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In Grand Hotel Abyss, the author Stuart Jeffries summarizes Gyorgy Lukacs’ analysis of the relationship between the industrial mass production and the workers. The author emphasizes how the workers’ fulfillment through their labor had become impossible as they were considered unfit to produce efficiently, and were being replaced by machines. As humans no longer became…
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Can we re-frame the term “incidental spaces?” I surveyed an old senior community in the neighborhood. The buildings were very ordinary, wood-framed apartments from the 60s probably, but something was captivating. The periphery of the site was adorned with lush gardening, entirely devoted to residents’ use. It seemed that the land was somewhat equally sectioned…
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Ongoing list…
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It’s raining today, and I didn’t bring a jacket because I was wearing a pullover over a long sleeve. Usually this would do in an indoor temperature during Spring, and since my commute is very short, again, I did not bother bringing a jacket. My office has windows everywhere; it is a long and skinny…
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Architects’ contributions to public safety often go unnoticed, yet one crucial aspect of our work involves providing services for fire repairs. Fire repairs involve works such as identifying the extent of the damage and making sure that everything is safely put together. A significance of works such as fire repairs is the fact that architects…
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“it wasn’t the idea of the world that needed to be combatted, but the mode of organization of the world- and that, as a result, if we are “alter-“, we don’t simply oppose something and cut ourselves off the world, but search for an alternative, and then we have the means to combat uniformity, the…
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I recently discovered that Herzog & de Meuron’s website shows documented design processes for the built projects. Disclosing the design process is not only an interesting marketing tactic that provokes a sense of confident craftsmanship and luxury, but also very enjoyable and honest in general. There are originality and rawness in the documented works as…
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To imagine something as truly yours and then realize that it has never been is a traumatizing experience of betrayal. Unfortunately, architects tend to be cynical about their field and work not because of their know-it-all attitudes, but because of repeated denials and separation from their ideals. The ideals are typically the fantasy that their…
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Back in 2014, my cousin opened a coffee shop in Seoul, South Korea. I remember that he had a good sense of design. He envisioned his two-story coffee shop in a standalone building with a modern and industrial look and feel. Later when the coffee shop was about to launch, I was able to take…
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Architectural elements like walls, floors, ceilings, windows, stairs, and roofs have evolved over time, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. This post briefly discusses ongoing reflections regarding the intentional elimination, I would say murder, of some of these elements. As we are aware, John Adams’ invisible hand has been actively involved not…