"It is thus in traders' direct financial interest, they suggest, to install themselves at specific points on the Earth's surface—a kind of light-speed financial acupuncture—to take advantage both of the planet's geometry and of the networks along which trades are ordered and filled. They conclude that "the construction of relativistic statistical arbitrage trading nodes across the Earth’s surface" is thus economically justified, if not required." wild premise, wonder what the reality factor here is

giant causeway for fun-seeking saudi arabians plays a role in bahraini crisis<br />
“Saudi Arabia did not build a causeway to Bahrain just so that Saudis could party on weekends,” said Toby Jones, an expert on Saudi Arabia at Rutgers University. “It was designed for moments like this, for keeping Bahrain under control.” see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/world/middleeast/20saudi.html

insane project reconstructs collages of architectures using common vanishing points (via migurski)

One Saturday morning at 7 o’clock on a blind wall in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. The façade, using the local architectural codes, occupying 10 cm of public space, is mounted and glued on in thirty minutes. Almost 4 years later, the adress still exists. Regularly graffittied, it is cleaned out by the city service.

radical infrastructure proposal (via cityofsound)

"One builds cities for people. The cities have to be used .... I believe that Dubai got intoxicated with the idea that everything is possible. The collapse of that system demonstrates that it wasn't the right way to go." (son of actual albert speer???)

Koolhaas meeting minds with an ecology conference; rationally engineered attitudes towards future building projects (averting the eschatological)

"Urban informatics and the mobile Web are interesting, but I no longer think they can have a tremendous impact on everyday life."

via mathieu

long exposure abandoned buildings usa

this is wild: “The past is big monolithic buildings. The future looks more like a substation — the data center represents the information substation of tomorrow.”

mike bouchet's suburban home sinks into the venice canals

"You could describe it as a kind of slang architecture - full of malapropisms and tautologies - in comparison to the received pronunciation of contemporary modernism, although this makes it sound more exciting than it actually is."

PRE-STREETS: "The inhabitants lived in mud-brick houses which were crammed together in an agglutinative manner. No footpaths or streets were used between the dwellings, which were clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Most were accessed by holes in the ceiling, which were reached by interior and exterior ladders and stairs. Thus, their rooftops were their streets."

capitol records building spells hollywood in morse code (but is not, as is reiterated emphatically, a "stack of records" (via joelholmberg)

describes a "phenotypic characteristic that is a byproduct of the evolution of some other character, rather than a direct product of adaptive selection"

"The Centex company has hired four actors to play a family "living" in one of their model homes -- a performance called Homelife."

a wonderful 30 year old depiction of Los Angeles that seems equally poignant still; featuring a faux-Karl-"Baede-Kar" guidance system, Ed Ruscha, lots of driving, etc.etc.

''Once in a while, I'll look through them [the cd's] to see if I can find something for my dressing room,'' Cox says, ''but there are never any good ones.'' With one notable exception, of course: the official Friends soundtrack. ''Could Monica listen to that?'' ponders Perry. (via jmb; see also: seinfeld 3d model)

some great terms and concepts covered: "traveling conversations", girl watchers, traffic-blocking greeting techniques, etc etc

floating within architecture

abandoned but so far preserved in perfect condition

(mostly british)

essay railing on the use of ornament in architecture (AND LIFE) from stephen

via britta

reduced-size gallery miniature showing a different program of art

from josh

photos from fake towns and buildings used for police/fire training

lots of events through mid october

from the whitney

from a while ago, photos of a widely copied jewish house design that originated in brooklyn

the idea of "re-direct practice," wherein artists awkwardly make things as outsiders in other insider disciplines

neat documentation of our washington square park event by architect Usman Haque

"People in international dress and people suggesting alternative lifestyles also on this fresh & original collection." other great images on the rest of the site, too--it's a goldmine

reading "Handspace, Softspace" by Usman Haque

deceptive architecture and design

homeless shelters that feed from heat vents / ducts