The bell in the First Presbyterian Church of Hudson rings the hours for our little city. We live close by so it took some getting used to. This public, booming sort of timekeeping gives a shape to the passing hours and I count the bell tolls as a way to keep myself oriented. The bells … Continue reading Clockwinder
Yona Friedman on Transformable Architecture
Since discovering Yona Friedman and his Ville Spatiale while writing my senior project in college I've been inspired his tireless advocacy of flexible human-centric environments. In this interview, filmed in his 96th year, he makes the case again for a new architectural approach centered on continual process and transformability. Many of his best known projects … Continue reading Yona Friedman on Transformable Architecture
Why It’s Legitimate to Concern Yourself With Packaging
Recursive image used by Winston to demonstrate why not to use laser pointers in your presentations I've lifted the title of this post from Patrick Winston's short course, "How to Speak". Winston was the director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and regularly gave this talk on presentation techniques. The video is available on MIT's … Continue reading Why It’s Legitimate to Concern Yourself With Packaging
Dogtrot
I'm drawn to building types that are flexible, developed incrementally and unitary in design. The American Dogtrot house as a historical style carries these attributes and I think it is worth exploring for the straightforward design and performance features it offers. The style has transcended frontier utilitarianism, recently becoming a framing device for embracing the … Continue reading Dogtrot
The Segal Method
Model of the Segal System from an exhibit at the Architectural Association in London, 2016 I'm much more interested in building systems than in individual buildings. In part because a building system provides a kind of architectural source code. This coded understanding of how a building is constructed serves as a road map for the … Continue reading The Segal Method
The Halcyon Lodge
Some notes in progress about the building we are living in after our rushed urban exit from Brooklyn on March 17th, 2020, during this "great pause" and time of social distancing. I used to visit this place with my Dad when it was a book store years ago. Now we are living in the floors … Continue reading The Halcyon Lodge
Quarantine Transformation
New York City's Javits Center transformed into a 1,200-bed field hospital I just read an interview with Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley about their new book on the architecture and history of quarantine, coincidentally due out in time for this current pandemic. Following on a Storefront for Art and Architecture show that opened 10 years … Continue reading Quarantine Transformation
Generative Design for Human Factors
Can data help designers anticipate human factors over time as buildings learn? Building sensors and data-collecting personal devices are providing designers with a new layer of input on how spaces are used. Harnessing this data to achieve more human centered outcomes depends on developing new metrics of architectural usability; a process that is likely to … Continue reading Generative Design for Human Factors
Tech City
Tech City, Kingston, New York. Stewart Brand wrote "All buildings are predictions, all predictions are wrong". This one is massive. 2 million sf+, acres of unobstructed blue carpet. It's been years since IBM and the corporate banks left. In this next phase of the place, apparently pulled from a J.G. Ballard novel, I can feel … Continue reading Tech City
New Urban Experiences of Mediated Communities
This is an extract and a draft of an article currently in process exploring the technologies, both current and emerging, that are driving the expression and the renewed promise of new communal living situations. Working together with my coauthor, the building technology consultant Tim Lehotsky, we've framed some questions around tech-enabled coliving to better understand … Continue reading New Urban Experiences of Mediated Communities
joseph murray 