Image Gallery: Rem Koolhaas' Seattle Central Library

MYD's image gallery of a recent visit to the Seattle Central Library by Rem Koolhaas

To view the complete gallery of full size images, visit our blog at:
At Koolhaas' Seattle Public Library - MYD blog - MYD studio:

Enjoy! Lauren + Jason

'via Blog this'

WikiHouse: Open-Sourced Housing

WikiHouse: Open-Sourced Housing

August 19, 2011

Machines such as 3D printers, CNC routers, and robot arms are changing our conceptions about production, bringing about a new industrial paradigm of mass customization. Such a dramatic change will propel all designers to be actively involved in the making of new tools, lest they risk being overtaken by techies, corporations, and zealous DIYers. But that’s beside the point. WikiHouse, a new Open Community project that hosts open-source home designs, should benefit all parties involved.
Details at the link: Architizer Blog » Blog Archive » WikiHouse: Open-Sourced Housing: WikiHouse: Open-Sourced HousingAugust 19, 2011

Craftsman Architecture in Washington State...

To follow up with our most recent posts, or our Pacific Northwest travel journal...  After a few days on Sequim Bay, we left the Peninsula via Port Townsend  moving onto our next stop, the beautiful Whidbey Island, for a couple of days of relaxation by the seaside.  

We left Sequim to embark on the next leg of the trip, starting with another ferry ride, this time across the water from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island, with more beautiful views to enjoy along the way.

During the drive up from the ferry through the island, we made a stop at the historic Deception Pass Bridge, s site offering breathtaking views of the steep cliffs down to the shore and the dense old-growth forests. 

Upon arriving at the Inn at Langley, we recognized the magnitude of the beauty of the space, right on the water and about as sublime as it could get...

There's nothing quite like the sight and sound of  the gentle waves of the rising tide just steps beyond your balcony, with the Cascade Mountains in the distance.

And, as usual, we were just as enthusiastic about the architectural detailing- a japanese-influenced Craftsman aesthetic that is contextually appropriate and well-executed.

Some Time Away...

Back in California... It's been a busy week catching up since returning from the beautiful Northwest not too long ago, but it was a great trip and wonderful source of inspiration and revitalization...  Or maybe it was the clean Washington state air.  Regardless, here are a few images from the initial few days of our travels.

The first part of our adventure began in Seattle and we then headed a few hours Northwest to the Olympic Peninsula for several days of visiting friends, taking in the views, and enjoying the coastal landscape.
Below are a selection of images from time spent on Sequim Bay, where the gorgeous weather made for picturesque vistas and perfect conditions for kayaking. With surroundings like these, some of the tastiest local delights at every meal, and good friends to share it all with, it was the ideal launching point for our time away...

An afternoon trip to Hurricane Ridge, at an elevation of 5,200 feet in the National Forest, offered stunning views of the Olympic Mountains and local wildflowers.

Back at sea level the next morning, the clear emerald water of Lake Cascade made for fantastic kayaking and even more stunning scenes of the Northwest.

But probably the most relaxing moments involved the simple pleasure of enjoying the sights with friends while surrounded by an array of vibrant flowers, glass of wine in hand and the water of the Bay only yards away. Perfect!

The Innovation of Charles and Ray Eames

In the past few years in the design world, we've seen a significant increase in the applications of modular structures, as shipping containers have been transformed into dwellings, office and studios, and pre-fabricated homes have become more common in communities, neighborhoods, and cities across the globe.
However, the mass production of products began decades ago, and the prolific use of these designs today is a testament to a high level of design ingenuity, as well as a visionary spirit.


This revolutionary change in thinking, design theory and the resulting long-term social and cultural effects can be attributed to the work of Charles and Ray Eames, the well-known husband and wife team who were pioneers in the field of furniture design, as well as icons of mid-century modernism.


That's the topic of discussion for today's guest post at Inspired Design Daily, so make sure to visit and ready the complete entry, as well as view more images of this groundbreaking work.

See you at Inspired Design Daily, and thanks for reading!

Carmageddon + Learning from Frank Lloyd Wright

Our recent commentary on 'Carmageddon', as well as in a number of previous posts, we've addressed the social and cultural issues that affect and shape our cities, buildings, and public spaces. 

Community is a term that can be applied and interpreted in countless ways, and even before it could be used in the context of technology and the online world, it was a subject of interpretation and analysis by a number of world-renowned architects throughout history.

Through rarely actualized, the designs for these planned cities provide insights into how our environment and our relationship to it were considered at a specific time and place in history.  We're looking at Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City today, as it provides an interesting counter to the current thinking regarding a car-based transportation system. Often characterized by the sprawl of Los Angeles and nature of development in Southern California, a decentralized structure with no urban core is considered by many to be limiting, an obstacle to neighborhoods and relationship-building, and exclusionary by nature.  And that's on top of the negative impact on the environment and issues related to sustainability...

Developed in the early 30's, Wright's vision was a response to the industrialized cities of the era, and he espoused the use of the automobile and the 1-acre family homestead as central components to this utopian civilization.  Criticized at the time by planners, there is still controversy now as to whether it was, in fact, a precursor to the suburbs in existence today.  

Wright describes Broadacre in his own words in the 1932 book, The Disappearing City:

Imagine spacious landscaped highways… giant roads, themselves great architecture, pass public service stations, no longer eyesores, expanded to include all kinds of service and comfort. They unite and separate— separate and unite the series of diversified units, the farm units, the factory units, the roadside markets, the garden schools, the dwelling places (each on its acre of individually adorned and cultivated ground), the places for pleasure and leisure. All of these units so arranged and so integrated that each citizen of the future will have all forms of production, distribution, self improvement, enjoyment, within a radius of a hundred and fifty miles of his home now easily and speedily available by means of his car or plane. This integral whole composes the great city that I see embracing all of this country—the Broadacre City.

The fundamental basis of this concept was that of a pastoral landscape founded on agrarian principles, with highways as the main mode of transportation between communities, homesteads and other necessary destinations. Recalling the garden city principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, Broadacre represented a rejection of urban life and a return to the land, where families utilized their allotted acre for food cultivation, enabling self-sufficiency and independence. Obviously, there are problems with this vision of the future, but it is fascinating to note that what we see as diametric concepts today were, at one time and from one perspective, complementary to one another.

Ironically enough, we are seeing some of Wright's planning ideas in practice now with the increase in permaculture, edible landscapes and sustainable land use, even if these contemporary movements are in response to what could be considered possible repressions of Broadacre's other fundamental principles, such as the predominance of the car and low-density living.

The decentralization of urban life and the increase of suburban communities is an topic that is incredibly complex, and the value of context cannot be highlighted enough, as this kind of ideological concept can be inherently conflicted when actualized in a specific time and space.

The car culture Wright envisioned did not manifest itself in the way he had anticipated;  instead of representing freedom, we often feel trapped by our reliance on the automobile, and the associated costs, financial, environmental and cultural. That said, it can't be a black or white issue, and certain elements of an idea can be useful in an open dialogue about community and development. 

So, though Wright may have been enthusiastic about the physical implications of Carmageddon, he likely would not have been thrilled with the socio-cultural patterns dictating the need to expand these critical transportation arteries.  It would be interesting to find out, though...

'The whole psyche of humanity is changing and what that change will ultimately bring as future community I will not prophecy. It is already greatly changed.'  F.L.W.  (1943)