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http://weburbanist.com/2008/03/05/16-sweet-and-scary-building-demolitions-in-action/
Can building destructions be inspiring for building constructions? Just reverse it : it all unfolds beautifully doesn’t it? There is definitely something there…
“sad hat l happy hat” is one of design interventions in the “benchspace walk workshop”, part of London architecture festival.
We like London, this city-world full of differences, ethnic variety, colors, textures, sounds; within a block distance the environment can change totally. We are perpetually commuting and when we think about architecture, we think of vertical constructions, enclosing horizontal space.
Sad Hat | Happy Hat from cesar harada on Vimeo.
Naturally we have a tendency to look up when we are happy and down when we are sad. We want to bring emphasis on the ground and the sky, amplifying one’s mood. The “sad hat | happy hat” can be worn in two different ways, happy (looking up) or sad (looking down). The reflective surface inside multiplies the perception of either the sky or the ground.
But what happens when you either look only up or down? You bump into stuff! Maybe you need someone to complement your perception: if you are sad you may need someone happy, if you are happy someone sad, to walk together safely.
The object can be experienced in 2 main ways, outside-in and inside-out. The outside-in aspects: the appearance of the hats indicates obviously what mood you are in. This experience critiques our excess of self-awareness in public, how much we care about how others are looking at us. The inside-out aspect provides a thrilling sensorial experience, something different and playful, we might not care how people will look at us, in our own visual and acoustic distorted world.
The “sad hat | happy hat” is a simple playful perception limb that directs and amplifies ones perception and mood, allowing to re-consider how one feels about the city while creating an extreme social relation between the mask user and the others, encouraging the necessary complementary pair relation
With Dot Nitipak Samsen. Voice Nasser moustakim.
http://www.dotmancando.net/projects/between/
http://cesarharada.com/2008/sad-hat_happy-hat/
URBAN SPACE STATION Sofia, Madrid 2008 from cesar harada on Vimeo. All documentation on http://urbanspacestation.org.
I went to see this exhibition of Sinta Tantra, beautiful blend of installation and poetry.
You can also see the high quality video here.
Scattered House, Usman Haque & Adam Somlai Fischer from cesar harada on Vimeo.
“[source] Scattered House is an architectural experiment founded on a truly contemporary notion of space, where issues of ubiquitous connectivity, family diasporas, design-by-occupant, and public control technology come together in an installation assembled from inexpensive electronic toys and gadgets.
We are inviting members of the public to visit the Hungarian Cultural Centre and contribute to elements of the “house” — they can either bring toys and gadgets that will become part of the amalgamated whole or we will also have a selection of items that they can try hacking themselves. Architects and interaction designers Adam Somlai-Fischer and Usman Haque, authors of the online manual “Low Tech Sensors and Actuators” [download 1MB], will be on hand to advise and assist in this process, as well as Bengt Sjölén, artist from Stockholm.
The three day event will be suitable for families and accompanied children, as well as design (or non-design) students who would like to be part of the event. The public will help design and build fragments of the interactive “Scattered House” which will be exhibited internationally later in the year. People will be able to open up toys and gadgets (that they have either brought along or which are provided for them), gain a simple understanding of how they work, and learn how to connect them directly into the installation themselves.
No experience is necessary, though enthusiasm for hacking open toys is welcome!”
It was a brilliant experience, I just regret I don’t have so much footage of the installation at the Hungarian Embassy, but a lot of interview instead, so here is a quite similar experiment the same people did, if you want to see more in detail the hacked electronic components:
Reconfigurable House 2 at Place@Space at Z33.be from Adam Somlai-Fischer on Vimeo.
I feel the work has been completed correctly. I still felt out of context … But thanks to sport, I suddenly felt integrated !!! Like this man:
Yes, I am actualy talking about football, I cycled down in the streets of Madrid full of happyness to share with everyone! PODEMOS!!! ESPANOL!! ESPANA!!! IT JUST FELT SO GOOD, SO RIGHT !!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Look at the video below : Spain 1, Germany 0, just imagine the happyness in Madrid, imagine…
The station construction is completed… Now it all looks so simple!
An astronaut ready for launching.
Here is the space station!
How it looks inside, it is a small crowed space, looks better in video, soon.
That’s a lazy astronaut!
Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures of our own work during the launching, we will do a proper filming session soon + video.
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Tonight was the VIP launch, I think it was very successful, people
were surprised, interested, and honnestly that was a lot of people for a night the Spanish football team plays a quarter-final of Euro, 3-0 against Russia, Madrid was just mad tonight, most people were as naked and nervous as me in the streets! heheheh!
So these are the relations we can easily sense and affect, the interactions. But as I explained my research to Angel Borrego Cubero, he explained me, I did not fully understand yet, or I presented the system too unfolded:
The system are on inside the other, the universe contains the solar system, we are interested in the sun, the moon and the earth, a building, the Urban Space Station, the plants and the human inside. The relation first described as parasitic between the Urban Space Station is NOT, it is a symbiotic relation since both actors are interested in the relation.
The installation aim is to convey an image of equilibrium, not of a dramatic dependence, a sense of comfort and curiosity should arise over a first-sight mysterious shape.
To make the relations between the element obvious it could be as simple as wiring together the elements, isolating the relations from “noise”, enabling precise measures too. A visitor could be located in the structure (green figure), being wired he would benefit from a constantly renewed quality of living : breathing OUT his oxygen-poor air at the entrance of the station, breathing IN the enriched air at near the exit. Even the surveillance guard of the museum could reclaim the use of the USS to enhance his/her working conditions! hehehe!
The interacting visitor could have a symbiotic relation to the station could also be located out of the station (red figure), but it would make a very different statement and would cause hygenic hazards with many visitors…
In my mind the symbiotic relation has to be extended and made as obvious as possible, from the universe to the plant or human, not to remain a fancy greenhouse, let’s wire it up, so we can measure and make a study of the controlled environment, a true Space Station
Aristotelian conception of the universe that preceded the models of Copernicus and Thomas Digges.
The USS is a symbolic representation of our universe, yet If a human was to act as a part of the organism, he shouldn’t be associated with the biblical figure of Adam (without Eve unfortunately!) but as a “neutral” living organism within a bigger organism.
Also the objects that we use to wire up the different actors can look really good and make the whole concept very self-explanatory.
good night day 2!
As far as I understood, we are not going to show the whole thing, but more a model of the system, just a model to explain the system. There will not be 2 structures, but one communicating with the outside; the air system of the pillows and the air system of the greenhouse rotation are distinct. So my task isn’t clearly defined : functional engineering or just prop’ / system explaination with nice graphics? Well, it is up to me, if I come up with a great system that is simple to implement, than we can do it, else, we’ll just carry on and try to build this as well as possible.
Ok, I need to make it simple, show the circuit that holds all the variables :
Ok, if this is to be re-used, I need to make it look good, and more clear:
Ok, great, now everything is as clear as a subway system map. We can sense and control each “line” running between the World - the Urban Space Station - Human, it quantity, quality, even nature, the following post will contain proposals of apparatus, BUT …
THE ARCHITECTURE IS JUST MAKING LIFE FUNCTION OBVIOUS (protecting, extending the human Body limits, embodying functions in technical objects, isolating and specialising objects)…
- HOW OBVIOUS DO WE WANT TO GET?
- HOW MUCH DO WE WANT TO MANIPULATE AND CONTROL (when change and difficulty is engine of progress and evolution, where is optimization? That’s an ethical and/or political statement, and as it it not my work, what should be my influence
- HOW FAR CAN BE THE ARCHITECTURE (in its obviousness) BE CHANGED FROM THE ORIGINAL PROJECT (optimized, functions made obvious) EXTENSION OF THE ARCHITECTURE DOMAIN? LET’S MAKE MORE THAN A GREEN HOUSE -> TOWARD MEDICAL AND AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY?.
We are eternally computing with the universe so … OK, let’s make a list of tecnical artefact proposals that could optimize the system functions, may it be ironical…