Improvised Design Photopool

Haha, take that summer, score one for the Blog.

The "Improvised Design Photopool" is up and running.

Please take a look and more importantly please contribute to this fledgling collection of the worlds mostly unrecognized yet universal examples of how design exists at all levels of scope, budget, time and location. The improvised designs of those who build and make out of necessity should act as an inspiration for those who have any interest or connection with the world of design. It’s my hope that with the combination of inspiration through exposure and the background of training in design that new ideas can be fostered from this less than mainstream source.

The link again:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/improvised_design/

My apologies in advance if you are not a FLICKR member but registration is required to post images and is free and highly worth it for this reason and many others.

The Most Beautiful Security Camera

I’ve always been fascinated by the use of camouflage (see Hardy Blechman’s DPM Encyclopaedia sidebar). One question which comes to mind when combining thoughts on security and camouflage (and lets face it, they go hand in hand), architecturally speaking, is it more important to be beautiful or invisible? I ask because I wonder if there’s a responsibility in the hands of the architect to the general public for an honesty of space. That is to say, if one is honest about the intrusion into our private space, can we overcome this through pleasing aesthetic design?

Architectural Push-Overs?

This question is related to the previous post and in response to Mike Davis’ Ecology of Fear. In it he describes the extent to which (in Los Angeles specifically) security consultants such as the police department have taken an increasing role in the design of our urban environment. This type of activity is also best seen in the suffocating revisions to the Freedom Tower in New York as mandated by the NYPD. My question is to what end? Is it not the architect’s role to have an understanding of all elements which contribute to the design and creation of the built world around us?