Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos

This week, I want to highly recommend this book:
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos

I have the chinese version of this book and I can email you if you guys want. This is an amazing book covering fields of economy, physics, biology and etc. If you heard about the theory of complexity, or Santa Fe Institute, or theory of "Emergence", this is definitely a book you want to read!!! I am half way through but alrealy cant wait to share it with you guys.

LTL lecture at MIT

My frustration of not having a job was temporarily alleviated during Marc's Lecture at MIT tonight. Most of the projects he showed were included in LTL's last monologue "Opportunistic Architecture", a term that can be viewed negatively as being lazy, but in LTL's practice, the title is an accurate representation of it attitude: let the constraints become catalytic generator for creative invention and non-conventional strategies.

Besides having a black belt in Karate, Marc is an eloquent speaker and a pencil drawing master. The firm's signature presentation style of sectional perspective produced by pencil drawings and tonal overlays aids LTL's clear design logic, and subsequently influence the manifested forms. You don't see almost any non-rectilinear projects from LTL, thanks to the drawing styles they adopts.

Ceiling plan is usually neglected in conventional design process. In the cases of small retail interior designs in Manhattan, ceiling plan could become an opportunity. This is apparent in both "Fluff Bakery" and "Tides", where aggregation and reconfiguration of felt strip and bamboo skewers not only create striking visual sensations but also acts as performative systems combining with lighting and acoustics.

I was amazed to see many of the projects in their book is actually being realized, including the Arthuose, an amazing renovation/adaptive reuse of an existing structure in Austin, as well as MSK installation for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Arthouse under construction at an earlier time.

MSK being test-installed for one day

Now that this wonderful lecture is in past-tense, I am going back to the endless and hopeless job search. Though there is one thing this lecture reminded me. That is the pursuit of intelligent designs, with a different attitude from the ocean of so-called "architecture practices" out there, is what we have believed in and what we should keep striving for.

trip to milwaukee art museum by calatrava

hey guys,
sorry for dissapearing for a long period of time...
its been more than 6 weeks after i began to work, and im struggling with all kinds of systems and rules in som...ill talked about 工作感受 next time, and since u guys both had experience working in big coorperate firm, suggestions are strongly needed.
alright, just check out pics this time....cuz i still have a model to build for tmr!!!
the white wing(i call it) is only half of the museum, its main function is as a reception hall, or, the most important city sculpture by the lake. transformable architecture seems much more popular for normal people, they came here only to see the 10 minutes when the wings close and open for one time each.

hes a white wing master...

very neat interior

especially the parking place, this is the best parking place ive ever been

when the wings closed

it is opening

fully open

fianl board for AIM competiton: Cable 8, design the last factory block in Beijing CBD

unfinished competition drawings...

RE-ACTIVATE to be published by IDEALS in August

ABSTRACT

Modern communication technologies both support and complicate social interaction in public spaces. This thesis, RE-ACTIVATE, is first inspired by observing new modes of social interaction that are aided by tools like the smart phone, and it examines the shifting notion of “place” towards an online environment. Considering that architecture has historically served as a framework for social activity, and that there has traditionally been an interwoven relationship between architecture and technology, RE-ACTIVATE urges the integration of architecture with media technology as a strategy for reinvigorating urban spaces and spurring social interaction.

The thesis proceeds by engaging in a series of design explorations and producing an array of built prototypes embedded with programmable Arduino microprocessors and proximity sensors. These modular prototypes are designed as components for buildings or installations, which serve to intrigue the senses, imbed information, create spaces, incorporate ubiquitous computing and interface with the Internet.

1:1 cover draft 1 and 2

here is the 2nd draft for cover, getting the 1:1 text to pop up more on both front and back covers.


heres the cover and the face page following the cover.
thoughts ideas insights please...