say it in llama

Say it in llama, because even if you have to say something harsh llama's sure do take the edge off. Living in a llama, alpaca, vicuna, and guanaco country llama font seemed like a fitting thing to share.

Created by Avery Oldfield and Jack Inscoe their simple and quirky website is worth a look.

Video: Urban Canvas

Announced as one of the four winners in the Urban Canvas design, Jen Megathan's 'My Urban Sky' is now up at CUNY Hunter College. NBC highlighted the competition and winners today.

Crumpled City Map Anyone?

CRUMPLED CITY™
Palomar
Crumpled City maps are soft, yet hard-wearing, waterproof and meant to be creased and crumpled. You can place the area that you’re interested in on the palm of your hand to spot street names then just screw it up, stuff it back into its case or your pocket, and carry on.

You can buy Crumpled City maps for London, Paris, New York, Rome, Berlin.  I vote Santiago as one of the next cities on the list!

Size 87x58 cm. Graphics with Alvvino

Frank Lloyd Wright on the television show What's My Line

Today I came across this video of FLW on What's My Line.  I couldn't help but share it!  Here is part of the exchange between the panel and FLW:

Is this service for both men and women?
FLW: At least I think so.

Do these people come to you.
FLW: They must. I have never gone to them.

Is what you do related to law in any way?
FLW: Unfortunately, yes.

Best Architecture Schools - 2011

Top 10 Undergraduate Architecture Schools
1. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
2. Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
3. Rice University, Houston, Texas
4. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California
4. Virginia Polytechnic institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia
6. Southern California Institute of Architecture , Los Angeles, California
7. Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
9. Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
9. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Top 10 Graduate Architecture Schools
1. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
3. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
4. Columbia University, New York City, New York
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
6. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
6. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
8. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
10. University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California
10. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas


Why rank schools? James Cramer answered the ever popular question, "At university, students’ experiences can significantly enhance or diminish their interests as well as their likelihood for future success. This gives schools both tremendous opportunity and huge responsibility, since what happens in them has the potential to change the careers of individuals as well as the architecture profession as a whole."

He continues, "Another answer is given by the architecture firms that employ recent graduates. If the purpose of a professional degree is to prepare students for professional practice, then how well are degree-granting institutions performing the task? Ongoing research by the Design Futures Council and Greenway Group shows that architecture firms and related professional practice careers are being deconstructed and reinvented at an accelerated pace. Beyond the economy, for example, the profession is being shaped by profound changes in technology, such as building information modeling. Can educational institutions keep pace with the changing needs of 21st-century practices? And so we ask in our survey, “In your firm’s hiring experience in the past five years, which schools are best preparing students for success in the architecture profession?”

For a complete listing of all categories check out my article on ArchDaily!

Circus Architecture: METRO DE SANTIAGO

November 23, 2010

Check out Balde! and their urban postcards

Edison Pena on Letterman

November 5, 2010

Here is Edison Pena's interview on David Letterman last night, complete with Elvis sing along.

Architecture for Humanity in Stgo

November 4, 2010

Architecture for Humanity recently established a new chapter in Santiago, Chile.  Mision Urbana is hosting the chapter, and they recently participated in AFH's Global Forum held in NYC last month.

In response to the February 27th earthquake Nike + AFH will be teaming up for the chapters first project in the city of Talca.  For more details about Santiago's AFH Chapter follow the link.

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Interactive Bicentennial Website

October 7, 2010

Check out these two great interactive websites from La Tercera and El Mercurio newspapers.  Even if you don't know spanish they are very visual and easy to navigate.  You can easily compare yesterday and todays photographs or see the icons of the bicentennial celebration.
Yesterday and Today  or Icons of the Bicentennial

Architecture Exposition in Parque Forestal

October 6, 2010

I finally had a chance to take a look at the architecture exposition in Parque Forestal today.  In celebration for the Bicentennial, over 80 photographs are displayed in large format.  The exposition provides a look at Santiago's evolution in architecture primarily focusing on the most national and symbolic buildings.  

The exhibit is open air, free to the community and will be available through October 10th.  So grab your dog and go for a walk in the park, while enjoying some architectural history of Chile!

Here is a great little video about the exhibit.  

Bon Jovi at Estadio Nacional

October 1, 2010

What a great way to start off the month of October then going to a Bon Jovi concert.  Estadio Nacional, which is the national soccer stadium of Chile and is located here in Santiago.  It was built in 1937 as part of a sport and recreational center for the capital.  In the 1960s it was remodeled in preparation for the 7th FIFA World Cup (1962), where multiple games including the final where played.  Estadio Nacional was the location of the Chile national soccer team's greatest-ever accomplishment beating Yugoslavia 1-0 which resulted in a third place finish at the World Cup.  In the 1970s Estadio Nacional held not so happy  memories for Chileans as it was used as a prison camp by the military regime following the coup.
Chile's former President Michelle Bachelet unveiled a complete modernization plan for Estadio Nacional last year.  It was re-inaugurated in early September during the Chilean bicentennial festivities and Bon Jovi is the first international event since the re-inauguration (and in over two years).

Here's a picture of the installations and adaptations they plan on making for tonights concert - from soccer stadium to concert venue.

Article from La Tercera

Feria Ch.ACO

  

September 30, 2010

Ch.ACO poster

Casa de Lo Matta recently hosted the Contemporary Art Fair of Chile (Ch.ACO) which had over 40,000 people pass through its doors from September 24th thru 28th.  Ch.ACO is one of the most important cultural events in Chile and is held in Santiago every spring.

entrance to Ch.ACO

Nearly 50 galleries filled the space with Chile having 27 galleries themselves, and international countries included Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Argentina, and Spain.

interior gallery spaces

 

Some of my favorite work came from the alumni of University Finis Terrae.  There was great use of color, some whimsy, texture, and recycled materials.

plastic bags stretched and painted on a canvas

nut casings in a semi-circle

bottle caps vertically strung on fishing line

This piece located in Sala Ch.ACO y Finlandia was interesting but just seemed like a serious waste of paper.
 

Ch.ACO invited Pablo Nunez, designer and visual artist to create a space specifically for their SACO store.  His concept revolved around creating a skin, sort of a protective membrane, with built in shelves to display SACO's design products.  The skin was comprised of recycled cardboard and accordingly to Nunez, "falls within the contemporary sensibility of what is sustainable.  In addition, there is a certain methodology when building in a do-it-yourself process, clearly reinforcing the ideas of self sustaining, eliminating waste, and valuing natural resource."  Nunez also produced pieces of furniture and decorative roosters all of which were made out of recycled cardboard as well.  The roosters were a mascot of this years Ch.ACO, appropriately incorporating agriculture, with environment and design concepts.

Bike Rack Designs

September 30, 2010

Here are two of the shortlisted designs for the 'seoul cycle design 2010' competition from designboom in collaboration with seoul design foundation.

'bud rack' by yong su kim 

'dynamic seoul' by leon zhu

Urban Canvas

September 30, 2010

Check out and VOTE for your favorite Urban Canvas design by October 1st.  My favorite is Jen Magathan's My Urban Sky.  Her inspiration for her design, "A road trip from Michigan to Virginia inspired me to bring the Midwestern sky to the urban context. What would it feel like to walk down a crowded street and find yourself next to an open sky? My Urban Sky infuses the cityscape with modular vignettes of open sky."


Here's the explanation of the Urban Canvas Design Competition:

The urbancanvas Design Competition is a unique opportunity to challenge professional artists and designers to create printed artwork for temporary protective structures at construction sites that will beautify New York City's streetscape and promote maintenance of these structures. The competition seeks complementary designs for different types of temporary protective structures located on City-owned property: construction fences, sidewalk sheds, supported scaffolds and cocoon systems.

The urbancanvas Design Competition is an opportunity for eligible artists and designers who are United States residents and 18 and over to generate creative and compelling public art that will enliven construction sites and enhance quality of life while promoting safety. A distinguished jury of world-renowned artists, designers and civic decision makers will select a group of outstanding proposals to recommend to the Public Design Commission of the City of New York.  Following approval from the Design Commission, finalist artwork packages will be exhibited online and the public will choose the winning designs through an online vote. These winning designs will be available through the urbancanvas Pilot Program for property owners and developers to install on temporary protective structures located on City-owned property.

The New York City Department of Buildings and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, have partnered to create this unique competition.

Low cost design solutions

September 27, 2010

Recently featured in La Tercera newspaper, design students from the Universidad Catolica developed low cost day to day objects that can be used for people living in emergency housing.  Mediaguas, the name for emergency housing here, are typically 3m x 6m, and are home for many people still following the earthquake on February 27th.  Some of the objects they designed include a vertical garden, water transporter, dishwashing area, and a wardrobe for clothes.

Kicking Back

September 27, 2010

There is something so nice and simple about these two older chilean men taking in the festivities.

Masters of Design

September 21, 2010
Check out Fast Company's Masters of Design 2010

Marching - RW&B

September 19, 2010

Stands - RW&B

September 19, 2010

The community of Las Condes set up these stands for the military parade - held today.  The bright red adds to skyline, and the stands anchor both side of a main thoroughfare through this part of town.