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Design - "Wonderwall"12/9/2010 working on a project that not only has the typical logistical component, but also a wonderful design component. the music to inspire the design is wonderwall a remake of the oasis hit by Ryan Adams. here are the adjectives that were generated from this song by my clients and what came to me:
soulful, clean, smooth. i get the impression of a light rain on a sunny day where the drips reflect the light as it drips from fresh leaves. light, and warm. encouraging, enclosing, haunting (in a good way), and continuing. the lyrics and words seem to imply strength, security, and a soft-strong spirit. something that is always there, always interesting, and always surrounding, engulfing and besides me to lean on. the song really matches my clients. really amazing. most of the song is smooth, clean and full of a refreshing spirit. but there is a hint of feisty-ness in the song... just a touch. and the architecture will have the same feeling. how to translate adjectives, feeling into brick and mortar? the literal solution for "wonderwall" would be to start with a wall scheme. the parti will have a wall in it. the music, the lyrics, and the site all point to this feeling of strength, solidity, security, and timelessness. the wall in most of my designs will show itself more as a solid "zone" where functions like stairs, closets, and other small tight parts of the home will be concentrated. carving holes and openings in the wall is the fun part, so it will most likely have some of this too! after all, the song wonderwall was inspired by a movie from the 60's about poking holes in a wall... i won't say why here. but let's just say it laid the groundwork for love and untiring interest and devotion. based on this, a language of architecture is beginning to show itself: stone walls, thin poles, warm woods, and all types of wall penetrations. my clients like clean lines, so we'll keep it looking more contemporary. a good connection to a well developed out door garden is really important to bring about the feelings evoked by "wonderwall". so we'll need to focus on that outdoor "room" which will be connected to the main living room. stone is a must: it holds spirit and soulfulness wood is a must: it brings warmth metals: will have some of this - not sure if stainless steel is what i'm feeling, though... maybe copper and bronze in accents will be more appropriate. glass: only in accents... unless the feng shui master clarence lau tells me to use more in certain areas. there will be alot of it as the architecture needs to connect to the outdoor context in a major way light: will bring this by lifting the roof off the stone walls where possible. should give a floating roof effect, and thin vertical members will help this. will post up the parti as soon as i can swing it!
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These last couple months have been extremely busy for yours truly, but I am compelled to write concerning an urgent matter: the inevitability of what will happen to us. As you know, some of my skills are in seeing things from a broad, long-term view. Architecture and planning are very suitable to this type of mentality.
The Normalcy bias makes us tend to think that nothing really dramatic will change for our lives, but take a look around at your friends and neighbors, and start talking to your contacts overseas and on the mainland - put the facts together. Forget about the propaganda we hear and watch on TV, or the distractions that UH sports and ESPN sports provide us from the looming black wave approaching us. This wave spreads over the entire horizon. Here are the facts: 1) China and Russia have agreed to trade without the US dollar 2) Global economic leaders have been discussing a world currency for a very long time. Instead of the US Dollar being the global reserve currency, it would be a bag of strong currencies. Which may or may not include the dollar. 3) A trend is developing that indicates the dollar to be undesired by foreign businesses. Check this fact with your friends or when you travel overseas. 4) The rest of the world buys gasoline at the pump for around $6 per gallon - here in the US it's more like $3 per gal Yes, this is all true, but it's not going to affect us in any really bad way... our lifestyles won't change very much, and if it does, it will take awhile. Or NOT! Let's think this out to a conclusion. Since World War II, the US Dollar has been the world reserve currency. This means that every other country in the world needs to produce things and sell them to make money. Except for US. All we do is borrow money, buy things, and then print more money to pay back the loan... This is totally against any law of economics that will have any lasting sustainability. The party cannot go on forever. Eventually it will catch up to us. How will it catch up to us? The rest of the world will finally decide that they don't want to use our money as the world's reserve currency. It's already happening.. the party is over. Currently our government is able to use our influence and power to break up the party slowly and carefully, but this will not last forever as the money runs out. Expect things to accelerate and get very, very messy. Here's how: When the rest of the world decides not to trade in dollars, we will most likely not be able to buy imports like oil at the prices we do. Say gas moves up to average the rest of the world at $6 dollars. Oil in that case will have doubled. let's say $150 dollars a barrel. When a society must pay double for its shipping and production, packaging, and other items it does one of two things.. People stop buying. At the same time, workers start crying for higher pay to pay for the inflation in goods and services. Labor rallys and other organizations begin to hold demonstrations. These may or may not turn into riots, but if the people are angry enough - they will. Government may try to stop the madness by putting caps on prices for goods like gas, food, and essentials. Store owners simply cannot sell products at a loss so they stop selling and close their businesses. The demand for items goes even higher, and people get more upset. People who are upset need to eat. With supplies low, prices high, and money supply non-existent, they can do nothing but steal to survive. Imagine the crime wave. Now imagine that there is no money in government because the tax base is eroded and we must release people from prisons to keep the budget down. We can no long afford police to keep up with this. (i.e. Oakland, CA) Now how does one reverse this? one of 2 ways.. add money to the system so people can buy these super expensive goods. But be careful how fast you release money into the system because hyperinflation will kill us. Or let it in very slowly, and let people be very, very angry as they try to save enough money to eat. Forget about consuming all other items - because they are all imported... and so our economy begins to shrink to the point where we are scraping for food instead of buying cars and furniture and hiring architects. The unemployment will be massive. the second way to reverse it is to introduce a new currency that can buy imported goods with a reliable price. it will be extremely hard at first, and people will be poor. Like pre-world war II, poor. Poor like communities that have to rebuild after losing a giant war. Do we look to our seniors for guidance? Only if they were adults in 1940. Which would put them somewhere in their 80's. They are the only ones who can remember how bad it can be. Unless you immigrated here from a war-torn nation like Yugoslavia in the 1990's. Yugoslavia and other nations like them were just like we were now. They experienced the exact same thing on a smaller scale. As a 60-year old American if they know what is going on? Of course not - they grew up in a country on the rise. Where the dollar ruled the world and the party was rolling. My children and I will live in a world where the dollar is declining and our great American culture of living large will end... badly. I'm sorry to say this but it will, and I can only tell you to begin to research getting your wealth out of dollars and into something else that will retain it's value. And for those of you holding notes and debt on others... don't expect to get paid... the banks aren't and they are getting bailed out. Private notes will go down in flames. 2 years ago, i wrote about moving to cash. Now i'm telling you to get out of US Dollars. When will this all occur - how fast will we fall? Bernanke and his wizards are trying very hard to make this landing as smooth as possible, but the one unknown is how angry the people will be. Our governments are preparing for massive civil unrest. We will become a police state at some point in this process. Way Outside the Box The logical conclusion this all leads to is global economic unification. The Fed WILL end, only to be replaced by a global counterpart. I was once told that China could never be capitalist like the US because it is too large. So the state-run capitalism they have is better for them since they have such a large population. For some reason the entire world is now getting an idea that the best way to run a world government is through socialism. Unfortunately we Americans and the other free-nations of the world have the most to lose. We will lose money and freedom as it get's "re-distributed" to the rest of the planet. Don't worry, though - we'll still have ESPN sports, and other simple hypnotizing pleasures, but so long to the housewives of Atlanta.... Viva the new Utopia!, comrade! |