Canondale Jacknife Bicycle

I saw this in a magazine whilst doing cardio at the gym yesterday and really dug it.
The design itself is what caught me, the wheels are held in place by 1-sided front & rear 'forks' (not really a fork if its a single arm), and it folds up for easy transport or storage. Ass to the a sleek cantilevered seat post, and I'm in love.

Still in final phases of prototyping before production I think. We'll see how they price it when it drops.




Cannondale

weburbanist.com

I really enjoyed flipping through this website. The Abandoned Cities category was fascinating, as well as the Urban Furniture. Take a peek!

WebUrbanist

Jim Rounsevell - Poplar Terraces

I took a lunch-time trip the other day to visit a recently completed project here in Falls Church, VA designed by Jim Rounsevell. Poplar Terrace is a 4-unit infill development. All 4 homes are the same 4,000 sq ft., but they are intelligently designed; I was very impressed after walking around them. The houses were built using a precast foundation system and R-28 SIP's (Structural Insulated Panels). Very cool and in a great location close to 66, 495, and Tyson's Corner. 5 minute walk from West Falls Church Metro.

For Sale at $1.2 million.
MLS Listing
WikiMLS Listing

Section of site:


Some photos I took:



Jim Rounsevell Architecture

Architect as Developer Seminar

Yesterday was spent attending Jonathan Segal's seminar on Architect as Developer in DC. I met architects who traveled in from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Indiana, and even Toronto. There was a strong showing of younger architects (under 35 years old) in the crowd of just over 500 people.

What an incredible wealth of knowledge he has. He described how as architects/building professionals, we have certain advantages that other small developers don't have.


Some things that opened my eyes:

He does as much of the construction work himself as he can.
His example: Say if you hired a contractor to build a project and his bid was $1 million. Around 20% of that is his profit. If you become the contractor you immediately make $200k more. Now if you perform some of the framing, drywall, landscaping, roofing, etc., you are eliminating the subcontractor's markups and profits, which could make you another $100k - $200k more. Now you've built a $1million building for $600k. You're project is profitable sooner, and if you have investors you can pay them back sooner. Everyone's happy and wealthier.

Good design sells: As architects controlling the development we will make choices as to where we need to spend money to retain the aesthetics and intelligence of the design. Don't value engineer a building to the point that it's no longer attractive or architecturally sensible. He 'shakes' the building until all unnecessary adornment, features and extra crap is gone, eliminating additional costs.

He goes into depth on a multitude of topics including business entity setup, liability, insurance, timing and structuring the deal, financing, market analysis, loans, and a host of other topics.

This guy has got his shit together! He worked for 4 years out of school, then did his first project at age 27 (7 on Kettner). Fast forward about 20 years later, he sold a portion of his portfolio so an investment group for a cool $45 million

I HIGHLY recommend attending the next seminar (whenever he gets it setup) as it was worth every penny and more.

www.architectasdeveloper.com

www.jonathansegalarchitect.com

Timelinks - Pyramid City of the Future

Timelinks is an environmental design company in Dubai, and will unveil their design for a million-person carbon-neutral pyramid city at Cityscape Dubai, October 6-9.

That's a lot of people to fit in a pyramid. That's a lot of businesses too. Its essentially a massive mixed use development in pyramid form with pretty renderings.

Very cool idea and scheme, but where will the homeless people stay? In the hallways and corridors of the pyramid? Where will that much trash go? How long will it take to fully inhabit a million-person compound, and will anyone be willing/able to carry the costs of the construction that long? Say someone had a business and needed 30,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space, would that be available in this? If not, they would have to find that outside of the pyramid, then it simply becomes what the suburbs are now, bedroom communities.

Once its completed and inhabited, what will an architect living there do? The building is done, the city is complete and operational; there's no buildings for us to build. :(

United States Government Debt

$53,000,000,000,000. Yeah, that's 12 zeros behind the 53. That's what the US government owes in debt. Or think of it as $173,817 per person (man women & child) in the US.

source

Model of Shanghai in 2020

On display at the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum is a 1,000 sq. ft. model of the city in the year 2020.

Sebastian Mariscal - 2Inns (twins)

38 year old Sebastian Mariscal is a protege of Jonathan Segal. The two 4,500 sq ft. 2inns in La Jolla were a design/build/develop project of Mariscal's completed in 2006. The first floor is surrounded on 3 sides 25-panel Nana Walls to create a convertible outdoor living space. Very cool houses. See pics below.


Another project of his, Six:


On a side note, I'll be attending Jonathan Segal's 'Architect as Developer' Seminar in DC this week, I'll include highlights on here.

Dune

Dune is a modern furniture design company in New York. Take some time to go through their online catalog, they have some fantastic pieces.



Dune Website

FLW Palmer House for Sale

The 2,000 sq. ft. Usonian Palmer House, completed in 1954, is up for sale. It sits on 1.5 acres just outside the University of Michigan campus. William Palmer, the original owner, passed away a few years ago and the wife & children are selling the property.

website for listing: http://www.palmerhouseannarbor.com/
MLS listing: here

Google Map Link

Asking price $1.5 million.

Zaha Hadid - Barvikha ForestResidence

Under construction is a big ugly house designed by Hadid in the Barvikha Forest just west of Moscow. I'm not a big fan of this; It looks like a client saw her ski jump and asked to plop something similar on top of a house!


Where in the World - Barvikha, Russia

Paul Loebach

Paul Loebach is a furniture designer from Brooklyn. I found this CNC'ed shelf piece and really dug it.

Rossington Architecture - Elsie St. House

The Elsie St. House by Rossington Architecture is a 2,400 sq. ft. 3BR, 2.5 Bath home set on a small 25 ft. x 70 ft. lot in San Francisco. I love the level changes inside and the multitude of outdoor decks. This project won an Excellence Award from Residential Design & Build Magazine.
Nice work!

Takei-Nabeshima Architects - Ring House

The Ring House by Takei-Nabeshima Architects in Karuizawa, Japan was built as a spec house for a developer on a 1/3 acre lot. Each floor is a 20' square, for a total of 1,200 sq. ft. of living space. The height of the glass & wood 'rings' on the house correspond to the function of the room inside.




Similar idea:)
Where in the world - Ring House

Buildings With Big Voids

A rendering of Zaha Hadid's Opus - Dubai design made me search for a collection of buildings with big holes or voids in them. It makes for quite the dramatic street appearance. Here we go:

Hadid - Opus, Dubai


Newseum, Washington DC:


Zaha Hadid - Competition Entry


MVRDV - Mirador Housing:


MVRDV - Parkrand Building






More to come as I find relevant projects!