How social/ physical/ virtual link together- Amandeep

Hey- everyone! Humera I love the tram stop! It creates a sense of social space within a small area, increasing the people flow; even the stations create the idea of motion. Not sure if I like the bike, looks a bit too retro to me, and can't see anyone using it in the future!

Referring back to my last post about how modernisation maybe linked to mobility; I have interpreted Marx’s view as time being an indicator of how we have grown as a society and how the world has become more accessible and mobile- The idea of the word ‘Modern’ has never been interpreted the same.

I thought the best way to understand this was by looking at my own life; the above diagram is my representation of how mobility has affected/ changed over my lifetime. I have highlighted key points in my life (through a time line), that have increased my mobility within society.

The basic points I can pick out from it are that the virtual and physical aspects of mobility act as supports to the social factor. They all work simultaneously, and I wouldn’t be able to function properly if one was removed. As I have become older and more socially active, my virtual and physical mobility are automatically increased. I can also see that my virtual mobility is more active than my physical mobility, as I am more likely to contact someone via email/ phone rather than visit them in person.

I notice that education is a key backbone from where many of my social connections derive, as we do spend a lot of our youth studying. I can also see my virtual connections are mainly to local friends and friends.

While travelling, I can see a mixed set of emotions, especially when travelling to a new place, or a rarely used transport. It is here, in these transient places, where De Botton says we best encounter our true selves. It is these places where we feel that we can isolate ourselves into a place of comfort.

Maybe in the future surrounding will change according to our movement, or lack of it. Maybe our physical mobility will be replaced by more virtual movement as it is easier, faster and cheaper? Maybe our physical transport will get faster, more types of transport, but will we travel less often? Will there be any need to go to work, will we be working from home?

"The Monowheel!" a new means of transport? Humera

Can this possibly be a new means of transport, or is this simple design a recreation of our beloved bicycle?! make your own mind up? would you travel from A to B on this..?think of the back pain? is it a success or will it fail happily?!

Designer Ben Wilson has produced a monowheel – a cycle where the rider sits inside a large, spokeless wheel.

The cycle was commissioned for the XXIst Century Manexhibition at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo.

“As part of the exhibition the 21st century man (showing at 21-21 tokyo midtown until july) I was comissioned to create a new piece of work,” says Wilson. “As part of the exhibition the 21st century man (showing at 21-21 tokyo midtown until july) I was comissioned to create a new piece of work,” says Wilson.

“Since the 1860’s many patents have been filed in the monowheel’’s name and today there are even rumors of a production monowheel in China, but as it stands there is nothing currently available. As we couldn’t buy a monowheel we made one.”

“We don’’t suggest for one moment that a functioning human powered monowheel could ever provide an improvement on the modern bicycle. Instead its value comes from the discourse and ideas generated as a result of this research.”

-Ben Wilson

Roundabout transformation...Humz

This is another article i came across, designed by spanish architects subarquitectura, I like the idea of making a roundabout or "traffic circle" a public space, but I hate urban spaces that have obviously been designed in plan view. There is no reason why there needs to be 32 different ways to approach the station. Finally, someone has figured out a way how to promote better use of round abouts. as the ones that have trees planted within them can be unsafe, i.e crime spots!

Spanish architects Subarquitectura

have sent us images of this tram stop they built on a roundabout in Alicante, Spain.

With the project, which was completed last year, the architects wanted “to turn a traffic circle into a public space”.

Alicante is a 400.000 inhabitants city of the southeast mediterranean spanish coast. Over the last years, there has been building a new tram infrastructure, using the old rails of the local train. This line connects all the towns of the coast, ending in Denia, a northern city of the province, where ships departure to Ibiza.

This stop, is the central stage of a new line of the tram, that links the centre of the city to the residential areas of

San Juan beach

The construction of the Tram Stop was the opportunity to bring back a stolen space to the city: to turn a traffic circle into a public space

Through a fractal access system deformed in each side to avoid the existing trees, the travellers can arrive in a frontal way to the platform in 32 different possibilities.Over the platforms, 2 empty boxes (36 m long, 3 m wide, 2,5 m high) create a floating void slightly over the travellers’ heads. It matches the size of the train, creating an intermediate scale between buildings and urban elements.

There is no difference between structure and envelope, neither between roof and walls. It is an

isotropic material in both conception

and construction.Each of the pieces has:

800 holes, in 5 different sizes:

440 diameter 10 cm

240 diameter 20 cm

80 diameter 30 cm

24 diameter 40 cm

12 diameter 50 cm

25 steel tons

13 bar lights

36 meters length

22 meters cantilevered

2 compressed supports

2 stressed supports

And…

a few comments left by residents in the area: -

ubik17 Says:
I like the idea but when it’s raining, waiting the tram under the station will be a problem. The holes on the upper face will allow all the rain water on the waiting people.

asume Says: Mate, it barely rains in Alicante !
JuiceMajor² Says:
How is it supported? Can’t see any structure. Is like it is hovering up in the air! Genius!

Sullka Says:
wow Dezeen….this is so 2 years ago!……excellent project indeed.
JOSHUA Says:
what about a meteoroids, holes will let them through
wartian Says:
rich and emptyness

great!

leopoldo Says:
fantastico:)

muy buen proyecto.

gracias por hacernos la vida mas feliz con obras como estas.

One Says:
This is a knowledge. Worth publishing. Good way to gacefully light the halte and keep the suroudings nice and dark at night. Earthquake does not occure in Spain, right?

Would you purchase one of these? humera...!

you know how they say that one day everything and anything will be replaced by robots... well i came across something really interesting... its relevent to mobility, as we physically move from humans to robots in the mere future...and relevent to architecture as building a brick wall is a main aspect to most buildings...one day once we're all successful architects, you may decide to invest in one of these !! but take a look and let me no what you guys think.. :D :D :D

On September 29, Storefront for Art and Architecture will inaugurate a new exhibition showcasing research conducted over the past 3 years at ETH Zurich by Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler into full-scale digital fabrication in architecture using industrial robots. At the same time, construction work will begin on Pike Loop, the first architectural project to be built on site by an industrial robot in the US.

Located on Pike Street, the robot, R-O-B, will work for up to four weeks—in full view of the public— to construct a brick wall, a highly sculptural response to the specific identity of the site. The same robot unit recently built the award-winning installation, Structural Oscillations, at the 2008 architectural biennial in Venice. For the Pike Loop installation, more than seven thousand bricks aggregate to form an infinite loop that weaves along the pedestrian island. In changing rhythms the loop lifts off the ground and intersects itself at its peaks. The installation was coordinated through the New York City Department of Transportation’s Urban Art Program.a

Amandeep

I found Neil’s previous post very interesting and maybe he’s right in saying that the future built environment could be drastically different. The interactive commerce is thriving pulling a lot of sales and may drive many high street shops out of business, or will they conform to joining the rising internet world? Woolworths is a very good example of this..

And (referring to my last post), this virtual shift may even be the way modernity is heading, and may provide the change we need without the need for permanence...maybe?

Amandeep

I was reading “All that is Solid Melts Into Air”, when I came across Marx's interpretation of Modernity:

“Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity of class and nationality, of religion and ideology: in the sense, modernity can be said to unite mankind.”

He then goes on to say, “ The maelstrom of modern life has been fed from many sources: Great discoveries into physical sciences, changing our images of it and our place in it; the industrialisation of production, which transforms scientific knowledge into technology, creates new human environments and destroys old ones, speeds up the whole tempo of life, generates new forms of corporate power and class struggle; immense demographic upheavals, severing millions of people from their ancestral habitats, hurtling them half way across the world into new lives; rapid and often cataclysmic urban growth; systems of mass communication, dynamic in their development, enveloping and binding together the most diverse people and societies…mass social movements of people, challenging their political and economic rulers, striving to gain control over their lives…In the 20^th Century, the social process that bring this maelstrom into being, and keep it in a state of perpetual becoming, have come to be known as “Modernisation.”

Apart from being left breathless and slightly dizzy, this got me thinking- is modernisation linked to Mobility, because according to this definition they seem very similar? This move from a world where none of what we have today was possible and was seen to be in distant future, is now easily accessible to everyone- a stage of mass communication.

He later goes on to say that we are now “Capable of everything except solidity and stability.” Is this a good thing or bad? Solidity means that we are stuck with everything permanent even when changes around may occur. Doesn’t our world of ever changing surroundings provide us with spaces that are adapting to our changing needs? Isn’t this change/ mobility necessary for us to survive?

Maybe this permanence can occur, if the built environment was naturally adaptable to our needs, if architecture was designed in such a way as to always accommodate the needs of its user…?? And referring to Neil's post, the building shown maybe a step closer to this, the ideas are there but are we able to translate into a built form?

Can one building remain permanent and modern at the same time??

What do you guys think???

E-commerce creates virtual mobility of goods and services

The freedom and mobility of information through cyber space is becoming a much larger part of the modern world that we live in. This virtual world feels no boundaries in terms of its physical geography and has the ability to conduct an infinite amount of tasks at any one time, anywhere in the world.

When looking around for some information on this subject of virtual transferral of information and services I can upon something titled ‘The Weightless Economy’ (Pratt 2000). This is simply the concept that a product can be designed, made, advertised, sold and distributed with only an electronic presence, i.e it never takes any physical form, therefore is completely weightless. A good example for this type of industry is software development and sales. A company can design and produce the software via a computer, advertise on the internet and sell via e-commerce (internet sales). The software can then be downloaded straight onto the user computer. There fore there is almost no need for any geographical location and transportation. The product never enters the physical (real) world.

This then challenges the concept of physical mobility. It simply renders it unnecessary. Now obviously this is only one part of a global marketplace at the moment but if it were to expand then it could alter the way in which the think of and design pretty much everything. Town and city centres, i.e. the high street, will have to compete more and more with internet sales and e-commerce, which could come to a point whereby there is no longer a need for the physical shop, therefore no need for the high street, and in doing so changing the way our towns/cities are made up, designed and moved around.

Neil