Graphics + Photography

Oct 31, 20080

Francois Blanciak’s architecture theory: less talk, more weirdness

“Imagine Learning from Las Vegas as illustrated by Chris Ware, and you’ll get a sense of François Blanciak’s marvelously inventive new book, Siteless: 1001 Building Forms (The MIT Press, 2008).

“Blanciak, a French architect who has worked alongside Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, and the Danish provocateur Bjarke Ingels, now lives in Japan, where he is a research fellow at the University of Tokyo. In Siteless, his first book, he displays an equal gift for playfulness and rigor, drawing by hand 1001 building types—fanciful and sometimes impossible—with no thought paid to site, program, or budget….”

via wired

Oct 31, 20080

So I may have been on a surrealist/conceptual/somewhat-gravity-defying architecture kick lately … but it never fails to amaze the mind and question our most rooted notions of what architecture is, what space is, and how time and society are effect each.

via BLDGBLOG

Seattle-based concept artist Daniel Dociu is Chief Art Director for ArenaNet, the North American wing of NCSoft, an online game developer with headquarters in Seoul. Most notably, Dociu heads up the production of game environments forGuild Wars – to which GameSpot gave 9.2 out of 10, specifically citing the game’s “gorgeous graphics” and its “richly detailed and shockingly gigantic” world.
Dociu has previously worked with Electronic Arts; he has an M.A. in industrial design; and he won both Gold and Silver medals for Concept Art at this year’sSpectrum awards.

To date, BLDGBLOG has spoken with novelists, film editors, musicians, architects, photographers, historians, and urban theorists, among others, to see how architecture and the built environment have been used, understood, or completely reimagined from within those disciplines – but coverage of game design is something in which this site has fallen woefully short. (go to bldgblog to read the complete article)

Oct 29, 20080

Science Fiction and the City (…more)

via BLDGBLOG

… more on the film festival post from earlier today. BLDGBLOG has a great post on the whole thing. It’s really worth checking out … makes me think i should be sketching more, even if ( or especially if ) it’s stuff like this …

images via ben procter

via marc goerner

Oct 29, 20080

Film, Science Fiction and Architecture — In a Wind Tunnel

via wired

Amazing architecture blogger Geoff Manaugh has organized a live event in Pasadena, CA (on may with four mavens of science fiction art. Ryan Church, James Clyne, Mark Goerner, and Ben Procter — who’ve worked on conceptual art for everything from Star Wars to Minority Report — will be presenting their work and talking about the aesthetics and business of speculative design. The event takes place in a converted wind tunnel at the Art Center College of Design, itself an example of speculative architecture.

This is great. These images, architecturally speaking, are an incredible showing of what can be created and also stand as a stark contrast to many of the buildings we are surrounded by every day. I would personally love to see something like this on the Texas A&M campus. Not all over the place, because these things don’t belong everywhere. But a few would not hurt. (because the campus in some parts is horrible.)

Vote – It Matters.

What does your vote matter in a sea of electoral decision making? The truth is, a lot. Here are some of the closest elections in recent history so you know that deciding not to vote on Election Day could really make a huge difference.

GoodSheet via Good

Oct 28, 20080