Heatherwick Rolling Bridge

After reading this article on the architect/designer Thomas Heatherwick (website) in an old New Yorker, I had to look up some of his designs online. They're awesome. This footbridge in London curls up like a scorpion tail when a boat comes by.

Architecture in New Orleans

(nytimes.com)

Last summer I interned with a company called Evolve24, which was in the business of tracking companies' reputations and giving them advice about the future. My job the whole summer was reading every article written about a couple companies. One of the clients was an insurance company that took a lot of flack for their policies in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida because of Hurricane Katrina.

So basically I learned the ins and outs of the insurance industry for three months. Not too great for summer hang out conversation, but I learned a lot. Here's what the issue was in a nutshell (sorry for the typos, it's finals week): People bought home insurance from a company, in which 'hurricane insurance' is included. Hurricane Katrina hit and wiped out millions of homes in the Gulf. The insurance company claims adjusters came in and looked at the houses and said "no, no, this is flood damage. that coverage is extra and you didn't sign up for it." People were pisssssed.

But, after a summer of reading these articles, and comparing this American insurance company with ones overseas (UK, France, etc.) I learned that for insurance companies to actually offer full hurricane insurance to everyone in the Gulf who gets hit by hurricanes every ten years, no one would be able to afford the rates. In some areas of the UK, no insurance companies will offer coverage at all. You just live there at your own risk and rebuild after your house is blown over.

All this to say (I've been long-winded lately...), I had a conversation with my boss last summer about what houses would withstand a hurricane. A bomb shelter? Then I asked Julie's brother Andy (who's at architecture school in Arkansas) about it and he said that some people came up with an idea for a house that was on an axis, so the house could be blown by the wind and just move with whichever direction the wind was going. Weird. But then I was looking at my friend Marion's architecture and design magazine (Metropolis) and they had an article about Brad Pitt trying to figure out the same issue: what houses can withstand hurricanes in New Orleans?

Well, he started a campaign called Make It Right, where he had a design contest for architects to design homes that would withstand a hurricane and be under $150,000. The house above is designed with pylons underneath the house so it will float if there is a flood. Pretty sweet idea.

nytimes.com "Brad Pitt Commissions Designs for New Orleans"
Metropolis Magazine "Saint Brad" - click here for pictures of the designs

Fernando & Humberto Campana Banquete Chair

(mossonline.com)

Why yes, that is a chair with a bunch of stuffed animals stapled to it. And it would be the most comfortable thing ever.

Montreal, again.

This photo is from lebonbonmulticolore's flikr site and illustrates why i want to go to Montreal. Check out those staircases!

New SLAM Expansion: Ew.

The beloved St. Louis Art Museum is expanding and building a new Modern Art Wing.

Gross. I think it clashes with the beautiful architecture for the rest of the building. Why oh why?

SLAM website on the expansion (here).
Horribly written St. Louis Post-Dispatch article on it (here).

Check out the artist's renderings:

Department of Good Ideas...maybe

I'm no fan of modernist architecture. There are plenty of examples on the Mizzou campus of ugly big gray box buildings that make it even more upsetting to go to class at 8 in the morning. Buildings like Middlebush (photo), the Ag building, Arts & Science, GCB, my dorm Freshman year (photo), I could go on. Fortunately there is White campus (photo) and Red campus (photo) also to balance the look so the whole campus ends up looking eclectic.

Well there's this architect I found on coolhunter.com named Adam Kalkin who is taking old shipping containers (like this one) and turning them into homes. He is also turning them into restaurants or other functional living and working spaces. It's really cool recycling.

Check out Adam Kalkin's website here: (Architecture and Hygine) He has the most random stuff, from stock recommendations to 'Jesus Smokes' t-shirts to an "Old Lady House" design concept.