Archive for July, 2008

Ninja Homes: Torque House

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We’re kicking off a new Wednesday feature here on Myninjaplease: Ninja Homes. Each week we’ll be bringing you coverage of some 9th dan level housing - so drop us an email if you know of a project that you think should be featured.
I first came across this project, the Torque House by Mass Studies, in the February issue of Dwell Magazine - who feature a full page image [the shot above] of the home as a ‘house [they] love’ - and I was compelled to find out more. Located in, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, the project is a three-story, 134-pyeong [I’ve learned from Mass Studies that 1 pyeong equals 3.3 square meters - cool to know] house for a family of four.

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Deemed ‘irregular’ by the masterplan due to a curve in the nearby road, the site was programed to house a ‘linear’ building by the planners. This was used by Mass Studies as a basis for the home’s slightly curving volume - described as a building reacting to its surrounding environment - creating the ‘torque’.

As sharp stones are worn down by a flowing stream and transformed into pebbles, a rectangular building becomes torqued through the movement of curves.

Other site conditions - nearby houses, vehicular traffic, etc - were factors in creating the fairly large expanse of solid wall [seen below] on two sides of the house, while the building opens up on the others [particularly in the family space - kitchen + living areas], looking out to the surrounding landscape.

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One of the most interesting aspects of the house is the ‘green’ wall treatment. For the Torque House, Mass Studies incorporated a ‘moss catch system‘ [basically a panelized wall system covered in moss] at the suggestion of a local landscaping designer, in the hopes of reducing the ‘spartan’ quality of the large bare walls. Additionally, it serves to absorb noise from the street, further insulate the building, and is ‘green’ [does that whole photosynthesis thing]. Imported from Japan by the previously mentioned landscape company [whose name isn’t given by Mass Studies, oddly], the house is the first building to employ the system - a type of geotextile that has been used to improve the aesthetic quality of roadside retaining walls - in this way.

The product, manufactured by mixing two types of mosses that grow well on both south and north sides, was perfect for applying to this building, and currently sprouts of the mosses are gradually growing on its walls, making it a "synthetic mass" with multiple functions as part of the landscape in Heyri Art Valley.

The project combines working space for both husband and wife [a classical music recording engineer and painter, respectively] with the private living space needed by a small family. Both the atelier for the wife/artist, and the studio for the husband/recording engineer required a level of privacy that was achieved with the previously mentioned long, predominantly solid walls. On the interior, spaces are also separated by private vs public - situating the staircase to allow for visitors going up to the third floor recording studio without disturbing the family’s privacy.

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Lastly, we’ve got what I thought was a pretty siiick staircase leading up to a roof terrace, playing on the ‘torque’ of the building. The bend in the concrete wall [image above] to form a ceiling over the stairs offers an interesting frame for a view of the sky while walking up the stairs - while the ‘window’ cut through this wall emphasizes the in-between quality of this space -not in, not out.

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::Images + info from Mass Studies - photographers by Yong-Kwan Kim - originally posted on AMNP::

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Posted: July 23rd, 2008
at 10:00am by orangemenace


Categories: green,home,architecture,ninja homes

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The Phoenix Lights - Documentary

It’s not Monday right now, but it’s definitely time for a documentary. This one is about the so-called "Phoenix Lights." Some of you may remember this fiasco, with literally hundreds of people around Phoenix reporting seeing some sort of huge mega-craft with flashing lights. At the time, the then governor held a press conference disclaiming and, basically, mocking the entire thing. Several years after his tenure we learned straight from the horse’s mouth that he was strongly encouraged by the powers that be to hold this conference.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2893635681003691876

Anyway, this is supposed to be a good documentary. Judge for yourself what happened. Continually, after the fact, we find that UFO sightings turn out to be government activities (or Nazi’s) that go unnoticed, save for by the shrewd few who happen to be looking at whatever part of the mostly deserted sky. Test pilots for new technologies are often seen laughing on the documentaries ten years later about how everybody freaked out they first time they saw a stealth bomber. On the other hand, as we’ve reported to you in the past, many fighter pilots and astronauts - directly from the glory days of American sky dominance - including Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, have reported seeing unexplained airborne… vehicles.

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Posted: July 23rd, 2008
at 8:42am by Black Ock


Categories: fo' real?,real life news,documentary

Comments: 1 comment


Te AmarA©

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Posted: July 22nd, 2008
at 11:40pm by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: youtube,music

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Baseball and Philosophy

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Don Sutton used to tell me, 'Every time you go out there, you're going to be a different guy. So throughout the course of the year you can be between 30 and 35 people.' via

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Posted: July 22nd, 2008
at 11:37pm by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: life,games,philosophy

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Buildings in Motion

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more at weburbanist

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The Internet……is what? (Part 1)

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But, contrary to the universal bows to the believed Google Universal Search power, Google has finally met its competition, the original Google.com. via

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Posted: July 22nd, 2008
at 10:35pm by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: web,robots

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Compactness and Stereographic Projection

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Posted: July 22nd, 2008
at 10:23pm by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: youtube,science

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Quote of the day

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Every wall is a door. - R. W. Emerson

itp.alexabreu

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Posted: July 22nd, 2008
at 10:15pm by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: quote of the day

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China: No a€oeGo China!a€A banners at the Olympics

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Reporter: Why the ban on banners or posters such as a€oeGo China!a€A being brought in?

BOGOC: This Olympic Games is being held in Beijing, and we are the hosts. Volunteers know that everyone will be writing a€oeGo China!a€A, which isn’t so bad in itself, but will we be able to read the signs written by the attendees from the other 200+ countries? Do we still let them in or not? If we think for a second, of the previous Olympic Games in Athens or the next Games in London, if they were to stop us from bringing in the banners we’d prepared because they can’t read Chinese, how would we be feeling?

Also, the five Olympic rings represent the unity of the five continents, as well as the meeting of athletes from around the world for fair and open competitions at the Olympic Games in a friendly spirit; the spirit of Olympic Games competitions is a fair and just competitive spirit. We want the Olympic Games to transcend all political ideology, be it China, Japan, America or France, so that all people can be just like the Olympic rings, and everybody can enjoy the celebration together, happily, advancing understanding of one another. The appearance of all sorts of banners at the venues would surely ruin this kind of atmosphere, which is why for the past several decades the International Olympic Games Organizing Committee has consistently insisted on implementing this rule. globalvoicesonline

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Posted: July 22nd, 2008
at 10:05pm by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: games,fo' real?,et cetera

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