Lewis,

Thanks for the advice... and for the caution. Appreciated.

Fred

Does anyone have experience using this product? Any ideas on how one could get some to experiment with?

http://www.ductal-lafarge.com/wps/portal/Ductal/Homepage

Thanks,

Fred

Beautiful compelling shape. Very appropriate for a seaside setting. Echoes of waves and sea creatures. Nice presentation as well. Great use of the new organic plugins! Keep going!

Fred

Wonderful!! I love the subtle colors, the reflections, the interplay between the elegant shapes... really beautiful.

I think I'll retire now.

Mateo,

Interesting work. The scale at which this guy is thinking is quite astonishing. Has he had anything built?

Fred

Thanks all for the feedback. It is very helpful.

orgelf, the human is correctly sized, it is just a trick of perspective that he appears too big, there are 10 feet between each floor and ceiling... see image below, an elevation of the same model.

Julius, I'm sure I'll try a version with more floors in the near future.

Thanks again,

Fred

Frederik,

No offense taken at all. I was really just curious what you liked about this one. Thanks for elaborating.

Fred

Hi Joe,

Welcome!

Like the design. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Fred

Thanks for the comments guys. Much appreciated.

Lewis, I'm investigating Kiesler, thanks for the lead. Interesting stuff. He is perhaps, one of the first blobbists.

A couple of images of his Endless House.

This reminded me of Kwist's interior made with SdS.

Kwist, definitely the terraces are very similar to Wright's cantileavered terraces at Falling Water. Probably worth going back and taking another look at FW as Wright uses vertical support "towers" to support the terraces in a similar way to what I'm doing with the organic vertical shapes.

Frederick, I'm curious about your reaction. Any chance you could articulate what it is about this one that you found more "likeable"?

Fred

Latest Plucky Adventures...

The wood half-rounds and balls I ordered from these folks (http://www.craftparts.com/) arrived, as did some 17" heavy-duty cable ties. I put together two hubs and an edge section last night and it looks/feels pretty good. I hope to do some additional work with the pieces this weekend.

As I've been working with this stuff I keep thinking that a similar structural system could be implemented using bamboo in place of the PVC, and hemp rope in place of the plastic wire ties. This would give you a completely organic structural system, using materials that would require only simple and low-energy processing and that are locally available (growable) in most of the world. Interesting.

Just starting to feel my way with this. Perhaps some potential. This is just a first quick attempt.

@unknownuser said:

Many of the modernist architects idolized perpetually in architecture schools and in architecture generally did not go through the kind of soul-crunching processes now legally required to practice architecture in the US.

You can add Wright and Mies to this list. Wright had a few semesters of college, Mies none. So the three giants of 20th century architecture avoided the "soul-crunching". Interesting.

So Lewis, what about an online course for the rest of us... the ones who want to get our architecture training the old-fashioned way?

Fred

even Dune worm adolescents have awkward phases ...

This is totally outrageous and unacceptable. I say we rebel.

... so much for any fleeting thoughts of starting a second career in my mid-fifties.

Brilliant... as usual! Maximum effect with minimal geometry. Pete, you're the master.

Fred

Matteo,

Thanks for sharing the Shigeru Ban links and image. I like his work a lot, although not so much the more rigidly geometric shapes. My favorite Japanese architect is Toyo Ito.

I like how Ito combines curved and rectilinear shapes. As a middle child I'm always looking to find the middle ground between extreme positions, in this case the blobbists and the Miesians, and this is territory Ito has been exploring for years.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to obtain viable roofing structures similar to the one in the following image (another Ito building) using mostly PVC and Polyurethane foam. It's a long shot but that's what I'm aiming for.

Fred

I'm just sitting on the beach and enjoying the show.

Very cool renders all!

Fred

Take a look at about 30 minutes into this movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl6wTSoeVMg