar Decathlons. It was a tight race though. As a matter of fact, it was the closest margin of victory in a Solar Decathlon. Virginia Tech won by less than a point!

1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University - 811.83 pts
2. University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim - 810.96 pts
3. Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences - 807.49 pts

This was the inaugural European Solar Decathlon. It was estimated that they had over 190,000 visitors go through the homes, so it had a larger public response than the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington.

One of the amazing factoids from the competition: 6,177 kWh were produced and 2,579 kWh were consumed by 17 solar villas. So they produced almost 3 times more energy than they used during the 10 day competition. That is an amazing stat that shows how architecture and good design can literally change the world.

Luminhaus, VT's solar villa, has some cool features:
Radiant heating in the concrete floors, smart phone applications that allow the user to track and manipulate the energy use of the house (turn on and off lights, lock and unlock doors, open and close sun shades), ability to hibernate when occupant is away thus reducing energy use, unique transportation abilities that allow the house to be moved without a flatbed.

If you are interested in participating in Solar Decathlon 2013, click here

15 July 2010 - Admin - General - Permalink