// South Parkdale Revitalization

A little GIF animation I made for the 3A collective housing proposal. More to come at the end of the term.

// studio

// the faintest ink

These are some quotes from movies and shows I have seen in the past week. I love quotes, I love the way they can articulate my thoughts and feelings better than I could ever imagine. In the past, quotes that at the time have made a deep impression in my mind always seem to vanish over time. This has been proven tragically true time and time again, and leaves me with the feeling of losing a valuable possession. So to remedy that, I am making the effort to record them in the form of writing, now this should be an appreciate lead-in to the first quote on the list...

The faintest ink is better than the best memory. -Mad Men
I love the way a photo can capture a moment before it’s gone. -The Lovely Bones The longest journey begin with a single step. -Precious You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind. -Irish Proverb The older you get the fewer the thing you’ll love, by the time you get to my age maybe it’s only one or two things. -The Hurt Locker

// "the slab lab"

This was the most recent project produce by my studio. Each of us was given a box of the same dimension, within it we were to design a test unit for habitation that challenge the typical mass housing conventions. A total of 70 boxes with radical architectural variations were produced in the end. The finished products were momentarily stacked together in a slab building fashion, one can imagine an apartment building with a pixelated facade, where each pixel/unit is expressed differently according to the occupant's unique way of living. For a moment, the project became a model of domesticity with an agenda of celebrating individuality within the collective herd. Imagine the Borneo Sporenburg in stacks.

// sex bomb

Evgeny Plushenko 2006 Olympics gold medalist, 2010 Olympics silver medalist...funniest man on ice.

// a knife fetish

// indexed

Funny diagrams highlighting life's absurdities...taken from Indexed.

// new portfolio

two years of architecture school

// judge a book by its cover

Some people like to think that they are beyond making assumptions based on looks and appearances, but they all do it, it's human nature. If you still won't admit you're the same superficial fuck like everyone else, this image should convince you. This work is done by Reclarkgable featuring the same couple in different attires. Sad but true, appearances do matter.

// ponte tower

I came across this disturbing image during my research on mass housing. It struck me as the most depressing and dehumanizing architectural moment to the best of my recollection, I was profoundly fascinated. Here's a quick rundown of the building. 

Ponte Tower, designed by Manfred Hermer, also known as the Ponte City Apartments, was built in Johannesburg in 1975, and is still the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa. It is a 54-story tube with an open center to allow additional light to reach its inner apartments. It was in its heyday one of the city's most coveted addresses, described by newspapers at the time as "heaven on earth".

Ponte Tower was a true example of Apartheid-era thinking. The apartments facing the outside of the building were designated for rich white families while the inner apartments, in permanent twilight, were meant for their black servants. Life in the building became truly brutal after the fall of Apartheid. As crime rose in the once-upscale Hillbrow neighborhood, numerous gangs moved into building. Ponte Tower became a center of organized crime activity, and life in the building become extremely unsafe. The building has been dubbed as ‘suicide central’ - people from all over town would go there to jump. The windows around the inner core were all barred, and most still are. Owners all but abandoned the structure to decay. At one point the garbage piled five stories high in the open inner courtyard of the building.

Fun Fact #1 Danny Boyle maker of Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later has made a political thriller that was shot on location in this tower.

Fun Fact #2 There was reportedly a huge effort to clean up Ponte City in order to use it for athletes’ residence during World Cup 2010. However, there were questionable business dealings, controversy, and, eventually, no project.

Fun Fact #3 Ponte hit its lowest point when in 1998 it was suggested that it be turned into a prison, an idea soon discarded.

Dear Mr. Hermer, You know you failed as an architect when your building raises suicide rates, stars in a blood-fest thriller, and evokes convert-to-prison proposals.  

more unsettling images after the break