Archives
December 2022
Categories
All
|
Back to Blog
Hello everyone, sorry haven't blogged in a while. Summer is over and the fall brings new ideas that have been stewing. If possible, I hope you can leave a reply to this proposal - yeah or nay. Need some response, and probably ideas to help pull this one off!
The site is called MyVillagePlan.com If you go to this address, nothing will be there as I have only reserved the name. But the important thing here is the concept and operation that i'd like your input on. please reply below, or via facebook or twitter. i'll take all comments and input and aggregate. rules: ideas are free concept: The concept is to create a blog that accepts multiple authors and responses using video, text, and pictures, posting of documents, etc., that outlines a current project going on in your community. For example, in my community there is an affordable housing project that will come on line this fall at the old Advertiser building. The developer thinks that this project will sell well, and he uses conventional data sources to gather demographic info and location info to determine that market forces are pushing this project. MyVillagePlan.com would be a platform where he can express his ideas of the development, and also hear what bloggers, the community, special interest, the press, and anyone else wanting to weigh in can go to speak their mind. The project would have it's rating by the public before it even gets off the ground. Kind of like a Yelp! for architecture and projects in your community. This platform can save people a lot of heartache, and developers a lot of money. Free market research, and also more eyeballs looking at this than they ever wanted. We'll need some project captains to load information onto the site, but it should be open to all community and special interest voices. In our industry language we call them stakeholders... (people who have an interest in this project). MyVillagePlan.com will be the community voice, the developer's voice, the town square, and the public court of whether a development project has wings, or fail miserably... Now here's the lay of the land: inspired by the three C's as presented by Hokulia Developer CEO John DeFries - Community, Culture, and Commerce. A successful development needs all three. Ignore one, crash and burn! MyVillagePlan.com should organize by these three components to look at Community issues surrounding the development, Cultural issues (ancient, contemporary, and sub-cultures, - don't forget the urban culture, oh, and we also live in a green culture), and commerce - this of course should look at local economic impacts as well as how global currency and outer markets will affect us right here in our community. How will the site sustain itself? Hopefully volunteers, people who care, and tons of eyeballs. The site should be free to everyone, so any particular project can go viral faster. I'll be the first project captain for my community to start off so others can see ideas of information to post, but after that it should be a free for all. If the eyeballs come, sponsorships will follow. If we build this, they will come. But i'd really like to know what y'all think! Now as far as technology goes - i think it can be pulled off with Wordpress and their plugins... wordpress guru's, the site would really love your help with this! If the site get's too sophisticated, (i think simplicity is genius-by the way) then we'll have to grow on a shoestring until we get sponsorships. Sponsors should in no way be able to edit the content of the site, however. Ambition: how big can this be? as an architect, i can imagine a lot. This model MUST be scalable. The big hairy audacious goal should be that no developer or something like superferry in any town in the world should go un-vetted by its community. No longer will governments push their people into projects they don't want, and no longer will we waste money on engineers and architects to design things that will ultimately never break ground. (yes this site could put me out of a job, but damn, it will be worth it!) And finally, the projects that we do build will no longer be these ugly monstrosities that make our heads hurt! Let the vetting begin! thanks all for checking out this entry and thanks in advance for the input!
2 Comments
Read More
Back to Blog
wonder wall and modern farm1/7/2011 here are some sketchup ideas of the "wonder wall" scheme. first drafts - client loves the clean and modern architectural styles. the idea with the wall is to create the strength of the wall, and leaning, penetrating and juxtaposing space through it to create the dynamics needed for the clients' personality types. lots of fun. client does not like the wood doors in such repetitive pattern - so i'll try to work on the elevations to tune up the window compositions. still under development! the other project i'm still working on is modern farm. this one is on a 1 acre lot outside of kaneohe. the scheme uses the quonset hut structure in a modern use. these prefabricated structures are affordable and have tons of historic references from roman barrel vaults to industrial uses from the WWII era ( a product of innovation out of depression-era necessity). |