quick chat with Nataka / reviews

on saturday, i stopped by the community garden to have a chat with nataka and bobby about how to start my own compost bin and how i go about with my first plantings this spring. after some good education on vermiculture and planting partners, we got to chatting a bit about the frederick douglass community garden. seems she's excited about the possibility of raised planters, noting both the relative ease of caring for soil and better ergonomics for some of the garden's older members. further, regarding soil testing, she mentioned a system through umass where you send in a bag of dirt once every 3 years for a diagnosis (i think she said $9.. defn under $20). nataka and bobby have kept this up-to-date, and it appears that their plot here is ok.

also, it looks like 4/10 will be our target date to meet with the community gardeners in roxbury. this allows 10 days after thursday's review to consolidate critiques and refine design strategies for what might just become our first work session on site.

this thursday, we will be presenting in the fishbowl. please be pinned up and ready to present by 7:30. please ask if you have any questions/ concerns about the required presentation assets.

see you on thursday!

Site visit photos on Flickr!

These are from our first site visit...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51175485@N00/sets/72157623546400033/

These are the sketches that were on the board...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51175485@N00/sets/72157623546759383/

(Kristine, I have a photo of your orange bucket sketches that were on the board, but it's still in my camera. I will upload it to this set as soon as I have access to a card reader.)

SF Building resources: Styrofoam stucco wall

photos i took in 2004 of a section of the Building REsources site
in San Francisco. each block you see in these photos represents a
styrofoam package piece, assembled and shot with stucco. Refurbished Mayan revivalism...

Finding effective solutions to the disposable cup waste problem . . .

Starbucks Sponsors Coffee-Cup Redesign Contest: The BetaCup.
This international contest starts on April 1, 2010 and ends on June 15.
Visit www.jovoto.com, register, and be part of the solution.






http://www.fastcompany.com/1585666/starbucks-sponsors-coffee-cup-redesign-contest?partner=hom
http://www.thebetacup.com/blog/
http://www.jovoto.com/signup/betacup

Shanghai prepares for Expo 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Shanghai prepares for Expo 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

#22/23 some beautiful structures with recycled wicker.. inspiring

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/01/18/hale-county-animal-shelter-by-new-rural-studio-2/ruralstudio_composite1/

Here is the link to the Dog Pound

Pretty nice Animal Shelter. The pattern created by the structure is beautiful.

More Exquisite Corpse Links...

http://www.jabcstudio.com/exquisite_corpse/
http://www.jabcstudio.com/pages/corpse.php

GROUP work for April 1

After some deliberation (and a big plate of nachos), Ben & I thought it would be best to promote group collaboration starting now, working towards our 100% DD review on APRIL 1. We'd like to break down the teams as follows:

Team Orange: Brandon + Kristine
Team Blue: Gabriela + Lisa + Melissa

For next week, let's assemble cohesive ideas with the intent of presenting a full Propsal on April 1:
_Site Plan
_Scale Model of full site
_Component Assembly Study Model(s)
_Plan + Section of Typical Plot
_Elevation at Entry Points
_Diagrams describing design intent


To reiterate, we will be selecting our primary design trajectories after reviewing ideas on April 1 + presenting to the community gardeners.


cg

Corpse, not skeleton

Exquisite_Corpse

Montreal urban garden: Duluth

ANTHROPOMETRICS & other metrics

UdB10 team,
If you were present last Thursday (3-4-10) or during Saturday's workshop session (3-6-10)
then you will have heard us mention that we are interested in seeing a variety of pertinent metrics, which will inform all of your design decisions.
for this upcoming Thursday's class presentation, this post aims to reiterate the importance of
seeing this type of documentation.
in order to avoid the 'arbitrary' nature of design, all designs will be carefully backed up by the
'functional metrics' diagrams each of you is asked to produced, alongside your other presentation requirements.
These diagrams should be able to show a person or objects in relation to their intended function.
For example, in order to demonstrate the proper metrics of seating, one might show a sectional or 3d diagram of a scale figure with the desired metric application. this diagram might show how this metric differs from an adult to a child, and therefore how a design might be able to mitigate that difference in order to accomodate both metrics.
the same thorough documentation applies to walkable surfaces, planter / planting construction metrics, storage metrics, experience (visibility:sightlines) requirements, etc...
For assistance you can refer to the opening pages of any graphic standards publication where there are examples of metrics requirements (see below)

Fritz Haeg

Fritz Haeg

Artist/gardener/educator/architect Fritz Haeg has a geodesic dome in Los Angeles, California, that serves as his home, studio and eclectic "schoolhouse" for visitors. Haeg brings this multi-purpose approach to the creation of "Edible Estates," an ongoing agricultural project that replaces suburban lawns in the United States and England with highly productive domestic edible landscapes. Sponsored by local art institutions and horticultural organizations, these functional art-farms challenge preconceptions about land use and subvert the "toxic uniformity" of suburbia.

Fritz Haeg's "Edible Estates"

Fritz Haeg's Garden Lab



fritz Haeg's bucket installation

design considerations for next review:

_where are key intervention locations?

_how can we 'breach' divisions to generate interactions (garden/public, plot/plot, etc.)?


_what are material alternates to the proposed scheme:
             _home depot
             _reclaimed (ie, building materials resource center (bostonbrmc.org)
             _found/recycled
             _fabric/lightweight

_material metrics: how many _______?
                           how much _______?

_growing schedules/requirements for vegetation

A few links to look through...

Mcmaster Carr catalog
this is a good resource for buildings parts...

Materials & Applications blog
good case study of various design build projects

PS1 YAP installations
have a look through the bottom right hand links to past projects

Rural Studio
Auburn University design build program

Open Architecture Network
Basic Initiative
Demakersvan

wk_06 class flow

this thursday, we'll be reviewing individual presentations of ideas for (1) ground travel, (2) plot/module, (3) vertical divider surfaces, gearing up for a full review of these options next week.

at this point, we will be commenting on overall surface strategies, with the intent of furthering these to more techtonic assemblies at wk_07. next week, we will begin assembling the best strategies for each, moving forward with the group's collective surface designs.

presentation outline:
_site plan for overall strategy (1/8"=1'-0"@ 24x36)
_study model (roughly 18"x24" base)
_plan/section of study model area (1"=1'-0")


also, there is a BAC woodshop safety class at 10a this saturday (03/06) for those of you who have not already taken this.