Seiwooo = Graphic Bliss

An email from Mannisi Alban alerted me to some of the fine graphic work that is present on the Seiwooo site - a portfolio of work spanning the past ten years. It's rare to find a wide range of different graphic techniques in one spot, so these are definitely worthy of a look - if merely to get some thoughts on that project you're working on. A visit to the opening screen shows a landscape scene, along with a chronological menu of projects to pick and choose - or if you're linear - move forward or reverse in history.


:: image via Seiwooo

Not at all inclusive, I've chosen to feature a few projects that spoke to me in certain ways - purely from a visual standpoint - not necessarily in design or content. Starting off, the Beach Road Competition from Singapore (2007) was a collaboration with EDAW Singapore & SAA Architect - and features a range of style - spanning from sketchup 3-D like overall form and a variety of photoshop collage perspective sketches offer colorful examples of landscape spaces.






:: images via Seiwooo

A different mood is evoked in the more dark and moody 'Cause and becomming of the particular situations of Transit Zones' from Ile de France, France - 2004 - which features some designs for Charles de Gaulle Airport as an international gateway.






:: images via Seiwooo

The signature of Mass Studies is seen in the colloaborative effort with Seiwooo for the S Trenue Tower in Seoul, Korea from 2006 - showing some of the evolution of the form - along with the final product.

:: images via Seiwooo

Another veg.itectural example from Seiwooo again combines the landscape with architecture from Mass Studies - the Jukjeon Hildersheim Housing in South Korea - offers some scale jumping from the molecular to the site planning size...

:: images via Seiwooo

Definitely check out the site for some visual inspiration. You definitely won't be disappointed, and the inventiveness is worthy of praise. Not all of these images fit the model of glossy artificial photoshopped worlds - but rather range from what amounts to digital 'concept' sketches - showing an iterative process that layers simple forms onto materials, and ends up with a compelling visual. It's also interesting to see the evolution of the portfolio over time - and the used of a variety of media - showing how technology and expanded accessible graphic options have changed the way we visually communicate. I will post some further exploration of the Seiwooo site and the explorations of veg.itecture - which is one of the topics of the upcoming VIVA series. Something to learn from indeed.

Veg.itecture: VIA Olive 8, Joost, Mission, + Busan et.al.

VIA: Vegitecture in Action: As promised, the inevitable death of posts related to Veg.itecture has spun, in this auspicious 50th post, into a new series that will investigate the dual sides of the concept - the VIA and the VIVA, if you will (explained here in detail). For this inaugural installment of Veg.itecture in Action (VIA) - a look at four distinctly different, yet equally real, projects along with a few ephemeral touches sprinkled on as endnotes.

Olive 8
The Seattle DJC blog had some installation photos of Olive 8, a condominium in Seattle that features a couple of green roofs - one a tray-based system of sedums. From the DJC: "The roof is actually two green roofs so the developer, R.C. Hedreen, can test out which system it likes best. Above the chillers there is a sod-based green roof. On the actual fourth floor ground level, there is a tray-based sedum system. There is a lasting argument between which one of these techniques is better, which I will discuss in a later post at greater detail. For more on this project, or to learn about R.C. Hedreen’s conversion to being a green developer, read the story in the DJC here."




:: Tray System - images via DJC


:: Sod-based System - images via DJC

Joost Greenhouse
City of Sound featured this interesting project from Melbourne Australia - a temporary structure with some inventive rooftop planters and a unique living wall: "The Greenhouse, by Joost and others, is an opportunistic temporary insertion into a gap in Federation Square, Melbourne. It’s built entirely from recycled and recyclable materials. The exterior is dis-assembled shipping containers and packing crates, filled with straw bale and covered with plants. When I was there, the walls were embedded with strawberry plants and potatoes were planted on top (and used in the potato salad served below), amongst other things."






:: images via City of Sound

More info about the agricultural aspects: "Particularly interesting to me - as a keen if limited urban gardener - is the building as platform and showcase for urban agriculture. A little more could be done to explain the system at work here - which plants make it into the food; how the waste is turned into compost etc. - and the opportunity for increasingly greening all urban spaces with productive planting."




:: images via City of Sound

Pacific Garden Mission
This project, found on Jetson Green, offers some images of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago - which had some rooftop interventions. The ratty-looking tray system and rooftop? greenhouses shown below show some of the examples.




:: images via Jetson Green

But they definitely could use a little extra rooftop greening perhaps - looks comfy...


:: image via Jetson Green

Busan Green Room
This brief post from Vulgare highlights the unique 'Green Room' - a utility on the outside, green on the inside temporary pavillion installation from Gruppo A12 - for the Busan Biennale 2006.




:: images via Vulgare


:: image via Gruppo A12

et.al.
Getting ephemeral, there's a few little projects of veg.itectural work that caught the eye in the past few weeks. Both aim at some normal functionality, but fall perhaps a bit short in action. Starting with the ridiculous - Carpark in Taipai - from 3RW Arkitekter - comes courtesy of Vulgare - and gives new meaning to the term parkway:


:: image via Vulgare

And the sublime, a post from Inhabitat of some soft moss used as a bathmat: "This Moss Carpet by Nguyen La Chanh brings the outside indoors in an unconventionally natural way by placing it underfoot. The lush green lawn thrives in humid environments, which makes your bathroom a perfect place to grow."


:: image via Inhabitat

To the just plain wrong - another billboard greening - this time hawking the wares of Adidas. Thanks to Bill Badrick for pointing this one out - and linking to Toxel.


:: image via Toxel

And for an end to the ephemera, check out this interview with High Line Horticulturalist Melissa Fisher, as she describes the nitty gritty of planting the High Line, the Mod Eco-Deep Haus with green roof, courtesy of Jetson Green, and another simple and silly introduction to green roofs from Portland. Enjoy.

Picturing Smart Growth

A recent email from Kaid Benfield, fellow blogger and Director of Smart Growth for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) alerted me to an interesting visual tool they had recently unveiled, called Picturing Smart Growth" A short overview: "With generous assistance from our friends at Urban Advantage, NRDC has created a map of the United States featuring 70 locations across the country that are ripe for transformative change. Open the map, zoom in on a location (one of two Tempe, AZ, sites shown below) and, without leaving our web site, you will be shown a Google Maps satellite view of the existing site, given some context about the metro area, and be treated to a brief slide show demonstrating how each can be converted, step-by-step, from sprawl, vacant property or disinvestment into a lively, beautiful neighborhood"

Check out the photo array of site to completed neighborhood (these are developed as overlaid flash movies on the PSG site). all images via Switchboard - Kaid Benfield


:: Existing conditions / Proposed light rail line and neighborhood park


:: New walkable street / Residential development


:: Additional multi-family residential development convenient to light rail,

There are over 70 locations from around the country as well as a searchable database, so definitely check out the ones in your neck of the woods and report back to see if they are compelling examples... to give a little more expansive example, I did some screen shots of the version of visioning for Mount Pleasant, South Carolina called Variety Beats Uniformity - to give a little more idea of the process and product... there's around a dozen frames, each expanding from the previous - of which I've included a few (images via NRDC):













It's quite a dramatic transformation. An interesting addition for this visual is an alternative view of the area seen as a residential area instead of the final mixed use version above.



The idea of the iterative visuals (instead of the typical before/after that we often do) are incredibly powerful, showing the aggregation of changes and improvements - not a snapshot of a distant future - and also allow for alternative scenarios. I'm thinking of the rudimentary 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books where you could establish a range of visions, then give some points of decision for clients or others to pick - which would allow the story to unfold along multiple pathways.

I also checked out the closest example in Eugene, Oregon, and it looked pretty great - (with the exception of the slip road, but that may be my own personal transportation bias)... It'd be interesting to see if there's a mechanism for sharing these videos aside from the embedded flash videos... (aside from my above screen shots) they would be an amazing resource for meetings and presentations.