000off_WHAT_school!? WE CAN ACQUIRE HIGH QUALITY FOR LOW COST IF WE ACCEPT HIGH RISE!

What if the above diagram did not represent the passage through (Dutch) education but a literal representation of the physical layering of secondary school over primary school? You would think about doing this if you could build a high quality for low cost. A compact architecture could reduce build costs down to £1100/sqm! A combined school would undoubtedly present a political maelstrom which would have to be (intelligently + sensitively =) sensibly resolved but, for starters, the identity between the two student age demographics (primary v secondary) could be maintained if the circulation were separated (so big kids age 11-18y did not bully little kids aged 4y-10) by mid floor landscapes of play!

WHAT_architecture 17-Jan-2011
Category: 000off_WHAT_process | WHAT_projects
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121kra_BOOK BUILDING

A building made from books.

WHAT_architecture 17-Jan-2011
Category: 121kra_What Library | WHAT_projects
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121kra_WALL OF BOOKS 2

Colour coding the Dewey classification system could provide an interior treatment to the library that differs from the hyper-abstraction of the exterior where the spine / title is not seen, only the alternation of coloured covers sandwiching white pages. A facade barcode made of books? Each time a book is withdrawn the façade is modified…

WHAT_architecture 13-Jan-2011
Category: 121kra_What Library | WHAT_projects
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114eoe_MODERNISM + THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CLEAN WHITE BATHROOM 1:

That which is not present is not necessarily that not wanted. Take the humble bidet for example. As a fitting, the bidet is today not commonly present in most modern bathrooms. Does the bidet’s absence from the British bathroom landscape, mean that standards of hygiene have regressed from Victorian times or has the humble bar of soap (via Ecosoapia dispensers) taken over? Visibility does not always equate to desire. The bidet’s disappearance probably has more to do with the spatial economics of bathroom real estate than any societal improvement in personal cleansing. In Asia personal hygiene includes a separation of hand tasks: left = kitchen, right = bathroom…

WHAT_architecture 11-Jan-2011
Category: 114eoe_Earl of Essex | WHAT_projects
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000off_WHAT_radio

Music is everywhere: we are all musicians. We are all architects.

WHAT_architecture 11-Jan-2011
Category: 000off_WHAT_admin | 000off_WHAT_RADIO
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114EOE_MIDCENTURY MODERNISM AT YOUR FRONT DOOR!

Modern architecture is arguably most manifest in its formalisation of social housing. Yet sometimes the tight aesthetic constraints of Modernism – white walls and shadow gaps – restricts self expression. In this space it is the Front Door which is frequently the last bastion of identity…

WHAT_architecture 11-Jan-2011
Category: 114eoe_Earl of Essex | WHAT_projects
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094cla_PLAYGROUND DELINQUINCY

Outdoor play is bookended by: on the one hand, over-zealous Health and Safety local authority administration and on the other hand, juvenile delinquency that turns playgrounds into anti-social spaces… And the original: http://www.streetfire.net/video/scooter-on-playground_66739.htm http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Fears-children-s-swings-used-train-dogs-fight/story-11368955-detail/story.html#axzz2VFitXxry

WHAT_architecture 10-Jan-2011
Category: 094cla_clapham road | WHAT_projects
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094cla_AUTOMATED TREE DEBARKING!

Deforestation!?

WHAT_architecture 10-Jan-2011
Category: 094cla_clapham road | WHAT_projects
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121kra_KRAKOW LIBRARY WALL OF BOOKS

The history of architecture is peppered with attempts to materialise the library as 100% book. However for various reasons each attempt has faltered: Tres Grande Biblitheque in Paris for example made its ‘book end’ towers both inaccessible to the public and the books invisible due to daylight degradation; without the responsibility of weatherproofing, the forthcoming Book Mountain still treats the book/shelf as interiorised furniture than exteriorised architecture. With the Krakow Library our ambition is set: how can we further push the expressive boundaries of the library as a manifestation of Borges’ Labyrinth: that is a space containing every letter, every word, every sentence of every language?

WHAT_architecture 06-Jan-2011
Category: 121kra_What Library | WHAT_projects
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