hippoblog

AsiaGSD?

Look what you can do once you graduate from Harvard.

* Ray, 4/02/2004 09:05:15 PM

dragonball Z-axis

In a city full of robust infrastructure, this is my favorite. It's the central tangle in which the North/South and East/West elevated highways interchange in the middle of the old city. City planners were told by a Fung Shui consultant that the absolute centerpoint of the interchange was a vertical axis that should not be disturbed by having a road pass through. Thus, all of the lanes swerve to avoid this geomantic axis, which is encased in a hollow stainless steel column with bas-relief steel dragons climbing the sides (see below, center). This column appears to exert a centrifugal force on the surrounding roads, pulling and throwing them in four directions. Please note that the "ground" of this photo (the road on which we were travelling) is twenty meters in the air. Wow.

* joshua, 4/01/2004 10:24:07 PM

potemkin in reverse

One of the most amazing and disturbing construction techniques in the French Concession is to demolish old Art Deco buildings and leave the old facades standing as hoarding for the new construction behind. It's an incredibly honest approach--no new logo or images euphemistically promising a better life (as is the general standard for construction fencing). Just the wierd double-exposure of the old Puxi fabric and the newer, larger, and more generic rising behind.

This is the kind of thing that drives Shanghai preservationists absolutely crazy. Not only are the beautiful works of Chinese and European master architects being knocked down, the process of knocking-down is being shown in the most shameless manner. Driving down some of these streets (such as this one, Fuxing Lu) is eerie--it is the instant in history when both old and new Shanghai are visible. Luckily, photographers such as Greg Girard are capturing this on film before it's gone for good.

* joshua, 4/01/2004 10:08:08 PM

one to grow on

This is the message we found printed on a pair of pyjamas in a children's fashion shop on Shanxi Lu. They look like any pair of infantile PJ's, with a cute squirrel or fox (apparently named "Sungly") and the cryptic message:

Those who love
deeply never
grow old they may
DIE OF OLD AGE
but the die young.

* joshua, 4/01/2004 09:59:43 PM

hu li

Shing's cousin Mark does a wicked fox imitation.

We took this photo in lieu of yelling "zuo hu li! zuo hu li!" ("Do the fox! Do the fox!") at him every two minutes.

* joshua, 4/01/2004 09:53:30 PM

ssip

You want a clever name for beer? How about "Reeb"?

Ray will remember this from his trip of last year. Shanghai Mila Brewery came up with this snazzy moniker for its latest lager, which is really not bad. Not quite as good as Tsingtao, but the Chinese urban breweries are definitely gaining some ground. Interestingly, every label bears the time and date of bottling.

* joshua, 4/01/2004 09:40:21 PM

heaven. or benzine.

Pollution makes for the nicest lighting effects. I'm guessing that this is what it looks like to be born. Or to die. Or to come out of the Xinhua Lu underpass on the way home from work in a city without catalytic converters. You decide.

* joshua, 4/01/2004 08:58:14 PM

this means you

These are the official Shanghai taxi rules, as put into English by the Da Zhong taxi company. It clearly states:

Passengers are not allowed to carry with them contraband goods, smoke, spit, or dump inside taxis. Psychos or drunkard without guardian are prohibited inside taxis. Be sure to check your belongings when you get off.

* joshua, 4/01/2004 08:50:55 PM

in case of fire...

...break ground? As I looked up from taking this photo, I realized that a crowd had gathered from a nearby fabric shop had gathered to watch me take it. Note the colors. They just sort of cheer it all up, don't they?

* joshua, 4/01/2004 08:46:39 PM

welcome back

Here are a set of apartment blocks near Shanghai's elevated expressway, between Pudong airport and the Luwan District. These are a slightly older vintage of housing, and look ancient by today's standards--that is, they're probably five years old.

I'm pretty sure that this is what is meant by "post-humanist." But the colors sort of just cheer it all up, don't they?

* joshua, 4/01/2004 08:39:21 PM

Modern Excellent Architecture

I found this curious article today about those old, deco buildings in Shanghai.

It's a little-known fact that many of Shanghai's pre-1949 Western-style buildings are the work of China's first generation of architects. Examples include the Bank of China on the Bund by Lu Qianshou, the Paramount Dance Hall by Yang Xiliu, the Majestic Theater by Fan Wenzhao and the Shanghai Concert Hall by Fan Wenzhao and Zhao Shen, among others. By the late 1930s, Chinese architects had designed more than 20 percent of buildings taller than 10 stories. Of the 30 architectural agencies registered in 1936, more than 10 were established by Chinese architects. Their work accounts for more than 20 percent of the buildings on the Shanghai government's List of Modern Excellent Architecture, such as the Paramount and the Bank of China.

* Ray, 4/01/2004 01:30:20 PM

GCHEESE and the HiDeHiDeHo

Google Job Opportunities: Google Copernicus Center is hiring (April 1)

Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at our lunar hosting and research center, opening late in the spring of 2007. This unique opportunity is available only to highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen.

* Ray, 4/01/2004 01:12:25 PM

Gmail

Google is working on Gmail, free web email with 1 Gigabyte of storage. Emails will include contextual ads, which will be a little strange.

Wired story

* Ray, 4/01/2004 01:02:58 PM

Lina Bo Bardi

DWR's newsletter headlines with Lina Bo Bardi, Italian lady architect from 50's/60's Brazil. (News to me.) Worked with Gio Ponti. Her biggest work, apparently, is the Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo (pictured). Cool. Or maybe, "Kool."

And look at this crazy project with the custom cut-out windows and barbaric concrete.

I found an exhibition webpage that shows some of her other projects.

* Ray, 4/01/2004 10:12:50 AM

Homonymphomania

Trojan (UK) provides an interactive pun (requires speakers) :Sexual Organ

* Ray, 3/31/2004 08:13:26 PM

As Vague As You Can Make It

This year's Shinkenchiku competition, hosted by Steven Holl:
House of Multiple Dimensions

Einstein's discoveries (over eighty years ago) overthrew Newtonian ideas, and yet most of us still see space and time in absolute terms, while the passage of time depends on our state of motion. In The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene seeks to resolve the incompatibles of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics through String Theory, requiring that we drastically change our understanding of space, matter, and time....
A small house of 250m2 could act as an experimental probe into an architecture of more than four dimensions; the experiential phenomena of the house will be a crucial factor. The house should also be inhabitable. Materials, from molecular aspects to geometric properties will be important as will space and time. The house will act like a "thought experiment."
Steven Holl

It was bad enough when architects tried to appropriate Marxism. C'mon now.

* Ray, 3/31/2004 01:20:14 PM

Air America (Radio, not the Mel Gibson movie)

Al Franken anchors the new Air America Radio, political radio for liberals. Also on: Janeane Garofalo, Chuck D, Randi Rhodes, and Sam Seder.

Daily Lineup

* Ray, 3/31/2004 01:06:11 PM

S M L XL

Justice comes quickly. A Korean clothing company has named itself Koolhaas Jeans to cash in on Rem's radical chic. A radical chic which was built, in part, by attempting to be radical about branding and shopping.

This would be hilarious for us, but the same thing has happened to our little office. This same Korean company is now marketing Ong Jeans...

* joshua, 3/30/2004 02:22:23 AM

"Dick, dicker, superdicker Partyspaß!"

The good people who make Werther's Original candies also produce a line of disturbing brown knobby things called Super Dickmann's. Wow.

Storck - Part of Your World - Super Dickmann's

Who doesn't know the slogan 'Man, they are Dickmann'? Under this motto Super Dickmann's from Storck quickly became Germany's most popular chocolate foam kiss.

The Dickmann's homepage (where the title for this post comes from)

* Ray, 3/29/2004 07:26:43 PM

Picture of the World

Over 4,000 people have been contributing photos from where latitude and longitude intersect.

the Degree Confluence Project

The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories will then be posted here.

Wired Story here.

* Ray, 3/29/2004 01:30:28 PM

Lasers, a blimp, online gaming, the Dome of the Rock and peace in the Middle East

Kooky story about a guy (UC Berkeley architecture grad, by the way) who believes he can literally create the Temple of Light over the Dome of the Rock, effect the Apocalypse, and make everyone happy.

Wired 12.04: Apocalypse Now

What's fascinating about his vision of the apocalypse is that it's not the bloodbath that fundamentalist Christians imagine. It is the end of the current world - with all its inequity and injustice - and the beginning of a new, perfect Earth ruled by the Messiah. The trigger will be a peaceful, technology-fueled spiritual revolution. A velvet apocalypse.

* Ray, 3/29/2004 01:22:22 PM

A Pittance

Brad Pitt wants to intern for Gehry:

Pitt, who is advising Gehry on cinema, sports hall and restaurant designs for the master plan, has told his film-booking representatives, Creative Artists Agency, that he wants to spend at least a year learning computer-aided architectural design, which has transformed building over the past 20 years.

Friends say his dedication will surprise those who dismiss Pitt as just a pretty face. 'Brad is very serious about architecture and now he has the confidence to set his own priorities,' said one.

Good for him. Good for them. Good for freakin' all of them.

* Ray, 3/29/2004 11:14:12 AM

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