Chad Perspaxon

Perspaxon has founded a city in Chad!

Move there now!

Shipping Container Architecture

Architecture by Accident

Corb v2.0

Zigloo Domestique

Nomadic Museum

Shipping Container Prefab

Contained in Zurich

Containerization

shippingcontainers.com

Termite Architecture and Biomimicry

In 2004, Researchers from Loughborough University filled the dendritic cavities of an African termite mound with a special gypsum casting material and then washed the hill away to disclose its (now-historical) interior network of circulation and ventilation ductwork (scope of termite casualties not disclosed). Apparently, this was the first time a termite building had ever been so comprehensively stripped and catalogued - new light was shed, deeper understanding bred, etc. Obviously, however, the work's sweetest fruit was the resultant plaster cast, a  potential architectural model Lars Spuybroek  would trade his left nut for...

Architects have been (and should be) studying and emulating examples of biomimicry such as termites' atechnologically organic and environmentally adaptive building style: "Learning from Termites", Eastgate Centre, Evolutionary Architecture: Nature as a Basis for Design, "Imitation of Life". 

Making Dying Illegal

The "Bioscleve House (Lifespan Extending Villa)" in East Hampton, NY expounds artist-poet-painter-philosopher-architect couple Madeline Gins and Arakawa's faith in the life-prolonging potential of architecture. Supported by the title of their most recent book, Making Dying Illegal, they promote environments that force occupants to rethink how they move through the day (locomotively, in this case) in order to stay alert, attentive, and thusly further from that ultimate act of complacency: death. "Comfort, the thinking goes, is a precursor to death; the house is meant to lead its users into a perpetually 'tentative' relationship with their surroundings, and thereby keep them young" (NY Times article). Implied by its undulating and rippled  floor (rammed earth + concrete) generously populated by fluorescent-colored support poles, the space challenges the user's grasp on bodily orientation and movement, requiring constant adaptation to its changing contours and textures and the occasional catching and/or righting of oneself whenever maneuveral obstacles prevail.

The couple, described by a contractor as having "the enthusiasm of 10-year-olds at a birthday party," will lead a conference this weekend in Philadelphia called "Reversible Destiny: Declaration of the Right Not to Die." 

CNC firm

This is the firm I mentioned that went in on a CNC router and now produces installations and interiors for major projects.

translucent concrete