Alternate architecture 8 - tower building game is best of the year

2011's iTunes game of the year is Tiny Tower by NimbleBit LLC.

Alternate Architecture 7 - phantom limbs

The Nefelejcs Project reveals the phantom limbs of architecture.  The group draws a plan or section of a vanished building on a nearby wall.  A simple shadow, a cartoon, these drawings show the ghost of places now gone:
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/12/merge-invisible-murals/

Alternate Architecture 6 - Thomas Doyle

Thomas Doyle's amazing miniatures capture the essence of loss.  Surreal portraits of homes capture simultaneous moments before and after some destructive event.  The tiny people inside make the tableaus all the more sad.

"My work mines the debris of memory through the creation of intricate worlds sculpted in 1:43 scale and smaller. Often sealed under glass, the works depict the remnants of things past—whether major, transformational experiences, or the quieter moments that resonate loudly throughout a life. In much the way the mind recalls events through the fog of time, the works distort reality through a warped and dreamlike lens." - Thomas Doyle.

Alternate Architecture 5 - mapping comes inside

Ever watched a spy movie and seen the hero whip out a gadget, push a button, and access a floorplan of the building they are in?  Ever wish you could do that?  Google's working on it.  

Alternate Architecture - Gingertecture

It's a sixties postmodern gingerbread house.  Although, I hesitate to call it a "house"...  it's more of a ... "Palazzo".  It's designed by renowned architect Morad Mejohas.  - Acura Commercial, 2010.




Everybody loves gingerbread houses.  Especially architects.  Every year my firm has a gingerbread house competition.  It's great fun.
I'd love to know what you think is important in a gingerbread house.  Maybe it's similar to what you think is important in a real house?  Or not?  Please take my fun holiday survey!
Thanks, Jacob

Alternate Architecture 4 - the gift to be simple

from: www.wikimedia.org

I have a vivid memory of visiting the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill outside Louisville, KY.  It was a bittersweet, sad experience, like walking through a house one last time before moving out.  Everything was quiet and empty, but full of memory.  Small touches remained to hint at past cheerful times – a chair, a quilt, or a desk all alone in an empty room.

There was a simple elegance to Shaker life.  It extended through every object they made, every song they sang, and every place they touched.  They lived with nature, using every product of their industry, with very little waste.  But they were also very progressive.  Their places are museums to us now, but that's just because time has passed them by.  They used and invented cutting edge labor-saving devices.  Before suffrage, they had a society of rough equality and human dignity.  It's sad their beliefs doomed them to extinction.

Our lives can’t and shouldn’t be like the shakers – but we can learn much from them.  Living with less can be a virtue.  Working simply can be the greatest joy.   And having less can make us free. 

Alternate architecture 3 - Washington DC

A recent exhibit at the National Building Museum takes a look at the Washington DC that could have been, but isn't.  Unbuilt Washington features a collection of architectural models, drawings, and exhibits showcasing the unbuilt works of many different architects for projects both familiar and strange.  It sounds like a fascinating exhibit.

But maybe more interesting is the Washington DC that could be, but isn't.  The video game Fallout 3 is a post-apocalyptic action shooter set in a Washington, DC ravaged by nuclear weapons.  It's uncanny representation of ruined DC is both oddly simplistic and enormously vast.  It shows the powerful creative potential of a place (mis/re)interpreted.