biomimi

I am utterly outraged by this highly offensive new building proposal by MVRDV to be built in Seoul, Korea.

They are a well known architecture firm from the Netherlands and I actually liked them because they do some fun buildings… I think there a tower rendering with a pig in the middle…supposedly there’s a farm in the middle of the building. Anyways.

So MVRDV claims that the cluster in the middle is a “cloud”.. yeah bullsh!t.

Maybe if they were actually from NYC they wouldn’t have dared to do this. If they had seen, like I’ve seen this very wall standing burnt to the ground. The very same wall I had stood behind as a kid. Or if they’d smelled the smell of burning corpses, metal, rubber, and paper. If they could see the store displays barely a thing out of place but dressed in gray ashes of the dead. Then they wouldn’t  have dared. I am disgusted to associate myself with architects right now. Disgusted. Thanks to all the negative media, hopefully the building won’t be built.

I do acknowledge that the architects apologized for the similarity, but they are not planning on editing the design. Maybe they knew it would be controversial (both offensive and optimistic as an attempt to use the cloud as recreation center) but I don’t think they expected some many people to be that offended and maybe they didn’t really understand the politics and emotions this stirs up. I still highly doubt they did not intensionally design that building to look like the twin towers in a cloud of smoke though.

Hi! So here’s the complete time lapse as promised and some photos I took somewhere between 5 hours of giving tours of the house while standing in the rain.. so bare with me the pictures weren’t as nice as I would have liked. We didn’t win.. thanks to the weather. On an annual basis we would be net zero, but for two weeks of rain we did not produce enough solar energy and lost major points there. Otherwise we were doing pretty well. We were 4th place for most of the competition and got 1st place for affordability and hot water. Yay! We definitely accomplished our missions of being an affordable practical model home for our partner, Habitat for Humanities. And our core ideas of a) decreasing energy use and not slapping on  a million solar panels b) being more green by sharing utilities and c) adapting to different sized families should have been appreciated more. Overall it was a great and worthwhile experience.

Front Facade

Stairs/ Light loft

Award Ceremony

I’m stuck behind the tall guy with the curly hair.

Living Room

I’m currently working on a new project.. it’s a school assignment, not a competition this time. Here’s a sneak peek.

This is a cool video time lapse of the construction of our house. It’s from the beginning of construction til today, so the houses isn’t finished yet. I’ll post the finished later.

Empowerhouse: Construction Timelapse June-July 2011 from Empowerhouse Collaborative on Vimeo.

Hi friends,

So some of you have heard me talk about the architecture competition I am currently working on. It’s called the Solar Decathlon, basically 20 universities from around the world each design and build a ~1,000 sqft eco-friendly house and display it at the same at Washington DC on the National Mall on Sept 23rd- Oct 2nd 2011. Come walk through the house and I’ll probably be there giving the tours so let me know!

Also Aug 22nd we will be done with the house and you can get a sneak preview in Hoboken, NJ before we transport it. I’ll let you guys know where soon.

SolarD Teams

The red one is our team, Empowerhouse. It’s a collaboration between The New School and Stevens Institute. The design actually changed a lot since we made that model. The below rendering is more accurate although not the final version.

Empowerhouse Main Entrance North

I’ve been part of the project for pretty much the whole 2 years. I’ve worked on the community  site and material research, the architecture design, and handling the sponsors. I might help with the physical construction later on.

Empowerhouse Floorplan Axon

I don’t know if this image makes sense to you guys, but basically you come in from the entry way  (top left of image). The bedroom is on the right and the bathroom is on the left. Then you enter a taller/larger space, which has the kitchen on the left and living room on the right. There is a staircase in the living room that leads to the roof.

Construction

Currently the house is in construction and we have the foundation, floors, walls, and roof up. They are putting some interior sheathing on as we speak.

Constructing the foundation

Adding the floor panels

Putting up the walls

Interior walls

Installing the roof joists

The stairs and interior sheathing

That’s where we are now. I took some videos touring the house while in construction. Will post them up soon.

Remember.. Save the date!

Aug 22nd- Send off Party: Seek preview of house in Hoboken, NJ before it gets sent to Washington DC. Exact location TBA.

Sept 23rd-Oct 2nd- Solar Decathlon: all houses open for public tours. National Mall, Washington DC.

RSS (subscribe) below to hear updates. You’ll need to be in the specific entry to subscribe, not just on the main blog page… it’s weird. I know.

So this past Saturday May 7th there was an open house at the Bowery Mission where you could have saw my 2 murals (this one and my Stain Glass Mural) in person. It was featured as part of the New Museum‘s Sustainable Cities theme during the Festival of Ideas. These murals are to an addition/promotion to their new green roof. Here’s an article on the event! http://inhabitat.com/nyc/photos-the-bowery-mission-inaugurates-its-rooftop-farm-during-the-festival-of-ideas/

Base coat

Stenciling the words

Finished Fruit and Veggy Mural

“Someone’s going to take a bite of that wall one day. They’re going to bite into that strawberry thinking it’s real.”

To be honest I don’t know how I got that strawberry to look so realistic. I wasn’t thinking really when painting it. It was sort of instinctive and the fastest I’ve ever painted anything this size. Only took 2 days.

Complete with Verse

I gave The Bowery the honor of picking what it would say below and they chose this appropriate and inspiration verse about overcoming hardship from Mark 4:8.

I want to especially thank Matt Krivich from the Bowery Mission for giving me this amazing opportunity. And I hope that The Bowery enjoy my little gift of art through the years!

I just finished my stain glass styled mural! The mural is painted at the Downtown NYC, Bowery Mission on their metal door at the top of the stairs leading out to the roof.

“When I first saw it, I looked up and thought the door was open and someone had already planted the garden on the roof.” -Peter from Bowery Mission.

…which was exactly my concept behind the mural and I was so happy to hear that several people were fooled, thinking it was open or that it was glass.

Click Here for the Stain Glass Mural- Progress entry.

Door before

Door After

My Concept/ First Impression coming up stairs..

Stain Glass Mural from bottom of stairs

If you wanted to see my brush strokes..

Stain Glass Mural Close Up of Top

Stain Glass Mural Close up of Bottom

Here’s a little teaser of the second mural I’m working on for the Bowery Mission.

Fruit and Veggy Mural Teaser

Click for finished Fruit and Veggy Mural

Hi Everyone!

I’m working on another mural now. This time it’s at the Bowery Mission. It’s the doorway on the top of the stairway opening out to the roof. The idea behind it is that as you walk up the stairs it appears as if you are looking out into the sky and planted roofs, in hopes to bring inspiration to the residents of the homeless shelter.

The Bowery Mission is expecting an installation of a green roof soon that may be featured as part of The New Museum’s Festival of Ideas in May where my murals (yes, a second one coming soon too) and the green roof will be featured as part of the Sustainable Cities theme.

stain glass mural sketch

Week 1

Week 2

This is the current state. Almost done!! :)

Click to see finished mural.

I’m not a fan of those cookie cutter houses we call McMansions… but this one literally is a Mcdonald’s Mansion. This old landmark mansion was converted into the world’s popular fast food chain. Located in New Hyde Park in Long Island, NY.

I can’t decide if this is a pitiful statement of our nation, or just plain amusing.

There’s your Big Mac ads and behind was where you place orders.

Grand staircase and entrance.

Circular glass Sun room/dining area. My favorite part.

That same Sunroom from outside.

Thanks. More strange architecture to come!

I want to talk about something that most New Yorkers face, something that I call the “New Yorker’s Dilemma.” I have spent 4 years of my college life fighting it and I must say I’m losing terribly. Many people deal with it their whole lives.. either (a) without knowing it (b) they have no choice (c) they can’t get out of this vicious cycle (d) all of the above <<that’s me!

Symptoms:

• fatigue
• addiction to work
• anxiety and stress
• lack of life
• ulcers
• panda eyes
• frustration
• loss of friends/social life
• depression
• loss of hair

If you are a victim or know one, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Art students,  business owners, architects, wall street employees, ivy league students, commuters. We work too hard and have no life! It’s the cost of working in a city like New York. Yes it’s the city of great opportunity, but too many people I know get sucked into it, trying to get to the top of the money ladder because it’s seemingly possible here. But that money goes to high rents or long commutes anyways.

Our choice: work hard > pay rent > work harder > pay more rent> work to death?

Then what? I’m frustrated and I don’t even make money yet! All of my friends and family work like this and so do I. All because I choose to be an overachiever and do the impossible.. 5 year double major with the two most intense and demanding programs in my school, Architecture and Environmental Studies… spending at least 18 hours a day on school work and on top of that running a non-profit. Great!.. why am I complaining? I realize this isn’t a happy healthy life for any of us, so I present the cure.

Cure:

…I wish I knew. Please, if you know, please leave it in the comment box. Thanks!

P.S. Had to change blog so you will need to resubscribe to my blog by clicking the little orange RSS icon. Sorry. Thanks!

We are back in business! Finally got my blog up and running so check back soon for posts : )