Ray Kappe

"I've always sought out the edges, the views, and a feeling of expansiveness."

"I was once asked what I think are the ten most important principles that helped make me a successful architect, planner, and educator...

(1) Think positively, not negatively.
(2) Accept structure but know that it is to be questioned and broken when necessary.
(3) Always be willing to explore, experiment and invent. Do not accept the status quo.
(4) Know yourself and keep your work consistent with who you are and how you think.
(5) Maintain good moral and social values.
(6) Be humble, honest, compassionate, and egalitarian.
(7) Have conviction about your work.
(8) Be open and say yes to most ideas and requests. The good ones will be valuable, the bad ones will cease to exist.
(9) Allow employees and fellow workers freedom and the ability to work to their strengths. Avoid hierarchy.
(10) Money should be the residual of work, not the goal. But do not compromise your worth."

Ray Kappe website.

He's designed several houses for LivingHomes.

There is a new feature of his own house in the new issue of dwell magazine. Unfortunately it does not appear that the feature is available on the dwell site.

More Photos...

...added to the sets: Downtown Winston-Salem, including West End Village, and Winston-Salem's Family Services Building.

Proximity Hotel

My ARC 230 Environmental Systems class took a field trip over to Greensboro this week to visit the Proximity Hotel, which is expected to be the first LEED Platinum hotel in the country.

It is modelled after typical textile mills found in the area--straightforward rectangular grid with large windows--and named after a specific mill just a mile or two down the road from this site. The bistro nextdoor is named after the Print Works which was situated directly nextdoor to the mill.

Here is a link to the set of pics on my flickr page.

The official Proximity website.

CU-ICAR

Visited the Clemson University-International Center for Automotive Research this past seekend while staying with friends in Greenville, SC. It is a complex developed recently for (as the title suggests) car-ology. Apparently Clemson has the only Doctorate in Automotive Engineering in the country.

I don't have all the details about the buildings and could not go inside any of them other than the parking garage (the place was oddly empty), but I do know that Greenville firm Pazdan-Smith worked on at least one of the buildings (the one for Timken). Also quickly visited another LEED-seeking building designed by Pazdan-Smith in Greenville.

I've got a set of pictures from Greenville/ICAR on my flickr page.

Dubious Dubai's Rotating Tower

The 80-story Dynamic Tower, described as the "world's first building in motion," will also be the first skyscraper constructed from prefabricated units, according to a press statement released by New York-based architect David Fisher's Dynamic Group.

Each floor would be capable of rotating independently, powered by wind turbines fitted between each floor.

full story at CNN

video

BUILD IT LIKE ZAHA!

Last Sunday the Design Museum held a workshop, where kids between the ages of 5 and 11 could ‘Build it Like Zaha.’ To book for this Sunday’s Build it Like Zaha workshop, 29 July 2 - 5pm, phone 020 7940 8783, email tickets@designmuseum.org or book online.




read more about it here

As Seen on ArchRecord

Piano’s Plans for Corbu Landmark Incite Fierce Debate

Construction plans for the site of Le Corbusier¹s chapel of Notre Dame du Haut (1954) in Ronchamp, France, have ignited a vigorous debate, pitting leading architects against each other, and sparking disagreement between organizations seeking to preserve Le Corbusier¹s legacy.



Designed by Renzo Piano, the project was commissioned by the Association Oeuvre Notre Dame du Haut, the same organization that commissioned the chapel by Le Corbusier, widely regarded as a 20th-century architectural masterpiece. The plan calls for the replacement of an existing visitor’s center...

(read the entire article and see slide show at ArchRecord)



Google image search

Galinsky

Great Buildings

DO IT With an Architect

It's too cool, but it's too small for me, so somebody else get it!

here on ebay

MUXTAPE.COM

I found out about this website recently to which you upload 12 songs (mp3 format) to make your own mixtape. You remember those don't you? Proclamation of Love... Ode to Heartbreak... Summer Mix!... Cool... Trippy... Laughy's Greatest Hits...

It is not a complicated site at all; pretty clear, and I love the simple, direct graphics. Especially when compared to other music sharing sites that get all cluttered up with ads and other visual stimuli (distractions).

I have not bought any music from the site yet, so I don't know how that works yet, but here is a link to my first mix (I am sure there will be more to come), and here is a link to the main Muxtape page where you can poke around listening to others' mixes...or make one of your own.

Brad Pitt, Starchitect

According to People Magazine, Brad Pitt will join the Architectural Elite in the desert, by acting (no pun intended) as a design consultant on an 800-room "green" hotel in Dubai.

There is a lively discussion on Archinect about this news.

Pitt has a well-documented interest in/infatuation with/passion for architecture. And he has also been deeply involved with his Make it Right Foundation which is an organization working on the rebuilding and rehabilitation of New Orleans. More about it here on Archinect.

Speaking of sexy and renderings in Dubai, there is no way a large project can be undertaken today without producing very life-like renderings that show the proposed building in its idealized state--in its best light, surrounded/filled by people... Listen to this: