Kikubo Village Part 2

A few weeks ago I blogged about a village in Uganda that was being built as a shelter for women. In Uganda, if a man divorces his wife, she becomes an outcast. The stigma against these divorced women has them struggling to survive. This village offers them a place to live and learn job skills so that they can become self-sufficient. The village itself is more or less self-sufficient and grow much of its own food.

I have some pictures of the village before the new buildings were added. These were the ones that I was given so that I could put together the rendering I painted for fundraising efforts. Another note--none of these pictures are mine.

Church and classroom:

 

Typical hut:

 

Building the orphanage (with the model farm in the background):

 

The model farm:

 

Another picture of the church and classroom:

 

The classroom and church under construction:

 

 

 

 

 

Mapping Local Culture

Part of being a designer is knowing how to create a sense of place in your design, or at least not mess up the sense of place already there. Part of an area's sense of place is its local culture. Wouldn't it be great if you could find a map showing you the culture of a particular place?

I understand that culture is too complex to be clearly mapped, but you could map certain little pieces of culture.

For example, here is a map of where particular college fanbases are concentrated (and also a big part of how I shape my worldview):

commoncensus.org

This next map may be a little more useful, and shows the spheres of influence of particular cities in the US. In other words, when people in a certain part of the US think about going "to the city," this map shows where they most likely would go:

 

commoncensus.org

But back to the fun maps--this next one maps Major League Baseball fans. I would say Starkville is pretty solid Braves country:

 

commoncensus.org
And here is the map for NFL. It looks a little unclear for Starkville, but my guess is that we lean toward the Saints.

 

 

commoncensus.org

The original maps can be found at the Common Census Map Project's web site. If you're having trouble making out the maps on my blog, the maps on the original web site will let you zoom in on them.

http://www.commoncensus.org/index.php

Biomimetic Urban Design

This might be a stretch...but what if somebody tried to mimic our own natural habitat in urban or community design? I'm not talking about going all the way back to living in caves, but instead I'm thinking of the next step up.

I found this artist's rendering of what such an ancient community might look like. It's the Neolithic village of Jarlshof, on a remote island off the north coast of Scotland.

World Book Encyclopedia

 

Just from looking at this illustration, it appears that an ancient village would be made up of homes clustered around some central space or street. The whole complex would then be surrounded by a wall. I don't know if you could justify such a tower like this one in a modern-day reconstruction, but it would be a nice place to spend time. They probably used this tower for defense or to keep an eye on the livestock.

 

I feel that this village's design can be seen expressed in many of the small subdivisions recently built around central Starkville. The Crabtree property that was our first studio project of the semester definitely had some of the inward-focus of this village. So did that cluster of white houses on Whitfield Street.

 

This is what Jarlshof looks like now:

 

panoramio.com

It seems well-preserved, with only the roofs missing.

Supertrees

These crazy-looking features are called "supertrees" and are in a new park in Singapore. They are definitely an example of biomorphism, mimicking the functions of nature. Like a living plant, these structures collect rain water and solar energy. They also provide ventilation for some of the conservatories nearby. They also function as vertical gardens by showcasing exotic flora from around the world on the sides of the structures.

I can barely imagine what the future of biomorphic architecture will look like. I imagine the scale of the natural functions found in these types of features will decrease dramatically. I also think the number of natural functions found in these features will also be increased. It will be interesting to see where biomorphism takes the design fields in the future.

We now understand many natural processes at the micro level. Why can't we incorporate these processes into our designs as well?


http://inhabitat.com/new-photos-singapore%E2%80%99s-solar-powered-supertrees-under-construction-at-gardens-by-the-bay/


http://inhabitat.com/new-photos-singapore%E2%80%99s-solar-powered-supertrees-under-construction-at-gardens-by-the-bay/


http://twistedsifter.com/2012/06/gardens-by-the-bay-supertrees-of-singapore/

The Water Cube

This building may look familiar to anyone who saw the Olympics in Beijing a few years ago. This is the building that housed the pools for many of the aquatic events. Officially it is the Beijing National Aquatics Center, but it is known better by its nickname "the Water Cube."

As far as I can tell, this is an example of biomorphic architecture, not biomimetic architecture. The bubbles are derived from the pattern that naturally occurs when bubbles form. The building is not really benefiting from the bubbles except that it makes the building nice to look at. It is pretty incredible to look at, especially at night.

Something else that looks like this are the grow-out houses you see on poultry farms. At night, these long buildings seem to glow from within. I've heard more than one architect rave about the lighting effect of these grow-out houses, but I couldn't find any pictures to show what they looked like at night.


www.wikipedia.com


jayday.org


adventure.howstuffworks.com

This last picture is of the Times Eureka Pavilion at the Chelsea Flower Show. The pavilion is meant to evoke the texture of a leaf. The "veins" are made of wood harvested in an eco-friendly manner, and plexiglass has been cut to fit within the spaces. This also looks like one of those chicken houses I was talking about earlier.


http://therayograph.com/2011/05/24/biomimetic-architecture/

Earthblocks

I've heard quite a bit about rammed-earth buildings in the past few weeks. One of my biggest reservations about rammed earth is that it is difficult to modify, according to Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn. While I don't know this for sure, my guess is that modifying a rammed earth building would be similar to modifying a concrete building. In order to maximize a building's longevity, Brand writes that a building must be able to adapt to a wide variety of uses, most of which cannot be easily anticipated. Buildings that are able to adapt to civilization's evolving needs will likely last a long time, which contributes to their sustainability.

So what if you were able to use modular rammed earth units instead of building the walls on site? Of course, someone else has already thought of this and called it "earthblocks" (It may actually be an ancient building material but I really don't know that much about it). These blocks come in a variety of sizes, from brick-sized to concrete block-sized and larger. They also vary in finish from rough to quite refined. In many cases, you can even buy or rent the machine that produces the blocks, so they can be manufactured on site with on site materials!

All in all, I think it's a very intriguing building material. I'd love to be able to test it for outdoor landscape applications such as pavers, retaining walls, benches, and such...

architerials.com


www.flickr.com


http://watershedhouse.blogspot.com/2012/10/building-with-rammed-earth-blocks.html#!/2012/10/building-with-rammed-earth-blocks.html

The Marika-Alderton House

A few years ago I had the privilege of seeing in person the Australian architect Glenn Murcutt give a presentation on his work. One of my favorite works of his was the Marika-Alderton house, which he designed for an Aborigine artist.


architecture.about.com

Many people consider this a prime example of Aborigine-influenced architecture, which I find intriguing since traditional Aborigine architecture looks like something like a Vitruvian primitive hut. But if you look into it a bit closer, then you see that the spirit of the Aborigine culture is carried through much of the house's design.

One of the more obvious examples of Aborigine influence are the stilts on which the house sits.  Much like a traditional Aborigine shelter, this allows breezes to circulate underneath for ventilation. Also, much of the house's walls and roof can be opened to allow breezes and light to flow through, and the roof overhangs prevent much of the hot sunlight from heating the building. Overall, the building is a flexible shelter that can easily altered to work in harmony with the seasons.

But what I thought was most interesting was how windows ran the length of several of the walls, allowing for constant scanning of the horizon. Apparently Aborigines are constantly scanning the horizon for visitors or game animals, and I thought it was pretty smart of Mr. Murcutt to incorporate this into the house design.

In essence, the Marika-Alderton house is an example of incorporating a culture's behavior into design, and not simply incorporating their symbolism.