to Microsonic mUsic

Realitat’s Microsonic Landscapes use 3-D printing machinery and algorithmic mapping to arrive at physical manifestations of recorded musical sound. These handheld sculptures are unique amongst one another because each represents the formalization of a different musical recording. In this instance, each recording is actually a full-length album; the albums chosen were picked according to Realitat’s musical tastes. Their self-stated mission, to create “an algorithmic exploration of the music we love,” is successfully completed. Each album is copied onto a program called Processing which maps and extrapolates the sounds on each song into coordinates that the 3-D printer can turn into solid mass. The objects are printed in a series of rings, but aside from that, the form taken can vary wildly, with each record registering unique patterns of height, depth, solid, and void. The process employed here represents a direct and literal translation of sound into form. There are no variables or inputs applied to the algorithms that would manipulate or affect the final form.

This project represents a successful attempt at using digital means to map, extrapolate, and formalize musical sound. This process is rendered through the use of digital mapping software and a 3-D printer, creating unique and specific formations with differing patterns of solid and void, as well as height and

an Urban Toy

BLOOM is what its designers call an “urban toy.” It is a “distributed social game and collective ‘gardening’ experience that seeks the engagement of people in order to construct fuzzy BLOOM formations.” These formations are aggregate volumes composed of repeated, identical parts, which the designers refer to as “cells.” These “cells” are designed and fabricated by the designers themselves, Alisa Andrasek of Biothing, and Jose Sanchez of Plethora Project, in London. Meant to contribute an air of jovial democratized design in relation to the 2012 London Olympic Games, BLOOM is representative of the artistic, collective act. Each individual component, as the designers explain, can do nothing on its own, but instead, reach their full and limitless potential when arrayed en masse.

Each of the BLOOM pieces has three potential sites for connection along its outline, enabling it to be compiled both two and three dimensionally. This embedded form of connection, however, is all that is provided to the user, who is free to use as few or as many pieces as they choose to construct an installation. It is the simple combinations inherent between these cells that can potentially produce many different mutations. This project is emblematic of democratic design as seen through the lens of digital fabrication, aggregation, and repetition.
 

a Literal Movement

Breakfast New York City is an interactive installation in Midtown Manhattan that both mimics and responds to interactive movement. Located that the intersection of 32nd Street and 6th Avenue, this installation is a revival of an antique sign technology that utilizes over 40,000 metallic spinning dots on a computerized surface to broadcast messages, including scrolling text and images. Because of its analog technology, the mechanism that is analogous to digital pixels, actually mimics the movement and rotation of pistons on a mechanical engine. The dots are either black or white, depending on which side is exposed, creating a binary that, when taken in aggregate and seen from afar, render images and text. This literal movement, however, from black to white, is done so through mechanical means, creating various clicks, like those made on a typewriter.

The digital systems, however, interrupt the analog by allowing the interface to respond to movement located directly in front of the display. Through these means, the display is able to respond to passersby, traffic, and all manner of stimuli, which then interrupt and dematerialize the scrolled information. This system creates a highly unique, ever-changing display of information that takes on the character of urban life. This project features highly-tactile, digitally derived displays that are manifested through analog, mechanical movements. The installation responds to spontaneous urban life through the articulation and juxtaposition of these digital processes and analog displays. The following video previews the installation in greater detail.

vertical Fragmentation

Border Conditions is an academic and hypothetical project by Manuel Torres, Dimitrie Stefanescun that utilizes parametric folding to achieve complex form in an urban housing project for Utrecht, Netherlands. This project, ‘embodies a virtual study of the process of folding with its conjectural actions (re-folding, unfolding);’ creating architecture from a meta-analysis of the folding technique. 
 Here, form is achieved through the interrelation and formalization of different variables, labeled as: ‘horizontal fragmentation,’ ‘proportion blurring,’ ‘vertical fragmentation,’ and ‘plane abstraction.’ These variables are mapped across the site to create points of reference which are then extrapolated into lines and planes. These planes, when merged with circulation routes, generate form and space. The resulting spaces are then further manipulated by varying the points of connections between planes with regards to connection degree, length, and overall number of connections. This form is then deconstructed; unfolded, laid out, and related to the urban site.
 This project focuses on the digital manifestations- parametric form- that result from an analog process- folding and unfolding- and hows these opposing approaches to making can result in varied architectural space. Through  a process of iteration dependent of parametric values, the designers are able to achieve an architectural complexity based on physical variables that is then overlayed on an existing urban fabric.

vertical Towers

Drawing on Shenzhen’s interconnected qualities, Morphosis‘ 2009 proposal for the Four Towers Into One competition pushes the conventional urban grid to organize a complex system of four interwoven towers. The competition asked for an urban plan that would unify the Headquarters of Shenzhen Media Group, China Construction Bank, China Insurance Group, and Southern & Bosera Funds–the new global faces of Shanghai’s Financial District. Instead of vertically extruding their isolated 2D site footprints to four individual skyscrapers, the strategy of transferring air rights helps to extend the zoning envelopes of each of the projects through an interlaced system resembling a traditional Chinese puzzle.

These otherwise vertical towers overlap at the base, creating multi-dimensional traffic through meeting, office, and green spaces that presents a new icon and philosophy within the Financial District. Like the Chinese puzzle, each project retains its original identity and form while still engaging with the surrounding projects. While Steven Holl won this competition, Morphosis’ intention to create a composition greater than the sum of its parts is successful in the implementation of metaphor and manipulation of the urban grid, symbolizing Shenzhen’s financial potential in the global spectrum.

a Muscle Ski sequence

The Big Sky Ski Lodge designed by Nikita Troufanov at the Illinois Institute of Technology takes cue from the muscle system. Actions of tension, overlap, pushing / pulling are explored both formally and programatically. Working from coarse to fine grain, linear program ‘muscle’ chunks fuse and overlap and then tesselate into cellular aggregations. Spaces and structure are placed in a feedback loop where each informs another, evolving until a desired amount of coherence and unity is achieved.

Hospitality and patrol programs are overlapped and placed in spatial tension against each other through connecting views and geometry. Hospitality space is distributed on 3 half-stories that step up to gain views out into the valley, creating a spatial sequence with plateaus of specific activity and experience.

Site-cast concrete structure becomes expressed by adapting to spacial conditions. Alternating between slab and frame behaviors, deep beams become shallower until they fuse and become slabs, and slabs in turn splinter into beams, branching out and weaving through the building.

across Le Corbusier

The vision of the New Sky Condos by Los Angeles based B+U Architects is to develop a unique spatial experience for each condo unit by, on the one hand, utilizing an L‐shape sectional diagram that maximizes double height spaces and outdoor areas through interlocking the units in plan and in section (an evolution on the Le Corbusier cross section of L’Unite d’Habitation) and simultaneously developing a window typology that aims to dissolve the edges of the window frame creating a unique view to the outside. The window itself is not just a flat aperture but a three dimensional spatial object that shapes the interior walls and aims ones view to key features of the surrounding cityscape. For example it allows for views towards the San Isidro Golf Club to the north and the Ocean to the south even from spaces along the east and west facade of the tower.

The building massing was the result of intersecting several cone shaped towers dividing each floor plan into four discrete segments that coincide with the division of the program on each floor and maximize the exterior surface. The articulation of the exterior of the building is a direct result of the placement and the aiming of the apertures and their relationship between the interior spaces and points in the city. The linear extensions along the window frames create the effect of a “soft” building edge that aims at dissolving the sharp lines of a typical building skyline and creates an iconic addition for Lima.

for Congested Urban Areas

For the green innovative house, architects Achawin Laohavichairat, Montakan Manosong, and Peerapon karunwiwat designed a building that provided infrastructure, urban facilities, green area, and living space. They designed the house for congested urban areas in this case they choose “Metropolitan Bangkok”. Ecological living uses of clean, non-pollution energies, gathering of organic and inorganic waste, creation of green spaces. The green innovative house is designed with self-sufficient considerations planed to take care of the management of energy.

Bangkok area is a congested urban area; there are many types of building such as low-rise building, mid-rise building, and high-rise. The design proposed to use existing building as high rise building that produced the waste pollutions as waste water, rubbish and also use more energy in the day. From the research, the high-rise building produces the waste water 30,000 liter/day. So, according the result, we proposed to design a self-sufficient house that use the waste products to support itself, it becomes a “Zero Energy Living”. It becomes a self-sufficient as “Zero Energy Living” by using the waste products those come from the existing building to support itself in term of energy. In essence a mechanism for living, breathing, producing energy, reusing the waste products, and recycling the waste products those are come from the existing building.

an Apple option

Launched in 2009, Uncommon‘s mission is to offer its clients the option to individualize Apple product accessories with unique designs. Currently, customers have the option to print their own digital photos or featured designs by a selection of artists onto their accessories. Uncommon is the first manufacturer to offer mass customization with proprietary 3D TATT® printing on plastic to customers. Clients may also buy ready-made cases.

For an average price of $40, Uncommon features case designs that are not commonly available in the market. Established in the design world, featured artists Izak Zenou, Yellena James, and Jill Bliss, to name a few, offer a wide selection illustrations easily adored by the typical Apple product user.

Recently featured illustrator Izak Zenou, known for his chic and fun illustrations featuring Paris street life, has a collection of pre-made iPhone cases ready to buy on Uncommon’s website. The cases are examples of Zenou’s iconic illustrations that convey a breezy, fashionable lifestyle–a fresh print to have on beloved Apple products. Uncommon helps promote the work of the best designers in the market, revolutionizing individual expression in everyday accessories through art.

qualitative Values

The studio’s ( Varouzhan Torosdamy, Evan Emery)journey started from investigating some certain aesthetical and architectural qualitative values within a series of 2d drawings derived from a digital scripting software . After some manual modification in the script,  certain qualities were achieved,  that were based on the initial drawing, next step was to  transit those drawings into a  2 ½  D surface and from there forth, into a project scale proposal on a corner site located in west Hollywood California.

We tried many different approaches including warping the 2 ½ D surface around the programmatic generic volumes, but eventually decided it best to  start applying some certain features [some of which are as follows: Specific Edge network system, Deep pleats, de-lamination, face transition, and etc…] from the 2 ½ D surface to a Primitive such as a cube. After some versions we agreed upon mutilating only a corner or one side of the cube rather than the whole object. In order to create an open public plaza, we decided to lift the cube off the raised ground condition in order to open space on the ground level . As a  direct result of this move object  would barely touch the ground; only through some edges and points, which along the cloth like surrounding  edge network and the deep caverns , razor sharp  meandering edges , nested hierarchies within the dome like negative inflations in the bottom surface would create a mesmerizing effect as one would experience in major middle eastern mosques under their domes. In order to maximize the desired effect we decided to reflect our initial drawing from bottom to top of the building contrasting the very formation of the object itself.

online Way

Τα λήμματα της online εγκυκλοπαίδειας που έχει στα σκαριά η αμερικανική εταιρεία Raytheon BBN μοιάζουν με αυτά της Wikipedia, αφού κάθε καταχώριση - για ένα ιστορικό γεγονός, ένα διάσημο πρόσωπο ή κάποιον δημόσιο και ιδιωτικό οργανισμό - περιλαμβάνει ένα λεπτομερές κείμενο, γραμμένο σε απλά αγγλικά με ελάχιστα συντακτικά ή εκφραστικά λάθη. Ωστόσο, το εντυπωσιακό είναι ότι σε καμία καταχώριση δεν έχει παρέμβει ανθρώπινο χέρι, για να προσθέσει τις εκατοντάδες πληροφορίες που αυτό περιέχει.

Αντίθετα, όλα τα λήμματα έχουν δημιουργηθεί από το λογισμικό που έχει αναπτύξει η Raytheon, το οποίο για αυτό τον σκοπό αντλεί στοιχεία από περισσότερα από 40 δημοσιογραφικά σάιτ, αγγλικά, κινεζικά και αραβικά. Μάλιστα, εκτός από το να συντάσσει νέες καταχωρίσεις, το λογισμικό εμπλουτίζει συνεχώς τα ήδη υπάρχοντα λήμματα, από ειδήσεις που εμφανίζονται στις ιστοσελίδες.

Το μόνο ίσως αρνητικό είναι πως η εγκυκλοπαίδεια αυτή δεν θα είναι ανοικτής πρόσβασης. Αντίθετα, αυτοί που θα ξεκινήσουν να τη χρησιμοποιούν σε λίγους μήνες, είναι οι αναλυτές των διάφορων υπηρεσιών πληροφοριών των ΗΠΑ. Με σκοπό οι αναλυτές να εξοικονομούν χρόνο όταν ετοιμάζουν τις μελέτες τους, θα μπορούν να συμβουλεύονται την εγκυκλοπαίδεια για να πάρουν μία ιδέα για τα άτομα, τα κράτη ή τις οργανώσεις που εμπλέκονται σε κάθε ανάλυση. Μάλιστα, σύντομα το λογισμικό θα αντλεί υλικό από εκατοντάδες ιστοσελίδες, και από ακόμη περισσότερες γλώσσες. Επίσης, θα αξιοποιεί μία τεχνολογία αναγνώρισης φωνής, για να «ενημερώνεται» και από τηλεοπτικούς σταθμούς.

Αν και μπορεί κάλλιστα κανείς να αμφιβάλλει για τα οφέλη από τη συγκεκριμένη εφαρμογή του λογισμικού, η αλήθεια είναι ότι το πρόγραμμα αποτελεί ένα σημαντικό επίτευγμα στην προσπάθεια των επιστημόνων εδώ και δεκαετίες να «προικίσουν» τα μηχανήματα με νοημοσύνη, για να διαβάζουν όπως περίπου και ο άνθρωπος. Το πρόγραμμα αναπτύχθηκε με χρηματοδότηση της Υπηρεσίας Αμυντικών Προηγμένων Ερευνητικών Προγραμμάτων (Darpa) και αντιλαμβάνεται κάθε κύριο όνομα, περιοχή ιστορικό γεγονός ή περιοχή ως «οντότητα».

Αυτό του δίνει τη δυνατότητα να αντιπαραβάλλει διάφορες «οντότητες», βρίσκοντας τις μεταξύ τους σχέσεις. Έτσι, για παράδειγμα μπορεί να καταλαβαίνει ότι η φράση «η Μαρία Ζάννου είχε παντρευτεί τον Γιώργο Σεφέρη» είναι ισοδύναμη με την «η Μαρία Ζάννου ήταν σύζυγος του Γιώργο Σεφέρη», και δεν τις συγχέει.

Βέβαια, υποστηρίζει η Raytheon, το πρόγραμμα χρειάζεται βελτιώσεις όπως, όταν εντοπίζει σε διάφορα σάιτ αντιφατικές πληροφορίες για το ίδιο λήμμα, να καταφέρνει να κρίνει ποιες από αυτές είναι οι αξιόπιστες. Επίσης, το «στοίχημα» στο μέλλον είναι να μπορεί να καταλάβει πότε μία ανάρτηση περιέχει ψευδή στοιχεία επειδή αυτός που την έγραψε ήθελε να κάνει χιούμορ ή απλώς να υπερβάλλει. Βελτιώσεις που μακάρι να οδηγήσουν και σε περισσότερες εφαρμογές, όπως σε εκπαιδευτικά πρότζεκτ.

Landscape Roofs

Located in the heart of the Frankfurt city center, the MyZeil Shopping Mall’s by Fuksas Studio has been the newest hub for restaurants, fitness gyms, and retail shopping since its opening in 2009 next to the famous Zeil shopping street and the PalaisQuartier. A funneled roof landscape  takes urban shoppers into a vertical realm through six floors beneath 3,200 triangular glass pieces and one of the longest escalators in Germany (46 m). A void strategically travels through the building at multiple elevations and roots itself at the ground floor, much like a river, providing an openly lit tunnel from above and an atrium structure.

In response to historical context, a glass facade on Zeil, a famous shopping street, is sucked into a void that opens up to Thurn and Taxis palace with a much more formal facade. The uniform glass structure of the roof landscape acts as a “shell” to filter light at all levels of the building, designed by Knippers Helbig of Stuttgart. The blend of modern and the historical influences of Frankfurt can be found in the play on contrasting street facades, but also in an alternating choice of steel and glass panels on the shell facade.

similar to TOMBS

Atreo Skyscraper: Reinterpretation of the Ancient Greek Myth of Atreus

Atreus is a concept building designed by Crilo Architecture, with sharp shapes, it is lacerated in the armor of black metal and dark glass with cracks that reveal its interior. The prosthesis,projecting at different heights, are heliports. Below the complex, an underground space, infrastructural node and the heart of the ascent to the tower. The spatial nature is similar to the Etruscan funerary chambers and recalls the tomb of Atreus, whose treasure is part of the myth.

The reinterpretation of the myth is based on mutability of the past, through a continuous equilibrium between history and contemporaneity. A reinterpretation of the human tensions, which belong to every period of history. The mutability of the past is the central dogma George Orwell from “1984″

Δημώδης Γραμματεία

ΣΕΜΙΝΑΡΙΟ ΕΞΕΙΔΙΚΕΥΣΗΣ ΜΕΣΑΙΩΝΙΚΗΣ ΛΕΞΙΚΟΓΡΑΦΙΑΣ
Εκτύπωση 21 Ιούν. 2012 14:28

Το Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας ανακοινώνει τη διοργάνωση σεμιναρίου εξειδίκευσης στη Μεσαιωνική Λεξικογραφία (διάρκειας 35 ωρών) για έναν πολύ περιορισμένο αριθμό έως 20 ατόμων.

Το σεμινάριο εξειδίκευσης, θεωρητικό και πρακτικό, δίνει απόλυτη έμφαση στην εφαρμογή. Το θεωρητικό σκέλος περιλαμβάνει επισκόπηση της λεξικογραφίας και της μεσαιωνικής δημώδους γλώσσας, καθώς και εξοικείωση με την ιστορία και τη μέθοδο της λεξικογραφικής εργασίας, όπως αυτή ασκείται στο Γραφείο Σύνταξης του Λεξικού της Μεσαιωνικής Ελληνικής Δημώδους Γραμματείας του Εμμ. Κριαρά, στο Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας. Στο πρακτικό και εφαρμοσμένο μέρος, οι συμμετέχοντες θα ασκηθούν στη σύνταξη λημμάτων με την καθοδήγηση έμπειρων συνεργατών του Λεξικού.

Το σεμινάριο εξειδίκευσης θα πραγματοποιηθεί στη Θεσσαλονίκη, στις εγκαταστάσεις του ΚΕΓ, Καραμαούνα 1, Πλατεία Σκρα, Καλαμαριά, το πρώτο δεκαήμερο του Σεπτεμβρίου 2012, κατά τις απογευματινές ώρες.

Διάρκεια Σεμιναρίου: 3 Σεπτεμβρίου 2012 έως και 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2012. Ώρες: 17:00 - 20:00 (εργάσιμες ημέρες).

Οι ενδιαφερόμενοι θα πρέπει να είναι φοιτητές ή απόφοιτοι Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής με καλές γνώσεις Η/Υ. Θα τηρηθεί σειρά προτεραιότητας.

Στους συμμετέχοντες θα δοθεί "Πιστοποιητικό Εξειδίκευσης στη Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική Λεξικογραφία με χρήση των Νέων Τεχνολογιών".
Κόστος συμμετοχής: 200,00 Ευρώ.

Πληροφορίες-δηλώσεις συμμετοχής:
στα τηλ. 2310-459101 & 2310-459106 (ώρες: 10:00 – 15:00) ως τις 15/07/2012.

Σημείωση: Η ολοκλήρωση της κράτησης της θέσης πραγματοποιείται με την αποστολή στο ΚΕΓ της αίτησης που ακολουθεί και του καταθετηρίου της Τράπεζας (για αποστολή με φαξ: 2310-459107, για αποστολή με e-mail: centre@komvos.edu.gr) με την ένδειξη: "Συμμετοχή στο Σεμινάριο Λεξικογραφίας".
 

cultural Pavements

Team BIG + FREAKS freearchitects, dUCKS scéno, Khephren Ingénierie, VPEAS, ALTO Ingénierie, Vincent Hedont, PBNL, Mryk & Moriceau, Ph.A wins the competition to design a new 12 000 m2 cultural center on the riverfront of Bordeaux, merging three cultural institutions into one single building.

The new Maison de l’Économie Créative et de la Culture en Aquitaine, MÉCA, located on the historical riverfront of Bordeaux will house three regional visual and performing arts agencies FRAC, the ECLA and the OARA in one single institution. The Regional Council of Bordeaux selected the winning team among proposals from SANAA, the Toulouse-based firm W-Architectures and Bordeaux-based FLINT.

BIG’s proposal arranges the new center for contemporary art, the performing arts institution and the center for literature and movies around a public space open towards the city of Bordeaux and the Garonne River. The building is conceived as a single loop of public space and cultural institutions as the pavement of the promenade rises to form the roof of the main lobbies, ascends vertically along the stage tower of OARA, bridges across the promenade with the sky lit galleries of the FRAC and returns vertically to the ground at the archives of the ECLA in order to reunite with the waterfront promenade.

“When a region or a city invests millions in a major new cultural institution – it often ends up benefiting only the informed few that already have an interest in the arts. Not only does the MÉCA spill its activities into the public realm and the urban room, but the public is also invited to walk around, through, above and below the new cultural gateway. By inviting the art into the city and the city into the arts, the MÉCA will provide opportunities for new hybrids of cultural and social life beyond the specific definitions of its constituent parts.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

The urban room allows everyday life of Bordeaux to flow through its generous frame along the promenade, injecting the art into the city and the city life into the building. The multiple ramps and stairs of the building create an institution that is publicly accessible and welcoming on the inside as well as the outside. The urban room and the informal seating of the stairs will make the MÉCA a lively place and a natural extension of the life along the Quai de Paludate street and the new promenade. During festivals or other special occasions in the city, the outside of the MÉCA can be transformed into a stage for outdoor concerts, theatrical spectacles or art installations.

“The urban room is at once a frame for the artwork, a stage for the performances, a screening room for the media collections and most perhaps most importantly an open room for the urban life of Bordeaux to invade and engage with the arts.”, Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.

Tailored to accommodate the proportions of the performance spaces, the backstage requirements, the archives and the art galleries, the building is tailored to the needs and desires of its individual tenants while fused to form a single urban frame. The building and promenade is clad in the limestone which constitutes the majority of Bordeaux’s architecture. As if carved from the same material as the city itself – the stone is promenade and façade, stair and terrace, roof and ceiling all together.

“The three regional entities composing the program are idiomatic to the French public way of supporting and promoting culture all over the territory. Working on the MÉCA building in Bordeaux is a great occasion to cross views and balance between international references and local issues.” Guillaume Aubry, Cyril Gauthier & Yves Pasquet, Founding Partners, FREAKS freearchitects.

the Poetry of a Sea...a Deep Blue Sea

The Sea Around Us is a prize-winning 1951 bestseller by Rachel Carson. It reveals the science and poetry of the sea from its primeval beginnings to the latest scientific probings of its tantalizing mysteries. It is the second book Carson wrote, following the well-reviewed but poor-selling Under the Sea Wind (1941), and is the book that launched Carson into the public eye. Often described as "poetic", the book won both the 1952 National Book Award in nonfiction and a Burroughs Medal in nature writing.The book has been translated into twenty eight languages. The book remained on the bestseller list for 86 weeks.

Carson began writing the book—which she initially planned to call Return to the Sea—in 1948, just after hiring Marie Rodell as her literary agent.Carson began by writing a single chapter (what would be "The Birth of an Island") along with a detailed outline, which Rodell used to pitch the book to publishers. In researching for the book, Carson met with a number of oceanographers to discuss current research. Carson and Rodell had little initial success with magazines as venues for the islands chapter along with a second chapter titled "Another Beachhead". In April, 1949, with about a third of the chapters complete, Rodell began trying to find a publisher for the full book. By June, Carson had a contract with Oxford University Press that promised completion of the manuscript by March 1, 1950. Carson continued to write and research through 1949 and into 1950, despite unexpected health and financial difficulties. Part of the research involved a trip aboard a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's ship, Albatross III. After pushing back the completion deadline, Carson completed the manuscript in June 1950. By that time, several periodicals (The New Yorker, Science Digest, and The Yale Review) wanted to publish some of the chapters, as well.

Much of the book (nine of fourteen chapters) was serialized in The New Yorker, beginning on June 2, 1951, and the book was published on July 2 by Oxford University Press. The serialization created a very large popular response, and the book was the subject of the feature review in The New York Times Book Review the day before publication. One chapter ("The Birth of an Island") was published in The Yale Review; it won the George Westinghouse Science Writing prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The Tamil Tradition

The only Indian writings that incontestably predate the influence of classical Sanskrit are those in the Tamil language. Anthologies of secular lyrics on the themes of love and war, together with the grammatical-stylistic work Tolkappiyam (Old Composition), are thought to be very ancient. Later, between the 6th and 9th centuries, Tamil sectarian devotional poems were composed, often claimed as the first examples of the Indian bhakti tradition.

At some indeterminate date between the 2nd and 5th centuries, two long Tamil verse romances (sometimes called epics) were written: Cilappatikaram (The Jeweled Anklet) by Ilanko Atikal, which has been translated into English (1939 and 1965); and its sequel Manimekalai (The Girdle of Gems), a Buddhist work by Cattanar.

Το Ψάρι που ζήλεψε τον Κροκόδειλο

Πρόκειται για το πιο δημοφιλές ναυάγιο στον κόσμο και υπάρχει λόγος γι’ αυτό. Το SS Thistlegorm, ήταν ένα 128 μέτρων βρετανικό πλοίο μεταφοράς, το οποίο δέχθηκε επίθεση και βυθίστηκε το 1941, στο ταξίδι από τη Γλασκώβη στην Αλεξάνδρεια. Το πλοίο μετέφερε όπλα, μηχανές, πολεμικά οχήματα, ραδιόφωνα και λαστιχένιες μπότες. Όλα αυτά, βρίσκονται στο βυθό του ωκεανού, όπως και το ίδιο το πλοίο, με την μεγάλη τρύπα στο σημείο όπου το χτύπησε η γερμανική βόμβα.

Πολλοί δύτες, βουτούν γύρω και μέσα στο λασπώδες ναυάγιο με φακούς και κοιτούν τα σκουριασμένα πολυβόλα, ένα βαγόνι σιδηροδρομικής μεταφοράς εμπορευμάτων, τορπίλες και πολλά άλλα. Μπορεί επίσης να δείτε και μερικά ψάρια- κροκόδειλους, να κρύβονται στην άμμο γύρω από το ναυάγιο.

Βάθος: Έως 30 μέτρα.

Ορατότητα: Μέχρι 30 μέτρα.

Περιοχή: Περίπου 3 ώρες από το Sharm el Sheikh, στην χερσόνησο Sinai
 

mushroom Airports

Ninety-seven percent of Chinese airports will need to be rebuilt by 2020, according to a recent survey, causing huge implications for cost and land use issues, and the city of Beijing is currently planning the construction of a second airport. The designers of the Air@Port propose avoiding using precious land for new airports by constructing one that is positioned 450 meters in the air. The airport sits atop the bases of dozens of thin towers that mushroom out at the top with wide platforms that all connect to support the runways and airport facilities on top. Locating an airport city so high in the air has many immediate benefits. Being so high up will mean that there won’t be height restrictions on the buildings erected on the platform, which will allow for great stimulation and creativity in the resulting development. Also, because wind speed is higher 450 meters in the air than it is at sea level, the length of the runway can be effectively reduced, saving space.

Vertical air buses will transport visitors from the ground (or underground, if they are arriving via subway) up the stems of the tall structures. In addition to air transport facilities, this air city will also include a hotel and commercial, conference and office spaces; these areas are located in the towers beneath the airport. Passengers can stop anywhere on the air bus ride to access these other programs.

a Linkage Space

Performance Center Alexanderhoehe is to be located in Iserlohn, in Germany. The authors, B+U architectural firm placed the building north of the existing Parktheater and oriented it towards the inner city in order to emphasize and redefine its relationship to Alexander Heights. By orienting the building in such manner, it became possible to create a single access point for visitors to both Parktheater and the new Multifunctional Hall. In order to achieve that and avoid blocking the views from the existing Theater, a “linkage space“ was created: a generous multilevel foyer space that that allows for the actual hall to float above the ground and opens up views from the old Parktheater to the city towards the Northeast.

This linkage space between the existing Parktheater and the new multifunctional hall continues underneath the new Hall onto the plaza level. This linkage space is a combined lobby and main entrance to both the old and the new theater. There is a centrally located drop off zone for all visitors of the new Theatercenter from which the guest can proceed directly into the main lobby where they can purchase their tickets. From this point they can proceed over the Grand staircase to the different performance areas. An elevator connects the lobby space with all levels for barrier free access.