L E G M O U N T A I N

From here

 Quarks combine to form hadrons, the best known of which are protons and neutrons, which make up the nucleus of an atom. As far as we know, these here are the smallest particles you can get:The different types of quarks are called “flavours” : up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. For every quark flavour there is an antiparticle, same magnitude opposite charge, an anti-quark, as you do.Here is Murray Gell-Mann receiving the nobel prize:Especially for nevine:

Modernist leftovers.First of its kind to be demolished live on TV. Interestingly enough, the architect was Minoru Yamasaki, also architect of the World Trade Centre. Why is that man walking through the demolition?

Since they evolved trees have had a great influence on the shaping of the ecology of our planet and in determining the present arrangements of life on earth. Of particular importance for us has been the role of trees in the evolution of mankind and the development of human cultures and communities.

The origins of man

Some 65 million years ago, just after the demise of the dinosaurs, a small rat-like species of mammal (now known as a prosimian) left the ground and took to life in the trees. Eventually after 50 million years had passed, this creature returned to the ground as the ancestor of man.

The period spent in the environment of the trees was of great formative importance because it promoted many physical changes. These changes included a massive increase in body size, the development of paws into hands and 3D colour vision. The physical changes were mapped by an increase in the size and the capability of the brain. Thus prosimian developed into simian.

The increase in stature led to changes in posture which enabled some simians to stand upright. Eventually one of these species was able to walk on two legs.

It was these changes which led to the descent from the trees and eventually to homo sapiens. So it can be seen that without trees the evolution of prosimian into man would never have taken place. Without trees we would not be here.

The development of human civilization

The development of civilization has been dependent on wood based technologies. Where would we be without such aspects of our culture as fire, agriculture, the wheel, the use of metals, spinning, weaving, water and land based transport, building, and printing? Our technological culture could not have developed without wood.

The wonder and the mystery

On many people trees exert a powerful emotional influence. To many of us a tree is a thing of spiritual sustenance and renewal. The tree is the embodiment of mankind’s condition: birth, life, death, regeneration and rebirth. The rising sap is the spirit of life and seeds and fruit are the symbols of fertility.

The importance of trees

Trees are the largest and longest living organisms on earth. To grow tall the tree has become a miracle of engineering and a complex chemical factory. It is able to take water and salts out of the earth and lift them up to the leaves, sometimes over 400 ft above. By means of photosynthesis the leaves combine the water and salts with carbon dioxide from the air to produce the nutrients which feed the tree. In this process, as well as wood, trees create many chemicals, seeds and fruit of great utility to man. Trees also remove carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from the air.

Trees are of continued importance to the environment. Tropical rain forests have of particular significance; although they now occupy less than 6 per cent of the land surface of the earth they probable sustain more than half of the biological species on the planet.

Notwithstanding the debt we owe to trees, their emotive power, and their importance to other forms of life, the forested area of the earth is steadily being depleted. This is leading to the degradation of the environment and the extinction of many species. There is now a real danger that in the not very distant future man will destroy a large proportion of the present population of species on earth, create an uninhabitable environment, and then die out himself. If this happens it will not be the first time that a large proportion of the species on the earth have been extinguished. 

Image 1 - Hedi Slimane  | Image 2 - Sanford Wurmfield ‘E-Cyclorama‘ | Image 3 - Jaime Martinez | Image 4 - Emily Graham

The 1901 exhibition

1947, Finch, drawn by Andrew Bain for The Brick Development Association

1977, British Steel Corporation, Bdg

Gotham Company, 1953, Ryder and Yates

1951, James Clark and Eaton, Wells Coates

I found this excellent cover of Architectural Review which got me thinking the magazine, that I have never really thought about.In a piece called “Retrospect” in the Architectural Review of February 1971, the leaving editor of over 30 years, J.M. Richards wrote this, which I thought was pretty insightful:“another essential role of the architectural magazine: criticism – of architects and all their works, of the opportunities they are given and of the conditions that allow, or don’t allow, them to make their proper contribution to the world.There is still not enough informed and constructive criticism of architecture, and it is sometimes asked why architectural magazines do not pillory the bad buildings, instead – as they mostly do at present – of criticising them only by implication; by ignoring them and paying attention instead to the buildings they think worth serious discussion. Perhaps they should attack the bad more positively, though this would make it all the more necessary to reach beyond subjective and appearance criticism; to look critically not only at the result but at the programme.Criticism in my experience had not been made easier by the touchiness of many members of the architectural profession, who claim to approve of it but resent its being applied to themselves.”

I am most excited about this. The best thing to happen in Trafalgar Square (in my life time at least).

The man-sized pieces will be handmade out of ceramic in and set on rollers so that they can be manouevred around the board by two “movers”.  The players will overlook the board from raised thrones!

The London-based Spanish designer Jaime Haydon says the idea was inspired by strategy maps for the Battle of Trafalgar, when Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon’s fleet (not to mention his Spanish allies) in 1805.

1. Nevine Mahmoud = Watts Towers, San Francisco. Built by eccentric architect Simon Rodia without scaffolding. Learn how to build one here

2. Isabel Mallet= tallest wooden house, Russia. 15 year project built by plumber turned ‘gangster’ Nikolai Sutyagin. He’s really rich now apparently.

The world’s first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says.

The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.

“It’s the first building that rotates, moves, and changes shape,” said architect David Fisher, who is Italian, at a news conference in New York.

“This building never looks the same, not once in a lifetime,” he added.

The 420-metre (1,378-foot) building’s apartments would spin a full 360 degrees, at voice command, around a central column by means of 79 giant power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.

The slender building would be energy self-sufficient as the turbines would produce enough electricity to power the entire building and even feed extra power back into the grid, said the Italian architect at the unveiling of the project in New York.

The apartments, which will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation, will cost from $3.7m to $36m.

There are also plans to build a similar, 70-storey skyscraper in Moscow.

“I call these buildings designed by time, shaped by life,” said the Florence-based architect, who has never built a sky-scraper before.

“These buildings will open our vision all around, to a new life.”

The skyscraper will cost an estimated $700m to build and should be up and running in Dubai in 2010.

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A little about Dubai.

Article 25 of the Constitution of the UAE provides for the equitable treatment of persons with regard to race, nationality, religious beliefs or social status. However, many of Dubai’s 250,000 foreign laborers live in conditions described by Human Rights Watch as being “less than human.” NPR reports that workers “typically live eight to a room, sending home a portion of their salary to their families, whom they don’t see for years at a time.” On 21 March 2006, workers at the construction site of Burj Dubai, upset over bus timings and working conditions, rioted: damaging cars, offices, computers, and construction tools. The global financial crisis has caused the working class of Dubai to be especially hard hit, with many workers not being paid but also being unable to leave the country.

Judicial rulings in Dubai with regard to foreign nationals were brought to light by the alleged attempts to cover up information on the rape of Alexandre Robert, a 15 year old French-Swiss national, by three locals, one of whom was HIV positive and by the recent mass imprisonment of migrant laborers, most of whom were from India, on account of their protests against poor wages and living conditions. Prostitution, though illegal by law, is conspicuously present in the emirate because of an economy that is largely based on tourism and trade. Research conducted by the American Center for International Policy Studies (AMCIPS) found that Russian and Ethiopian women are the most common prostitutes, as well as women from some African countries, while Indian prostitutes are part of a well organized trans-Oceanic prostitution network. A 2007 PBS documentary entitled Dubai: Night Secrets reported that prostitution in clubs is tolerated by authorities and many foreign women work there without being coerced, attracted by the money.