2011年4月29日星期五

InBetween House / Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates

Inbetween House / Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates © Iwan Baan
http://www.archdaily.com/131318/inbetween-house-koji-tsutsui-architect-associates/

FICTION AND THE CITY


[Images: From "Dream Isle" by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects with Thomas Hillier, Maxwell Mutanda, Rachel Guo, and Ed Liu, from Short Stories: London in Two-and-a-Half Dimensions].

I've just received a copy of the forthcoming book Short Stories: London in Two-and-a-Half Dimensions by CJ Lim and Ed Liu, and I thought I'd include a few glimpses of it here.

[Image: From "Carousel" by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects with Maxwell Mutanda, from Short Stories].

The book is ostensibly a collection of spatial short stories in which "unexpected environments and places transform into active protagonists." The stories are "laced with a healthy dose of myth and locational specificity," as the authors write in the book's preface.

They continue:
The short stories of this book's title are set in different time periods of London, intentionally locating themselves in the liminal territory between fiction and architecture to provoke an engagement between readers and their two-dimensional counterparts occupying the depicted city. The stories are neither illustrated texts nor captioned images; the collages represent a network of spatial relationships, and the text, which splices genre such as science fiction, magical realism and the fairy tale, a thread that links some of the nodes of that network together.
In the two following images, for instance, produced by the authors in collaboration with Maxwell Mutanda and Tomasz Marchewka, we see a fictive bridge connecting what are described as the warring tribes of north and south London. There are 214 bridges over the Thames, this story goes, but every year a new connective filament appears: a 215th bridge.

This bridge, "in contrast to its predecessors, is a transitory connection joining the two halves of the metropolis only between the summer months of June and September, during which a common amnesty is held."

[Images: From "Discontinuous Cities" by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects with Maxwell Mutanda and Tomasz Marchewka, from Short Stories].

In other stories, Alice in Wonderland collides with the Playboy Mansion, which arrives for one night, and one night only, in the parks of London, where "underground chambers, replicating the hole through which Alice follows the white rabbit, had been scattered through the garden, capped with circular lenses and mirrors," optically augmenting this hedonistic underworld.

A "roving telescopic contraption" roams the streets; a leather suitcase pops open and "the habitable spaces within extend and unfold each morning to provide a stage for grooming, relaxation and formal dining"; a landscape illuminated by falling stars is discovered to be watered from below by "networks of metal piping" that "mirrored the arrangement of flowers above."

Elsewhere, a baker works himself to exhaustion "every day without fail," perfuming the city with fresh bread from within his "synaesthetic pleasure dome," its "glorious landscape of smells shifting from fermenting acidity to caramelizing sweetness, a riot of auburn and amber reflecting the fires of the bakery and street lamps outside, a symphony of hissing steam and the pummeling of dough."

The two images, below, show "nebulous clouds of steam," like an artificial weather front—its "topiaries of water vapour will become indistinguishable from clouds," we read—being produced in the baker's garden.

[Images: From "The Baker's Garden" by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects with Safia Qureshi, fromShort Stories].

There are dragons and summer solstices and mechanical animals roving the streets; butchers' towers, police on horseback, and a fictional interview with the director of something called the New Battersea Centre for Dogs, who explains how she managed to transform vast circular gasometers into greyhound racing parks.

As novelist China Miéville explained to BLDGBLOG in an interview published here last month, London is a city peculiarly well-suited for these sorts of literary and spatial phantasmagoria: "For various reasons, some cities refract, through aesthetics and through art, with a particular kind of flamboyancy. For whatever reason, London is one of them. I don’t mean to detract from all the other cities in the world that have their own sort of Gnosticism, but it is definitely the case that London has worked particularly well for this."

[Images: From "The Nocturnal Tower" by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects with Barry Cho, fromShort Stories].

In Short Stories—where myths are told through photographs of pop-out paper figures and propped-open books—London becomes a city architects will always have the freedom to re-dream, and architecture itself becomes a way to undo the spatial straightjackets we find ourselves within.

But does all this mean that the architect is thus politically neutered, reduced to the role of court jester, telling stories of impossible urban boroughs while the real city takes shape, a graph of nothing but the financial needs of absentee developers, hypnotized by fairy tales of a metropolis that can never be built?

[Images: From "The Celestial River" by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects with Maxwell Mutanda and Sarah Custance, from Short Stories].

Not at all: architects telling stories with and through complex spatial representations—rather than merely supplying construction documents—brings them into contact with all the arts and sciences that have always and already used the built environment as a framework for larger, abstract ideas. Architectural mythology doesn't cede anyone's right—or political ability—to change the city, any more than cinema, games, music, poetry, or narrative fiction might do, despite fundamentalist claims that these operate as nothing but middle-class distractions; in all cases, these and other speculative entertainments are often precisely the reason why new visions of human community, spatial justice, and cathartic well-being arise in the first place.

Of course, spatial tales will inspire some people simply to daydream, but that hardly sabotages architecture's undeniable power to push others to pursue, with great fervor and enthusiasm, the means of seeing such strange and hallucinatory sights someday come true.

Science fiction is no substitute for science itself, but it is a valuable, if not conceptually indispensable, tool for generating, discussing, and communicating often radical ideas.

And the same is true for architecture's relationship with architectural fiction: thankfully, the latter will not replace the former—but, again, that's not its point.

The point of "combining place and fiction," as Short Stories describes it, is not so that we can sit around infantilizing one another with fairy tales, treating the world as empty spectacle, but to reveal, through projects of great imaginative power, that another world is possible, and architects have a unique ability to chaperone this future earth into existence.

2011年4月25日星期一

如何休息(每天都很累,但你真的会正确的休息方式么)


你会休息吗?
你根本不会休息


为什么你睡了11个小时仍然觉得疲累?
为什么你花了好几万去岛国度假并没有增加生活的热情?
都说要去KTV,去夜店,去游乐园就能忘掉不快,更带劲地开始新的一天,但是尽兴归来心里只剩空虚?

我们真的明白休息的含义吗?我们休息对了吗?

你理解的休息是什么?一个饱觉?一阵疯玩?到KTV释放饭后的一串饱嗝?
休息的真正含义是什么?是恢复疲劳,放松神经,当你重新投入工作与学习的时候觉得又是一个精力充沛的新人。
如果你的休息方式并不能为你带来这些,那么,无论这些活动的名字听起来有多轻松,看上去有多High,它都是一种错误。抛弃它们,来一场休息革命!

首先,来看看我们对休息有哪些误解:

■脑力劳动者,补瞌睡对你没什么用

你写了一天的文案,主持了一天的会议,当一切都结束了,你叹到:太累了,这一天我要睡个好觉。我们的常识使得我们对疲劳的第一反应就是“去躺躺吧”。但这是一个陷阱。
睡眠的确是一种有效的休息方式,但它主要对睡眠不足着或体力劳动者适用。对体力劳动者来说,“疲劳”主要是由体内产生大量酸性物质引起,如果十分疲劳,应采取静的休息方式。通过睡觉,可以把失去的能量补充回来,把堆积的废物排除出去。如果不是很累,也可以在床上先躺一躺,闭目静息,让全身肌肉和神经完全放松后,再起来活动活动。
但如果你是坐办公室的,大脑皮层极度兴奋,而身体却处于低兴奋状态,对待这种疲劳,睡眠能起到的作用不大,(除非你是熬夜加班,连正常睡眠时间都达不到)因为你需要的不是通过“静止”恢复体能,而是要找个事儿把神经放松下来。这样你可以理解为什么你周末两天不出门依旧无精打采,而只需下班后游泳半小时就神采奕奕。

■不必停下来,只是换一下

既然睡觉不能帮助我们休息大脑,那什么办法才可以?答案是不停止活动,而只是改变活动的内容。大脑皮质的一百多亿神经细胞,功能都不一样,它们以不同的方式排列组合成各不相同的联合功能区,这一区域活动,另一区域就休息。所以,通过改换活动内容,就能使大脑的不同区域得到休息。心理生理学家谢切诺夫做过一个实验。为了消除右手的疲劳,他采取两种方式——一种是让两只手静止休息,另一种是在右手静止的同时又让左手适当活动,然后在疲劳测量器上对右手的握力进行测试。结果表明,在左手活动的情况下,右手的疲劳消除得更快。这证明变换人的活动内容确实是积极的休息方式。
比如你星期五写了5个小时的企划案, 最好第二天去给你的盆栽们剪枝而不是睡到太阳晒屁股。还有一点,当你无法选择由脑力劳动转入体力劳动时,你不妨在脑力劳动内部转换。法国杰出的启蒙思想家卢梭就讲过他的心得:“我本不是一个生来适于研究学问的人,因为我用功的时间稍长一些就感到疲倦,甚至我不能一连半小时集中精力于一个问题上。但是,我连续研究几个不同的问题,即使是不间断,我也能够轻松愉快地一个一个地寻思下去,这一个问题可以消除另一个问题所带来的疲劳,用不着休息一下脑筋。于是,我就在我的治学中充分利用我所发现的这一特点,对一些问题交替进行研究。这样,即使我整天用功也不觉得疲倦了。”所以,这天你要是有好几个问题要处理,最好交替进行,而不要处理完一个再开始的二个,那样会很快被耗尽。

■最好的休息,是让你重燃生活的热情

我们的疲惫主要来自对现有的一层不变的生活的厌倦。所以最好的休息项目就是那些让我们重新找到生活和工作热情的活动。如果你干完一件事,能够幸福地感叹“明天又是新的一天。”那这件事对你来说就是最好的恢复热情,调节情绪的方法。但可惜,我们缺乏对“休息”的想象力。我们能想出来的休息方法不是痴睡就是傻玩。
我们给你开了下面一些活动清单,基本思路是以“做”来解决“累”,用积极休息取代消极放纵。当然,最适合你的方法还是要你自己探索。事实上如果你觉得打扫卫生比坐过山车是更好的放松,那么就去吧,别管世界上的其他人都在玩什么。

也许你可以:
●用看两小时让你开怀的漫画或小说代替去KTV唱那些一成不变的口水歌
●试着放弃在周六晚上去酒吧,10点入睡,然后在7点起床,去没有人的街上走走,或是看看你从来没有机会看到的早间剧场,你会发现这一天可以和过去的千万个周末都不相同。
●不要再去你已经去过无数次的度假村找乐子了。找一条你你从没去过的街道,把它走完。你会发现这个你感到腻味的城市结果你并没有完全体会到它的妙处。
●旅行,而不是换个地方消遣。去一个地方对那个地方本身心存好奇,对自己这趟行程心存美意,感受自己经验范围以外的人生样貌。而不是坐了5小时飞机,只是换个地方打麻将,换个地方游泳,换个地方打球......
●从这个周末起学习一项新的技艺,比如弹电子琴,打鼓......每周末练习1小时以上。
●去社交。不要以为它总是令人疲惫的。虽然和看书比起来,它稍有点令人紧张,但也能让你更兴奋,更有认同感。你必须每周有两三天是和工作圈子和亲戚外的人打交道。它让你在朝九晚五的机械运行中不至失去活泼的天性。女性朋友们尤为需要走出去和朋友聚会,这些时刻你不再是满脸写着“效率”的中性人,而是一个裙裾飞扬的魅力焦点。
●做点困难的事,如果你是精神超级紧张的人。心理学家发现解除神经紧张的方法,是去处理需要神经紧张才能解决的问题。曾经一位精神即将崩溃的总经理找到一位医师给出治疗建议,结果他得到的处方是去动物园当驯狮师。一个月以后完全康复。所以压力特别大的时候你可以为自己再找分工作,但不要是和你职业类似的。比如去孤儿院做义工,或者去一个复杂的机械工厂从学徒干起,或者做一道超级复杂的数学题。


往往珍惜生命的人,会不顾任何代价,去求得一个休息.休息十天、半个月,他们回来了.再看呀,是多么神奇的一种变化!他们简直是一个新生的人了.生机勃勃,精神饱满,怀着新的希望,新的计划,新的生命憧憬,他们己消除疲劳,获得了从新起航的动力---燃料。

花些时间休息,可以使你获得大量的精力、体力,使你取得从事任何工作,应付各种问题的力量,使你对于生命,能有一个愉快正确的认识,天下还能有别种时间的投资对于你更加有利吗?

当我听到有人说,他工作太忙,没有时间去休息,我觉得这个人有些反常。或是他的能力不够应付他的业务,他的工作缺乏系统性;或是他不善于支配他的员工,以致自己离开时事业就无法运行;或是他生性就太吝啬,没有部下或团队.连上厕所的时间都不肯牺牲。当然,假如他工作没有计划、没有系统,本人一离开岗位,一切事务就要无法运行的话,他自然不能休息了.但是假如他是一个有组织协调能力的人,假如他的工诈有系统、有计划,适度休息,这正是业务中的有利投资,因为休息回来,他的精力会更加集中、精神会更加饱满.由此他的生命会延续的更长。人生的价值才能得到更加充分的体现与发挥。

每一个人都应该抛弃只顾工作不顾休息的念头。那种"生命不止,奋斗不休".的观念是错误的.应立刻从脑海中消除掉.否则,你还没有走完你应走完的生命旅程你就长眠于地下了.到那时你的理想、前途、事业不就都成了泡影了吗?因此舍不得时间休息的人,绝对不是一个聪明人.

从人性的立场上来说,休息一事,利大于敝.古语说得好:"在患病的时候,任何人都是坏人."即使是心底最善良的人,在身体疲惫不堪、神精衰弱的时候,也会变得不通情理、脾气暴噪.因此,当需要休息的候,你应该休息.不然的话,你的行为正如革命导师列宁同志所指出的那样:"不会休息就不会工作。"

目前不论你是学生还是从事各种职业的男女老少,都不能忽视自然的警告,命令你适当延长你的休息时间,暂时停止你的学习或工作,否则你将受到自然规律的严厉处罚.无论你的地位有多高、金钱有多少、还是平头百姓,在生命面前是一律平等的。这是苍天赋于自然法官的权力.是人类无法改变的自然法则.


有一种感觉我们叫它无聊,这几天不经意间我就在体验无聊。

成年累月忙碌的节奏造就了顽固、可笑的生物节律,它总是让我无法享受休息时的些许宁静,闲暇时总觉得生活中缺了什么、无所事事 ,甚至还以为知道了什么是空虚?

前些天偶然看了一篇文章,破天荒知道了还有一种说法叫“享受无聊”。

传统的教育告诫我们“无聊”是一种消极的情绪,一个奋发向上的人绝对不该有这种情绪,甚至不应该留给自己产生这种情绪的机会。

背负了太多的责任,于是我们活得好累,冠冕堂皇的说压力来自外界,但我觉得更多的压力是我们自找,因为在这个充满压力的社会我们没有学会给自己减压。

看看那些静静躺在海滩休假的人们,我们应该懂得无聊是一种难得的境界,或许比兢兢业业、勤勤恳恳的工作更难得。因为它需要你有好的心态、长远的眼光,要先接受它,让自己的心静下来,然后你才会真正的享受它。它绝不是一种颓废,它是一种休整、一种积蓄,它会让我们戒除“只会工作”的毒瘾。

很早以前就有人告诉过我们:不会休息的人就不会工作。可我们由于功利的原因,早已将这一说法忘记。于是我们忙碌,我们努力,于是也就害怕无聊、害怕无事可做,甚至会因为闲暇而几乎惶惶不可终日。

工作不应该成为生活的全部,工作只是为了更好的生活。我们应该是工作的主人,绝不是工作的奴隶。千万不要以为无聊是消极、是不敬业。

所以忙碌的人们应该去学会享受生活、去习惯感受无聊,习惯这一种新奇的美妙的感受!悠哉乐哉!


关于种子法则(SEED)


切记:不会休息就不会工作

南昌大学医学院 胡春松 北京大学人民医院 胡大一

近几年,知识分子“过劳死”屡见报端,如,年仅32岁的中国社科院学者萧亮中;36岁的清华大学讲师焦连伟;46岁的清华大学教授高文焕;36岁的浙江大学教授、博导何勇等。由于严重的“过劳死”现象频繁出现,我国知识分子平均寿命仅有58岁。严峻的现实向许多中青年知识分子及管理层敲响了警钟。知识分子英年早逝,不仅是个人和家庭的损失,而且是国家的重大损失。大力实施人才安全战略的重要内容之一是保障人才安全与健康。

中青年知识分子由于事业、家庭的重担,对于自身的健康关注甚少。不良的生活方式如长期熬夜、工作超负荷、心理压力大、缺乏运动、营养不均衡、吸烟、嗜酒等以及睡眠障碍,悄悄地侵蚀着他们的健康。究其根源,主要有几个方面:

首先,应当说这些知识分子不注意劳逸结合,且缺乏对工作与休息关系的辩证认识。他们似乎忘记了“不会休息就不会工作”、“身体是革命的本钱”这些至理名言。

其次,不重视定期检查。导致知识分子英年早逝的主要疾病是生活方式病如心脑血管病、癌症、糖尿病、肥胖等。这些病不仅发病率高,如高血压发病率已达18.8%,个别地区甚至高达25%;而且发病年龄提前,如冠心病已提前到35岁—45岁,至少较以前提前10年左右。这些疾病早期可无任何症状,故人们称高血压为“悄悄的凶手”。因此,不进行定期检查就会贻误治疗,直至悲剧出现。

三是缺乏相关保健知识。尽管我国著名健康教育专家们的健康保健知识讲座亦不少,但遗憾的是对相关讲座关注的大多数是老年群体,中青年知识分子因为工作繁忙而忽视。中青年知识分子要避免“过劳死”,就要切实认识到:1、认识工作与休息的辩证关系。要牢记“不会休息就不会工作”的格言。2、坚持定期检查。研究表明,定期检查是防治疾病的重要措施,体现了预防为主的方针和对“预防是最好的治疗”的认识。管理层亦应重视和督促他们进行定期检查。3、学习相关健康知识。健康讲座不仅应进社区、进学校、进机关、企事业等单位,还应进高校实验室。要让中青年知识分子接受健康教育,认识到健康教育的重要作用。

通过上述三个方面的努力,使知识分子戒除不良的生活方式和习惯,从而大大减少生活方式相关疾病的致死致残率。

最近,我们提出了健康的“种子”法则,即最基本的健康要素包括睡眠(Sleep)、情绪(Emotion)、运动(Exercise)和饮食(Diet)。它们构成健康的“种子”法则(S-E-E-D法则)。其内容包括:(1)睡眠法则:合理睡眠,午间小憩;(2)情绪法则:情绪稳定,心态平和;(3)运动法则:有氧运动,动静结合;(4)饮食法则:科学饮食,营养均衡。它在人们的日常保健中起着非常重要的作用,是保持健康的基本要素和首要法则。若广大中青年知识分子能在日常工作生活中遵守和实践健康的“种子”法则,相信他们患心脑血管病、癌症、糖尿病和肥胖症的机率一定会大大减少,才华横溢的中青年知识分子就可以为国家为人民作更多更大的贡献。他们的平均寿命定可以从58岁上升为85岁。


天天都是休息天

M:我現在太久(超過一個時段)沒做事會覺得很沒安全感

杰:總是要休息的嘛

M:但休息太久會有罪惡感

杰:那就每天休息就不會啦(笑 ?)

M:(心中自語-自以為習慣每天休息就會麻痺喔 ?)

[摘自本日星夜談心]





天天都是休息天

雖然這句話在過常呈現休息狀態的人口中說出一點說服力都沒有(逃~)

不過也倒是很有道理咧





保持一種彈性

一種時間的彈性 情緒的彈性 思考的彈性

對於我這種過度神經質的人倒是不錯的提醒

走向不可避免的極端方向後要有回復平穩狀態的能力與彈性





怪不得今天晚上整個放空

明天要去跟孩子玩,喔耶!





如何避免“假期综合症”?

避免“假期综合症”,最重要的是要保持一颗平常心。

一、长假开始时就应该注意调节。事先做好计划,怎么过长假因人而异,但原则是不能破坏正常的生活规律。不可过度休息,也不可过度劳累。

二、以休息为主。如果长假能以休息为主,尽可能过得轻松愉快,适度的参与比平时多的娱乐,与亲友互访或与家人团聚。如天天蒙头大睡,或通宵上网等都不可取。

三、提前进入角色。人的神经有“自动调节”的特点,因此在上班前一天应有意识的做一些与工作有关的事,有助与尽早进入工作状态。上班前一天要保证充足的睡眠。

四、多想开心事。患“假期综合症”的多是年轻人,诱因很多,比如分离性焦虑,人际交往困难,在工作中有过委屈、挫折、羞辱等经历等。所以平时要多做一些自己开心的事,多找朋友聊聊天,呼吸新鲜空气,换一个新鲜的环境。也可以求助心理咨询师,毕竟心理健康,才会在事业上取得更大的成就,生活中才能体会更多的幸福!

2011年4月18日星期一

ANTI-FLAT

[Image: By Gerry Judah].

Artist Gerry Judah's paintings are massively and aggressively three-dimensional, piling up, away, and out from the canvas to form linked cities, ruins, and debris-encrusted bridges, like reefs.

[Images: By Gerry Judah].

They are perhaps what a tectonic collaboration between Lebbeus Woods andJackson Pollock might produce: blasted and collapsing landscapes so covered in white it's as if nuclear winter has set in.

[Image: By Gerry Judah].

As the short film included below makes clear, Judah embeds entire architectural models in each piece, affixing small constellations of buildings to the canvas before beginning a kind of archaeological onslaught: layering paint on top of paint, raining strata down for days to seal the landscape in place and make it ready for wall-mounting.



And then the paintings go up, sprawling and counter-gravitational, like ruins tattooed on the walls.

[Image: By Gerry Judah].

For more work—including pieces executed in red and black—see Judah's website (including his bio, which suggests larger architectural and theatrical influences).

森の木琴

slices


NutNut Concept 13 - Video Post from AU Studio on Vimeo.

2011年4月2日星期六

Rumor Mill: Is IKEA Entering the Eco-Friendly Car Market?

We already know that IKEA is debuting a line of solar-powered lights; could the Swedish giant actually enter the eco-friendly car market?
The Internet is abuzz about a mysterious yet official-looking French website that appeared today. The site touts the LEKO, an environmentally-friendly IKEA-branded concept car. A video on the LEKO site says that the car is a modular design that can act as either a coupe or convertible. The car apparently also has the full backing of the World Wildlife Fund France, though it's not clear if that means the WWF is contributing to the LEKO's development or just endorsing it.
There's a distinct possibility that the LEKO video and site are the viral warning shots for someone's April Fools' Day hoax. The LEKO is absent from the IKEA website, and most importantly, the car will be unveiled on April Fools' Day.
But hey, stranger things, right? April 1-7 is France's Sustainable Development Week, and IKEA already offers "kit homes" shipped in flatpacks to customers in Northern England and Scandinavia. I hope we can get a LEKO in Swedish blue and yellow.
We wonder, though, if a car made by IKEA might ship to customers in pieces to DIY like the images below.
ikea-verkauft-autos
ikea-verkauft-autos-werkzeug